First days in Padang Bai

 May 5-8, 2018

Our first full day in Bali was a travel day to get to Padang Bai, where our dive resort is. We first found breakfast in Kuta, then had the morning to wander.

The alleyway our hotel was on. Looks like it should be a walking path, but we often had to flatten ourselves against the wall to let motorbikes past.

We wandered some shopping streets and found the beach in the daylight

Packed our bags, found lunch, and headed to the shuttle bus place to check in.

It was a hot slow ride to get to Padang Bai, mostly because we went by way of Ubud in order to drop some other passengers off. Ubud is more in the center of the island, so it definitely wasn't on the way. Still, it was fun to watch the world go by, and the bus wasn't full so we had plenty of space. Traffic was awful basically the whole way, normal for them is kinda like leaving Gasworks after the Fourth of July for us.

Rice terraces along the side of my the road

We had some good views of Mt Agung along the way. Luckily it's quiet right now, though it's still an active volcano.

Intersections commonly have a statue in the middle. Some of them are quite elaborate

We finally arrived in Padang Bai, and got checked in to our two room suite.

It worked out to be more cost effective to get a mega-room than to get two basic rooms, so we get to feel extravagant for a week.

Since our first day we've had 4 days of diving (at time of writing). There will be a longer post later with more photos, but so far highlights have included manta rays the first day, some giant cuttlefish and my first octopus, a giant puffer, lots of little beautiful fish, a stingray, a wreck, and beautiful views off the back of the boat.

Big sea flap-flaps. Probably 10 foot wingspans

In the Liberty wreck

There's a big ol' cuttlefish in this photo. Extra points for finding him despite his A+ camouflage 

Our daily schedule is to do two dives in the morning, and depending on how far away we have to go for them, we get back early or late afternoon to the resort. Wash out and hang our gear, have lunch, and then the rest of the day is ours.

A view of the harbor and beach from up on the hill next to it

We've wandered all over town, visited some beaches, day tripped to see rice terraces, and had an organic farm tour.

Teaser photo for more to come

Stay tuned for more posts with the details and more pictures!