New Glasses and Manta Rays (Feb. 20, 21, 2015)

Feb. 20, 2015

Today I got up early, well rested, and did yoga on the balcony. The weather was really weird today. It was super windy, enough to bang the doors and shake things, yet it was partly sunny and still hot. It felt like a storm was brewing, but I think it actually was passing, and rained down during the night, while I slept. It was nice to do yoga with the strong breeze though as it cooled me down as I worked up my morning sweat. I know, what a life, but someone has to do it…..lol.

Then Yulia came by to have lunch with us. She is in the middle of Chinese New Year, with family. That was yesterday, hence why she didn’t join us for diving. We were sorry not to have her, but kind of glad that she didn’t spend the money for such short dives. We will all go tomorrow to Nusa Penida which will be great because Reza, Yulia and I all use the same amount of air more or less and can dive longer.

Wall hangings at restaurant

Wall hanging #2

My lunch of meat soup and red rice

Reza and Yulia's Nasi Campur

We didn’t really do much else except that I took a ride to go and get Baby Shampoo for our diving masks, and lost my white glasses that I got in Argentina. They dropped when I was on the bike, and I did go back to look for them, but couldn’t find them. I returned to Reza’s place and told him of my adventure. He said, ‘So let’s go now and get a new pair ordered.’ Thankfully, I had brought my prescription with me, and it’s very recent, so off we went around 7 pm to look for frames so that I could get a new pair made. I was so sorry to lose the ones from Argentina, but looking back, maybe it was time to get a different pair and funny enough, it was 5 years almost exactly that I got those ones. Weird. Anyway, we did find a pair, ordered them and will pick them up after diving tomorrow. Great that Reza knows the city so well, as he took me to a local area for optometrists, that was very reasonable and will do the trick without paying a mint. The final cost to replace the glasses with Crizal lenses, including frames and a one day turn around, was $65 CAD. That’s pretty good I think.

I am super excited to be going diving again tomorrow and look totally forward to a great day with my two friends!

Feb. 21, 2015

Wow, today was the most fantastic day for diving so far! We got up early and met Yulia at the Dive Center around 8 am. We all got ready, and when the other divers who were going showed up at the Center, we took the 5 minute car ride to the beach, then boarded the boat and began our 45 minute boat ride across giant blue waves, to the diving site. We went to Nusa Penida again, which is an amazing dive area. Yulia hadn’t yet been there, so it was really cool that she was coming along. Chris, the guy we dived with two days ago, wanted to come, but there was no longer room on the boat, which I was happy about. As it turned out, both of our dives were over an hour in length and he would never have been able to stay down that long.

Take 2

3 Diving Friends

Reza brought his camera and just filmed for the full two dives. We saw so many amazing things today. Our first dive was at Crystal Bay, which is fairly shallow, but as the name indicated, super clear visibility. In fact, I think that we could see between 15-20 meters under water at that site, today. The temp was 25 celsius which I am starting to feel is cold…..lol. Without a wet suit under the water, you start to shake at this temperature.

For this dive we saw a baby lobster or shrimp, that kept attacking Yulia’s stick as she spread open the anemone where it was living, while Reza took photos. It was really cute and a spectacular thing to find. Also we saw a huge school of Surgeon Fish, a Sea Snake, a Flat Fish that goes along the bottom and looks like the sand unless you look really carefully. It was great and so sunny that we saw everything in bright, wonderful colours.

Three diving buddies

Me going in

Back roll into the sea

Yulia and me

Guess who this is for?

Clown Fish.....Nemo

Beautiful Angel Fish

For you Liviah

Angel Fish

Baby Lobster in Anemone

Little black and white Nudibranch's

We stayed on the surface for the required interval, got ready again and went in to the next dive site, called Manta Point. I was at this site a while back, but didn’t see any Manta Rays. Well, today, we saw a huge one, circling us just below the surface, while we were underneath him. He was about 1.5 - 2 meters across and absolutely graceful and lovely to watch. He went around about three times before leaving the area, and we all just hung in the water with our faces turned to the surface to observe this fantastic creature. What a gift to see this fish.

In addition to this, we saw a turtle, several Blue Spotted Stingrays, many different coloured Nudy Branchs, and an anemone that looked exactly like the one in Finding Nemo, complete with two parents, and a baby. The parents again started to attack Reza’s camera when he tried to film them at too close a distance. They are really quite brave as they are tiny, with no teeth to speak of, yet determined to ward off the impending danger of the large video camera. 

This dive site was only 21 degrees and very chilly, but I was focused on seeing more of the underwater world and just dealt with it, though I was shaking in my wetsuit. I didn’t care, because all I had to do was think about you guys, in winter, in Canada, and my troubles disappeared…..lol. It was a great dive and Reza took lots of photos of us, and the fish under the sea.

Teletubbie hair style so I can see
under the sea

Giant Manta Ray spotting

Blue Spotted Stingray 

Blue Spotted Stingray #2

After we finished diving, it was still fairly early afternoon. Yulia said she had a surprise for us, and took us to a really cool movie house, called Happy Movie, that has a bunch of separate rooms with couches, that you rent for $8 CAD and can bring as many friends as you wish. They have a huge binder with all the movies you can choose from, though none are immediate new releases, only ones that have made it to DVD. Anyway, we went there, ordered some drinks and food that they brought into the room for us, and watched The November Man, with Pearce Brosnon, which was really good. The equipment has surround sound and a really large screen, so it was fantastic, and I didn’t even need my glasses, which was good. We went to pick them up afterward because it was on the way home.

Movie Theater

Welcome Mat

Three great friends before the show

Wow, big screen

Inside our private theatre

Three drinks during the show 

 There was a Warung right next to the movie house that Yulia wanted me to try. It had some traditional Indonesian food that she liked and some different food for me to try. She had found some Cow Nose for me to try, though she wouldn’t try it in a hundred years. It was fantastic. Kind of gelatin like, but delicious, mixed with veggies, and rice dumplings in a peanut sauce. Reza had a traditional soup with stomach etc in it, and Yulia had an egg and tofu dish. All were really great and I greatly enjoyed my dish. I didn’t even have to share, as neither Reza or Yulia were particularly taken by it.

Rujak Cingur (cow nose)

Tahu Telor (egg and tofu)

Tahu Campur (mixed soup)

Yummy cow nose....before mixing

Then, one the way home, we picked up my new glasses, which were from the children’s section because I need such small frames, are purple plastic, with small flowers on the arms, and a bling diamond on each temple. Really cute, fresh, and youthful. Well, that’s the consensus from my two friends, which is a good sign. They go with all my outfits that are purple, orange etc, so that works as well. I am kind of happy to have some new ones that are really fun and not very serious.

View #2

New glasses view #1

Yulia drove us home, then came in for a while to look at the photos from diving, that Reza had taken. Since his Mac Air doesn’t have a drive for memory cards, I get lucky because we load them onto my computer, look at them, then make a folder for him to put onto a memory stick which he can use on his Air. I end up with all the dive photos, which is great and my fantastic luck.

A wonderful day all in all. Tomorrow, Yulia will go to church in the morning, then meet us afterward for lunch. She starts a new job on Monday, and Reza is having a guest come in from Iran on Monday evening, with other family members. They are renting some other units in Reza’s complex for the time they are here, but one fellow, who isn’t married, will stay with Reza. I am going to stay in the hostel for a couple of nights while I finish processing my Visa Extension, then go to Lombok by air, which is about a half hour flight from here. I will visit that island, and also go to Gili Islands which have amazing diving and are beautiful. I have booked a ticket over there, but don’t yet know  when I will return. Yulia wants to go diving with me to Ahmed, an area on the east coast of Bali, for a couple of days, but thinks it will be around March 16 or 17th. That works well for me, as I’d like to see some of the other islands and was told by Jordana, that I must see Gili Islands. They are paradise and great diving. So, that’s what I will do. I have to go to the airport to see about the ticket I bought, though. They processed it, charged me twice on my Visa, then messaged me that the transaction hadn’t gone through. 

I will go tomorrow to straighten it out. The cost was very minimal, $21 CAD, but I don’t need to be charged twice, and would like to have the ticket since I did pay for it……lol.