An American breakfast was included in the room price and we were greeted with a big feast to begin the day. Well, the breakfast defeated me and so we made our way to the dive centre on site, Archipelago Dive, where we kitted up and were introduced to our divemaster, Komang. We then boarded the dukung which would become our transport for the morning and which, thankfully, was bigger than yesterdays vessel.
By 09:53 we had arrived at our first dive site, Underwater Caves at Menjangen Island, and had commenced our dive. It was graced with good visibility and some fantastic corals. We saw parrotfish, lionfish, pink lined anemonefish and true anemonefish, batfish, tubeworms, barracuda and we had our safety stop at an ideal position, directly by an anemone with pink lined anemonefish in it. They were, as ever, gorgeous!
After a filling and tasty meal, being an early lunch at 11:00, we made our second dive at Sandy Slope at Menjangen Island. We saw lionfish, one of which was swimming and therefore had its spines flared out around him, a hawksbill turtle, parrotfish, tubeworms, nudibranch, pink lined anemonefish, royal dottybacks, three striped anemonefish and an anemonefish with a single white line down its back, moray eel, batfish, titan triggerfish, orange lined triggerfish, yellow boxfish, yellow tailed fusiliers and shrimps. The dive was made quite difficult with the presence of a fairly strong current which made it a fast drift dive, but nothing quite like the Ellaidhoo House reef in the Maldives!
After showering we bade farewell to the friendly hotel staff and Putu drove us to Lovina while we dozed.
Having left us to rest some more at our next accommodation Putu then collected us from the bungalows and took us to a Balinese restaurant where he ordered us a traditional lesehan meal, whereby we sat on the floor by low tables. We were served very hot vegetables, a huge bowl of rice and a whole fried scrawny looking chicken, literally, with claws, beak and all! I must admit that I wasn't particularly pleased to receive a whole chicken on the table but accepted it. I couldn't, however, rip it to pieces and handle the claws at the end of the leg, nor look at its head for long. The beady eyes were staring like glass balls. I let Ian dismantle the chicken and pass bits to me. We ate with our hands, as was indicated by Putu. I think we can put the lesehan meal down to experience, but one that I probably wouldn't like to repeat.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.