March 2, 2024

The day started early for me. I got up at 6:30 and was out the door soon after. I was hoping to get some good sunrise pictures but just like with sunset there was no real sunrise.

All you could see of the sunrise but notice how far out the water break is since it is low tide. Also so calm.

An early morning fisherman with his nets

Early morning shots

You can see the mountains in the background

The dive company picked me up right at 7:15 and then we went to the boat to pick up Roger, Harley and John.
Next stop was the dive shop and they had everything ready for us. There were 3 other divers with us, a solo young female traveler from Seattle and a Russian couple from Moscow.

They had all our gear ready and in individual bags and after we checked that everything fit they loaded it in the van and off we went to the beach. From there all the supplies were loaded on a cart and taken down to a little inflatable boat and then they took the little boat out to the big boat, which was pretty far away due to the tide and unloaded and set everything up. Then they came back and got us. The boat was very comfortable and had a covering so we weren’t in the sun and plenty of space and it was a very bumpy 30 minute ride out to Manta point.

The blue dot is where we started and the X off to the right on the island is where our first dive site was. They said it would be rough and gave everyone seasickness pills before we’ve even started. That was not a good sign for me.

Some of the views once we hit the island.

We did three dives today, and each one was spectacular. Each one was very different. And yes we did see Mantas!! Very excited. There were a lot of people at the manta dive, and it was hard to stay with your group. I definitely saw three different Mantas, but everybody had a different report of what they saw and who knows if they were all the same or all different. Incredibly exciting and they are absolutely huge. Since we are staying at the hotel, I don’t have my laptop so will do a post on Monday when we are at sea and it will just be the dive photos for anybody who wants to see. But it was definitely some of the best diving I’ve ever done. I also saw a ton of clown fish, which are some of my favorites.

I took a bunch of medication, and after the first dive we moved to a much calmer spot for the second dive, and after the second dive, they served us lunch, and I felt fine, and was actually able to eat lunch, which was delicious. It was home-cooked noodles, and, some pieces of chicken breast and a fried egg and it really hit the spot.

The water color at our lunch stop after our 2nd dive.

A pod of dolphins came by

Upon our return, the sun was out and I was able to get a couple of nice boat pictures.

We also had a really nice conversation with a couple from Moscow and it was interesting, listening to their version of what’s going on. They showed me pictures of their house in Moscow with a ton of snow in the yard. He works for the bobcat company, which is a US based company and has worked for them for 15 years.

In the meantime, Kathy had breakfast at the hotel, which was very nice but a little slow, and then then went for her spa treatments. She had four things scheduled today including a 90 minute hot rock, massage, a facial, a pedicure, and a fragrant bath. She spent about five hours in the spa. Said she had her own private suite and they served cookies and tea, and took excellent care of her. After her spa treatments, she went and laid on the lounger at the beach, and then moved to the pool and discovered happy hour where you could get two for one beers. She enjoyed the pool and hung out until I returned at 6 PM.

One of the pools. Our lounge chair set up.

I was able to enjoy the pool for about 45 minutes before I had to go to my pedicure appointment that Kathy had set up for me. It was much needed after several weeks at sea and all the water activities.

We had had some snacks by the pool that were some sort of crackers with peanuts baked into them and some chili powder. They were really good and that filled us up enough that we decided we did not need dinner and we enjoyed the hotel grounds for a bit until it started to rain.
We will check out after breakfast in the morning and our driver will pick us up at 8:30 for a long day of touring. All on board tomorrow night is 830 and we are looking forward to our last day in Bali.