The English Patient

Next, more diving. Our goal was to get to Tulamben on the east coast of Bali. While Tulamben is only about 18 miles as the crow flies from Ganung Batur there is no direct way to get there. Taking public transportation is highly discouraged by everyone you talk to for two reasons (we think). One, if you take public transport you wont take more expensive taxis; and, two, there are very few direct routes. The trip to Tulamben would have required four different bemos, which are like minibuses, and would likely have taken all day. This seemed a good time to cash in my Christmas gift transportation upgrade coupon. This meant we took a taxi for the trip and completed it in a little under three hours. Half of the trip was through the mountains and the other half along the coast.

We chose Tulamben because you can dive the USS Liberty. This cargo ship was damaged during the WWII and sat on the Tulamben coast line until it was pushed into the Bali Sea by the force of the explosion during the 1963 eruption of Gunung Agung.

We stayed at Tulamben Wreck Divers, a hotel catering to divers right across the street from the wreck. The town is very small and its main industry is catering to divers. What's nice about being right at the wreck is that you can dive any time you want, as often as you want.

But, we encountered a setback. Michael had been feeling a bit of an earache when we started out this morning. By the time we reached Tulamben it had grown into a full fledged ear infection. His ear canal had swollen up and by the time we went to sleep he had a 102 temperature. He was in excruciating pain and our supplies of pain killers were fairly limited.



I have to say that folks here have been incredibly nice and helpful during the now three days of convalescence. Sandra, another guest and Australian ER doc was quite generous with her knowledge and her supply of codeine. Tony and Dot, the proprietors, were also great with supplying medication and having their driver make a drug run during a trip to Kuta, the nearest town with any decent medical facilities, over 3 hours away. Michael is slowly getting better but its been a long few days. It is, however, not a bad place to get sick. We luckily had a much nicer set up than usual - sheets, towels, a dvd player and movies to rent, AC, a minifridge - which made things at least a bit more comfortable.

And, as Michael was sleeping much of the time, I also managed to get in four dives. It's a funny little system. You get suited up in your wetsuit and weightbelt and you walk down the main street about 300 feet, take a left at the bush, and wander into a little wooded area till you pop out at the beach. There your tanks and dive jackets await you and there is not another soul around. Again, very James Bond like - your equipment just magically appears. Actually porters carry the tanks on their heads which is also pretty amazing.



From there you suit up and just walk into the water. The diving here is unbelievable - better than Thailand and Malaysia for sure. The visibility was great and the variety of fish is outstanding. On my most recent dive I saw 10 black tip sharks. They were probably about four feet in length and never got too close but you can tell by the way they move that you wouldn't want to get them angry.



After staying in Tulamben for five nights it was time to move on - this time to Kuta where we would lay low for a day until our flight to Hong Kong. Gone will be warm weather and cheap eats - back to reality time.