Bali is not only one of the most beautiful islands in the world, it also boasts some of the best scuba diving too. The Liberty shipwreck on Bali’s north east coastline is one of Bali’s most celebrated dive sites
Last December I headed to Bali in Indonesia for the first time. From Bangkok it’s a four hour direct flight on Thai Airways, which makes it relatively easy to visit. Bali’s Denpassar airport is in the south of the island, so it’s a three hour drive up to the little town of Tulamben in north east Bali. The journey itself is quite spectacular the further north you go – bumpy roads wind around huge volcanic mountains and provide stunning vistas over lush green paddy fields as far as the eye can see, all underneath a bright blue sky. There’s few places that really look picure postcard perfect, but Bali is definitely still one of them.
Tulamben village is a mecca for divers because submerged on the nearby rocky beach is the shipwreck of the Liberty, which has been underwater since 1963 and is now home to a profusion of marine life. You can literally walk in off the beach to dive the wreck, and as it sits on a slope, it has both shallow and deep areas, which makes it ideal for beginners and expert divers alike. There are numerous other sites around the Liberty too provide excellent diving too – there’s certainly enough here to keep visitors entertained for at least a week underwater.
I wrote a full report about the Liberty shipwreck and scuba diving in Bali on my dive blog Divehappy. As I was passing through Bali on my way to a diving liveaboard to Komodo (where we saw the Komodo Dragons), I sadly didn’t get a chance to properly explore the island above the water – I would love to see some of the spectacular Bali temples, like the Mother Temple , and also the cultural village of Ubud.
I did stay for a couple of nights after my trip to Komodo at the Bali Hyatt in Sanur, as hotel prices are still very cheap in the wake of the second bombing in 2005 and there are sadly not that many tourists coming to Bali. I wanted somewhere a bit luxurious as I’d been on a boat for 8 days… the Hyatt turned out to be an absolute nightmare of a stay, which deserves its own writeup. Suffice to say I wouldn’t recommend staying there, but there are a lot of Bali hotel bargains to be had if you want posh digs at bargain prices.
I’m already planning returning to Bali this year to try and see the mysterious mola mola fish – but this time I’ll definitely leave more time to explore Bali on land too!
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