Our main reason for going to Pemuteran was for my husband to dive. Briefly, some background - he learnt to dive over 30 years ago and did hundreds of dives over many years. But as our daughter got older and became interested in time consuming sports and his business got busier, it slowly fell by the wayside till he only had the odd dive or two every holiday. When we were in Bali in 1990 he dived on the famous wreck at Tulamben and began hearing wonderful things about diving at Menjangan Island. When I announced earlier this year that we were going to Bali - come hell or high water - he wasn't initially very interested till he remembered Menjangan - and before we went that was to be his highlight (as it turns out he had a whole lot more - especially Gili Trawangan, but Menjangan was certainly up there with them)
When we got to Pondok Sari, the first thing we did was go to talk to the dive school there - recently changed to well known German company Werner Lau. Unfortunately the Swiss guy in charge was unable/unwilling to give us prices in anything other than Euros. As we had not kept in touch at all with exchange rates we would have liked even a rough guide in Rupiahs, US $ or even Aussie ones - but no - and when he learnt we were from Australia urged us to go to see Chris at Reef Seen down the beach.
Despite all his years of diving, Kerry had never bothered to take his qualifications past the PADI Open Water Diver level (not strictly true - I had BSAC 2nd class even before that! - K)- and had decided that he would do - Advanced Open Water as a refresher while he had the time available to him in Bali. When we went along to Reef Seen, Chris was there but busy, his staff weren't able to give any info about the AOW and urged us to return to talk to Chris. We tried another twice without success and by this time it was evening and he had virtually given up - very disappointed. We decide to go out for a stroll along the main road just to see what was there (not much!) but did happen to discover EASY DIVERS - what an incredible stroke of luck this was.
As we sat down in the comfy courtyard in front of their office with free drinks Kerry explained to the young German couple running it what he wanted to do. They were initially a little unsure whether they would be able to teach him very much and almost loath to take his money especially as he had not been able to speak yet to Chris at Reef Seen - who they even offered to ring at once - but the quiet, calm and honest approach of JORG AND ANDREA SCHARF(not to mention their excellent English) had won him over. Over the next few days he was to become very impressed by them both and the careful and professional way they and the team of locals they worked with operated - and can certainly recommend them to anyone heading up to that area.
Just a very small example of their professionalism - they all wore a similar outfit - navy shorts (or in Andrea's case a navy skirt) with diving flag symbols and a white shirt with the company logo - they all looked so good. The gear they used was in top class condition and after every dive, the staff washed it thoroughly - not just in fresh water - but using soap as well!
Between them, Jorg and Andrea worked out a programme of 6 dives for Kerry that fulfilled both the required modules needed for the AOW qualification but also worked around his particular interests and the various options they had for diving in the area.
This is where it starts to get technical - but I can tell you the first two dives he did were at Menjangan. They have a large comfortable wooden boat - originally designed for fishing in Madura (Java) that takes a leisurely hour to get to the main sites around the island. I was made more than welcome to go along on any or all of the trips he did - snorkelling using their equipment -and being fed lunch - all for free!!
OK this is now over to Kerry -
I think Sue wants me to take over here - as said - the outfit was very professional - standing well out from many other dive operations in Bali that can be, how can I put it - 'interesting'
I'll be honest and say that if you want to save money - Easy Divers are not the cheapest, but all the gear was very good, new, and well maintained. BTW - they recommend staying at Jubawa Homestay and the people there will transport you to Easy Divers
The dives at Menjangan were fabulous - unlimited viz, fantastic coral and fish. We dived a couple of sites - Eel Garden named because of the hundreds of garden eels on a sandy slope - not just the usual dozen or so that disappear as soon as you see them - these guys just stayed there as we swam along. The different species of fish including lion fish and a very territorial trigger fish who did not want us in his area. The only problem with this site at this time was the current - extremely strong and variable, ripping along at several knots in some areas - and upwelling in places - I had not experienced a current this varied - the dive master had not experienced it in this area either. They had asked another operator who was leaving as we arrived and were told - no current at present!
The dive lasted about 45 minutes max depth of about 25 metres.
After lunch on the boat (nasi goring or mee goring) anchored off the Island where we did some snorkelling in the crystal clear water (by the way the water temp was about 29 degrees!) we dived the Sandy Slope. A coral wall to about 22 metres what can I say just more fantastic fish and corals - I wish I had a camera with me - I could have sat photographing the small stuff in the corals for the whole dive!
The other dives at Pemuteran were not as good as Menjangan - a night dive on the artificial reef - I could not recommend - boring is the only way to describe it - not enough life to make it interesting.
Deep Reef - several hundred metres off shore was typical of many other sites round Bali a mix of dead and live coral to about 32 metres - some good large sea fans , scorpion fish, and the normal reef inhabitants.
Napoleon Reef - a couple of kms off shore to about 25 metres. Great variety of fish including large tuna we think! Good size crays, snappers, another territorial trigger fish and unfortunately also crown of thorns
There are many other dives round the island worth doing and I will be back to dive them -for sure!