In Reply to: Dolphin tours posted by AUSSIEOUTLAW on Thursday, 28. September 2006 at 05:33 Bali Time:
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We booked a boat trip for Denise, Trevor and I for the next morning at 50,000rp per person.
Knock knock on the door at 5.45am and we left at 6. We walked down to the beach with the boat driver and he wheeled the outboard motor in two wheels along the road. The shaft is about 8 foot long, looks like a huge beater. There were a few other tourists making their way into boats and we headed out to the west. Soon enough we were in a group of about 25 outriggers/spider boats and all heading to find pods of dolphins. The seas were relatively calm and the sunrise glorious. Once the dolphins appear all boats turn in that direction, sometimes they appeared in amongst the boats, so obviously enjoyed the chase and didn't mind us in their territory. Some pods had maybe 10 small dolphins, one pod probably had 40. We spent an hour or so watching the dolphins then our driver headed further out to where there were some fisherman. We thought, hmm, we may have been dudded here. He wants to do a bit of fishing. He threw in his line with a lure attached. Some boats appeared to have kites flying overhead with lines down into the water with lures attached. The lure kept bobbing along the surface as the wind caught the kite. We didn't see any catches, but saw the largest pod of dolphins! I expect the fishermen and dolphins are all in the same area for the same reason, a good catch!
We went for a drive later in the morning to check out the surrounding area. Bob needed to go to the Dr to get some drops for his puffy eyes. He had like an eczema rash, but with some cream his eyes improved over the next few days. We went to a lovely beachfront restaurant and enjoyed good food with the sea breeze. Our driver Nyoman joined us for lunch and we offered him a beer, but he was too concerned that if he had arak or beer, he might see ‘dooble', see two roads and not know which road to take!
Next day Nyoman picked Trevor and I up and drove us to the Melka Excelsior Hotel, closer to Singaraja. The hotel has a gigantic Ganeesha statue on the roof. I wanted to swim with the dolphins. The Melka is a lovely probably 4 or 4.5 hotel. It appears to have large conference facilities and caters well for large groups. I paid 225,000rp and Trevor was admitted free. We were shown to the first salt water pool and introduced to John the dolphin. I was asked to sit on the side of the pool and let John become accustomed to me. Then I was told to gently get into the pool. John swam around me for another few minutes, getting closer and eventually came up close and put his body up close to mine and I was able to cuddle him. It was an awesome experience. We gently spun around in the water together until he decided to break our ‘connection' and swum away. He kept coming back and remained very friendly. It was just John and I in the water together with a couple of staff wandering past. Trevor took lots of fabulous photos. I felt that all of my expectations were met in swimming with him.
There is another pool connected behind and it holds two dolphins. You can swim with them too I believe and snorkel. I did watch a lady in there and she was throwing hoops and balls and they were retrieving them. They are so playful. There are other animals in cages and enclosures which I believe have been rescued from less satisfactory arrangements. There is a dolphin show at 2.30pm each day I think.