Bali March 2010

I introduced my wife and myself during our former Bali trip in 2001. My amazing memories from Bali always awake my wanderlust to return to this mystical island and its sovereign culture. This photo was captured by a press photographer from Bangkok who attended us during our journey on Bali in June 2001.

The resort and my home for one week on Bali.

A beautiful and reasonable stay close to the Sanur beach on Bali.

The American ship wreck USAT Liberty Glo (USS Liberty shipwreck) in Tulamben is Bali's most famous and accessible dive. This is one of the safest wreck dives in the world. This large war victim is just meters from the shore. The armed cargo ship was built in 1918 and served as a supply ship during World War II. It was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-166 in 1942 while in the strait approx. 10 nautical miles south-west of Lombok (she was carrying railway parts and rubber for the war effort). The ship was rescued and towed towards Bali by a Dutch destroyer the HNLMS Van Ghent. The damage done to the ship was so great that the attempt to reach Singaraja failed, the crew was evacuated and the ship was beached in Tulamben.

The intact ship sat beached on this beautiful coast until Bali' s volcano Gunung Agung erupted in 1963. The Liberty crashed beneath the water during its violent eruption. It now sits on a black sand shelf that slopes from about 6 - 30 meters.

The US Navy Cargo: Liberty has sunk by Japanese submarine on the 11th of January 1942 during World War II. Before being wreck, she could reached to shore of Tulamben. Then the eruption of Agung volcano in 1963 made her to sleep underwater of Tulamben at 30 depth since 1963. Over 40 years this area became a very beautiful dive site and aquatic lives' heaven.

The shipwreck now is the home for Millions of fish and corals. An amazing UW paradise and the mystic scenery for every diving visitor.

Two dives aren't enough to discover the shipwreck and its UW life. Its my inspiration for more visits to Bali and its diving paradises.

Jacks are swimming in shoals of thousands or millions fish, to circle the diver in open water.

Sometime the shoal darken the UW light. The day changes into a night dive.

In the darkness under water its difficult to shoot photos with high speed and low ASA sensibility. Rough graining and chromatic noise is an handicap.

My friend Michael has his diving station on Bali and instructs to film by video underwater which isn't so easy as it looks like.

A kind of a grouper fish swims through the school of Jacks.

The wreck is 120 meters long and the home for many species of fish, et al. some Whitetip reef sharks which aren't as shy as in Thai waters.

Jacks and two Orient Sweetlips fish.

Each dive is about 45 Minutes, too short for a full UW exploring. Diving with enriched gas 36 percent oxygen makes me able to stay longer in deep waters.

The Agung volcano dominates the island's eastern part with a towering height of 3,142 meters. The volcano is still active to this day. Since Bali is the most renowned area as a tourist attraction in Indonesia , naturally the Agung Volcano is probably the most-climbed volcano in the country. There are three hiking trails to reach the peak of the Agung volcano, but the most commonly used is the one going from the Besakih temple. On 18th of February 1963, local residents heard loud explosions and saw clouds rising from the crater of Mount Agung. On 24th of February, lava began flowing down the northern slope of the mountain, eventually traveling 7 km in the next 20 days. On 17th of March, the volcano erupted, sending debris 8 – 10 km into the air and generating massive pyroclastic flows. These flows devastated numerous villages, killing approximately 1500 people. Cold lahars caused by heavy rainfall after the eruption killed an additional 200. A second eruption on 16th of May led to pyroclastic flows which killed another 200 inhabitants. The magma flow from the eruption of Mount Agung also pressed the former from Japanese Navy torpeded US ship Liberty back into the sea where it presently rests at a depth of 3 to 29 meters. It was my first destination on Bali for two dives.

Mount Abang is an old 2,152 meter high volcano ('Red Mountain'), on the eastern side of the crater southeast of Penelokan, is the highest point on Batur's outer crater. Climbing it is demanding but easier than climbing Gunung Batur. The trailhead lies about six km southeast of Penelokan.