「Hello from Bali」

Already 10 days have passed since I came to Bali. huuu....Time really flies. I always realize Bali is big town. I know more bigger town like a Tokyo. But after few months living in remote island, everyhthing in Bali surprise me. Many restaurants, shops, hotels and various people. Just sit down at cafe and look outside... watching people. It's quite interesting.

And friends. I really enjoy talking with them. Talking face to face. I can feel his(her) feeling from face or eyes or tone. And eating together, laughing together, thinking together... ya, it's nice!

Any way, I am enjoying here to the full! But... I must tighten my purse strings... there are many temptations! Nice foods and drinks, massage, clothes....etc. ....Please, someone care of my purse!

「25th December」

Merry Christmas!

I wish you spend wonderful day.

...warm hug from Bali

「...End」

I've finished dive in Alor this year. I really enjoyed all dives from beginning to end. And I met many nice guests! Thank you for coming to Alor Divers!

I leave from Pantar island. I guess will miss here... I'm looling forwards to coming back here and diving again in March!

「Photo 4」

Lastly...Rinopias!

Weedy scorpionfishPaddle-Flap scorpionfish

「Photo 3」

And...Nudibranch!

Ceratosoma tenue???

「Photo 2」

Next isGhost pipe!

HalimedaRobust

「Photo 1」

I got photos from guest. Let's have a look!

Flying GurnardLarge-spotted snake eel

「about Vacation」

「Alor Divers rainy season vacation」

from 20th December 2009 to middle of March 2010

We always accept reservations or any questions while we're close.


Well...my holiday is soon! I'm thinking what will do. Any way, at first I want to have watermelon juice!

「Pygmy Seahorse」

Let's go to see Pygmy!

We had 7 Pygmy in house reef before.... It's pity they'd gone somewhere. But we found new place of Pygmy! There're 2 sea fans where we can see Pygmy. Each fan has 7-8 of them. It's nice, isn't it? 2 photographers can take photo at the same time!

I saw pregnant one. So they will be more big family! I want to see! ....But we're going to close soon... Please be there untill the resort open! ...By the way, I will inform about the rainy season vacation soon.

「Macro Again!」

....Macro again. We saw many many things!

Two kind of Rhinopias which are Paddle-Flap(photo → 9th December [Macro]) and Weedy Scorpion. I saw Weedy first time! And...Flying Gurnard, Ribbon Eel, Large-spotted Snake Eel, Nudibranchs which are Ceratosoma tenue and Phyllodesmium longicirrum(photo → 17th November [Explore?!] )and Melibe papillosa... and Ghost Pipefish. How many ghost we saw?! I think...more than 20! ...Is it too much?! And juvenile of Many spotted sweetlips. Do you know this fish? Moving of Juvenile is so cute! Always move like a dancing, never stop. And as she grew, her moving is slow down, and stop when she becomes adult...not cute any more... The following photo is Cowfish. We saw more...but I don't remember the all...too many things! We did dive just 30m and 70 minutes... I will put their photos....yes, I ask to guests.

I'm happy found this point. I want to try different depth next.

Any way, we're satisfied!

「Gliding」

Today, I saw one Eagle Ray. Suddenly he came into my view. He flew slowly around me, and faded away.

Eagle Ray is one of my favorite fish. His figure gliding in the blue is so cool and smart!

Sometime we meet school of Eagle Ray. They always makes me happy.

「Recharge」

I had unexpected free time in the afternoon. Around few days diving was strong current and cold water, it made me a bit tired... Let's recover my energy!

After lunch, drunk my coffee with some chocolate, went to my favorite place where is 50m away from my place. This place is a cove and has a mangrove. A view from here is different from my balcony, and I feel different atmosphere from other place. I don't know why feel like that, but I like there.

I sit on the rock and look at seascape without thinking. Just look, listen to the wave and feel the breeze. ...I'm getting forget all things, and something get into me. And then, recharging my batteries finish.

Here is nothing...no shop, no cinema and no closed friends. Sometime I forget this place where I live now, and feel so lonely, miss so much them. But I am on this Island. There is the wonderful nature. Focus on now.

Now I am full of energy! I'm sure my favorite place helped me, and...chocolate too:-)

「Macro」

We did 2 macro dives at Alor island and found many creatures.

「Rhinopias eschmeyeri」 We found few month ago, but lost her around few weeks. Then today guest found her at other place! I am sure there're few Rhinopias around there.「Hippocompus hystrix」There's black one also. It's nice, isn't it?And strange nudibranch. I thought it is not creature, looks like....a jelly?! 「What is that?」 I was watching, then it moved. 「Wow it's alive!」 Color is yellow brown, length is 15cm and strange shape... And then something filmy came out from one of the tip, and suck up something from ground. ...What is that??? Then I saw kind of tentacle on the filmy one. Is it nudibranch?!

I checked it by book. Yes, it's nudibranch which is 「Melibe papillosa」 The book said that this kind of nudibranch has a large oral hood used for feeding on small crustaceans and ancillary gills at the base of it's cerata.　

I want to put photo...but we don't have. I will do next time...if I can find again and guests manage to take photo.

「Healing」

There's a point named 「Anemone City」 which is one of the famouse point in Alor. Many kind of Anemone spread out as far as the eyes could see, and grows over wide area in south of Pura island. I don't now why so much anemone grows there...

Any way, It's really beautiful. You may feel heaven or paradise. If we get wonerful condition... good visivility, warm water and slow current bring you..., you will be healed by quiet ambience.

「River?!」

This afternoon, we got violent current although we didn't want...

Ternate Island, it was calm. We expected it will be kind of heeling dive because the wall here is really beautiful. After 10 minutes, we felt mild current started slowly.「 Ok, it's usual, take it easy!」And more few minutes later, current was getting strong, up and down. 「It might be more strong?! But...will happen at this point?! 」Usually, this point is quite calm even if there's current all around. But we never know exactly what will happen. Here is Alor... So, we came up slowly from 25m to 10m. Then suddenly it began... We held on tight to rock, and waited for a while and saw how things turn out. But...nothing changed better, got worse and worse. 「We continue dive? No way!!!」 So we moved to 5m for safety stop, and held again. I heard sound of current...water swooshed. All sand and small things rose up, visibility dropped. I looked up at surface as current got weak a little. The tide was swiling with our bubble...

I got a kind of shock as came up to surface. I couldn't believe that we were just in underwater. Around 2-3m away from us, there's a river...swift current. It's unbelievable.. We were watching this from the boat. We saw big big whirling current, big washing machine. Huuu...frightful surface.

I already had experience even worse than today. But I never expected like this current in this point. It really surprised me. And I knew how difficult to read or expect the current in Alor. Of course it's not always, usually ok. But it's only sometime and suddenly comes. Any way....can I say something??

「Welcome to Alor!」

「Miracle」

Listen! We swam with Whale!!!!!

「What is that?! I saw something big shape!」 Suddenly Gilles shouted on the way to diving point. Whale?! We stopped in the middle of the sea and waited few minutes.

「Pssssst!」 Woooow! Whale came up next to our boat! It's just 5-7m away. Unbelievable!!! We lost any words completely. I had goosebumps... Nobody has ever seen her such a short distance. And another whale came up behind us. It's dream.....

「Hey, guys! Put on mask and fins! Why don't you try to swim?! Now is good timing! 」Gilles shouted. 「Yeees, Boss! We want to try!」 While we were hurrying up preparation, Gilles tried to get the point where whales come up next. ...waited few minutes...

「Pssssst!」 Whale came up behind us! 「GO, NOW!!!」 We jumped into the sea. While we were swimming, whales came up near us! But couldn't find them in underwater, still a bit far. We swam and swam. And then suddenly whale appeared just under us! I couldn't believe what's happening in front of me. How beautiful she looks... just fantastic...

I don't know how long we could swim with whale....maybe only few seconds or one minute?! Any way, it was wonderful moment. She was just under me, around 5-10m in depth?! The whale we saw is sperm whale which is around 15m? We didn't think about it, just lost admiration of whale. Her movement was gentle, smooth and beautiful. How can I explain?!

Everybody was so exciting and happy after the show. We never forget this experience, we cannot!

I wish to see her again...someday...

「Orangutan」

This is orangutan crab. Usually they are on babble coral or soft coral, and we can see quite often in Indonesia.

They are kind of spider crabs and have a long hair, moving is like a orangutan. It's funny!

...By the way, this photo is really great, isn't it?! I can see him in detail. The photographer who was guest here gave his photos to Gilles for the resort, and I borrowed it for blog. It's not only him, many guests gave us their great photos! So, here I want to say again that thank you very much for your photos!

「Exercises?!」

This morning, we did dive at the wall where we can see fish battle. Now is the flood tide. ...Of course, we ready for current, let's go!

Actually, there's almost no current...it's good. We saw big turtle, school of ribbon sweetlips and big grouper which is more than 1.5m! Around Alor, we often see big grouper. ...And then, suddenly current started as we expected. It was getting stronger from top or bottom or wherever....what is known as the washing machine?! Any way, we climbed up slowly to shallows where is the most safety place in this point. But even there, current was strong. I can imagine what is happening at the wall...

After came up to the surface, we have to swim out from the reef. Because the boat cannot get closer to reef, otherwise, strong current push the boat to the land. Swimming on the surface is no problem if it's calm. But like a today, it can be good exercises even you don't hope...

The current in Alor always surprise us. It suddenly changes, then brings cold water and big fish. That's why diving here is interesting and exciting. But we need right judgement as safety first. We have limits, cannot against the nature.

This photo is school of ribbon sweetlips. We can see always here!