Bunnygoespop in Bali part III

Continuing from Nusa Lembongan and Ubud…

Day 8-9: Pemuteran and Pulau Menjangan

Black sandy beaches. Mango orchards. State-of-the-art conservation projects. Monkeys. Monkeys on the beach. Why is it not on the tourist trail?

Pemuteran is a little fishing village on the northwest coast of Bali with a na(t)ive population of 1000.  Nobody tries to sell you anything and the locals are actually curious and friendly. Also a handful of tourists. What a welcome change after Ubud.

Most people who do go to Pemuteran, go there as a pit stop on their way to Mount Ijen, which is a very cool volcano🌋 on the neighbouring island of Java.

I took this picture from the internet because we couldn’t go there! 😦 The volcano had spurted some noxious gases eruptions the day before we reached. As if burning sulphur (yep that’s what the blue colour comes from) is not enough.

So while we were stranded on the beach, we found that Pemuteran has a variety of a conservation projects going on. One of them is the “bio rocks”, a manmade coral reef construction project. Electrical lines have been placed in the sea which send small electrical impulses for mineral deposition and coral formation. While the corals are not as dense or colourful as real coral gardens, the fish don’t seem to mind. There were plenty of fish and snorkeling can be done right from the shore!

Here is a great video (again from the interweb) describing the stages of this project as well.

I think it is a marvellous example of humans living with nature. But then, that’s the spirit of all of Bali.

Then there is the turtle hatchery project, which I am less sure about. This organization pays a small amount to local fishermen to bring in turtle eggs. The turtles are conditioned in their pools for a couple of months and then released into the sea. For a small fee you can feed them, for a slightly larger fee you could release them in the sea. But we have been there, done that already in Lakshadweep. Completely al natura. 😄

Looks a bit gross. 😛

The organization claims the percent of turtles surviving infancy is very high with this project. However, after being released the turtles’ fate is not monitored. Reviewer 1 says no. Reviewer 2 says no. Reviewer 3 is unsure.

They also have Bade, a 30 yr old turtle, who lives in a very small pool for his size but he can’t go back to the sea anymore.😔

Day 9: Diving at Pulau Menjangan

Our lonely planet said Pulau Menjangan is THE place to go for diving. The little island is a stones throw from Pemuteran and surrounded by a coral wall.

God is everywhere. :D

For the first time, I realized the importance of going with a good diving company. We went with YOS divers and their threadbare equipment was just unsafe!

The dives were OKish, though we did see Bade’s buddy (a turtle). The currents were pretty strong but since this wasn’t a drift dive we had to swim back to the boat (not fun).

The island is super pretty though.

Since Nusa Lembongan, we had a thing for looking for sunset points. And we found a pretty neat one in Pemuteran, with two swings right in the sea (during high tide).

This picture to me, describes Pemuteran best. I will leave the adjectives to you.

Day 10: Driving to Amed

On our way from Pemuteran to Amed, we stopped at Air panas, which was a bad idea. The water smelled weird. On pictures it looks nice though.

Lunch stop a bit further away from Lovina beach (a black sand beach) which was super quiet and really nice and had a nice looking temple as well.

Day 10-13: Diving and snorkeling around Amed

It was so incredible that it deserves a new blog post. Take a plunge here.