Getting into the routine. Matt is sleeping in today and I’m out to breakfast early so I can catch the morning dive boat. Head out with a new crew – the old is taking the two tank dive out to the same place as yesterday to go for a whale shark sighting. We head out about 30 minutes, and I take a giant stride off of the bow with my divemaster. Pretty hazy, which panics me for a moment, but I follow her tanks and yak in my head about something (anything) else. Soon the reef comes into view and all is well.
We cruise around long the long reef for quite a while. I find it slow going, poor vis and not too much to see. A couple nudibranchs, moray eels and another microscopically small clown fish. We do, once again, stay under for about 70 minutes. Back up with the others, then back to camp.
Matt is coming down the beach as I return and the sun is blazing. We set up camp on the hammock (me)
and he goes in for a snorkel to check out the house reef. When he is done, we head to the bar for some lunch and then over to the spa for our complimentary 15-minutes relaxation massages. I am war after the mediocre ones we had in India, but these women are actually from Bali, and they have the skills. We immediately sign up for full treatment for another day.
Back to the bungalow for a bit. I head out to do three (walking) laps around the island (each takes ten minutes), then to snorkel the house reef; Matt’s reading until his soccer game. After my walk, I paddle out, and oh my! This reef is more varied, colorful and healthy than anything I’ve seen from the dive boat. I keep paddling on and on and on. As I reach the island point, it’s time to turn around and head back. A school of about a dozen baby squid, a white tip shark, moray eel, angels, butterflies, and fish galore. This will be great as a shore dive or even a night dive. Once I’m back to my starting point, I decide to swim around the island. It’s fun and definitely more interesting than looking at pool tiles at the rec center! I swim down the beach, under the pier at the first set of huts, past the patrolling baby white tip shark, then have to stand up to walk over a rocky breakpoint, then clear swimming under another set of pilings, then fighting the current around the point, and suddenly I am back at the house reef and swimming toward my starting point. A whole 30 minutes later!
Tired but accomplished, I head back to the room for a shower and some reading. We head out at 7 for the managers cocktail party being held at Miraku, the a-la-carte by reservation restaurant, located on the other side of the island and down a pier. We are greeted by Martin and meet the assistant manager, who’s been on vacation until now. We grab a cocktail and chat with employees we’ve met. The restaurant is horseshoe shaped, with a wooden pier-like floor on the inside, then the glass paned walls, and then a deck all along the outside walls in the same shape. There are canvas-back chairs all along the outside wooden deck, filled with guests chatting and enjoying the view.
On the inside, there is water on the inside of the horseshoe and tables all around that, almost like a pier that has been folded into the rounded shape.
We have a few snacks and watch for the green flash, but the sun sets down into clouds.
After about thirty minutes, we head over for dinner – oriental night, which is their phraseology for Middle Eastern food. Yum.
When we are finished, I am passing out, but we head to the boutique to buy another tube of sunscreen, and since we’re halfway there, we step over to the beach in front of reception, where the assistant manager is manning an incredibly impressive, computer-operated telescope. We are able to really see the surface, craters and mountains of the moon. Next he adjusts it (or rather, he puts the name of what he wants to see and the telescope positions itself) so we are looking at Jupiter and 4 of its moons. So cool.
A blurry full moon photo:
Back to our little bungalow and off to sleep after chatting with Michael and Bert. Big dive day tomorrow!