Diving in Bali: Between Manta Rays, Sharks, and Turtles

At 3:30 pm, the first flight took off — seven hours to Dubai. A €4 phone mount is all it takes to make Philipp happy and ready for 16 hours of One Piece back to back. After a three-hour transit, it was another nine hours on to Bali. Luckily, we both manage to sleep pretty well on the second flight. Maybe it's because the Airbus A380 feels less like a plane and more like a flying hotel?

What the Trip Cost

Two weeks for two, including flights, a whole lot of diving, and the odd Aperol Spritz — here's the breakdown of what we spent, combined for both of us:

Arrival in Uluwatu

With flattened backsides, we land safely in Bali. Immigration is uncomplicated – we'd applied for all our entry documents online in advance. Both backpacks show up right away, and it's another hour on to Uluwatu. With a delicious meal and an Aperol glass in a size exactly to my taste (for just €6), we wind down the evening with live music.

The next morning I'm up bright and early at 9:00 am and head to the beach for an early swim, while Philipp sleeps in – until at some point I get hungry. Because a hungry Janine an hour later is not much fun. We fuel up for the upcoming surf lesson with a tasty avocado toast and an influencer bowl for Philipp.

Philipp takes it easy, while I wear myself out in the waves at Padang Padang Beach – definitely the best waves I've ever surfed. The super-long wave did have one downside, of course: endless paddling back. Workout done, so the massage I'd booked for later was definitely earned. Afterward there was freshly grilled corn on the cob on the beach – and no horrible sunburn behind my knees or on my backside this time. We wound down the evening with a tasty pizza at the same bar as the night before – even the waitress had noticed we'd stayed a bit longer yesterday. The jet lag was clearly still lingering.

Beware of Monkeys

On day three, jet lag and the journey really catch up with us: we sleep until noon. Around 2 pm, our first scooter ride on the island begins – for just 17 cents. Though I'd rather leave the driving to the locals.

We head to Pura Luhur Temple. This is where Philipp had his glasses stolen four years ago. So this time his motto is: better to see nothing of the temple than nothing for the rest of the trip. Everything gets packed away monkey-proof. After witnessing a few monkey heists ourselves – including a stolen handbag, passport and all – I hold my backpack a little tighter and we stick close to a Balinese man armed with a stick. Thanks to the sheer number of monkeys, we keep the visit short.

Just in time for the evening sun, we brave the climb down to a slightly less touristy beach – the sweating was worth it. With a cold beer in hand, we enjoy the beach, rocky as it is. For a little over €1, lazy tourists can of course also get a ride back up. We let the evening wind down, pleasantly worn out, at a local food place followed by a massage.

Ubud: Cleansing Body and Mind

After a rainy morning and a slight scratchy throat, we change our plans: Nusa Penida was already booked, but we push it back and head to Ubud first. Three hours of traffic for just 50 km drags on – the roads are narrow and the cars far too big. On the plus side, we get a lovely room here with an outdoor shower and a pool view (in Germany, the same price gets you a six-bed dorm in a youth hostel). After a burger in the cute town center, I win a satisfying 4:1 at pool.

Woken up by around 20 crowing roosters, our driver Iko picks us up the next morning. With Piet and Katie, a couple from Melbourne and Ireland, we first head to the rice terraces (a bit too touristy for my taste – the fields along the way were just as beautiful) and then to Tirta Empul Temple, to cleanse body and mind. The cleansing is a Hindu ritual in which believers bathe under sacred water springs to spiritually free themselves of negative energy. Surely nothing can go wrong for the rest of the trip now, and I'm certain the cold will be gone by tomorrow, too.

There was also a coffee and tea tasting – though coffee that a monkey had already digested didn't really win me over. A ginger tea for the scratchy throat did come along, though.

Passive Volcano Climbing at Mount Batur

The alarm goes off at 2:50 am – even before the roosters. Off we go to Mount Batur. I thought we had a volcano hike ahead of us, but no: along with what feels like 200 other tourists, we're driven halfway up the mountain in jeeps. Way too touristy for me. I much prefer small tours where you actually get to experience the land and its people. The sun hides behind the clouds, but we can see stars. Afterward, the hot springs pleasantly surprise me – 36 to 45 degrees, at 8 in the morning. Luckily we could skip the next stop on the itinerary, since we'd already seen the coffee plantation – otherwise we'd never have made our booked 2 pm boat.

Nusa Penida: Manta Rays and Private Reefs

All the luggage gets strapped to the roof, then the speedboat races toward Nusa Penida. Honestly, that ride was one of my highlights – even though I was hoping the backpacks wouldn't fall into the water. Our Airbnb, once again, has a pool view.

Super nervous, I start the next day at 6:00 am – my last middle ear infection has left its mark. Thank god Philipp is, as always, calm as ever. The nearly hour-long boat ride with Sanctum Dive is not for the faint of heart: you get slammed into the ceiling while some people relive their breakfast in reverse – I actually enjoy it.

We pass some of the most beautiful coastline, including the famous Kelingking Beach. On one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, someone tried to build an elevator to bring down even more tourists. I don't even want to capture an eyesore like that in a photo, and it makes me angry that nature just isn't left as it is.

Dive gear on, and into the water: after about six minutes, the first manta ray is spotted – simply breathtaking, any nervousness instantly gone. Visibility is unfortunately a bit poor, but when the mantas appear in front of you, it's simply breathtaking. Crystal Bay, the second spot, we like a lot better: a steep coral reef and already noticeably less crowded than Manta Point.

The next day we get lucky and basically end up with a private tour: just our dive instructor and the two of us. We have the reef, which drops steeply along the coastline, entirely to ourselves – colorful corals and fish as far as the eye can see. A light current lets us drift, completely relaxed, past starfish and even four turtles. We didn't get to see a mola mola – the sunfish – but the captain even invited us to come along to Tulamben; sadly the date didn't fit our plans. Philipp turns out to be a fantastic underwater cameraman. That evening, of all people, our dive instructor Leo plays guitar on a little stage – we can't say no to one more drink and a few rounds of pool after that.

On our last morning before moving on, we stopped by Kelingking Beach once more, but didn't go all the way down – this path, too, is guarded by monkeys, and this time I'd rather have kept hold of my passport. The sight was sad all the same: monkeys nibbling at plastic bottles amid the trash, and above it all the giant construction crane that will probably stand there forever.

Gili Trawangan: From Bicycle to Shipwreck

Turns out we booked more of a sauna boat than a speedboat to Gili T. Sweating and stuck to our seats, we try to survive the ride – until, after about 90 minutes, I finally realize there's an upper deck. We end the evening with a pub quiz, where the biggest challenge is understanding the host through her strong Irish accent.

Who's wide awake at 7:00 am despite having a later dive booked? Me. That officially puts roosters at number one on my list of least favorite animals. I grab a bike on the spot and circle the roughly eight-kilometer island in just 40 minutes. Something I haven't mentioned yet: there are no cars and no scooters on this island – only bicycles and little horse-drawn carriages, exactly my kind of place. I also love how most tourists collectively decide not to use the horse-drawn carriages as taxis, so they're used exclusively to transport goods around the island.

The first dive doesn't quite blow me away, but I judged too soon: on the second one we see several sharks sleeping in their caves under a coral reef, and the highlight is a huge turtle sharing a cave with a shark. True to my motto of "you only live once," I spontaneously decide to do the Advanced course – which means cramming the theory and five dives into a day and a half.

Next up: a deep dive, a wreck dive, and a night dive. Philipp joins for that last one: in complete darkness, equipped with nothing but flashlights, we head down to the Bounty Wreck off Gili Meno, the remains of a sunken pier. Honestly, I felt like Tom Cruise or James Bond on a secret mission – even though this dive had the strongest current yet and was anything but easy. The next morning we head down once more to the Glenn Nusa wreck, which sank in 2016 – and from here on out I'm an Advanced Open Water Diver. I got really lucky with my dive instructor William from England. We book the last ferry for tomorrow, because neither of us wants to leave the island at all.

Tulamben: One More Wreck to Finish

With only three days left, we shorten Canggu by a day: at Tulamben, there's a shipwreck at 30 meters we haven't conquered yet, and that course had to be worth it, after all. After about three to four hours by ferry and another two hours by car, we arrive in a very poor region that lives entirely off dive tourism. Four cockroaches greet us in our room – though at least they're considerate enough to already be dead.

The first dive takes us down to the USAT Liberty wreck. The USAT Liberty was torpedoed off Bali by a Japanese submarine in 1942 and deliberately beached near Tulamben; when Mount Agung erupted in 1963, the wreck slid into the sea and later became a famous dive site. The dive shop belongs to Sven, a German expat who, whenever he speaks English, sounds like a Werner Herzog impression – and they serve draft beer brewed to the German purity law. We couldn't quite enjoy that first dive, though: water leaked into Philipp's mask, my ear flat-out refused to equalize, and in the strong swell we were both carrying a kilo too much lead – keeping our balance was no easy feat. The second dive, the Drop Off Wall, lands in second place among the most beautiful dive sites: a fascinating sheer wall that plunges 100 meters into the water. As a grand finale, Philipp even got handed a tank with 270 bar – you're usually happy with 210 or 220. After a four-hour drive for just 100 kilometers, at least in a comfortable car, dinner was a wonderfully tasty pizza and bread with tzatziki. Clearly not enough bread, though: Philipp ended up just spooning the tzatziki on its own.

Canggu and Departure

Guess we didn't read the Airbnb listing carefully enough: construction site right next door. But to put it in Philipp's words: makes you feel right at home. We spend the day at a beach bar with a pool – there are worse things than "having" to drink at least €35 worth of Aperol. After a massage and some tasty noodles, we head to a pool hall, where two weeks of practice turns out to have made zero difference.

On the last day, my trained surfer's eye isn't exactly impressed by the waves, so instead we relax and work on our tan – after all, we spent half the trip underwater. I hadn't seen this much Botox and silicone in a long time as on this beach. Before the flight home there were still a few to-dos: pick up the laundry, one last massage, and getting rid of our leftover small change at the market. Two empty tubes of sunscreen and what feels like 20 Nasi Gorengs later, we're sitting on the plane to Dubai. At least I win the very last game of pool.

My Verdict

I'm absolutely going to miss being able to get grilled corn on the cob or a crêpe on the beach for €1.50 – and of course, having someone cook delicious, cheap food for us every day with live music. My absolute highlight was Nusa Penida and Gili Trawangan with their amazing dives. Having a 30-degree-warm sea within biking distance is an absolute dream.

Everyone we met along the way was always incredibly helpful and courteous. I'm not quite ready to trade that in for a bit of German grumpiness just yet. But since Lombok and Komodo are still completely undiscovered, we'll probably have to head back to Indonesia.