Birthdays, festivals, Courses and more!
Rainy season is coming to an end now in Amed, we are still having a few wet afternoons but generally the skies are blue and the waters are WARM! We have had a good ‘low season’ and here is what we have been up to more recently!
Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays!
Unfortunately we were not able to post about this sooner due to technical issues (Jordan broke the laptop…) but on the 31st Jan/ 1st February Bali Dive Cove turned 1 year old!
On the 31st January 2018, we had our big Opening ceremony. Celebrated with lots of good food (and beer!). On the 1st February 2018 we had our first customer!
So what did we do to celebrate in 2019? On the 31st we closed up shop and headed over to Pura Lempuyang Temple for a big ceremony which is running for a few months for all the Hindus in Bali.
It takes about 2 hours to hike up 1,750 steps of one of the most sacred natural points in Bali which lies at 1,100 meters above sea level. We cheated a little bit and got the ngojek (motorbike taxi!) Which bought is to the first and biggest temple where you walk up the steps carved like dragons to see hundreds of stunning offerings and decorations. Along with thousands others, this is where we prayed first.
After this we began our ascent to the top! After a morning of thunderstorms and heavy rain, we were really lucky that it had cleared up when we arrived. It was sunny but also not too hot . We prayed twice more, once at the top and once halfway up. The views that we got on our ascent were absolutely stunning and made every step worth it! At the top, Kadek collected some holy water from the priest which we will use for the daily smaller rituals at the shop.
On the 1st Feb we headed to one of our favorite restaurants, Amed Sea View for a celebration dinner and obligatory Bintangs!
This month we have already celebrated Kadek and Wayans Birthdays! Cake and beers were enjoyed on both occasions!
Nyepi Day and Ogoh Ogoh
On March 7th it was the Balinese new year called Nyepi also known as the Balinese silent day. There is no road traffic, no working, no WIFI, no lights and minimal noise for 24 hours. Everyone in Bali must stay in their homes/ hotels for the duration. Even the airport is closed for this occasion. Needless to say the Dive shop was closed!
On the eve of Nyepi there is a procession on the streets throughout Bali of statues called Ogoh Ogoh which are made by each village. The whole procession including the ceremony before/after is designed to purify the earth of bad spirits emitted by living beings on the earth - mainly human activities. The following day of minimal activity is like a reset button for the world.
PADI Courses
We would like to say a huge congratulations to Sofia, Jon and Chantal on completing their recent PADI courses. Jon is our newest Open Water Diver. He flew through the course showing great initiative and fantastic understanding of the Underwater world. Sofia and Chantal are now Advanced Open Water divers after experiencing the excitement of Deep and Wreck dives with Instructor Jim. They were also learning how to navigate underwater while working on buoyancy control and how to dive in Currents. The girls both also very much enjoyed their night dives! Sofia enjoyed some of these dives with dive buddy Elliot from Switzerland. Chantal also completed her Enriched Air Diver course so can now stay deeper for Longer!!
Introduction to Scuba Diving and Refresher courses.
On Sunday we had Manuel and Anne taking part in a Discover Scuba diving experience. Manuel had tried diving before but this was the first time for Anna. After a detailed briefing at the Center. They headed over to the USAT Liberty where they went over some basic exercises and then went for a dive, practicing positioning and buoyancy control while enjoying the beautiful fish and corals. After a tea and coffee break, they headed back to the Ocean this time really getting to have a look at the underwater shipwreck.
On Monday we had Oleg who had completed his open water course 2 years ago and so we needed to refresh his knowledge and a few skills to get him back in the water! Oleg loves shipwrecks and was super excited to see the Liberty and what she had to offer!
They were really lucky and saw sharks, turtles, stingrays and more!!
Trip Advisor
We are stoked that we have made it to the top 10 dive Centers in Amed currently with 77 excellent reviews :D We love so much that so many people have taken the time to write such positive things - its a real boost for us! So thank you to you guys for that!
Underwater Clean up
On Saturday many divers from various centers got together to do an underwater clean up. Gede, Kadek and Jim from Bali Dive Cove were among the divers. They split up over various dive sites, equipt with bags and gloves they got busy with the task of cleaning up the ocean! The main thing they were finding was lots of clothes which had been washed down from the mountain from the heavy rains. Gede commented that he picked up more underwear than he owns! All the divers met up for a photo shoot at the end and celebrated their success with a few Bintangs!
Friends from Malta
We also recently had Holly and Joe diving with us. Joe is an Instructor in Malta which is where Jordan did all of her training. They both did their instructor courses with the same Course Director. Holly is an Advanced diver and they both enjoyed a few fab dives in the Amed/ Tulamben area - it was great to have you here guys!
PADI Member forum
On the 12th, the lovely people from PADI came over to Amed to come and update us on what was going on. Including the new online system which is quite exciting for us Dive centers! We met up at Reef Bar for a few hours and a few beers to see what the world of PADI is up to and how we can always improve as a business.
