Bali: Sample Two Week Holiday

• 6 days diving at (Nusa Penida, Padangbai, Tulamben, Menjangan)
• 13 nights accommodation in south Bali, Candidasa, Tulamben, Lovina and Ubud
• Beach Barbeque Trip
• Land-tour of east Bali
• Shopping in Ubud
• Whitewater rafting
• Free time for shopping or additional touring.

Arrival in Bali. Airport pickup and transfer to a South Bali Hotel. Unpack, relax, swim or have a massage. Dinner at Jimbaran Bay (famous for the sunset view & fresh seafood).

Have a late breakfast, go for a swim and get ready for AquaMarine to transfer you to your Candidasa hotel (about 90 min. drive up the southeast coast. Candidasa is a quiet little town on the coast with a surprising selection of places to eat to suit all budgets and tastes. Toward the eastern end of hte town you'll find a huge lotus pond that is, in fact, a watery forcourt tothe male-female temples on the other side of the road, dedicated to Shiva and Hariti. There is another Hariti temple carved into the rock face a little further along, where childless couple come to pray.

Pick up at your Candidasa hotel for the 30 min. drive to Padangbai where we'll board the boat for diving at diving at Nusa Penida. Have a Balinese coffee or some breakfast while the staff loads your equipment aboard the boat. Once everything is organized, walk down the beach and onto the boat. We have different boats at our disposal and based on the number of divers, we usually choose outriggers as they are most suited to the conditions in the area. The boat journey takes about one hour.

Once at Nusa Penida, the dive guide will choose a site based on current conditions and the experience and interests of the divers. All the sites are drift dives, mainly with steep slopes or walls, offering great diversity in both topography and marine life.

Backroll entry off the boat, the boat will follow your bubbles and be there to pick you up when you surface. We advise the use of inflatable safety signal sausages and will provide one if you don't have your own.

Lunch is usually taken on board, but you have the option to eat once back in Padangbai while waiting for your equipment to be unloaded.

Transport to your hotel back in Candidasa.

AquaMarine will again pick you up for the Padangbai Beach Barbeque trip. Pack your dive gear separate from your luggage. You will arrive at your new east coast hotel after the dives. Drive 90 min. through beautiful countryside where you relax at a beachfront café while Aquamarine loads the boat for diving at Padangbai. There is time for breakfast.

Based on sea & weather conditions the dive sites may vary. Your first dive may be Gili Biaha, 35 min. by boat. Aquamarine is onen of only 3 Bali dive shops to offer trips to Biaha. A dive briefing is given after arrival at the site and your guide has checked the conditions. Entry is by a backroll off the boat, the boat will follow the divers. Upon surfacing, remove your equipment in the water, the crew will lift it aboard and you exit the water via a ladder.

5 min. ride to the white sand beach for the Beach Barbeque, an absolutely delicious feast of grilled fish, satays, salads, Balinese vegetables and sauces. Surface interval, then 15 min. ride to Tepekong or Mimpang for the second dive.

Following the dive, 20 min. ride back to Padangbai where you have a post-dive coffee (about 2pm) while the staff unloads the boat. Arrival in Candidasa about 3pm. Back in Candidasa you can enjoy a quiet evening overlooking the sea in a local neighborhood café, or maybe try out the new Kedai restaurant in south Candidasa - no one at AquaMarine has tried it yet - but it is on our list of things to do!

	Plowing the Rice Paddy

Check out from the hotel. Drive through the Karangasem Regency of eastern Bali via the villages of Tenganan and Sibetan. Tenganan is said to be home to the original Balinese and a place of strange customs, festivals and practices. A magical cloth, that protects the wearer from black magic, is made here and is, needless to say, expensive to buy. Sibetan is surrounded by attractive rice fields, flowering teak, aromatic clove trees and a great many salak trees (season Dec-Apr) - the fruit that tastes somewhere between a pear and a strawberry and has an odd snakeskin covering.

Depending on how long you would like your tour to be, include a visit to Besakih Temple.

You will overnight in Tulamben.

Arise and wander down to breakfast and to chat with your Aquamarine guide. Today you will be diving in Tulamben. Discuss where you'll be diving and after the briefing, your guide will organize the equipment and have the porters carry it to the chosen dive site.

You will order lunch before heading out to dive and then walk the 5-10 min. to the site. Put on your wetsuit and booties (sturdy thick-soled booties are recommended for walking on the stones) at walk 5-10 min. up the beach to the USAT Liberty shipwreck, Drop-off Wall, Batu Kelebit or Coral Gardens. All the sites except for Batu Kelebit are beach dives. To dive Batu Kelebit we take a 15 min. jukung (local outrigger) ride east from Tulamben Bay.

After the dive it's back to the hotel for a quick rinse and piping hot lunch! Meanwhile, the Aquamarine dive staff will change over your equipment to new tanks. For your second dive you can do the same dive or try another.

If booked in advance, you can do a 3rd day dive or a night dive. You might try the Drop-Off Wall for a late afternoon dive, there are a lot of lionfish in the late afternoon. For night dives, choose any of the shore dives.

Overnight in Tulamben.

The schedule is the same as Day Six. Chose the same sites or different. You could choose to change the times at which you dive. An early morning dive on the wreck is highly recommended.

Overnight in Tulamben.

After a relaxing morning, check out of your Tulamben Hotel, and AquaMarine will transport you to Lovina - via the Git-Git Waterfall and Hot Springs at Banjar. Other activities along the way can be included, you need to discuss this with your guide and driver.

Overnight in Lovina. Lovina is one of the larger beach resorts on Bali and caters to all ages and price groups. The beach itself is an 8km stretch of grey sand. It is the place on Bali's north coast to check your e-mails, if you need to!

Early Morning (05:30-07:30): You can go out with the flotilla of fishing boats (small outriggers called jukung) to watch the dolphin, that live in the bay, catching their breakfast. It is a bit commercial, and you can't help but wonder what the dolphin think/feel, but it is a beautiful sight.

After breakfast, check-out and it's off to dive in Menjangan for the day.

The journey is usually slightly less than 2 hrs, and follows the north coast road. Upon arrival at Labuan Lalang (from where we get the boat over to Menjangan Island) you can relax with a coffee, or buy a T-shirt while the AquaMarine load your gear onto the boat.

It is a 30-60 min. boat ride to the sites at Menjangan. All dives are wall dives and are usually drift dives. Entry is a backroll from the boat. The boatman will follow your bubbles so you move with the current and do not have to return to your entry point.

The most popular dive sites are Pos II, Garden Eel Point and for the experienced, the Anker Wreck, a 150 yr. old wooden boat.

On the way back down to the south of the island, you will stop off at the stunning Tanah Lot Temple to watch the sunset, highly recommended!

Overnight in your hotel in the south of Bali.

The day is yours to do as you wish. Having done a fair bit of road travel over the past few days you may want to enjoy your hotel's spa; go shopping; enjoy Bali's version of Café Society; buy some copy watches to take home; whatever takes your fancy. Or, could hire a car and driver and go exploring or take a half-day tour:

Uluwatu and Tanjung Benoa (5 hrs.)
The journey starts at 13:00.

• Explore another of Bali's six most important temples, Uluwatu, spectacularly located on a cliff 70M above the Indian Ocean, on the southern tip of the Bukit Peninsula.
• Visit Bali's most popular watersports area, Tanjung Benoa. The diving here is abysmal but every other watersport imaginable is available here, and at quite reasonable prices.

You could return to your hotel via Jimbaran Bay for a drink at sunset followed by a barbeque of seafood, (select your own fish, prawns, calamari or crabs), for dinner, a great end to a lovely day.

Whitewater rafting on the Ayung River or Telagawaja River. The trip includes US$50,000 insurance as well as transfers to and from your hotel and - before the rafting - morning coffee, tea and snacks; river sandals and then a briefing on river safety as well as helmets and lifejackets, then, after 2hrs of exhilarating fun - welcome drinks, a bath towel, hot shower facilities and a traditional Pasar Senggol buffet with unlimited beer and soft drinks. Upon leaving you will receive a souvenir gift.

7am pick up at your south Bali hotel for the a days diving at Nusa Penida or Nusa Lembongan. If conditions are right, we could go to Manta Point and Crystal Bay today.

Have a Balinese coffee or some breakfast while the staff loads your equipment aboard the boat. Once everything is organized, walk down the beach and onto the boat. We have different boats at our disposal and based on the number of divers, we usually choose outriggers as they are most suited to the conditions in the area. The boat journey takes about one hour.

Once at Nusa Penida, the dive guide will choose a site based on current conditions and the experience and interests of the divers. Choose from Sental, Ped and SD, Toyapakeh, Gamat Bay , Blue Corner, Malibu Point or as mentioned above, Crystal Bay or Manta Point. All the sites are drift dives, mainly with steep slopes or walls, offering great diversity in both topography and marine life.

Backroll entry off the boat, the boat will follow your bubbles and be there to pick you up when you surface. We advise the use of inflatable safety signal sausages and will provide one if you don't have your own.

Lunch is usually taken on board, but you have the option to eat once back in Padangbai while waiting for your equipment to be unloaded.

We can take you back to your hotel in the Kuta, Sanur or Nusa Penida area, or you may prefer to spend your last two nights up in Ubud.

Ubud, up in the hills of central south Bali, is cooler and wetter - and therefore more green! - than the south coast areas. Many so-called 'boutique' hotels have spas attached, which is a wonderful way to unwind at the end of your holiday. Ubud generally offers better quality souvenirs than on the coast, but that is a guideline rather than a rule! And you still need to bargain - hard!

Spend the day being pampered in your hotel's spa or sampling the delights of the cafés and restaurants in and around the resort town of Ubud. Elephant trekking, one of the more recent activities introduced in Bali, is based in a village just outside Ubud. On elephant back, you get a different perspective of the countryside that inside a vehicle!

There are classes in Balinese dance or batik or you can stroll through the rice terraces and watch the duck herders. Wherever you are in Bali, there are traditional dances with musical accompaniment that you can watch, often while having dinner.

Time for last-minute shopping and to finish off your last roll(s) of film, before heading to the airport.