Monday, October 3, 2011

Gili Air

We arrived on Gili Air after a delay in Surabya as our flight was changed from the 22nd to the next day. I suspect this was due to a lack of passengers as our flight only had about 10 people on it. We landed in Mataram, Lombak (a larger island east of Bali) at a tiny airport. I had arranged pick up (25 dollars pp) through Coconut Cottages our accommodation so someone was there waiting for us. We drove to the north through hilly terrain and then loaded onto a boat off the shore. I was glad of two things: wearing sandals and having backpacks. Every day on this journey I learn to make less and less assumptions – I had assumed we’d be taking a ferry, or at the least, a boat off a dock where I wouldn’t have to climb in from the water. I won’t ever assume that again.

The boat ride across wasn’t long and you could see all three islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air situated northwest of Lombak. Trawangan is a noisier larger island with resorts and lots of nightlife, Meno is dead quiet with little going on and Air falls in the middle. We arrived at the island and loaded our bags onto a horse cart as there are no motorized vehicles on the island. Transportation is by horse cart, walking or bicycling. There is a narrow road around the island and it takes about 2 hours to walk it.
Coconut Cottages is down a path off this ‘main’ road and is located in a garden with trees.

It’s secluded, quiet, and peaceful. As you can see, our cottage is on stilts with a large porch and hammock. Inside there is a large room with king sized bed surrounded by mosquito netting and a large bathroom open to the sky. The cottage is quite lovely and is about 50 dollars (we get a discount for staying more than 5 nights). Almost all places use saltwater in the showers because fresh water has to be brought in from the mainland by boat and that gets expensive.

There are many tourists here, mostly German, Dutch and French. There are a variety of restaurants along the beach offering a mix of Indonesian, Western, and sometimes Italian or Thai.  We are located on the east side of island so when the tide is out later in the afternoon you can’t swim but could head to the south (about a 15 – 20 minute walk) and swim there. The beach on our side is rocky with broken coral and more ideal for snorkelling than swimming.
A major reason we’re here is to take scuba diving lessons booked at Manta owned by Jonathan, who is English and Alexandra, who is Dutch / German. Three years ago on Trawangan, they were dive instructors for a different company and they opened up Gili Manta 3 ½ years ago here on Gili Air. Manta has some accommodation available and they are located on the beach convenient for loading the boats with the scuba gear. There is a pool with a 2 metre deep-end for diving instruction.

We checked in with them on arrival to Gili Air and registered for our course which involved filling out quite a bit of paperwork including a medical form. The next day we showed up at 9:30 to meet our instructor, a tall thin tanned German named Tomas. He was gregarious and personable and explained his method of getting us into the water quickly for hands-on training. We opted for the SSI course (Scuba Schools International) rather than the PADI course. Jonathan had explained to us that the SSI course allows for more flexibility than the PADI course in which one cannot waver from its program. SSI allows you to do things when it’s more suited for the client. Both are internationally recognized and both cover identical skills training.
The course involves watching videos, reading and answering questions, learning skills in the pool and 4 dives at 12 and 18 metres. We watched the first video, got suited up in our wet suits, masks and weight belts, and entered the pool to put on our flippers.  Here we learned how to sit on our tanks and suit up in the water. I had told Jonathan that I don’t sink (I am a floater) so Tomas gave me an 8 kilo weight belt and Ian got 6 kilos. We learned about the regulator and the BC jacket (allows for buoyancy) and down we went in the shallow end.
I have to say, there was a momentary panic that went through me – breathing underwater through my mouth freaked me out and I did not like seeing bubbles shoot by my face obstructing my view. When Tomas started teaching us small things, I decided this wasn’t for me. I went up to the surface ready to quit, thinking: Ian is on his own. Tomas came up and promised me I’d get use to it while Ian reminded me how much I loved the water. I figured trying again wouldn’t hurt so down I went and once we started working on hovering horizontally and I felt better. It felt more natural.
We then went to the deep end. Here Tomas taught us what to do if your regulator was knocked out of your mouth and how to retrieve it. The important thing in scuba diving is that you always breathe – so in this case, you have to continue to exhale out of your mouth while searching for your regulator. The equipment is bulky with two regulator hoses on the right side and your inflator hose and pressure gauges on the left so it can be challenging finding things, especially if you were out in the open water with a current or in poor visibility.
We managed that okay and were left to swim in the pool on our own. It was a bit crowded as it’s a small pool and there was another group of 5 but we managed. I was really getting the hang of using my breathing to control going up and down rather than wasting the air in my tank to inflate and deflate my jacket. I felt ready to go diving.
We had a lunch break and returned to suit up and climb into the boat. Manta crew load the gear on the boat so you just sit back and enjoy the journey to the site. Once there, you put on the weight belt, turn on the tank, put the jacket on, then the mask and flippers. The jacket with the tank is very heavy out of water and when sitting on the edge of the boat it can really unbalance you, especially considering all the air you’ve pumped into the jacket to keep you afloat when you land in the water.
 I watched others go into the water – crossing flippers, leaning forwards and edging back towards the water, one hand on belt and the other on mask and regulator, and then over you go – backwards. We waited for everyone else to go then Tomas said: okay Wendie, you first. I asked if there was anything special I had to do and he said, no, just lean back and go. I thought that was a bit strange considering everyone else had received instructions on how to get into the water so I put my hand on my mask and regulator just in case and over I went.
It was quite easy. I popped to the surface immediately and the current pulled me away from the boat. I waited for Ian and Tomas to join me, we cleaned our masks, put in our regulators and down we went, holding onto the rope from the boat as we did. To descend, you vent all air out of your jacket and breathe. Descending was easy for me but Ian took a long time as he couldn’t equalise the pressure in his ears. I waited peacefully on the bottom, looking around at the few fish I could see swimming close by.
Ian finally made it down and off the three of us went. Our first dive was 14 metres with an average depth of 8.8 metres. I felt very relaxed and followed Tomas easily. Maintaining neutral buoyancy can be a bit tricky but breath control certainly helps. Another diver on our boat had an underwater camera so you can get an idea of what we look like underwater:

We saw a great deal of fish: angel, butterfly, puffer, trumpet, lion, banner, and grouper. Ian and I have done a lot of snorkelling in the Caribbean, but always the coral is grey or white (dead). This was the first time we had ever seen coral with colour and it was astounding – blues, reds, oranges, and greens. Even without my glasses, I could see relatively well as water both enlarges and brings objects closer.
We were down for 50 minutes which as Tomas said, was impressive for a first dive. Many new divers go through air quickly because of nerves. We both felt very relaxed and were just happy to be down there seeing so much marine life and live coral.
Our ascent went smoothly and the boat was waiting for us on the surface. We took our jackets and flippers off and the crew grabbed them which made entering the boat via the ladder easier. I couldn’t imagine trying to get up that ladder with the gear on – as it was, I had to put my leg up to my ears to even get my foot on the first rung. The other divers were already on the boat because we had had the longest dive – and they were all shivering. I felt great, still warm from the excitement of the dive.
When we returned to Manta, we had three videos to watch and were handed a couple textbooks that we had to read in order to answer our study questions. The day proved tiring and at that point I just wanted to shower and go to bed, but we cleaned up and went for dinner.
Many of the restaurants offer good food and all have fantastic views of the water. There is a funky place on the southern end of the island called Scallywags that is hands down our favourite restaurant. Food is a bit pricier here than what you can find on the mainland and other than Scallywags, they don’t take visa. In fact, many guesthouses, stores, etc. do not take visa and there are no ATMs on the island. This means you have to bring enough cash with you when you come. Luckily, Manta takes visa with a 3% service charge (the norm in smaller places). This is the first time that Ian and I have had to do major budgeting and we are constantly checking how much money we have as it is no longer readily available. It’s made things a bit challenging, watching your pennies.
There is a great Italian restaurant that makes super woodstove pizzas and home-made pasta, another that does Thai and coconut curries, and at Scallywags, I’ve had a chicken/avocado baguette and a Greek salad. Scallywags is by far our favourite place, the view is brilliant and the place is clean with decent food. Barbeques are very popular here and almost all restaurants offer them. You can choose lobster, prawns, kebabs, many varieties of fish, etc. We tried the BBQ at Scallywags – I had Mahi-Mahi ($8.50) and Ian had white fin Tuna ($9), both with baked potato and salad.
We love it here on Gili Air. It’s so peaceful without the sound of cars or motorcycles, only boats, roosters, cows, horses, and birds. People are friendly and no one is pushy. Once in awhile, I just stop and look around at the open areas below the tall coconut trees with the cows grazing and the clear blue water on the other side and I feel so lucky to be here. We couldn’t help but add a couple of nights to our stay and can hardly imagine leaving this paradise. One could easily plant themselves here for weeks….

Our second day of scuba training started with putting together our gear (attaching the tank to the regulators, etc). This time we put the gear on outside the pool and entered by way of the great stride jump: you stand, look into the horizon, and walk into the water using a large stride. Personally I like rolling backwards off the boat the best.
At the bottom of the pool we practised hovering, losing our regulator, and how to save your buddy should s/he run out of air. I actually liked that one. Then we practised what to do if you got water in your mask. In order to do this, you first had to fill your mask (halfway) with water. I absolutely hated this skill, feeling like I was drowning every time I did it. Once that water hit my nose, I forgot to breathe through my mouth and would inhale water, sputtering and choking as I did. It was horrible. Ian had no trouble with this skill since his mask continually filled with water anyways, he was used to it.
All skills had to be performed on an open water dive and I really wondered how I was going to pass considering I could not accomplish the mask.  The afternoon involved another dive to Han’s Reef (same one as the day before) but we’d swim on the other side. Our descent went fine, Ian didn’t take as long because he took a decongestant prior to diving and we did this one without a rope.  We had to stop on route to practise retrieving our regulator but other than that, it was a nice easy dive with a strong current pushing us along. Our maximum depth was 15.4 metres with an average depth of 9m and we were down for 49 minutes.
We saw mostly the same fish as previous (still no turtles!!) and a Moray Eel that poked its head out a hole long enough for us to make out what it was. When we are ready to ascend, Tomas lets a buoy go to signify that divers are rising and it helps the boat see us for pick up. We ascended slowly to the top but there wasn’t a boat in sight. The island was visible and we could swim to it so I wasn’t too nervous. We waited for 25 minutes fighting the waves. Eventually we saw more divers come up in the distance and a boat started towards them and then picked us up.
I was now completely exhausted and we still had to unload the boat, walk back to the dive shop, fill out our log books and watch 2 more videos. I had no idea that the course would be so intensive! The videos barely registered as I dreamed of showering and sleeping. The next day we had two dives, had to finish our study questions, read the textbook and write the test. I asked if we could write the test on day 4 because there was no way I would be ready – thank goodness this was okay because I crashed that night at about 8:15….
The final day arrived and I was so nervous because I had still had to perform that stupid mask skill. Methodically I went over the moves whenever I could but the thought of the water hitting my nose, that far down, really caused me anxiety. I was not happy.
We headed out for our 9am dive to Secret Reef, maximum depth 17 metres. This time we put our gear on in the water – which I really didn’t like as much but Ian did. It’s very challenging putting on an 8kg weight belt in the water let me tell you! Ascending was difficult for me on that dive, I could not get the pressure in my ears to equalize and it took me awhile to get down. By the time I had fully descended, I had used 30 bars of air and was down to 170. That annoyed me.
Visibility was pretty good – 15m – and the water was relatively calm. The landscape was certainly different and it proved a lovely dive. At the end, we ascended to our safety stop of 5 metres where we were to perform two skills: the mask and the buddy without air. Unfortunately I was confused and thought we could choose whether to take the mask off or just fill it with water. Tomas motioned for me to go but I wasn’t ready so Ian went first removing his mask completely, and successfully removing the air (finger between eyebrows to hold mask in place, tilt head up and exhale out the bottom through nose). Then it was my turn.
I let water in my mask while my eyes were closed, and immediately I felt a sense of panic when that water hit my nose. I tried to stay calm but definitely inhaled water and started choking – I remembered to breathe through my regulator and eventually got the water out of my mask but it wasn’t pretty. I hated every single moment and wanted to ascend rapidly, but I still had to ‘save’ Ian who was ‘out of air.’
On the surface, I choked and almost threw up, but was glad that at least that horrid skill was done with. Then Tomas informed me I had to do it again because I didn’t remove my mask completely – I thought I would lose my mind with that little piece of news. I just stared at him in disbelief. I truly thought he was joking.  
Back on land, we went over the final chapters with Tomas – looking at how to calculate our residual nitrogen levels and how to figure out the length for repetitive dives. I had no idea it was so complicated. We also learned about decompression illnesses, what to do in the case of jellyfish stings, urchins, or stonefish and all about tides and currents. It was quite interesting.
Our final dive at 2pm went to a depth of 18m and ran along Meno’s Slope off Gili Meno. The water was very rough and the boat was all over the place with the waves. Once underwater though, we kept the reef to our right and let the current move us along. It was gorgeous. There were many divers on route and that was a challenge. At one point I saw a turtle swimming in the distance and started moving towards it, so excited. I passed Tomas but wasn’t worried because there was another group of divers in front of me so I knew I wouldn’t be alone. Tomas scolded me later for that manoeuvre.
At one point, Tomas was looking carefully at an outcrop of coral so I knew there had to be something there, so I hung around but couldn’t see anything significant. Then he went to the other side and I followed. There, only two feet away, was a Greenback turtle. It slowly came up, out of its hiding spot and lazily swum away, unconcerned with our presence. I was thrilled! Finally a turtle and so close!

We saw a total of 4 turtles on that dive as well as many varieties of fish. After every dive, all divers pour over the books to identify the marine life witnessed on their dive – after awhile, you can put names to the fish you see without having to use a book. The problem is, there are so many different kinds that vary ever so slightly and it’s hard to remember them all later (which one had a black dot on the front rather than the back, etc.).
It was time for my mask removal. We hovered and while waiting, I held my nose, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing. Prior to the dive another instructor, aware of my anxiety, gave me some suggestions so I decided to employ them. When my turn came, I closed my eyes, plugged my nose (so this would keep me focused on mouth breathing), and slowly removed my mask. This was no problem. I placed the mask over my face and felt panicked but focused on my breathing and didn’t rush. Then I tilted my head back and cleared my mask.  I still hated it but I did it.
I then had to be ‘rescued’ by Ian and that went smoothly. Everything was done except the test and we were going to do that the next day. Ian of course wanted to get it out of the way but I really was not ready – I hadn’t even finished reading the book, let alone study.
We took the night off, didn’t study or read the book, just relaxed and went to bed early. The next morning, we were up early and I wanted to snorkel so we rented some gear for about 4 dollars each and out we went, off the eastern shore. It was astounding! We saw all the same fish we had seen our dives: bluelined grouper, harlequin grouper, snapper, sweetlips, a white spotted puffer, etc. We also saw leaf, star, stag, and barrel sponge coral. At one point, we saw a very long smooth Flutemouth (an extremely narrow fish). We let the current carry us down the coast and decided to head back to our entrance point. I was following Ian, always scanning side to side for turtle. There, to the right, was a Greenback turtle eating some coral. I tried to get Ian’s attention but he continued on so I turned and watched the turtle. It slowly swam along with the current and I swam with it – remaining about 3 to 4 feet away. I kept expecting the turtle to take off but it was unbothered by my presence. Once in awhile, it would pop up to the surface for some air and then return to the coral. The water wasn’t deep, maybe 7 or 8 feet? The turtle stopped at one point, so I popped my head up and saw that Ian was looking for me. I motioned him to come and he made it in time to see the turtle. It was an incredible experience.
After lunch, we wrote the multiple choice test and passed. We paid for our course and received our SSI licenses.

We celebrated by going snorkelling again, starting at the southern tip of the island and again, letting the current take us. There was a quite a drop off the coast and we actually saw a few divers along the reef. It was really astounding how many fish you can see right off the beach of Gili Air. I could snorkel forever except that one does get chilly.
I am having problems with my ears not clearing ever since our last dive. There is an unbearable itch starting from mid-neck going up into my right ear, and then up to the top of my head. The only thing is – it’s inside my head so I can’t scratch it. I’m taking decongestants to try to clear it up for our fun dive.
Fun Dives
We went to a new reef site this morning, the water was calm and clear. This was our first dive with a dive master. The dive master’s job is to lead the group around, to point out some interesting things to see, and to make sure nothing goes wrong. There were 5 of us going – one couple from Montreal and Clayton, from South Africa. Ian and I buddied up and promised to keep an eye on each other – you are never supposed to be far from your buddy in case s/he is out of air and needs you in a hurry.
The descent went well and we all made it down pretty fast – our depth was 20 metres and the water temperature was 28 degrees. The dive went very smoothly and we saw a great variety of fish including an octopus, needlefish, porcupine fish and a huge marble grouper. We were all relaxed so our dive time was 48 minutes. We all wanted to dive again so we signed up for the afternoon to Han’s Reef which Ian and I had been to twice but Suno promised we’d see a different side. This dive wasn’t as pleasant as the first as I had some problems with my mask and there were too many other divers around so we often bumped into them because of the strong current. However, we did see some neat things: tucked under a section of coral was a huge scorpion fish (maybe 2 ½ feet?) that was orange, red, and brown and very knobby – it really blended into the background. Then Suno pointed to something under another section of coral so I got in real close and saw a black fish gracefully waving its body in the water – this turned out to be a bat fish. Then we saw the turtles. Lying on a barrel coral was a huge hawksbill turtle – and we hovered over it, about a foot or two away, just looking at its magnificence. There were others as well and they are always so interesting to watch.
On return, we sat at Manta chatting with our new friends Leigh and Clayton from South Africa sharing stories and learning about each other’s countries. They were on their honeymoon and showed us some photos of the game reserve where they had their wedding. Ian and I heard that Manta was doing a 9am dive to Manta Point where you could see some sharks so we signed up; but that morning, my head was totally plugged and I couldn’t hear out of my one ear so I couldn’t go. Ian however went and had a great dive. He saw turtles, a couple of blue spotted rays, and 3 white fin sharks. One shark was lying on the sand sleeping and he hovered over it for some time. It suddenly woke up and slowly swam around the group, coming straight at them at one point. Ian said everyone remained cool and the shark came super close but wasn’t aggressive, just curious.
One thing that did happen was Ian completely ran out of air. When he reached the point where they were going to ascend to the safety stop, he still had 50 bars of air but at the safety stop, it was gone. He gave his buddy the out of air signal but he just stared at Ian blankly. However, the dive master grabbed Ian’s jacket, lifted him up to where he was, looked at his pressure gauge, saw he was out of air and calmly handed him his second regulator and they hovered at the safety stop sharing air.  As we were trained, they rode up together and Ian had to fill his BC jacket manually. The training sure came in handy!
In the meantime, I was oblivious to all of this and was hanging out at Scallywags using the internet and drinking cappuccino with a scoop of After 8 ice cream mixed in – so decadent. Ian joined me and we found this interesting creature on the deck that Clayton said is a land lizard.
We spent the afternoon snorkelling and were again rewarded with many fish including barracuda, trumpet fish, schools of anchovy, and a puffer fish. We watched a large lobster chase a little one under a piece of coral and then the little one turned around and chased the larger one – do lobsters play? We went out three times, walking north on the shore so the current could carry us back to our beach bed.
On the way back from dinner, we ran into Clayton and Leigh and they talked us into doing a morning dive with them but when we showed up for the dive, they had changed their minds because we were going to Shark Point. Being from South Africa, they are very vary of sharks – and understandably so. Debbie, from Montreal, joined the group on the boat so we chatted with her on route. When we first started the dive, Ian and I were not terribly excited – there were hardly any fish compared to all the other dives we had seen. However, we did see a couple of very large cuttlefish that look like coral with tiny gills. When Suno touched one, it completely changed colour and took off – it was really neat to see. Ian saw two very large puffer fish and we saw a small shark under some coral – maybe 3 – 4 feet long. At the end of the dive though, there were many turtles and watching turtles under water is always a fantastic experience; especially when they lazily swim to the surface for some air.
On the way back, I decided I wanted to try riding on the roof of the boat so we climbed the ladder and made our way to the very back where there was a tiny rail. Several people joined us and we were all lying down, soaking up the rays as we made our 25 minute ride home. I was lying on my side with my arm tucked under my head facing Ian who was on his back. At one point, we hit a huge wave and the side of the boat went into the air. My eyes opened and I immediately grabbed a hold of the rail, Ian slid towards the water and I grabbed a hold of him and then I saw one of the male passengers tumble right off the boat and into the water. I sat up quickly, looked off the back and he popped up to the surface giving the okay sign. On all boats here, there are pontoons on each side and he could have easily have hit one on the way down so he was very lucky to have fallen in between the boat and its pontoon. Everyone was a bit shaken up after that.

The rest of our day was spent snorkelling (three more times) and relaxing at Scallywags (of course). We finished off with dinner with Leigh and Clayton and had a grand time. They’ve invited us to visit them in South Africa and I really hope that one day, we can take them up on their offer.

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