Indonesia: Nusa Pedina v

Indonesia | Oct 2023 |

Finally made it to Nusa Penida, the place renowned for Mola Mola (Sunfish) sightings. Did 3-dives with Purple Dive and yes, I managed to achieve my main goal of sighting the elusive mega fish (it's the biggest bony fish, while the Whale Shark is the largest cartilaginous fish).

Penida is located off Bali in the Lombok Straight. It's very deep by regional standards, averaging over 820 meters. It also represents the Wallace Line, a theoretical separation of Asia and Austronesia species (ex: Tigers never existed east of Bali, nor Cockatoos west of Lombok; but interestingly, Homo Erectus may have crossed on boats as far back as 1 million years ago). It is also a major channel of the Indonesian Throughflow, where water from the Pacific flows into the Indian Ocean. Lastly, the water around the island can be seriously cold, like the 17 Celsius temperature I experienced - unheard of in SE Asia. Just a few examples of how Penida is unique.

I chose Purple Dive as I had met two of their managers in March, traveling on a ferry trip. I said I would come diving there one day - and I did. It's an impressive dive center, sitting on a hillside, something completely different. I did the standard one-day, 3-dive package. There was a good group of diver, including my buddy for the day Brandon, an ice hockey-playing plumber from Atlanta.

Dive 1: Manta Point

We set out for Manta Point on the other side of the island. The boat trip was epic, with incredible views of the west and south of the island, seriously rugged cliffs, and coastline.

The dive site was excellent and lived up to its name, with numerous Manta sightings, and we also saw a large Bamboo Shark. The water temperature was 17 Celsius, so good thing I had on a full wet suit with a hood (my first time ever wearing one).

Dive 2: Crystal Bay

The boat trip from Manta Point included more incredible views, with a sea-level close-up of the world-famous T-Rex point (which is fast emerging as one of the world's greatest selfie locations, cough). Crystal Bay is renowned as the place to see Mola Mola. And luckily, we did. And yes, it was awesome. But, unfortunately, selfie culture was also in play under the water on this day. A diver, in an attempt to create a (boneheaded) photo opportunity, got too close to the fish, which in turn swam away into the blue. What a letdown, as this could have been a long and obviously exciting encounter, the main reason I came diving at Penida in the first place.

Dive 3:

After the boat trip back to the north of the island, the last session of the day was a drift dive offshore from the dive center. A very decent wall dive and reef and a great way to end the day.

Overall, I rate Purple Dive highly. My divemaster Arafat was very professional and a great guy. He managed a safety challenge very well with another diver. And Purple managed to deliver on the "Big 3" of Penida diving, Mola, Mantas, Sharks.

Aside from diving, I toured the island on a Yamaha Nmax scooter I rented on arrival at the harbor. Read more about that in a separate post in the Rides category. I stayed at a place called Tropical Garden, booked on Agoda, overall fairly decent for the price

Pictures (or lack of them). Somehow, I managed to lose my GoPro in my travels from Canada to Indonesia. So I missed a bunch of excellent photo opportunities underwater, like the Mola, and some other great Manta encounters. Bummer. That is the third GoPro I have broken or lost in the past 18 months - cringeworthy! Incredibly, after I told my story of GoPro travails, Brandon managed to leave his GoPro on the boat, and he later traveled to Ubud without it! Bad karma from me I guess. The photo of the Mola below is from Scientific American,

Questions?

Contact me at sdasia@gmail.com, happy to help.