Every diver has their own personal bucket list of what they want to see underwater. Mola molas and Manta rays have long been on my list. The only problem is that mola molas are hard to come by, and are known to appear in Bali at around August. What I didn’t know was that Manta ray sightings are almost guaranteed year round at a cleaning station located in Nusa Pinda.
Luckily I happened to be on holiday with my family in Singapore, so hopping over to Bali was only a cheap 3 hour flight away courtesy of Air Asia. Even better, Indonesia has recently waived visa fees to many countries, giving me more reason to hop over for a few days to try and tick off my bucket list.
I chose AquaMarine divers because of the good reviews on the Divebooker website, that they were able to pick me up from my villa in Seminyak, and offer me an epic day of diving – two dives to hunt mola mola, and a third dive with the mantas. Mola molas like to stay deep and in strong currents. So our first dive involved patiently waiting at wall dropoff, veering out into the blue. Sadly no mola mola on dive 1, but do many fish!
2-nd dive was at the Manta cleaning station. It didn’t start off well. The dive was shallow at 10 metres, and visibility wasn’t great, at 10-15 metres. But when the first Manta swims past you, you soon forget any niggles. And then another. Over you. Under you. In formation. It was an incredible dive, and they come so close to you. We must have seen at least 15 Manta rays. A truly humbling experience.
On to the third dive, and the gods delivered. A mola mola coming up from the deep at 20 metres. We finally said hello and exchanged pleasantries. I finally ticked off the two greats off my bucket list. A fantastic day of diving, and I have only scratched the surface of diving in Bali. There is also the famous USS Liberty wreck, a sunken warship from WW2. I will definitely be doing that dive next time I return to Bali!
Special thanks to Chuong Van Dang for sharing his review