Ian ends up in hospital

After we had eaten some dinner Ian complained of feeling unwell and asked me to quickly get the bill so that we could return to our room. As I am doing this I look over and notice that Ian has slumped forward onto the table and looked as though he was sniffing the napkins! His eyes were still open and thinking he had suddenly become very drunk on two beers, I went over to tell him to sober up!

Upon doing so, he doesn’t respond and by now I was nudging him to try and wake him up. I quickly became upset after he didn’t respond and the owner of Warung 99 came rushing over to see what was wrong. Suddenly Ian opens his eyes and looks up at me from his chair and says, ‘What’s wrong, why are you upset?’ Before collapsing again. By now I am distraught because I thought he was having a seizure and I was concerned that his illness had been due to the dive. I also knew that the island didn’t have a decent hospital and was worried about how quickly he would be treated and where.

Other diners suddenly come rushing over to help and they carried Ian from his chair and carefully placed him onto the floor. Someone used a chair to raise Ian’s legs and by now, to my relief he came round. He was quite confused and said that he thought he had been in his bed sleeping and was having a vivid dream.

I was told by someone that an ambulance was on its way and I helped to cool Ian down using cold water as he was sweating profusely and was felt hot.

The ambulance that arrived was an estate car with an old fashioned stretcher inside. Two men from the car helped lift Ian onto a stretcher and he was given nasal oxygen. The clinic was only a few seconds down the road and once inside Ian had an audience of about fifteen locals peering in at him from the room he was left in. I wasn’t sure who was who at the clinic, as most of the staff were wearing the same clothing as the locals and at one point a man came into the room and said to Ian, ‘Don’t worry, I think you’re having a heart attack’!

I asked the man if he was a doctor, to which he replies that he isn’t. I kindly inform him that Ian is not having a heart attack as he doesn’t have any of the symptoms and ask him to leave the room. I could not quite believe what had just happened, it was comical; the man was just a random local hanging around outside.

The clinic itself was pretty grimy with bloody tissues on the floor, dirty walls and floor and generally untidy and run down. Anyone who complains about the NHS really needs to experience a hospital on a remote island in Indonesia, because in the UK we just don’t realise how lucky we are.

Underneath the hospital bed that Ian was sat on 

Another man then came into the room and checked Ian’s blood pressure, which came back low and his temperature, which was normal. Another man then came into the room, introduced himself as a doctor and proceeded to ask Ian about his symptoms before he collapsed and how he was feeling now. He also checked his heart rate which was to a normal rhythm.

We explain to the doctor that Ian went diving that day but the doctor didn’t feel that this was a cause for concern as he had no other diving related illness symptoms.

Because Ian had a sharp pain in the middle of his stomach just before he collapsed the Doctor concluded that this was due to trapped wind and prescribed him some medication to reduce these symptoms. 

Ian feeling better 

No further tests were carried out and as Ian was feeling well again he was discharged. The clinic wanted to charge us 500,000IR during the hour that Ian was admitted but because there were no ATMs on the island and the clinic didn’t accept card payments we had to explain that we just didn’t have enough cash. The staff eventually agreed and accepted a payment of 200,000IR.

Ian was not convinced that trapped wind had caused him to faint and so we found an internet café and ‘Googled’ his symptoms. I asked the guy running the place if I could pay to use a phone to call the UK. He agreed and quoted me 8,000IR per minute. I decided to call my mum as she’s a nurse and I knew that she could give us some medical advice. I hadn’t spoken to my mum on the phone since the day I left the UK, almost 4 months ago, so she must have got a bit of a shock, especially as I don’t have time to have a normal conversation and instead bombard her with as much information as I could think of relating to Ians' fainting episode.

Mid conversation the line went dead but the small amount of information mum gave back was enough to slightly reassure me that Ian should be fine. Needless to say we had a slightly restless night’s sleep and I kept checking through the night to ensure that Ian was still breathing! Thankfully he was fine although he was advised not to dive for the next 48hrs.

SSI Open Water Diving Course

Whilst on Nusa Lembongan, we went to check out a few of the dive schools as I was keen to gain my open water diving qualification and Ian wanted to do a couple of fun dives.

Using TripAdvisor we found the top 5 rated dive schools and enquired about prices and courses available. After looking at all five schools the best place we found was a British run company called ‘Big Fish Diving’. We discussed prices etc and I was assigned a British diving instructor called Chris.

Some of the other schools around had good reviews, one place with a French instructor was our second favourite, but the last few we enquired at were taught by locals and some were quite vague and blasé when it came to answering our questions.

I felt confident using Big Fish Diving and liked the fact that there would be no language barrier due to my instructor being British. I booked in for a trial dive that would take me into my 4 day Open Water Diving course if I decided to go ahead with it. Altogether it would cost 3,500,000.00IR which I would pay for at the end of my course.

The next day we met up with Chris at 8:30am at the dive school and were kitted out with the dive gear. Ian was diving twice that day and paid 280,000IR per dive. My trial dive would be included in the price of the open water course should I decide to continue.

Tip:

The more dives you have the cheaper the price

There was only a small group of us on the boat and whilst Ian and the others went diving I went snorkelling. 

Ian, just about to start his dive

A couple of shots i took when snorkelling using my iPhone in an iDry and no it didn't leak!

Once everyone was back on board the boat it was now my turn to go diving with Chris. He had set up all of my equipment beforehand and I was shown how to put everything on. It felt very heavy and was difficult to move around in, but once I had rolled backwards from the boat and into the water it became lightweight. Chris showed me how to breathe with my regulator and explained that he would control everything and all that I would need to do was to enjoy the dive.

I have to admit that once I had the regulator in my mouth I became really nervous and couldn’t get my head around the idea of breathing underwater! I didn’t get too long to think about it before I found myself slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea bed all the while trying to equalize my ears along the way.

The 20 minutes I was down there felt more like 2 minutes and before I knew it we were on our way back up to the surface. Amongst the incredible coral were spectacular fishes swimming all around us and I was lucky enough to see a turtle along the way. One of the other divers who had been on board our boat came along with us, and kindly took photographs of my petrified face during the dive which I have posted below.

Once we were back on board the boat, having enjoyed the dive, I agreed to continue with my SSI open water diving course.

Tip:

Big Fish Diving use Padi and SSI courses. Both are exactly the same qualification with a few differences in the training, but you can cross over your training with either Padi or SSI once you’re qualified, so you’re not limited to one organisation.

During Ian’s final dive that day our boat moored up almost two miles away from where the dive had originally started. I was sat on the boat, a little confused, wondering why we had travelled so far away, when suddenly Ian and the rest of the group popped up to the surface next to our boat. They had been in a fast flowing current in what is called a drift dive, something I had never heard of. Ian loved every minute of it, although he had participated in drift dives before he said he had never experienced one as good as that.

We returned to shore by 2pm and I was given a book to revise from as part of my course. I ended up being the only person in the class so I had one to one tuition. Before leaving Chris showed me how to set up my dive equipment. I had to do set up and dismantle my equipment 4 times before I was allowed to leave.

I went back to my room and made a start on revising. I didn’t have to dive until 1:30pm the following day so Ian and I shared a couple of beers and went out for some dinner.

Revision time

I met Chris at Big Fish Diving and we headed to a swimming pool so that I could begin to learn the skills for my open water course. Some of skills I had to learn whilst at the bottom of the pool involved filling my mask up with water, taking it off completely and replacing it and then clearing the mask of any water. I hate having water in my eyes or up my nose and the feeling of not being able to see whilst underneath the water made me panic a little. Also, I stupidly didn’t get time to eat lunch beforehand and the constant practising of the underwater skills left me feeling quite drained and tired. Because of this I kept making mistakes and feeling defeated and upset with myself I almost quit.

After 3 hours of skills in the pool, Chris then quizzed me on the theory work. I failed every question he fired at me and returned to my room feeling defeated and stupid.

Before I started the course I had spoken to quite a few friends and my sister, who had all completed the open water course and had been so blasé about it that I had naively presumed it would be really easy to complete, maybe for most people it is!?

I spoke to Ian about how I felt and he kindly said he would help me with the theory work. I really did not want to quit, even if I never dived again I just felt that I had to complete the course. That evening we spent all our time in our room going over and over the book.

The next morning Ian once again helped me revise before my dive that was scheduled for the afternoon. Ian was supposed to be diving himself but as he had fainted the previous day he was advised not to dive for 48hrs.

I met Chris in the afternoon and we went to a dive spot called the ‘House Reef’ which was located just opposite the beach where we were staying. I was really nervous, as I had to complete all the dive skills that I had learnt in the pool the day before only this time I would be 10m deep in the sea.

We carried out our necessary safety equipment checks and Chris and I descended underwater but quickly I began to feel myself panicking. I tried to ignore it but after I got only a few metres down I wanted to ascend to the surface and give up on diving altogether. I signalled to Chris that I wanted to go to the surface and he came back up to where I was to made sure that I was ok.

We never did return to the surface, as I somehow pulled myself together and just got on with it. At the time I was thinking that I would probably never dive again, even if I passed the course.

Once we reached the sandy sea bed below, Chris signalled for me to carry out the skills we had practised the day before. I was surrounded by tropical fish, crystal clear water and boats overhead that scared me a little.

To my surprise I completed the filling of the mask with water and clearing it, taking my mask off completely, replacing it and clearing it, and the dreaded buoyancy skills that I had failed miserably at in the pool the day before. With every skill that I finished and Chris signalling to me his congratulations after each skill that I passed, I quickly gained more confidence and felt much more at ease with what I was doing.

After I had completed and passed all the underwater skills I then enjoyed the rest of the dive. The high lights for me was seeing a Lion Fish and a Sea Snake.

I passed the last two of the skills on the surface of the water and once we were back at Big Fish Diving, Chris quizzed me on the theory. I answered almost all of the questions correctly and he said I was now ready to take the exam. It was a multiple choice exam with 50 questions and I was allowed to take the exam home that evening and complete it in my own time.

It didn’t take long for me to complete and I felt confident with most of the answers that I have given.

On the final day of the course I had to go to the dive school at 8am for my final two dives and also for my exam to be marked. Chris checked through my answers and although I had passed I had failed four questions. You can fail ten altogether and it turned out that one of the questions I had misread and the other I had accidentally circled the wrong answer. So all in all he only needed to review two of the answers that I had given.

Once the exam part was over we headed to the dive boat. Ian was also diving with me today so I was really excited that we could finally dive together. The first dive was at Pura Ped and once underwater although I had a brief panic to myself I soon relaxed and found myself in awe of the beautiful coral and fish surrounding me.

I had a dive computer during this dive which Chris wanted me to learn how to use, to monitor my depth and time. I wear contact lenses and I’m not allowed to get them wet, so I cannot wear them diving. Without them I can’t read properly and so I found it hard to read the dive computer accurately! It turned out I had gone to 20m instead of my allowed 18m and I had ascended slightly too quickly.

By the second dive my confidence had grown even more and I didn’t want to return to the surface after my 50 minutes underwater was up. During this dive I had seen loads of amazing Batfish, they were a lot bigger than most of the other fish I was used to seeing and I now wanted to see even bigger things like sharks and manta rays.

Once we were all back on board the boat I was finally told by Chris that I had passed my Open Water Diving course, yay!

For some reason, before I started the course I found myself a little bit scared of the water. I think it’s probably just my age because as a child I was always fearless of the sea and loved swimming around in it and playing in the surf. Now that I have completed my open water diving course I feel so much more confident when in the sea and I’m very keen to continue diving for as long as I live.

On our final day at Nusa Lembongan we went diving at Crystal Bay and Manta Point. I didn’t see anything I hadn’t seen before at Crystal Bay but at Manta Point I was over the moon to see five huge Mantas swimming next to us and even a 3 legged turtle. Seeing the Manta Rays ended my diving at Nusa Lembongan on a massive high.

Manta Rays (Photo courtesy of Big Fish Diving)

Nusa Lembongan Part 1

Tip:

Make sure you take enough cash as there are no ATMs on the island.

We had a pleasant 1hr and a half boat journey from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan where we were greeted to a pristine island with crystal clear waters, already I was impressed.

The scene that greeted us when we arrived

I went in search of accommodation whilst Ian waited with our bags. Along the way a local kindly showed me a place with a fan room for 100,000IR. The room itself was spacious and basic but to the same standard of what we had been used to.

After looking at the first room I asked to see a few more places just to compare prices, and he took me to a place called ‘Ketut Losmen Bungalows’. Seeing the posh infinity swimming pool overlooking the beach I straight away I told him it was out of my budget, but then the owner asked me how much my budget was and told me he had a room available within that.

Located at the back of the guesthouse were two mushroom style huts with a balcony. Inside there was a cool outdoor private bathroom and a lovely spacious bedroom with crisp white sheets and pink and blue towels arranged nicely at the end of the bed. It was so amazing that I had to confirm the price with him 3 times before quickly agreeing to take the room. He did say that the room was usually 150,000IR but that as we were staying for 3 nights he would discount 50,000IR a night making the total 100,000IR per night without breakfast.

I pretended to Ian that our room was as basic as the one we had in Sanur, only with an outdoor bathroom. I could tell he wasn't that impressed but it was worth pretending just to see his face when he realised that our guesthouse not only had a swimming pool right on the beach but also the nicest room we had ever stayed in during our trip.

The pool at Ketut

We rented a motorbike for 40,000IR per day and went to explore the island. 

The view of the Nusa Lembongan from the top of the island

Our first stop was a place called Dream Beach, located on a small island called ‘Ceningan’ that is easily accessed via a yellow bridge between both the islands. 

The yellow bridge from Nusa Lembongan to Ceningan Island

It was absolute paradise, with hardly anyone there, soft white sand and clear blue water.

Dream Beach

There is one bar and restaurant here with a swimming pool that cost 50,000IR to use and huts for a whopping 600,000IR a night. After some time here we got back on the bike and went to find the Blue Lagoon and to jump from a cliff point that we had heard about.

We arrived to a beautiful cliff top area that had one small bar and both contemplated jumping into the bright blue sea below.

We were then approached by one of the bar men and told that we had to pay 50,000IR each to be able to jump from the cliff and that we were limited to only two jumps each! We explained that we would be buying some drinks here and that surely jumping from a cliff should be free, but he argued that because the bar owned the ladder that you needed to use in order to get back to the top of the cliff then so they charge all their customers for using it.

Due to the staff having a bad attitude, the bar having the cheek to charge customers and then limit the jumps to two each, we left immediately. The strange thing was that the bar wasn’t even busy, it only had 4 other customers, yet they let us walk away without reasoning.

During our drive around we found a place called ‘Mahana Point’ which was a tiny little bar nestled on a small cliff edge that had a perfect view of the surfers below. We asked how much a small Bintang Beer was and got quoted 25,000IR. We worked out that this would cost more than a beer in England, so we settled for a soft drink instead.

Ian & I jumping from Mahana Point

Our day quickly drew to an end, but before we left Ceningan Island we stopped off at Secret Beach. It was hidden very well down a bumpy track and we turned around at one point thinking we had gone the wrong way. We then arrived to a large re-development and building site and were soon pointed in the right direction by the builders. After making our way through the site we reached the small stretch of sandy beach with the waves crashing against the shore. As the tide was high most of the beach was hidden beneath it but it was nice to relax there for our last hour before heading back home.

Tip:

Be careful of the currents

Secret Beach

That evening we met up with a couple called Janet (American) and Pete (Scottish) who we had met on the boat on the way over. They worked in Sanur teaching English to children in China over the internet and were in Nusa Lemgongan for a weekend break. We all had a lovely meal and some beers at Warung 99 before saying goodbye to Pete and Janet and heading to bed. 

Tip:

Everything on Nusa Lemgongan closes really early, even if you’re still buying drinks, the bar will close between 10pm & 11pm at the very latest.

Tip:

For cheap and tasty food try ‘Warung 99’ located on the roadside just behind the beach, we ate here almost every night!

The following day was spent exploring around on the moped. We stopped off at ‘Mushroom Bay’ first and enjoyed a swim in the sea and some time reading our books before heading elsewhere.

Mushroom Bay

We arrived at a place called ‘Sunset Beach’, which had a posh restaurant overlooking the beach and a private swimming pool. The beach was quite rocky, the sea was a bit too rough to swim in and as the restaurant was out of our price range we didn’t end up staying long.

We then checked out ‘Devil’s Tear’, it was located on a low cliff ledge that you could walk along and had large craters in the rock formations, some being filled with water, I presume that was the reason for it being called Devils Tear.

Locals at work, Seaweed farming is the main trade for the locals on Nusa

Finally, we made our way to the ‘Underground House’. This was a bizarre piece of architecture, built by a lone man so that he could meditate in it. It was a huge lair of underground tunnels with various rooms and ledges that you could get lost in.

Tip:

There is a charge to go inside the Underground House. At first we were quoted 50,000IR between the two of us but we bartered this down to 10,000IR each, so make sure you negotiate on the price!

The underground house

After visiting the strange but interesting underground house we rode back to our guesthouse where we had a fantastic view of the sunset from our pool. 

Sanur

We hired a taxi for 140,000IR to drive us from Padang Padang to Sanur. This was the cheapest price we could find and there are no other means of transport which means taxi drivers can charge what they like.

We arrived in Sanur after a 1hr drive and asked to be dropped off somewhere with cheap accommodation. There was only one street with about five guesthouses that offered cheaper rooms. I found one place for 125,000IR (breakfast not included) but they were fully booked. Many of the other guesthouses charged 150,000IR plus, but I then found one called ‘Coco Home Stay’ where we paid 140,000IR for a fan room with breakfast.

The room price was right at the top of our budget limit and I would have preferred to stay somewhere cheaper but after asking around this appeared to be the cheapest that we would find in Sanur. Breakfast consisted of a small omelette with toast and a few pieces of fruit. I don’t feel that the tiny room was worth paying 140,000IR per night.

We checked out Sanur Beach which was a short walk from where we stayed. The beach was pretty average, nothing special, and quite touristy. We had some lunch in the town (the beachside restaurants were too pricey) and walked to a different part of the beach that was near to the only large high rise hotel built in Sanur. This part of the beach was jam packed with locals due to a holiday so we never did find the quiet spot that we were after.

 The high rise hotel in the background

There is not a lot to do here during the evenings and after some dinner we spent a most of the evenings in our room.

Tip:

For dinner we ate at a small place in the town that served cheap local dishes. I never did find out the name but it was opposite a bar called ‘Jimmys’ and well worth visiting.

Two days here was more than enough, so we booked the slow boat 60,000IR each to Nusa Lembongan. We had to leave at 8am but there is a later boat at 10:30am although the price is higher at 80,000IR.

Nusa Dua

After some advice one evening from our friend Andy, we decided to head to Nusa Dua and pretend to stay at one of the posh hotels there and use their private pool and beach. Andy said he had tried it with some friends but they had all got asked to leave, however he was confident that we would be ok.

We rode to Nusa Dua which took about 30 minutes from Padang Padang and found a posh hotel called ‘Nusa Dua Resort & Spa’. Security is super tight here due to the threat of terrorism and we were stopped by the security guard at the gate. We told him that we were there to use the spa and were let in after he checked inside our bike seat.

We confidently walked through reception, smiling and saying ‘Hello’ to the friendly staff and made for the pool and beach area. Well, this place was simply beautiful and that was just the resort. The sea, the sand, the beach, everything was perfect, but...yes there is a but, because although it was pristine, it was also quite artificial, with workers even clearing away the seaweed line from the shore!

The beautiful beach and the seaweed that was soon raked away

We found a sun lounger (now we looked like proper package holiday tourists!) on the immaculately raked beach, and went for a swim in the sea. No one questioned us, not even when Ian had the cheek to take two of the huge complimentary hotel towels from the poolside. These actually helped us blend in with the other guests.

We really enjoyed our free use of the beach and pool but left in the early afternoon to get some lunch as it was too expensive for us to eat at the resort.

Tip: You can gain access to the Nusa Dua Beaches without having to go through the resorts like we did. There are three beaches that are separated by the natural coastline, the one in the middle being the smallest, which was where we were when we visited the resort. 

On a separate occasion, at Nusa Dua Ian went to go for a surf when we saw these strange figures. After taking some photos a lady came over to speak with us and told us that the statues were due to be sunk just off shore to enable coral to grow around them. Strangely enough, the day before we read in National Geographic about a similar sort of thing in Mexico, so it was really interesting to actually see these before they were sunk out to sea.