Snorkel and Scuba in BALI-Indonesia and NHA TRANG-Vietnam (1 Viewer)

[fishcraze]

I did a backpack vacation in Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam) for almost the whole month of Dec '08. Between the many sight-seeing trips on land, I also had some snorkel and diving trips in between and saw some great stuffs. Would like to share the pics w/ you here. I also made a separate thread ( CLICK HERE) for just the sighteeing pics that may help those who are thinking about a trip in these countries to have an idea - CLICK HERE

 

[AquaNerd]

show us!!!

 

[fishcraze]

SCUBA & Snorkel in Lembongan Island, Bali - Dec 8th, 08

SCUBA & Snorkel in Lembongan Island, Bali - Dec 8th, 08

This island is a small island southeast of Bali. I booked this tour that included a SCUBA in the morning and snorkel in the afternoon, a banana boat ride, a glass bottom boat ride.. all cost ~$100.

The boat:

Fishes and Corals: the site has a great variety of corals.. Colonies are not as big as other sites but colorful. Lot of small fishes. My camera ran out of battery quickly during the SCUBA since I inadvertently clicked on the 'movie' thinking I was taking pictures! So didn't have any pics of the snorkel at a closeby site which is also great and has an awesome Steve Tyree's Soli!!! (wished I had the battery).

Lots of small but colorful orange, purple and especially the yellow caps and stylo congregrates that look like bonsai gardens

Nice teal blue staghorn forests:

Red tables:

A type of naso tang?

Eflorescent tables:

Baby blue monti caps or pavona?

A snapper?

powder blue tang:

 

[spongebob281]

qUOC you're such a tease

 

[fishcraze]

qUOC you're such a tease

lol. Lots more pics from other dive sites to come - be ware

 

[Rick]

Wow... That is great, I'd like some of those frags.
:-D

 

[fishcraze]

Snorkel at Rinca Island, Indonesia - Dec 10th, 08
I took a 3-days tour package from Bali to the Rinca Island and Komodo Island mainly to see the Komodo dragons.. But the snorkel turned out to be one of the best at these islands!

We got to the the island in the afternoon.. After an hour forest trip to see the dragons, we still managed to get some snorkel ~4pm.. and was surprised to still be able to see the reefs

Awesome Bali Slimer (so bright green) and lots of birdnests:

The rare Ponape birdnest?

Anaconda sp? and blue and bright green elkhon:

To me the signature coral at this site are these bright blue polyp cap ( I used to have some similar to it )

I loved these the snorkel so much so by the time I got back to the boat, it was dark: (only 2 passengers - I and another Russian) on this boat trip so we were able to decide our own schedule - snorkel till we dropped

 

[FISHSTICK]

Nice pics Quoc!

 

[fishcraze]

On the way to the next island - Komodo:

Our 'boat' - small and quite simple: eating area=resting area=sleeping area! But the staffs are good and these guys are great cooks!

 

[fishcraze]

Snorkel at the Pink Sand Beach at Komodo Island, Indonesia - Dec 11th, 08

This site had the most beautiful fishes in all the sites I visited in this trip. Too bad, my camera went out of battery (again :-x ) half way thru the snorkel so i missed taking good pics of the corals. We later stopped at another site on the way back to the main island (the Flores island), that site has TONs of nice clams (even some awesome black Ponape(?) clams) but I didn't have the camera w/ me since I forgot to bring the 220V adapter to re-charge the battery :banghead2:

Beautiful butterflies - lots of them in schooling:

What were these guys looking for?

Those rare black tangs??

Nice pink millepora:

Blue anthelia?

 

[fishcraze]

Snorkel in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia - Dec 13th, 08
The water at this place is quite murky -properly due to the fact this is the popular tourist site for water sports (jet ski, banana boat, parasailing, surfing etc..). I surprised to see corals here though not much.

tons of macro algea here:

 

[jdeveaux]

Dude... You Suck

 

[MarkieB]

TY

It is amazing to see how our animals look in the wild.

This probably also explains how you have so many beautiful unique coral in your tank.

 

[fishcraze]

Snorkel at the Whale Island Resort in Nha Trang, Vietnam - Dec 20th, 08

I loved this resort - one of my most favorite stops. My bungalow is only 10 ft away from the water with quite a bit of corals at the beach area. And to top it off, the average cost was just ~$50/ day including transport (land/boat from main city to the island), full service breakfast/lunch/dinner, snorkel boat trip (any extra snorkel trip (several hours long) cost only $5!), sport equipment free to use (kayak, snorkel gear, etc..)! I'll have more pics of this island in my other thread on the land travel.
Below are some pics of the corals/fishes right off the beach infront of the bungalows: (I took a lot of pics here since I could recharge the battery quickly in the bungalow and jumped right back in the water to continue the snorkel

It's cool to see these dragon pipe fishes:

Snorkel pics at a dive site 40 mins away from the island (the wind was too strong so the visibility was bad, we had to get back to the boat early):

 

[Rick]

That is phenomenal...
Trip of a life time.
Totally awesome dude.

Thanks for the great pics, I had no idea the corals and reefs were so awesome over there.

 

[fishcraze]

just one more dive site to go guys.. bear w/ me

 

[fishcraze]

Snorkel & SCUBA in "Mun" (means Black) Island, Nha Trang, Vietnam - Dec 23rd, 2008
The corals and fishes here are awesome - similar to the Komodo island. I did the SCUBA in the morning here and had to content with snorkel at the next site in the afternoon since I had to fly back to Saigon, VN the next day so they didn't let me dive at the next site which had much more fishes and corals. And yeah same old story- I didn't have the camera for the snorkel either since this boat didn't have a power outlet for me to re-charge the battery tho I remember to bring the 220V adapter this time! Murphy law!!!
Lesson learned: bring several spare battery for underwater camera next time!

look like the lossetta in my tank

huge table

Nice army green monti caps:

 

[fishcraze]

This probably also explains how you have so many beautiful unique coral in your tank.

I wished I could bring some frags home

 

[chadhender]

Quoc I am going next time! Nice Pics

 

[fishcraze]

Quoc I am going next time! Nice Pics

yeap let's go! I'm ready to go back there again