Wadi Rum: Life with the Bedouins or Walt Disney of Jordan? …this, sadly, is pretty much the impression we got from Wadi Rum.
We had heard great things about experiencing a night with the Bedouins in Wadi Rum, so we were excited to go there. Maybe we got unlucky with the company that we chose, maybe going there right after being wow-ed by Petra was a mistake, maybe hearing so much about it got our expectations too high. We thought it'd be an authentic opportunity to live with the Bedouins in the desert and envisioned ourselves riding camels deep into the middle of nowhere desert, pitching tents in a real Bedouin village, and sitting around a fire experiencing their traditional way of life. We did do part of this, but the experience was not as authentic as we had hoped.
We took a local bus to Wadi Rum and met up with a guide that our hotel had recommended. He brought us to his office in town to explain our options and prices for the day. The prices and options were considerably higher than we had been led to believe, but we decided to do the four hour jeep-tour of the major sites plus spend the night at their Bedouin desert camp. The other options sounded touristy and too pricey for our budget.
We met our driver and headed to the desert with another couple. The jeep-tour basically involved following a set of tracks to the major sites in the desert. The scenery was really beautiful, but you could tell from the tracks and crowds, that this was a very cookie-cutter circuit. And the driver didn't say much, so unfortunately we can't give much insight into what we saw, but... here are the pictures! :)
Our first stop was at a spring that comes out of a mountain, which they refer to as "Lawrence's Spring". You can't really see the spring… just the plastic hose sticking out from a crack… but the view from the top was quite stunning :)
Wadi Rum is a desert, but it's more of a rock desert… so one of the major attractions was... a sand dune!
Not far from the dune we stopped at a canyon.. nice for cooling down, but greatly pales in comparison to the canyon in Petra!
Next stop: a cool rock formation that they call the "big arch"...
Along the way to the last attraction, we stopped at what "used to be Lawrence of Arabia's house"… uhm.. ok...!
And lastly, the rock formation they call the "little arch"...
Then our jeep followed the tracks to the Bedouin Camp… 5 semi-permanent tents, 1 big dinner tent, and fairly permanent toilet and kitchen buildings. The Bedouin tribe... consisted of one guy assigned to cook us dinner there. But at least he is a Bedouin (or so he claimed... but he also later admitted that everything he says is a lie).
Overall, the scenery was nice and we had fun. But it did really feel like a cookie-cutter attraction rather than an authentic Bedouin experience.. we learned absolutely nothing about their history, culture, way of life.. etc. Prior to arriving we considered spending extra nights at the Bedouin Camp, but there was nothing really there for us.. so we decided not to extend our stay continued on our way down to the border town, Aqaba.
To finish off our stay, they crammed all 14 of us in (and on) this little truck so that they could take us all back to the main town in one trip.
Most people know Jordan and Petra because of the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", where Indiana and his father go in search of the Holy Grail. It was a cool movie, but the only real resemblance to Petra is the siq (canyon) into the city, the carved entrance to the treasury, and the fact that Petra lies in the Christian holy land… the rest is pure fiction.
Overall, the city of Petra is really impressive and definitely met our New Wonder of the World expectations. We stayed in Wadi Musa (the city at the entrance of Petra) and decided to spend two days exploring the ancient city. The entrance fee for Petra is by far the most expensive attraction we've been to - a 1 day ticket is 50 JOD ($75 CAD)!! Fortunately the second day only costs an additional 5 JOD ($7.50 CAD).
Petra's history begins as far back as 312BC when it was a capital city and major caravan trade centre to the Nabateaen people. As with many major sites in the holy land, the walls of Petra had seen many habitants and rulers from many different origins, cultures and religions including Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Syrians etc. The result was a magnificent city where the architecture and carvings took on an interesting blend from several different cultural influences.
At the Petra gates, you can choose to walk or horse-ride (it's included in the price of the ticket) to the entrance of the canyon. We planned to walk to the complex known as "The Monastery", located atop a mountain 8km away from the gate, allowing us to escape the crowds and get a quick overview of the major sites along the way.
We arrived at the entrance of the siq (canyon) that leads to the Treasury. We initially figured the movies exaggerate this canyon and that it only actually spanned a hundred meters or so.. but it actually turned out to be 1.2km long and very scenic. The entrance to the canyon was once decorated with large arches and, if you know where to look (or in our case, if you listen to other peoples' guides), you can see remnants of beautiful carvings that used to span all along the canyon walls. You can also see the remains of a water system (canals) running along the entire canyon to bring water to the city. Much of Petra has been covered or destroyed by erosion, floods, and earthquakes, but we can just imagine how amazing it would have been to walk through the decorated canyon back in its glory days!
At the end of the siq, the Indiana Jones million-dollar-view of the Treasury unfolds…
We admired the treasury for a couple of minutes (you don't need more as it's just a facade to a small room - there is no intricate complex inside like in Indiana Jones!!), then we continued through the valley where the grandeur of Petra's city begins reveal iteself.
We bypassed most of the city and started to make our way up the 800 steps to the Monastery before the sun was in full force.
After a few hours of walking, we arrived at the Monastery - it's really similar to the Treasury, but bigger. We decided to sit and relax while enjoying the beautiful views surrounding us.
We headed back down to check out the city in more detail. All along the way, you see so many holes carved right into the rock, where people actually lived… the number of them was impressive, making it easy to see that Petra was a very large and important city back in the day.
We also stopped to explore some other ornately carved tombs and temples.
On our second day, we checked out the High Place of Sacrifice - their most sacred open-air altar where they performed rituals by killing animals. You can see some ruins of the temple and obelisks, but the nicest part is the view of the surrounding hills.
Just when we thought we had seen it all, we took the back way down only to discover even more buildings/carvings… there were just so many, we were quite impressed!
We took a wrong turn and ended up at the top of the Roman Theatre. It's normally blocked off at the bottom so people can't enter, but we were stuck in there and had to go through it and sneak through the fence to get out.
Petra By Night
Since we still didn't have enough of Petra, we went a third time! This time we walked through the siq to the Treasury at night, guided only by moonlight and some strategically placed candles along the path. At the Treasury, we were served tea and they entertained us with a traditional Bedouin music presentation. It wasn't particularly incredible (the crowds of noisy tourists really took away from the mystical / magical feeling of it all), but it was still a unique and enjoyable way to experience the site.
One of our best and most unique experiences in the Middle East was to float 400 meters below sea level… in the Dead Sea. We enjoyed it so much that we went twice!
Our first trip was a day excursion from Amman. Our driver brought us to a private resort on the North Eastern side… it was a nice resort, but it came at quite the price! We had to pay 16 JOD ($24 CAD) per person to enter the resort… it seems that our driver conveniently forgot to mention this before we left..! We stayed for about 3 hours and had a great time playing with the oily-feeling water and weird buoyancy. Jen still had some eczema/allergy rashes that burned like crazy from the salt, so she spent lots of time in the resort's cold fresh water pool. On the plus side, the Dead Sea seemed to really help her skin!
Dom also dug up some Dead Sea mud from under the salt crust, and buttered himself in it to make his skin super soft ;)
We loved the Dead Sea so much (especially Dom) that we went for a second visit from the Israeli side. During our road trip through Israel, we stopped for another dip at Ein Bokek on the South-West side of the lake (we learned our lesson and found a free public beach :)). Jen's rashes had mostly healed now, so it was even more enjoyable.
There are many beach areas all around the Dead Sea. Of the two we visited, we prefer the Dead Sea on the Israeli side as it was a lot cheaper (free!), cleaner, calmer, and had better facilities.
Jordan is well know for Petra and less so for its other historical sites. We were surprised at the amount of history here: from biblical sites to ancient roman cities. In Amman, we hired a car and driver to visit a few sites in the north.
Jerash
Jerash is a Greco-Roman city that was founded by Alexander the Great around 331BC and was one of 10 metropolises in the region. When you arrive here one the first things you noticed is how big the Roman city is: there is a hippodrome, 2 theatres, several churches and temples, and many columns still standing. It was really fun to walk around the amazingly well preserved ruins and imagine what life there would have been like back then.
As you stroll around you also get to see some typical Arab bagpipe players… ok maybe not typical, but for some reason there were Arab bagpipers at multiple tourist sites that we visited in Jordan ;)
Mount Nebo
Mount Nebo is where Moses first saw the promised land of the Israelites, after 40 years of being lost in the desert. He was forbidden to enter the promised land and died in the surrounding area. Now, a church stands atop the mountain along with a look out. Since the land is pretty desert-like, not a lot has been built in the area, so you can still get a sense of what Moses would have seen back then….
Here is the text from the bible (...can't believe we are quoting the bible): Deuteronomy 34:1-8
Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him[a] in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.
Holy Land Map in Madaba
In a city called Madaba, you can find the oldest surviving map of the Holy Land… it's a mosaic on the floor of St. George's Church. Much of it has been damaged over time, but you can still see the Dead sea, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, etc….pretty cool. We learned that the map is oriented to the East because knowledge of magnetic north didn't exist back then. In ancient times, people used sunrise to orient themselves East with the map to determine which direction to go. According to our guide in Jerusalem, East = the Orient, so when you are "dis-oriented" it means you are lost because you don't know which way East is! :)
Ajloun Castle
The Ajloun Castle is an Arab fortress built in the north of Jordan. It was used to protect the country against crusader attacks.
Amman Citadel (Jabal al-Qal'a)
The lands in Jordan have been inhabited and conquered by different civilizations so many times, that all the major sites were built from multiple cultures. This is the case for the Amman Citadel, which is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world with remnants from both Roman and Muslim civilizations. And again, you can see traditional Arab bagpipe players here... ;)
Amman's Roman Theater
Another example of the Roman Empire's vast reach is the well-preserved Roman Theatre right in downtown Amman.
Souvenir Shops
Similar to tours in Asia, the drivers here also want to take tourists to tourist shops so they can get commission or some free stuff (usually gas coupons). Since we never buy stuff, we took the time to window shop and dress up ;).
After a 20+ hour flight from Singapore, we finally arrived in the capital city of Jordan: Amman. This is where our Middle-East tour began.
Neither of us had been to the Middle East before, so we were excited to experience a totally new atmosphere and culture shock (yaay, a break from seeing more temples!! ;) ). The culture of Jordan was actually less of a shock than we'd expected, but we did get a different shock that was unexpected: Amman has some of the friendliest and most welcoming people out of all of the countries we've been to so far!!
While walking past various shops and restaurants, most vendors happily shout out "Hello!" and ask "Where are you from?". In other countries, these greetings and small talk are typical pretext for touters to then harass you into visiting their shops… we politely answer their questions, "Canada!"… and then expect the typical requests to visit their shop… instead, they excitedly respond with "Oh!!!!! Very nice country!! Welcome!! Welcome to Jordan!"… "Thanks!", we reply.. ok.. now they'll ask us to visit their shop… except... they don't. After this happens repeatedly over several of hours of walking, we begin to wonder.. maybe they really are just super genuinely friendly and welcoming...
After spending 7 months in Asia, the markets started to become typical for us. Here, we started appreciating them again since there were so many new fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and spices that we'd never seen before. The vendors could tell that we had no clue.. and they didn't speak much English, so we couldn't actually figure out names of what we saw... but they would give us a big smile and insist that we taste/sample stuff.
In other cities, when the call to prayer rings out, the volume is so high that it causes the loudspeakers to harshly pop and crackle. The first time we heard Amman's call to prayer, it stopped us in our tracks. It is actually sounds like a soothing meditation chant, ringing out through the silence and echoing from the hills in every direction … it was really beautiful and amazing to hear.
During our city visit, we had a few Jordanians ask to take a picture with us (kinda indicates that they don't get a lot of tourists in Amman..). One little girl was playing in front of her house and wanted us to take a picture of her and her sister. In most other countries, this is a scam - after you take the photo, the children aggressively demand money for the picture you've taken. Dom took a chance and took a couple of pictures anyway. The girl just giggled and smiled as Dom showed her the picture. Then she smiled and waved goodbye as we walked away.
We are now in the land of Hummus, Pita, Falafel, Tahini, Hummus, Pickles, Fatteh, Tabbouleh, Hummus, Shawarma, Shish-Tahouk.. did we mention Hummus?
One of our favourite places to eat in Amman was Hashim, a small hole-in-the-wall type restaurant that is open 24 hours a day and serves only a few dishes… and no meat. We walked in looking clueless and asked for a menu... which they don't have. Instead, one of the waiters gave us a tour of the different food stations where each cook gave us a big smile, a food sample, asked us where we're from and, of course, welcomed us to Jordan!! The waiter sat us at a table and for only 4JOD (~$6CAD) we got pita, beans, hummus, falafel, fresh vegetables and 4 cups of tea… such a good deal! ...and so delicious that we ate here every day that we were in Amman.
We also visited the King Abdullah Mosque, which is built right next door to a Coptic Church… Christian and Muslim churches cohabiting. This is where we had our friendliest encounter.
As with every good tourist trap, the King Abdullah Mosque has a separate entrance for tourists that requires you to walk through the small market of souvenir shops. As usual, we expected them to ask us to visit their stores.. instead they just greeted us, asked if we were here to visit the Mosque, gave Jen a special robe to wear, and pointed us up the stairs. They even asked if we had a camera and said "good! please take pictures of the Mosque!".
After our visit, Jen returned the robe at the market where they thanked us for visiting, invited us to look around, and then disappeared back into their shops. Jen started browsing some the bracelets when one of the shop owners approached her with a concerned look and asked about the eczema rash on her arm. Jen warily followed him to a Dead Sea products store, where he brought her to see the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper took a look at the rash, opened a new bottle of Dead Sea oil from the sales shelf and showed Jen how to apply it. He explained that Dead Sea products were really good for skin and eczema and that she should apply the oil 2 times per day. Then he wrapped the bottle and gave it to Jen saying "Thank you for visiting my store.. please.. take this as a gift". We felt bad and tried to offer to pay but he absolutely refused to take our money and only said that his sister suffers from eczema and that the oil really helps her, so he hopes that it will help Jen also!
Exaggerating a bit… one of the stereotypes that Hollywood and the media ingrain into us, is that Arab countries are full of Muslims who hate Westerners. Whether you know it or not, these constant media messages have instilled a subconscious and unjust sense of fear and paranoia in most people. Within only a couple hours of being in Jordan, these stereotypes couldn't have been proven more wrong. The people in Amman have been so unbelievably friendly and welcoming.. we were so pleasantly surprised that it made us both absolutely love it here!
That being said, it still doesn't mean you should trust anyone absolutely.. similar to in Asia, all prices require negotiating. That includes anything from a bag of chips, to hotel prices, and guide/driver or taxi rides. If you don't negotiate your prices here, you are most likely paying too much!
Not actual Cat Poo, but in Ubud we had a chance to taste one of the most expensive coffees in the world: Kopi Luwak.
The peculiarity of this "Kopi" (the Indonesian word for "coffee") is that it comes from coffee beans that have been digested by a Luwak (an Asian civet cat). To summarize the process:
Civets eat coffee berries
Civets digest coffee berries
Civets poo the indigestible coffee bean remains (in little clumps)
Humans pick up the poo
Humans roast and grind the partially digested coffee beans
Humans make coffee and drink it.
For some reason, this is a prize delicacy… so we had to try it. In Canada, Kopi Luwak Coffee costs around $100 per 100 grams (but it can also be much higher based on some unknown criteria)….ichhh. Since Indonesia is one of the places where Kopi Luwak is produced, a cup costs only $6.
Dom doesn't really drink coffee (4 cups in his entire life), so Jen was the one to taste it. Her comment: "mmmm coffee…with an after taste of ass"… just kidding... actually it tasted a lot like any other coffee but it did have a rather unique semi-sweet aftertaste.. worth $100 for 100g? Our tastebuds aren't advanced enough to think so, but we'd consider drinking a cup of it again when we return.. :)
Here's what the beans look like when you buy them.
And here is an image of a civet with some coffee berries.
Before leaving Bali, we decided to spend a few days on the beach on a tiny island called Gili Air. The Gilis are 3 small islands an hour away from Bali, by boat. There's pretty much nothing to but relax on the beach and play in the shallow aquamarine sea. Motorized vehicles aren't even allowed on the island, so if you want a ride to/from your hotel you have to take a horse & carriage :).
We did a snorkelling tour that brought us to a few sites around the 3 islands, and saw a lot of fish and a few turtles. The sun was scorching so Jen got a very nice sunburn on her back :(
The next day, we strolled around the island and hung out in the water. The rest of the time, we pretty much just relaxed and read.
Relaxing got boring a lot faster than we thought, so we decided to go back to Ubud a couple of days early... here's our taxi back to the pier ;)
Surprisingly, on the ferry back to Bali, we passed a submarine…!!!
Yup, you read correctly: we took just one breath of air and dove underwater to 20 meters deep…. We're not crazy, we just took a freediving course.
According to Wikipedia: Freediving is a form of underwater diving that does not involve the use of scuba gear or other external breathing devices, but rather relies on a diver's ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing.
And before we go any further, here are some equivalents to help visualize how high/deep 20 meters is:
66 feet (for those of you still using imperial)
a 6.5 story building
14 VW Jettas stacked on top of each other (1.43m)
4 male giraffes (5.5m)
6.5 basketball hoop heights
24 baseball bats
7491 tennis balls (2.67cm)
15 lightsabers
10 Darth Vaders
the length of a 10-pin bowling lane
2857 common household ants joined head to tail
Ok, back to the beginning... While researching things to do in Bali, we noticed a place that offered "Freediving" courses. We had heard of Freediving before but thought it was just a recreational activity, rather than an actual competitive sport with certified courses! Seeing that it was a recommended thing to do here, it peaked our curiosity... but it was on a different island (Gili Trawangan)... and was.. a little too expensive for our budget.
Weeks later, in Tulamben… We met Guy and Lucy, a French-Canadian couple who are both scuba dive masters and have been coming to Tulamben to scuba dive for several years. By chance, Guy had recently run into a Freediving instructor who recently opened a school in Tulamben called Apnea Bali... and what do you know, Guy was also interested in doing the class too!! Guy negotiated a small group discount... it all seemed like such luck, so we jumped at the opportunity to register as well.
1 Breath... 12 meters On the first day, we met up with our instructor, Lukas in the Tulamben office. He explained the history, equipment, what freediving was all about, and showed us videos of the sport and competitions. We then learned and practiced some breathing techniques and a bunch of other theory necessary before hitting the water.
In the afternoon, we drove to Amed (where the sea is a bit calmer) and proceeded to our dive spot. Lukas set up a buoy and 12 meter rope with a tennis ball attached to the bottom. Despite the water being pretty clear, you could not see the tennis ball from the surface... the rope just looked endless as it disappeared into the deep blue darkness below.
We started out with a few practice dives to work on our duck-dive and fin-kick techniques. Jen immediately had trouble equalizing her right ear, so it became apparent that she wouldn't be able to dive using fins (since this descent is faster than her ears could equalize). Jen removed her fins and Lukas showed her a different diving technique using the guide rope to go down (allowing for a much slower descent and more frequent equalizing).
We took this course to challenge ourselves and were initially both quite apprehensive about it. We were super pleased that the course was really focussed on having fun, and at no point did we ever feel any sort of pressure to reach the tennis ball. Lukas made the experience super reassuring and relaxing - on each dive, he followed us down and back up to ensure that everything was safe, that we were having fun and not panicking, and that we were well within our limits of not passing out. He worked with us on techniques for movement efficiency, and staying calm & relaxed in order to conserve as much oxygen as possible during each dive.
After only a few attempts, we all surprised ourselves and each reached the 12 meter mark several times!!
1 Breath… 20 meters Reaching the 12 meter mark was not exactly easy... so for Day 2, we were wondering how we would possibly reach 20 meters. We started the day learning and practicing more breathing techniques, then learned the steps for rescuing free divers who pass out during a dive (not that it would happen to us today... but better safe than sorry). Lukas set up the buoy and 20 meter rope. As with the previous day, we took turns diving down the line, one after the other, as far as we could/wanted to go. Dom finally reached the 20 meter mark using both "Constant Weight" and "Free Immersion" techniques. Jen, still having problems equalizing, reached around 17 meters, which was really good since her rate of descent had to be really slow so she had to hold her breath longer.
In the afternoon, we returned to Tulamben for some play time. We practiced recreational freediving around the USS Liberty, whose shallowest point is only 7 meters deep. The main difference from our practice dives, is that we didn't have a guide rope to show us the most direct path down. Who would have thought that the rope made such a difference! The rope made a big difference with helping Jen go down slowly to equalize, and also really helped Dom to not panic during the dive. What was easily attainable while following a rope, suddenly seemed so out of reach when diving freely.
Since Jen's ear was still blocked, she just snorkelled around a bit and then called it a day and relaxed by the pool. Dom managed to go down to 12 meters to see a turtle hanging around, and then dared to dive under one of the ship's trusses (this was a big swim-through hole, but just knowing there's an obstacle between you and the surface really makes you panic!).
Day 3... Ok there wasn't a day 3... but for Dom, there was definitely a night 2. In the night after our second day, Dom kept waking up in a panic thinking that he was drowning - he was repeatedly having dreams/nightmares of drowning while freediving :).
Conclusion This was a great experience, and we are hooked. Even though it was scary at times, we had lots of fun and definitely enjoyed it. Unfortunately, for us, it'll be a little tough to practice back home… though maybe not impossible.
Additional Reading: For those of you who are keen to read more, we decided to include our personal accounts of the experience (mainly for our own future interest), and some cool freediving video links that they showed in the class :).
Dominic "I am not the most comfortable person in the water. I can't really swim for very long and I probably can't normally hold my breath for more 40 seconds. Regardless, traveling is about putting yourself in different situations and experiencing new things: Let's say that this was definitely outside my comfort zone. The first day went pretty well, I managed to reach 12 meters in Constant Weight diving and about 9 meters in Free Immersion diving. I felt good about myself and this gave me a bit of confidence. The next day, was a totally different experience: 20 meters. It was only 8 more meters than the previous day, but the things that I experienced impressed me: The human body is well done. Here is what I mean: When I reached 20 meters for the first time. I did my duck dive, and started paddling down with my eyes closed, trying to relax. Eventually, I started feeling like I am running out of air, but, since this is suppose to happen, I continued going down. When I felt that I could not take it anymore, I looked up (or down) and saw the tennis ball just 2 to 3 meters away… so I relax again and pushed for it. By that time, I needed to breath hard, the only problem was that I was still 20 meters under the water. So I turned around and made my way up. On the way, my body spasmed and tried to take a breath of air (which did not happened, since my body forced my airways shut). At that point, I panicked and started to kick wildly, trying to go as fast as I can (BTW, this is retarded, because I was not going faster but I was definitely burning more oxygen). I then saw Lukas calmly beside me telling me to slowdown. Remembering what he told us before, I calmed down and made my way slowly up to the surface and what do you know….I made it. It was incredible and the best part was, I was to do it again and each time it was a bit easier (and mainly without panicking). Once you understand how your body works and that you will make it, it's a lot easier to do it again….I think I may be hooked……..This was pretty cool."
Jennifer "Before this course, if someone had asked me how long I thought I could hold my breath, i'd probably have guessed 30-45s (without physical exertion). I'm pretty sure I even remember trying to figure it out with friends before.. these "who can hold their breath the longest" contests always ended with me bursting out in a giggle fit within 20s …apparently holding my laughter is far more difficult than holding my breath. Diving into the deep blue darkness is no laughing matter… so (fortunately for me) the apprehension and undertones of fear did a good job of keeping the giggles at bay (well.. most of the time).
I had surface-dived many times before while snorkelling and always ran out of breath within 2-3m of the surface, so... I had a pretty good idea of my limits. My goal: I certainly didn't have any grandeur ideas of actually reaching the 12/20m maximum depths! I just hoped to pick up some tips to improve my depth a little. My game plan: I'm a fairly strong swimmer (or at least I used to be). Not believing that i'd be able to hold my breath for very long, I figured my best chance of reaching a decent depth would be to use strong swimming strokes to race to my max depth before my short breath-hold ran out. My demise: Our initial warmup dives were only a couple of meters deep and sadly revealed that my right ear was too plugged to equalize quickly. My game plan was thwarted before it began. Lukas told me to take off my fins... I was feeling pretty defeated, despite his promise that there were other techniques to dive to depth.
We learned that a normal/"good" rate of descent & ascent is about 1m/s. This means that a 20m dive would be done with an approximately 40s breath-hold (with physical exertion). Free Immersion: In this technique, you use the guide rope to slowly pull yourself down to depth and back up to the surface. Inching to Equalize: Using the guide rope allowed my descent to be much slower, but it still took several attempts to equalize. I'd begin descending, stop to try several times to equalize... when it didn't work, I'd have to climb back up a bit to try equalizing there, then proceeding down a little further repeating the process… it was VERY slow and rather frustrating. I'd have to do this every single dive, so my average descent rate was probably something like 0.1-0.2m/s. The Squeeze: The deeper you go, the more water pressure there is on your body - you actually physically get squeezed! Internally, your lungs squish down to half their size by the time you reach a depth of 10m, so you can really start to feel the pressure of your diaphragm being pushed right up into your rib cage.
My Dives I became so focussed on slowly inching down the rope trying to equalize that it surprised me when I actually hit the end of the 12m rope. On the second day, my ear was even more irritated, so equalizing was even slower. I did several dives, following the same super slow process… sometimes i'd get antsy and just want to go back up, but Lukas was always there just floating right in front of me.. patiently watching with such a calm energy... as if to silently say "you're doing great, just take your time, everything is ok…". His calmness was contagious and made me feel/realize that everything really was ok.. I learned to forget my brain's screams to breathe and the weird feeling of being squeezed. I'd refocus on patiently equalizing and inching my way a little further down until I couldn't equalize anymore, and was shocked to find out that I actually made it down to around 17m. I was even more shocked when Lukas told me that all of my dives were nearly 2 minutes long, and that since I reached the surface with plenty of oxygen he was certain I was still capable of much more.
I was super happy that I accomplished leaps and bounds more than I was ever expecting. I learned that our minds really play tricks on us to keep us bound within its lazy limits. This course was a great reminder that we are capable of pushing our limits even further than we think. It was a great challenge, a refreshing and inspiring experience, and addictively fun!!"
Current Freediving World Records:
Constant Weight with Fins Dive Women - 101 meters Men - 126 meters
Free Immersion Dive Women - 88 meters Men - 121 meters
Static (no physical exertion) Breath Hold Women - 8min 23sec Men - 11min 35sec
Cool freediving videos:
Our Apnea Bali Instructors Freediving the USS Liberty:
On our motorbike tour around Bali, we stopped in a tiny town called Tulamben to scuba dive the USS Liberty. The USS Liberty was a US transport ship that was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in 1942, and beached on the island of Bali. It eventually sank in 1963 after a volcanic eruption, and has become a popular dive site as it's now home to a large variety of marine life. The ship now lays on its side with some sections as shallow as 7 meters below the surface. The best part is that the wreck is easily accessible directly from the shore.
We shopped around for dive prices and surprisingly found the best deal at the resort right next to the wreck: Puri Madha Bungalows. Their dive shop made us an excellent offer - 25$/person/dive including a guide, underwater camera, and all gear rental. Since neither of us had dived recently, they included free time for us to refresh our skills in the pool prior to doing the 2 wreck dives.
After all these years underwater, the USS Liberty is now collapsed in several areas and completely covered in coral. In most areas, you can barely make out that it's a huge ship! Occasionally you still happen upon some distinctive ship-like features jutting out from the sea floor... that was really cool to see.
We aren't exactly avid divers or marine biologists, so we don't know many names of what we saw… but we definitely saw a lot of really cool stuff compared to most of our dives in the past :).
We even saw a black tip reef shark...
and a big school of jack fish..
Whether you've never dived before or are an experienced diver, this is a site that we definitely recommend!
To make it easier to get around in Ubud, we rented a scooter for a very reasonable price of about $4usd/day. We kept it a few extra days to explore the Northern and Eastern parts of the island and experience a different side of Bali.
Our first destination was Munduk, a small village to the North, on the edge of what seems to be a collapsed crater. Before leaving, we identified two possible hotels and plotted them on the iPhone. When we "arrived", we were in the middle of nowhere.. there were no hotels or villages, and the supposed "road" seemed to be an extremely narrow dirt path going down. Not knowing any better, we attempted to take the bike down the narrow footpath, but doubled back after 10 minutes figuring it can't be right. Lucky for us, we must have looked really lost at the main road, some friendly locals driving by in a truck stopped and asked us what we were looking for. They kindly pointed us in the right direction and we quickly found our way to Munduk and the proper location of the hotel… moral of the story: GPS coordinates are not always right! ;)
From Munduk, we explored the rice fields and scenery in the area. We let ourselves get lost and (again) ended up on another super narrow path. This path was beautiful though as it went through the rice fields and had a trickling stream on the side.
On the way to Muduk, we also stopped in Bedugul to see the local temple on the lake.
The next day we continued North to the coast, then veered East toward Tulamben. We had only planned to stay a night or two here, but enjoyed it so much that we stayed 5 nights. This gave us plenty of time to scuba and snorkel around the USS Liberty shipwreck, and learn to freedive (more pics/details to come, in future posts).
After Tulamben, we originally intended to do a 2 hour hike of Mount Batur (a volcano with a nice view of Bali and Lombok). Unfortunately, a bit of research revealed several accounts of horror stories where tourists attempting to hike it on their own were getting hurt. These were not typical hiking-related injuries - in recent months, tourists have actually been beat up by aggressive locals who have created a monopolistic Mount-Batur-Tour-Guides Gang in the area. They won't allow any tourist to pass without paying (around $20/person) and, from the stories we've read, they've repeatedly resorted to agressive verbal abuse, shoving, punching, and kicking until the tourists give up and leave the area. Turned off by these stories, we didn't want to support this behaviour in any way, so we bypassed the volcano and went directly back to Ubud. Hopefully they will put a stop to this soon as it's a bit of a shame - the pictures of the hike look amazing.
Our short scooter loop was great and definitely one of our Bali highlights! We saw a lot of rice fields, passed through small villages, and saw locals in their daily routines. Here are a few more random pics from the trip :)
