It’s another world down there - one full of wonder and awe.

As I see it, there are basically two types of diving - macho and macro. Generally, macho diving requires special and unique locations to keep the adrenalin pumping; macro diving can be done in your backyard, as it were. Another useful analogy is that of the hunter versus the gardener.

Macho diving requires the thrill of stalking big pelagic animals, diving into wrecks and wrestling with mask wrenching currents:

Bali has macho in spades with the ripping currents of Nusa Penida, the majestic mantas of south Penida, the monstrous mola-mola of Ceningan channel, the big tuna of Blue Corner and the wreck at Tulamben; Lombok has it with the schooling hammerhead sharks in south Lombok, and the mixed gas dives on the Japanese wreck off the Gilis.

Macro requires finesse and patience as it often involves detection of animals in very cryptic modes of disguise. This is the realm of the U/W photographer and with the advent of ever shrinking cameras and housings, this army of divers is growing rapidly. While pelagics are so big they are hard to miss, macro animals are often right under our noses and usually invisible at first glance. One needs a good guide to learn the tricks of this trade…

This type of diving has been variously named, but is most often known as “muck” diving. The primordial sludge of sites in the Lembeh Strait of North Sulawesi is where this diving first came to world attention, and once the photos were out, everyone began looking in the most unlikely of places for the weird and wonderful.

Bali’s most accessible “muck dives” are found in Tukad Daba on the north coast, a few kilometers before the famous Tulamben WWII wreck. There, a German woman known for her patience and underwater endurance, began mapping the varied life found on a seemingly barren slope of a black sand beach. Today it is visited by enthusiastic U/W photographers, who continue to be fascinated with what is to be found there. The nearby “Drop-off” site adjacent to Tulamben, which was made famous by renown photographers Rudi Kuiter and Roger Steen in the late ‘80’s, is also a magnet for macro divers.

Another long-time Bali resident and keen U/W photographer, Japanese Tonosuko, discovered many other “muck” sites in North Bali. Perhaps the most famous of these is Secret Bay adjoining Gilimanuk, the ferry port for Java located on the tip of West Bali.

As Bali has over 150 registered dive operators, it is not always easy to choose who to dive with. If you want to experience all that Bali has to offer, it is probably best to choose an operator who has branches in all the recognized dive sites - Pemuteran, Tulamben, Nusa Penida. Bali Dive Academy probably fits that bill the best, with Gangga Divers running a close second for those primarily interested in Tulamben and Nusa Penida. While both these operators have branches in Gili Trawangan, Gangga Divers tends to specialize in macro more.

On Gili Trawangan itself, there are over seven dive operators, largely located in the central strip, and catering to various European “tribes”. The largest operator is English owned Blue Marlin and it specializes in technical diving. Dream Divers is primarily German, while the French prefer the feminine allure of the Big Bubble team. While Manta Dive was set-up by dissident Brits, it also is favoured by the Dutch. Gangga Divers attracts a predominantly Italian and Spanish cliental. Trawangan Dive is an off-shoot of Blue Marlin and caters to a similar crowd. Star is one of the newer entrants (replacing Dive Indonesia) and focuses on the Russian market. VODA (Villa Ombak Dive Academy) is the official dive center of the hotel of the same name.

The following East Bali dive site description is courtesy of Gangga Divers