"North Bali Adventure (Pemuteran & Secret Bay)" Pulau Menjangan by Restless-in-kl

Yeah, had to put this under Pulau Menjangan instead though we spent most of our time in Pemuteran, diving and chilling out.

Pemuteran and Secret Bay are located about 4 hours drive from Ubud (took us 6 hours though cos we got lost).

It's all about fabulous muck diving (shore dives only as dive sites are shallow : 30 feet and close to beach) and I've called the Puri Jati dive site in Seririt (30 min from Pemuteran) : the land of octopus. Every dive we made here, we are sure to see more than 5 octopus ranging from small to large.

For more pictures of the creatures living in Puri Jati, please see album below.

Our favourite had to be the mimic octopus above. It's tiny and rather feathery, so fascinating to watch. Not sure how it got its name. It sure looks like a miniature version of an octopus to me!

Secret Bay

Diving in Secret Bay though is very different (located 20 minutes from Menjangan). Waters here are super calm, with almost mirror like surface. No waves and no currents. When I first got into the water, I yelped in shock. The water felt icy cold (temperature was 22 degrees celsius!).

Even though I had a long wetsuit, an extra shortie, a hood and gloves, my mouth was chattering after 30 min in the water and I had to hold on to my regulator or it would have fallen off. Really, really cold!

To find out the inhabitants who can live in these cold waters, check out my Secret Bay album.

Seririt villagers

The dive site at Puri Jati is next to a village. The folks here help the divers by providing 2 rinsing wells where they would replace with clean water after dives and help with your equipment.

Earlier in my homepage, I mentioned that I lost and found my friend's dive computer which I had borrowed. We hired a private guide (his name is A) to take us diving and he was a nice chap who never failed to talk about how helpful and honest the villagers here are and around Pemuteran. He said things like if you accidentally left something behind (torch, mask etc.) at dive site or restaurant, it will still be there.

Well, I lost the dive computer on the 2nd day whilst diving. We searched everywhere on the beach, in the water and before we left, we told the villagers to help us find when it was low tide with less churn and we offered a generous reward.

We came back on the 3rd day. No dive computer. We had almost given up hope as this was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I prayed very hard for the dive comp to be found as it was a very expensive piece of equipment. We left A's mobile number with the villagers and asked them to call him should they find it as we would only be leaving on the 5th day.

4th day, we dived at Secret Bay and did not hear anything from villagers. On the 5th day, we decided to stop by the village on the way back to Kuta. One of the villagers told us that they found the dive comp on the 4th day and called A. We were overjoyed by God's grace in which He had recovered the dive comp for us. Then we were hit by shock, disappointment, frustration and anger when we realised that A did not call us or inform us when he was still with us yesterday.

We called A with my friend's mobile and he refused to pick up. We used my mobile and A answered. He immediately gave us a story that he had a surprise for us, villagers found the dive comp but unfortunately, he forgot to call us and he is now in Lombok island (30 min flight from Bali) and he was leaving for Komodo that evening. Can you believe this???

Here was a man who extoiled the virtue of his people and he turned around and committed this dishonest act. Again by the grace of God, we managed to convince A to put the dive comp on the next cargo flight back to Bali. A claimed he paid the villagers US$80 as a reward and asked his wife to meet us at Bali airport to collect the money. Totally unbelievable!

We got the dive computer back, thankfully. I think A finally realised that he could not get away with it as he was recommended to us by a friend whom we met. My friend and I agreed not to tarnish his name or reputation as a dive guide once we get back our dive computer. Dive community in Bali being so small, I believe A knew that word will get around pretty fast.

Anyway, this was an amazing story that I would like to share. The heroes of this story are clearly the villagers of Seririt and God who made all this possible. Bali is still struggling to get back on her feet and it's such a shame that 1 bad apple can tarnish her good name. Having said that, I will continue to admire and appreciate the honesty and simplicity of these villagers who helped to find the dive computer and extended their hand when I was diving, and I pray that they remain such kind, gentle souls.

• Pros:Great diving and honest villagers
• Cons:One bad apple by the name of A
• In a nutshell:A different face of Bali