How to book
While the island of Bali itself doesn’t have Manta Rays (that we know of), you can easily take a day trip by boat to go snorkel or scuba dive with these gentle giants. I booked my tour to Manta Point just off the island of Nusa Penida (east of Bali) with a company called Bali Diving. You can contact them ahead of time to plan your trip.
We were picked up from our villa at 7 am and driven to their dive shop at Sanur Beach. Once we arrived, we had to handle the payment first (they allow you to pay with a credit card) before moving to the back of the dive shop to try on our equipment. Their rental equipment seemed new and they had lot of choices. Since I had not yet done my Open Water certification, I chose the snorkeling tour which allowed me to freedive with them but share the boat trip with other scuba divers. Once we were ready, we headed to the beach and hung out for a while as they loaded the boat with all the tanks and equipment.
Getting to Manta Point
The crossing to Nusa Penida in a speedboat was very rough! The front of the boat rose up until we could only see the sky out front then slammed onto the waves in a big thud that shook the whole boat. This went on for pretty much the entire next hour. It's the closest I've ever felt to death. If possible, try not to eat anything prior and take some anti nausea tablets (they sell them at the local pharmacies in Bali). I threw up when we reach the dive sit. Not fun, but the fish seemed to enjoy the free food. Alternately, you can take the ferry over to Nusa Penida and go from the shore there. That would be a calmer experience but you will need to stay over.
The boat spent more time on it’s side than flat
We eventually reached a calm bay next to some cliffs where other boats were already present. The water looked gorgeous but there were no rays in sight!
Manta Point
The Manta Rays Appear
Once we geared up and jumped in, we realized that everyone was underwater. There were a lot of divers under us! The dive depth is about 30m here but as snorkelers, you can observe from the surface. Some of the cleaning station are located at much shallower depths so even if you're a beginner freediver, you can meet them face to face by just diving down a few metres.
The rays were massive! Truly gentle giants that seems to serene fly over the cleaning stations. They rays come to this area because of small fish called wrasse that eat the parasites bodies and dead skin cells off their bodies. The rays get a cleaning and the fish get a meal, it's a win-win symbiotic relationship. These areas are called cleaning stations and they make for spectacular dive sites around the world. Some of them swarm in harmony together. One of them was injured and had lost his cephalic fins. While buying a GoPro was too expensive at the time, I bought a budget action camera called Akaso from Amazon that still managed to take some pretty great photos and videos (like the ones above). Although I have upgraded to the DJI Osmo Action. The water was clean while I visited and it was a good break from the pollution in Bali. However, several videos and photos have emerged online about Manta Point being a bit overrun with divers and lots of plastic in the water.
Crystal Bay
After the first dive, we got back on the boat. If you are scuba diving, you will need to monitor your surface interval time. If you don’t yet have.a dive computer, the Cressi Leonardo is a great budget dive computer that should handle most of your recreational scuba diving needs. I bought mine after completing my Advanced Over Water Course and it has increased my dive confidence as well as saving me from having to spend extra money renting one at a dive shop. For snorkelers, the surface interval is a nice break then you're off into Crystal Bay where you'll be mesmerized by gorgeous coral gardens in beautiful crystal clear water. Scuba divers descended in another, much deeper area where they got to see Mola Molas (Sunfish)! I wish we had time to spend at the beach near Crystal Bay because it was absolutely gorgeous but hopefully on my next trip!
The bay was full of colourful corals and beautiful fish! If you swim out into the deep, you can see some massive fish. Our divemaster took us out where you couldn’t see the bottom anymore, seemed like a good spot for spearfishing. We had lunch provided on boat. The shop packed us a lunch of rice with skewers and a few Balinese dishes. I was so pleasantly surprised. It was the best day of my time in Bali. Nusa Penida was what I imagined Bali would be like. Uncrowded, clean, not drowning in the sounds of scooters and choking on smoke.
The ride back by boat was just as bumpy and the morning ride but after the day we had, it made it more bareable. I can’t wait to go back to Nusa Penida, as well as to head further out east to the Komodo Islands and take a liveaboard to Cenderawasih Bay and Raja Ampat!
As we arrived to shore, we saw lots of fishermen in the water. I also spotted.a Portuguese man-o-war in the water which was so scary yet beautiful. We arrived back to Bali at low tide and headed back to the dive shop. As we were walking, the couple in front of me started picking up bits of plastic garbage off the sand.
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