Total Miles Traveled: 34,585
After diving in Tulamben, we were excited to head to a town called Candidasa (pronounced “chahn di dasa”) on the southeast coast. We had heard that Nusa Penida is a great spot to find the elusive sunfish a.k.a. mola molas (pictured above). They are the largest bony fish in the world, weighing a ton and about 6-9 feet long. More on this later.
To get to Candidasa, we passed picturesque rice paddies…
.. and passed many Hindu temples. Tirta Gangga (pictured below) is a larger temple for the water manifestation of their god. We were told that official events were held there, but it seemed to be more of a tourist destination based on all the hawkers that lined the path to the temple. Bali, by the way, is about 90% Hindu, with the rest being Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian.
Candidasa is a laid-back town compared to parts of southern Bali, but it, too, is developing at a rapid rate. Before long, it may be just as crowded as other places in Bali. The coastline is nice, but unfortunately, they harvested the reef for sand years ago, and that has resulted in erosion of the beaches. So, there’s not much of a beach there, but if you like watching the waves, it’s quite nice.
Here are some girls, yes, girls, fishing in a pond in the center of town:
And, our visit to Bali wouldn’t be complete without some funny English translations. Think Jay Leno’s Headlines skit. Here’s the ad for Vincent’s… “MAYBE” the best in town. Only maybe.
Here’s an ad for a graphic design agency. Based on their ad, I wouldn’t even think of hiring them.
OK, this one is a little harder. The ad looks fine – dive with manta rays right? But look at what the company is called… “OK Divers”. Wha? You’re only O.K.? I want the best/safest dive shop, not just OK. Woops…
Our reason for coming to Candidasa: to see the elusive Mola Molas
So, the whole reason we were in Candidasa was to see the mola molas. But it turns out, diving Nusa Penida (a 30 minute boat ride away) is not only expensive, but quite rough and advanced as well. Well, thankfully we (1) took our seasickness meds (there were a couple divers who were in really bad shape), (2) are still respectably fit and (3) are comfortable diving; because the dives we did were physically challenging and potentially deep. There are usually strong currents, and sometimes something called “washing machine” currents, where you can get tossed about, or “whirlpool” currents where you move in circles – which we definitely experienced!
On both of our dives, we ended up waiting at a depth of 60 feet, hanging on to dead coral to prevent ourselves from floating away due to the strong current, while our divemaster went deeper to look for the mola mola. On the first dive he said he saw one, but it left and there was a heavy downcurrent on the way back up. That means the water is pushing you down in to the depths of the sea. Not fun, and very dangerous.
Needless to say, we decided to skip our second day of diving because we felt the risk/expense/reward just wasn’t worth it. So instead, we looked up mola molas on Youtube. And so can you. Here’s what they look like in the wild. Pretty amazing even just on video:
Alas, we’re done with diving for now and next we head to Ubud in central Bali. Ubud is one of the places in the book and film Eat, Pray, Love.