We woke early trung our best not to wake our Canadian roommate, it was about 6am time to start the day. Paddy ran out to get us some breakfast, we packed up and soon our driver was there packing our bags in to the van. The trip was a reminder of why we don't want to ride scooters in Bali. People driving in you'r lane, cutting roundabouts, people scooting past oncoming on both sides of you. Bigger vehicles honking to take the right of way. We were happy as passengers in the van. Even without seat belts I felt safer than in Sydney taxis. We were able to sleep a good while on the 3 he drive to Talamben. The country side was beautiful. Before even leaving the city in the distance was the ominous shadow of Mt Agung. It was towering grey on the horizon with mist hovering over the rolling green hills below. Rice fields and small temples and homes dotted the scenery to the right with the sea to our left. It was a beautiful view but the windy roads and the manoeuvre if driver made both of us car sick, sleeping was the best remedy. We arrived at the resort, surrounded by many others there for the diving as well. The resort backed right to the rock beach ocean side lined with palm trees. Even with the sub par weather it was paradise. We quickly sat down and got to business learning the ropes of navigation and buoyancy diving. The water was warm the coral and fish colourful and visibility was better than we'd ever seen. We saw many fish, many similar to the fauna of Ningaloo, and a small reef shark. There were many sunken statues, bird like cages and beautiful coral growing by all over, giving this site the name coral garden. A meal and a bit more prep work later we were ready for our night dive. The water was still warm 29 degrees and what light, from our torches. We soon lost all light from above and were diving into our torch lit spots. Under arificial light the coral & fish show their true colors even in the deep. Some fish were sleeping, we spotted a ray and a large grooper. At one point we turned off all our light and watched the plankton glow specs in the water.
Post dive we enjoyed dinner a few drinks and "talk bullshit" as our instructor called it. The conversation was a bit more serious however regarding the politics and socioeconomic issues.
Needless to say 3 hrs of diving +. We slept like babies!