Diving in Amed on Bali’s beautiful northeast coast is not to be missed. This small and peaceful fishing village, clustered around a single road, is a scenic two-hour drive from Sanur, not far from Tulamben.
We make two dives in Amed with plenty of time to relax and enjoy your lunch in between.
THE AMED DIVING SITES
AMED WALL AKA JEMELUK
Just on the outer edge of the coral reef, you will enter the water after a quick 5 min boat ride in a jukung traditional boat. The current here is often calm, and the dive is conducted along a vertical wall with a maximum depth of 40m.
Gradually you will make your way along the steep wall, passing giant and ancient gorgonians that cover massive rocks, multicolored fish darting about in the blue, trevally hunting for their next meal, and observing you from beneath your fins is the tiny pink pygmy seahorse, at a minuscule height of 6mm.
You finish your dive over a shallow plateau bathed in soft sunlight. From overhead, the shadow of the jukung awaits your bubbles…already, it’s time to surface.
PYRAMIDS
The dive site Pyramids is just a short 10-minute boat ride away in a traditional jukung. Keep an eye out for the less common but quite amusing animals such as leaf scorpionfish, ghost pipefish, frogfish, and other species of pipefish.
Here we can also encounter the pink pigmy seahorse (Hippocampus bargibanti Whitley), which is endemic to Indonesia and camouflages itself against gorgonians of the same color and texture as its body.
THE BUNUTAN’S REEF
An eels carpet covers the sandy bottom in early diving. This is a dive where the current can be quite strong. Looking off the coast, we can see blacktip sharks, white tip sharks, Barracudas or Jackfish (tuna family). We let the current carry on this huge site where coral gardens are over 50 meters deep. A full of surprises dive!
LIPAH BAY OR JAPANESE WRECK
A short fifteen-minute drive from Amed lies Lipah Bay, a sandy dive site famous for the Japanese Wreck that sits in six to twelve meters. It is covered in delightful hard and soft corals, gorgonian sea fans and large sponges and is teeming with fish life.
The rest of Lipah Bay is quite shallow at around eighteen meters and is mostly sand with some corals. The bay eventually drops off down a steep slope to very deep water. Currents can be strong here.
INCLUDES
- Transport in the air-conditioned bus (to/from) your hotel and the Dive Center
- Lunch and drinks
- English, French, Chinese, or Indonesian-speaking dive guide or instructor
- Full set of diving equipment rental (Aqualung)
- 12L aluminum tanks with K-valve/international valve and weights included
- PADI Diving Insurance (Decompression Chamber only)
