We were in the water one day when a fishing boat started dropping bombs on a reef about one kilometer away, kind of a shock. From the shore we could both hear and see it going on since the whole shoreline shook from the blast. It would appear that the authorities had been paid off since this was occurring in a "protected" area and was not exactly hidden.
At the Menjangan National Park blast fishermen had also been visiting, despite the reassurances from the dive shops that the reefs were fine. One reef we visited had damaged areas and I assume this was not the only location to have been hit.
Getting there:Tulamben is a 3 1/2 - 4 hour ride from the airport in Denpassar, so be prepared. Day and overnight trips from Ubud, Denpassar or Candi Dasa are often organised by the dive shops but we stayed at Tulumben for five days. On Sat. and Sun. large numbers of divers come in from the resort areas but on weekdays only people who are staying the area are diving. Accomodations: In Tulamben there is lodging at either the Mimpi Resort ($80+/night) or the Paradise Palm Beach Resort ($35/night). There are also several smaller hotels and losmen in the town. We stayed at the Paradise Palm Beach Resort and arranged accomodations before arriving. There is a dive shop in the hotel and a restaurant on the water. Very pleasant and relaxing and a short walk from either of the main dive areas.In Permuteran we stayed at the beautiful and relaxing Taman Sari Resort. The resort has individual bungalows on the grounds with an outdoor restaurant and seating on the beach. We found it luxurious. The resort is about 5hrs drive from Denpassar so it's a way to go but well worth it once you arrive. There's a dive shop at the resort but we used the original dive shop, Reef Seen, that established the area just a minutes walk down the beach. The owner, Chris Brown, is an Aussie and his dive crew was enthusiastic. We didn't like the attitude of the Taman Sari dive shop people, not to mention the $20/tank the wanted to charge us for shore diving - err sorry guys, it's $10/tank at the shop 100m down the beach.
Diving Tips: At Tulamben the shore is rocky pebbles, hell to walk on so bring booties to wear or shoes to walk to the dive sites in - bare feet won't do it. In Tulamben the local workers union carries your tanks for you (1500Rp/tank), two at a time on their heads - amazing.Conditions: Warm, sunny...sorry, in the water it was 80 - 84F and vis varied from about 10m to 35m depending on day, tide and area. At Tulamben we had a couple of mornings with real surf entries and saw some tumbling divers who tried to stand up in the surf zone so read up on your surf entires and exits if you don't do them very often. Generally though, calm, flat water with minimal current. Classic tropical diving.
The Diving
Tulamben:
The Liberty Wreck
The entry point for the wreck couple of hundred meters up the beach from the two resorts. You can see the wreck about 20m from shore (less at low tide).The top sits at about 6m and the wreck slopes down to 30m. Every day there was a school of jacks spinning around next to and within the remains of the ship.
Lots of fish life in and around the wreck as well as nudibranchs, octopus, mantis shrimp. It's definietly worth several dives since there are several parts to explore. The dive links below provide maps and descriptions of the different parts of the wreck.
This is an excellent place for night diving as well with soft coral, gorgonians and sea fans that are home to shrimp, crabs and other invertebrates.
The Drop-Off (Wall)
In the opposite direction from the wreck, under the seaside temple at the S. end of the beach is the entry point for this site. It starts fairly shallow but as you follow the reef around to the south it gets deeper. Lots of fish, sargeant majors especially here. Good sized sea fans deeper and a few large sponges.
Permuteran
The diving is from the small offshore sea mounts that come right to the surface. As already mentioned the tops of these are fairly damaged by blast fishing, but at the same time there
are alot of things to see. Squid, cuttlefish, nudibranchs, clown fish and anenomes, giant clams, abundant ghost pipefish (harlequin and robust), eels in the holes etc. Although the coral isn't great we still
enjoyed this area, and the damage made us look for things more closely. One wierd discovery was a devil fish sitting on the reef top.
Ther are good dive site descriptions at the site link below so I won't go further. For night diving the Pura Tembok Wall showed what the area was like before the bombing.