For Maurie's birthday we went to Micronesia; for mine we are going to Indonesia. The big draw for me was looking at all of the muck diving pictures on the various underwater web sites taken at Lembeh Straights. For a taste of what we're hoping to see check out the following links and do a search on Lembeh:
On top of that Bali has always seemed like a magic place. The beauty of the surroundings and the rich, exotic nature really appeals to both of us.
Our trip starts early in the morning in August with our flight out of Austin. From Austin, we go through Houston to Honolulu to Guam. Due to the current flight connections with Continental, we have to stay in Guam overnight on the way out. Last time we were in Guam, we stayed at the Marriott, this time we'll stay at the Hyatt and see if we like that better. From what we can tell it looks newer at least. We've pretty much seen all there is to see in Guam, so we'll probably hang out on the beach the for the day. That night we get on a plane again to Densapar, Bali. Our ultimate destination is called Telamben and is on the eastern coast of the island and is strategically near one of the legendary dive locations, the wreck of the Liberty.
From Telamben, we travel back to Densapar to catch a Silk Air flight to Northern Sulawesi, ultimately to Lembeh Resort. After a week at Lembeh, we travel back to Bali to catch a flight as far back as Honlolulu. We'll deplane and stay several nights on Oauhu at the JW Marriott, which looks like a great spot. Finally we'll go home, unless we can figure out a way not to.
We are travelling heavy on this trip, carrying dive gear for two as well as both still and video housings. Associated with this is obviously still and video cameras, lenses, laptop, kitchen sink... you get the idea.
Stayed tuned for the trip report, pictures and video.