I benefited from my first full night of restful sleep on the island enough to wake up and catch the sunrise. At 6:00AM, I headed down to the docks. Here, there were a few locals and fishermen making use of the space before the daily port chaos of inbound/outbound ferries began. I placed my mat and did my yoga/stretch flow, some core work, and a seated meditation while watching the sunrise over a Lombok mountain. While I do love a good sunset, I have to give my preference to a sunrise. I think there’s something sacred about watching the sun rise above the horizon to begin the day. Also, sunsets are normally within the waking hours of most people. It requires more effort and intention to watch a sunrise to end a clam and still dawn, and I think the rewards are well worth it. While both are beautiful in their own rights, if you have to choose, are you team sunset or sunrise?
Our group had the standard dive plan briefing before preparing our equipment and boarding the boat. At this point, we all had the equipment preparation and check processes down. Dive #3 was at Shark Point, had a duration of 33min, max depth 18.0m, and avg. depth 12.0m. Wildlife observed includes white tip sharks (two pups), sting rays, turtles, moray eels, and the Gili Gils (angelfish, butterfly fish, clownfish, surgeonfish, sweetlips, grunts, parrotfish, soldierfish, banner fish, and trumpetfish). During the safety stop on the ascent, we practiced mask clearing and removing/equipping while doing our best to avoid the swarm of jellyfish. I think we all took a few stings, but some of us had more adverse reactions than others.
Solly, Live, Nicole and I ate lunch at Kayu Cafe on the beach, and this was unanimously the best meal we had on Gili T so far. Following lunch, we returned to Manta Dive to take our certification exam. We all passed with flying colors, and were only one more dive away from completing our open water certification.
Dive #4 was at Turtle Point, had a duration of 35min, max depth 18.0m, and avg. depth 13.0m. Wildlife observed includes turtles, scorpionfish (camouflaged and poisonous), lionfish (beautiful and poisonous), and the Gili Gils. After the dive, back at Manta we logged our dives together, then Maury signed off and certified us as open water divers. Hooray!
To celebrate, our group went to the west side of Gili T to a beach bar and restaurant called Gili Teak for drinks and dinner over sunset. I rented an electric bike accidentally, thinking it would be a motorbike. The seat sat so low to the ground, my long legs stuck out to the side and I looked like a clown riding the thing around. Still, it got me to the other side of the island with minimal effort and maximum laughs from my friends. It was a beautiful sunset with the sun sliding down the side of the volcano Mount Agung on Bali. During sunset, we witnessed a proposal right in front of us on the beach. After sunset, we pushed 4 tables together for our large group including us 6 manta divers (Liv, Nicole, Solly, Jessika, Amanda, and myself), and our friends Nani, Jamie, Camilla, and Paul. We drank, talked, laughed, and ate for hours. This was a great crew and we had a lot of fun together!
Following dinner, we rode back to the east side of the island to Lava Bar for the weekly Friday bingo. The bar was packed, and bingo started shortly after we arrived. Everyone could purchase as many Bingo cards as they want, and each square had a female artist occupying it. The host/DJ would play a song by the artist, then the players would cross out that artist if they were on their bingo card. It started simple, the same cards would be used the entire night, with the first round winner needing one bingo, second round winner needing two bingos, third round winner needing three, and so on. However, if a false bingo was claimed, 40L of water from the shame bucket would be dumped onto the false winner in front of the crowd while they chant, “Shame, shame, shame,” in a Game of Thrones fashion. It was quite entertaining to watch it happen, and the people were good sports about it. As the night went on, bingo participation and interest fell as number of people standing on tables and audio decibels rose. Our instructors, Simo and Maury, as well as half of the other Manta workers were there as well. Simo bought our group a round of celebratory shots for completing our certification, and then used scuba signals to show us the proper technique for taking his special shot! It’s hard to remember a time I laughed harder than what I can only call the Simo scuba sign shot. As the night went on, I made friends with another group of Brazilian travelers who were a lot of fun.
Following our instructor Maury’s guidance, since we were to begin our advanced adventurer certification tomorrow and continue diving, we stopped drinking by 11:00PM and were to be in bed by 1:00PM. I stopped the drinking by 11:00PM, and shortly after midnight I left Lava with some time to kill. I walked the strip and then sat on the beach, enjoying the calmness. It wasn’t long after I heard by bed calling me back to my hostel to follow Maury’s rules and be prepared for another day of diving ahead.