Early start. After I got in from the cybercafe (late as I had to sort out the stolen debit card mess), I had an SMS telling me to be at the shop at 6:30am. Argh.
As ever, I woke before my alarm and got dressed. No chance of breakfast this morning – the staff were still [...]

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I’ve mentioned this one before, about having a secondary back account so if your main ATM card goes walkies, you have another you can access. I have a couple of points to add to that.
1) Be aware that a lot of banks are now issuing annoying little card readers (Nationwide amongst them). This means to [...]

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After a breakfast of cornflakes and orange juice, which made a nice change from banana/jam jaffle and tea, I strolled along the beach to Coconut bay where Kadek and Robert (who’d slept on the boat) picked me up. We nipped round the corner to get the Singaporean group… who were still on Singaporean time! After [...]

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Once again, prompt at 7:40 Singaporean holidaymaker time (that’s 8:00 Balinese), I was collected by the minibus and we headed for the beach near Nusa Dua where the boat is docked.
It wasn’t the best day weatherwise for the boat trip or the dives we were making, and Kadek dished out seasickness tablets to those who [...]

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Change of plans as I got home last night to a message from ProDive. Instead of helping with an Open Water class, I’d be getting up early and joining a group going to Tulamben for the day. I’m rather glad I didn’t go straight out on the beers after dinner!
Prompt on 8:00, the bus picked [...]

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Two more dives today, back at Nusa Ceningan. It was a very early start with a 7:15 pickup as we had a few people to collect. Not helped by one of my neighbours waking me at 4am as she staggered in and put her stereo on.
The German couple would be making the last dives of [...]

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Well, the study paid off. I didn’t ace them the way I’d done in previous exams, but this was the first set I’d sat “closed book”. And there were a lot of questions, many of which weren’t multiple answer. Divemaster is certainly a big jump up from the previous stages.
For passing the exams (well, not [...]

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Study.
All day.
Lots of it.
Oh, and I swapped my stash of read paperbacks at one of the numerous bookshops in the area.
Then put them to one side and studied.

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Oh, this was a toughie. Putu and one of the other dive staff picked me up at 9:00 for a drive to Nusa Dua. This was the nearest swimming pool we could use SCUBA equipment in, and also where Putu had worked before joining ProDive.
We had a lot of exercises to get through today, and [...]

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Diving again today, but with some extra frills as I had a few tasks to complete and skills to demonstrate. I hopped onto the minibus with a young German couple who I’d met in the dive shop the day before while I’d been working with Putu and we took the lengthy drive up to Tulamben.
The [...]

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