Diving and Eve of Nyepi

March 21
It’s an early start this morning. Today we are diving the north side of Nusa Penida.

First dive was at Ped. There was a definite current and my deepest dive at 30 meters. Saw a small Blue fin tuna, small shrimps and turtles.

Second dive at Sental also had a current, however I did not even feel it.
At the start of the dive, we waited to see if we could see a rare sighting of the Molla Molla, giant sunfish. Apparently, it was seen two days ago on a dive. Unfortunately not….guess I’ll have to come back in August/September to see them. On our dive, we saw a big lobster, lots of nudibrands, turtles, and 2 octopuses. I watched one of the octopus change colour right before my very eyes! So cool!
Great crew….thanks for all your help! I had an amazing time! (Jerro, me, Heski, and Captain)

Everyone on the island is getting ready for Nyepi tomorrow. Balinese Hindus observe the New Year of the Saka calendar in total silence, meditation and introspection. Nyepi is a day of complete silence without any noise, traffic, fire and lights. No entertainment, no going out of the house or compound, no fire, and no activities, are among the religious prohibitions. Non-Hindus, including locals and foreigners, are not exempt.

Lou had contacted me about this holiday. She said that if I didn’t want to participate I should switch my weeks with Lombok and Nusa Penida as Lombok is mainly Muslim. Bali is not as strict as they allow the resorts to have electricity. After asking her a few questions, I decided that it would be a great experience.

In order to go to the temple, I had to dress in a sarong….Lou took care of everything!


I had to wear the helmet because Lou didn’t want to have a conversation with my children if anything happened.

Tonight we are all participating in the Ngrupuk parade, which takes place on the eve of Nyepi day in Bali, Indonesia. Prayers at the temple first, then the parade. Ogoh-ogoh are statues built to take the form of mythological beings, mostly demons. Each village usually builds one Ogoh-ogoh mainly built by each village's youth organization.

The main purpose of the making the Ogoh-ogoh is for the purification from the activities of living beings (especially humans). The Ogoh-ogoh stands on a pad built of wood and is lifted and carried around the village. There are eight men carrying the Ogoh-ogoh on their shoulders. The procession is accompanied by orchestral music.

During the procession, the Ogoh-ogoh is rotated counter-clockwise three times. This act is done at every T-junction and crossroad of the village. Rotating the effigies during the cremational parade represents the contact of the bodies with the spirits. It is intended to confuse the evil spirits so that they go away and cease harming human beings. The village parades to the neighbouring temples to fight their Ogoh-ogoh. Then the Ogoh-ogoh is brought back to the temple and burnt in celebration. We didn’t stay for the burning.

I hadn’t see Lou all day, I asked David where she was and he said…”she’s preparing for doomsday, cooking snd charging every thing she can for tomorrow!” I am charging my e-reader and my extra usb charger for tomorrow! I’ll be offline for 24 hours. I’m looking forward to unplugging, we are going to meditate, do some yoga, and just sit poolside.

Tune in for more!