I knew my time on SV Kismet was coming to an end but I wasn’t sure where to go next. So, naturally, I made a new manifestation list. I wanted to do more conservation-based diving somewhere in Southeast Asia, be there for 1-2 months, spend less than $2,000 per month, have a chance to help out with social media posts and be more than just a student/volunteer, be part of a community, and I also hoped to develop some freediving skills since I had been carrying around my freediving fins and paying special sporting equipment fees for them all year.
I set my sights nearby and remembered hearing about a dive school on Nusa Lembongan that offered courses in marine conservation. The school came highly recommended and is the hub of marine conservation efforts on the island and offers specialty courses in manta and shark conservation as well as month-long scientific diver programs. Plus, they also have a freediving arm of the organization and I felt like this opportunity could be lining up to be my manifestation!
Until… I started trying to coordinate with them and began feeling resistance. Not only were they delayed and difficult to communicate with through e-mail but their courses were expensive and the pricing they gave in email was more costly than what was shown online. Since I already told Kevin that I would be departing on Nusa Lembongan, I decided to just sign up for the 2-day manta conservation course and maybe stay on for a longer course afterward.
I packed up my things on SV Kismet then Kevin and Sean dropped me off onshore, at the dive center. The staff showed me the empty dorm room where I would be staying and I was sad to learn that, despite having multiple dorms for students, nobody stayed onsite. Being on my own again, I was looking forward to socializing with other like-minded people interested in diving and conservation but it seemed I was out of luck. I headed out to dinner alone, and wandered the main street, checking out the pricier restaurants packed with Bali tourists.
The next day I met my instructor, a friendly Indonesian guy who teaches some of the conservation courses. He explained the 2-day manta conservation program would include a presentation about manta rays followed by two dives, at the same sites where I just dove with Kevin and Sean the day before. I was a little embarrassed to say that I had just dove those sites but I was hoping that maybe there would be a data collection aspect to the dive, plus I was excited to learn about conservation efforts.
That afternoon, I sat down with the instructor for two hours as he went through a PowerPoint presentation about basic manta ray information. How they are identified, how to tell genders, behavior patterns, and other general information that I primarily knew already. Most places you visit with manta rays will have some posters about all this stuff in the dive shops and tourist centers. I began to realize the presentation and course was probably more geared for someone who had never seen a manta ray maybe I wasn’t the target audience.
At the end of the presentation I tried to ask about the local conservation work, what studies had been done in the past and outcomes, what studies they currently had going on, and what information would be collected on the dive tomorrow. The instructor couldn’t answer any of my questions other than tomorrow would be treated as a fun dive, and the other students joining wouldn’t be collecting data because it wasn’t the subject of their course curriculum that week. I was disappointed to realize that I paid $100 extra dollars, on top of the cost of (repeat) diving, to learn no new information about manta rays.
The next day, I gathered my diving equipment and awkwardly stood around as people gathered and greeted each other without acknowledging me. My instructor finally showed up and introduced me to the girls diving in our group who were completing one of their multi-week conservation courses. They were nice but took a greater interest in talking amongst themselves about a party the night before.
Remembering the frigid temperatures from my earlier dives, I asked my instructor if a thicker wetsuit was available, and he handed me an extra 5mm to try on. I returned to my room and slipped into the suit feeling some airflow on my butt as I turned around to see a gaping rip in the wetsuit crotch. Knowing the boat was leaving soon, I hurriedly put on my still-damp wetsuit, severely chafing my knuckles in the process.
I hopped on the boat with a dozen other divers and repeated the same dives as before, first Crystal Bay then Manta Point. Both spots were filled with dive boats and snorkelers but we didn’t spot any Mola Molas this time. Given the cost of the diving, I was surprised to find out that lunch wasn’t provided between the dives and we were dropped off onshore after the second dive. I made small talk with some of the girls as I was rinsing my equipment and asked what their plans were for lunch, trying to indicate that I didn’t have any. I ended up eating lunch by myself again that day.
As I sat by myself, I reflected on the resistance I felt before coming which should have been a sign that this place wasn’t what I was looking for. So, I tapped into my intuition again and tried to think about other conservation groups that I’d heard about before. Suddenly, one popped into my head. After volunteering at TRACC, I went to the Malaysia Dive Expo and remembered sitting across from a conservation group in Indonesia that offered a one-month coral restoration course. So, I sent them an e-mail inquiring about availability and pricing.
By the end of my lunch, I already had a response: they still had availability in their October coral restoration course beginning in two weeks! I sent back another e-mail asking about arriving a little earlier and potentially staying beyond the course and I couldn’t believe the response I got back. The week before they are hosting a freediving and yoga retreat, and if I wanted to stay on after the course they can offer free room and board if I help with social media posts. This was everything on my list and even cheaper than I had initially budgeted for! To top it off, they were also throwing in a free photography workshop they were trying to develop as an add-on to the dive packages.
I sent in my deposit and began coordinating travel logistics. I had one week to get there and debated staying in Nusa Lembongan for a few extra nights or just going straight to Kuala Lumpur to reset my Indonesian visa. I had already been there a few days and not made a single friend so I decided to book a flight to Malaysia the next day and headed back to my room to pack.
Once I arrived, I was completely surprised to find a new girl had moved into my dorm room! Lynn introduced herself and said she had just arrived, planning to do the scientific diver course starting in a couple of days. I asked where her strange accent was from and she explained she was originally from Germany but had gone to university and had been living in Singapore for the past several years. I couldn’t believe my luck, that I finally had a friend here and I was leaving in 12 hours. I tried to make the most of it and show her around, explaining all the things that I had to figure out on my own like where the water dispenser was, that the wifi didn’t work in the room, which restaurants to try, and if she expected to make friends she needed to go out of her way to do so. She seemed very appreciative of my honesty and promised she’d keep in touch, letting me know how her course went.
A few weeks later I was happy to hear that Lynn had a much better experience than I did and had no trouble fitting in. Maybe I was there at an awkward time and things just didn’t line up to have a great experience. I took it as a lesson to, once again, pay attention to where you are having resistance and know maybe it’s there to steer you in the right direction.
Time to head back to Malaysia, one last time!
