BALI MONEY CHANGER

Maybe I’m outdated about this stuff but I want to share again in my blog… it’s about money changer in Bali.
My friend asked me to change USD to IDR one time then I went to the nearest money changer in the Legian road. First I met with the lady who said the change rate is 8200 then she called the guy who work for the money changer and the guy if I exchange 120usd he will give me 8600IDR for the rate. So I change 120 USD. He counted the money first then gave it to me for count it again and he knock it on the table (to make it as one). I received the money and go back to hotel when I count it, it’s not the real amount that I should get. I count again and again, and yes it is minus 300k IDR. Omg omg!! I really count it right before then I went back to the money changer to ask the 300k. When I arrive in the money changer, he said I already count it and yes I count it but its only 700k then I take all my money out to proof it that I didn’t lie. He said that just change it to another money changer and he gave my USD back.
I walk about 1 meter from that money changer and go to another money changer in that road. Then I said to the second guy where I wanted to change 100USD and he said the change rate is 9299 for 100 Bank notes. Ok then he start to give me 20k IDR bank note... gosh I asked him : “ don’t u have 50k bank note?”, and he said he didn’t have it. So after he counted all the money, I counted again. Then he fixed the money again and this time I counted again. When I counted again, I lost 200k again. Then I gave it back to him again, when he count it’s the real number. I will be careful, I didn’t want to do the same mistake like before so I counted again and yes, indeed I lost 200k again. Every time he took the money again, I lost 200k but when he counts it, it’s the real amount. Finally after 4 or 5 times counting, he said I better take another money changer. Then I said ok, he gave my USD back and I came back to hotel. Inside the room I also realize that I lost 10usd!!!! GODDDDDD… what’s wrong with Bali!!! That time my friend said that he already know about this and I said why he didn’t tell me before???? He thought that I already know about this, but its ok, it’s a lesson for you. I really pissed off with those money changer... Will never ever go to that place again! Finally we go to the big money changer to change the money...
Lesson from this experience: don’t be rush (like me!!) and be careful with the small money changer in the road side who gave high rate. They all are snake, they smile and they will eat your money. Just go to big and decent money changer or bank even it will be a little less but better than they eat your money! My Balinese friend advice me, if you caught this thing in the future just go back to the money changer and said that you will report to the police about this matter. I’m sure they will give your money or take back their money again. Keep safe and enjoy your holiday in Bali!

BOAT DIVING

First diving for adventure diving is Boat diving, we are already familiar with this kind of diving because we usually start our dive from the boat “Putri Emily”. Emil in charge for teaching us this time, he is teaching us about knots. We will need to make
the knot for buoy, jack line, and whatever we need to tie under water and we need to do that also with close eyes in case of emergency.

These are the three knots...
1. Two and half hitches for quick way to attach line to an object
To make this knot, just take both end of the line. Keep one of the line straight and tie the other end in the same direction. If you tie from above, put it twice above and vice versa. We can see the line is correct when we pull one line, the line will move



2. Bow line for tie line directly to an object – its strong, dependable knot that unties easily. We use this to attach a line to safety marker buoyancy.
There a sentence to memorize this knot: go swim under the cave, go down through the coral and swim above the cave… so make a circle with the loose end below... take the end and enter the circle from below and tie the other line from below and enter the circle from above.



3. Sheet bend for tie two lines of different diameter together.
Look the line to attach then tie the other line from below make a circle tie under the two end of the attach line and go above the circle tie.



I, myself, still a little bit confuse about the two half hitches but I need to memorize how to make it. I need to practice more and more to do that so I can do it with close eyes and maybe with gloves under water.

The next day, when we wait for the limo to the beach, Minni come to us and see what we do with matras beach tie :P and teaches us how to make knot once again. Hmmmm, apparently it is so easy. Like I wrote above. Just keep the one line and let the other line do anything! Nicely done... Then we all go to Sanur Channel and Emil explains us about the specific name for the boat and like always we do the rollback entry.



First dive we need to do the hovering and Emil made a game for the first dive, anyone who found the crocodile fish (because its only 2 crocodile fish in Sanur) first time get coke from the bar, and Emil pay for it :P and ERI is the winner! And hovering time…..Arghhhhh it’s hard for me to hover!!! We also need to hover up side down. Now I’m buddy with Komang and he taught me how to hover and still I think I am not good enough with this thing.. LOL… practice wulan practice ;P

For second dive I can relieved because no hovering again :P We stayed in the jack line and waiting the turn to do al the knot. Some of us did that nicely (I put myself in this group :P)and some of us have trouble to do that. But anyway with good practice, I am sure we all can do the entire knot ;)

ADVENTURE DIVING

After finish our Open Water final exam with great score ( of course because we study for 1 month – usually they only study for 3 days :p), we are now officially become Open Water Certified Diver! Yeay! Maybe the rest already had it before but since this is the first time with me, I am really feels good to accept that. The card will be sent to me within 6 weeks!!
For the next step, we will study about adventure in diving (intro for advance diving) this time we will study a lot more about specialty in diving such as :
1. Altitude diving
2. AWARE Fish Identification
3. Boat Diving
4. Deep Diving
5. Diver Propulsion Vehicle
6. Drift Diving
7. Dry Suit Diving
8. Multilevel and Computer Diving
9. Night Diving
10. Peak Performance Buoyancy
11. Search and Recovery
12. Underwater naturalist
13. Underwater Navigator
14. Underwater Photography
15. Underwater Videography
16. Wreck Diving
We need to study about all this specialty but not all the diving above can be practiced in Bali because we didn’t have the tools or the place nearby.. Else open the adventure diving briefly, she showed the video and told us about things about all specialty and I am so exciting about these kind of dives! And like Minni said just understand it slowly because you have plenty of time!
Oh well in the middle of our reading, I and Nico got the chance to dive in Sanur with the open water training guest. We got it because we already finish to read the chapter! Cool ;) like always we packed our stuff and go to Sanur channel. In there we dive with Om Toto, Mike (the dive master), and Eric (the student). Five of us dive together and Eric needs to do the skills on the surface and underwater. He did it smoothly… Om Toto also showed us some magic under water such as he take out a stick from his mouth and he put a sand to his mouth and suddenly its changed into big rock.. It was Great!
There was something bad on the second dive.. My fin slip out from my boots and straightly I ascent to the surface, luckily no boat on the channel and Nico come with me :P When we want to descent again, I cant sink at all.. OMG OMG.. I really need to get the usual weight! ( I take out 1 kilo because in first dive I feel ok) so we back to the boat while Om Toto still dive with the guest.. sorry Om!! Make you worry but promise will never happened again.. I talked with Eric after the dive, he is from Holland and first time come to Bali and first time to dive also. And for sure he will come back to Bali again :p anyway enjoy your time in Bali Eric!