Pemuteran predator waiting for a prey. |
Does diving in Pemuteran, Bali, after last couple of years boom of new dive kiosks, still makes sense?
Can we still get diving operators and diving experience as it used to be?
a) yes
b) yes
c) yes
d) answers a and b are correct
As most things in life also this answers are conditional.
First you have to manage to avoid dive traps offered by “friendly” hawkers (homestay owners and staff, gardeners, taxi drivers, waiters...), offering you to call a friend for you who will give you the best price and fantastic very PADI diving services.
If you managed this and you did some evaluation on your own, then you might encounter the last few remaining old dive shops still worth the name dive shop. In some cases, doing your homework really pays off.
And professionalism, good atmosphere, good diving... everything will be the same as it used to be.
Good. Truly good.
As prevailing sign of creativity in Pemuteran is copycatting, village has now more small restaurants and dive centers than inhabitants. Competition between zero quality establishments (both local and foreign owned) is ferocious. As they can not provide any other competitive advantage as the price, they will probably in a year or two (if the trend continues) start to offer payments to any tourist willing to accept their services.
On the other hand, a few remaining old timers in scuba business, we are still using our income for all the education, equipment and training needed to offer you safe and good diving; for providing services that do not make you feel as cattle in transit; for decent salaries of our staff; for supporting community; for our own decent living...
And we are still enjoying our days of diving, chatting and from time to time dining with divers from literary all over the world. As long as our divers are staying longer than they planned; as long as they are coming back year after year; as long as we enjoy their smiles – true diving is still alive and present in Pemuteran village.
Our current most important world saving international scuba philosophical project is “Influence of scuba diving on global fusion cuisine”. Most of the papers are not (yet) published as we spent too much time meditating, daydreaming and enjoying diving on Pemuteran reefs or devouring “Pasta con chicken in Balinese devil's sauce”...
More info and how to join us in our efforts to make the world a better place you can find by a click on Easy Divers Bali, Pemuteran.