Nusa Lembongan
No luck for the Mola Mola, I did 4 dives off the island, including the famous Blue Corner dive site, but no Mola Mola. The water was beautifully warm on top ( around 26-28 degrees C) but when you were down there, the visibility would get kind of blurred as a cold current (22-23 degrees C) met the hot one. Not good ! chilly ! specially when you were on your second dive.
I did 2 dives each day (in total 4) and got back today from Nusa Lembongan to arrive where I am presently staying, that is Ubud, the cultural center. The diving was good, especially at Blue Corner were you had every type of hard and soft coral of all colors ; what stroke me the most was this bright violet hard coral (small all of the time) that I had never seen elsewhere. The visibility though is not as good as what I got in the Red Sea or the Carribeans. The only big game I saw were 2 white tipped reef sharks at the Blue Corner, as well as a kind of big ray on each dive (about 1 m in diameter), otherwise it was mostly coral reef flora and fauna.
And no I didn't taste the magical mushrooms although I got pretty close to it ! I arrived on Saturday morning in Nusa Lembongan, just strolled around during the day. This is a very popular surf site and the waves are just amazing and so beautiful. By the evening I went out for a walk and as I passed in front of a little local bwibwi, got invited by a local guy who was having a few fish with rice for dinner with a couple of American guys. So I stayed with them and enjoyed the beautiful fish. After a few beers I eventually asked the 2 American guys if they had had a go with the mushrooms, not yet said they...So Francky, the Indonesian guy who invited me, made a call for us. Meanwhile, this Ozzie guy, Mr Brown, showed up and started enjoying a few beers with us. He is a kind of legend here, he's been coming here since 1974 and every year ever since. In the "old days" you actually had to paddle to get from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan, took around 7-8 hours. So everyone knows Mr Brown..
Mr Brown was sure keen on the mushrooms. When I emitted the fact that I was meant to go dive the next day, he told me not to worry as the effect only lasts around 4-5 hours and then you sleep, he even said that he would come diving with me.
So there we were, pretty happy about this unexpected turn of our evening and eagerly waiting for our supplier to come. Alas, the mushrooms were only dry ones, no freshies available ! The lady of the bwibwi told us that they weren't good for anything. The American guys leaving the next day, I never got to try them even though the supplier said he could get some fresh ones for the next day. Some things must happen on the spot or the magic goes away and so does the spirit.
No worries, I still have 25 days to try and test them with the right crowd...