West Bali

Most of the places regularly visited in west Bali, like Sangeh or Tanah Lot, are easy days trip from Denpasar, Ubud or the Kuta region. The rest of the west tends to be a region travellers zip through their way to or from Java. Countless tracks run south of the main road, usually to fishing villages.

Occupying the island’s western end, the West Bali National Park is a complex of habitats, including high forests and magnificent coral fringed islands, is the untamed and unvisited side of Bali. The park’s primordial bauty is the perfect complement to Bali’s sun and sea, rice terrace and temple tourism. One of the island’s premier dive sites is the sensational drop offs and coral reefs of Menjangan Island, teeming with a giddy variety of fish.

Gilimanuk is a large town that lies on the tip of a peninsula that borders the Bali Barat National Park in west Bali. It is an important port town for the ferry that connects Bali and Java. There are two small islands inside of the bay : Pulau Kalong (the name means flying fox these are large fruit bats) and Pulau Burung (Bird Island). The bay and its surrounding mangrove areas are a nursing ground for fish, the water is fed by upwellings brought by the daily tidal changes from the Bali Strait that are rich plankton.

Gilimanuk hosts secret bay, a dive site located in frint of the dockling area of Gilimanuk Harbor. Be prepared, you are diving on fine black and gray volcanic sand and rubble and not on a coral reef. This place is a great place to search for the rare and unusual sea inhabitants.

A new species was even introduced somewhere between 2005 and 2006, the endemic Banggai cardinalfishes (Pterapogon kauderi). These objects act like a small oasis where animals can hide, so they are a good place to find camouflaged animals such as the frogfish or seahorses.