Tulamben & Seraya
Diving in Bali - What You Will See
Bali Scuba put us up at Paradise Palm Beach Bungalows. If you read diving guidebooks on Tulamben, a lot will actually mention Paradise Palm Beach Bungalows because this is where divers love to congregate. It has very affordable rooms, the best of which are spacious, air-conditioned, and have hot running water.
That said, after walking along the shore several times, we did see other resorts and wouldn't mind trying them if we ever went to Tulamben again. I'm afraid I can't review them here though because I didn't go in to check them out.
Room Inventory
Bathroom Inventory
* depending on your budget, the room you choose and availability
The Paradise Palm Beach Resort has a pleasant open-air dining area overlooking the sea, right next to the dive 'assembly' point.
It's perfect for divers, because it has the right laid-back ambiance, long tables, and food variety for divers to do their daily ritual of filling in divelogs, eating, checking their reference books, and talking - all at the same time.
The menu offers standard fare like nasi goreng, nasi campur, mee goreng and western food like burgers, french fries (you can choose between crispy potato chips or more traditional wedges), and pizza.
Desserts are tasty - my favourite was the goreng pisang (fried banana fritters) served with honey. My favourite savoury dishes were telur rapus (half-boiled eggs) which I don't think is on the menu because it's so simple, their mixed vegetables and their soup noodles.
Like other dive resorts we've come across in Indonesia, Paradise Palm Beach has its resident dogs (but they are quite aloof to humans), and a Christmas tree in the common room regardless of the time of year.
View from resort
Bedroom
Space for cameras
The dining area
One of the resident dogs
The evergreen Christmas tree
Dive Centre
Paradise Palm Beach Bungalows is a very dive-centric resort. We appreciated the two separate tanks for rinsing your stuff - one only for cameras, and the other for everything else. In low season, there's adequate space to rig up your equipment or lay it out after a rinse, but in high season, you may not have the same luxury and you'd definitely want to clearly label your stuff. The dive centre rinses your equipment for you, sets it up, dismantles it, and generally takes good care of it.
