There is the plan, then the backup, then the backup of the backup….
So we don’t have walls, because of course our construction is late (as in it hasn’t even started already when we should be a month in the building). But high season is upon us and we have gear and tanks and even fancy t-shirts so we decided to find a way to start taking people out while we were waiting on the building.
Our road builder, who is a big guy on the island, has just opened a brand new beach club down the road from our land. On paper, it had everything we needed: a pool, a jetty to launch a boat, a compressor to fill tanks and plenty of space. So we made a deal with them for the tanks and the use of our facilities, and then we invited a few friends to come out and dive to test out our set up.
Let’s put it that way: it didn’t go very smoothly on day 1. I had contracted a boat for the day, so the boat showed up and we try to dock it onto the jetty where we were planning to load equipment. Giant failure. The swell is big that day and the jetty is not designed for boat mooring and after a few unsuccessful attempts, we give up and moor the boat at the end of the platform attached to said jetty.
In order to reach the boat now, we need to walk down the jetty for 200 metres, then walk down a floating unsteady pontoon then walk up back to the platform. Needless to say, loading the tanks and gear on the boat that day was not smooth, and bless the friends for the help. So we finally manage to get out, after a good hour and a half of hassle and an unhappy boat captain. Great start!
At least the diving was good and friends were happy!
Next day, we try the small beach next to said jetty. No luck, the bottom is rocky and the boat is too big to safely moor there.
The week after, we pimp the jetty with tyres for protection, new mooring lines, and we give it another go: failure again, when the water is high the boat keeps banging against it and sliding under. So we slowly give up on the jetty altogether.
At the same time, after departing from that beach club a handful of times, we realise that we have another issue with it: it is quiet and lovely when we go out, but by the time we come back from diving it is filled with Chinese day-trippers…who are busy taking selfies, stuffing their face on the buffet and singing really bad karaoke. So the vibe isn’t exactly what we want when we get back from a dive.
Therefore this week we have been busy exploring other launching options nearby and hopefully in the next couple of days we will have a working set up. We already have a boat share system in place with friends who are just getting started too, so now we have at least one viable option to go out diving.
Getting my hands dirty to try to fix the jetty....epic fail.
Meanwhile, everything else got delayed too: our equipment got stuck in customs, then when it finally made it to Bali we got in on a big truck. The truck also contains my entire house and other stuff that we need, and it was meant to leave Bali and get onto the ferry to Penida in the next couple of days. As I am writing this it has now been a week and we do not know when it will arrive. So we are still sleeping on one mattress on the floor in an empty house, and we only have half of the equipment we need to dive.
And to top it off, I am posting this from the coffee place down the beach, because we also have no network in the house. Like, zero. Super convenient to answer emails and do marketing, right. On top of harassing the truck man we also have been harassing the internet company to get a connection. Truck and internet people are probably mates because they give us the same answer every day: “mungkin besok”, maybe tomorrow. My patience’s limits are being pushed every single day. And after over 6 years in this country I feel like I should know better, but it’s a whole different thing when you are trying to run a business like this.
The truck getting loaded. It is somewhere between Bali and here....and no one knows for how long
I am considering making up a new word that would describe a state of permanent exhaustion. Everhaustion? Let’s be honest, June has been the hardest month so far since we started the whole thing. And I feel this is not going to be the last as we are due to start construction hopefully in a few weeks….Stay tuned for building headaches!