Luci & Avandy,
Well back in Singapore, I would like to take the opportunity to say a big
"Thank You!" to you and all the staff at BIDP who did everything to make the
recent NEDfest such a smashing success.
You have a smooth and very well-managed operation, and every single
participant on the trip has expressed great admiration and appreciation for
the way in which every one of our needs and requests was taken care of.
Your dive leaders are highly competent, and the service was second to none.
We had great dives and saw lots of fascinating things, and I will not
hesitate to recommend BIDP to anyone I meet who wants to dive in Bali.
If you want to put this statement on your website, or in promotional
material, feel free to do so.
Keep up the good work, I hope to dive with you again soon!
Best regards,
Bjorn
I would like to add my own thanks, and point you to a post I made in
response to an inquiry about Bali dive operations,
Robert Ling
May 2004
I can only second that. They were immensely helpful, exceptionally
accommodating, and an absolute pleasure to work with. I shall be
singing
their praises to anyone who is thinking of going diving in Bali!
> I'd say that the vis - certainly for the first day's diving - was in
> the 30-metre range. (That's based on horizontal visibility, not
> vertical. :-)
Still, it is one of the most fun dives I've ever had, barrelling along
the
wall, singing "I believe I Can Fly",
It was truly a memorable trip. Lots of material for tall tales, quite a
few
very good pictures, 4 firsts for me (leaf fish, mola-mola, flying
gurnard,
and blue ribbon eel), diving with mantas again (it's been a long time),
and
splendid company throughout.
Finally, a great big THANK YOU to Robert Delfs for setting us up with
BIDP
and Avandy. They did all the work, and they did it to a straight "A"
all the
way through. We are only sorry that you couldn't go yourself, but there
will
be another time (at least for me and Soyong), and let's make it soon!
It was a good operation - and far superior to many of the other operators
that I checked out in the days prior to the rest of the group arriving.
FWIW let me add here that Bali is in the centre of an area considered to
have the largest marine
biodiversity on the planet. I believe it! Apart from a staggering array of
hard and soft corals, sponges and sea whips, the fish life is outstanding.
The dives that we did on the Friday and Saturday as a group were all drift
dives, usually along shelving slopes and walls. And there's so much to
see - and to try and identify. (I had no problems with the numerous Titan
Triggerfish!!!!) :-))
In THIS case, I told the real photogs that they can thank ME for leaving
my camera on the boat, because the Mola Mola (the first all of us
except Viv had ever seen; and probably the last I'll ever see) showed
up within about 5 minutes we entered the water. It was as majestic and
quiet and seemlingly motionless as a submarine -- slowly gliding through
us. At the closest, I was within about 8 feet from its nose as Viv and
Bjorn were at nearly that distance, but a bit farther so as to catch the
SIZE of the animal with their wide-angle lense -- on different sides of
the Mola, snapping pictures away.
The best I can describe a Mola Mola is a HUGE finless dolphin BODY, with
two large fins attached to the TOP and BOTTOM. The one we saw was easily
12-14 feet in length, and about as much in fin-span. It was an awesome
sight. Mr. Mola was in no hurry to get sway, but it did make one
circular turn, and was gone for the day! The divers at the other boat
said they saw two Molas -- or perhaps they saw the same one, twice. :-)
David Strike
Hi Putu, Good day Luci,
We are all safely back in singapore since sunday, and now struggling with
work ;( Our holiday just isn't enough, sigh.....
I have lots of fun in Bali with other activities and diving with BIDP, all
the staff have been really helpful and accommodating. The lunch at Tulamben
was great, so were all the dive sites, especially the Wreck and at Nusa
Penida. Just too bad I didn't see the Mola Mola, they are so close yet so
far.
Yes, pls add me to your news letter and hope to dive with BIDP again if I am
in Bali again.
Well see you guys and gals in Suntec City, Singapore at Adex 2004.
With kindest regards.
Heng FS
11 NOV. 03
Hi,
I had a great experience diving in Tulamben with my wife. The trip there was really long, but the dives more than made up for it!!
Shibata chan was our dive master on the dives, and she did make the experience more enjoyable by “not rushing” the dive. We were able to swim lazily, to take in all the sights of the wreck.
You guys provided an excellent service. Thank you for the experience, and if I ever go back there again, I’d definitely call you guys again!!
I took some pictures, with my friends’ Canon Ixus, and I’ve attached one for Shibata chan. It’s a picture of her, with a school of jacks.
Regards,
Rommy.14 NOV. 03
Dear Avandy and friends in BIDP,
Thank you arranging for our diving in Bali early this month. We had
a marvellous trip and lovely memory of three mola molas dancing together
in a single dive. As requested I send you some of the photos. If you
like I can send you my DVD as well ( You gave me two of yours ! ). Best
regards.
Dr. Wilson LI, HONG KONG
02/08/2003
Dear Margareth, Jakar, Farish and Team,
We (Pollina and myself) would like to thank you very much for the entire
arrangement for our dive trip in Bali last week. After all, we had a
wonderful time and we both agreed that all the instructors have been highly
responsible and have placed divers' safety and interest at optimum. The
fishes we saw were amazing!
Next time, when we are back, we hope to discover through you guys the other
beautiful side in Bali sea. And I am sure I'll bring enough snack and bread
to keep me patient on the road!
Hope to see you next time!
Cheers,
Dawn
03/06/2003
Hi Avandy & team,
Just wanted to send a short email to thank you all for making our diving experience in Bali a terrific one.
We are glad we took the time and trouble to visit approx 10 dive shops in Nusa Dua and Sanur, checking each one out and asking many irritating questions, and
we both agree that we've made the right choice selecting BIDP. We would absolutely dive with you all again when we return and would highly recommend you to friends visiting Bali.
Lena, Faris, Sangut and Jaga were really fun to dive with and of course it helps that they were
environmentally responsible and have a very high regard for diver safety. And Faris, we were both very impressed with your artistic sketch of the USS Liberty, so precise. : ))
The dives were really nice, despite this not being the right season for diving. Well, guess we just have to go back for mola mola hunting!!! Menjangan is our fav for its lush corals! Even learned some new things, like how to deal with downward currents and vortexes (glad to say we weren't in one but I seem to have developed an obsession with vortexes!!!).
By the way, we both watched the 2 VCDs and WOW!!!! sure looks impressive....more to look forward to other than mola mola when we return.
Thanks for sending Made to the hotel twice to deliver the VCDs. We'll definitely be back, though god knows when!!!
If any of you happen to drop by Singapore, look us up!!!
best regards,
julia & rebecca
Jan 2003
Thank you for a fantastic diving experience last week and for certifying Will and I as PADI qualified divers. This was a great holiday and your course made it extra special. A very professional set-up and with an excellent instructor. Many thanks to Knut. I wish you a very busy and prosperous future. Hope to see you again before too long!
Annabelle Lovejoy
I would like to start by saying what a great time I had Diving in Bali. As you know I was a non certified diver when I came to Bali, but I had dived on a number of occasions before. The training that I received from your instructors was excellent, not only were they friendly and easy to get on with but they were very thorough in all aspects of the training that I received. I took my open water course all the way through to the Rescue, I had 3 different instructors and each one was as good as the next. All the people at BIDP were very friendly and I made some good friends there.
The actual diving was excellent with a great wreck dive, which also was my first night dive and what a great experience it was. Good reefs and excellent vis as well this was an all round excellent dive holiday, I would defiantly recommend this to anyone who is interested in diving it is a must see place.
Steve Burt
Dear BIDP team!
Sorry for the delay in writing this message but it has taken some time for us to settle back to the normal working life after spending a wonderful holiday in Bali.
I would just like to thank your whole team for making our holiday a very memorable experience. Everyone- and especially our diving buddies & instructors Jaka, Raul, Kade, Nikolai- were all brilliant!A special thank you for Raul & Jaka from Minna for their patience and help with my 'sinus problem' and helping me develop my diving skills despite all the problems. Not to forget saving me from the trigger fish--hehehe!
We are looking for some diving opportunities here in Germany but is it a bit too cold here- so we might have to wait for a while. Well I just wanted to let you know that we are safely back home (and Ian found his passport! Thanks again! Hope to see you again one day! If ever for some strange reason are in Germany get in touch.
Minna & Ian
How are you doing there? Is the pool still red? What a pity the weather was so bad that those divers could hardy see anything. It is so beautiful! Slowly I am getting used to the normal life here in the Netherlands. The weather here is wet and cold. I can't get used to all the clothes that I must wear to keep warm. I miss Bali still very much. I do promise to come back, but it will take some time. Don't be afraid I will forget you. I dream of diving at Tulamben and Penida often. The experience of diving changed my life. It will never be the same. Next week I am going to dive in the warm pool of the rehabilitation centre 'De Hoogstraat' in Utrecht. It is 32 degrees! I want to get my open water licence and I know I need much more practice. I am looking forward to diving again. Although I think after diving in Bali the pool will be very dull and small.
Our photographs from Bali are ready and there are some you might like to see. I send you one with this message. I dare not send more right now because I don't know if your PC and Internet will take a lot of time to download them. If you want to see more just mail me. About three photographs are left to send to you.
I wrote a report in Dutch which I gave to Klaas to use for promotion. I also gave it to the magazine of the Dutch support group for people with muscular dystrophy. I really hope my story will be printed so more people
get to know the possibilities of diving and the pleasure of diving. My report or story in English is not yet finished. This will be especially for your organisation and maybe for IAHD international promotion.
Say hello to all the others and to Cheyenne,
Simone
Tonight I am flying back to Australia and I have been in the office this afternoon to say goodbye to everybody, but unfortunately I haven't been able to talk to any of you (I have even called to your home and left a message in Luci's voicemail). I just wanted to thank you for giving me the chance of staying with you
for these almost two months and for letting me do the DM course. Jaka is a great instructor!; more than that, I consider him a friend. The same can be said of the rest of the people working at BIDP, they are just wonderful.
I truly think BIDP is a great Dive Center, not only for the knowledge of the people working in it, but for the people itself. I don't know what will I do in the future but if I ever come back to Bali I would like to work for you again, if you think it's possible. If I ever have some friend going to Bali, I will tell them to go diving with you for sure. As I said, I really appreciate what you have done for me and I hope that we can keep in touch in the future.
Raul
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people at BIDP for making a great holiday a fantastic holiday, I spent in total only two days diving with yourselves but I wish I had managed many more. I also have to apologise having made the mistake of trying other diving companies around Bali who frankly were definitely not up to your very high standards.
To Jakka and Sengat (pl. exscuse spelling) thank you kindly for service with a big smile and a very professional but laid back attitude (you were the only two people in Bali to insist on seeing a certification card). I enjoyed every minute of the dives we did and also felt very safe in your capable hands. Even Jakka's singing sounded Ok after them ;-) To Simon thank you also for your time in explaining both all things Bali and how eventually even 25deg can force a double wet suit scenario (still cant get my head round that one).
To Carl .... lunchtime in a back garden in Nusa Penida(if you can call it that), a memory which I will hold very dear. Keep on trukkin!!
I should be getting some of my photographs scanned into my P.C. soon and I have some very good ones of the dive trips I made with yourselves, as soon as I get this done I will send them in. All the kindness in the world to BIDP @ the morning of the earth, I look forward to diving with you again and will recommend yourselves emphatically to anyone who is thinking of visiting Bali.
Stephen Barr
I would like to inform everyone of the excellent service that was given to me by BIDP (Bali international diving professionals).BIDP checked my certification card before any trips were arranged, and from what I have been told by other fellow divers whilst in Bali they were the only ones to do this.BIDP are an offical PADI resort dive center.Their staff spoke lots of different languages, and their English was excellent.Saftey was always the main focus with BIDP.On one of my Diving trips I was due to dive at a location call Shark Point. The current was runing to fast, we waited for nearly 2 hours for the current to slow down, but it did not. The diving Instructor "Burwono" took us to a different dive site which was safe!I felt so safe with the company I introduced my wife to the underwater world on a discover Suba dive.The Liberty wreck was a great dive site, the deepest point being around 30 Meters. The amount of fish & coral at very shallow depth's makes this dive site ideal for all levels of experience.When I return to Bali, I will be contacting BIDP to plan all my diving trips. BIDP have a good website with lots of information about trips & prices. Putu in their office is very helpful and will answer all of your questions.If you have any questions you wish myself to answer, feel free to drop me a E Mail.
Steve Winn (PADI Rescue Diver)
Just arrived back in Japan last night! Just wanted to say thank you so much for a wonderful dive experience. BIPD is a fantastic outfitter. The staff was wonderful, the equipment was clean and in good shape, and the diving was great! I am going to recommend BIPD to anyone that goes to Bali! Thank you, and tell Martha a million thanks as well!
With regards to how I found you guys, I used Yahoo.com to find you. Several dive shops popped up, but you guys appeared the most professional, and you were the first in the list on Yahoo.
Best of luck with your growth and success. May I say this one thing though? You guys were one of the best dive operators with whom I have ever dove. If you continue to grow and succeed, please don`t lose sight of the things that make you a great dive shop in the first place. (i.e personal service, friendly staff, good equipment, etc...)
Hope this helps. Thank you again. Maggie and I had a wonderful time. Thank you!
Brian M. Hagenhoff
Dear Luci and Avandy:
Thank you for your note! We had a very pleasant flight home. But, Barbara got the new flu strain on the way back, even though we had flu shots. It is a particularly bad bug. She is back on her feet and decorating the house for Christmas.
Lucy, you, Avandy, and your staff made our trip very special. We particularly enjoyed getting to know the two of you on the boat trip. Visiting a foreign country is always more special, when you get to know people who are living there.
We both agree that this was one of the best trips we have ever taken. The Villas were a great place to stay and we both enjoyed exploring the Island. We spent our last night watching the sun set at TanaLot and then ate at the restaurant you recommended at Seminyak. It was great!
If you ever visit California, please come and stay with us. We will send you our new email address after we move in the next six months.
Thank you for your many kindnesses and generosity of spirit, you are very special people.
Warm regards,
John and Barbara November 2003 |
