What the diving is like
Bali's muck is not one place. It is five or six of them, on different coasts, and a trip that only sees Tulamben has seen a fraction of it. The east coast around Tulamben and Seraya is the best known and the easiest: shore entries over black cobble into a gentle black sand slope, with the Liberty wreck and a wall on the same beach. Seraya Secrets, a few kilometres south, is the muck ground proper — smooth black rocks and pebbles giving way to sand, and the site most associated with harlequin shrimp, tiger shrimp and boxer crabs. Amed, further south again, has its own black sand at Ghost Bay. The north and west are a different trip. Puri Jati, on the shallow shelf near Seririt, is fine grey-black sand in two to twelve metres with almost no relief — the sort of ground that looks empty until a guide stops. Secret Bay at Gilimanuk, in the far northwest by the Java ferry, is shallow, silty, cold by Balinese standards and one of the most productive muck sites in Indonesia. Padangbai in the southeast adds a jetty and the Blue Lagoon. Almost all of it is shore diving. What varies is the drive.
The shape of a day
Three or four dives on the east coast, all shore, with short drives between sites. Tanks and gear are carried to the water by the local porters, an arrangement that has run for decades and is the reason a Tulamben dive costs what it does. Night diving is straightforward: the same entries, walked in. Puri Jati and Secret Bay are day trips from anywhere on the east coast — three to five hours each way — or a night or two based in Pemuteran. Operators run them as two-dive days because the driving eats the rest.
Getting there
Ngurah Rai at Denpasar. Tulamben is two and a half to three hours by road up the east coast; Pemuteran and Gilimanuk are four to five hours the other way, round the north. Most people book the transfer with the dive operation. Bali combines with non-diving days more easily than any other destination on this site, which is the reason a lot of people dive it.
When to come
Year round. The wet season from December to February brings rain and run-off, and the northwest sites are murkier for it, but diving continues everywhere. July and August are the busiest months and the wreck is crowded at first light. Secret Bay is coldest and clearest from July to September.
Fees and what is not included
No park fees on the muck sites. Porterage at Tulamben is charged per tank and is not optional; it is the local economy of the village and is worth paying properly rather than negotiating. Menjangan, inside the West Bali National Park, does charge.