Scuba diving in Gili Trawangan with Big Bubble Dive

Before we even left the UK we had decided we wanted to at least try scuba diving – the amazing things you can see came up so much in our research.

So we booked ahead to do our PADI open water course with Big Bubble Dive in Gili T. They had great reviews, and had just received a shiny new award from PADI when we got there so we knew we had made the right choice! I’ve heard all the dive centres cost the same so people can choose based on reputation, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Either way we paid 5.5million rupiah each (about £310) for the course which included four ocean dives, the tests/exam, a theory book, plus a bonus fun dive as we booked online.

From the off there was a totally relaxed vibe and our instructor Philippa was great and very patient with any worries/difficulties we had. The first day me and George were joined by three other people who were doing an introductory dive. We had a go in the pool at a few basic skills then it was on the boat and out to sea!

Han’s Reef at Gili Air was our first stop and, as it was our first dive, we descended along a mooring rope, which made it a lot easier, especially as there was a current! Breathing 12 metres down on the bottom of the ocean and seeing all the bright colours of the reef that had just looked green from the surface was an unforgettable and magical moment! I thought being so deep might be a bit scary but bobbing along weightlessly surrounded by fish and coral and turtles was actually one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever done.

Over the next two days we did lots of theory reading and three more dives – shark point, manta point and Halik reef all in Gili T – and I loved it more and more with each dive! Some of the skills for the course I found tricky such as taking your mask off and putting it back on – having my eyes and nose in the water but still being able to breathe through my mouth just messed with my head a little haha! But it was so worth it getting our certification, especially when we then booked in our bonus fun dive – our first officially certified dive 🙂

The last dive was back at shark point and was by far the best dive we did – we saw so much stuff, it was amazing! Loads of turtles, brightly coloured fish and coral, sea snakes, clown fish, puffer fish, and even a white tip reef shark, which was really exciting.

The whole experience with Big Bubble was just fantastic – they were super organised, professional, friendly and (most importantly for a beginner like me) made you feel safe and relaxed the whole time. I was sad when it came to an end and can’t wait to dive again!