Divers Paradise...

We have arrived in Padangbai and as we drove down the main street the dive shops seemed to out number the hotels. We knew we had arrived in divers paradise. The vibe here is a laid back beach town mixed with diver bums from around the world. We checked into to the nicest hotel in town ($30). A three story 10 room hotel overlooking the harbor and only 10 feet from the beach. For the first time since arriving in Bali our room is completely sealed from the outdoors. It even has closing windows with AC and toilet paper! The simplest things in life are so gratifying now. Food here in Padangbai is even cheaper than in Ubud. A full dinner is usually under $10. After a wonderful night sleep we walked down the street and found a super friendly dive shop run by a UK lady and her Balinese husband. We did two morning dives with them and absolutely loved them. The water is 83 degrees here. The warmest we have ever been in. Our dive master found a lot of great things including; Frog fish, Lion fish, Ghost Pipe Fish, Cuddle Fish, Blue Spotted Sting Rays and even Heather's favorite Clown fish in giant sea anemones. It was so awesome. I think were going to go broke diving here :) Afterwords we hung out at the dive shop and chatted with the workers and they even served us lunch. Last night a huge storm moved in and it rained buckets all night long and into the morning. We planned on diving today but the waves were washing over the streets so we decided to stay dry instead. As we write this the storm seems to be moving out and we plan on doing more diving tomorrow before we board our boat for the Gili Islands.