By far the most popular part of Bali Barat Nasional Park is Pulau Menjangan (Deer Island), a tiny uninhabited island 8km of the north coast, whose shorelines is encircled by some of the most spectacular core reefs in Bali. Most visitors rate this as the best snorkeling spot on Bali, and drivers place it high on their list, too. The majority of dive and snorkellers come on organized tour from the south or Candi Dasa.

However, for smokeless it can often work out cheaper whit other tourists to hire a boat. As the island comes under the jurisdiction of the national park, you have to go with a guide, but you can arrange both the guide and boat transport at the jetty in Labuan Lalang without first checking in at the Cekik headquarters.

The hiring of boats of Pulau Menjangan is well organized and should be arranged through the national park office in the Labuan Lalang car park. Boats can be hired at any time of day up to about 3pm (underwater visibility is best in the morning). All snorkeling boats anchor Menjangan’s southeastern corner: if you take lunch (there’s no food or water on the island), you can picnic on the beach there (which has some shade) between snorkeling.

The extensive reef wall drops down around 50m but tops out very near the surface and is phenomenally rich trove of sea fans and soft and hard corals visited by masses of reef fish, parrot fish, clams, nudibranchs and all manner of other reef dwellers.

Live on the reef

•    Coral reef – are living organisms composed of a huge variety of marine live forms, but the foundation of every reef.
•    Stony coral – hard constructions such as boulder
•    Soft coral – such as dead man’s fingers and elephant’s ear, is also composed of polyps.
•    Horny coral – or gorgonians, like sea whips and sea fans, are a cross between stony and soft coral.
•    Sea anemones – have much the most obvious, and poisonous, tentacles of any member of the coral family.
•    Reef fish – The algae and plankton that accumulate around coral colonies attract a catalogue.
•    Butterfly fish – are typically well designed, named for the fluttering movements of their thin, flat, yellow, white and black bodies.
•    Moorish idols – are also much in evidence and are easily recognized by the long pennant fin that trails from the dorsal fin.
•    Surgeonfish – are another common sigh, there are around one hundred different species.
•    Trumpet fish – grows up to 75cm long, has elongated jaws and is a skilful and frequently spotted daytime predator.
•    Parrot fish – scrapes a bird like beak, which is in fact several teeth fused together.
•    Parrot fish – scrapes a way at the coral, leaving characteristic white scars, and leaving characteristic white scars.
•    Moray eel – whose elongated jaws of  viciously pointed teeth make it a deadly predator.
•    Barracuda – can grow to two meters and is the word’s fastest swimming fish.
•    Sharks – are more common, and it’s also sometimes possible to swim.
•    Manta ray – whose extraordinary flatness, strange wing-like fins.
•    Oceanic sunfish – are phenomenal sights, measuring some 3m top to bottom and about 2.5m end to end.
•    Turtles – occasionally paddle around reef water, too, but the two local species – green and hawksbill.
•    Invertebrates – including all sorts of multi celled.
•    Nudibranchs – or sea slugs, which come in an arresting array of patterns and shapes and live in shallow waters.
•    Sea cucumber – lies half-buried on the sea bed where it constantly ingests and excretes so much sand.
•    Sea urchins – which also tend to live in shallow areas near shore.
•    Crown of thorns starfish – is also protected by highly venous spines.