i'm back!
after a hiatus of one week, i'm finally back blogging. hahaha. many apologies to the few who spent their precious time clicking on my link to see if i had anything new to say. after i returned from my diving trip on Monday, i fell ill and could not even roll off my matress till yesterday morning. yes, i was very badly sick.
the diving trip to dayang was a great success. the bus journey was surprisingly fast. we got to mersing before 11pm. my roomates were a couple and another guy doing advanced open water course. i didn't interact with them much. i'm not the social kind. i met my fellow dive group mates the next morning. Jeannie, Andy, Daniel, Isaac and myself. we had a very experienced and jovial instructor, richard. our dive group was pretty small, of about 5 people, so it allowed us more flexibility to do more things. our check-out dive was refreshing. after a whole year away from diving, going back down again was simply amazing. i missed the feeling so much!
during the checkout dive, richard brught us around and helped fine-tune our diving skills. On the second dive, we went drift diving. this is where we "ride" the current and go where the current brings us. it was really an exciting experience. it was like woo hooo. hahah! got in a lot of photos. richard even caught a small clown fish and placed it in his mask. hahaha. it was so intresting! we then came up close to a jellyfish. attack of the killer jellyfish more like it, as it was heading for daniel's direction. i did not relise it was there till andy pulled on my fin to signal it to me. seeing the fishes swim in and out of the jellyfis was really intresting. i even got a video clip of it.
our third dive was the navigation dive. Isaac, Jeannie and myself did ok. Andy, somehow disappeared and we went searching for him but could not find him. he later claimed that he had went down to 30meters depth and realised that he must have been lost, so he did a safety stop and deployed his safety "sausage" before surfacing. haha, talk about kiasuism. Daniel did not fare any better either. well, it could partialy be my fault as i was supposed to accompany him on his square navigation route. the rest of us had chosen to take right turn but he wanted to do left turns. so when i tried to correct him, he got confused and we ended up losing richard, jeannie and isaac. after searching around for a while, i signaled to daniel to surface to try to look for them. when we surfaced, i suggested we descend for another search, and if we could not find them, we head for our boat. he agree and goes our search. in a way, we were pretty lucky, after a brief search, we managed to find them. richard was like, where you guys been? hahahaha.
our night dive was really a very exhirllarating experience. before going down, richard had briefed us on his objective and it was to find the giant sea turtle. when we went in, we turn on our lights and started moving, things really look very different at night. you could hear alot more sounds too. after moving for some time, we were starting to head back when, lo and behold, we found the turtle! it was sleeping when we found it. we approached it slowly and patted and stroked it. hahaha. it was a really intresting experience. we were lucky the turtle did not snap at us. i tried to get some shots off but it was too dark, even at maxumum exposure. after a while the turtle was like, i wanna sleep, and started to take off. at that moment i was hovering right in front of it, i tried to get out of its way but was too slow and got a resounding slap on my cheek by its fin. OW! hahahaha. i managed to get a shot of said fin though.
our dawn dive was another eye opener for me. we got up at about 6.45am and i managed to get off a shot of the rising sun. it was so beautiful. highlight of our dawn dive was that we found the white-tip reef shark at 35meters depth! we found a pair of them resting below a rock. in the frenzy when everyone wanted to get a look, i could not get a proper shot with all the sand and silt kicked up. damn. but it was really fun to have seen the sharks. if i stretched, i believed i could have touched its tail but i want my hand so i did not. hahaha. later on we did some deep diving mental exercises. we all did 9x9 and 9+9. hmmm...wondered if jeannie was under the effect of nitrogen narcosis. us guys all answered 9x9 as 81 but she answered it as 48. hmmm.... hahahahaha. our next morning dive brought us close to some squids. we also had the chance to swim alongside a school of juvenile barracudas. oooh. it was really a thrill to swim next to the barracudas. as long as they are in a school, we are safe. the moment the barracudas are alone, it is hunting, super not safe. for when a barracuda attacks, it can be as fierce as a shark, with its razor sharp teeth, it could just bite off anything. that's why those wearing ear-studs were advised to take them off as barracudas are attracted to shiny objects. one moment ear stud, next moment half ear left. oooh.....bloody! thankfully no such thing happened during our trip. during our safety stop before surfacing, i suddenly realised my camera had brken off from my suit and had floated away. i was like. OH SHIT! i tried looking around but could not find it. when we broke surface, i searched but still could not see it. we signalled to the boat crew and they managed to see it. THANK HEAVENS! losing the camera would have caused me much monetary grief and loss of photos too. once we returned to shore, i quickly booted up my laptop and proceeded to transfer all the photos into the laptop. at lunch time we bade farewell to richard. he along with a few other instructors were there only for the weekend and had work on monday so they left on Sunday afternoon. he congratulated us on our succeful completion of our course. we are now Advanced Open Water Divers!
the 2 leisure dives we had in the afternoon were great fun and comical too. some mis-read hand signs. bumping of air tanks and the wrong way of deploying the safety sausage. but it was great fun, especially when we went on the drift diving. the current was really strong and we moved really fast. it was really thrilling! we even came up close to a stingray! i have the video footage and picture footage as proof! hah! i quickly got off the shots before people start kicking up the sand again. hahahah. the time honored tradition of passing the course was here again. we gathered out belonging and placed it on the deck. the boat moved to within the shoreline and we all "walked-the plank"! haha. more like we all jumped off the boat's bow. woohoo! when we all walked on to the shore, the scene was reminiscent of the movie land of the living dead. hahahah!
as dayang was pretty desolated, it had only the accomodation, cookhouse and diving equipment store, there was not much entertainment. so we made our own. indra and thomas wrestled on the beach, eric did a pole dance in front of everybody! hahaahh! and later on people were even grabbed and thrown into the sea! thankfully i had went into my room by then and had locked the room door. they even came to my room trying to get me, phew! next time fellas.
this trip was really fun and i made friends with a couple of great people! maybe next year when i return for a leisure dive. more friends? hahaha.
the diving trip to dayang was a great success. the bus journey was surprisingly fast. we got to mersing before 11pm. my roomates were a couple and another guy doing advanced open water course. i didn't interact with them much. i'm not the social kind. i met my fellow dive group mates the next morning. Jeannie, Andy, Daniel, Isaac and myself. we had a very experienced and jovial instructor, richard. our dive group was pretty small, of about 5 people, so it allowed us more flexibility to do more things. our check-out dive was refreshing. after a whole year away from diving, going back down again was simply amazing. i missed the feeling so much!
during the checkout dive, richard brught us around and helped fine-tune our diving skills. On the second dive, we went drift diving. this is where we "ride" the current and go where the current brings us. it was really an exciting experience. it was like woo hooo. hahah! got in a lot of photos. richard even caught a small clown fish and placed it in his mask. hahaha. it was so intresting! we then came up close to a jellyfish. attack of the killer jellyfish more like it, as it was heading for daniel's direction. i did not relise it was there till andy pulled on my fin to signal it to me. seeing the fishes swim in and out of the jellyfis was really intresting. i even got a video clip of it.
Richard With Clown Fish In Mask
KILLER JELLYFISH!
our third dive was the navigation dive. Isaac, Jeannie and myself did ok. Andy, somehow disappeared and we went searching for him but could not find him. he later claimed that he had went down to 30meters depth and realised that he must have been lost, so he did a safety stop and deployed his safety "sausage" before surfacing. haha, talk about kiasuism. Daniel did not fare any better either. well, it could partialy be my fault as i was supposed to accompany him on his square navigation route. the rest of us had chosen to take right turn but he wanted to do left turns. so when i tried to correct him, he got confused and we ended up losing richard, jeannie and isaac. after searching around for a while, i signaled to daniel to surface to try to look for them. when we surfaced, i suggested we descend for another search, and if we could not find them, we head for our boat. he agree and goes our search. in a way, we were pretty lucky, after a brief search, we managed to find them. richard was like, where you guys been? hahahaha.
our night dive was really a very exhirllarating experience. before going down, richard had briefed us on his objective and it was to find the giant sea turtle. when we went in, we turn on our lights and started moving, things really look very different at night. you could hear alot more sounds too. after moving for some time, we were starting to head back when, lo and behold, we found the turtle! it was sleeping when we found it. we approached it slowly and patted and stroked it. hahaha. it was a really intresting experience. we were lucky the turtle did not snap at us. i tried to get some shots off but it was too dark, even at maxumum exposure. after a while the turtle was like, i wanna sleep, and started to take off. at that moment i was hovering right in front of it, i tried to get out of its way but was too slow and got a resounding slap on my cheek by its fin. OW! hahahaha. i managed to get a shot of said fin though.
The Turtle Fin That Slapped ME!
Dawn Over South China Sea
our dawn dive was another eye opener for me. we got up at about 6.45am and i managed to get off a shot of the rising sun. it was so beautiful. highlight of our dawn dive was that we found the white-tip reef shark at 35meters depth! we found a pair of them resting below a rock. in the frenzy when everyone wanted to get a look, i could not get a proper shot with all the sand and silt kicked up. damn. but it was really fun to have seen the sharks. if i stretched, i believed i could have touched its tail but i want my hand so i did not. hahaha. later on we did some deep diving mental exercises. we all did 9x9 and 9+9. hmmm...wondered if jeannie was under the effect of nitrogen narcosis. us guys all answered 9x9 as 81 but she answered it as 48. hmmm.... hahahahaha. our next morning dive brought us close to some squids. we also had the chance to swim alongside a school of juvenile barracudas. oooh. it was really a thrill to swim next to the barracudas. as long as they are in a school, we are safe. the moment the barracudas are alone, it is hunting, super not safe. for when a barracuda attacks, it can be as fierce as a shark, with its razor sharp teeth, it could just bite off anything. that's why those wearing ear-studs were advised to take them off as barracudas are attracted to shiny objects. one moment ear stud, next moment half ear left. oooh.....bloody! thankfully no such thing happened during our trip. during our safety stop before surfacing, i suddenly realised my camera had brken off from my suit and had floated away. i was like. OH SHIT! i tried looking around but could not find it. when we broke surface, i searched but still could not see it. we signalled to the boat crew and they managed to see it. THANK HEAVENS! losing the camera would have caused me much monetary grief and loss of photos too. once we returned to shore, i quickly booted up my laptop and proceeded to transfer all the photos into the laptop. at lunch time we bade farewell to richard. he along with a few other instructors were there only for the weekend and had work on monday so they left on Sunday afternoon. he congratulated us on our succeful completion of our course. we are now Advanced Open Water Divers!
When did I become so slim?
the 2 leisure dives we had in the afternoon were great fun and comical too. some mis-read hand signs. bumping of air tanks and the wrong way of deploying the safety sausage. but it was great fun, especially when we went on the drift diving. the current was really strong and we moved really fast. it was really thrilling! we even came up close to a stingray! i have the video footage and picture footage as proof! hah! i quickly got off the shots before people start kicking up the sand again. hahahah. the time honored tradition of passing the course was here again. we gathered out belonging and placed it on the deck. the boat moved to within the shoreline and we all "walked-the plank"! haha. more like we all jumped off the boat's bow. woohoo! when we all walked on to the shore, the scene was reminiscent of the movie land of the living dead. hahahah!
as dayang was pretty desolated, it had only the accomodation, cookhouse and diving equipment store, there was not much entertainment. so we made our own. indra and thomas wrestled on the beach, eric did a pole dance in front of everybody! hahaahh! and later on people were even grabbed and thrown into the sea! thankfully i had went into my room by then and had locked the room door. they even came to my room trying to get me, phew! next time fellas.
Eric Gets Ready!
Go Eric Go Eric Go!
this trip was really fun and i made friends with a couple of great people! maybe next year when i return for a leisure dive. more friends? hahaha.
Alvin the Advanced Open Water Diver
posted by Prosage at 9:38 pm
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