Hey all, as some of you know, I recently went up to tioman island in malaysia for my dive trip. Unknown to many, especially my family, NONE of my SP guys or gals went for this dive. And well I had kinda expected it cos they're headed to RIAU this weekend!!!!! ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Cannot stand it! They informed me only after I had made the arrangements for my tioman trip! Shit man! Was so sad la. But hey God has ways to cheer us all up! :D I would like to apologise for not having any pics as I didn't wanna bring my camera and risk getting it wet or stolen!
20th June 2008 Friday
I had received the time and venue for to meet up with the guys for the dive. It was to be at the junction of river valley road and mohammed sultan road at 630 pm. Spent the day at Nigel's place with him and Jeannine just chilling out and we ate Mac's. Ordered in cos we were too lazy to drag our bums out of the door and head to Compass barely 5 minutes away! Wahaha! What a joke! Anyways, after we ate, I had to take my leave. When I reached home, I expected to see my family hurrying me to check my stuff for the trip. But no, the house was quiet... So silent you could hear a pin hit the floor... They were still on the way back from Genting. They had spent 4 days there and I missed all 3 of them so much. It felt worse cos I had to leave before I could see them. I don't know why I felt so sad but yeah... Guess I'm just a big softie! Anyway, grabbed all my gear and headed to compass point to take the train to Clark Quay. I had NO idea I was gonna be that early or I would have left my house at 545 instead of 515pm! So i reached the place and saw no one who looked remotely close to be going on a dive trip. But I didn't notice a couple whom I'd later realise I'd be diving with; Janice and Chee Wee. So i sat there by my lonesome and lit up a ciggy, hoping that my dive instructor; Kiat, would soon show up. But I was there at 6! So how could I be silly and expect him to show up that early? Haha! Anyway after waiting for 30 minutes, I finally saw a silver van with a familiar face inside pull up at the sidewalk. Kiat popped out and upon seeing me gave a big grin. It was good to see all the familiar faces again, Travis, his gal, Dom and Kiat. What I didn't know was that only Dom would be going this time round as both Kiat and Travis had stuff on! Darn! I was feeling more nervous by the heartbeat! But hey no worries right? So I joined the rest of the guys and gals to "sign our lives away" via the indemnity forms! Some ate afterwards but I lost my appetite. Soon after Kait and Travis with his girl left and it was Dom, myself and a bunch of people I hardly knew. Thankfully most of them smoke too! Haha! What an ice-breaker! So after all of whom were eating had finished, we gathered at the rally point, Which was directly opposite Simply Scuba's outlet in SG. The bus arrived and we proceeded to load up and get on the bus. The ride was rather boring though they did play Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I still felt my nerves knotted up. But I did however spot a girl with a pleasant disposition. Hehe! Customs went well and nothing and nobody was delayed. So on we pushed into the night. At our first stop after we reached Malaysia, I immediately hit the petrol kiosk's counter and asked for none other than a pack of Dunhill Reds! Man that first drag felt oh so good! :D Chatted a while with the newbie divers, whom signed up with Diventures, and we were on the bus and off to Mersing! Or at least so I thought! Haha! We ended up in some isolated village with rundown jetty but at least the boat was ready and waiting. Almost fell when i jumped off the jetty into the boat! Thankfully some nice deckie kept me from hitting the deck! As soon as we loaded up, I felt the engine of the boat thunder to life. I only say thunder because it was DAMN loud! The boat ride was to last us 2 and a half hours and it was not an air-conditioned boat, thankfully! The last trip in an air conditioned boat I just about froze to death! Haha! Since I couldn't sleep, I headed out to the dive equipment area to have a smoke. What else?!!! Wahaha! Met a nice chap by the name of Jason there. So we chatted for a while and he went to try to get some shut eye. After a few more sticks I too headed back in to try and catch a few Zs. Only knocked off with about half an hour to spare till we hit tioman. Darny! We hit the island at close to 330 am and we were briskly assigned our rooms and keys. It just so happened that the guy I was sitting next to in the bus was to be my roommate! Thus Chin Tiong, Michael and yours truly headed up to chalet 7B to knock out. And that's exactly what we did!
20th June Saturday
I felt a small nudge on my leg from Chin Tiong and when i looked at my watch it already read 745am! Time to get up and at them! So did the usual morning rituals and headed off to the breakfast area! Along the way, I spotted that cute DM again! :D:D Such a nice start to my morning! After breaky we headed to the boat and proceeded to gear up and prepare for the 1st dive of the trip. Surprisingly I prepared my gear without much trouble!! Once we reached the dive site, I was assigned my dive buddy, Hua Chyi, a rather buff but really nice chap! As we donned our gear, my heart started pounding and I began praying that the dive would go well. At the entry platform I was almost shaking outta fear that something would go wrong. But as I took the giant stride and landed in the water, all the fear seemed to ebb away and I felt surprisingly comfortable. Once all my group's divers had entered the water, Hua Chyi and I proceeded to herd them toward to morring line with which we would descend. I did a free decent with Hua Chyi and we supervised the rest as the came down the morring line. I was so captivated by the marine life around me that I almost drifted away from the group. Hua Chyi and I finned around the place and never strayed too far from the group. He and I were leisure divers this trip but still I felt safer when I was nearer the group. Malang rock is simply beautiful underwater! Many species of grouper and other reef denizens swam around us almost oblivious to our intrusion into their domain. Swallow tailed darts came in dozens to grace us with their presence. Euphoric was how I truly felt whilst 12 metres below the surface. Before long we had to surface as time and air were growing short. Ascending wasn't a problem as Hua Chyi had a dive computer! Haha! I gotta get me one of those! Immediately upon boarding the boat I swapped my tank in anticipation for the next dive! Whilst in transit to the next dive location, Renggis, I logged my first dive in close to 8 months! At Renggis, the current flowed fast and furious and though a little intimidated, I still hardly hesitated as I all but flew into the water. Finning to the morring line, I watched as the newbies hit the water and proceeded to join up with me at the morring line. This time I went down with the morring line as I knew the current was the fastest I'd have ever felt. Since Dom had earlier told Hua Chyi and myself to help look out for the newbies during the dives, I let go to allow them space to descend. However, some of them had the grand idea of letting go as well! not funny really... We almost got separated and ended up resurfacing not more than 10 minutes into the dive! Damn we got our butts whipped (verbally) on the surface at the floating platform, where we could anchor ourselves, by Dom. He was furious and well lets say it wasn't anything nice to hear or repeat here. But he decided that we could and should give the dive another shot and soon were back on the bottom! :D This time we all crowded at the base of yet another morring line put in place to secure the floating platform. And soon enough we were drifting like plankton along the seabed. And though we didn't see very much it was still a great experience to be under the surface again. Once again time seemed to have shot by as Dom was quickly deploying his inflatable marker to show the boatmen where we were! Suddenly he shoved to reel of line attached to the marker, incidentally called a sausage cos of its shape, into my hands and visually instructed me to keep the line taught. I looked around to see why he left me with this task and found out that one of the newbies had some difficulties. But in an instant, the problem was solved and I returned to reel of line to Dom. Surfacing was slow and once we hit the surface, I realised that we had drifted and long long way from where we entered the water. But thankfully the boat was already waiting for us. As I was getting back onto the boat, I had trouble removing one of my fins and stupidly let go of the ladder and the next thing I knew, I was drifting away from the boat! But before I could panic and drown myself, a buoy attached to a line was flung my way and I held on for dear life as the DMs pulled me in. I got back on board the boat a little shaken but fine. I stripped my gear off and stowed it away and went to look for my dive log so I could pen down what we did. We headed back to the resort in record time, mainly cos I think the current helped out. On the jetty, whilst walking back to the resort, I fell into pace with Yuen Yi aka the cute DM! Hehe! Exchanged some small talk about the dives and I headed rather quickly, to my amusement, to the dining area while for some reason she headed back to the boat. Lunch was a rather quick affair, I gobbled down my food and went in search of the rest of my group. I found them at one of the eateries and joined them. Since I had my share of food and was feeling rather full, I just sat there and chatted with them whilst they ate and DAMN! Their food looked better than what was served for lunch! We all just about rotted whilst waiting 2 hours for the boat to be ready but once it was given the all clear, I all but ran to the boat and almost flew in! Haha! After some of the Japanese divers had cleared the equipment area, we got to work setting up our own equipment. A short while later, we were at Tumuk Bay! Decended without a problem and proceeded to oversee the newbies come down. Hua Chyi and I stayed near the decent point and finned around for a while, and saw a pair of beautiful angelfish! Currents weren't as bad as Renggis but still we could feel the drift so Dom split us into 2 groups; Hua Chyi and I took 2 divers while he took the other 2 as Nick couldn't dive due to a sinus problem. I almost followed the wrong group and got lost! How silly can I get! But Dom pointed me in the direction of Hua Chyi and I finned like hell to reach them. We finned around for a while and regrouped with Dom and the rest. We saw many species especially when Dom cracked open a sea urchin. The smaller wrasse all but flew in to get a feed. After some more finning around I saw a lone sweet lip and it nonchalantly passed me by. Soon it was time to surface again and when we did, I realised that I still had half a tank left! What the heck man! But yeah that was the last dive of the day for me and most of the rest. But I think it was enough as I was almost dozing off when waiting for the boat. I could not go on the night dive which was planned for later! what a bummer! But yeah I consoled myself with a nice RAMLY BURGER! It tastes better over there! Haha! After which, I went to look for Dom who was with Nick and another gal whose name I have forgotten! Oops! But yeah they had prata and it was really nice. A little cold but still crispy! Puts Jalan Kayu to shame man! After finishing the remaining prata, we went in search of BEER! Dom bought a few cans and we sat down to chill out! But the barbecue looked too tempting to refuse! So I went over to grab some grub with Nick. He brought back mutton and chicken wings while I brought back coleslaw and fried rice. The mutton and squid was excellent! Man some of the best I've had so far at a barbecue! Our mini drinking session was paused for a while as Janice, Chee Wee and the other gal went to take their diving theory tests. So Nick and I discussed photography while awaiting the continuation of our drinking session. Janice and Chee Wee were nice enough to buy us 2 more jugs prior to going in for the test. But me being rather sensible had only about 3 pints worth. Soon after, I observed the night divers had returned and Hua Chyi joined us for drinks too! Then I spotted her, Yuen Yi, from a far as she sat there alone eating her dinner. I was extremely tempted to join her but kinda feared she had a boyfriend which I learned when we reached back to SG that she wasn't! So instead I confined myself to drinking and munching with the rest. Before long I was beginning to feel really sleepy and the rest did too. So we packed up and disposed of the trash and went to our respective rooms to K.O! Haha! But before we returned to our rooms, Dom reminded us that the boat was to leave at 745am the next day! Holy crap! How was I gonna wake up?! So I informed my 2 roomies about the timings and they nicely offered to wake me up!
22nd June 2008 Sunday
At 700am, I heard Chin Tiong talking to Micheal and I knew it was time to get up. We were due for breaky at 715am at the dining area. Did the usual morning stuff and headed up to the "mess hall". En route, I met Yuen Yi (YY) and we went up together. She sat with Lawrence, another DM from deep blue, as I went to grab my toast. We chatted a little over breaky with Chin Tiong, Micheal and Lawrence in attendance and after that I went to the room to grab my dive log and stuff. I rushed to the boat fearing it would leave without me aboard but found that I was actually rather early. Haha! The sky on the previous day was great and it was sunny but today it was cloudy and over cast. It looked rather depressing. But off we set for the marine park to dive among wrecks! Once there our group was the first to hit the water and we all went straight to the mooring line to descend. Waves were big and the sea choppy... Not a great sign... I was first to descend again and when I reached the bottom, I immediately began adjusting my buoyancy to attain neutral buoyancy. But half way doing that I noticed a funny shape on the bottom moving toward where I was finning, to my astonishment it was a STONE FISH! Immediately I warned the next few divers not to step on it for it would screw up their day and possibly compromise their lives! But as soon as we were all down, Dom directed us toward the wreck. My dive buddy this time was Chee Wee, whom oddly enough ended up pairing with Janice! Wahaha! So I finned on the outside of the group and hung around Dom as Hua Chyi was more interested in the wreck than sticking with the group. Haha! But hey who could blame him? So we finned around some more checking out the residents of the reef but when I next checked my air, I was running low due to a leaky submersible pressure gauge and a faulty O ring! At 30 odd minutes I was fast approaching 500 PSI meaning I was seriously running out of air. Signaling to Dom my situation, he and I shared air for the last 10 minutes of the dive. I surfaced with my own air supply as we weren't down that deep so as we finned back to the boat, we met up with more newbies from the other group. Dom and I allowed the rest to board the boat before we went up and those stupid waves made it harder to get my fins off! But all went well or I wouldn't be here sharing it now would I? After all the divers had been accounted for, we headed back to Renggis for our last dive of the trip... Sooo Sad... :( But yes this time Renggis was more accommodating and the currents were better. Nick still couldn't descend so he sat out the dive and while getting to Renggis, Janice came down with a bout of sea sickness and so did a few others. I felt fine as I had been on boats before and had gotten used to the rocking motion. When we reached, all of us hit the water with the exception of Nick and descended without a problem. This time no one let go of the mooring line! But Janice still felt sick so Dom brought her up to ther surface where the dive boat picked her up and we proceeded to dive without Dom for a while. He joined us soon after though and Hua Chyi and him proceeded to feed fish with urchins again! Haha! Hua Chyi then pulled a prank on Dom by removing one of his fins and the started an underwater royal rumble! Wahaha! It was hilarious! But that dive was great as I saw a RAINBOW RUNNER AND A GOLDEN TREVALLY amongst schools of bludger trevallies! So yeah it was great! But that damned SPG of mine still leaked air and though under for just 45 minutes I had already reached 100 PSI! Danger Danger Danger! But Dom was there to share air with me once again! Thanks Dom! When we hit the boat we dismantled all the gear and packed them back into their respective bags and left them on board. Upon reaching the island, we went back to our rooms to shower and pack up and have lunch! On the way back to the boat, I spied YY at the equipment area with Chin Tiong and took the opportunity to join them! As we were about to embark on the journey back to mersing, we noticed that Janice and Chee Wee had yet to board and Dom had the boatman sound the horn numerous times to alert them. Finally, they boarded and we began the 2 hour plus ride to mersing. Barely 5 minutes into the journey, YY motioned tripping Chin Tiong and kicking him into the water! Cheeky! But I Like! WAHAHA! I played along and pretended to push him in! We both broke out into silent laughter. And all this while he had his back turned to us! If only he knew of the very evil schemes plotted against him! Wahaha! YY and I soon fell into conversation about ourselves and the dive trip. :D Oddly enough fishing came into the picture! Obviously my doing! Haha! But yeah, thoroughly enjoyed the conversation! Soon she went back into the cabin to get some shut eye and after a stick, so did I. It was warm but I was too tired to really care and soon fell off to sleep. I woke when we had docked and helped to get my stuff off the boat and carry it to our coach. Smoked a little more and before long, we were on the road back to Tuas. We stopped at another station to have a little food and back on the road agian. we finally reached SG at about 9pm. While waiting for my parents, I took the opportunity to ask YY for her number and she obliged me with a smile. I carelessly copied the wrong number into my phone and well lets say I didn't receive a reply that night. Haha. Silly me! My parents arrived soon after and we headed home. Once home, I unpacked all my stuff and washed all my gear. Then had some dinner and relaxed for a while. I Finally fell asleep at 3 plus am and the worse part was I had tests the next day and all through my dive trip I had nothing to study as all my notes were left in my room! Oh wells. Thats another story for another time! The dumbest thing about my trip was that i packed fishing gear but never used it! DAMN! Oh well till I next blog, ciao mates and take it easy!
