Malaysia

Because not every moment can be captured by photos, I’m here to note down memories that are precious to me. I do wish I had been more consistent blogging about my travels. More often that not, my memories fade quickly as time passes.

Anyway, third post and possibly the final post on Sipadan (at least until and if I head there again)!

Our accommodation for our dive trip at Sipadan, Seaventures. Here’s where we spent a huge portion of our time during the day in between dives flipping through the fish bible, having our meals and basically doing nothing.

This is also where I would have the ultimate comfort dive food before and after every single dive. The awesome “so da pia” (biscuits) dipped in hot milo with a spoonful of coffee powder! I’m so gonna bring along a huge tin of milo for all of my dive trips!

I usually have pretty low expectations of our accommodation on dive trips since we barely spend any time in our rooms and KO the minute our heads touch the pillow. All I ask for is a clean bed and a clean toilet. Both of which was fulfilled by Seaventures.

This was where we prepared for battle. Well sort of. IT IS a battle getting in and out of our wetsuits. Especially when I wore 3 layers, thermal guard, rashguard and a full suit. IT WAS COLD and it was also an experience sneezing underwater. Hurhur.

The awesome possum lift which is able to take us directly down into/from the water for house reef dives.

The sleeping/lounging area. Cause that’s all we do during dive trips. Dive, eat and sleep.

The group that got lost during our one and only night dive. I was merely following a hermit crab for that ONE SECOND and in the very next moment, it was just us in the darkness. I can’t recall how we ended up with KS and Pam where KS blacked out for a second, we held on to each other attempting to do a slipshod safety stop (which wasn’t required anyway since it was a house reef dive) and ended up ascending a distance away from the lift.

I remember being in awe as I ascended looking directly at the stars filled sky then cursing when I saw how far we had to back fin to the lift. Hehehe.

The gorgeous waters of Sipadan island. I’m a big fan of deep blue diving, feeling like a drop of water in the ocean, just a redundant tiny organism floating in vast waters. I love looking out/away from the reef walls and from other divers, just floating and staring out at an endless blue feeling completely at peace. Before anxiety hits me and I would turn abruptly to make sure that I’m still safely with my group. Hurhur.

Besides, in the deep blue I get to do big and silly actions like somersaults and cartwheels before ending up with a massive ear discomfort.

Oh and it was also during this trip where I felt way more comfortable being in the water and instead of following the group blindly, I spent a lot more time checking out the reef and managed to spot quite a few sea creatures on my own!

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning. Meaning to say, is this a shot of the sunrise or a sunset? Hahaha.

This post was suppose to end with a WOOHOOO! Last post of my 30 days challenge. BUT as life would have it, as I exited the full screen mode, my post disappeared so here I am typing for the second time feeling a tad annoyed and no longer excited.

Photos were taken with my iPhone 3GS.

That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind

Sunset at Kapalai, Sipadan

We took a trip down to Kapalai on one of our evenings at Sipadan just to check it out. To be honest, I very much prefer staying at Seaventures even though the standard of accommodations would probably be very much better at Kapalai.

Firstly, Seaventures is a defunct oil rig. How cool is it to be able to stay on an oil rig especially if you’re not an engineer in the oil and gas industry. Plus, there is a super cool lift that lowers you down directly into the sea and back up when doing house reef dives. AND there is NO better experience than lying on the deck (with my birthday wish of having the lights off) counting shooting stars! Yes, I kid you not. Shooting stars are not as rare as I thought it was. In a span of an hour, I managed to see at least 5 shooting stars! Despite being exhausted from diving, I kept my eyes open for as long as I could just to see the stars. I actually ran out of wishes or probably was too tired to think of anymore. Hahaha.

Well, not that there are no better experience, I mean diving is pretty damn awesome too. But being on the deck counting shooting stars is probably one of my best experiences so far.

That’s Seaventures as seen from Kapalai island.

Sunset shots.

The joys of simply spinning around. I used to do that all the time when I was young. The kids way of getting high. Hahaha.

Evening entertainment for the kids.

Sometimes I do have difficulty ending a post. Like in this case, I’m not too sure what to write. Thus my frank admission of not know how to end this.

There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.

– Frank Herbert

September 19, 2013 0

Open water certification at Pulau Aur

This was a long time ago..

Arrived at Aur to this gorgeous pink sunrise.

The tiny strip of sand where we stayed.

One of our instructors sharing about the dangers in the sea and showing us his scars from a jellyfish sting (thus that face).

What we do during surface intervals.

No underwater photos this time since we were all too busy trying to remember to breath, clearing our masks and our attempts to hover.

… when I was still reading paperbacks. I do miss the smell of new books!

September 6, 2013 0

Diving in Tioman, Berjaya

Tioman island is a relatively affordable dive spot in Asia, especially so for Singaporeans. This was actually my third time to Tioman but my first at an actual resort there. My buddy and I were actually pretty excited about having a heated shower and a proper bathroom.

We usually meet at around 7pm the night before, stop for supper at JB – the best kind of supper ever, loklok!

Then drive down to Mersing jetty to catch a ferry so that we’ll arrive at Tioman jetty early next morning.

Awesome lunch for the scuba people. The food there was great.

Our dive boats, Mariana and Melati. Hurhur.

It was a super fruitful trip despite a horrible first dive where one of our dive mates actually proposed to his girlfriend underwater. I saw nothing. Visibility was horrible, the designated videographer went missing and I was having a splitting headache. I did see the reenactment they did on shore after though. Anyway, we saw black tip sharks, a white and black banded eel and a juvenile yellow box fish! There were even dolphins chasing after our boats!

Speaking of which, we once surfaced from a dive in Maldives and saw a bunch of dorsal fins a couple of meters from us and my heart literally stopped. Thankfully, it wasn’t sharks but just a bunch of dolphins. Hehehehe. Its kinda weird how I always hope to see sharks when I’m diving but at that very moment I felt really afraid. I must say, the movie Jaws has definitely left a lasting impression. I sure most people would panic a little if they see that little grey triangle on the surface of the water.

Keep swimming.

Drinking Ribena underwater because I can. Hahahaha.

Megalodon.

Can’t wait to dive again!

Photos taken by my dive group.

August 30, 2013 1

Diving in Pulau Dayang

Super backdated post. Was looking through my photos for things that made me happy and seeing these photos brought a smile to my face.

Our decision to learning diving happened really spontaneously, random conversations with random people and just like that, we did it about 5 years ago. At the recommendation of a friend, we did our open and advance water course with Mako and the best instructor ever, Patrick.

Our open water was done at Pulau Aur and advance at Pulau Dayang. Looking at this photo, I can’t believe how gorgeous the waters look. Completely unedited. Its like Maldives standard at a fraction of the price.

Our first underwater couple shot any my incredibly cool dragonball hairstyle! Hurhur.

The first few dives were all about remembering to breathe while searching for nemos.

And of course getting excited about turtles and chasing them in a straight line. I wish I could have video down that scene.

My favorite dive was when we did our deep dive at 32m. It wasn’t the depth that made it exciting but the incredibly strong currents. Our instructor had to bring us in twos to hide behind a huge rock but before all of us could reach, the others were already being swept over the rock. Super thankful that while I was enjoying my “rollercoaster/washing machine” dive, my buddy was holding on to me real tight while grabbing onto a “vine”.