5.22.2006
Pulau Aur'06
19/5-21/5
My first diving trip!!! I was soooo excited, I couldn't eat a proper dinner on Friday night before setting off. Actually, i was probably more kanchiong than excited, since I'd only attended one pool lesson before the trip. It was... a gabra lesson.
Example:
The giant stride entry
I was supposed to make a giant stride into the water. BUT, I closed my legs just before entry. Coupled with the fact that I'd forgotten to inflate my BCD, I promptly sank to the bottom of the pool.
My instructor pulled me up and started shouting at me to inflate my BCD, while I was still very calmly clearing my mask. However, I mixed up the inflate/ deflate buttons and kept pressing the deflator, when there was already nothing to deflate! Some more shoutings and then i realised that I was pressing the wrong button.
So i inflated my BCD with a few squirts of air.
Instructor: If i let you go will you sink?
Me: No?
So he let go, and i sank...
Maluating!
Considering the gabra-ness of that lesson, my 5 dives were surprisingly okay...
Take a look!
These pics were obviously not taken by me, but rather my dive master. I have no underwater camera and even if I did, I think I'd smash into corals and various poisonous stuff while trying to hover and take pictures!
This was taken just before the small boat came to bring us to the big boat.
My dive group
The island is so laid-back there's no jetty. We have to wade out to the small boat, which is normally not a problem. Sometimes the tide is low though, and we end up having to step over sharper stones. Our dive master laughed at all of us waddling and hobbling our way to shore after our 4th dive. He didn't have a problem cos he was wearing booties!
Here's us kneeling on the sand bed after performing some skills in our first dive.
My dive group
I'm the fourth one holding on to my regulator and emitting medium-sized bubbles. Fahria is not here cos she had problems equalizing.
It's a sandy bottom without much reefs so there wasn't much fish. We saw the blue and gold fusilier here though. As an introduction to the amazing underwater world, it was good enough! I was awed for quite awhile.
And this is one of me!
Me!
I console myself by concluding that nobody looks good underwater.
We saw the juvenile many-spotted sweetlips on our 2nd dive. Chye Tuan says we were extremely lucky as it's not very common.
Juvenile many-spotted sweetlips
It's one of those fish that grows up to look completely different!
Some more pictures of the juvenile many-spotted sweelips, taken by Chye Tuan
Barracudas spotted!
Barracudas
I was so excited I turned around and nudged Shihao underwater while pointing vigorously to the school of barracudas. When I turned back, however, I realised I was pointing at nothing! They had gone!
We saw the blue-spotted fantail ray a total of 3 times during our 3rd dive. But lousy me only noticed the last one
Blue-spotted fantail ray
Again, Chye Tuan told us we were lucky cos they're not extremely common and they like to hide.
My solo head
Forgot why I was the only one at the surface. Ah Ma says I look scary, like i've been dacapitated!
This is one of all of us after surfacing from our 3rd dive.
Lang Bay, Pulau Lang
Susu is missing here, cos she kept ascending and couldn't keep up. Lousy buddy me mistook Wanning for her and happily finned away in front for quite awhile before realising that I was following the wrong buddy!!! Before yall start commenting on how lousy I am, can I remind you that it is very difficult to recognise people underwater...
But of course there wasn't any danger, another dive master was with her at the back all the while.
Susu miming puking
Puke!
Poor Susu discovered that she suffers from major seasickness just before the 1st dive! After striding into the water, she puked up 2 fresh blended bananas consumed for breakfast, which proved to be major attraction to the fish. I wasn't around to witness it though.
After this picture was taken i came out to sit between Susu and Ah Ma, and we spotted a dead puffer floating some distance away as we were roaring back to shore. Ah well, if I can't see a live puffer, I gotta settle for dead one! The dead one was puffed up.
Spotted this during the 4th dive! Finally! Before this I just kept seeing anemones with no anemone fish.
Nemo found?
I must say I'm super grateful to Chye Tuan for his crash course on tropical marine life. If not i'd just name every clown fish Nemo! Saw the pink anemone fish as well, no pic though.
We requested to have this pic taken just before our last dive, with our scuba gear on.
With our gear
I was super grateful for the seat behind which supported my tank. In fact, my dive master said it was just the right height for me. All I had to do to relieve the weight of the tank was to stand and let the tank rest on the seat! Gah. The gear is the least enjoyable part of diving. I was staggering around on board before and after every dive. Some more of that and I might get a slipped disc =X
We took some fresh bananas down for our last dive to feed some lucky fish. I stuffed mine in my BCD pocket and offered another to Wanning. While descending, I noticed a banana floating around and chased after it. Thereafter I held it in my hand for almost the whole dive. Before our dive master indicated that we could start feeding the fish, the banana in my hand had already started to attract some black and white fish. I was a bit scared initially, but thought afterward that any fish that liked banana so much would not be likely to be too interested in my fingers!
Random
This photo just shows how random we all are. All at different depths while feeding banana to the fish. Afterwards Chye Tuan told us we were feeding the Indo-Pacific Sergeant.
I only remembered my own banana after the last dive when I was keeping my BCD, it fell out to rest near my feet.
All in all it was a great time!! There are so many other things I saw that we don't have photos of. The batfish, various butterfly and angelfish, giant clam, some sea cucumber, starfish and many other corals... And there were things that my dive group saw but I missed! Like the moorish idol and the sea turtle... If I ever go on another diving trip, I expect I'd be more interested in photos of marine life and not ugly underwater photos of divers that all look the same. Didn't get to see any lionfish or sharks. I'd like to see some reef sharks!
Till then, save $$$...Labels: aur, diving, travel
