Mum's Birthday Present for Me

It was an all-expenses-paid dive trip to Redang the weekend just before school started! After about 10-odd bumpy hours on the coach and a 30-minute puke-inducing boat ride (not me), I finally arrived at Redang Kalong Resort.

For this trip, I brought along the new underwater housing for my G10 that the Ktowy gang got for my birthday. Just to play safe, I placed tissue paper in the interior of the housing instead of the camera itself for my first dive. Once we surfaced and the tissue paper looked dry enough, I replaced it with the G10 and brought it down with me for my second dive.

Descending with the housing was a problem at first. I didn't know what to do with all that extra air in my hands, and let it hang loose and allowing it to pull me up towards the surface when I (later learnt that I) really should have kept a tight grip on it.

let's go diving!

The visibility of the waters at Redang is the best that I've had in all three locations in Malaysia that I've been to; 15-odd metres when it was good. Anyway, we spotted quite a few bumphead parrot-fishes around; one or two smaller ones when we first descended, and a group of twelve really huge (!) ones for the third or fourth dives. They were chomping on coral when we spotted them, and looking at how they feed made me wonder how scary it'd be for one of them to suddenly come charging at us. Anyway, I had a really nice dream of them (and some sawsharks) two days back... it was beautiful.

in b/w so that it shows clearer

Another big creature that was seen was this big, brown ray lying on the sandy sea-bed. The usual rays that I've seen are the blue-spotted ones so this was really a first for me. I think they have a really bad reputation after the Steve Irwin accident, but seriously, they're pretty harmless if you leave them alone and just observe them from a distance.

can you spot the blue-spot?

Another first for me was the porcupine fish. I think it's one of the cutest fishes that I've ever seen, and I'm sure it'll be too when it blows itself up. My dive-mates and me were trying to decide if it was a pufferfish, or a really big boxfish (they're all in the same family)... until I saw the spines on its body while taking a look at the pictures. Stare hard enough and you'll see the spines too.

I spotted my first spanish dancer (a little pink one with yellow feelers) for the trip right after this shy, spiny fellow decided to hide under a coral plate. The porcupinefish must be my lucky fish or something!

Some of the smaller creatures that were spotted...

not too unfamiliar?

This is probably the one species that everyone is more or less familiar with, but they have cousins who look a little different from them too. Anyway, I think clownfishes are a beginner's favourite photography subjects. Reason being, they never wander off too far from their homes (the anemones) and they always look at divers so inquisitively and adorably that you cannot help but want to take a picture of them. Hur.

it retracts into its hole when it senses danger.

I think this is a tube-worm; the feather-like looking creature, correct me if I'm wrong. They remind me a lot of christmas tree decorations; I guess its christmas tree worm cousins gave me that idea.

And presenting to you....

the fattest starfish that you'd probably have never seen before! I didn't even realize it was a starfish until I saw there were actually 5 sides to it. This is the Pincushion Star, and it is usually mistaken for a rock of some sort (who is to blame though, really). One of our divemasters picked it up and there were tiny shrimps scooting around on it; cute.

And when there weren't any big interesting creatures around, I was busy looking for smaller creatures... like this nudibranch!

one of the more common ones around

People seem to like taking pictures of these sea slugs, and that's probably because they make really interesting photography subjects, especially the spanish dancers. They're quite fun to look for; it becomes something like a treasure hunt sort of thing.

angels.

Moorish Idols used to be one of my favourite fishes when I was 10 or 11; I used to think they look really elegant and graceful, with their long fins trailing above them as they swim about, like angels.

I had really nice dives there, though the variety of fishes and creatures spotted were more or less the same as what you can get at Dayang/Tioman, the visibility was much better, and I'm looking forward to heading back soon! If there's any way to arrive in Redang without the long bus ride, that'll be perfect.

underwater playground.

Till the next dive trip!

Awesome much?

The first one blew me away with its magnificence; the music worked too. Made me super emo and it also made me feel like jumping in for a swim, petting the whale sharks, just blow bubbles and fin all around.

The second video will surely make you smile; it's cuteness beyond words, though I don't usually listen to these kinda songs.

Tioman 8th - 10th May 09

My short getaway has finally arrived. This will be my second visit to Tioman, and my fourth dive trip. I was too lazy to whip out my camera, so credits to Shiqi, Cheelong and Chenghong for all the pictures in this entry.

the water looks welcoming, don't it?

The trip didn't start off very smoothly. We shared the bus with another three divers from Apache (I think), of which one guy was late, super late. I was totally looking forward to the petrol kiosk toilet break to fill my nearly empty (and rumbling) stomach with some hot instant noodles so you imagine my dulan face when one of the dive masters told us we had no time for a stopover because of that guy.

The rest of the group brought up that the driver sped throughout, but I thought it wasn't that bad. I guess I'm more or less accustomed to such driving... Hm. Or it could be that I was sleeping quite comfortably (due to my hunger) half the time. Heh. We reached the jetty about 30 minutes after we were supposed to have boarded the ferry, and lugged our stuff onboard to meet up with the other half of the group who were already there.

Instead of spending a night at Mersing this time round, we were heading straight to Tioman. I actually prefer it this way, lesser haste in the morning when we wake up. The sky became overcast with dark clouds as we made our way to the island; the lightning that streaked across the skies looked really intimidating and yet beautiful at the same time. Ominous, and foreboding...

in my red bandana, taken with kaiming's G10.

We slept in a different area this time round; I guess that's mainly because the 'Tioman Season' is in full swing right now and the rooms we had the last time round are taken up by the other non-diving holiday makers. The rooms were much bigger (so are the beds), and I can't thank god enough for hot water showers.

The dives this time round were only so-so, as compared to most of all my previous dives. I don't remember any previous dives where the visibility was as poor as this round's, and I didn't spot any turtles or baracudas this time down, or something that's more noteworthy than the spanish dancers. Without such noteworthy spottings, the dives were just not as satisfying. 

Yes, call me a spoilt diver. Nonetheless, I'm still thankful I get to dive okay.

with the Mok sisters, in the bikini that Siao got me from LA

Okay la, less interesting sights is not necessarily a bad thing. It meant more time to play around with my buoyancy. It's definitely better than when I first started; better hovering now, and learnt to make use of my breathing to control the buoyancy. I'm quite happy with two weights now (hey I'm sinking!), but I think I should play around a little more and try using just one the next dive.

Equalizing was quite a breeze this time round too; read: no more nose bleeds phew.

with sx; so nice to bend down eh :p

And after we talked about how we got thirsty underwater (all that dryness in your mouth with the regulator in it) sometimes, our divemaster, Kaiming made it known that you could actually drink Ribena underwater. SX and me brought a packet down each after. It felt so surreal okay; I was marvelling at the whole idea of drinking water underwater as I took my very first sip, and I guess I was too fascinated with the drinking process to notice that I was holding my breath.

Go read page where I linked to, pretty interesting.

deck. lovely weather.

And while I didn't manage to savour enough of the BBQ dinner we had the last time trip because of the night dive we had to go for, I made up for all of that this time round. Loaded my plate with chicken wings, squid, fish and I-can't-remember-what; dinner is the meal I look forward to most on dive trips. I love BBQ dinners la, especially when I'm not the one doing the barbecuing. It might not be the best, but it was definitely tasty enough for me. 

I love licking my fingers clean after a really satisfying meal.

shiqi's bending down to take a shot with me too... I feel embarrassed as I am typing this hahah

And I realized my love for ice lollies with jelly cores on this trip.

yum yum

I had like, seven of these in less than 36 hours. Very shiok I tell you, the ice on the outside is sour and will make your face giu when you suck or take a bite out of it, but the iciness of it makes the sourness alright. And the jelly core... it's sweet and absolutely a delight to sink my teeth into. 

The group started making fun of my appetite after they saw me on my 4th stick. hur.

1 dive instructor, 3 dive masters, 2 leisure divers, 2 advanced divers and 12 open-water divers

First trip to have a female divemaster (bottom row, extreme right lady beside me), and she shared a room with us. She's a really nice person, because she had the ice lollies with me! Felix and Rico didn't join us this time round; Felix is down with some virus that cut him off from scuba (hope he gets well soon), and Rico was diving in Phuket.

SX tried to press me down, I jumped up and hit his chin. This is the aftermath; don't worry, I wasn't in pain, laughing actually... haha

Oh and before I forget, one of the funniest (and probably worst) things to happen when you're on a dive trip is when you get left behind on the island while everyone else is making their way to the dive sites. I couldn't stop laughing when Kaiming asked the other divemasters where one of the two advanced divers was, and everyone realized that he did not board the dive boat in two seconds. (I'm still laughing as I type this) There was no signal out there as we were at sea, so it was impossible to make a call back to the main island to check; and basically, that poor chap was just stuck at the jetty as we made our subsequent dive. Tsk tsk SX...

Shit happens and I guess we're all glad he's stuck on the main island instead of out at the dive sites. Hahaha, don't say I zek ark, it's only human nature.

And that's about it for this trip!