Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Dive trip in 2009

Somehow or another, i was convinced to go on a dive trip to Tioman to do my advanced diving course. I needed a break. From everything. This was my 2nd trip to Tioman for diving but it was my 1st land dive. Took the ferry to Tioman and was shocked how Tioman had changed in just a year. The water at the port, which used to be clear, was now muddy and yellow. It saddens me how a beautiful place had transformed over time. It was raining when we arrived. I was disappointed when the dive centre informed us that it wasn't safe for us to dive that day as the island was hit by a monsoon the day before.

What to do, suck thumb sit at the restaurant and had lunch. Meantime, went around exploring the island.

This is the dive centre i had signed up with to do my advance diving - Tioman Reef Divers. I strongly recommend this place as their facilities and equipment are quite complete with the staff is so friendly and nice!! And the prices of the courses are affordable.

I heard that the owner of this place, after marrying the Japanese wife, settled down on this island and opened up their dive centre. I am so envious of the lifestyle they had with their 2 kids. Compared to the life in Singapore, instead of the fast-paced life, this place, is like heaven to me.

Inside the dive shop....

See the painting above? It's actually painted by a artist who dives at Tioman regularly. Each time he is there, he paints a portion and continues from where he started at the next dive. Damn real life like.

My chalet-like dwelling for the next few days.

I'm taking Naui Advanced, although my open water was with PADI.

Doing the advance course means that I had to complete the following:

- search and recovery

- night dive

- shore diving

-wreck diving

- Using the dive computer

- deep diving

and more.

I'm more excited about doing the night dive, cause i heard that it's totally different from diving in the day. Can't see much and your whole life depends on your buddy and the torchlight. Besides that, you can expect to see more creatures that only come out in the night.

Finally the sky cleared. And i went for my first dive in the year. Man, it was good to breathe the compressed air again after so long and playing around with my buoyancy. Visibility wasn't that good because of the bad weather. Couldn't get clear pictures too. :(

For the next few days, i woke up, eat, dive, smoke, sleep, dive, eat, dive. Did all my tests, but had difficulty in using the dive computer, which made me looked like a fool circling the ocean floor. Every diving experience is so different. Totally felt so carefree~

The few dives i did, i think the most exciting would be cave diving, we swam in caves and i hit the wall of the cave a couple of things. Luckily i didn't hurt myself. Went to many famous wrecks and saw many kinds of fishes. Was rather disappointed with the night dive, all i could see were the sea urchins which covered almost the whole of the seabed.

In the evenings when we were not diving, we hang around at the island drinking and chatting with the new diving friends we made on the trip.

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