Dive #9 - Last Dive!!

Last dive already!!! so fast!!! why time seems to fly by faster when you were enjoying yourself!!

This last dive, Ee Tse wanted me to work on my bouyancy control without finning!!! but I kept falling backwards, cos my tank and weights heavy lah!!

YES!! I AM CERTIFIED!!!

Now the most dreadful part of this journey!! the boat and bus ride back to civilisation!!

4 hours of boat ride!!! then dont know how many hours on the bus!!

I slept through the whole boat ride, but couldnt slept through the bus ride, it was so bumpy!!!

Dive #8 - Deep Dive

Before the deep dive, I double checked the equalisation technique again as yesteday I seemed to have more ear block than usual. And it turned out, I really have done it wrong!!! no wonder I felt pain lah!!

Lucky i checked if not i dont think I could go deep!! hahaha

In order to check if we were high on nitrogen in deeper depth, we were to answer some questions in the depth of about 25m!!! to make sure we were still sane and logical hahahaha

So, we descended to the sea bed and kneeled there and took our turns to answer 2 questions, one to write our name in reverse, and the other a MATH question!! Imagining doing a long multiplication underwater!!!

Maybe I did blur a bit cos I did my maths wrong! hahhahahaa

We didnt stay at 25 m for very long, we dived about 18-20 m most of the time, looking around for treasure hahahahaha and i saw a long squid then just hovered there quietly quietly not stirring any attention but i saw it!!! IT WAS A SQUID ABOUT 1 METRE LONG!!! my gosh!!!!

This morning we were all overslept, no time to eat breakfast, change and go :P

Dive #7 - NIGHT DIVE

oh my gosh!!! this was so exciting!! diving at night!! Armed with a torch, and we were to go!

But first, before we dived anywhere, Ee Tze (our advanced instructor), wants to do a reciporal compass navigation in the dark waters!!!

While waiting for the rest to do the navigation, we covered the lights and waved frantically in the water, and the phatom started to illuminate themselves around us, so beautiful!!! It was like you were surrounding by glistening stars!!! WOW!!!

We dived around the waters with our torches and searching for the wonderful beings, what a thrill!!! hahahahaha

And Ee Tze found a Moray Eel guiding his hole!! I saw this on TV!! And now I was it with my own eyes, LIVE!!!!

The sea was silent and dark, empty darkness? But you and I all know that it is definitely not empty. In this VAST waters, there are so many creatures unknown to us.

4 dives today!!! wow cool!! and there was a BBQ waiting for us at the shore. This was our last night at the island, the fun and excitement coming to an end soon. It has had been fun knowing all this great people!!

We played charade till past midnight then reluctantly went to bed as we still have 2 more morning dives before we leave Aur.

Dive #6

Drift Diving is to allow yourself to be carried by the current underwater and drift along the corals. My gosh, this was difficult, as i cant help it but to fin, and as I did, obviously I moved faster but if i didnt fin, i will bump onto the sea floor!!! Ahh my bouyancy control still needed to work on more!!!

We could see more corals in the reef, many many small little fishes and sea slugs and huge sea cucumber, star fishes, huge clams!!

Dive #5

Ok I was promoted!!! hahahaha moving on to advanced. Apparently I was the only who signed for the combo package where I will achieve both Open Water and Advanced Open Water in one weekend!!!

First Dive in the advanced group, we have to do a compass navigation in the water. Yesterday last dive I did a recipocal compass navigation, today we have to do a square!

Reading a compass was no problem, staying in a spot underwater needed some skills hahahahahaha thanks goodness I have learnt to control my bouyancy better.

After the dive, I joined Atiqah and Dian and WeeLing up at the deck for tanning,hahahahaha of course, before I went up, I slapped onto myself large amount of sunblock!! Looking far out to the horizon did minimise the motion sickness.

Dive #4

This was my last dive with the open water group, as after this dive, I will move on to the advanced group.

Open water group ....

My roommates, Atiqah and Dian, 2 very fun malay girls :)

Lilian and Hui Yuan, brother and sister pair.

Darren and Wee Ling, colleagues from PA

Alicia, our Instructor

Jo, our Dive Master

Dive #3

The sleep did me GOOD!! I was able to enjoy this dive so much better!! And having already performed all the skills necessary for the day, this dive was a leisure one!! Ahhh nice ....... with a more relaxing frame of mind, I was able to control my bouyancy so much better!!! YES!!!

We saw so many fishes that I dont even what they are!! How I wish I have a camera to capture what I see!! Hmm, I will get that camera next trip!!!!!

Oh I saw a small school of baracudas!!! the young ones, so quite safe!! If it was a single adult hunting mode one, would be scary!! kekekeke

I remember our salt water tank in our old office, and it's like I was swimming in this gigantic fish tank looking for these fishes!!! hahahaha so amazing!!!

3 dives in a day!! wow!!! it was amazing and also very tiring!! when we went back to the island, we were dead tired but excited kekekekekeke

Dive #2

My gosh!! I simply dont understand how can we be going out to the boat right after lunch!!! In view of that, I have eaten very little so as to minimise any possibility of me puking in the boat!!!

To me, the most terrifying time was when we were getting ready our equipment for dive, i think it was called "Rig Out". Terrifying not because I have to figure what goes where, etc, that was absolutely not an issue with me. The terror however, was the motion sickness!!! cos you have to look inside the boat to fix up the stuffs, instead of looking far out at the horizon!!

For this dive, no more holding of the vertical line to go down the water, the line was still there for as a visual guide, we were to control our bouyancy to descend. First time - success!!! Cool!! Now we finned, trying to maintain a horizontal posture so that we dont swim like a sea-horse hahahahaha.

It was so so cool to be in the midst of the undersea world!! There was a tranquailty that no words can describe!!!

And then, there was danger!!! no no, we didnt see any sharks but a trigger fish who was in heat, so was super protective over his terroritory, so will bite!! It was a big fish, so the bite can be a big chunk of you!!! So dont play play!!! We encountered one, who came so close to Alicia, luckily she was good and managed to back off right on time, and we upon seeing that retreated to a safety distance!!!

We FOUND SO MANY NEMOS hahahahahaha, they were so so cute, DORYs too, lots of them!! Oh and a buffer fish!!!

Towards the end of the dive, I started to ascend prematurely due to my excitement, I breathed too rapidly causing me to float up!!! And after that trying to descend was almost impossible as my breathing pattern changed AAHHHHHHHH. Alicia had to literately pull me down into the waters!! :P

I was so sea sick after this 2nd dive, I have to sleep, else I dont think I could make the 3rd dive about an hour later!!!!!

Dive #1 - First Open Water Dive!!

My very FIRST Open Sea Dive at Pulau Aur!!! So very very excited and obviously very very nervious too!! MAIN CONCERN prior the dive was DO I REMEMBER ANYTHING AT ALL FROM MY POOL DIVE??

As I signed up for this trip on my own, I was without any diving buddy, which was ok cos' my instructor, Alicia, will be my buddy!!! Felt safe hahahahaha but no good cos' I was then the first to go down the water!!! AAHHHHH....

There was a vertical descend line to aid our descend (first time mah, need the rope to go down the water :P).

At about 5 metre depth, there was a hortizontal line for us to hold on while waiting for the rest of the class of 7 to descend to the sea floor.

Nervous but excited :D, breathing slowly and deeply and trying my damnest not to get too excited!!

Then the most scary part came, we have to perform the skills we have learned in the pool now!! in the sea!!

What so scary? you might ask... well if you have to remove your mask in the salt water and attempt to wear it back, see if that scare you. You also have to purposely fling away your breathing apparratus and then to retrieve it back!!