Long last...

I finally went for my open sea dive. I am a certified aquaman! Now I know why Aqua ASS is so addicted to it. I want to go back to the sea, give me gills so I can stay in the water.

I started my diving experience by being pampared with a Live onboard. Sat on MV Seabourne all the way to Dayang. Lovely experience, no hassle of changing bus and ferry. The food was VERY VERY good. The capt and cook is this guy by the name of Ah Koon (or Ah Goon). He can really whip up really good dishes. Thou he seem to occassionally under cook the chicken. Food, snacks and entertainment was plentiful. (To think I thought diving can help me lose weight, in the end... I gained some weight)

I did not need to dive to see fishes, the water was so clear....I can see the fishes swimming ard when I was on board. Saw a turtle too before I even went down for my first dive. How clear is the water? I spotted a blue spotted sting ray clearly (abt 10m) when I was playing with the snorkle on the water surface.

When you first descend, the feeling of awe just overwhelms you. I feel a certain sense of peace and then suddenly no marine life seems scary. I guess AquaPing took that feeling a little too seriously. She must be lying when she said she is scared of fishes, cause when she was a TERROR. She kept touching everything in her sight. The pool little nudibranch was molested by her REPEATEDLY. The worst is she does not have gloves. She fiddled with the sea cucumber, kept playing with the coral ferns. Basically thought she was invincible. I swear she would have touched the stonefish we saw if it was closer to her. The best part of it all, I showed her the picture of the Crown of Thorns (at Jawa), the joker almost went to touch it before the divemaster smacked her hands away. *roll eyes* Ichthyophobia my foot!!! Don't say I never warn you, Fire corals do pack a mean punch!

I had a opportunity to do a night dive at Sebukong, which was an eye opener. The world down there has a totally different feel when it is night. Somehow the sea urchins are out in full force at that time. Reef crab, pufferfish, sea slug, big nudibranch, sleeping fishes...and plenty more which I can only describe as fishes, big fish, ehh...coloured fish?

I missed out a lot of things too, the leisure divers got attacked by triggers, saw the coneshell, crabs and even shrimps. My instructor saw the shape of a nurse shark when we were at pulau yu (Yu in malay means shark). I want to do a leisure dive, just so I can take my time to check out the little things I missed.

Jet rock and Pulau Yu was the leisure dive we did before we left for Spore. The currents were pretty strong and the visibility was probably abt 4-5m. A totally different experience with such conditons. Really had to play with the bouyancy just to get real close to the reefs without stiring anymore sediments. Just my luck as the divemaster told me that the 2 sites actually have really good visibility if the conditions were right. If you are at Jet Rock, do not touch anything which looks foreign, they use that place for live firing! hahaha!

The journey back was filled with naps, movies, beer, wine and chips. That is life....

I have a nitrogen hangover!!! I need more!!!

(I will upload the pictures when I feel less lazy)