First Diving Experience

This is a late entry for my 1st dive. I posted awhile ago of my scuba courses... all the theory modules and confined water was completed in 4 days. I was on my 1 week holiday and its the only time for me to take the course. It was a pity for my dad who was working and at the same time need to rush with me. After all that all i need was to be done with the open water dives to close the deal of getting my certification.

Tenggol island off Dungun, Terengganu was the place i chosed, from the 9th to the 12th of july 2009. Unfortunately my dad cant make it due to work. It is the only free time i know of and thus i went on my own.

My journey started on the 8th where i need to reach Dungun and overnight there since its an early lift the next day to Tenggol. Thanks to my iphone, i manage to use its google map and did not sway off the course. I was one of the earliest there and eventhough i need to share my room, my roomate reached too late, well lets just say he needs to rent his own room since i was already in slumberland.

I met all the other divers during breakfast at a kopitiam in Dungun. Icebreaking starts there and it is during this time i met my buddy, Alfian. Divers have a buddy system in which none can go diving alone. Since my dad can't come i will have a complete stranger to be my buddy. Also known as Pian, he is part of the company 9bio. Along with him is the intelligent biologist Murni, the hyper lawyer Laura, the petite Adlin and dad pakcik Zul, Kak Izam and hubby Anuar and last but not least the lovely couple Meor and Munira. the 10 of us form the Open Water Course students during this trip.

Our OWC group... L2R: me, pian, lin, nuar, munira, meor

The one hour ride to the island is hell boring but halfway through while playing with my iphone, the boatman called me and showed some distant ripples and said 'sharks'. I was like'huh?' my first thought is that the boatman must be mistaken, it could be dolphins or jacketfish but as we go nearer i see multiple fins circling the ripples, some leaps and as i went to the bow of the boat i've got to agree with the boatman. Then i saw three fins from the side of the boats speeding towards the ripples and join the feast. They are so fast the fins splits the water. Awesome sight to behold.

Ripples...cause? shark feast...

After arriving, few forms were filled, briefing by Robin, the caretaker of the dive centre, and by our instructors. There werre 4 instructors present, Lesly, Soo, Hari and Roland. We stayed in a very basic dorm as most of the time was spent either in the sea or by the beach. The one taking care of my group of 6 was Lesly.

Our gears all set for our 1st dive...

I'm not gonna make this entry long explaining wat i saw in each dive. I'll just mention those that are of the highlights. The first 5 dives was for the certification thus we did it in a controlled environment, Turtle Point, not too many corals(reducing the risk of us amateurs destroying those precious sea jewels) giving ample space to practice our buoyancy. Our instructor, Lesly was satisfied by the end of it and while resting before our 6th dive, a boat reaches the shore and Paul (manager of the resort) shouted 'Whale shark and two manta's at Teluk Rajawali'....my instructor immediately got up to his feet..'Get ready boys' ...ohhh..am i hearing right??... i mean... we have heard bout the sightings of whale shark and mantas from day one but as OW students we dont expect to actually go and search for them. The advance divers and some leisure divers manage to see it and everytime they return i can see joy filled expressions on each faces. No time to question my instructors judgement...haha

Me during a photoshoot...top: far R...btm :centre

So we head over to the place pumped with determination and upon descending i saw multiple jellyfishes around. I know their sting cells can be nasty and quickly cover my hands with my long sleeve rash guard, keeping an eye on the surrounding and kept my distances from those jellyfishes. After 5 metres down i realized i can't see the bottom, panicked i look at the depth gauge and make sure i dont exceed depth for us Open Water Diver which is 18 metres. the visiblity here is also low since its already evening. Our only guide to keep orientated is to look at the corals on the wall. We followed Lesly a good 20 minutes just observing the walls filled with corals and fishes... then the visibility reduced as i noticed the water is filled with planktons... some actually stung me..bugger!.. suddenly Lesly gave an instruction to stay put anchored to any reacheable boulder corals. After two minutes or so the sound of Lesly's tank clanked repeatedly by his metal rod took us all by surprise... then he pointed up and that was when i witnessed the much talk about gentle giant.... elegance!! awesomenes!!... i cant take my eyes of it and it leaves us after around 10 seconds... i cant describe the feeling... see the video in my facebook account for yourself... something so beautiful could only be the works of someone with Power, unsurmountable power.

The majestic creature...(courtesy of Paul, TIBR and En Izham, 9Bio)

We also manage to see manta twice during out last dive. The first time we saw it from a distant.... all i manage to see is its shiloutte..then it suddenly shoots off...after around ten minutes while observing the other fishes the manta came back swimming right below me. The way it flaps its fins is so mesmerizing...we encounter the endangered green turtle three times!!! these sea creatures are so carefree i really envy them... i was really amazed with the trust they give to us humans... giving us the opportunity to come near... a trust we humans sometimes take for granted..

Manta!..... (courtesy of En. Izham, 9Bio)

Some of the other funderwater crwatures i saw were blue spotted fantail stingray, anglefishes, batfishes, butterfly fishes, bumphead parrotfish and other parrotfishes, fire red grouper, orange margined triggerfish, schools of blue lined snappers, sea cucumbers of various species, giant clams, nudibranches, chrismas tree worms, tube worms and many more.

The batfish lingers around us for so long..sure its confused thinking 'what the hell is these creatures swimming so badly in the water?'

Lesly, my open water instructor...

One of the best experience would be when we actually drift dive... we took advantage of the currents to move and energy is only needed to maintain balance... so cool!!!

Soo, my theory and confined water instructer....

We were really lucky and this trip will surely not be my last dive...the trip was completed with a group picture and a stop at 2 kopitiams...haha...one in dungun and another is at the famous Hai Peng in Kemaman...

Kopitiam in Dungun

Its the whole group!!!

Departures

I have never been so excited as to tell how good some movies are (ok....maybe there are plenty of times) but this movie left me seated in the cinema for well 5 minutes after it ended....the impact it has is just surreal.. i went to the movie with a real good friend, who by the way was tired after work and the movie was scheduled at 11 pm... he did give a hint of wanting to go back and just watch movies at his home mainly because we stuffed ourselves with chilli's amazing quesadillas and bottomless juices but too long have i waited for this international movie to be screened here in malaysia...

The movie is called departures... having read a bit of the review i know its about life and death...a movie with real deep meaning...but for my friend he thought it to be a movie set in an airport or some sort...just like how the lead in the movie got it wrong...for my friend... it came as a surprise and to my delight he loved it too.

The movie is 10 years in the making, most of the time in which the director tries to understand the ways of casketing and funeral ceremonies. It revolves around a wonderful yet not a successful cellist and after his orchestra was dissolved he returns to his hometown with his cheerful yet broken hearted wife... with no job prospect, an advertisement that offers a job handling 'departures' caught his interest thinking its a travel angency... he got the job just by promising to work hard and only then did he found out that the advertisement was misprinted...it is actually a job handling the departed.

His journey starts off rocky and gradually the job grew on him...but the perception of others gave him a hard time especially that of his wife...an event changes all that and he got the respect he deserve. The story of his father that ran away from home when he was small only to be reunited by his passing is a scene that left me shedding tears full of deep emotion (and i'm well proud of it!).

Its a movie from japan and have won an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film 2009... go watch if slow, deep meaningful movie's your thing.