Back From Bali

It had been a fun-filled week in Bali and the itinerary included 2 days of diving in Nusa Penida while we were based in Sanur, followed by 2 more days of diving in Tulemben, and ended with 3 days of R & R in Kuta. Every day was sunny and clear, nice blue skies (something that is lacking in HK) and fresh air (nope, Bali isn’t hit by the haze and smog).

All diving fotos have been uploaded on Webshots (Click here)

Mola Video (Taken by D):

The 4 days of diving was just great since we saw all the things that we wanted to see, Molas, Boxer Crabs (ML and I did the YMCA song in the water when we saw the Boxer Crabs cos they look so cute and small holding the pom poms anemones), Harlequin Shrimps, countless nudibranches Ghost Pipefish. The viz wasn’t as good as those in the Similans, on average, the viz was about 10m. The best experience we had was hanging out with a Mola at about 11m for about 30 min, while it was given a thorough cleaning by the Banner Fish. The 2nd best experience was being surrounded by a huge school of Jacks and swimming with them so close to us. And the worst time of my life was when I struggled with the horrid and ever changing currents in Crystal Bay, Nusa Penida. That actually scared me and I had to stay calm while I finned furiously to get back to my fellow divers who were quite a distance before me.

Stingray Video (Taken by D)

ML and I were very near the stingrays and they were coming too close for comfort. That’s when we remembered Steve Irwin, and tried to move away quick enough without spooking them.)

It was fun hanging out and diving with D and ML (a colleague who decided to call herself “Mola” just for this trip). It will be great to do this again, but perhaps this will be my very last diving trip before we try to enlarge our family later this year.

We met up with another couple in Kuta later in the week and did the touristy things, shopping, eating, sightseeing etc. We ate lots of seafood, drank some Arak (Balinese Liquor), bought some Rip Curl apparel (not particularly cheaper than in HK or S’pore), took lots of photos, jumped into the surf at Legian Beach, pampered ourselves with some Spa treatments, and just have some down time to recharge and rejuvenate before returning to work this week.

Next trip will be a rockclimbing trip in Krabi during the Xmas hols… Life is good.

Diving @ Pulau Dayang (28 Jul to 30 Jul)

Finding the best possible position to have a comfortable sleep on a rackety diving boat late at night whilst on the way to Pulau Dayang is quite a challenge. We left Mersing Jetty around 12 midnight and it would be another 4 and a half hour before we reach our destination. When we finally reached Dayang, it was still quite dark and my fuzzy sleepy mind wasn’t in the best of moods. 

I had asked my instructor friend if the resort is 5-star, and he retorted it could be 5-STARfish or maybe 5-Sea Urchins… anyway, it was a plain no-frills (not even blankets or towels; toilets/bathroom facilities are communal) quad-sharing bunk. I put aside my urban/Mauritius 5-star Spa resort mentality and slept the next 2-plus hours. It was only for 2 nights… the dive and beach had better be worth it.

In the morning, Dayang revealed itself to be a lovely place, clear turquoise waters with nice soft sand to step on and dig into (like the ones in Mauritius), food was quite good (the enciks fried some nice goreng pisang for tea). The waters were a nice 28 degrees C, and although the dive sites can’t be compared to Similans, the viz was still a good 12 to 18m.

   

I am happy to swim with my first turtle; observed the flickering colour changes on my first reef cuttlefish up close and personal; stayed a distance away from a school of juvenile Barracudas swimming in formation; held a Spanish Dancer which was so comfortable that it refused to leave my glove; tried to feed a Moray Eel with a dead fish.

We did 6 dives altogether and besides the initial problem D and I had with our loaned BCDs (we had to oral-inflate the BCD cos the hose connectors didn’t fit the ones on the BCDs), it was still a good experience. A friend of ours was there for his Open Water Training and D buddied him; whilst I was his girlfriend’s buddy, who incidentally caused me to put my DM training into practice.

We are going there again this weekend with another group of divers who are doing their Open Water and Rescue Diver trainings. D will be going as DMIT, i.e. Dive Master In Training, while I will be there as a DMIT(a), fewer responsibilities compared to D but would need to put my DM training into some use.

Here’s the video of the young turtle (pardon the jerkiness towards the end):

“Do One Thing A Day That Scares You”

Just fighting off my sleepiness before leaving home for diving in the waters around Sai Kung. I am not that keen to dive actually cos the waters must be darn frigid today. But D wants to go, and being his buddy, I have to brave the cold and go with him. Suddenly this weekend, the cold front from the north has descended upon us, and over just one day, the temperatures plunged from a hot and humid maximum of 29 degrees C to the current 17 degrees C. The wind chill effect obviously drives the temperatures southwards. Drats, I have washed and kept all our winter wear.

Originally we were supposed to go for a 2 days 1 night liveaboard to Pedro Branca (some 85 km away from HK), but the current is at 4 knots, which definitely brings back memories of our rough seas condition at the King Cruiser Wreck (Phi Phi Diving Trip). Due to the strong currents, the trip has been cancelled.

UPDATES FROM THE DIVE:

This is me prepping up for the 1st dive. Beneath that cool exterior is a really cold person who is having major shivers. We were on Diving Adventure’s newest boat which has liveaboard facilities.

While we were waiting for the boat at the pier and being buffeted by the strong wind which gave me the shivers as I dug deeper into my hoodie pockets, I asked myself “Why the hell am I diving in this crappy and dreary weather?” And this line “Do one thing a day that scares you!” kept popping into my mind to answer my question. A adventure kayaker had said it on the A1 channel (A1 or Adventure One is a cable channel that we subscribed to here in HK, apparently this channel is not shown on Starhub). And the other obvious reason is the man whom I am accompanying.

To keep myself warm in the waters, I wore my NeilPrdye 0.5mm Rashguard beneath the Gul 3mm full wetsuit, gloves, boots and my new-purchased Ralf Tech 5mm hood. I borrowed another shorty to wear over my Gul and the result is a very clumsy-looking seal. However this seal was quite warm and moving about gracefully in the waters.

By the way, the Ralf Tech hood really kept my head warm. Very pleased to have bought it.

Later I found out from my dive watch that the water temperature was a balmy 20 degrees C compared to the 17 degrees C at the surface.

We were diving near Basalt Island which is about an hour ride from Sai Kung Pier. There isn’t much to see actually except for lots of orange anemones and its inhabitants, the clownfish; some schools of small fish neutrally buoyant in the current.

Nonetheless, it’s in this sort of places that you need to look beneath the rocks and that’s where I saw my first octopus. Well, actually, D spotted it first and beckoned me to look beneath some rocks. The first thing I saw were 2 shrimps, but my eyes spotted a big dark round thing staring back at me deep inside the hole. And soon, I made out the familiar purple mass and white suckers underneath. Wow, that is cool… D and I observed this octopus for awhile, and it stayed in the safety of its sanctuary.

On our 2nd dive, it was almost the same scene, although I saw my first sea snake zipping away and D released some fish and a crab from an abandoned fishing trap before being tangled by the rope. I had to “rescue” D in the end.

What else am I afraid of, I have been thinking about this for awhile. Some are really obvious (death & terminal illness to me or family), to the silly (bungee-jump, sky-dive, major air turbulence on the plane, stuck in a lift with a huge flying cockroach) to the unforseen (being framed, stove exploding in my face, falling while lead-climbing).

I can be incredibly paranoid at times and I do think about the worst-case scenarios and role-playing the various possiblities and solutions in my mind. It’s like there are so many things I am afraid of, but I think through them, whenever and wherever, so as to be somewhat prepared for the worst.

To have some kind of an action plan is better than none.

Diving Around Phi Phi & The Similans (2 Feb – 7 Feb 06) – Updated Entry

We are back from the underwater world… it was amazing, especially the Similans. D & I saw a different view of God’s creation and I sure hope that we didn’t mess things up for the fishes, corals etc while we were there. They must be thinking, “Great, these dark-suited neoprene humans with aluminium tanks and exhaling bubbles are gone now.”
We saw the King Cruiser wreck in terrible currents and choppy seas (I lost my appetite there & was seasick), moray eels of all sizes, countless fishes (wrasse, parrotfish, puffers, triggerfish, my fav clownfish, thousands of glassfish, barracudas, blue-spotted stingrays etc), a huge (possibly 6m) manta ray and a leopard shark which I am pleased to say that I spotted it before anyone else did.

On our first 7 dives, we were taken to various sites around Phi Phi (Koh Doc Mai, Koh Bida Nai, Koh Bida Nok, King Cruiser Wreck, Shark Point, Maya Bay). I thought visibility was quite good at those sites. We did 4 dives on the 1st day, rested the night in the hotel on Phi Phi Island, and did another 3 more dives the next day before returning to Patong. All of us had an “obstacle course” experience when we were at Phi Phi. As our dive boat was berthed some distance away with a few boats between us and the pier, we had to climb on and off these boats (one of which was utterly smelly as it is used to transport trash) just to get to the pier. After that, we had to trudge for another 20 minutes along Phi Phi beachfront just to get to our hotel.

       

Clownfish Family – My fav foto     Glassfish In a Swim Thru’ Cavern (taken by Brandon)

After resting in Patong for another night, we left early the next morning to begin our Liveaboard experience onboard SSD3, quite a floating hotel, luxury living on 4-storey boat. This would take us around the Similan Islands and our dive sites included Koh Bon (where one of my dreams came true with the huge Manta Ray gliding across the waters), Boulder City (lots of huge boulders and saw my first Leopard Shark there), Shark Fin Reef (sharks used to be quite common there but no longer), the beautiful East Of Eden (akin to that of an underwater Japanese garden).
  
The magnificent Manta Ray                       Scorpion Fish

I had used my sony videocam in its Ikelite housing to film most of the things we saw, while fine-tuning my buoyancy, enjoying the clear visibility and diving my first deepest depth of 34m. D was busy taking loads of photos, but had to be really careful with his battery usage as he realised to his horror, that he had left his battery charger back in S’pore.

This has been an amazing holiday. Each dive was different and made special by the fact that I was given the opportunity to be there, a guest in the underwater world.

Seafood dinner @ Patong

Apparently none of us felt a tinge of guilt tucking into bbq squid, butter prawns & crayfish after diving.

Clownfish Attack

We did our Enriched Air (aka Nitrox) dives today, one in the morning and another after lunch. In the especially clear waters around Shelter Island (off Sai Kung), we spent at least an hour in the waters for each dive. It was a nice warm day, lots of sunshine but wasn’t overly humid since it’s autumn in HK now.

We saw more clownfish (like those orange ones in the cartoon Finding Nemo) this time round, and being the inquistive sort, they will swim towards you to check things out.

Anyway, I found clownfish to be really cute and decided to just kneel on the seabed to observe two medium-sized clownfish which were about a metre away from me. Within seconds, two larger ones swam up by the side to join the ones which were already in front of me. For those few seconds, we were just facing each other, one diver and 4 clownfish having a staring match. I decided to swim over them so as to join D and another diver and that was when things went kinda wrong.

One of the larger clownfish swam up to meet me and with amazing speed, chomped on my index finger. Thank God I decided to wear my gloves. Gee, now what did I do to this guy? I flicked my hand vigorously and finally I got the psycho clownfish off my finger. My finger is ok, the gloves are thick. I sure hope I didn’t knock that fish out or worse, kill it.

I read that clownfish are aggressive and protective over their young. It’s probably their breeding season now, as there were many which I saw that were close to their anemones, protecting their homes and possibly their young. Nothing like the cute Nemo in the movie…

We are diving again this Sunday at another part of HK near the China border for our Peak Performance Buoyancy course. I definitely need to tune my buoyancy capability. I am growing to like diving, although climbing still takes the top position. And through these past few weeks of diving, I realise it’s not that simple… you need ot do it often, much like climbing as the more you train, the better you become. One thing I hope to do is to dive with the rays… these are magnificent and amazing creatures. Slow, steady but graceful, as they cut through the waters, unlike me who is still a clumsy ox trying to be consistent with the buoyancy issue.

Diving In Sai Kung Waters

Here are some fotos of us doing our Basic Open Water Course about 2 weeks ago… we had already completed the course and right now, D & I are currently doing both the Advanced course and the Enriched Air Specialty course… more on that later on.

Some underwater shots… lots of corals and anemones, small fish and curious but agressive clownfish, menacing sea urchins with long ugly black spines.
Visibility on those 2 weekends was still bearable, although the visibility on the first weekend was quite bad. Nonetheless, we could still see stuff.

Incidentally, we dived yesterday as part of our Advanced course, and the visibility was the worst so far. Hopefully, it will be clearer tomorrow. I am the one with the cyan mask and D is the other person next to me (we are the ones with the yellow LiveStrong wristbands).

I wasn’t that confident to take out my regulator just to smile for the camera… Can u see the “fear” in my eyes ?!? Actually it was quite ok, I had a problem initially getting my buoyancy right, but have gotten better the last 4 to 5 dives.

So far, we had bought our own masks (Cressi for me and Tusa for D), snorkels (Cressi & Tusa), booties (Scubapro), fins (Tusa), gloves (Scubapro & Bare) and dive watches (Suunto). We are looking at buying our wetsuits (GUL) later in the year when we are back in S’pore. Regs and BCDs probably later, if we dive often enough which will make economical & hygenic sense to have our own rather than rent.

D & I did the basic course with a few friends, and it was a good way to catch some rays, enjoy the other side of HK and get to know one another better. Ah Yun (the bald guy doing the peace sign ) in the picture below is the Divemaster who assisted our instructor Ah Mun… he is quite a funny character and made us all laugh most of the times. The fotos were all taken by him, pretty good actually given the lousy visibility.

1st Pool Diving Session, Bad Climbing Day & New CD

D & I had our first diving pool session yesterday from 1.30-6.30pm. We were not exactly sure if the session was on, as HK experienced its first Typhoon Signal yesterday afternoon due to the approaching Tropical Storm Sanvu.

Well, I am looking forward to what Typhoon Signal 8 is like, as long as I am safely at home and not have to hole up somewhere till the danger is over. Apparently, if Typhoon Signal 8 is raised, everyone has to pack up and go home (holiday especially if it’s a working day). Usually this signal is raised at least a few hours earlier, so that people have sufficient time to rush home.

BTW, it was pouring and I was feeling kinda lazy on a wet and slow Saturday, so I did hope that the lesson will be cancelled.

Anyway, it was on and was held at the indoor swimming pool at South Island School. It was quite an interesting experience breathing through the regulator and inflating/deflating the BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) in order to float or maintain neutral buoyancy in the water (ie neither float at the surface or sink to the bottom). No pics this time, didn’t have time to take anyway.

As usual, being the Clumsy Gecko in the family, I couldn’t quite stay still at the bottom of the pool during the sign-language-enhanced lesson, which made D laugh quite a bit in the water. Imagine the seaweed or kelp swaying in the water, well, that was me. I couldn’t quite kneel as I kept keeling over either to the left or right; and when I managed to sit down at the bottom of the pool, my heavy tank would pull me backwards. The instructor had to repeatedly hold me down and get me to hold someone’s hand. Gee, so embarrasing… as it is, I am already clumsy on the ground, I can’t believe I am equally so underwater. Drats.

After the break, I finally got the hang of it and managed to stay balance without looking like a silly kelp.

Today, we were supposed to go to church at YMCA and some climbing in the same building after the service. However, we were late for service, and since I don’t like to attend church as a latecomer, we did climbing instead. Anyway, I kept making silly mistakes and my technique was in a mess, which pissed D off quite a bit. He was like the instructor from hell, and I know he meant well by pointing out my mistakes and telling me how to go about improving it, but seriously, I didn’t quite like him then.

I am actually more pissed with myself for not doing things right, giving up too easily (especially after getting a lecture from D), not using my silly legs, banging my left knee repeatedly into the holds (a big ugly bruise has formed and going down the stairs hurt), fingers are sore and flaking skin, tired upper arms and neck, and more importantly a hurt ego.

D said if he didn’t tell me off, I wouldn’t learn and he wants me to learn so that I will not hurt myself. But he could have sounded a little nicer, a bit friendlier and sigh, I felt like I was a little girl being reprimanded by the father. And he knows by prodding my ego, I would have to prove him wrong.

After a 2 and a half climbing session, we dropped by at HMV ‘cos I needed to look for the Deep Forest album which has the song “Sweet Lullaby”. Yes, it’s quite an old recording… old in the sense that it is a song from the nineties. Anyway, I did find the album (HKD 115) and was about to get it but reckoned I should check out compilation albums, especially those lounge/chillout kinds. And I managed to find this 3-CD album set called “Angel Beach The Third Wave” with a good selection of lounge/chillout music, and “Sweet Lullaby” is in it too… and all that for HKD88.

Excellent price, especially since I used my $50 HMV gift voucher to offset the original price. Yeah, I still buy CDs and rip the music to MP3 before downloading to my Ipod Mini… so I am quite legal in that sense.

Here’s the list of songs, quite good stuff:

CD 1:
Take Me To The Clouds Above – LMC & U2
Somebody To Love – Boogie Pimps
Lady (Hear Me Tonight) – Modjo
American Dream – Jakatta
At Night – Shakedown
Time Is Now – Moloko
Turn On Tune In Cop Out – Freakpower
Praise You – Fatboy Slim
Teardrops – Lovestation
More Than This – Emmie
Summer In The Studio – Kinobe
Good Life (Buene Vida) – Inner City
Looking For Love – Lopez, Jay
Far Away In San Antonio – Eden & Astrud Gilberto
Les Nuits – Nightmares On Wax

CD 2:
High And Dry – Cullum, Jamie
Ruler Of My Heart – DDBB & Norah Jones
Don’t Know Why – Gilberto, Regina
Night And Day – Everything But The Girl
Fallin’ – Holloway, Oleta
Summer Sun – Koop
Way You Dream – 1 Giant Leap & Michael Stipe/Asha Bhosle
Aqua Marine – Santana
Light My Fire – Feliciano, Jose
Deep In It – St. Germain
Mais Que Nada – Fernandes, Joao
Friendly Pressure – Jhelisa
Garden Of Earthly Delights – D’Note
Moments In Love – Scirocco
Sea…Eventually – Beautiful People

CD 3:
Seven Seconds – N’Dour, Youssou & Neneh Cherry
Give Me The Sunshine – Leo’s Starshipp
Facing East – Thievery Corporation
Bob – Gilberto, Bebel & Otto
Sweet Lullaby – Deep Forest
When You Gonna Learn – Moreno, Clara
Felicidade – Suba
Outro Lado – Zuco 103
Crickets Sing For Anamaria – Bossa Nostra
Going To California – David, John & Clear Spirit
Tereh Bin Nahin Lagda – Partners In Rhyme
Magaya – Spheeris, Chris
Sunset – Goa Trance Authority
Slow – Miami DJ Collective

We Are Learning To Dive

Yeah, after years of pondering, we have decided to take up diving. Having experienced the mindblowing underworld in the Great Barrier Reef, D and I talked about learning to dive when we return to HK. And I suppose this is meant to be since a friend of mine called and asked me if we are interested to learn together with her. She had just completed the first theory lesson last week and we arranged for the instructor to come to our place later this afternoon for our 1st theory lesson. Private tuition in Cantonese (mainly) and Putonghua. I can’t quite remember the details of this PADI certification course, except that there will be 10 hrs of theory lessons (wow, why so many?), about 5 hrs of pool lessons before a couple of open water dives… all inclusive at HKD2.6k per person.

I reckon having experienced metres above ground, we should try out metres underwater… but why do I still have nagging thoughts of sharks and Portugese Man-Of-War… darn movies like Jaws and the Killer Jellyfish/Octopus/Squid etc. Think happy thoughts, dolphins, Nemo…

Incidentally there are two diving articles in this week’s HK Magazine (similar to the IS Mag in S’pore… those weekly free mags u get from cafes) . One is about diving in Palau, the island where the recently concluded Survivor was filmed; and the other on “How To Swim With Sharks”. Hmm, just what I need.

“HOW TO SWIM WITH SHARKS:

Despite the media saturation surrounding shark attacks, swimming with the killers of the deep is a growing trend among adventure tourists, thrill-seekers and professional divers. Shark swimmer Voltaire Cousteau explains how to safely swim with the fishes.

• Be sure you and everyone you’re swimming with are not bleeding or have any open wounds – including bandaged wounds. Blood will elicit aggressive behaviour from sharks, even the docile species. Some sharks can detect a single drop of blood in 100 litres of water.

• Don’t try to touch the shark, especially on its eyes and nose. These are the most sensitive parts of the shark and you may trigger a full-scale attack.

• Many sharks have poor memories so if you catch the attention of a shark, swim in a casual and slow manner and avoid any sudden movements that could distract the shark from your presence.

• Assume an unidentified fish are sharks and avoid thrashing in the water, because sharks may take that as a signal to attack.

• If the shark is swimming erratically or in zigzags, hide behind whatever is available – especially coral if there is any. Don’t look the shark in the eye or start swimming frantically.

• If a shark is charging and you’ve run out of options, try punching hard on the nose. This is a last resort and bear in mind that if the blow doesn’t frighten the shark, it will make it angrier.” (HK magzine No. 586, Friday Aug 5 2005)