Tulamben is one of the dive heavens and the U.S.A.T Liberty Wreck was voted as the top 11^th dive sites of the world. Irresistibly, I joined the two-day unlimited dive package. Yup, unlimited dives in the paradise! I bagged in with 8 dives throughout two days – 3 dives in the first and 5 dives in the second day! The visibility was 15 m+ and the temperature ranged around 29 ^oC. I also rented an underwater camera for my virgin shot. It was Canon Ixus 700, although it was quite expensive to rent but I was glad that I rented. The photos proved a thousand words of my memory. Hope you share my happiness and joyfulness.

I dived four sites. U.S.A.T Liberty Wreck, Drop Off and Coral Garden were located at Tulamben while Secret Seraya was situated a couple of kilometres from Tulamben, assessable by ‘dukong’, a traditional Balinese sampan.

Dive site:                      U.S.A.T. Liberty Wreck, Tulamben.

Number of dives:         3 (1 day dive + 1 morning dive + 1 night dive)

Liberty wreck was definitely got the Wow factor. Just a couple of fin kick from the pebble shore, I faced the famous wreck. I was quite intimidated at first because it was actually many times greater than I expected! I was a bit scared of penetrating the monster but my dive master, Abang Suka, dived in without giving me any chance to hesitate. The wreck was actually quite safe to dive around. The marine life and coral around the wreck were jaw-dropping. I was so busy with the sighting of species everywhere. The usual residences were diagona banded sweetlips, emperor angelfish, lattice angelfish, racoon butterfly fish, coral codfish, blue lined surgeonfish etc.

Teira Batfish - plentiful around the wreck.

Diagonal-banded Sweetlips - Usual residences near the wreck.

I also did a morning (6.45am) and night (6.30 pm) dive. The feelings were no way similar. The night dive was even scarier and eerier! Bumphead parrotfish were sighted motionless whereas the other nocturnal creatures were in full actions. I saw mantis shrimp feeding. It was fascinating. The snapping of food from its holes was so abrupt and unexpected. On the other hand, the morning dive was refreshing, especially with the sighting of jack in tornado form. It was mesmerising, though it was quite far from the wreck. My first experience of the underwater photography was clumsy but still manage to shoot some sweetlips and bat fish.

Dive site:                      Drop Off, Tulamben.

Number of dives:         2

The drop off was an impressive coral wall. The coral reef were so congested that each of the species fought for their own territorial spaces. The outcome was the attraction of abundant marine life. Just imagine that the wall was 30 m ++, crowded with coral, reef, marine life etc. Spectacular sighting itself! The highlight of this dive was the sighting of Napoleon Wrasse. It was not too huge but, still, it was almost half of my body size. When I approached it, it showed no fear! What a brilliant creature! I would not have noticed the clown frogfish if Abang Suka did not point to me. It was a baby frogfish, bright yellow colour with its cute little armlike fin.

My last dive was also in Drop Off. I saw the yellow strip trevally schooling at the shallow entry while I did my safety stop. It was interesting that they surrounded me when I approached them. Also, I had my first sighting of the juvenile emperor angelfish. The juvenile was nowhere similar in appearance with their full-grown.

Me and the yellow-lined trevally

Schooling yellow-lined trevally

Paddletail Snapper

Emperor Angelfish - Striking colour.

Juvenile Emperor Angelfish - Nothing like dad!

Dive site:                      Coral Garden

Number of dives:         1

Coral Garden was located between Liberty Wreck and Drop Off. It was a rather shallow dive, about 14 m depth. Ribbon eels were the famous residences. They were odd looking, bright blue and yellow colours. Occasionally, they would snap back to their hole if foreigners approached. I also saw the black tip shark. The glimpse was so fast that I did not have time to grab my camera. A big cuttlefish was also swimming in this area. It was also rapid in motion but I got the shot before it jetted off.

Dive site:                      Seraya Secrets

Number of dives:         2

I liked this sites a lot. We reached there by Dukong, a very unique Balinese sampan. The dives were considered as muck dives because of the barren black seabed. Just off the shore, there was an artificial cage frame to attract the marine life. Zebra Lionfish was my favourite! Its wing outlook was so striking that I could hardly left it and explored further. Mantis shrimp was another attraction here. My dive master did a fantastic job to search their resident hole. With the black sand as background, the striking colours of nudibranchs were absolutely magnified! There were just too many nudibranchs. There was one sighting that five nudibranchs gathered at adjacent. Nudi party perhaps? The bigger creatures were batfish, lionfish, moray eels, puffer etc.

Mantis Shrimp - Colourful shrimp.

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

  Zebra Lionfish - Breathtaking creature.

In general, the dives in Tulamben were pleasant and thrilling. The only disappointment was unable to sight the harlequin shrimp, tiger shrimp, squat lobster and boxer crab. There were just too many things to see at once. No doubt, I will be visiting Bali in the coming future. Mola-mola and manta ray were definitely my next target.

Mt. Agung - The greatest volcano in Bali.

Penetrating U.S.A.T. Liberty Wreck (11th Top Dive Site)

Ribbon Eel

Cuttlefish - Shy and alert!

Clown Anemonefish

Clown Frogfish - Look at its arm!

Bearded Scorpion Fish

LIVE TO DIVE, DIVE TO LIVE!!!

I knew it would be a no-turning-back route after my first dive certification. The dive bug hit me so hard that I could not resist taking the Advanced Open Water Diving Course. This time, I took the course in Salang, Tioman Island with Diveasia. Just something to note, there was a ferry catching fire while boarding 103 passengers from Mersing to Tioman at the same day as I headed to Tioman. 5 people were dead while 2 were missing at the time this blog was written. God was kind to me and I was fortunate to take the speed boat rather than ferry.

For non-diver readers, hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as the diver readers. If you don’t know what I am talking, quickly join diving and you will know… haha…. that is my main purpose. For the Advanced course, we need to take 2 compulsory (Deep and Navigation Dives) and 3 elective adventure dives. For the elective choices, we chose Peak Buoyancy Performance, Night and Enriched Air Dives.

12 October 2007 – My diving buddies were Fei, Ellen and Mei Ping. We had lots of fun joking and chatting along the driving journey. Well, you have to admire our driving range and spirit. Fei drove from Penang to Ipoh, then picked me up, we continued from Ipoh to KL. Then, picked up Ellen and Mei Ping, continued from KL to Mersing. From KL to Mersing, it took 5 hours! Certainly, I and Fei switched to drive, safety came first. To add the excitement, we had to pass by endlessly creepy, foggy, winding, humanless, full-of-unexpected-creatures palm oil road. We started driving at 1 am and arrived Mersing jetty at 6 am, tired and sleepy like panda… but full of diving spirit and anticipation.

13 October 2007 – Taking the speed boat of Diveasia, we skipped the congested ferry and arrived safely in Salang, Tioman. Our dive instructor was David O’ Donovan, an Irish with perfect Irish/English accent. I was a bit skeptical of his diving skill at first due to his age but later found out that he dived as if he was gliding effortlessly. Our first dive was disastrous because our buoyancy control was way ‘beyond’ his expectation, haha… Strictly speaking, we had no buoyancy control. After his patient guidance, we improved so much and able to hover and dived through the obstacles! Hurray! We started to dive around the House Reef of Salang. The coral and visibility was crap, nothing to elaborate. Just an orientation or get-to-familiar dive.

Happy divers - Ellen, David (Instructor), Fei, Me and Mei Ping!

Gear up and ready to dive!

The 2^nd dive had more fun. We le arnt more about the navigation under water by using the compass. We learnt to dive in square pattern, how to count the kick etc. Again, it was done in house reef and nothing much to spot, only a few scattering yellow jack fish and normal damsel, fusilier etc. We finished our first day of the course and, meanwhile, we were starving as none of the restaurant opened during Hari Raya in Salang area. We went back to our hotel – Berjaya Beach Resort. The resort was clean and comfy chalet-type. The buffet dinner was nothing to complain. TOO HUNGRY! I never realized that diving consumed so much energy. We devoured anything that we could assemble. Feeling full and satisfied, our mind drifted to sleeping mode but damn it, homework again….. We needed to complete part of the Knowledge Review (Homework required by PADI) tonight.

Berjaya Beach Resort - Chalet

Berjaya Beach Resort - Golf Course

14 October 2007 – Early dive at 8.30 am, we were fully charged and excited. Today, we had to do Deep Dive and Enriched Air (NITROX) Dive during the day. The Deep Dive was very exciting. We had to descend until 30 meters, yeah!!!! The dive site was called Pulau Chebeh. Pulau Chebeh was far from the Tioman Island and was rated as one of the best dive sites in Tioman. Along with the same boat, there were many Mat Salleh and Japanese divers. Right after the descend, we saw a BIG porcupine fish and schoaling trevally, fusilier, jack etc. !  Man… this was amazing!!! The silver trevally were as long as my forearm. More stuff to see, lots of beautiful angel, banner fish etc. 6 barbed angel fish was definitely one of the highlight. The ‘coralscape’ was absolutely incredible, lots of healthy fan, soft coral etc. The Deep Dive was more like a fun dive, we only required to do a simple logic count to prove that we were not crazy under 30 meters depth of water. Easy job. This was so far my best dive. We could not stop talking it after the dive.

Contended look after the Pulau Chebeh dive!

I used 34% Oxygen Enriched Air Dives while diving at Batu Malang (Unfortunate Rock, not a good name though…) We learnt to identify the oxygen content and guess what, we had to sign something like death wish because we might get oxygen poisoning if we dived over the limit with enriched air tank. This dive was again more or less like a fun dive. Although not as great as Chebeh dive, this dive was pleasant enough to spot cod, pink clown, nemos (all sorts) etc. and also a loner bat fish. The soft coral were particularly lovely, iridescent purple and swaying just as what you saw in the postcards and brochures.

We went back to Diveasia Dive Centre. Continued our dreadful Knowledge Review. By the time we finished the review, we were ready to go for the final dive – Night Dive. We had mixed feeling about this dive. We were very excited but on the other hand scared of the unexpected. The night dive was carried out at Pulau Renggis. We were told to expect some current. OK, here we go…. The ocean was ABSOLUTE pitch inky black. All I had to depend now was that bloody torch. After we finished the natural navigation lesson, David asked us to cover the torch. At the dark ocean, we waved our hand and it created bio-luminescent particles!!! Cool, it was so beautiful, tiny shinning green bubbles. Night dive was probably not my cup of tea. I virtually saw nothing, only a few soldier fish but Ellen saw giant barracuda. Poor Mei Ping got stung by sea urchin.You can imagine how painful it was.

Renggis Island during the day, taken from Berjaya.

Berjaya Resort Deco - No idea about this. Looks funny.

Swaying coconut trees …

15 October 2007 – We had the laziest last day in the island. Basically, just did nothing but ate, chatted and wandered around. It was so relaxing. Only then, we found out the ugly truth. There were many people trapped in the island due to the shortage of ferry. Lucky us, we did not buy the ferry ticket but speed boat ticket again, yeah…

Overall, all of us went back home with big smile, contended, tired body. We are Advanced Divers now!!!! But still we need more practices. Non-diver readers, wake up and smell the coffee!!!! Join us!

   

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN SEX WAS SAFE AND DIVING IS DANGEROUS!!!

My first ever blog. Why the heck I want to start blogging? I want to drag as many friends I can to join my DIVE HARD group. For your information, I finally decided to take the PADI Open Water Dive Course. I could not stand anymore, I want to see these bloody pretty marine fish swimming underwater with my naked eyes. My blog may have some strange terms to you, basically used in diving. I want to share this experience because this was one of the most happy time in my life and I want you to experience the same. Hopefully, join me in the diving group next time.

Divers in front of Dive Center,Lang Tengah 26 July 2007.

My diving buddy - Ellen.

Let me begin my diving journey. For Open Water Dving Course, we had two teams (11 people). We were from different backgrounds, even different nationalities, but we all had a common characteristic - we were so curious about underwater until we wanted to see and feel it by ourselves. 

26 July 2007 - After an exhausted and sleepless flight, I finally arrived at Lang Tengah island. All activities were blurry to me, all those introduction, video watching, lunch….. My mind was pre-occupied by DIVING, DIVING, DIVING!!!! I did not even remember who the hell was my divemaster (Sorry ar, my divemaster Siew…) Hmmm, memory came back when I approached the dive centre. Everything was set (Gear set up was learnt in 2nd dive) and we were off to the sea!!! BCD, Weight, Regulator, Tank, Snorkel, Mask….Hell,  I had no clue at all. The weight was bloody heavy as I expected. I did a clumsy buddy check with my buddy, Ellen and off we went for the first shallow shore dive.

Hmm, no time to enjoy the reef and fish. Getting to busy to fight the weight, adjusting mask, reminding myself not to hold breath, following divemaster, equalising….. Super multitasking!!! Finally,  able to adapt the surrounding. Do all the lessons. Surprisingly, when I removed my mask and opened my eyes, I could SEE underwater. Yeah…. my greatest underwater phobia went nowhere. I really started to enjoy every moment. House reef around was a bit disappointing. Marine life was not as abundant as I imagined. Most probably, it was house reef and too closed to the beach.

Mask removal lesson (Photo extracted from fellow diver)

I could not remember which dive that I began to make the equalisation mistake. I pay the price for sure. When I realised that my ear was painful, I tried my best to equalise and ever since, I would not forget to equalise. DIVER - EQUALISE AND NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH…..

House reef dive again. This time, gear set up was done by myself. Cool, not that complicated, easy job besides forgot to zip up myself and end up too sexy… All the advices from divemaster and fellow divers helped a ton. I started to know the trick to setup the gear. I enjoyed more and more. Richard (Dive instructor) brought us to deeper house reef. Coral and reef was still blend and boring. Not even nemo, I asked myself? Not much to mention, learnt the pin pivot, did horizontal CESA… I knew I did OK only but Siew was so kind to motivate us by buying us ice-cream.

Leisure time at Lang Tengah. Sunset at the beach + lots of free time = lots of photography seission. Lang Tengah was relatively quiet, food was unexpectedly good, room was basic and clean. Life was getting just too lazy here. Peace… but damn it, forgot to finish the Knowledge Review (homework required by PADI).

Baby black tip shark feeding time.

Lang Tengah surreal sunset.

27 July 2007 - After painful video watching session, we went for first boat dive at Batu June!!! Hurray…. Backrow entry was scary and fun (Wonder myself how these two elements could combine). Descending using the rope, I equalised and adapted myself madly.I saw a big angel fish this time and so tempted to leave my group and chased that big angel. Started to realise how important was neutral buoyancy. I felt extremely sorry when accidentally kicked some coral, sorry ya… Coral and reef were not colourful here but fish were still OK. Saw groups of yellow fish (snapper? jack fish? my fish id was so bad), goat fish…. So far so good. Oops, tank pressure was so low. I made ascend when they did saftety stop. Haha… scolded by Richard and required to descend and practise CESA again.

Swimming test.

28 July 2007 - Today was busy and hectic. Examination and 2 Open Water Diving. Morning boat dive at Batu Banyak Keras (18 m). This time, no rope to asist descend and Richard demanded us to be more skillful and efficient. No problem, I was really getting the trick. Confident level was higher and enjoying every second underwater. Hunting for more marine fish and coral, by my eyes lar. Ehmm…. don’t actually remember the environment but this was the deepest I dived.   

OK, bloody exam time. The RDP calculation time were trickier than I expected. No problem, solve it or shoot it. Quite confident with the results. Then, long break before my final boat dive. Sunbathing, shark watching, bullshitting…. Finally, we were off to go to Tanjung Nibong (11.9 m) for final dive. I heard the other team saw turtle. I prayed myself that I would have the same experience. This time, learnt navigation underwater with compass. After that, more time for leisure wandering. This time, I observed more about the surrounding. MANY nemo this time!!! The false nemo, the genuine nemo, all sorts, all varieties, all colours…. This was what I wanted to see!!!! Coral setup was so cool this time. And suddenly, we saw the blue spotted ray (not sure the species) swimming away from us. Richard also showed us two tiny grey eels. While Richard busy killing the Crown of Thorns (Coral Eaters), I was busy observing the nemos and looking for my turtle. No turtle though. Nevertheless, this was the most satisfying dive so far - more control on my buoyancy, more marine life to watch….. So sad this was the last dive.

Richard taught navigation prior to final dive.

As I was not getting enough, I snorkelled nearby the beach. Saw many damsel, angel, wrasse, parrot and …. deng deng deng…. big Titan Trigger (notorious underwater bully). Quickly signal my buddy to swim away. He was kind of curious why I was so thrilled, probably he has not ID the fish yet. Snorkel and play around the Christmas Tree Worm. I really had fun until my buddy could not tahan, heheh….

Christmas Tree Worm (Photo extracted from Beckz).

Yeah, I am a PADI diver!!! Someday, everyone is going to DIVE. (hehe Beckz, cannot resist to steal your line, the line is damn too good)

Graduation time…. Richard cruelly did his old trick to scare his student. He told that one of us failed the course. We were speechless and prayed in our own heart but it turned out to be a joke! Cola was the victim. Virtually, his eyes was filled with utmost sorrow and sadness when Richard said he failed the course before we all knew it was a joke, haha… Officially, everyone was PADI certified Open Water Diver now. Laughter and Happiness were in the air. We filled our first ever diver’s log, chatting about the experiences, teasing Cola, planning for next dives or Advanced Course. What a happy ending….. Thank God, and everyone who share their most amazing moment with me, especially my buddies Ellen and Fei.

   

Some other photos taken in Kuala Terengganu. Durian peak season.