All in a weekend dive trip (Day 3)

Saturday...
Today is the D-Day for the Wreck Specialty students....today they have to do wreck penetration....which is the most difficult task to do in taking the course.

The wreck they are gonna penetrate is Sugar Wreck. Rt will set a route for them...which he will mark by using his reel. Then the students will have to follow the reel and penetrate the wreck. Those who fail to complete this task will fail the course.

Our 1st dive for today is Tokong Laut....or also known as Temple of The Sea to the average mat salleh. This is a very nice dive site....made out of a huge rock pinacle which rise up of the sea. The peak of the pinacle is about 3 metres above sea level.

There are many rock rumble at the bottom of the pinacle....creating a lot of small cracks and crevics. Reef sharks like nurse and bamboo sharks like to hide among the cracks. I caught a video of a nurse shark hiding in the crack. Also white eye morays loves this areas too.

Visibility is superb....though current is quite strong on one side of the pinacle. We are limited to half of the pinacle to explore only....to avoid from fighting the current. There are some other divers in this site also. I did not do any dive leading this time....so its a FUN dive for me...yahoooooo.

Next is the D-Day dive for the Wreck Specialty students. Our dive is to Sugar Wreck and we are doing penetration. Since there are so many students on this trip, the group are split into 2. I will lead 3 divers to see the propeller and rudder at the stern of the wreck...and RT will lead the other 4 to the wreck entry while he set the reel for the path.

Some students got lost while devending...hence delaying the setting up for the reel...haihzzzz. The while penetrating...someone accidently snap the reel line, only 2 students make it to complete the wreck penetration. On our way back to the resort....RT is thinking how to do penetration for the rest of the students. His reel also is much shorter now.

Finally our last dive is at Terumbu Tiga. There are a lot of rock crevices in this area which is big enuf to penetrate...hence the rest of the students who did not do the penetration in Sugar Wreck will do it here. I am leading Sim for fun dive here and we are looking for Nudi Branch. Vis is very very bad....ard 3 metres only and I imagine I am looking for nudi branch. Search high and low, found many normal nudi branch. Finally reaching the end of the dive....manage to spot a very nice nudi...happy ah Sim.

Lastly at nite....me, RT, yvonne, josh and eddie went rto the chinese restaurant next to Watercolour Resort for dinner. The rest went to Long Beach for partying. After dinner...we went for a walk at PIR (Perhentian Island Resort).....very nice and expensive resort.

End my day with doing my logbook in my room and sleep of early. Its the end of the whole trip...and I did 7 dives in total. Total expenses for my whole trip is roughly ard RM 650....kira ok lah. Nice trip...especially when diving in Fish Heaven...a must go dive site :)

All in a weekend dive trip (Day 2)

Friday...
Totally rested after a good 8+ hours sleep. Bangun pagi n Paul already awake d too. Brush my gigi n makan the roti I bought (save cost) for breakfast...and I am ready to go diving for today.

1st dive for today is a secret dive site call Fish Heaven. Its so secretive that the buoy is tied 5 metres underwater to avoid other people knowing this site....now I know people do tie bouy underwater. We search for the dive site via GPS and when we are ard the area, the DM will dive into the sea n search for the submerged buoy. Then he/she will surface with the rope tying the buoy...to tie it to the boat.

The dive site is very far from Perhentian...roughly ard 40 mins boat ride. It is actually nearer to Lang Tengah. Was thinking of searching for this site next time n mark it on RT's GPS....then can make it a new 'secret' dive site d.

The dive site is a sunken barge....sunken bout quite some time d, hence become a sanctuary for fishes. While decending, we saw a school of bat fish near the buoy line. Then as we look down....school and school of yellow fussilers and hundreds of damsel fish greets us. We could hardly spot the wreck...its totally covered with fishes. When we are about 5m from the wreck....we can see it. The structure of the wreck is still intact...with some holes on the side, suitable for penetration. Big fishes (puffers, barracudas, snappers) can be seen circling the wreck....hunting for food. Overall this is a superb dive site....a must see.

Our next dive is to Sugar Wreck....the wreck students will have some assignments to do there. The students are split into 2 groups consist of 3 and 4 students each. I am leading 4 students on this dive. Vis is not very clear....hence I lead the students very close to the wreck. We did some simple penetration.....and saw a school of huge (bout 6 feet long) barracudas. Ended the dive by spotting a bamboo shark at the back of the wreck.

After Sugar Wreck.....next dive is Vietnamese Wreck. The current is quite strong on this site. Yvonne is so silly to jump into the water without wearing her fins...haihzzzz....sometimes wanna be "gung-ho" also must see conditions mah. This time ard I lead 3 students while RT lead the other 4. Did some simple penetration....but bit difficult coz the current is so strong. Saw many nice nice soft corals....so colourful.

End the day with a nice dinner and relaxing by the beach. Chart my logs.....and then I'm ready for bed. Got another bz diving day tomorow....hence need the rest.

All in a weekend dive trip (Day 1)

Itenaries:

Location: Pulau Perhentian
Schedule: 17th - 20th May 2007
Activity: FUN dive + partial DMT training

Initially didn't thought of going for this trip, coz don't think can make it. Suppose to roll into a new project on 14/05/2007....means won't be able to take leave. However suddenly the management told me that the project has been delayed....so I tot, what the heck...just try to get the leaves lah. Got it approved bout 1 week b4 the trip....hence consider really last minute d. Since its last minute...I din really asked anyone to go with me, just wanna make it a simple budget trip.

Wednesday...
Bus is at 9.30pm....so was a bit rush. Left my client's location in PJ ard 6.30pm. Sampai rumah already 7pm...then kena pack pack a little...especially the toiletries stuffs n "mou kan" (towel)and check whether everything is packed or not. Seriously u don't wanna find out u left something important like ur underwear (happen to me ones) when u r already like 400kms away from home.

Took a quick dinner and I am off to the KTM station to catch a train (what else) to the Putra Bus Station near PWTC. Really susah take train with such a huge dive gear bag.....n then kena jln bout 500m from the train station to bus station carrying a 15kg dive bag...torture torture.

One thing nice bout the Putra Bus Station....then bus always depart on time (+- 2 mins) diff....coz the announcer will scold if the bus don leave...hehehehe. So finally cabut from KL at 9.30pm. Its 8 hours ride to Kuala Besut.....or should I say 8 hours of torture if u can't sleep :) Lucky for me...I got both the seat to myself...seems like no one bought the seat beside mine...yahoooooo.

Thursday...
Din get to really sleep much....I think only manage to catch a short nap between 2am till 3.30am. The bus driver is really speeding....we reach Kuala Besut jetty at 4.30am....45 mins earlier than the Mutiara bus which left KL half an hour earlier. Din have anything much to do in the jetty.....weather is nice and windy and cold. The Watercolour office is not open yet also....so I go sleep on a big bench/platform I found near the office. Bout 10 mins into my sleep....a female cat come n rub rub against me wor...wa lau....terkejut aku. Then tido beside me....hehehehehe.

Finally the Watercolour opis open...but still I have to wait for RT n the geng who will only be reaching bout 9.30am....wa lau eh. Manage to catch some sleep in the Watercolour office....eventhough its not comfortable at all.

Finally semua orang sampai...n off we went to Pulau Perhentian. I am damm tired at that time. I skip the 1st dive (just a checkout dive) to have lunch with Chu San and Azlan. Afterthat manage to get bout 2 hours sleep too b4 the next dive at 4.30pm....we are going to Terumbu Tiga (T3)...yahooooo...one of my fav dive site coz a lot of nudi branches. I really sleep like a dead log (expected lah...more than 18 hours no sound sleep) until I din know my room mate knock the door several times too.

Finally at 4.30pm.....we are off to Terumbu Tiga. Mild current is expected coz the tide is moving out. Vis is ok...not bad. I din use my wetsuit.....decide to wear my "charisma" white skin suit n swimming bermudas saja...hehehehe. Din really see anything spectacular lah....except more than 20 of those normal looking nudi branches.

Got night dive today also...but got surcharge...so I dowan to go lah. Spend the rest of the day doin my log (only 1 dive today) coz now got dive comp d....can know my own profile...kekekekeke. Then makan n go to bed early coz next day got early dive.

Memoir of a climbing trip (Day 1)

Was so rush for this trip...just came back from SG bout 48 hours ago...then here I am, ready packed n ready to go. Shopping and packing was bit of a last minute stuff for me...but after getting used to it for so many times d....everything is done in just a couple of hours.

Went to Richard's (RT) house ard 10.30pm, and Chin Yin was already there. She and RT is still doing some last minute packing. Finally kau tim all the packing n stuffs bout 11pm....then go nap liao....12.30am going out for yum cha n then meet up the rest of the convoy at 2am. Reach Raub and meet up with Eric ard 4am. After this....its all the way to Merapoh. I took over the driving from Richard from this point onwards. Chin Yin is sleeping like a pig at the rear seat.....this gal really can sleep.

Reach Merapoh very early...ard 6am. We took a short nap before having breakfast at the stalls ard 7am. Ard 8am...we made our way to the Perhilitan office to get the registration done. Since there are so many of us...we occupy almost the whole outside area to empty everything from our bag to be checked.


Emptiying our backpacks to be checked.


Perhilitan officials checking everything we are bringing up the mountain.

Finally everything is done, the checking, the paperwork, the money....and we are all set to jln. Took the 4X4 ride to the startin place at Kuala Juram. Took a big group photo...and we are off into the jungle at 10.50am.


Everyone masuk into the 4X4 and get ready to masuk hutan.

Not really fit this year....mainly becoz I have stop actively involved in sports for the past 3 months. Really suffer in Tahan...especially when try to match up with the pace I had last year. Took almost 1 hour to complete the 5km section from Kuala Juran to Kuala Luis.....which I did in 45 mins only last year. This stretch got some river crossing parts...which is always fun and full of actions.


River crossing...hehehe...fun fun.

Reached Camp Kor ard 2pm......a little late than expected. Took our cold and relaxing bath here n rested for ard 30mins before continuing the last 6kms to Kubang camp site. Waited till Deon and Chu San arrived...then found out that Shen is not doin well and vomitted a few times along the way. I realize then that few of us will not make it to Kubang camp site tonite...haihzzzz...feel a bit disappointed.


On the way to Kubang campsite.

Finially reached Kubang camp site ard 5pm. Was raining just before we arrive....and the place is covered with thick mist......cold. I quickly setup my flysheet and ground sheet....and rested under the flysheet. The last to arrive are Deon And Chu San....around 8pm. Basically everyone made it safely. Yew Hong looks so tired.....hehehe...mentally n physically exhausted.

Uncle look so tired, taking a short break.

Yew Hong so exhausted.....hehehehe.

Overall not much actions in the 1st day....everything went smoothly despite having to execute plan B...which is to split the group on separate campsites becoz some were very slow. The 1st timers seems to enjoy it so far.....and the old timers are all lepaking saja.


Time to nap....good nite.