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My Dive Trip – Pulau Dayang Day 4

12 June, 2008 kormmandos Leave a comment

Date: 4 May 2008

Sunrise
Sunrise

The last day of our dive trip. We are PADI Adventure Divers now. Yippee! We were as relieved as we were sad to be leaving the island. We had a lot of fun during the last 3 days.

L. O. V. E.
L. O. V. E.

Only one dive today because we didn’t want to contend with the rest of the visitors for the toilet, food and seats on the ferry back. This dive would be a deep dive at Dayang Wreck. Visibility wasn’t as good as what we experienced at other dive sites, but I guess it worked to give that really cool mysterious effect as we sank into what it felt like an abyss, with no bottom in sight.

But of course, once we reached the bottom, we could see the brief shape of a boat wreck. With everyone accounted for, we finned towards the wreck. We spotted a porcupine fish taking shelter in the wreck. Moving along, Desmond pointed a well-camouflaged cuttlefish resting just above the seabed. As more of us moved closer, the cuttlefish sensed the threat and fluttered off and signalled a smaller companion with a strip of bio-luminence that lit either side of its mantle. As it moved, its skin pigmentation continuously changed and blended itself with the changing environment. It was a fascinating sight to behold.

We also saw a huge star pufferfish hiding under a coral formation.

Even though it was the last dive of the trip, our instructor made it a point to drill into us the importance of regularly checking the air pressure, the depth gauge, the safety stop as well as ascending procedures.

Returning to shore for debrief, we were told that we ad gone down to 31.4 metres, our deepest dive yet. We were sniggering after overhearing another dive group’s deep dive was not as deep as ours. :p

After breakfast, we chilled out on the beach with a little bit of nonsense…

Burial in Paradise
Burial in Paradise

Obligatory buried person and people who made it possible
Obligatory buried person and people who made it possible

Floating Boon
Floating Boon

Jumping for joy
Jumping for joy

It was fun while it lasted. I was glad to have finally took the plunge into scuba diving. Seeing the amazing underwater world, it is most definite that there is an Almighty God that made all these living jewels. Unfortunately, coral reefs all around the world are on the decline, thanks to the influx of divers and climate change. So I borrow a quote as my humble advice: “Take nothing except photos and memories, leave nothing behind except foot prints.”


Leave only foot prints

But if you are going on a dive trip soon, let me know, yah?
I want to tag along if time and budget permits.

More photos available here.

My Dive Trip – Pulau Dayang Day 3

12 June, 2008 kormmandos Leave a comment

Date: 3 May 2008

My Dive Group
My dive group

As mentioned in the previous post, we got up earlier today to dive before breakfast. 4 dives were scheduled today with the last one done before dinner so that we didn’t have to contend with the weekend visitors that just arrived.

Neither did I have time for a morning shoot. So we went straight to the boat after washing up.

Rigging up the equipment
Rigging up the equipment

The first dive was to be a deep dive at Rayner’s Rock, Dayang’s best dive site. We went down to 28.6 metres. Depending on individuals, diving to such depths might cause nitrogen narcosis. So in a way to gauge our tolerance, we were briefed to respond by providing an answer to a simple math problem under that depth.Ah Liang responded to the instructor by hi-fiving when the latter showed 10 with her hands.
Nitrogen narcosis? Unfortunately we were unable to determine the cause of his stupidity creativity because antics such as these occur even on land without the influence of alcohol.

With plenty of large rocks, diving at Rayner’s Rock was indeed a spectacular experience. Moving from deep to shallow water, we could experience a significant change in the water temperature, better known as a themocline. There is an abundance of marine life in huge varieties here. Spotted were titan triggerfish, yellow mask angelfish, bumphead parrotfish, barracudas, moorish idol, pufferfish, blue-ringed angelfish and moray eels just to name a few.

Unfortunately, the underwater tour was cut short because my dive buddy ran dangerously low on air.

Shameless posing on cue
Shameless posing on cue

The second dive was for navigation where we would perform pacing and compass use underwater. With that done, we would go on the underwater tour once again.

Spotted were nudibranches and zebra lionfishes.

A rare narcissistic moment
A rare narcissistic moment

We did a boat dive next. Nothing extremely special, since we have been diving from a boat. The only extra thing to do was that lean back and fall entry and we were clear for the boat dive requirement. So we descended for our tour. There were plenty of things to see here at Captin’s Point. Spotted were batfish, scorpionfish, undulated moray eel, lionfish, nudibranch, butterflyfish, flat tail triggerfish, pufferfish, giant clams and fusilier.

We were done with diving for the day. Desmond joked that we could go dive by ourselves since we have already completed our syllabus for advanced open water diver certification.

Good ol’ Ah Liang sound asleep. So we the wicked people decided to play a trick on him…
Ah Liang sound asleep

First…
20080503_Dayang_0132

…then…
20080503_Dayang_0134

…Then he woke up…

If you are adventurous and have the energy, try climbing up the hill behind the resort for a really, really good view. But first, we had to contend with this and the pesky mosquitoes that breed here…

Trash
Dayang Waste (mis)Management Sdn Bhd

Halfway up, we paused for a look at Pulau Lang…
Pulau Lang from higher up
Pulau Lang from higher up

…I was momentarily distracted by some cashew fruits…
Cashew Fruits

…And when we reached the top…
What. A. View.
What. A. View.

20080503_Dayang_0164
Group Photo~!

A view of the establishment
A view of the establishment

Dinner on a Saturday would be an exceptionally sumptuous spread with highlights being lamb chops done to perfection.

After dinner, our instructors debriefed the group and finally signed for all our certification dives for this trip. We are now officially PADI certified “advanced open water divers”.

We then chatted late into the night before turning in. The last dive of the trip would be before breakfast as well.

More photos available here.

My new equipment lust

10 June, 2008 kormmandos Leave a comment

My new equipment lust

My new equipment lust

An underwater housing for my D300 some day…