Friday 12th June
We set off knowing that we could get to the airport using the MRT having done the journey several weeks previously. On arrival at the airport we checked our bags in early. Surprisingly for a huge city there were few people around. We went through security this time with few problems. The flight was longer than anticipated and had some of the luxuries being Singapore Airlines. I almost got to watch all of the Watchmen but unfortunately found we were landing before I could view the last ten minutes. Simon greeted us on arrival and presented us with a welcome badge, octopus card, and a mobile phone – what a star. This was the first time for a long while that we had been able to switch off a little from decision making and his welcome was so appreciated. On the way into Hong Kong he pointed out some of the sights. It was like having our own tour guide! We found our way easily to Mirador Mansions where we were staying. This proved to be a rabbit warren filled with all sorts of private enterprise and also in the middle of massive renovation with bamboo scaffolding covering all the outside and the inside quadrangle. We made our way up to the check in area, then found our room. This proved to be a small suite of rooms seperated by a corridor. Our room proved to be clean and airconditioned – which by now is all we need. We dropped off our bags and headed straight out with Simon for something to eat. He took us to a cafe near where he lives in Mong Kok: he was known there and we were absolutely gob-smacked when he ordered for us in Cantonese! We enjoyed this first meal in Hong Kong: we had traditional food, including lovely broccoli with beef. Afterwards we went to see Simon's flat, which has a very comfy sitting room, with large flat-screen TV. We met Tim, one of his flat-mates and then had a quick wander around the area ending up in their local where we were introduced to Karen, who seemed in charge. We settled into a quiet corner and ordered a bucket of Carlsburg ( this was actually 6 bottles in a bucket). There was a young woman promoting the beer and after at least 2 buckets Brent was delighted to get a free Carlsburg pen. Simon suggested a game of darts and we had a go on the electronic board. We also played a dice game. Simon explained that most pubs have board games, which local enjoy. Later on Daniel, Simon's other flat- mate, joined us and we had a fun time playing darts. We left the two of them in the pub and got into taxi..
Saturday 13th June
Next morning Simon met us outside our building and took us just up the road to another mall, where we had our first, fantastic dim sum. The restaurant was fabulous: it was very busy with lots of locals sitting around huge round tables enjoying their Saturday brunch. We certainly enjoyed ours, with the crispy prawns and custard dumpliings high on the list of favourites. We then spent a very happy afternoon mooching around the antique shops on Hollywood Road on HK island. To get there we took the Star Ferry across to the island then used the MTR system. All very efficient and unbelievably clean. Somewhere en route we picked up a delicious yoghurt drink. We were very impressed by the ancient statues in one of the exclusive shops that we went in. They were hundreds of years old but had been renovated so were in pristine condition. The carvings were stunningly beautiful. It was very hot and humid so Simon introduced us to another of his favourite pubs: the Globe. Here we enjoyed Marston's Pedigree and Leffe dark beer. Brent and I had a game of back gammon before we headed to Hong Kong park, where we enjoyed the aviary before going back to our hotel for a rest and shower ready to head out and meet Prudence and her mum and dad. We ate in a Sichuan restaurant, where the food was hot and spicy. Christine and John ( Prudence's parents) went home after the drink, while we carried on to the Bulldog bar in Lan Kwai Fong. There we had towers of ale and met some of simons friends.
Sunday 14th June
We started the day again with some Dim Sum – yummy. Simon then took us via MTR and local bus to one of the many treks in Hong Kong. This came as a bit of a surprise to us both. We didnt realise that there were many walks. The walk known as the Dragon's Back headed steeply up the hill sometimes using paths sometimes steps. The heat was intense and we were all soon working up a sweat. We set a slow but steady pace and were rewarded by some stunning views across the bays below. After a couple of hours we finished our walk at Big Wave Beach.It was lovely to see local families enjoying the sand and sea. We sat down to enjoy a cold drink and some food. Linda and I took the opportunity to go for a paddle. When we felt suitably refreshed we headed back to the city using one of the small buses. These fairly zip around the island carrying about 10 people. We ended up at Mong Kok where we ate Thai food, then used Simon's internet before heading home in a violent thunderstorm.
Saturday, 20 June 2009
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Goodbye to the islands and on to Singapore
Sunday 7th June
Today we took the water taxi to the small island. This is far more commercial and we were interested to see whether it would be any better as a place to stay. We arrived on the jetty on long beach. The hotels and restaraunts started immediately and we soon spotted the dive school Quiver that we had e-mailed but to no effect ie no reply. It didnt look as impressive as the one we had chosen. We wandered along the beach which had very little shade and had us soon scurrying for somewhere to get a cold drink in one of the bars bordering the beach. By coincidence this also turned out to be one of the ones that we had tried to contact and again had been full. The chalets looked comparable to the ones we were staying in. The beach though was very hot so we searched for the path over to the other side of the island. We struggled to find it so asked two English women sitting at a table nearby. They had not been here long so couldnt help. In the course of their conversation though they bemoaned the fact that the electricity was turned off in the early hours of the morning and didnt come on till 7pm in the evening. This confirmed for us that the decision we had made to stay at Bubbles had been the correct one.
We eventually found the path which was bordered by lots of rubbish and building. The other side of the island was cooler with some more shade. Coral Bay as it was known was the area that all the boats came into from the mainland so the government had built a huge jetty which somewhat marred the view. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and taking an occasional dip in the sea. By the time 4.00pm arrived we were ready to go back to our island. We sought one of the many water taxis and a young lad drove us back to the resort. After dinner we wandered down to look at the full moon reflecting in the water: very beautiful. April came over to say that a turtle was already preparing her nest if we would like to see...Wow, once again we had struck lucky. We were able to get quite a good view of a huge green turtle preparing to lay it's eggs: this is very hard work. She uses her fins to scoop out a deep chamber. This took over an hour and she seemed oblivious to the gathered onlookers. We were very impressed by the children who came to look: they were still and quiet and completely absorbed in watching. Suddenly we heard the sound of a boat and shortly spotted several men from the fisheries, who'd come looking for turtle eggs. This is part of the government's conservation project and is quite hard to watch. No sooner had our awesome turtle laid her eggs than one of the men knelt down and with his whole arm buried in the sand scooped out her eggs. One of the young volunteers was very upset and really lost it when one of the newly arrived tourists, who'd missed April's talk, used his flash to take a photo. Throughout the whole fiasco the turtle continued to work hard to cover the eggs she thought were still there. This took another hour or more and we were privileged to be close enough to hear her laboured breathing in between her work.
Monday 8th June
Our last day on the island was a quiet day of reading and lazing about, giving our feet a chance to recover from the damage done to them by the fins we wore when diving. Our last meal was a bit disappointing and we felt ready to leave the next day.
Tuesday 9th June
We did not leave the island until 4.00am so had plenty of time to pack our belongings and say our fond farewells. It seemed that everyone was genuinely sorry to see us go. Our dive instructors and the family who owned the business all stood on the beach to wave us away.
The little resort boat took us to the edge of the island where we made a mid water crossing to the larger fast boat that sped us to the mainland. The driver was a bit of a maverick though trying to race boats and speeding into the harbour entrance at a ridiculous pace. We were relieved to get off safely. On disembarking we were told by the taxi driver who met us that they had been unable to get tickets for the overnght bus BUT fortuneately had tickets for the sleeper train. This involved an hours journey to link up with it. luckily we had lots of time before its departure at 9.00pm and found a cafe to have tea. The journey by train was our first sleeper experience. No place for bags so had to sleep with them. For me the smokers where a problem. Managed to get some sleep though and the journey continued smoothly to Singapore.
Wednesday 10th June
Arrived in Singapore about midday. Taxi from station to MRT. MRT to Orchard Rd where I did a successful recky to find the YMCA. The building was very posh. We settled into the room. A little luxury after our time on the island. On our last visit to this city we were in Chinatown. Now we were staying in the heart of the shopping district surrounded by malls – had a very different feel and could have been any large western city. We made the most of the facilities and replenished some of the supplies we were low on. In the evening went to the Quay area and had a few very expensive drinks.
Thursday 11th June
Had a visit to the Botanic Gardens today. Beautifully laid out. The highlights were the orchid gardens which had the most fantastic blooms.The humidity was very high and we wandered around at the pace to which we had now accustomed ourselves. Had a quiet evening around the hotel making the mistake of buying an expensive burger. Looking forward to seeing Simon.
Today we took the water taxi to the small island. This is far more commercial and we were interested to see whether it would be any better as a place to stay. We arrived on the jetty on long beach. The hotels and restaraunts started immediately and we soon spotted the dive school Quiver that we had e-mailed but to no effect ie no reply. It didnt look as impressive as the one we had chosen. We wandered along the beach which had very little shade and had us soon scurrying for somewhere to get a cold drink in one of the bars bordering the beach. By coincidence this also turned out to be one of the ones that we had tried to contact and again had been full. The chalets looked comparable to the ones we were staying in. The beach though was very hot so we searched for the path over to the other side of the island. We struggled to find it so asked two English women sitting at a table nearby. They had not been here long so couldnt help. In the course of their conversation though they bemoaned the fact that the electricity was turned off in the early hours of the morning and didnt come on till 7pm in the evening. This confirmed for us that the decision we had made to stay at Bubbles had been the correct one.
We eventually found the path which was bordered by lots of rubbish and building. The other side of the island was cooler with some more shade. Coral Bay as it was known was the area that all the boats came into from the mainland so the government had built a huge jetty which somewhat marred the view. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and taking an occasional dip in the sea. By the time 4.00pm arrived we were ready to go back to our island. We sought one of the many water taxis and a young lad drove us back to the resort. After dinner we wandered down to look at the full moon reflecting in the water: very beautiful. April came over to say that a turtle was already preparing her nest if we would like to see...Wow, once again we had struck lucky. We were able to get quite a good view of a huge green turtle preparing to lay it's eggs: this is very hard work. She uses her fins to scoop out a deep chamber. This took over an hour and she seemed oblivious to the gathered onlookers. We were very impressed by the children who came to look: they were still and quiet and completely absorbed in watching. Suddenly we heard the sound of a boat and shortly spotted several men from the fisheries, who'd come looking for turtle eggs. This is part of the government's conservation project and is quite hard to watch. No sooner had our awesome turtle laid her eggs than one of the men knelt down and with his whole arm buried in the sand scooped out her eggs. One of the young volunteers was very upset and really lost it when one of the newly arrived tourists, who'd missed April's talk, used his flash to take a photo. Throughout the whole fiasco the turtle continued to work hard to cover the eggs she thought were still there. This took another hour or more and we were privileged to be close enough to hear her laboured breathing in between her work.
Monday 8th June
Our last day on the island was a quiet day of reading and lazing about, giving our feet a chance to recover from the damage done to them by the fins we wore when diving. Our last meal was a bit disappointing and we felt ready to leave the next day.
Tuesday 9th June
We did not leave the island until 4.00am so had plenty of time to pack our belongings and say our fond farewells. It seemed that everyone was genuinely sorry to see us go. Our dive instructors and the family who owned the business all stood on the beach to wave us away.
The little resort boat took us to the edge of the island where we made a mid water crossing to the larger fast boat that sped us to the mainland. The driver was a bit of a maverick though trying to race boats and speeding into the harbour entrance at a ridiculous pace. We were relieved to get off safely. On disembarking we were told by the taxi driver who met us that they had been unable to get tickets for the overnght bus BUT fortuneately had tickets for the sleeper train. This involved an hours journey to link up with it. luckily we had lots of time before its departure at 9.00pm and found a cafe to have tea. The journey by train was our first sleeper experience. No place for bags so had to sleep with them. For me the smokers where a problem. Managed to get some sleep though and the journey continued smoothly to Singapore.
Wednesday 10th June
Arrived in Singapore about midday. Taxi from station to MRT. MRT to Orchard Rd where I did a successful recky to find the YMCA. The building was very posh. We settled into the room. A little luxury after our time on the island. On our last visit to this city we were in Chinatown. Now we were staying in the heart of the shopping district surrounded by malls – had a very different feel and could have been any large western city. We made the most of the facilities and replenished some of the supplies we were low on. In the evening went to the Quay area and had a few very expensive drinks.
Thursday 11th June
Had a visit to the Botanic Gardens today. Beautifully laid out. The highlights were the orchid gardens which had the most fantastic blooms.The humidity was very high and we wandered around at the pace to which we had now accustomed ourselves. Had a quiet evening around the hotel making the mistake of buying an expensive burger. Looking forward to seeing Simon.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Underwater adventures
Eric first spotted shy bamboo sharks hiding beneath rocks but as we continued to swim we saw many more. You can imagine how wonderful it was. We saw several puffer fish and a lot of the Nemos.. you may have to wait til we get home to see the video of us amongst shoals of fish!!!
3 legged turtle
We first spotted her feeding and then watched as she ascended with very little effort...amazing1
diving photo 1
On our last dive Eric, my lovely instuctor took his camera along. Here's one of the photos of me (Lin) followed by one of Brent ...
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Diving days
Monday 1st June
After studying on and off for 4 days last night we sat down to the written, theory exam part of the PADI. I (Lin) was pretty pleased with how confident I was for the most part, with just the dive planning and an unclear diagram giving me a bit more difficulty. Anyway this morning Wolfgang checked our scores. Unfortunately ( and it turned out to be very unfortunate) I moved from one section to the next wrongly and so thought I had suddenly made a lot of mistakes. I realised my mistake and Wolfgang reread the answers. This lead to my exam paper looking a bit confusing, but in fact I had achieved 96%! I felt quite proud, but our instructor got a bit between his teeth and had a real go at me. He wouldn't let it drop and I ended up walking out on the dialogue, in tears! I sat and thought about the situation whilst Brent had a chat to W. I decided not to continue with the course, feeling that the relationship between W and I could not progress and also aware that Brent would get on much faster if I were out of the scenario. Needless to say W came up with a solution, which I was very happy about: Eric, the older guy, who may own the business, would take me out this afternoon and I could then decide whether or not to continue with him. The afternoon session was great. I enjoyed Eric's sense of humour: before we hit the water we had a good talk and he told me to breathe as if I were enjoying a cigarette .. he's a smoker, as is W. but he certainly looks good on it! He made me laugh and lot and the dive itself was a lot of fun just enjoying the house reef, feeling sea cucumbers, getting a manicure from the cleaner shrimps and spotting the puffer clams and lots of beautiful fish. The day ended happy!
Brent here. I was quite astounded by the way W got at Linda and I think he was quite shocked at the way Linda came back to say she wasn't going to continue. I let him have his say and then asked if he could just let me speak. I told him that we were both in education and Linda had a far more responsible position than me. I then stated that although I respected his professionalism in my opinion he had made a bad judgement in this case. He started to draw lots of conclusions about Linda's character from this one mistake. I set him right on this. It created a rather strange scenario in that I then carried on my training with him. You have to realise that in diving people literally have your life in their hands and I wasn't quite sure whether this incident would upset the balance in OUR relationship. Anyway I first went to check Linda was ok then suited up to go out with a session with him. Fortunately all went well with the exercises we carried out. The afternoon session also went well and I had completed all my confined water sessions successfully. Tomorrow was the dive off the boat and would complete my PADI.
Tuesday 2nd June
Today was my big day. The first dive off the boat is a tense affair. I got all the kit ready. Wetsuit, weights, octopus ( breathing mouthpieces, depth and air pressure gauge, low pressure hose) fins, snorkel and mask. This takes on a rather relaxing property once you have done it a few times. You realise that your life depends on it being set up carefully so slow and steady is the order of the day. Wolfgang was my buddy so I have to check his BCD ( bouyancy control device) weights, air, releases and all his hoses. Everything in order we headed out to the small motor boat in the bay. Everything is handed to the dive master and you jump aboard. The boat speeds up and bounces over the waves. I was understandably quite nervous. The first boat dive involves entering water by dropping backwards and this was to be my first time. We soon approached D'Lagoon a beautiful area. There were already other dive boats there. Donning tank, fins and mask I was ready to go in. Fortunately on this boat we were able to take the giant stride into the water. Once in we slowly descended. The reef was amazing teaming with all kinds of fish. Sometimes they were single, sometimes huge shoals of fish would swim by. The coral rose steeply by my side as we wound our way up. Fish swam so close. Very different from the snorkeling experience. Once you are below the surface you realise that your ascent has to be slow and measured. The aim is to use as little air as possible by reducing all but the most necessary movements. Wolfgang gradually ascended stopping for 3 minutes at 5 metres we waited. Our nitrogen balance ok we gradually went up looking above us all the time I was surprised to find we were right next to the boat. We climbed back in and returned to the resort feeling content that I had now competed all the elements of my Padi and was an official SCUBA diver!!
Arrriving back at the resort Wofgang got me to fill in all the paperwork. I was told there was a dive in the afternoon to a place called Tiger Rock. This proved to be in the next bay so the boat journey was very short. We arrived and I did my back dive into the water – no problem. The top of the rock just sat out from the surface but as you descended it dropped steeply down. This was the first time I had not dived with Wolfgang so I had some time to reflect on my practice. Everything went smoothly and the coral was fantastic. I kept checking my air and reporting it back to Eric who was leading the team. It was about 30 minutes into the dive that Mervin the other dive master double checked my air supply only to find I was almost out. I had been reading the WRONG dial duhhh depth not air. I could see the look of concern on Mervins face as he indicated we had to go up. He also took up a young boy who was diving with us. Half way in the ascent he offered me his secondary air supply. This is another regulator that allows you to share someones tank. I swapped my regulator for his easily and was pleased that the training kicked in. We ascended to five metres and stopped. I wasnt panicking but felt very guilty that I had run out of air. On surfacing I apologised profusely to Mervin. He seemed to be ok with it which was amazing. For me it had been a big learning experience and one that would probably help me take more care in future.
Lin here: well today Eric and I dived on the house reef again after I'd worked through some of the remaining skills to qualify me for the PADI. Actually I'd done quite a few of them before with W. but I was happy to practice them again as this really improved my confidence and security in the water: by the end of the day I was comfortably clearing my mask and exchanging my regulator for Eric's secondary source octopus. We'd even ascended together using his air. All that remains in terms of skills is the compass skills and the CESA( controlled ascent). In the afternoon we went out for a dive and once again I loved it. Amonst lots of wonderful fish we managed to spot a huge marble grouper and a blue ring angel fish.
Wednesday 3rd June
Today I (Lin)woke up feeling very chesty and realised that I'd probably overdone it yesterday. I really didn't feel up to any dives today. Eric was fine about this and I took a rest day. Read a lot and slept a lot!
Brent here. Today I was due to do another dive. I was slightly nervous after yesterday but knew it was important to get right back on the horse so to speak. The boat took us out to Tokong Laut. Like Tiger Rock this proved to be a small rock sticking out of the sea which hid a cornucopia of fish including blue spotted ray, bamboo sharks, snapper, parrot and angel fish.
The dive went very well as did the ascent and I came back feeling justifiably pleased
Thursday 4th June
Lin here: well I felt fine this morning so met Eric and 9.30 to complete more of the skills: once again some of these were a repeat of those I'd learned with W. and I felt quite comfortable removing and replacing the weight belt and BCD on the surface. We repeated these underwater and I had a go at a CESA. and at using the compass underwater. Not surprisingly, given my navigation skills on land, I didn't find this easy, but with practice I got the idea. In the afternoon I did my first fun dive from a boat diving up to 18 metres. When we arrived at our destination ( Tiger Rock) we waited for the other group to enter the water before I got ready ( see Brent's description of this). I was sitting on the edge of the boat about to roll in backwards when one of the lads had a bit of a panic in the water. Whilst Eric settled him down I felt very pleased by how calm I felt... I was ready for this! I leaned back and entered no problem. The dive was amazing for me: we saw a star puffer fish,a titan trigger fish, tiny squat lobster and shrimp as well as brown banded pipe fish . The rock itself was quite beautiful as were the corals. To be swimming amongst shoals of beautiful coloured fish is very special and I felt very fortunate to have found such a wonderful teacher.
Brent here. This was my day off. I really did need to just chill and read. My body was feeling the effect of so much diving!
Friday 5th June
Today began well. We'd both woken early and were having a chat at 6am before packing our stuff ready to move chalets, when April knocked the door. A turtle was in the process of laying her eggs and she invited us to bring our cameras down to the beach to watch her return to the sea. This took some time, but it was a beautiful morning and lovely to see the sun rise. We felt a bit sad as we watched the turtle shuffling sand into its pit, where she thought her eggs were. In fact the fisheries staff had already removed them, but she was unaware of the futllity of her hard work...quite sad actually. When she returned to the sea we were able to get quite close and take some photos. Great!
We were keen to do a dive together now that we'd both qualified as PADI open water divers, so signed up for this morning's dive to Tokung Laut. Brent had enjoyed this dive on Wednesday and I was keen to do it. It's a 30 minute boat ride to the site and 2 Bubbles boats did the trip with 3 dive masters: Mervyn and the two Erics. Brent and I were one team and were supervised by (old) Eric. This was an absolutely brilliant dive for us. Eric manages to find so many fish. After descending this time from a rope as there was a bit of a current our little group began to explore and I was chuffed when I spotted another Moray Eel, before Eric! He then shone his torch under part of the rock and pointed out our first bamboo sharks... we saw quite a few of these as well as puffer and box fish. As we continued the dive we met up with Mervyn's group and I enjoyed the feeling of being amongst other divers, with some above and some below me. Then, well into the dive, which went up to 19.5 metres, we spotted a turtle. It was the resident 3 legged green turtle, covered in algae, which we'd been told about! When we first saw her she was feeding, but as we watched she slowly began to ascend. We were quite close to her and it was very special. I have to say that I (Lin) got a bit too enthusiastic and started to follow her up...oops! After a couple of metres I realised I was going up too fast and quickly deflated my BCD to rejoin Brent and Eric. What an amazing experience. Our little team was last out of the water, which pleased Brent no end, as his previous dives had been shorter and he'd had less air left.
Saturday 6th June
A rest day for us and boy were we ready for it! We slept over 10 hours last night and today tried to get our sore feet rested: we both have nasty wounds on them from our fins. Around 4.30 we went off for a snorkel in the area recommended by April. This was just fab! At first the visibility was poor but as we went further out it began to clear and, hiding amongst the coral, I spotted quite a large puffer fish. Then we both began to spot the sharks. This time they were reef sharks: these are about 3 foot long and have a black tip on the dorsal fin (top fin). As we continued we couldn't believe our luck when we spotted another green turtle. She wasn't bothered by us at all and we were able to follow her for quite a while. I was slightly bothered by the shoal of long thin fish with spearlike mouths, which was just below the surface above the turtle, but Brent carried on regardless. We saw a lot more of these creatures on our way back to shore and later found out that they were needle fish. We enjoyed swimming amongst shoals of different coloured fish before climbing out...definitely ready for another rest!!
After studying on and off for 4 days last night we sat down to the written, theory exam part of the PADI. I (Lin) was pretty pleased with how confident I was for the most part, with just the dive planning and an unclear diagram giving me a bit more difficulty. Anyway this morning Wolfgang checked our scores. Unfortunately ( and it turned out to be very unfortunate) I moved from one section to the next wrongly and so thought I had suddenly made a lot of mistakes. I realised my mistake and Wolfgang reread the answers. This lead to my exam paper looking a bit confusing, but in fact I had achieved 96%! I felt quite proud, but our instructor got a bit between his teeth and had a real go at me. He wouldn't let it drop and I ended up walking out on the dialogue, in tears! I sat and thought about the situation whilst Brent had a chat to W. I decided not to continue with the course, feeling that the relationship between W and I could not progress and also aware that Brent would get on much faster if I were out of the scenario. Needless to say W came up with a solution, which I was very happy about: Eric, the older guy, who may own the business, would take me out this afternoon and I could then decide whether or not to continue with him. The afternoon session was great. I enjoyed Eric's sense of humour: before we hit the water we had a good talk and he told me to breathe as if I were enjoying a cigarette .. he's a smoker, as is W. but he certainly looks good on it! He made me laugh and lot and the dive itself was a lot of fun just enjoying the house reef, feeling sea cucumbers, getting a manicure from the cleaner shrimps and spotting the puffer clams and lots of beautiful fish. The day ended happy!
Brent here. I was quite astounded by the way W got at Linda and I think he was quite shocked at the way Linda came back to say she wasn't going to continue. I let him have his say and then asked if he could just let me speak. I told him that we were both in education and Linda had a far more responsible position than me. I then stated that although I respected his professionalism in my opinion he had made a bad judgement in this case. He started to draw lots of conclusions about Linda's character from this one mistake. I set him right on this. It created a rather strange scenario in that I then carried on my training with him. You have to realise that in diving people literally have your life in their hands and I wasn't quite sure whether this incident would upset the balance in OUR relationship. Anyway I first went to check Linda was ok then suited up to go out with a session with him. Fortunately all went well with the exercises we carried out. The afternoon session also went well and I had completed all my confined water sessions successfully. Tomorrow was the dive off the boat and would complete my PADI.
Tuesday 2nd June
Today was my big day. The first dive off the boat is a tense affair. I got all the kit ready. Wetsuit, weights, octopus ( breathing mouthpieces, depth and air pressure gauge, low pressure hose) fins, snorkel and mask. This takes on a rather relaxing property once you have done it a few times. You realise that your life depends on it being set up carefully so slow and steady is the order of the day. Wolfgang was my buddy so I have to check his BCD ( bouyancy control device) weights, air, releases and all his hoses. Everything in order we headed out to the small motor boat in the bay. Everything is handed to the dive master and you jump aboard. The boat speeds up and bounces over the waves. I was understandably quite nervous. The first boat dive involves entering water by dropping backwards and this was to be my first time. We soon approached D'Lagoon a beautiful area. There were already other dive boats there. Donning tank, fins and mask I was ready to go in. Fortunately on this boat we were able to take the giant stride into the water. Once in we slowly descended. The reef was amazing teaming with all kinds of fish. Sometimes they were single, sometimes huge shoals of fish would swim by. The coral rose steeply by my side as we wound our way up. Fish swam so close. Very different from the snorkeling experience. Once you are below the surface you realise that your ascent has to be slow and measured. The aim is to use as little air as possible by reducing all but the most necessary movements. Wolfgang gradually ascended stopping for 3 minutes at 5 metres we waited. Our nitrogen balance ok we gradually went up looking above us all the time I was surprised to find we were right next to the boat. We climbed back in and returned to the resort feeling content that I had now competed all the elements of my Padi and was an official SCUBA diver!!
Arrriving back at the resort Wofgang got me to fill in all the paperwork. I was told there was a dive in the afternoon to a place called Tiger Rock. This proved to be in the next bay so the boat journey was very short. We arrived and I did my back dive into the water – no problem. The top of the rock just sat out from the surface but as you descended it dropped steeply down. This was the first time I had not dived with Wolfgang so I had some time to reflect on my practice. Everything went smoothly and the coral was fantastic. I kept checking my air and reporting it back to Eric who was leading the team. It was about 30 minutes into the dive that Mervin the other dive master double checked my air supply only to find I was almost out. I had been reading the WRONG dial duhhh depth not air. I could see the look of concern on Mervins face as he indicated we had to go up. He also took up a young boy who was diving with us. Half way in the ascent he offered me his secondary air supply. This is another regulator that allows you to share someones tank. I swapped my regulator for his easily and was pleased that the training kicked in. We ascended to five metres and stopped. I wasnt panicking but felt very guilty that I had run out of air. On surfacing I apologised profusely to Mervin. He seemed to be ok with it which was amazing. For me it had been a big learning experience and one that would probably help me take more care in future.
Lin here: well today Eric and I dived on the house reef again after I'd worked through some of the remaining skills to qualify me for the PADI. Actually I'd done quite a few of them before with W. but I was happy to practice them again as this really improved my confidence and security in the water: by the end of the day I was comfortably clearing my mask and exchanging my regulator for Eric's secondary source octopus. We'd even ascended together using his air. All that remains in terms of skills is the compass skills and the CESA( controlled ascent). In the afternoon we went out for a dive and once again I loved it. Amonst lots of wonderful fish we managed to spot a huge marble grouper and a blue ring angel fish.
Wednesday 3rd June
Today I (Lin)woke up feeling very chesty and realised that I'd probably overdone it yesterday. I really didn't feel up to any dives today. Eric was fine about this and I took a rest day. Read a lot and slept a lot!
Brent here. Today I was due to do another dive. I was slightly nervous after yesterday but knew it was important to get right back on the horse so to speak. The boat took us out to Tokong Laut. Like Tiger Rock this proved to be a small rock sticking out of the sea which hid a cornucopia of fish including blue spotted ray, bamboo sharks, snapper, parrot and angel fish.
The dive went very well as did the ascent and I came back feeling justifiably pleased
Thursday 4th June
Lin here: well I felt fine this morning so met Eric and 9.30 to complete more of the skills: once again some of these were a repeat of those I'd learned with W. and I felt quite comfortable removing and replacing the weight belt and BCD on the surface. We repeated these underwater and I had a go at a CESA. and at using the compass underwater. Not surprisingly, given my navigation skills on land, I didn't find this easy, but with practice I got the idea. In the afternoon I did my first fun dive from a boat diving up to 18 metres. When we arrived at our destination ( Tiger Rock) we waited for the other group to enter the water before I got ready ( see Brent's description of this). I was sitting on the edge of the boat about to roll in backwards when one of the lads had a bit of a panic in the water. Whilst Eric settled him down I felt very pleased by how calm I felt... I was ready for this! I leaned back and entered no problem. The dive was amazing for me: we saw a star puffer fish,a titan trigger fish, tiny squat lobster and shrimp as well as brown banded pipe fish . The rock itself was quite beautiful as were the corals. To be swimming amongst shoals of beautiful coloured fish is very special and I felt very fortunate to have found such a wonderful teacher.
Brent here. This was my day off. I really did need to just chill and read. My body was feeling the effect of so much diving!
Friday 5th June
Today began well. We'd both woken early and were having a chat at 6am before packing our stuff ready to move chalets, when April knocked the door. A turtle was in the process of laying her eggs and she invited us to bring our cameras down to the beach to watch her return to the sea. This took some time, but it was a beautiful morning and lovely to see the sun rise. We felt a bit sad as we watched the turtle shuffling sand into its pit, where she thought her eggs were. In fact the fisheries staff had already removed them, but she was unaware of the futllity of her hard work...quite sad actually. When she returned to the sea we were able to get quite close and take some photos. Great!
We were keen to do a dive together now that we'd both qualified as PADI open water divers, so signed up for this morning's dive to Tokung Laut. Brent had enjoyed this dive on Wednesday and I was keen to do it. It's a 30 minute boat ride to the site and 2 Bubbles boats did the trip with 3 dive masters: Mervyn and the two Erics. Brent and I were one team and were supervised by (old) Eric. This was an absolutely brilliant dive for us. Eric manages to find so many fish. After descending this time from a rope as there was a bit of a current our little group began to explore and I was chuffed when I spotted another Moray Eel, before Eric! He then shone his torch under part of the rock and pointed out our first bamboo sharks... we saw quite a few of these as well as puffer and box fish. As we continued the dive we met up with Mervyn's group and I enjoyed the feeling of being amongst other divers, with some above and some below me. Then, well into the dive, which went up to 19.5 metres, we spotted a turtle. It was the resident 3 legged green turtle, covered in algae, which we'd been told about! When we first saw her she was feeding, but as we watched she slowly began to ascend. We were quite close to her and it was very special. I have to say that I (Lin) got a bit too enthusiastic and started to follow her up...oops! After a couple of metres I realised I was going up too fast and quickly deflated my BCD to rejoin Brent and Eric. What an amazing experience. Our little team was last out of the water, which pleased Brent no end, as his previous dives had been shorter and he'd had less air left.
Saturday 6th June
A rest day for us and boy were we ready for it! We slept over 10 hours last night and today tried to get our sore feet rested: we both have nasty wounds on them from our fins. Around 4.30 we went off for a snorkel in the area recommended by April. This was just fab! At first the visibility was poor but as we went further out it began to clear and, hiding amongst the coral, I spotted quite a large puffer fish. Then we both began to spot the sharks. This time they were reef sharks: these are about 3 foot long and have a black tip on the dorsal fin (top fin). As we continued we couldn't believe our luck when we spotted another green turtle. She wasn't bothered by us at all and we were able to follow her for quite a while. I was slightly bothered by the shoal of long thin fish with spearlike mouths, which was just below the surface above the turtle, but Brent carried on regardless. We saw a lot more of these creatures on our way back to shore and later found out that they were needle fish. We enjoyed swimming amongst shoals of different coloured fish before climbing out...definitely ready for another rest!!
Monday, 1 June 2009
To the Parhentian Islands
Saturday 23rd May
Today was our last day of the package. It involved visiting a floating village on the banks of the largest lake in Cambodia – Tonle Sap. Linda had asked the previous evening the best time to start the visit iand the reply had come back – 7.00am another shock to the system. We set alarms and got up bleary eyed at the right time. At breakfast we were pleased to bump into our Irish friends who were told they would be best to join us at that time on the tour. We felt slightly guilty that we had suggested the earlier time but please that we would be sharing the experience with our friends.
We set off on our long journey by tuk tuk in convoy. As we hit the road we were amazed at the number of vehicles around. It was very busy with scooters and cars all over the road. Our tuk tuk drivers weaving in and out of the traffic. We headed down the main road to find that the market was taking place and people were carrying various items to and from there. The most amazing sights greeted us as we bumped along the road over taking other scooters. In England the scooter is largely a one person vehicle. Here in Cambodia it is used to carry almost everything – the list of items being carried included the following : two live pigs trussed up, a basket of piglets, a full size mattress folded in half, rolls of carpet attached length ways, all variety of food and fruit. The most precarious we witnessed was a man riding his scooter while at the same time carrying a four metre long bundle of metal bars over his shoulder with the rear end of it almost touching the floor, My camera was constantly taking pictures of the unfolding scenes as we overtook vehicles. As our journey continued we were equally amazed when someone pulled along side our moto driver on a scooter and proceeded to hold a conversation with him for at least 10 minutes. He carried on without slowing down. Along the way we stopped at a roadside stall to buy something we had spotted on our journey through SE Asia. These were about foot long length of bamboo. We had seen people picking out the insides and wondered what they were. Our driver told us it was sticky rice and purchased some for us to try later.
The road eventually became dirt covered and far more bumpy in our little carriage. We bounced around in the back taking in the increasing rustic homes which appeared by the side of the road. All of them were now built on stilts and the driver informed us that in the rainy season the water would be directly underneath them. At first we thought this may be the floating village until the tuk tuk stopped and we got out to walk down to the edge of the water were several boats were waiting. We boarded and then set off down a small river channel. The water was a mirky milky brown almost like liquid chocolate. Along the banks of the river we spotted the back of the houses we had seen from the other side. Here you could see they were mounted about twenty foot above the ground on stilts on the river side slighty lower by the road. At intervals we saw the activities of the riverside: children bathing naked in the water, fishermen casting nets, women washing clothes. Our guide explained there was also a person who bred crocodiles and pointed out a wooden crate by the side of the river, promising to visit it on the return journey. We continued along struck by the cheery nature of people almost everyone prepared to give you a large smile.
The river came round a bend and suddenly the vista opened up to reveal a huge lake. The water stretched out into the distance with misty mountains barely visible on the horizon. Our guide pointed out that at this time of the year it was at its lowest point and fish were plentiful. This was then confirmed as we pulled alongside a cluster of boats tied alongside a central one. People were clearly in discussion over something and our host got out onto the deck. We eventually got out too and and he showed us that this was effectvely a market for fish. The central boat was buying fish from all the ones around it. He opened a crate to show the massive load of fish packed in ice. While we were all on deck it became apparent that the driver of the boat was becoming agitated by an incident further across the lake. When we looked we noticed that one of the other tourist boats had become stuck in the mud. It was vainly revving its engine only to kick up lots of chocolate coloured mud behiind it, No movement of boat. He explained to us that the driver was his friend and asked if we minded if he took our boat over to help free him. Our guide stayed behind on the market boat and we set off on a rescue with our 16yr old driver and his 12year old mate!! When we arrived at the scene he quickly got into action. tying a rope to the back of the grounded boat to the only point which would not pull it to bits. He then jumped back into the drivers seat and revved the engine – the rope snapped. By this time another boat had joined us with bemused American tourists sitting inside it, Both boats now attached ropes and the haul began. Much to my amazement the boat was dragged off the mudbank. Rescue complete.
We picked up our guide and headed further out into the middle of the lake where he cut the engines. At this point he talked about the people who lived on the lake in all the boats and houses around us. Many he explained where Vietnamese who had chosen to stay after the fighting of the recent war. We asked him many questions and our little tuk tuk driver was an incredibly knowledgeable and well informed man. He explained all about the fishing rights on the lake and the balance between the company and locals. He also explained about the way in which the government tried to prevent overfishing but was generally fighting against corruption by officials too – backing this up by showing that the climbing perch we saw earlier in the baskets where much smaller than in the past. After about 30 mins here we headed back to shore briefly stopping to take pictures of the crocodiles.
The guide then asked if we wanted to see some more temples after we had stopped for lunch. So as not to offend him we said yes. The temples were different again but this had turned into another long day in the sun. We eventually arrived back at 4,00pm. and went for a kip after agreeing to meet up with our Scottish friends Simon and Caroline that evening.
We decided on Pub Street for our meal and wandered along eventually stopping at a Khymer restaurant brightly decked out in Orange. The waitress was only 16 but had the patter off to a tea making us laugh as she came out with saying she had probably repeated many times but still had the effect of making us laugh. The evening went well with conversation and beer flowing until Caroline said she wasnt feeling well. We quickly paid the bill and returned back to the guesthouse. A sad end to what had been a lovely day.
Sunday 24th May
By the next morning I had the ' runs ' . My guts turned to water. At first I didnt feel too bad but I knew that down the line it would get exhausting. We speculated on what might have been the cause. My best guess had been the washing up facilities I had spotted at the restaurant last night -a few bowls on the floor and no hot water in sight. Linda emailed Colin to arrange to meet up later he wrote back explaining that Caroline had been sick in the night.
We had a quiet day organising our future travels. We packed up some of our things ready for an early flight back to KL the next morning.
Monday 25th May / Tuesday 26th May
The flight was at 8.35am so this meant being up to get some breakfast at 6.20am. I was still suffering from a dodgy stomach so settled for only dry toast. The tuk tuk driver turned up and we took the 6km journey to the airport. We arrived paid the tuk tuk and went into the airport to check in baggage. The airport offical informed us we needed to pay $ 3.00 I looked in my wallet satisfied that I had a $5.00 note only to discover I had given it to the tuk tuk driver by mistake. He must have been chuffed. I blame all US dollars for looking the same!
Lin here....have to say that's the first time Brent's made a mistake with the money...he's usually very careful! Must have been the dodgy tummy! Anyway the flight passed uneventfully and we easily found our way to the Tune hotel in downtown KL. ( thanks to the previous recce. ). As Brent's tum wqs still not right, we limited what we did in our time in KL. We did explore some of the local shops, where we mangaged to find new swimwear, ready for our diving. We'd hoped to get the hop on hop off bus on Tues. but when we went to get on we were told it cost more than double what we'd read online...so we decided to use the tube railway instead. This was fine and we got to visit a pretty square and the central market. The most amazing thing happened when we got back to the hotel on Tues night.... in the lobby we spotted Katie and Colin, our friends from Georgetown ( see prev. blog)! We were all delighted to meet up again. They were about to head home and we spent a good hour catching up on what we'd all been doing, since last we'd met.
Wednesday 27th May...off to the Perhentian islands!
As we weren't flying til 1.30 we didn't leave the hotel tll10am and got to the airport in perfect time. The flght to Kota Bharu was very smooth and as we entered the terminal we were delighted to spot a guy holding a card with LINDA written on it. This was our taxi driver...what a relief...when we'd first booked the flight we thought we'd have to get to the ferry port of Kuala Besut (probably by taxi) and spend the night there. Fortunately the Bubbles resort had emailed to say they could sort us a taxi, which would get us to the port in time to get the last ferry at 5pm. This was quite scary, as we'd understood that our driver would travel on with us, but he disappeared and we were unsure if we should get on the ferry without him. Luckily we did and the speedboat trip across was quite fun. A load of other folk, mainly backpacker, were heading to the smaller island, but we continued to our destination: the Bubbles resort on Perhentian Besar. A Bubbles boat came out to pick us up from the speedboat and we landed on a white, sandy beach with turquoise clear waters. We signed in and were shown to our A frame cabin. This was pretty basic, and the sea view was marred by trees, but the bed was comfy and the bedding clean, the shower quite good. and we had a little deck with chairs. The resort, as we expected was tiny: a large, covered restaurant area, a few cabins, a diving centre, and a few hammocks as well as some plastic chairs. At our first meal we realised there was no alcohol. This was a bit of a shock at first, but we soon learned that alcohol and diving definitely don''t mix.
Thursday 28th – Sunday 31st May
We enjoyed a very lazy Thursday: snorkel ling out to the nearby rocks in the morning, followed by lunch, then an afternoon of reading . The snorelling was great with lots of colourful fish, including parrot fish, which I had never seen. That night as we ate we were introduced to April, a young Aussie girl, who is doing an internship here which involves monitoring green turtles. Several volunteers were being given a briefing and we were invited to join them. It was really interesting to learn about the breeding habits of the turtles. At this time of year the mature adults (aged around 25 years) are coming back to their birthplace to mate and lay their eggs and Aprll and any volunteers take turns staying up to check numbers of turtles coming ashore to lay. They track them up the beach and record where the nest is. They then aim to protect the nest from predators and poachers. They do this in various ways including covering the turtle tracks so that poachers can't follow them to the nest and urinating on the nest, which apparently stops the monitor lizards from stealing the eggs. Anyway we were asked if we'd like to be woken up should a turtle appear and we said not that night, ( Brent still not 100%) but any other night. Imagine our surprise when someone announced that a turtle had already been spotted on the beach! We all rushed to see it. We immediately noticed a bunch of men on the beach. These were from the Fisheries, and apparently they appear very regularly looking to remove the eggs from the nest and take them to a hatchery on another beach. This is with the aim of protecting the species, which is laudable. Unfortunately they showed little concern for the weary turtle which we then saw. She was amazing...huge (possibly 36 inches in length. We saw her tracks first, which were like tyre tracks. April pointed out the tracks heading up the beach and then we followed her as she made her way back to the sea after laying the eggs. It was amazing. The fishery guys rushed to take all the eggs and left. April said that the success of the fisheries hatchery was not a as good as the Bubbles resort's more natural method. She explained that they tried to accommodate the Fisheries folk, who sometimes left a few eggs behind which the Bubbles team could then monitor and protect, but in the currnet economic climate they'd been coming more often and not leaving any eggs. Pretty soul destroying eh?
Anyway on Friday we began our PADI course and the next few days were quite intense. The learning curve was huge and we ended each day very tired after learning a practising so many new skills. By Sunday night I have to say I was quite proud of myself: I had almost given up at 2 points of today: first of all when I really struggled to disconnect part of the buoyancy device underwater and later when I lost confidence underwater and had to have a rest on the surface. Wolfgang, our Austrian instructor managed to convince me to try again and I managed to remove my regulator and blow up the buoyancy devise successfully. I can't tell you how chuffed I was. It's been interesting to be a learner again and to discuss our instructor's teaching style, which can be abrupt at times, to say the least. However he is very experienced and we have faith in him, so put up with the other stuff.
Today was our last day of the package. It involved visiting a floating village on the banks of the largest lake in Cambodia – Tonle Sap. Linda had asked the previous evening the best time to start the visit iand the reply had come back – 7.00am another shock to the system. We set alarms and got up bleary eyed at the right time. At breakfast we were pleased to bump into our Irish friends who were told they would be best to join us at that time on the tour. We felt slightly guilty that we had suggested the earlier time but please that we would be sharing the experience with our friends.
We set off on our long journey by tuk tuk in convoy. As we hit the road we were amazed at the number of vehicles around. It was very busy with scooters and cars all over the road. Our tuk tuk drivers weaving in and out of the traffic. We headed down the main road to find that the market was taking place and people were carrying various items to and from there. The most amazing sights greeted us as we bumped along the road over taking other scooters. In England the scooter is largely a one person vehicle. Here in Cambodia it is used to carry almost everything – the list of items being carried included the following : two live pigs trussed up, a basket of piglets, a full size mattress folded in half, rolls of carpet attached length ways, all variety of food and fruit. The most precarious we witnessed was a man riding his scooter while at the same time carrying a four metre long bundle of metal bars over his shoulder with the rear end of it almost touching the floor, My camera was constantly taking pictures of the unfolding scenes as we overtook vehicles. As our journey continued we were equally amazed when someone pulled along side our moto driver on a scooter and proceeded to hold a conversation with him for at least 10 minutes. He carried on without slowing down. Along the way we stopped at a roadside stall to buy something we had spotted on our journey through SE Asia. These were about foot long length of bamboo. We had seen people picking out the insides and wondered what they were. Our driver told us it was sticky rice and purchased some for us to try later.
The road eventually became dirt covered and far more bumpy in our little carriage. We bounced around in the back taking in the increasing rustic homes which appeared by the side of the road. All of them were now built on stilts and the driver informed us that in the rainy season the water would be directly underneath them. At first we thought this may be the floating village until the tuk tuk stopped and we got out to walk down to the edge of the water were several boats were waiting. We boarded and then set off down a small river channel. The water was a mirky milky brown almost like liquid chocolate. Along the banks of the river we spotted the back of the houses we had seen from the other side. Here you could see they were mounted about twenty foot above the ground on stilts on the river side slighty lower by the road. At intervals we saw the activities of the riverside: children bathing naked in the water, fishermen casting nets, women washing clothes. Our guide explained there was also a person who bred crocodiles and pointed out a wooden crate by the side of the river, promising to visit it on the return journey. We continued along struck by the cheery nature of people almost everyone prepared to give you a large smile.
The river came round a bend and suddenly the vista opened up to reveal a huge lake. The water stretched out into the distance with misty mountains barely visible on the horizon. Our guide pointed out that at this time of the year it was at its lowest point and fish were plentiful. This was then confirmed as we pulled alongside a cluster of boats tied alongside a central one. People were clearly in discussion over something and our host got out onto the deck. We eventually got out too and and he showed us that this was effectvely a market for fish. The central boat was buying fish from all the ones around it. He opened a crate to show the massive load of fish packed in ice. While we were all on deck it became apparent that the driver of the boat was becoming agitated by an incident further across the lake. When we looked we noticed that one of the other tourist boats had become stuck in the mud. It was vainly revving its engine only to kick up lots of chocolate coloured mud behiind it, No movement of boat. He explained to us that the driver was his friend and asked if we minded if he took our boat over to help free him. Our guide stayed behind on the market boat and we set off on a rescue with our 16yr old driver and his 12year old mate!! When we arrived at the scene he quickly got into action. tying a rope to the back of the grounded boat to the only point which would not pull it to bits. He then jumped back into the drivers seat and revved the engine – the rope snapped. By this time another boat had joined us with bemused American tourists sitting inside it, Both boats now attached ropes and the haul began. Much to my amazement the boat was dragged off the mudbank. Rescue complete.
We picked up our guide and headed further out into the middle of the lake where he cut the engines. At this point he talked about the people who lived on the lake in all the boats and houses around us. Many he explained where Vietnamese who had chosen to stay after the fighting of the recent war. We asked him many questions and our little tuk tuk driver was an incredibly knowledgeable and well informed man. He explained all about the fishing rights on the lake and the balance between the company and locals. He also explained about the way in which the government tried to prevent overfishing but was generally fighting against corruption by officials too – backing this up by showing that the climbing perch we saw earlier in the baskets where much smaller than in the past. After about 30 mins here we headed back to shore briefly stopping to take pictures of the crocodiles.
The guide then asked if we wanted to see some more temples after we had stopped for lunch. So as not to offend him we said yes. The temples were different again but this had turned into another long day in the sun. We eventually arrived back at 4,00pm. and went for a kip after agreeing to meet up with our Scottish friends Simon and Caroline that evening.
We decided on Pub Street for our meal and wandered along eventually stopping at a Khymer restaurant brightly decked out in Orange. The waitress was only 16 but had the patter off to a tea making us laugh as she came out with saying she had probably repeated many times but still had the effect of making us laugh. The evening went well with conversation and beer flowing until Caroline said she wasnt feeling well. We quickly paid the bill and returned back to the guesthouse. A sad end to what had been a lovely day.
Sunday 24th May
By the next morning I had the ' runs ' . My guts turned to water. At first I didnt feel too bad but I knew that down the line it would get exhausting. We speculated on what might have been the cause. My best guess had been the washing up facilities I had spotted at the restaurant last night -a few bowls on the floor and no hot water in sight. Linda emailed Colin to arrange to meet up later he wrote back explaining that Caroline had been sick in the night.
We had a quiet day organising our future travels. We packed up some of our things ready for an early flight back to KL the next morning.
Monday 25th May / Tuesday 26th May
The flight was at 8.35am so this meant being up to get some breakfast at 6.20am. I was still suffering from a dodgy stomach so settled for only dry toast. The tuk tuk driver turned up and we took the 6km journey to the airport. We arrived paid the tuk tuk and went into the airport to check in baggage. The airport offical informed us we needed to pay $ 3.00 I looked in my wallet satisfied that I had a $5.00 note only to discover I had given it to the tuk tuk driver by mistake. He must have been chuffed. I blame all US dollars for looking the same!
Lin here....have to say that's the first time Brent's made a mistake with the money...he's usually very careful! Must have been the dodgy tummy! Anyway the flight passed uneventfully and we easily found our way to the Tune hotel in downtown KL. ( thanks to the previous recce. ). As Brent's tum wqs still not right, we limited what we did in our time in KL. We did explore some of the local shops, where we mangaged to find new swimwear, ready for our diving. We'd hoped to get the hop on hop off bus on Tues. but when we went to get on we were told it cost more than double what we'd read online...so we decided to use the tube railway instead. This was fine and we got to visit a pretty square and the central market. The most amazing thing happened when we got back to the hotel on Tues night.... in the lobby we spotted Katie and Colin, our friends from Georgetown ( see prev. blog)! We were all delighted to meet up again. They were about to head home and we spent a good hour catching up on what we'd all been doing, since last we'd met.
Wednesday 27th May...off to the Perhentian islands!
As we weren't flying til 1.30 we didn't leave the hotel tll10am and got to the airport in perfect time. The flght to Kota Bharu was very smooth and as we entered the terminal we were delighted to spot a guy holding a card with LINDA written on it. This was our taxi driver...what a relief...when we'd first booked the flight we thought we'd have to get to the ferry port of Kuala Besut (probably by taxi) and spend the night there. Fortunately the Bubbles resort had emailed to say they could sort us a taxi, which would get us to the port in time to get the last ferry at 5pm. This was quite scary, as we'd understood that our driver would travel on with us, but he disappeared and we were unsure if we should get on the ferry without him. Luckily we did and the speedboat trip across was quite fun. A load of other folk, mainly backpacker, were heading to the smaller island, but we continued to our destination: the Bubbles resort on Perhentian Besar. A Bubbles boat came out to pick us up from the speedboat and we landed on a white, sandy beach with turquoise clear waters. We signed in and were shown to our A frame cabin. This was pretty basic, and the sea view was marred by trees, but the bed was comfy and the bedding clean, the shower quite good. and we had a little deck with chairs. The resort, as we expected was tiny: a large, covered restaurant area, a few cabins, a diving centre, and a few hammocks as well as some plastic chairs. At our first meal we realised there was no alcohol. This was a bit of a shock at first, but we soon learned that alcohol and diving definitely don''t mix.
Thursday 28th – Sunday 31st May
We enjoyed a very lazy Thursday: snorkel ling out to the nearby rocks in the morning, followed by lunch, then an afternoon of reading . The snorelling was great with lots of colourful fish, including parrot fish, which I had never seen. That night as we ate we were introduced to April, a young Aussie girl, who is doing an internship here which involves monitoring green turtles. Several volunteers were being given a briefing and we were invited to join them. It was really interesting to learn about the breeding habits of the turtles. At this time of year the mature adults (aged around 25 years) are coming back to their birthplace to mate and lay their eggs and Aprll and any volunteers take turns staying up to check numbers of turtles coming ashore to lay. They track them up the beach and record where the nest is. They then aim to protect the nest from predators and poachers. They do this in various ways including covering the turtle tracks so that poachers can't follow them to the nest and urinating on the nest, which apparently stops the monitor lizards from stealing the eggs. Anyway we were asked if we'd like to be woken up should a turtle appear and we said not that night, ( Brent still not 100%) but any other night. Imagine our surprise when someone announced that a turtle had already been spotted on the beach! We all rushed to see it. We immediately noticed a bunch of men on the beach. These were from the Fisheries, and apparently they appear very regularly looking to remove the eggs from the nest and take them to a hatchery on another beach. This is with the aim of protecting the species, which is laudable. Unfortunately they showed little concern for the weary turtle which we then saw. She was amazing...huge (possibly 36 inches in length. We saw her tracks first, which were like tyre tracks. April pointed out the tracks heading up the beach and then we followed her as she made her way back to the sea after laying the eggs. It was amazing. The fishery guys rushed to take all the eggs and left. April said that the success of the fisheries hatchery was not a as good as the Bubbles resort's more natural method. She explained that they tried to accommodate the Fisheries folk, who sometimes left a few eggs behind which the Bubbles team could then monitor and protect, but in the currnet economic climate they'd been coming more often and not leaving any eggs. Pretty soul destroying eh?
Anyway on Friday we began our PADI course and the next few days were quite intense. The learning curve was huge and we ended each day very tired after learning a practising so many new skills. By Sunday night I have to say I was quite proud of myself: I had almost given up at 2 points of today: first of all when I really struggled to disconnect part of the buoyancy device underwater and later when I lost confidence underwater and had to have a rest on the surface. Wolfgang, our Austrian instructor managed to convince me to try again and I managed to remove my regulator and blow up the buoyancy devise successfully. I can't tell you how chuffed I was. It's been interesting to be a learner again and to discuss our instructor's teaching style, which can be abrupt at times, to say the least. However he is very experienced and we have faith in him, so put up with the other stuff.
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