Dive Trip 1 Part I

When i was a little girl, say 5/6years old, we went on a family trip to Phuket. Water skiing and parachuting aside, I vividly remember being on a glass-bottom boat, fascinated by colours of the underwater world. More than a decade later, i find myself realising a remark i made when i was young-"i want to go down!"

14th March
Thanks to KM and team who prepared and loaded the dive equipment onto the bus, we headed for Woodlands Checkpoint at bout 1930hrs. After a record breaking wait of >2hours for the clearance of our 2 foreign group members (thanks to Mel's bf-insider's joke aka escaped JI member), uncle Heng the bus driver flaunted his "F1 racing skills".
With his sharp judgement and foresight, he was weaving in and out of traffic, conquering winding roads at what-seemed-like 90km/h and it's the best roller coaster ride i've ever taken. The best investment he could make for the comfort of his passengers is to input race seats!

We stopped by for supper and toilet break before heading to Sweet Hotel, near Mersing Jetty, to spend the night before our boat ride to Tioman which arrives at 6am. Oh yes, it was the 1st time i had Mee Soto and i must say it was a bad experience. Good presentation and smell aside, the tao-ghey was too raw, yellow mee is something i never fancied and the peanuts gave the meal too much crunch-Bad luck!

Someone possessing powers shown in The Matrix.

15th March 2008
0630hrs- 1hr boat ride from Mersing Jetty brought us to Paya Beach. It started pouring once we set foot on shore. Had breakfast (nasi lemak and teh)
and a toilet trip plagued with 6-legged blood sucking insects that costed me RM0.50.

We were housed in a kampong style wood based house with chilly water supply(albeit the malfunctional solar system) and a television that almost scared the shit out of me. 2 rooms that sleeps 8 were connected by a door. Other 2 guys, Peter the Management Consultant and Rico the Radiation Therapist certified from Down Under hailing from Hong Kong, shared a room somewhere else.

Thomas' PREGNANT! His wife, i mean.

2 smart ladies making utmost use of their beauty to be shielded from the rain.

Dive 1 presented an entirely different world down there. It has showed me to look at things in a new perspective.

Us girls looking fresh before taking our 1st leap

After so much difficulty descending, even with the help of Thomas, i surfaced after x minutes. :( One the bright side, we saw a pair of cuttlefish! Never knew they looked ugly =l
During lunch, i learnt that i should keep still and not struggle/fin down. It was a terrible feeling of uncertainty, with the regulator being my only source of survival.

Where: Renggis@1050hrs
Max depth: 11.8m.

My uber duper garang buddy

Jaime and i, and very voluptuous women in the background
Verified by Thomcatmas, whose status is marriedsingle once he crosses the checkpoint. "Well chested but.........."
Not one who keeps all good stuff to himself... They share the best things in life.

Returned to shore for lunch. And while waiting.. Daidee kept us occupied! Rico and i make the best tag team. While i throw cards, he goes around.. snapping photos! Haha! No larh, we didnt cheat-he's got good foresight!

Dive 2 has taught me to face my fears calmly and to appreciate simple things, like the beauty of nature. It was the best dive that day. Best dive = controlled bottom time-35mins!! Yayyy!! Brightly coloured fishes aside, there were countless evil looking sea urchins. Uh huh.. talk about the importance of buoyancy control..

Those things.. thats black in the centre with a white halo.. look like they're gonna... eat me when they grow huge.

Funny thing. The clown fish (Nemo) always excite me!

Where: Soyak@1513hrs
Max depth: 7.9m

Skills performed: Mask clear, retrieve regulator and alternate air source use. See Ryan's out of air!

Ryan has never failed to put a smile on our tired faces with his silly antics.

Peter, who's singing
Yo listen up, here's a story
About a little guy that lives in a blue world
And all day and all night and everything he sees
Is just blue like him inside and outside
Blue his house with a blue little window
And a blue Corvette and everything is blue for him
And his self and everybody around
'Cause he ain't got nobody to listen (to listen, to listen, to listen)

I'm blue, da ba dee da ba dai da ba dee da ba dai
Da ba dee da ba dai da ba dee da ba dai
Da ba dee da ba dai da ba dee da ba dai You get the drift? Haha!
He has been of great help during the trip, giving advices, helping when no one's looking, etc. One pizza with extra cheese for you dude! :) (So he'll have a great lao sai-tee hee hee)

Melissawho just met her b.f. /\/\.S. and Peter after unlocking a treasure chest

Left to right, Melissa the muslim-lookalike-pure-chinese, the thought-to-be-/\/\S' gf, HaIimah who should had done a back flip the very moment that photo was shot , Rico and Jaime the fair lady.

Dive 3's visibility was a murky one at 5m. Jaki and i surfaced earlier (not cause we wanted to, doh!), tried descending together but to no avail. So we ended up doing what woman ought to-bitch bout anything and everything. And went over to Jaime's for a good open water cam whoring session. "Girls"-i hear some of you say. See my kawaii pink fins and pink mask-KM's trying to morph me into a HelloKitty wannabe
Where: Tumuk@1729hrs
Max depth: 11.8m

Ryan as he tried to figure if he captured good shots of chicks.
No doubt he did! Look at that smirk!!

Then came dinner time.
While the rest made their sandy way back to the room, Jaime Ryan Thomas and I headed for ice cream! Or was i doing an advert for WalI's ice cream? Hmmm.
Like it wasnt chilly enough, Thomas crept behind me, sneakily placed his arms under mine. I laid back on his blubber chest, cause there was a never ending flow of TRUST between us. Ryan got hold of my legs, happily did a 3 momento swing and threw me into the shallow freezing pool.
Then might as well remove the wet suit since its much easier. ;) See we talk bout trust and wanting the best for me! (Not) I sat at the dining table shivering, teeth clatterring. Brrrr.

I wiped my plate clean because i dont want a moh-peng husband in future! Old wives tale aside, the food was belly yummy yummy!

The other table bought nuggets. Kawaii heart shaped ones camera worthy! Heart broken, more like.

That night, Thomas was telling us girls ghost stories but i can barely remember em. The King(Ryan) and a Queen(supposedly referring to his gf, Samantha) sized bed occupied diagonally. Now you know who not to share a bed with.

If u recall, i was talking bout a "television that almost scared the shit out of me." Here goes.. Not an early bird despite the long day, I was watching TV while the other 3 were already in dreamland. Then the channals kept switching. I decided to take a shut eye (and leave the tv flickering for the rest of the night). I wasnt exactly freaked out. At that moment, i just thought they might be promoting other channals. I thought i saw Sg's TV 8. In the morning, Thomas went "you know, for wasting electricity, you'll go to x.th level of hell." Hey buddy, "you shitting me?" It beats wetting the bed when im still on earth right!