My first dive blog
For those who prefer to avoid going through huge chunks of words and just wish to look at photos only, you can check out the photos taken during my dive trip here.
Divers are supposed to keep a dive logbook, something that records each dive experience. The level of detail entered is up to the individual, but my dive log is about the size of a handheld notepad, so I hardly put a lot of words inside.
Dive blogs, however, are different. I can even put pictures inside.
That's me taking a Giant Stride into the water. Yup, it's really called "Giant Stride", because we have to open our legs very much. The lady in the photo is our divemaster>
A dive master is someone who oversees all the dives taken during the trip. Our dive master is a very nice lady who keeps reminding us about the "to-do"s and "not-to-do"s.
To begin from the beginning, we left for the school right after work, with a few exceptions of those who took leave that day. It was quite a rush as we had to reach the place at 7.30 pm inclusive of settling our dinner beforehand. As usual, we were late.
The journey there: from Singapore past Johor (2), made a halfway stop at Kota Tinggi (4) before reaching Mersing where we took the dive boat to Pulau Dayang (1)
The main concern was not on social etiquette, but rather, the journey to Mersing involves going through the Causeway jam. Just imagine yourself, swimming in a pool of thick jam (strawberry, blueberry, whichever flavour you choose), it's so viscous that it almost stops you from advancing forward. Jams on Friday nights are especially horrible.
The most unforgettable part of the entire trip was the boat ride to Pulau Dayang. Initially, the ride was pretty fun - most of us were lying on the deck looking up at the star-studded sky and trying to spot shooting stars as they zip across the sky, the occasional sea spray felt quite refreshing and the wind was suitably warm.
As the boat progressed, the sea became more choppy and everyone started to do rock 'n roll. In the more severe cases, the food in our stomachs were doing the rock 'n roll as well. It got so bad that some of us puked. I puked for 4 rounds although I hardly ate anything, so mostly it was only gastric juices that came out.
By the time we reached our resort, it was already 5 am in the morning.
The first dive was scheduled at 8 am, meaning we only had 2 hours of rest. For me, it was 2 hours of setting my stomach upright. I thought I wouldn't be able to make it for the dive.
But of course I did dive in the end. I'd rather puke throughout the whole trip than to waste my time and money AND the chance to go deep underwater.
Eveyrone trying their best to look fresh and awake, while some attempted to hide their 死人脸 (deathly expressions) behind sunglasses.
The dive boat could squeeze a surprising 20 odd of us, although it didn't look like it was meant to bring so many people out to dive. Not to me anyway.
The dive group excluding leisure divers, instructors and divemaster. The others were mostly Australians on exchange program in NUS.
Everyone was nervous on our first open water dive. Our instructors seemed to understand that and they were telling us exactly what to do, step by step.
Gearing up for our dive.
Getting into the open waters with my scuba gear on for the first time made me even more nervous. To make things worse, I didn't know I dropped my weight belt after jumping into the sea, so I couldn't descend to the bottom when I tried. Luckily, one of the instructors found my weight belt and I eventually managed to descend.
Under the sea, under the sea
Darlin' it's better down where it's wetter
Take it from me...
I stopped feeling nervous the moment I touched the seabed. Maybe it was the confidence from being able to descend and reach the bottom without any (further) mishaps. Or maybe it's because I was too busy taking in the view surrounding me. In any case, the three dives we took on the first day were mainly rehearsing the drills we had carried out in the pool lessons, followed by a short tour of the reefs.
Below are photos of the seafood...ahem...I mean marine life taken underwater. I'm not able to identify all of them though.
Almost fainted from uploading so many photos...
Only two dives were conducted the following day because we had to return to Singapore by Sunday night and travelling took about 9 hours. The fourth dive was mainly a leisure dive, meaning that we just finned (moved) around, looking at fishes and letting fishes look at us. You'll be surprised how some of them would approach us to take a closer look, or to swim past us within an arm's distance. Forget snorkelling.
Our fifth dive was very short, partly because some of us were not feeling well - still seasick from staying in choppy waters - and because we wanted to depart earlier to avoid swimming through the JB jam again.
It was past 10 pm by the time we returned back to the school, and all of us were exhausted, mostly from hauling the dive gear around.
We're all thinking of when to go for our advanced diving course already.
Divers are supposed to keep a dive logbook, something that records each dive experience. The level of detail entered is up to the individual, but my dive log is about the size of a handheld notepad, so I hardly put a lot of words inside.
Dive blogs, however, are different. I can even put pictures inside.
That's me taking a Giant Stride into the water. Yup, it's really called "Giant Stride", because we have to open our legs very much. The lady in the photo is our divemaster>
A dive master is someone who oversees all the dives taken during the trip. Our dive master is a very nice lady who keeps reminding us about the "to-do"s and "not-to-do"s.
To begin from the beginning, we left for the school right after work, with a few exceptions of those who took leave that day. It was quite a rush as we had to reach the place at 7.30 pm inclusive of settling our dinner beforehand. As usual, we were late.
The journey there: from Singapore past Johor (2), made a halfway stop at Kota Tinggi (4) before reaching Mersing where we took the dive boat to Pulau Dayang (1)
The main concern was not on social etiquette, but rather, the journey to Mersing involves going through the Causeway jam. Just imagine yourself, swimming in a pool of thick jam (strawberry, blueberry, whichever flavour you choose), it's so viscous that it almost stops you from advancing forward. Jams on Friday nights are especially horrible.
The most unforgettable part of the entire trip was the boat ride to Pulau Dayang. Initially, the ride was pretty fun - most of us were lying on the deck looking up at the star-studded sky and trying to spot shooting stars as they zip across the sky, the occasional sea spray felt quite refreshing and the wind was suitably warm.
As the boat progressed, the sea became more choppy and everyone started to do rock 'n roll. In the more severe cases, the food in our stomachs were doing the rock 'n roll as well. It got so bad that some of us puked. I puked for 4 rounds although I hardly ate anything, so mostly it was only gastric juices that came out.
By the time we reached our resort, it was already 5 am in the morning.
The first dive was scheduled at 8 am, meaning we only had 2 hours of rest. For me, it was 2 hours of setting my stomach upright. I thought I wouldn't be able to make it for the dive.
But of course I did dive in the end. I'd rather puke throughout the whole trip than to waste my time and money AND the chance to go deep underwater.
Eveyrone trying their best to look fresh and awake, while some attempted to hide their 死人脸 (deathly expressions) behind sunglasses.
The dive boat could squeeze a surprising 20 odd of us, although it didn't look like it was meant to bring so many people out to dive. Not to me anyway.
The dive group excluding leisure divers, instructors and divemaster. The others were mostly Australians on exchange program in NUS.
Everyone was nervous on our first open water dive. Our instructors seemed to understand that and they were telling us exactly what to do, step by step.
Getting into the open waters with my scuba gear on for the first time made me even more nervous. To make things worse, I didn't know I dropped my weight belt after jumping into the sea, so I couldn't descend to the bottom when I tried. Luckily, one of the instructors found my weight belt and I eventually managed to descend.
Darlin' it's better down where it's wetter
Take it from me...
I stopped feeling nervous the moment I touched the seabed. Maybe it was the confidence from being able to descend and reach the bottom without any (further) mishaps. Or maybe it's because I was too busy taking in the view surrounding me. In any case, the three dives we took on the first day were mainly rehearsing the drills we had carried out in the pool lessons, followed by a short tour of the reefs.
Below are photos of the seafood...ahem...I mean marine life taken underwater. I'm not able to identify all of them though.
Almost fainted from uploading so many photos...
Only two dives were conducted the following day because we had to return to Singapore by Sunday night and travelling took about 9 hours. The fourth dive was mainly a leisure dive, meaning that we just finned (moved) around, looking at fishes and letting fishes look at us. You'll be surprised how some of them would approach us to take a closer look, or to swim past us within an arm's distance. Forget snorkelling.
Our fifth dive was very short, partly because some of us were not feeling well - still seasick from staying in choppy waters - and because we wanted to depart earlier to avoid swimming through the JB jam again.
It was past 10 pm by the time we returned back to the school, and all of us were exhausted, mostly from hauling the dive gear around.
We're all thinking of when to go for our advanced diving course already.
posted by Tengkia | 9:24 am
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Level of response: 4
Level of response: 4
I am even more impressed that u can blog so much in the office! And including uploading pictures into the blog...
The pictures are indeed very beautiful.. the turtle.. the nemo...
I do most of the blogging at home but touch up and publish it while I'm at the office.
Nice attempt at trying to get me into trouble but you've got to try harder, ha ha.
oh ya.. i forget that ur every blog entry take a few days to complete.. involves "saving as draft" for a few times and some editting before they are finally being published.. that is why tengkia blog readers can enjoy reading such substantial and interesting and gramatically correct blog entries everytime.
Tengkia always enjoy the thrill of finally publishing his blog in the office.. haha.. to practise his "alt_tab" shen gong!
Actually I publish it in the office because I couldn't finish it to publish at home. I saw Mable's dive photos, you should ask her to show you when you go over to her place.
Maybe then she'll psycho you to take up diving.
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