Friday, June 19, 2009

Diving In Terrific Tioman


Since I took up my Open Water Course in April 2009, I've been itching to go for a dive and I opted for Tioman since it was the closest to KL in terms of driving. I started my journey after work at 6pm and arrived in Mersing by 130am. I stayed overnight in Mersing Hotel and the total cost for me to reach Mersing was :
Toll = RM39.00, Petrol = RM50.00, Hotel = RM45.00
Gearing up at Eco Divers Dive Centre

I love the simplicity of this dive centre

Making fun of new soon to be Open Water divers

Not paying attention to DiveMaster.When can I dive already?

View of Tioman at the jetty

Before coming to Tioman, all I wanted to see was moray eel, moray eel and moray eel.
I hopped on the ferry at 11am and reach ABC / Eco Diver's at 100pm. Went for a quick lunch and the next thing I knew I was diving in Pirate Bay. The first awesome marine life I saw was a cuttlefish. Mean looking eyes and fluttering about near the sand. The second most coolest mammal I saw was a baby white moray eel. They look mean even when they're young. Objective met. Such a cool dive site. A few minutes later, a small school of baracuddas swam past me and my eyes just stayed on them. Above the baraccudas was a lone crocodile needle point fish.
Eco Diver's Neptune beautiful brown boat

Can't wait.Move already!

Site was still 15 minutes away and I have my fins on already

Tioman island view

So lucky to be living in Malaysia. PLease abandon all travel overseas


The second dive was at The Last Frontier. Saw my first lion fish and a school of bumphead parrotfish. My divemaster said I was extremely lucky to see the school of bumphead parrotfish.They were about 12 of them and their size was as big as a door of a Kancil, give or take.coolest part though was the drift diving. My first drift dive and I just chilled with the current although the current sent me away from my divemaster , I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
Reading my favourite magazine en route to dive sites

That night, I hung out with the divemasters at Sunset Cafe. They served the best thin crusted pizzas and drank beer all night long since Tioman is a duty free island. A can of Tiger beer costs RM2.80. I went to a club in Bangsar last Thursday and I paid RM23.50 for a small bottle of Tiger beer.I bought so much beer that I even bought a full can for :
Kitten abuser

The next morning, we were on our way further from the island to the dive site of Chebeh. I saw my first sea turtle there and a lone big jackfish lunged at me thinking my index finger was bait. The second dive was at Soyak. Over at this site sealed my affection for Tioman. The corals were amazing and teemed with beautiful crevaces and rock tunnels. The best thing was I ventured off slightly on my own and I thought I saw a clam underneath a coral and I said to myself "Clams don't grow under corals". I went for a closer look and lord almighty what I saw was a body part of a Giant Moray Eel. I had to search around the coral to look for the head and once I found the head, I just stayed there for a good 5 minutes watching the moray eel get irritated by a smaller fish. I've always wanted to see a moray eel and in Soyak I did. Soyak is awesome. Later on, my divemaster Azam, asked me if I could swim through the rock tunnels. He knew that it was only my 8th dive but I think my bouyancy was pretty, hence the invitation. So off I went, swimming under the rocks and emerging on the other side. I got slightly scared when my tank scraped the rock wall but pas de' probleme. I went through 3 rock tunnels and my tank was near empty and it was time to resurface anyway. Suddenly, my dive master took of his shorts and exposed his buttocks to all of us. He also surfaced with a client's regulator. Apparently, this dive is Azam's 200th dive and mooning was part of every divemasters ritual when they reach 200 dives.
Surfaced

Nearly had my eye out.My fault

Ladies,do your male dive buddies look like this?

Ladies, do your male dive buddies look as succulent as this?


One word to summed this all up - Poisoned!!!!

4 comments:

Srikanth Siva said...

how is that camera working out for u? Any recommendations for underwater photography?

Borneoturtle said...

Good one ! I enjoyed reading it! Keep up the passion for diving dear...Hope to dive with you someday.
Your future dive buddy
Yanni Borneo Turtle

Jojo said...

I did a diving trial in Tioman and saw my first live turtle. Was estaticly happy :P

Loretta said...

Hi there,

See http://www.tigersalive.com/download/gallery/10.jpg

That's a picture of a tiger footprint (pugmark) with a man's hand for size comparison... the one's in your photos look quite a bit smaller so could have been a smaller cat. Also of great significance if we could figure what species!!