Day 2 of diving

It rained just now for the 2nd dive. Nothing much to see. I only found a nudi, the smallest pygmy seahorses, and lionfish. There was a snowflake morray which was swimming around. I wanted to take a photo but WK suddenly appeared beneath me and block. I tapped him and pointed to the morray I wanted to take. Haha.

Lunch was superb. Old cucumber soup, lamb, fusilli pasta.

And lots more.

Now I’m waiting to have dinner. Skipped the tea just now to go wash up. So now I’M VERY HUNGRY.

Update again tmrw.

Hammerheads

Saw a school of hammerheads this morning. Hehe. It was lucky, coz any earlier we might not have seen it. Apparently someone went down to 50m to chase it, so they had swam up to chance upon us. But that guy was banned fm next dive.

Time to go soon for next dive soon. Tata!

Tiring journey to Layang Layang

Flight by Air Asia left early yesterday. We arrived in KK about 11pm, and being adventurously no lodging for the nite coz the time to be at airport again was 5am.

We asked the info counter lady abt our options, and finally decided on Airport View Hotel due to the proximity to T1, where we had to take a plane to LYLY.

It was a first time experience for us to take this propeller plane. And we had fun taking pix. Although plane was small, I managed to get forty winks, though it gave me a blocked right ear coz I was lying on that side.

Went thru briefing and formalities, then brekkie. Food was really good. Met Yingkai, who came back from his last dive of his trip.

Then with a lazy and fatigued body, went for the 1st and 2nd dive of the day. Nothing spectacular, just schools of jacks, barracudas, white tipped sharks and a pair of lionfishes. I am still having the problem of sinking while the BCD is floating (coz too big and it was loaned fm YX).

More to come soon. Now I just wanna have dinner then go sleep.

And I think my nose is slightly burnt. Can see slight bikini tan lines already actually, despite wearing a long sleeved jacket and pants.

Nice.

Deformed me, deformed thing

Oh, I came back from the dive trip horribly rashed.

I think the water there is not very clean. Lots of seabugs and jellyfishes. I have a jellyfish sting on my arm that looks like a tattoo.

But then, I was only wearing a vest. I thought I’ll pack light (Cebu Pac only had baggage allowance of 15kg now – paid extra at $15/kg for overweight too) and it wasn’t a big deal since the water is not cold.

Ya right. It was supposed to be colder in the months of Jan – Feb. 27 deg C max.

If you think that 27 deg C is not cold, think about being drenched and standing in front of the aircon that blows 27 deg C. That is it.

But but but, thank goodness for titanium. The vest I had was snugly warm and nice for me that this temperature (don’t even feel a hint of coldness). Even those who wore rashguards + full suit felt cold in that temperature.

Anyway, I had lots more rashes coz THAT PLACE in Malapascua disallowed the use of a pointer and gloves. What does that mean then? I was almost exposed.

If you have been following my twitter here….→

you would know how itchy they felt. But I’m not scratching them. So now they actually felt ok and disappearing slowly.

Not only my body is in rashes now, but also my face, coz I had a minor breakout. I guessed it was because the water running out from the tap was not exactly clean clear water. Slighty salty.

So what other thing was deformed?

My belt. One of my favourites. And only less than 2 months old.

Caramel who had been staying at my place during my absence had gnawed nibbled off the buckle on the nite I came back. So now that belt cannot be used anymore coz the edges were all messy. And he had to do it on the day after I came home. He picked it up in the middle of the nite, and my mum saw his artwork in the morning when she woke up.

I showed him his masterpiece, and he didn’t wag his tail at me but sat in a corner trying to look guilty, coz he knew he did wrong. So cute. How to scold him?

What a way to welcome me home.

Short summary

Im back!

The plane was delayed so I only reach Singapore past midnite yesterday. It was tiring coz I woke up like 6am in the morning, and didn’t sleep during the journey back. The plane was very noisy coz a toddler was having a time of his life screaming his lungs out.

Anyway, saw the thresher shark (one only) and on this trip I actually got seasick. It was like, been diving for 4-5 years and this is the 2nd time I get seasick. And because I got seasick, I missed out the hidden agenda. Hammerhead sharks. Some saw one, some saw two. And we were really very very very lucky coz at the same spot and the same time, parked 2 other dive boats. But only people on our boat saw. So you can guess how exhilarated the others were.

Anyway, I hope I see them at LYLY this May. *cross fingers*

Didn’t really have time to update coz I was really pooped for the past 2 nites. Will do it soon.

Back to work now…

Bali Tulamben: 27 Dec – 1 Jan (Part 3)

Following will be of much underwater pix, most of which will be nudibranches:

For 2 of the dives, I didn’t bring my camera down. So the following will only be from 4 out of the 6 dives I had.

Ghost pipefish

Another ghostpipe

Different angle

Bali Tulamben: 27 Dec – 1 Jan (Part 2)

…continued from here.

The resort was fully booked, and there was a slight misunderstanding about the room allocation, which wasn’t a big problem actually. But the irritating thing about this resort is that they switch off the water pump at some certain timing during the day and nite, and it was a bit inconvenient to want to shower at times and also to guess whether it is right to start soaping or not.

Most of the time we had to tell them to turn on the water pump.

Diving is fairly easy, except that it’s a shore dive, which meant that we needed to move out from the beach. The beach is filled with pebbles and rocks, and a bit difficult to balance on with the heavy air tank and equipment.

The people there were amazing. We leave our equipment at shore, and they balance 2 sets of equipment on their head! It’s like 20 over kilos ok?

And our daily favourite activity after diving:

Dip into the swimming pool enjoying the sun…

Sipping cold drinks and having snacks while partially submerged in the chlorinated water.

And another almost daily activity we do.

Massage. 1 hour, 2 hours massage (shiokadoodoo). Every hour, only Rp70,000, which is about S$10, or lesser. And the days pass by so fast.

Frankly speaking, as compared to the food found in Padang Bai, Tulamben loses hands up. Their food is just cooked in a different way.

For example, if you ask for chicken/pork cordon bleu, they top up the meat with a sauce of onions and other vegetables. Or Greek salad with some creamy thousand-island-like-texture dressing. And mostly are either too salty or not too nice.

But some are foolproof:

Banana juice / milkshake which comes out tasting almost the same at all eating places,

Nasi Goreng Ayam – local foods.

Juices are with default, with sugar syrup unless you request kosong.

Dogs are plentiful there.

There was one black dog which was at the resort, with one of its legs crippled. According to the resort people, he was run down by a car and from then crippled for life.

True enough, despite the roads being one-lane (each direction one lane), the vehicles go along quite fast, whether they are just cars or vans or even lorries. Not to forget to mention that the roads are also quite dimly lit.

We usually retire to our rooms after dinner, or just sit around chatting in one of the rooms, or watch movies. Only the staff has got cable in their ‘houses’.

They have a nice garden full of lush greenery though.

…to be continued~

Bali Tulamben: 27 Dec – 1 Jan (Part 1)

Just found out something which I make me wanna laugh…

Anyway…

It was basically a waiting game on the first day in Denpasar. Initially thought that the waiting time will be just about 5 hours which ended up to be about 8 hours. The others whom had gone for their trip on 20th to Komodo were ’stranded’ because the flight was delayed again and again.

Had brekkie at Black Canyon Coffee but becoz I didn’t really have much appetite, I just had an iced lemon tea and Caesars salad.

It was decided later that we go for a massage after the flight from Komodo to Denpasar was arriving at an unknown time.

I had a full body massage, one which doesn’t involve stripping or body oil on the body. Just fully clothed and with towel and baby lotion.

It wasn’t too bad. At least we can while our time away, little known that the flight from Komodo to Denpasar was delayed and delayed. We had nowhere else to go, and lugging our luggage to go Kuta wasn’t that great an idea (security) and so we stayed at the massage place. They were kind enough to let us be there, since there were not much customers.

Our luggages in the corner, while the employees were having a meeting with their boss.

They finally finally arrived at 4.45pm. A grand total of nearly 8 hours at Denpasar airport. Amazing.

We proceeded to have a meal (t’was their lunch, our snack since we had lunch) before getting to the Mataharin Tulamben Resort. It was 9pm+ already.

…to be continued~

Bali chronicles: 26 Sep – 2 Oct 2008 (Part 3)

(continued from here)

The yum yum (and not so yum yum) part.

I didn’t lose weight this round. We ate and ate and ate. Because we got one all-time-hungry sharx among us.

Our trip wasn’t full board (only breakfast included), so we had the option of looking around the different restaurants for lunch and dinner. The breakfast wasn’t that impressive. My first meal was pancakes++, but that laid me off from it for the rest of the days. Continental breakfast was for the next few days, except the last where I decided to try nasi goreng.

Will segregate those food I ate which are good from those bad.

Bali chronicles: 26 Sep – 2 Oct 2008 (Part 2)

(continued from here…)

Water freezing, gets colder after each dive. All for the purpose to see the Mola. I’ve learnt that TIMING is very important. We were so close, yet so far…

For some of us, it was the first time to see the molas and mantas. I’ve seen Mantas in Maldives before, but not Molas. So it was a trip of anticipation.

We tried (but failed) to see the mola each time. Divers around Padang Bai saw them, but we were either at the wrong place or wrong timing. In desperation, some of us actually considered extending the trip (were supposed to leave Thursday) if we end up NOT seeing it.

We had lot of fun though. Went to Nusa Penida, Crystal Bay and Manta Point.

On Sep 30, we went to Manta Point to see the mantas. I managed to get some nice shots of the mantas, but got one really unusual manta with black belly.

Bali chronicles: 26 Sep – 2 Oct 2008 (Part 1)

My first time to Bali, first time doing underwater photography, first time using my G9 and Ikelite underwater, first time seeing mola mola, first time diving in 21 deg C water, first time diving with my secondary school friend.

Whenever I am on half day’s leave, I find myself rushing to finish things. Weird. Like everything just had to come last minute.

I rushed home, bathed Caramel who was having a chalet stay again at my place, and rushed off to G’s place since my stuff were there. Jialat! I realised that I forgot to bring my dive comp and trying to see if I could get my dad to collect it and pass to YX who was also going. No hope. He was in town.

So I took G’s car as a last resort. He’s never let me drive his car alone but I zai zai pom pi pi. Only thing is I was so concentrating on not to mount kerb (his car much bigger than mine) that I went the wrong way (not wrong per se, but longer way). But shiok to drive his ultimate driving machine. I went 120kmh and it feels like 80kmh so I had to slow down.

Though the peak traffic was building up, I managed to get back on time.

I go bubble blowing

Will be away from tonite till 2nd Oct. Having a meeting with the molas. I hope they turn up in time. Haha. Wish me luck!

P.S. Comments to be set to “moderated” mode in case of spam.

Super heaty and packing up

Sweating my ass off while writing this entry…

Trying to preserve my health. I’m alternating between fine and sick, which sucks coz once I start to fail sick, I have to resort to having a water parade, or drink some Nin Jiom syrup so that my throat will get better.

And the heatiness is evident on my face.

2 big fat pimples. Plus 2 small ones.

How in the world can a chin get so many pimples?

Anyway, I was surprised to know that many Singaporeans do not know that some areas of the town area are closed starting from today, and end up getting stuck in the jam for an hour or more. But maybe not so surprising too, coz I believe that some will not even know that F1 is on this weekend!

I was there last nite before it closed for the event. The roads were a bit jammed as there were only one lane exit, merged from 2 lanes before going out on the main roads around Marina Square. The mall was quite quiet though; maybe some do not know exactly when the roads are closed and so avoided going to that place.

And because it was not crowded at all, I got myself a nice slim cut Mango top. And for a very good price too which I needn’t think too much about it at all. Yayness.

*-*-*

Just packing my bag for the Bali trip. I’m beginning to regret a bit about buying a housing. It’s a bit cumbersome lugging it around together with my own gear, so I nearly wanted to leave it at home. Ha.

Anyway, I managed to stuff it into my bag and use my clothes to cover it. Won’t be checking it in. At least better than the initial plan to carry a plastic container everywhere like carrying a cosmetic bag, albeit mine being much bigger and uglier.

Might change my mind later about carrying which bag though.

Geminians. Tsk.

Trekking day – Belongas Bay

This is the last section of the South Lombok, Belongas Bay trip. It was a nice getaway, albeit the shredded hand. It was not difficult to have your healthy portions of veggies/fruits per day, meals are always yummy (and not because we are hungry) and it was one of the trips that made me exercise more than usual.

The last day of diving was also trekking day for us, because…we had nothing else to do? Or just needed to while the time away?

Nay…to get reception for the phone. It was quite unexpected that there won’t be reception for the phone, coz no one said anything. Plus I kept having bad dreams during the nites, so I thought better call home to check that everything is ok.

And so, got to the top of the hill…no reception for my BB! Useless shit.

So I had to borrow the phone from G who’s got almost perfect reception. I’m always thankful that I usually do not need to use the phonebook to get numbers. Department colleagues numbers, everyone in the family hp numbers…all in my mind.

Mission accomplished, we started our journey back to the resort, also to be in time before darkness falls. And dinner. I was starved.

But not without taking some momento images.