It all began when our mighty Captain Jackie approached me one fine day.

"Wanna dive?" he asked.

"I am cool." I responded.

And it's on. It's a long story on how he managed to summon the crew, but here we were, swearing to fight against the storm, clench our fists through the rough waters, pounce on any living sea organisms till the end of the world.

And BK, YM, CF, EJ, SE, SY, Jin, CN, Jane, CM, Cindy and Jay boarded the magnificent Mutiara whose virgin sail was slightly delayed as BK's little dinghy was late. We set sail at 9.30pm and slept our way through. Captain Jackie would meet up with us at a place called Kuala Besut. It's not a pleasant way to wake up at 6am after a rough journey through the night, but here we were, anchored at Kuala Besut. And, Captain Jackie greeted us.

After a light breakfast, we boarded yet another speed boat and set foot on the isle after a half an hour cruise. Sweeping out my map, "Aye sir, we have reached Pulau Perhentian Kecil."

The bluish water is crysal clear, like a natural huge bathtub.

We unpacked at Senja Bay, a resort with 50 wooden chalets nestled at the hillslope of the southern corner of Coral Bay. And off we went with our prime objective: Divers dive, Snorkellers snorkel.

BK, YM, CF and EJ decided to upgrade themselves and enrolled in the AOW programme. $Ka Ching$ for Sebastian, our divemaster. 

1. D' Lagoon (20070602)

Warm up dive, since we evolved and walk on land, we were not use to sucking from the oxygen tank. BK looked panic when he made his entrance. (later we found out he dislocated his shoulder.) Sebatian sort of panicked as well when he saw the situation. Havoc! Fortunately, everything was smooth despite the slight hiccup.  

Ahhh...it's been more than a year since I last breath through the regulator. Fresh air. The visibility was good (10m) and ironically we saw many (dead) corals. It's not too bad as we got to see many anemone fish. Anyway, it's just a start for us to get acquainted underwater for the best to come ahead.

The dive lasted about 45 minutes and we ascended. Back to Coral Bay to have our lunch at Baraccuda. The mango/banana milkshake rocks!

2. Sea Bell Rock (20070602)   

A sketch of Sea Bell Rock. Courtesy from Sebastian, Steffan Seasports.

The sandy bottom surrounding the lighthouse is located somewhere 500m offshore from Coral Bay. Malan, our divemaster this round, is from Berlin. His girlfriend, a hairstylist cum roti canai apprentice, followed him all the way from Berlin to Koh Phangan to Pulau Perhentian. Thin and gentle with blonde hair, Malan used to be a disk jockey in Berlin, where he would host parties and disco and he like musics..special ones.

"I don't want to go to a party where there is no vibes. I like to go to parties with extra ordinary musics, which you don't hear it on the radio. Then you feel the vibration." he said, smiling.

His next stop when the monsoon comes, is to work on a cruise in Australia.

Saw some boxfish, puffers, damsels and some feather like corals. The visibility is bad due to the strong current, about 5-7m. 

The snorkellers were happily swimming over the coral reefs above us, and it was later that we found out that they actually get to see much more things than we do. They even saw a turtle at another snorkelling site, just in time to catch a glimpse of it as it emerged from the deep blue sea, the turtle shell reflected the golden ray of the setting sun, took a breathe and disappeared into the blue.

I rented a underwater camera and tooks some shots, but it turned out blurrish and monotonously blue. Underwater photography ain't the thing for me. And one of our dive mate, Chong Wei (a hippy Singaporean girl) help us took these.

Yeah, that is Captain Jackie beside me. And nope, we are not holding hands, not the gay thingy as you would've thought it to be.

Happy Chong Wei.

3. Tokong Laut (20070603)

After a hearty breakfast, we prepared ourselves for the next quest ahead. We headed to Tokong Laut. The descend was smooth, this visibility is good and we were going deep, 28m.

A sketch of Tokong Laut. Courtesy from Sebastian, Steffan Seasports.

This time, we saw big pufferfish like a phantom afar, blue tail spotted stingray resting undisturbed on the sea bed, some groupers. At times, our divemaster, Ricky will point out some nurse sharks hidden under the rocks. I nearly brush against a feather like starfish which looks like a giant tarantula. And, I spotted a crown-of-thorns (COT) starfish, the appearance is intimidating if in large numbers.

And as we cruised relaxingly along the current, occasionally fanning our flippers, out of nowhere, we saw a hump brisked pass ahead of us. A turtle. And Jackie sped towards and poked the shell. (You are prohibited to do so, for experts only.) Ricky also pointed out a 2 meter long black tip shark to us, but I missed it.

As we break the surface after 50 minutes, we saw BK already waiting in the boat, alone. He actually broke the world record, consuming the whole 200 bar of air from the steel cylinder in only 18 minutes. All of us were amused and laughing at BK.

"Let's bet. Next dive, he will be out in 15 minutes." one of us teased him. And sure enough, that bugger broke his own record in the coming dive, 15 minutes. (liao bee)  

All in all, the dive was fabulous.

4. Sugar Wreck (20070603)

Our next stop after lunch was located 20 minutes offshore towards mainland - Sugar Wreck.

A sketch of Sugar Wreck. Courtesy from Sebastian, Steffen Seasports.

It is marked by a large orange buoy and has a max depth of 18 - 24 meter, depending on your entry. The wreck is about 80m in length, reting on its starboard side. Not much of coral on this 7 year-old wreck, but it is more than meets the eyes. Although the visibility was poor, we managed to spot some lionfish (with one hovering above us, gazing at us with its fins spread out.) and frogfish with the help from Ricky. The wreck has 2 huge cargo holds, and we penetrated through the wheel house and engine room. Buoyancy control is vital in wreck dive. A silver blade looking fish (I think it is a baraccuda), 1 meter in length pulsated for quite some time when we were in the engine room, as if protesting that we had trespassed its territory. Together with us in this dive is a young, beautiful blonde named Christine from Switzerland, pursuing a course as rescue diver.  

5. Panglima Abu (20070603)

My final dive at Pulau Perhentian. The visibility is perfect, easily more than 10 meters. Smooth and easy cruise. Spotted a stingray flapping its way through, some goat fish, abundant of anemone fish and damsel, a soccer ball-like purple box (found out later it is a kind of starfish), and some colourful Christmas-tree worm. Could last another 15 minutes more when we ended the 50 minutes dive, my gauge is showing 75 bar.

More of the Isle:

Coconut tree.

Coconut trees.

More coconut trees. (Opening from the jungle track to Long Beach.)

Long Beach (Panorama)

Some nuts.

Wonder what this British flag is doing here after 50 years of Merdeka.

Sunset.

Kiddo splashing.

Golden ray.

Stonehenge? 

Escapee from some seafood restaurant???

Cheap! Cheap! Normal price is RM950.

CM took a dip after rounds of psycho by Jackie and I.

Some weird guy I saved from drowning, attempting a second suicide by stuffing a nut down his oesophagus.

A glimpse at Steffan Seasports dive shop.

Ah Boo, at the dive shop. Don't screw with it, he has balls as large as a coconut.

Ahoy, thanks to Captain Jackie for organizing this trip. Next trip? We are going to Thailand...sawadeekap!

For all scuba diving fanatics out there:

I am unable to attend this year, but this is one cheap offer + free courses + charity work:) Killing few birds with a stone...hehe.

Can't join the banglas for squash this evening although I joined the RM7/month Premium Membership because I have to take the "Enriched Air Diver" exam at 7pm.

Reach at 7.15pm as I anticipated the instructor to be late. Feeling nervous actually, not because of the exam, but it's due to the guiltiness in me as I hadn't completely study the whole book, which is 90++ pages. First I did the knowledge review by refering to the book and then at 8.30pm, it was exam session.

The questions are amazingly easy to tackle and I aborted the plan to cheat. Result = 24/25 correct...Hahahaha. Actually is 25/25 la as we went through the questions again, the instructor found out that the scheme answer is wrong...Hahahaha.

Yes, got my Advanced Open Water Diver License^_^...

Now I can dive like a fish...

Get Oxygen toxication^o^...

This is the new Enriched Air Diving book...Cool, all colour pages.

One of last page, there is this sexy lady...o_0

My history...

Have been waiting for the photos and video clips from my instructor after the trip...

Since it is taking forever, I went online and search for the images which closely resemble to what I had seen from my dive and would like to share it here.

Woke up early in the morning, around 8am. The dive will start at 10am, but we wanted to do some skin diving prior to that (inspired by the movie "Into the Blue"). Grabbed our fins and mask and trailed Charmaine to Kata Beach. While the others were still applying sun block lotion, with both fins and mask in my hands, I sped down to the beach and hit the salty water...it felt so wonderful! Always like the sea since I was young, though there were several occasions where I nearly drown and my Dad came to my rescue...

David came after me, when we were about 50m from shore, the others plunged in. Started snorkeling, nothing much to see eventhough the visibility is quite good. Attempted to skin dive couple of times, but could hardly hold my breath underwater for a long period of time. Started to feel cheated by the movie where Paul Walker and Jessica Alba stayed underwater for about 2 minutes...or we are just some noobs. Observed that Starfish was a bit uncomfortable in the water, so I actually kept an eye on her. I was the main culprit to drag David and Starfish into this diving trip and therefore I felt that it is my responsibility to ensure that they go home in one piece...

Others were quite excited about the skin dive, but I felt that it was not up to my expectation. 10 am, the instructors came, unload the equipment and within half an hour, we hit the water once again, fully geared. The group was divided into 2: Starfish, Leopard and Dave followed Ivan (OW) while Apple Chee Ho and I followed Charlie (AOW). The tank was so heavy as we strode on the beach, the scorching sun had eventually heat up the fine white sand and I felt the burning sensation each step as my feet sank deeper in the sand due to the extra weight I was carrying.

The first dive was a chaotic one as while we swam out to the sea, Chee Ho realized that Apple's tank strap was loosened. We had a hard time to tie it the correct way and to secure the tank in the water. Charlie was a bit frustrated, I could sense. Then, when we are going to descend, Apple had difficulty to sink as she did not carry enough weight. Chee Ho gave one of his to Apple and now, both of them can't sink. Charlie was frustrated, again. In the end, we aborted the initial plan to do Underwater Navigation and replace it with Peak Performance Buoyancy. Nothing much to see as the visibility deteriorated, saw some butterflyfish, parrotfish and wrasse swimming around, minding their own business. Spotted a lionfish, squeezed between 2 rocks, one porcupine fish hiding under a rock and a blue starfish. Charlie noticed a nudibranch and pointed out to us, the poor little creature was nearly slammed by our fins. 

From Left: Ivan, Charlie, Chee Ho and Apple.

The 2nd dive, we accomplished the Underwater Navigation. My kick cycle is 1.15m. I was having some complication while doing the square pattern navigation using the compass for the first time, but the second try was perfect:) I spotted a cuttlefish this time. We finish the dive earlier than the other group, and that's why I managed to captured them in the gears, cool!

Actually the background is the main theme..hahahahaha.

Everyone was happy and excited after the dive.

Wanted to write this down somewhere so that next time I can show my cucu-cicit that how happening their ol' grandpa was..hehe.
10th February - Woke up damn early in the morning, around 6am. Why? Coz this noob here thought that as long as your passport hasn't expire, you can get out of Malaysia anytime you want. (This is so wrong, for those criminals out there who think that they can fled the country anytime with a passport 2 months before expiry, READ THIS.)Ignorant that the expiry date must be at least 6 months, else the passport is considered void. Only knew this piece of information the night before and had to rush to the Immigration office early in the morning to renew my passport last minute. I was the first in the line, but the moment I passed up my form for processing, the whole system was down. Had to wait from 8am to 11.30am till the system recovered. Some amazing facts I obtained from the officers:
1.This kind of situation happens once or twice on a weekly basis.  
2.Sometimes the problem will last for one whole day and basically they do not need to work. Feel like working for the government now.

In a nut shell, I did not get my passport renewed in time but they managed to issue an emergency passport for me. At that moment, I was still uncertain whether I can really cross the Thai-Malaysia border without any problem, though.

11th February - Woke up damn early in the morning, again, at 4am. Need to reach the instructor’s house before 5am; altogether there are 6 of us following the instructors, Leonard, David, Hui Leng, Apple, Chee Hou and I. A van will fetch us to Hatyai and then we need to take a bus to Phuket town, followed by a toot toot to Kata Beach.

Basically I just slept the whole way there.

This is the picture we took at Phuket City, I wonder why they can still smile for the camera as you can see, my smile is kind of bitter...my butt was so numb la.

Little Mermaid - this is where we stayed for 2 nights.

A mural in Little Mermaid.

Shortly after we checked in to our rooms, Dave went off to church at Le Meridien Hotel between Karon and Patong beaches for his mass service ( The church is actually a conference room according to Dave.). While the rest of us rented 3 bikes and headed up to ViewPoint, a serene place located between Kata and Nai Harn. It has one of the island's best views. A large public sala, or shelter is there for visitors, and several vendors sell food, drinks, and souvenirs in the area when the weather is nice.

This is one of the shots I snapped during sunset..

After a booze at ViewPoint, Dave met up with us and we headed to Chalong for a sumptuous Thai-style dinner.

 

After dinner and bath, everyone gathered in one room and play card games. Surprise that someone didn't know how to play the famous "Chor Dai Di":p The game did not last long before we started to explore Kata street. The street is filled with pubs and restaurants, mostly patronized by the Westerners who are accompanied by some local Thai girls. 

There was a carnival or fair going on, I played the dart games and this is my prize for hitting 6 out of 7 targets...hehe. Apple won a back-scratcher, I think her prize is more practical than mine:p

To be continued...