The ride to Mersing to catch the ferry to Tioman was nothing less than violent. I wish we had flown instead.
But for all that it was worth, our first trip to Tioman was fantastic. It was my first time in Tioman and the waters were as clear as I thought them to be, though Shaz claims that Rawa waters are much clearer. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be going to Rawa anytime soon since it does not have any diving facilities.
We were housed at Paya Beach Resort in quad-sharing kampung huts which made it like a camping experience. I believe that it is the only resort on that particular beach. The nightly BBQs, restaurants and shops contributed to the lively atmosphere - not to mention the many divers, snorklers and holidaymakers milling about in the village and on the beach.
You could see the many live corals that littered the seabed near the shore. And oh by the way, we did not edit these pictures.
But the most exciting and eventful experience was what we were there for - Diving! As part of the PADI Open Water course, we had to log a minimum of 4 dives. We planned for 5 dives - 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.
We started our Saturday at 9.45am with a hearty breakfast (BIG MISTAKE!!) before setting off to our first dive site, Renggis. The waters were rather choppy and the dive boat was rolling and pitching. We regretted not consuming the anti-motion sickness pills. I was getting quite sea sick and had some trouble rigging up my equipment properly. But Shaz... Shaz was just incapacitated. When she got round to rigging up her equipment and getting into her wetsuit, so far so good - she even got round to carrying the dive tank on her back and getting ready to jump into the clear beautiful azure waters of Renggis for her first dive. Then, the inevitable happened.
Shaz puked her breakfast, which consisted of omelette with tomatoes and mushrooms and other stuff, out before she jumped into the waters.
Then, she jumped into the water that she just puked into. How gross, right? Can't get any worst, right? Wrong.
Shaz puked again.
Everyone else on the boat was just stunned. Thank God, I jumped in first and was floating away from the boat. Apparently, to add salt to the wound, fishes raced to the boat to feed on her puke! The divemaster said "And here come the fishes". I really feel for the rest of the newbie divers who had to dive in after her. LOL.
Lesson #1: Consume your anti-motion sickness pills and do not have a big breakfast before your dive.
Lesson #2: Go into the water before Shaz does.
And so we all got into the water (relatively) safely. During our first dive, we were required to perform some basic underwater tasks like clearing a partially flooded mask and recovering a loose regulator (that thing you breathe air from). However, before all that, you have to descend into the water. During the descent, you would need to equalize your ears as the pressure on your ears increases as you descend further. This is rather essential and basic to your diving safety. However, you would not be able to equalize if you have blocked nose - say, from a cold or SINUS.
Guess what? Shaz conveniently forgot that she has sinus. So she had to descend VERY SLOWLY into the water trying her best to clear her ears. She took a good 10 mins to descend - holding up people on the surface (since we had to descend two-by-two with our buddy). She took so long that the instructor asked me to descend first, and I took only 1 minute to torpedo to the seabed. Haha. After 10 minutes, she finally equalized and completed her tasks - the rest of us waiting for her at the seabed almost ran out of air. LOL.
Lesson #3: If you have sinus, make sure you bring a decongestant during your dive!
As fate has it, she will suffer this problem for the rest of the 5 dives even to the point of having to abort the 5th non-compulsory dive.
(Credits: Sunny Cove LLP)
(Credits: Sunny Cove LLP)
But she could finally equalize, she was like a fish underwater - swimming about gaily and happily pointing out shoals of fishes, sea urchins and the lush marine life. She has much better buoyancy than I do! I must admit that I had no less trouble - in fact, my diving issues are more dangerous - even to the point of amusing.
I am big. Let's admit that. Therefore, big things displace more water and they tend to float better. I float too well. I had to put on 5 2kg weight belts in order to sink properly. Even after I descended into the water, I have this tendency of floating back up like a balloon. Throughout the dives, we had to regularly account for our buddies and to report if we lose our buddies.
While others look for their buddies by looking horizontally across the underwater horizon, Shaz will have to look up to find me and she will, almost always, find me floating away upwards to the surface. A few too many times the instructor had swim up to drag me down. I must give credit to Shaz for being a fantastic buddy in that she knows where I would naturally be (i.e. floating away like a balloon). During my last dive, I was buddied up with someone else as Shaz had to abort it. Again, I floated away. My buddy almost reported me as lost until the instructor spotted me floating upwards and away (due to strong current).
That's not the end of the problem with buoyancy! When I finally manage to descend, I torpedo and, quite a few times, almost landed onto beds of sea urchins (which would send you to hospital straight away) only to be alerted by my fellow divers. Argh, I really do need to perfect my buoyancy control techniques.
Lesson #4: If you are big, put on more weights so that you will not float away like a balloon underwater.
(Credits: Sunny Cove LLP)
Diving requires you to breathe in a mixture of compressed air that consists of about 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. This means that if you dive deeper than 20 metres, you would be pushing it abit too far with that mixture as the oxygen is just insufficient and your body would start to consume the increasingly soluble nitrogen.
Fact: Nitrogen is bad for you and your body. It causes mental impairment akin to being intoxicated by alcohol.
According to the instructor, that happened to me at 12 metres during the 3rd dive. We were supposed to do a simple underwater navigation but visibility was rather bad as some people torpedoed into the seabed causing the sand and mud to reduce the visibility. The idea was simple: the instructor will give me the bearing and I will have to take the bearing from my watch compass and proceed in that direction.
When my turn came and Shaz was waiting to follow me, the instructor gave me a bearing of ZERO degrees which looked like an "OK" sign underwater. For some reason, I had no idea what the freak he was saying. He started pointing to his wrist, and for the life of me I thought he was asking me for the time since I was wearing my watch. I was wondering why was he asking me for the time. I kept looking at the compass and my watch. I finally figured out that he was giving me a bearing but I forgot that I was supposed to proceed. So there I was, confused 12 metres kneeling underwater with a few people wondering what the hell I was doing by not proceeding. The instructor started gesturing to the direction but his gesture looked like he was asking me to exhale. So there I was, looking at my compass and following his 'instruction' to exhale - still not moving. The instructor got so frustrated he started grabbing his hair underwater - with hindsight I found that scene very amusing. Only after 5 minutes, I got the idea and started swimming away with Shaz in tow.
Lesson #5: I have no idea how... but try to keep a clear head underwater and focus on the instructions! If not, make sure you have a buddy who would smack you on the head underwater.
Outside the dives, the waters at Tioman are simply gorgeous - lush with marine life and fishes that come in shoals. Totally fascinating. There were shoals of anchovies milling about in the waters at the jetty, and the occasional teams of barracudas preying on them.
Oh yes, before I forget. Please make sure that you bring loads of sunscreen. The morning, midday and evening sun is just simply too much for me to take. Shaz and I were baked, though not as bad as the pale Chinese and Caucasians who looked like lobsters.
For all the trouble and physical exertions required by this activity, diving, I must admit, is quite addictive. I am longing to go underwater again. I can't wait to attend the PADI Advanced Open Water course in July or August with Shaz, and this time, with my friends.
Phuket, anyone?
(Credits: Sunny Cove LLP)
