I'm back from a 3-day dive trip to Tioman!
On the day that we took the ferry over to Tioman, there was another ferry which caught fire and sank (ours was a different ferry service departing from a different port). Apparently, they were operating without a license and there weren't enough life jackets onboard for everybody. 4 deaths and 3 missing, one of whose body has just been found yesterday.
As much as we are thankful for our safe journey, we're very saddened by this tragic incident. The sadder thing is, the deaths could really have been avoided. I've much on my heart and mind about this incident but I'll hold my peace at this present moment. Thank you, those of you who called or sms-ed to check on whether we were ok.
Divers, if you're really into macro stuff, Tioman's the place to go. A good variety of nudibranches can be found especially at Batu Malang. We even saw a Spanish Dancer! :) Beautiful lil' fella. Of the 7 dives we did, I enjoyed Chebeh and Batu Malang the most. These two places were like a huge marine garden teeming with life. It's great to just dive through the "park", swim with the turtles, snappers, trevallys, barracudas...did a few swim-throughs...at Chebeh, there was this part where the rock were beautifully littered with sea fans. The dive at Tiger Reef was also memorable in that it ended pre-maturely :P One of my buddies almost hit decompression limit, so we had to surface (yes, we leave no man behind on the boat) after a half hour's worth of diving. And we surfaced to rain and choppy waters (woo hoo!!!)
On one of the evenings, I went snorkelling with Guatz. I was not wearing fins. So there we were, snorkelling around. I showed Guatz the sea urchins (plenty of them where we snorkelled) and warned her about getting in their way. Almost right after that, I conveniently forgot to check behind me and I fumbled into a few of them. So them urchins stung me nice and good on my feet. One of them gave me a pretty nasty gash, for which the doc had to give me a tetanus jab just in case. (I only saw the doc after I came back to KL...I was still diving after tap dancing on the sea urchins :P )
Walking with a slight limp, this man is very, very happy with his dive trip to Tioman. Sorry I don't have undersea photos to show because I don't have underwater photography equipment...yet :) In time, God willing. In the meantime, I'm quietly grateful to the Almighty Creator for being able to enjoy His colourful underwater handiwork and star-filled nights on the island, which I rate as the greatest shows on earth that I've been able to have the privilege to enjoy, next to shooting stars, mountain-top views, sunrises and sunsets.
Sea urchin (photo by Jeff Tham)
1 comment:
The sea urchin sting/stings sounds painful! But otherwise, seems like you had fun! =D
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