2 weeks have almost passed since I went to Tioman for my open water dive course... So I guess it's about time I blog about it b4 all my precious memory there begins to atrophy!
The 7 of us: Thaven, Hadrianto, Wei-Yen, me, Gowri, Anusha, and Jebbrine met at the Pudu Raya Bus Station on the 1st of August at around 11pm. It was my 1st visit to the bus station, and I have to admit the size of it is quite impressive. We left for Mersing, Johor around 11.45pm, and poor Wei-Yen lost his sunglasses then, probably dropped it when he was fitting his luggage into the compartment. It was a long journey, and none of us have a good sleep, for the bus kept ligths up when it reaches a few stops at Rompin. A few passengers leave the bus to a campus-like area in the middle of nowhere with forests all around it... I only remembered the word "Desasiswa" on the sign boards... I wonder wat the heck is that!
We reached Mersing an hour earlier than we expected, around 4am on the 2nd of August. Since our ferry won't be leaving till 7.30am, we hang around at the eating place, and no stores were opened yet then. I used that time then to read up my diver's manual, for I have only finished reading Chapter 1 out of 5! It's seriously very wordy la that manual, and really a lot to digest! At 7.30am, we took the Blue Water Ferry and off we go towards Tioman Island. The boat ride that is the worst boat ride I've ever had, for the wave was really violent and the whole ride was incredibly bumpy. When the wave hits the ferry, we actually felt like as if we have hit a rock! There were times when the ferry kinda "flew" and then "fell" too, and the sensation kinda resembles a roller coaster ride. Man the sea is wild there!
We landed on Tioman Island at Kampung Tekek, a small simple village with only 1 long road, and shops and houses on both sides of it. We were supposed to meet a white guy called Julian there at the jetty, and since we have no idea how he looks like, we juz look around aimlessly. I noticed a white guy staring at us with his back bent forward as he leaned against the railing and I ask my friends loudly, "Is he the one?" That guy replies, "How many white people do u expect here in Pulau Tioman to stand here and waiting to pick up somebody?" Ouch... Talk about 1st impression. Paul did mentioned that Julian is really sharp and sarcastic, but I think that he kinda understated it. After we entered Julian's van, Thaven was trying to close the door when Julian asked, "U're looking for the door? Things work different in Tioman!" And it was then we all realized that THERE IS NO DOOR at the passenger side of the van! Man that was seriously funny!
After a short ride which lasted shorter than 5 minutes, we reached Persona Resort. Julian asked us to put our stuff at the office there and walked over to the Tioman Dive Centre after we put down all our stuff, and taking the manuals along with us. The dive center is only about 10 meters away from the resort, and when I first spotted the dive centre, my 1st thought was, "Man, Paul really described the centre well with juz one word: a shamble!" The centre was nothing much but a small wooden hut, but it was pretty well equiped with all the necessary scuba apparatus. We sat down around a table, and started the introduction. There were 3 instructors there, all of them Caucasians. There's Julian Hyde, the director of the centre, Alex Walker from UK, and Simon from Germany. And without much delay, we began our class.
We learn a bit about pressure, volume, density, buoyancy, and also a few basic do's and don'ts of scuba diving, with the fundamental rule of: Never hold ur breathe while scuba diving. (Else u'll risk lung rupture when u're ascending in the sea!) There's lots and lots of Physics laws involved in the theoretical part of the course, and we learned (or re-learned) about Dalton's law of partial pressure, Henry's law of solubility coefficient, Archimedes' Law etc. After that we also watched some videos which talk about the materials we've studied to further aid our understanding. Then we took a few short quizzes. Heck I'll spare the details and go to the more interesting part: the practical itself!
The 1st task we're supposed to do is to swim at the sea for about 30 meters, without any swimming aids! I was a little anxious then... Swimming at the sea without my goggles? Man my eyes will kena badly for sure, especially since that I only know breaststroke! But all of us went anyway... By the time we went back shore, all of us complained about how salty the water is and how the waves kept pushing us towards shore etc. Man the instructors really enjoyed our whinings then. Espeacially after one of us exclaimed, "The water is salty!!!" After lunch, we returned for snorkeling, with our diving suits and fins on. The diving suit is seriously tight, and assembling the diving gear was rather complicated at 1st, with all the 1st stage and regulators and BCD and weight belt and gas tank etc. I have little problem snorkelling, for I've already have some experience in the past.
And next was our 1st confined water learning course and 1st dive course. It was pure CHAOS. We were told to breathe deeply and regularly, but almost none of us did that. We were panic when we were descending, many of us can't really equalize the pressure in our ears, which really hurts like hell when we're descending, as the water pressure is squeezing our eardrum. Many of us struggle to ascend after descending for a few meters only, for the pain was unbearable. I have another problem... I can't sink! I know, it sounded as if it's a good thing, but it isn't! I juz keep staying afloat while the others were down kneeling at the sand few meters below me! Eventually I descended with the instructors help, but I can't stay down! I kept floating away after a few seconds, and Simon has to keep pulling me down!
When we finally went ashore, many of us kinda regretted doing scuba diving for elective already. It's seriously hard and quite uncomfortable underwater. Nevertheless, the instructors encouraged us by telling us that this is normal, and things will get better the next day, as we already have our 1st experience underwater. Nevertheless, I can see that some of us felt like going home already. As for me, well, I'm determined to do better for the next day! But I suffered from a bad headache after I surfaced from the sea though... Lasted all day long!
Oh about the food at Kampung Tekek. Well, it's not exactly bad, but it definitely ain't good either. It was slightly expensive, but still within reasonable price range la. The shops were a bit disappointing, for they have very limited choices, not even souvenirs! The beers were quite cheap, but of cuz, I nv bought any of them. After I ate the panadol pills I've bought, I went to sleep and think nothing more about the challenges in the days ahead...
To be continue...
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