SCUBA DIVING AT TIOMAN! (PART 2)

When I woke up the next morning, the headache has subsided. And from that day onwards, Alex became our main instructor, as Simon was off to Singapore and Julian was busy with his other students. Coincidentally, my birthday falls on that day too, August 3rd! Well, things proceeded as usual, discussion of the chapter reviews, watched the videos, do the quizzes, and off we go diving again!

During our 2nd dive, we learned slightly a bit more stuff compared to the 1st day. Actually, there wasn't a lot to learn in scuba diving, but the reason u took us such a long time to finish the course is bcuz we need to learn wat to do when all sorts of accidents happen, such as how to removed the water from our mask when the water seeped into it, how to get hold of our regulator (breathing piece) again after we lose it underwater, wat to do if the regulator malfunction, wat to signal when we're out of air, how to pass out alternate regulator to our buddy who are out of air etc. Of all the skills we're expected to master, the one I hated the most is this: We're to remove our mask when we're under the sea, open our eyes underwater and hold the mask on our hands for 1 minute before we put it on again, and use the previously learned technique to replaced our mask with air again. Sounds easy, rite? No way man! Firstly, keeping ur eyes open underwater for a minute is seriously uncomfortable. Everything went blur, and ur eyes became irritated by the saltwater! Secondly (and worse), somehow I juz can't stop breathing through my nose! So there I go, keep sucking in the seawater thru my nose everytime I inhaled! I tried to squeeze my nose so that it won't happen, but the instructor stopped me! And for that whole 1 minute, I'm sucking in seawater! I seriously felt like puking (underwater!) then, but I tried my very best to hold back. The headache returned again, more painful than ever!

Other than that, everything was ok. Most of us finally learned how to control our buoyancy (not completely in control, but improved a lot compared to yesterday la!), and we can finally enjoy the view in our 2nd dive (most of us were to focus on trying to control our buoyancy and movement in the 1st dive to pay any attention to the reef!). The underwater scenery is... well, beautiful, in a very alien kinda way. Everything look so... different down here, it felt like as if we're exploring another world! Although the corals and fishes were not as colourful as pictured in Finding Nemo, the sight of them was amazing. I juz can't described the view in words... One has to see for themselves! Oh but the sea urchins seriously look threatening! Also, I spotted 4 blue bumphead parrotfishes!!!

The Brain Coral. Fitting name, isn't it?

Blue Bumphead Parrotfish

And so the days go one with the usual routine: Discussion on the chapter reviews, watch the videos, complete the quizzes, and then learn the real thing (and finally, we have the final exam). All went well, and on the very last day of our course, we go to 2 different diving sites: Pirate Reef and Renggis Island. We actually get to dived past a Thai fishing vessel wreck at Pirate Reef! The sight of the corals growing on the wreck 20+ meters below seawater and all the fishes that swam around it was unforgetable and truly memorable. The shipwreck itself is seriously impressive! Although it wasn't exactly huge, it isn't the typical small Malaysian fishing boat either! My guess is that the boat is about 10 meters long and 4 meters wide! We actually got to dive past a stream of fishes too! It was awesome!

To me, Renggis Island isn't really an island at all. It's juz consists from a bunch of huge rocks with a tree or 2 on top of it. Also, the current was pretty strong around this island too, and I was constantly swept away many times during the dive! The interesting difference about this dive site is that there are much, much more fishes that habitate that coral reef compared to others around Tioman. Some of the lucky ones spotted a turtle, but as hard as I tried to look at where they're pointing at (I was behind them), I can't spot the turtle, for the visibility there was pretty bad with all the suspended particles floating around due to the strong current. Still, I saw clownfishes hiding in the anemones, and also coral cuttlefishes that look like rocks!!! Also, there are many gigantic clams!!! I saw 1 that is almost as big as a Kancil!

Click here for larger image

And of cuz, there were many other things that I saw there, but I juz can't list of them! In fact, I dun know many of their names too!