Dive Trip: Lando Repeated (29 April - 3 May 2010)

(caution: this entry is a very gedik entry. don't say i didn't warn you ok?)




29 April 2010

i didn't get enough of lando so i made another trip to billabong scuba on labor day weekend. plus johnny announced that he was leaving Billabong to manage his own dive center in Puerto Galera. So what's better than a goodbye dive trip? hehe :)

view from the diver's lounge..

it was a hush hush trip .. not everyone knew about it, except, jon, tony, nana, mama, my family, johnny, my colleagues.. ermm that's pretty much everybody haha.. but i surprised faizal, lando, otto.. and the best surprised face would probably be azhar's la kot kekeke.. i surprised myself for going there all alone. not knowing if there's even room for me at mabul.. it was labor day weekend. the rooms in semporna was full. i had to walk quite far from billabong scuba's office.. penat tau... especially since i was sick when i arrived. my doctor was like "don't dive! you can't even board a flight with that flu!" alaa i already paid hundreds for my flight. and it's terribly expensive to change flights tau doc.. tawakkal je .. huhuh

since johnny was the only person who knew i was coming, i made him pick me up at the airport. so he came with his buddy.. his friend took us to billabong scuba.. only to find out that the boat for mabul has left. apa daaa johnny... pukul 12 bukan pukul 2 laa.. ceitt.. so i had to stay in semporna for one night. faizal asked me how many dives i would be doing.. i told him i had the flu.. so he let me went and pay when i came back from mabul. which is cool since we only met once before..

30 April 2010

johnny and i took the morning boat to mabul. and guess who drove the boat? hehehe... tak lain tak bukan... lando! he was surprised to see me..since he was all smiles.. i guess it's safe to say that it was a pleasant surprise? hehe.. terus la aku manja2 dengan dia... hehehe... biasa la kan? tu la sebab nya nak pergi sorang2 pun hahahhaa.. so i could have him to myself.. ahem.. i mean.. alaa you know what i meant la.

ahh bila nak pergi lagi ni... :(

sampai2 je tengok.. tak de bilik. hahahaha.. luckily yvette just left billabong.. so there's an extra staff room. i got the room to myself. hehe :) tapi yang tak best. bilik tu tak boleh kunci hahahaahaha... adehh..

immediately johnny, lando and i prepared for our dives.. come to think of it, i saved johnny from having to go to sipadan that day hahaha.. patut la dia salah time :p he's supposed to lead some divers to sipadan that day but since we were in late, susan and tyler went instead. anyways, we did some dives at mabul. i still had the flu, so i was still undecided to go or not. they said i should just get my gears on the boat, in case my flu cleared up. hehe *wink* lo and behold, it did! hahah but i had to descend pretty slowly as it hurts my ears a bit. but as soon as i managed to go down, my congested nasal cleared up. alhamdulillah.

frogfish in mabul

Nudi color purple hehehe :p

nudi having lunch! cool gile.. look at how it sucks the soft corals

i told johnny the night before that i wanted to see the flamboyants.. i haven't seen them in a while and really wanted to see them again. he said someone saw them in kapalai.. so as kerry and lando guided the rest of the group, johnny became my buddy and looked for flamboyants..

guess what? we found them ;) saw two tiny ones!! seronok nyaa... silly me, i was looking at a stonefish next to it.. carefully tried to take photos of it when johnny poked me and showed me the first flamboyant. hahahahaa aku suka sangat2.. johnny was laughing.. i was screaming.. and ran out of air. hahahaha.. bongok!

the flamboyant cuttlefish

1 May 2010

johnny had to go to sipadan so it's up to lando and otto to layan aku. my octopus free flowed so i had to use billabong scuba's set. uhuk uhuk.. :( lando kutuk my regs set hoping that i'd leave them there for him. boleh.. boleh blah muahahaha... anyway, billabong scuba received some interesting new guests today. there's the russians/ukraine group. i think they met here and got acquainted or something. there's helle. she's a solo traveler from denmark. so it's just natural that we'd be friends right away i guess.. both of us just loveeee to eat.. that's enough for me hehe.. :) then there are two old guys from sabah, one of them lives in australia and told lando that he's an instructor and that his friend hasn't dived for so long... but they both didn't bring their cards.. we went to ray point to see my eagle rays.. hehe.. but they weren't amused. they wanted more!

they were swimming the area.. circling the divers. it was a happy moment for me..

those old dudes also kept giving problems to the guides.. and me. i thot i could have lando all to myself that day. but he handled them well.. at first i thought the open water diver would be giving us most problems. turns out the one claiming that he's an instructor gave us quite a scare. at ray point, he panicked and tried to ascend too quickly.. at the same time, his buddy was trying to ride a big turtle. darn! i was watching from afar as i was having problems descending.. so was hovering at 12 meters when that happened. hahaha.. helle was angry. so was kerry.. 


our second dive was supposed to be kapalai. tapi low tide at noon. either we went out early or after lunch. the duo from tawau tu wanted to go and asked so that we leave after lunch. so there were 3 of us. tengok2 diorang canceled. tinggal wa sorang.. adehh.. we ended up diving kat ray point again. nak cari pygmy. did i tell u we saw pygmy masa first dive.. ermm we did but i didn't get a good photo. my ears were giving problems so tak lama sangat kat situ. 


anyway, lando, basang, otto, and another boy went diving with me. semua mencari benda. entah apa kitorang nampak entah la. hahaha.. :p

the biggest nudi i've ever seen. it's really huge. otto jumpa :) 

a stonefish.. stone je rupe hehe ;p

one of my favorite fish.. :) cute and so many colors lorr

we dived at mabul house reef during our third dive. i took a lot of videos not so many photos this time. and the tawau duo hepi gile babs.. hahaha.. they saw the giant grouper and literally laughing out loud.. hahaha.. sabar je la.. 

the vis was so so.. i was tired also... so i just enjoyed the scene .. layannn...

that nite, a few divers went night diving, and someone was stung. to me it looked like he was stung by the sea urchins.. but johnny said it's scorpionfish. based on the luka. and the victim shot up to the surface after he was stung so he was experiencing DCS. the two dive guides were instructors.. and they were really slow. helle and i were criticizing their move while having our dinner.. parrotfish bakar dengan cuttlefish bakar. yummy.. anyway, they took him to the nearest clinic to get his O2.. and he was monitored till morning. sabar je. baru nak manja2 ngan johnny :p 

2 May 2010

ok my last day of diving. so kena dive best2.. haha.. lando and kerry were the guides. we dived at kapalai, mabul house reef and ray point. haha.. entah baper kali entah aku dive sini.. hahaha.. tak kisah.. tapi yang tak best nye on third day lagi ramai orang.. dengan the russian group nye, ada a couple of DMs from OZ kot, keje kat Thailand, and then a couple of americans.. and aku lagi.. Helle lagi.. ramai gak la. but that didn't stop lando to find me some cool stuff haha.. :) 

aku yang gemuk

nampak tak? dia tengah lay eggs! cool gile!


aku tak tau apa bende nye ni. tapi masih cool gilaa

during our third dive, Helle didn't dive with us coz dah baper kali nak dive kat ray point kan? so she went snorkeling instead. she was attacked by a triggerfish. which is soooo weird coz we talked about my experience being attacked by a triggerfish in tioman. which cause a little bit of panic attack underwater when i see one swimming around. she was a bit frightened, tired but was not harmed during the attack. she managed to swim back to safety. 

porcelain crab... aku suka menatang ni. pandai posing. and very the photogenic

and that was the last dive i had for this trip... and during my last dive, i cried. sedih. the doctor told me that i was gonna have my operation sometime in may. but haven't decided when yet.. so this was my last dive trip for the year.. ermm.. or so i thought..


so terpaksa la amik gambar group. johnny tak nak. dia malu. sedih kot nak tinggal kan semua orang hehe :P 

me, Helle and the crazy dive guides at Billabong Scuba, Mabul

and so, lando, johnny and i went back to semporna that day.. i said goodbye to lando. and johnny.. i stayed in semporna one more nite.. lepak with johnny for dinner. tak nak aku makan sorang2 hehehe 


so mabul.. i'll be back .. ermm.. sooner than i thought :p