tioman trivial crap deepavali 8-10 nov 2007

and the report begins..

truth is, after the LOB 1/2 a moon ago, i never thot i'd be going for a trip anytime soon. i've already used up half of my savings for my new place.. and last 2 uncalled for trips, and i also ran out of annual leave. well...sort of. i guess i won't be celebrating hari raya haji la this year. but when someone asked me if i wanted to do tioman on deepavali, i immediately said yes. err.. why arr?? why??

i received a call that we'll be meeting at R&R seremban at 5 am on deepavali (8.11.2007). i told MT that i was gonna meet him up there at 5 am. then he felt sorry, that my brother had to take me all the way to seremban,he told me that he'd pick me somewhere along MRR2. but at about 1 :30 am, it was raining cats and dogs and mice in KL. there was no way that i'd be there on time. i left home at 3 am, when the rain's not so bad.. but the roads were slippery and there were accidents everywhere. so i told MT that i'd just see him at R&R seremban.

picked my bro at gombak, and went to seremban. at about 6 am, when everyone's there.. we left the r&r and headed to ayer hitam (tr. black water ) and straight to mersing.

we stopped .. at about 8 am at kluang for some food.. even tho we had our err breakfast at seremban r&R at 5 am ... man.. these people can really eat..

we arrived at the jetty at about 9:30 am. hung out there a while, and boarded the ferry at about 10:30 am.

i remember, just a month ago when i went to tioman, the ferry operator actually arranged the life jackets on the seats..

we arrived at salang at about 1:30 pm.. it's a long ride.. aquaholic gave me the blue pill before we boarded. i think i'm still experiencing the effects.. haha.. today still very sleepy.. i managed to get some sleep on board the ferry.. upon arrival, i saw a very familiar face. and he called out.. hi tulip! it's black bear! he was leaving when we arrived. sorry i didn't recognize u that day. it's the blue pill, i swear!

ridrahim introduced us to Man. then they took us to our rooms.. at salang pusaka. i thot i took pictured of the room. i guess i didn't then rid told us that we're not gonna have lunch first, cause our tuna sandwich was already prepared. so as soon as we're ready, we went to Fisherman Dive Center near Salang Indah, and got our equipment ready for our first dive.

meanwhile, my tummy growled

8.11.07 thursday

dive #1

dive site: Chebeh
dive location: Tioman Island

time in: 2:53 pm
bottom time: 53 minutes
temp: 28degC
max depth: 22.5 m

i had some problem equalizing when i descended. and everyone seems to be doing it real quickly. i took my time.. the vis was ok. as long as i can see the other divers, i'm pretty much fine with it.

uncle benny

miezegreat

the water was cold.. and i got really hungry. i guess i was too hungry during the first dive. i got pretty dizzy. (lesson #1: never go down hungry)..

kapal selam was trying out his new G7 underwater.

i saw everything in 2s..

it's finally safety stop time..

and we finally got to eat our tuna sandwich.

dive #2

dive site: Teluk Kadur
dive location: Tioman Island

time in: 4:44 pm
bottom time: 53 minutes
temp: 28degC
max depth: 17.7 m

i was full, and ready for our next dive. we went to Teluk Kadur. it's pretty. and lots of nudis. Uncle Benny was a really good nudi spotter. hehe.. so i dive close to him. hehee..

i dunno what this is. but it's nice

rid found this.. and as soon as i took a pic of it, my batteries died. hehehe..

the dive was a good one. but i was really tired. i hadn't had a good sleep for the past 2 days. i had some problems equalizing as well, so that didn't help. but i enjoyed the dives, despite all that.

9.11.07 friday

dive #3

dive site: Fan Canyon/Genting Bay/ Sea Fan Garden
dive location: Tioman Island

time in: 9:26 am
bottom time: 54 minutes
temp: 28degC
max depth: 22.8 m

kapal selam gave some very bad news this morning. he had to leave on the noon ferry. but he'll join our first two dives. aquaholic has never done Fan Canyon before. so our dive no. 3 would be Fan Canyon.

we went down, the vis was ermm.. let's see.. u look away for 3 minutes, and the whole group's gone. can't even see the bubbles anymore.. and the surge was quite strong.. i've been telling ikan that i wanted to see kurbayana. never had the chance to see one before..

i didn't have problems equalizing.. unlike the first two dives. saw lots of nudis but i was having problems staying still. hehee.. so none of the pics were ermm... worthy to be shown here. saw a huge scorpionfish resting on the rocks. it was damn big lah. and then i saw another nudi. tried so hard to take a decent picture. *sigh* ... luckily aquaholic waited for me. i lost the group again. and a few minutes of circling around, i ran out of air. and we ascended.

when we got back on the boat, everyone's there.. and asked where was i.. cause they found a kurbayana

9.11.07 friday

dive #4

dive site: Batu Malang
dive location: Tioman Island

time in: 11:03 am
bottom time: 53 minutes
temp: 28degC
max depth: 14.0 m

after a 40 minute surface interval, and some nice flied lice.. we were all ready to go down again. this time at batu malang. showed MT_tank the sad facial expression of the rocks. not sure if he could see it tho.

i followed ikan so closely so that when he finds the kurbayana, i'd be able to see them too..

i spoke too soon. all of a sudden man called out to me.. and told me to look at something! there they were!!! woo hoo.. my first sighting of kurbayana.. yee haww.. hehehe aquaholic claimed that i pushed him away amidst the excitement. i don't want to admit to anything.

there it is again

ikan underwater

uncle benny ..

miezegreat.. saturday nite live

kapal selam..

empty tank..stretching his legs

ridrahim.. cool jee..

aquaholic.. showing off his sexy pout.. can see arr??

group photo underwater.. missing is ikan..

ikan was busy entertaining his cousins.. open house raya

and the saga continues..

9.11.07 friday

dive #5

dive site: Soyak
dive location: Tioman Island

time in: 3:23 pm
bottom time: 67 minutes
temp: 28degC
max depth: 10.0 m

after a nice lunch of nemo flied lice at salang pusaka, we went to soyak. this time AJ led the dive. we're on an octopus hunt. sort of. hehe.. i didn't find any. ikan did. he said he was waiting for us. and then he got scared and ascended. mt_tank was missing. so, only i, miezegreat, ridrahim, aquaholic and uncle benny followed AJ on the octopus search. ikan got one shot of the octopus before his batteries ran out.

the jelly fish was stuck to the corals..






ikan and mt tank saved a bird from drowning..

10.11.07 saturday

dive #6

dive site: Labas
dive location: Tioman Island

time in: 9:50 am
bottom time: 55 minutes
temp: 28degC
max depth: 19.5 m

hmm.. our last dive.. i had some problem descending. turns out my inflator hose was not connected. so i was descending fairly slowly. luckily i had big breakfast, so i guess the added weight really helped

the vis was great. despite the rain. it was raining when we jumped off the boat. they said there are swim throughs.. i was afraid of that. i hate confined, dark spaces. but it was nice. only at the end of the swim thru, there was surge that pushed me and AJ to the rocks. otherwise a good dive.

AJ - my knight with shiny pointer..

oh... and have i mentioned? i was attacked by an ugly beast? hehehe.. i was attacked by the titan triggerfish. i screamed my heart out. AJ came with his pointer to counter attack the ugly thing... uwaaaa... takut sehhh..