nitrogen addict

Monday, October 10, 2005

i'm baaaaaccck!
the dive trip was GREAT. wanna go again...

Friday evening:
met at the dive centre. met the other ppl who were also going on the trip: a whole bunch of 7 lawyers and a jap lady, as well as the instructor and two divemasters. found out tt yy2 and i r the onli ones doing advanced open water - 4 of the lawyers were going to do the open water course, while the others were just there to tag along.
spent ages waiting to reach the customs. the queue was terribly long. our speed was, what, five metres per half-hr? the m'sian side was much much more efficient. after customs drove up up up to Mersing.

Sat:
reached Mersing at abt one in the morning. checked into our rms. 6 plus:woke up, packed our bags and headed for the jetty. boarded the speedboat all the way to Paya Beach, Tioman. checked into our rms at the resort and then went for breakfast.
after breakfast, changed into our swimming stuff and boarded the dive boat. headed for our first dive site. viz was quite low, but still extremely fun. fortunately i still rmb most of the skills. did our navigation stuff (for the advanced course) - navigated triangle, circle and straight line.
then headed back to shore for lunch. then back on the boat to our next dive site. Wreck diving! visited 3 wrecks - relatively small boats, but still very cool. purposely sunk for divers to enjoy. they belonged to some thai fishermen who were fishing illegally. saw an enormous puffer fish. took a photo of it too! (photos will be uploaded soon).
then went back to shore for dinner. (as u can see, the entire trip was mostly diving, diving and more diving). that night yy2 and i were gonna go for our nite dive (part of the advanced open water course). so while we were getting ready and all, the others were happily enjoying their beers and karaoke.
8pm: went to the jetty. realized we had to swim all the way out abt 100m to the boat cos it was low tide. totally dark except for the jetty lites. and occasional flashes of lightning which was actually very cool. when there're no buildings or hdb flats in the horizon, lightning can be extremely nice. the sea was terribly choppy cos the tide was going out or smth. a very tiring swim. the boat seemed so far away. but we managed to get there. eventually. at least we dint cheat - the instructor was holding on to a life ring all the way, while yy2 and i swm most of the distance on our own. ha.
the boat was rocking like mad. had difficulty getting into our wetsuits, which r long sleeved and ankle length and v tight. once we got everyth ready we jumped into the water. cldn't see much except wat our torches shone on. we did, however, see an octopus and a cuttlefish. they squirted ink at us in a feeble attempt to get away frm our clutches, but being rather tiny their ink dint do much. managed to touch them. =)
at the end of the dive we snorkeled back to shore and went to sleep (of course after washing our gear, or some of it at least).

Sunday:
woke up, had breakfast, then aboard the boat once again. the dive site was quite far away - a long boat ride. fortunately it wasn't as cloudy or grey as the day before, so managed to get some SUN! altho my lower half of the body is still the same cos i was wearing my wetsuit up to the waist. did our deep dive - 24metres (for open water maximum is 18m). swam out quite far (and deep of course). saw a blue-spotted stingray. there was this batfish that kept following us ard, very curious thing. at 24m, our instructor made us spell out our names on the sea bed to test for nitrogen narcosis. cos at such depth, nitrogen narcosis sets in and can make one display signs of intoxication. but yy2 and i weren't affected at all. it varies. then we turned ard and headed back to the boat. did a decompression stop at 5 metres, then surfaced. on the way we picked up a orange-spotted nudibranch which is s'posed to be a rare find. put the nudibranch in a bottle to be photographed at our next dive site.
next dive site: very relaxed. wondered ard wif yy2 the the open water divers. realized tt lawyers really deserve to be joked abt. one panicked during one of their skill practices - mask flooding. she cldn't empty the mask, panicked and floated all the way to the surface. fortunately they weren't at a gr8 depth, if not there'd haf been trouble. another lawyer also panicked for some reason and kept shooting up to the surface. haha. saw clownfish - very cute! cuter than nemo. also saw a car wreck, all rusty and old. dunno how it got there, in the middle of the sea...
then back to shore. lunch. packed. then took speedboat back to mersing. drove back to s'pore.

today:
went swimming in the morning. then straigh to sch.
stupid idiotic pw. realized too late tt the back gate was CLOSED. i dint wanna make a huge round to the main gate, so i CLIMBED OVER. cos i saw some guys ahead of me who did the same. so i thot, 'why not?'. onli when i went rite up to it did i stop. and stare. up. and i realized how high the gate actually is. to get up i had to swing one leg up onto the railing at the side. then i stepped onto the railing. then i tiptoed and finally managed to grab hold of the top of the gate. swung my leg over the gate. swung my other leg over. my skirt caught on the metal. stuggled to pull it out. then turned ard, and JUMPED. all that in my skirt. luckily i had shorts underneath.
then in the com lab i found a long slash on my calf. and i just (cos i've got my leg up on the seat) three more cuts on my thigh. clueless me. they look quite cool actually.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

YY dived deep at 4:52 PM

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------