Saturday, April 01, 2006

My Journal

Original Post Date : August 02, 2005

Lately, I have short memory :) I used to focus on details now I’m more likely to remember big pictures.., that’s why I start to write this to help me keep a record in case I forget everything! But only two months back-tracked as far as my goldfish memory can handle. :D At first I kept it short, by when I wrote, I remembered more things, so I better wrote it down also as a story.

Somewhere in May/June:
Kaleebso Live ON Board (End of May)

Live onboard at Kaleebso! Good food, so so cabin, so so toilet. This was our second dive together with Sabah group after Sipadan trip, minus Frog, Ee Chiew and Darren. It was supposed to be Kuantan trip, but because of time restriction, we only visited remote Tioman site and out of nowhere wreck. We needed to take small boat from dock until we reached Kaleebso boat. It was long, dark and rainy ride. No dry place to sit, we stood all the way, but we were excited. Reached Kaleebso, quite a big boat, we had short briefing, small talk and went to bed. The surface was quite choppy.

First day dives always lost! Lost buddy, lost Leo, lost Cynthia, lost DM. The visibility was horrible. First dive especially, no direction, no DM on sight, so after a while, we aborted it. Quite pissed off. Luckily Mary’s pisang goreng saved the day. We did four-day dives.

A little of cave-dive, it was fun but first time I lost my buddy. Kaleebso was also the first time LOB and survived mostly without seasick pills, not bad. Still remember the fresh feeling without sandy feet and sandy bed, that’s the advantage of LOB! I could brush my teeth at the rear of the boat watching beautiful sunrise, it was good as long as nobody was doing ‘business’ in the toilet, it would cause some disrupted scenery around the boat. Mhaha..

Other good thing about LOB, the cook couldn’t run away from us. After every dive, we would gather around the kitchen trying to steal some food. Managed to taste goreng pisang, sushi, sashimi, mango and chicken before they were sealed away. Also gained a new skill, now we can make sushi! :)

Second day was much better, two wreck dives, so no more lost divers, we stayed at one spot. First wreck, there were lots of baby nurse sharks, still babies as they only around 60-80 cm long, but a lot of nests, wonder where the parents were, snappers (have to take a good peek inside the wreck with torch), one shy and beaten grouper hidden inside the boat and nudibranches…Hubby found very pretty one, I called it wedding gown nudibranch as it had very nice and layered dress :) He also found hermit crab trying to disguise, when it felt safe, it ran sideways, very kanchiong and hit the sand here and there. It was very funny that we waste quite a lot of air laughing, this was the third time I laughed hard underwater.

First time, when I saw a father and son crocodile fish in Sipadan. They were so loving and sleepy with ugly long face that I found it hilarious. Second time was when we were drifting through Sipadan wall reef, and suddenly Anthony our dive monster cut Froggie’s way to look at something (don’t know what) at the wall, forcing him to do emergency stop, cursing and swearing.

Second wreck dive was cut short, a lot of sea urchin around so that I tried to stay further from the wreck, but curiosity kills the cat, saw a stone fish and tried to see closer, end up trashed by current and hit an eager sea urchin (lucky not the venomous stone fish!). It was quite painful, took out glove and saw black hole in my left index finger and blood came out, green color (red+ blue water=green, I didn’t realize this and quite surprise to see alien blood coming out my finger). So reported to buddy/hubby. He was trying to free a fish, which was trapped in the net, but abandoned his project to help me, then we aborted the dive. Better safe than sorry, although I regretted that we should free the fish first, totally forget.

Mhaha…poor finger, have to …. on it and hit it numerous time with booties until it numbed to destroy the thorn. Later find out Leo was also stung twice, on finger and knee, that was why he stopped diving once and bit his finger, but he said ok when we asked him. Another diver in the group was also kena, the current was too strong to predict when we were too close to the wreck.

Kaleebso trip started with wet transfer boat, ended with pouring rain. Me, Hubby, Matt and DM Alvin, first boat with all the luggage, were soaking wet. Then we had to lift all the luggage to the dock. Lucky second trip, they arrived dry, and no need to do the kuli work. Fortunately we brought extra shirt.


Others…(June)

Went to Exhibition and met Butet in person. We correspondence with her regarding the Bali trip planning. Bali, but a lot of other places which made us drooling on spot. If only we could afford to go to those places, have a long relaxed trip…maybe thrice a year? Fat chance? Fatttt… Adopt a funkeh coral in Bali. Ours is much better than Megawati’s. :)

Sushi party at Leonard’s house. He is a good sushi chef, we had good time making our own customized sushi, it tastes good with chicken! Us, Leo, Cynthia, Ee Chiew and Darren. Almost a complete dive monster group. Too bad Froggie was busy and Anthony left to pursue his own dream. Eat, play, talk.


July :
Dayang Trip. (1-3 July)

Feels like long time never gather together. Cynthia, Leo, Frog, me, Hubby were all over the place. Last trip with Dolphin dive center as Joshua wanted to set his own shop. We were very excited diving together again, maybe a bit too much and dominating for those other student divers, but we were friendly…and too happy.

That was a very late trip because we wanted to avoid the low tide. So we reached Mersing jetty at almost 2 am, boarded the ship, five of us cramped into small cabin and four of us, except Leo, surrendered to the power of sea sick pill. At around 4 or 5 am, the boat started to move, reached the island about 9, put in our belonging and stormed for the first dive.

Mhehehehe…durian party, free flow durian at Dayang. Hesitant to eat to avoid durian smell on our beloved regulator, but at night couldn’t run away anymore. Reason not eating was, I tend to have a fever if I eat durian without drinking salt water after that. But Colin and Leo managed to find salt and I left with no other reason, so enjoyed…! Too bad not enough durian left when I started.. Mho… Just find out Joshua afraid of durian. Alamak..where can we find a durian-hater Singaporean..?

About the diving…this was the fourth time we were here. The Napoleon humphead and school of it were still amazing. This time I was face to face with about 1.2 m humphead, and its teeth was very funny, looked like toothpaste ad, sparkling and white in front, tongos. I was tailing a humphead until I cornered it inside the rock, then suddenly I felt something big was coming towards me. I turned and saw another bigger humphead, quite an adrenalin rush, almost tabrakan kebo. Although I’m proud of my big forehead, they are not called humphead for nothing. :D
And we also saw a huge lobster hiding under the rock. Yummy.

Lunchtime. It was damn cold. Surface interval was always a suffering. Cold trunks, we were shivering in the dining area, the wind was very strong and the sky was dark grey.

Another memorable moment, Cynthia and Joshua were attacked by triggerfish. These moody and dower fish are very territorial. Hubby and me were also attacked by a titan triggerfish in Sipadan. Huge one. I didn’t know as I was enjoying the scenic safety stop. Luckily he managed to put his fins between him and the titan, but he was forced to ascend without having a chance to alert me. I saw him ascending and decided to spend few more minutes in the water, didn’t know the titan was behind me and pissed off to see its first target climbed to the boat, so I was the next target. I was really really lucky that day, the titan mistook my tank for my head; I was surprised to hear a loud bang behind me and then saw the titan. Apparently it attacked my tank and maybe it got swollen lips.

Hehhehhehe, more dower. I swam away; so did it. Surprisingly I was very calm, I was thinking, O-o, huge solitary triggerfish. Fiuh…my lucky tank. Still can’t forget the scar that our Sipadan DM Melvin showed us when he was attacked in the face by triggerfish. By the way, back to Dayang, Cynthia and Joshua managed to swim away from this time-clown triggerfish. There were many of them, and it was their mating season.

End of day dive, I did something (I already did in the previous Dayang trip and regretted it), I did it again and regretted it again. Me, Hubby, Leo and Ahwa jumped from the boat and swam to the shore, which was maybe 300-400 metres away. Gosh, it was not funny swimming without fins, bloody tired, almost gave up half the way but everybody were far in front. Hubby and Ahwa saw moray eel; they even managed to swim back to the boat, grabbed camera and took picture. Power! I was almost drowned, until finally I reached the stand-able part, Leo saw me and kept cheering. Mhahaha…what a shame.

Night dive was quite dig dag dig dag. Before he jumped to the dark water, Hubby saw the giant barracuda passed by. At least 1,7 m long solitary predator. Umph.., we encountered this giant few times before, but all the time I failed to see it. Either that I didn’t know it was around and didn’t manage to out-fin it. Others had seen it many times, so actually my main purpose of visiting Dayang again was to see this giant barracuda. But I also couldn’t deny that I was quite nervous.

So, jumped in. First, hubby, than me, we looked around us carefully with the help of two C8 torch. It wouldn’t be fun if we were not prepared in case the giant decided to taste a bit of our leg or arm. But now I can say, I am disappointed again! I didn’t see the giant, although I also might not know if it was swimming behind. I only could see as far as my torch could shine me. We saw shrimps, crabs, flat worms came alive at night. Put the torch into your chest, and play with your finger, you’ll see the beautiful red sparks dancing in the water. We call it uderwater firefly.

Talking about this giant barracuda, last week Joshua’s group was tailed by it for about 10 minutes. They were scared and decided to split into two groups. So, mission failed to see it, I will go back to Dayang until I see this giant, and infamous manta and whale shark.


Bangkok-Pattaya (8-11 July)

Although time and money was tough, we decided to have short family vacation with Nyokap, Bokap and Hubby. Rare chance. Work hard. Play hard. Life is precious. They (Bonyok) loved it, it was good to have some fun time together, first time to Thailand, we chickened out, instead of roaming by ourselves, we booked short tour. Tried parasailing in Pattaya. Peaceful, but a bit boring and lonely up there. Should have done more research and do my long life passion instead. Next trip. Next trip I’ll jump from somewhere much higher. Hm hm hm..

Tried bakmi jalanan ala Thailand, yummy! Poor little guy who sold the bakmi, he was merely around twelve years old, but had to stay up through the night to tend the stall. We used ancient-sign language to order the bakmi first night. Second night, he knew what we wanted already. When we left, I tried to say goodbye as it was our last night but I don’t think he understood.

First time try massage, uncomfortable at first, but relax relax.. :)

Being lifted by an elephant to take picture was not really fun. :) Elephants do have really friendly eyes. Learned that tiger indeed have very soft fur and large paws like my late German Shepard. Saw a poor honey bear had to keep drinking milk in order to pose for pictures.

Had a good swim at Pattaya. The beach was nice, but too commercialized. They put fence around to avoid collision with boat and jet sky, and clear the coral so that it was convenient to play and swim, but something was missing unlike if we play in the sea. No wave.


Grand Opening (16 July)

Joshua opened his own dive shop. Very happy for him, went for celebration, they drunk beer, our group were happy with a glass of beer or coke. From our group, Frog and Leo, me and Hubby only. Cynthia couldn’t make it, busy busy. Ee Chiew and Darren didn’t know Joshua, so only four of us. Sweet cool present for Joshua, hope he likes it.


Club Med (30-31 July)

Went for Hubby’s office trip. Tagged along. Never been to Club Med Bintan before..not affordable.,too ex for my wallet. Played monkey ball when the sun was directly above the head, humph…rained all day after that, so we visited local market and eat eat eat.. play pool… with..believe it or not… uang cepean….:) but if you bought the token from the resort, they sold cepean for 3.5 SGD. So we changed a pile of it at local market and played our heart out.

Second day, finally managed to book a dive. Located more than 30 minutes boat trip from Bintan, we jumped. We didn’t expect it to be a good dive, but surprisingly it was, and surprisingly it was cold….maybe because we didn’t wear proper wetsuit, as we only bought vest and short. The rental equipment was ok, and no need to wash yourself after that, mhehehhe….The coral was rich and healthly, a lot of things to see..Busy busy.., Busy to avoid sea urchin, many of them! Like sea urchin garden..Kapok, last time, it took me two months to recover from a single sea urchin stung in my index finger. There was a cute nudibranch who ran like hell when Hubby tried to take its pictures. I don’t know they can run! DM showed us a sleeping turtle under the rock outcropping. Have to sink as low as possible to take a peek. Big act-cool puffer, healthy red clark anemones, Stingrays, stonefish, nice soft corals and cute spiky schools of fish. Love it.


Others :

Not talking about work., my mind shut the moment I go home. Not talking about news, piss me off. Eat cow, mad cow, chicken, bird flu, pork, another disease, fish, salmon poison whatever whatever, even vegetables have exceed pesticide.

See news, bomb, flood, hurricane, famine, murder, robbery, rape, racist. Very tired. Never do online chatting for quite sometimes, stop catching up with my favorite writing forum, play games instead and do house chores, many of them! Long time never watch movies.

By the way, War of The World sucks. Surprisingly The Island is better. Planning to watch Charlie and Chocolate Factory.