Scuba Diving Experience in Tioman Island - Part 2

Friday, 27 July 2007



After having satisfying lunch in the village (and how wouldn't it be when we were starving), we gathered for a briefing and started to learn how to use the equipments at surface. We have also agreed several hand signals that we might use in the water. Of course with a regulator in our mouth, we can't really talk, can't we? Plus the fact the we cannot generate any sound from our mouth if it's full of water. We can hear though, don't get me wrong. Just not as focused as if in the air. We can hear sounds that reached our ears perfectly fine. We just don't have the sense of direction from which the sound came from.




Anyway, not long after the briefing with all of us divided into 2 groups for the whole course, we prepare our gears and headed to the water for the confined water dive training. This kind of training can be done in the swimming pool or shallow sea water where we still can stand up. Since we're just on the beach, we did the training at the sea, shallow water of course. Just to practice the breathing and other skills necessary underwater.

The drawback of this is that we have to carry the air tank in our back, and boy it's heavy. I couldn't manage to stand up straight with the tank on my back, affraid I would have fell on my back instead. But once we entered the water, the weight on my back just disappeared. What a relief.

Then we started the confined water training....

What can I say here...the experience was priceless. Having able to breath underwater was really intoxicating. Well..in the beginning I have to struggle to properly breath and get rid of the panic, but why should we panic if we can actually breath normally in the water?

Once breathing techniques were more or less managed by us, we started to do other required skills that will be used in normal situations, and also if emergency occurs. Don't get me wrong, it's really not as easy as we think. Some has difficulties to control their buoyancy, some has difficulty getting rid of the panic, and some including myself has difficulty managing the emergency skills, which was really important to survive down under.

This skills training took the rest of the day. We wrapped up by carrying back all the equipments we have used, including the darn tank. Once we got off the water, I could feel how heavy it was again. But hey...it was worth the effort.

The night was then spent for relaxing, strolling along the beach or village that only lays along the stretch of the bay, some went to go fishing, dinner, class session, and finally....a good night rest, shared with other 3 occupants per room. The cottage was not really the best available, but enough for the purpose, to get some rest.

Scuba Diving Experience in Tioman Island - Part 1

Have you ever done something fantastic for the first time and got really addicted afterwards? Well...for me, scuba diving is just one of the plenty I've had, but really....it's a very different kind of experience altogether. To begin with, we're suppose to enter a different living environment that possess two third of the earth's surface. Where else we will scuba dive if not into the water. And what for? Ofcourse to see that other world...the world of the underwater.

Now, the other difficulty would be...that this environment is not our natural habitat, which means...we cannot really stroll in that world without equipment, can't we?? Especially breathing apparatus. And to use all the diving equipments safely, rather than kill us in the process, we ought to get training and certification.

That was why in the middle of one crazy week, when I just noticed that a friend of mine back there in Kemaman has managed to organize a PADI Open Water Diving Course for us and apparently was lacking participants, without any hesitation I enrolled myself in along with my husband. I have missed last year's opportunity to do so. Eventhough this year's course was only half paid by my company, I certainly would not miss this opportunity again.

With only one and a half day preparation whilst still working in the office, I and my husband managed to get all the personal diving equipments such as the diving suit, mask, snorkel, and fins. We also managed to read the training materials we're suppose to finish before the course started. In a hurry obviously..but worth the effort.

To get to the island, we have to gather at Mersing Jetty, Johor at Friday morning to catch the boat. As a result, we have to drive all the way from KL in the evening, which was really a torture. It took us at least 5 hours to reach Mersing after driving in the middle of nowhere. Really...we had to take the short way in order to get there in time, but it meant we had to drive through this very large felda area which was really..really dark. And we're practically the only one driving in that road in the middle of the night. Luckily there's no highwayman trying to stop and rob us on spot. That would be scary.

Anyway, we arrived in Mersing at 2 in the morning and found a motel to sleep for few hours before we had to depart to the jetty. My husband's experience on trying to sleep in that motel was a whole different story altogether, but really, I didn't felt anything weird in the room. Or was it because I was fast asleep already?? Never mind, not that I'm complaining of my lack of 6th sense.



To cut the story short, we arrived in Tioman Island, Salang Bay to be exact, at midday. Apparently, the only means of transportation available to access this 'kampung' was by boat. There's a resort in the middle of the island that has an airstrip, but that's about it. No meaningful roads connecting the villages all around the island, which was really fascinating me. It really is a marine park.

Not The Day

Today is not my day, especially when it comes to LRT. The one day I'm bound to use an LRT to and from the office, it turns out to be the worst nightmare. Well...I probably exaggerate things here, but truly, I didn't expect it will be that packed in the evening.

I have enjoyed my journey to the office this morning. Walking out of my condo complex that took five minutes, I went to the train station opposite the road in front, bought a one way ticket and went up to the passenger platform. So far it looked good, not too many people around which meant the train won't be too congested.

By the time I was up the paltform, there were small queue already. Ok, still not too bad I thought. Once the first time stop by, ok...maybe it's not as good as I thought. Only few people could be lifted every time the train stopped in this station. I got my turn on the fourth train in less than 10 minutes. With AC and fresh odor of most of the people going to the office, I think it was a good experience. Not too bad. I could get some breakfast along KLCC food stalls also, with lots of choices...nyam nyam..

So the morning ride wasn't too bad an experience for me, just as it was the previous evening. But it turned out to be worst this evening. I don't know what inspire everyone in KL, teenagers mostly, to come and flooded KLCC in one single day. It was already packed in the station entrance, I could imagine how would it be in the train platform. And just like confirming my thoughts, the queue were sooo long and the platform were soo packed with people. I finally could get into the train after waiting for half an hour, more packed than ever. Good thing I didn't have to wait longer than that, otherwise my mood would be soured by all these queue jumpers. All these teenagers really need to be taught properly at school.

Really not my day....siighh...

Now I really missed my daily private ride on my own car with my personal driver a.k.a husband :)

More on tender vs semi

I don't know why I'm obsessed on explaining the difference, but sharing this knowledge with someone who might read this blog of mine motivates me to ask further more to the Ballast Control Officer (BCO) on the rig I when I was still on board.

One fine day when I had nothing to do on West Berani rig, I asked one of the BCO to better explain why the rig is not moving so violently compared to a tender.

Well, my previous explanation was basically correct, but the more detail on the rig design is the key. A tender rig only has one pontoon, exactly like a boat. So no wonder it's moving just like one. But a semi-tender rig has two pontoons on each side with six legs or columns to support the deck off the sea surface, just like a semisub rig. And similar to a semisub, it has at least 40 tanks to play around and balance the entire rig, whereas a tender only has 3 or 4 tanks, which really, couldn't be used to balance anything.

No wonder also, this kind of access ramp in the picture I have inserted above can be attached to a fix platform without snapping due to violent rig movement. Now you can see how easy it is to just climb those spiral stairs compared to climbing a rope ladder.

Ohh..and look how beautiful the full moon looks like ?? Too bad the camera couldn't really capture the light. Try to see into nature's wonder a little bit more appreciative, and it will definitely freshen your mind.

Rainbow in the sky

This is the first time I actually see a rainbow in KL sky, on my way back from the office to my condo, in an LRT Putra line, all the way from KLCC to Setia Wangsa station. Haven't I seen a rainbow before ?? Of course I have, but I couldn't remember when was the last time. Was that because it was too long for me to remember or was it because I just never seem to appreciate when it appeared, until this evening.

Yep, until this evening, after what seems to be a daily afternoon rain, on my first ride in an LRT. And yes again, it was my first time to use LRT to go back from the office, and it will be my first time to go to my office tomorrow.
So how do I go normally ?? For the last few weeks since I moved to my new condo, my husband always drives me back and forth to my office :) Unfortunately today and tomorrow, he's away to Kemaman, to settle down this packing and moving from my previous staff house in Kemaman.

Talking again about my relocation, finally a relocating company has been assigned by my company to do my movement. And again, I really wonder how they're going to move my heavy teak ward drobe up to my 18th floor condo. I don't think that thing can even enter the largest lift we have here. And imagine if they have to carry it all the way to the 18th floor....I don't even dare to imagine. Poor guys... But what to do...it's a waste just to leave it behind. It's made of teak wood!! Well..no wonder it's so heavy.. :p (just stating the fact for the poor guys who will carry it all the way up).

OK, somehow the topic has changed from rainbow back again to my relocating process....but anyway...hopefully it will be done soon, so I can finally re arrange everything in my new condo. And finally...eat a homemade food again!!! Horeee...