Going Down Under

October 20th-24th



One of the top three activities on my list to do in Malaysia was to get my next diving course under my belt. Having not dived since December in Okinawa, I knew I was a bit rusty and so I searched around to find where the best place to dive would be. Pulau Spibadan, though beautiful and well-renowned for world-class diving, was alas too expensive for me. But, Pulau Tioman was both accessible and affordable, and it was a beautiful place to be as well! Years ago it was one of the sites used to film South Pacific.

To get to Pulau Tioman, one has to take either the ferry or the speedboat. It being towards the end of the tourist season (the monsoons will roar in as early as next week), my only option in the afternoon was the last speed boat of the day.

Due to choppy waves, it took us maybe 15 minutes to get a mere 500 meters away from shore. The driver must have heard my cynical remark that this wasn't very speedy at all because off we went zooming across the water like a bat out of hell. Usually, I'm pretty good with boats, but when a small light boat is barreling across choppy water, surging into the air and landing with a stomach-churning thump, all for about an hour or so, I must say that it wasn't very pleasant at all. (Note, only the foreigners were ignorant enough to sit at the front of the boat where the crash landings rattled the most.)

I arrived in Salang late into the evening. Salang is at the northernmost area of the island, and though lightly developed and sparsely populated, it was a perfect choice for my diving trip.

My instructor for the Advanced Open Water Course was Jay. Jay was a beachboy.



Anyhoo, the course was for five dives. Deep diving and underwater navigation were compulsory. They were pretty straight forward, and the deep diving trip brought us to Fan Canyon which had an amazing array of fish and plantlife. I saw a stingray, a couple of scorpion fish, and fish of all shapes and colors. The three other dives were Peak Performance Bouyancy (my first of the five dives, so I was quite nervous. . . my mask also fogged up to the point of frustration), Fish Identification (saw dozens of families of fish, but was only able to identify maybe a handful), and Driver Propulsion Vehicle (imagine Bond's enemies underwater giving chase, with Thomas desperately trying not to crash into the reef!)

By the end of the three diving days, I felt much more confident and much more eager to continue diving. Diving through the underwater world is truly an amazing experience.

My last night on the island I was blessed with a brilliant sunset.



Even better, the generators failed that night, so I gazed upon the starry heavens for hours. A wonderful finale to a highly enjoyable trip.