Category: Diving

I have decided to make my way back to Perhentian. I’ll be going with Deepblu and Dennis. Since we’ll depart on Friday 4th May, it would be 6 weeks after I left Perhentian with Dive Buddy.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to miss her terribly when I’m there.

It’s been more than 24 hours since the best dive trip to Perhentian’s come to an end. Gee, me, and Nazir are now pining for salt water to breathe in. I still don’t feel normal. And my two underwater jobs have been postponed until the end of April…shucks!

Gee wants me to plan another trip somewhere. Now let’s see….

More pics here

It rained the whole day today. It started off with heavy rain last night followed by a storm this morning. It’s almost 7pm and it hasn’t stopped raining. The good thing about Perhentian, that is unlike KL, is that it will never get flooded. Ha! Ha!

We didn’t do any night dive last night..we were tired. Someone cooked dinner so I had a nice dinner. Fried salted fish with sauteed onions, budu ikan bilis, sambal petai goreng, with white rice and keropok.

After dinner we walked along the beach (after watching the Spurs vs Chelsea game…I still don’t know who won; never paid attention), then sat down and chatted about life’s ups and downs until 2am. That was when it started to rain.

Today, we only did one dive in heavy swells. It was a deep dive with an Advanced Open Water student from Thailand. The dive went well, spent 20 minutes at 28.8 meters before we did a slow ascent, and I deployed my SMB from 18m, just so the boatman could see us and prepare long before we surface. No dive traffic after that from anywhere as waves were big, but I spent time swimming at sea while the other person watched me from the topside.

Lunch was good. They prepared for us nasi daging merah with fried vegetables as complements, and for tea we were given cucur bawang with hot tea. Tonight will be another session of chat on life’s ups and downs. Oh, dinner is being prepared by a local…we’re having nasi air (local Kelantanese congee..or Khao Tom as it is called in where I come from..ahaks!).

Tomorrow, we’ll be busy again.

Yes, I am enjoying myself here. Perhentian is heaven for me..perfect. Lipe was almost like this. But Perhentian fits the bill. Everything moves in slow motion, laid back, relaxed, and beautiful.

My only problem is: I miss the kids.

Thanks to satellite broadband and not some black box conjured up by some cheats and liars in some company in PJ, I am able to log on to my blog from this magnificent island.

I drove up with my sis, Gee, and friend Sam Soul, arriving in Kuala Terengganu around 5am to pick up three others: Ina, Nafi and Shah.

We arrived at Kuala Besut at 7am and had a good nasi dagang breakfast before boarding the 8am boat to Perhentian. We missed the first dive at 9am with Nazir who had been here since Saturday, but got our own boat to dive Tokong Laut. Viz was around 5m, which is still good for me, and I enjoyed that dive, although I was always on alert for Titan Triggerfishes (yes, it’s their nesting season).

Second dive was at Batu Layar, which was an okay site, but was too tired to do a third dive. I fell asleep at the dinner table.

Today, the viz was a lot better. Took lots of photos (yes, I did not do video this trip) of nudibranches at Terumbu Tiga. We did another dive after that at the Sugar Wreck. Lots of penetration. Huge Chevron Barracudas, Pipefish, Leatherjackets, Yellow-Margined Triggerfish and so on.

Sam Soul, Shah and Nazir have gone back to KL. So only the four of us left.

I’ll be going back to KL on Friday afternoon, but have to leave for an underwater job near Tenggol on Saturday evening.

What a hectic life…ahaks!

I’ll be going there this Sunday evening (18th March 2007) through Friday afternoon (23rd March 2007), so watch this space.

Finally it happened. I drove the Naza Ria, picked up Derrick at the Bandar Tasik Selatan KTM Komuter station, Azlan at the Flamingo Hotel and made our way onto the Karak Highway, and then through the towns of Bentong, Raub, Benta, Kuala Lipis, Merapoh and finally a pitstop at Gua Musang. Traffic was rather heavy as it was the beginning of the school holidays.

At 3.30am we departed Gua Musang for Tanah Merah to pick up Yoon Ming and finally arrived Kuala Besut at 7.15am. Had breakfast and then got on the 8.00am boat to the Perhentians. We arrived at around 8.45am and was sked by Birgit if we would like to join the 9.00am trip to Tokong Laut. Without checking into our room, we unpacked our dive gear and next we were enroute to Tokong Laut.

I felt a bit tired, my eyes were tired and the additional salt water made it very uncomfortable. Second dive was at Terumbu Tiga where Derrick and I bumped into a Napoleon Wrasse and also an Olive Ridley turtle. I slept underwater as the surge rocked me gently. After the dive, we had lunch and slept.

Got up just before sunset, took some photos. Then geared up fpr a night dive at Batu Nisan. My Princeton Tec Shockwave LED light worked superbly. After the dive, we had dinner, and Yoon Ming, Derrick and I had a chat until 3.30am.

Morning’s dive was at the Sugar Wreck…second best vis I’ve ever had there. Current was strong though. Did some penetration. The last dive was at D’ Lagoon.

As usual, a dive trip to Perhentian is always best.

More pictures can be seen here

Tonight, I’ll be on my way to the Perhentians with Derrick and Azlan. I’ll be picking Mocha up at Tanah Merah, and we will be met by Izwar in Perhentian itself.

Cool.

I am organising a trip to Perhentian..departing KL on the 29th March 2007, prices starting from RM480.00 for a 3D/2N full-board, plus 5 boat day-dives using own equipment.

I hope to go to Perhentian with the family before that, which means that I shall be off diving three weeks in a row.

It’s one boring weekend. I went out last night to meet up with someone..that was from 8pm through 10.30pm, then I took the kids to their maternal grandma’s house. I slept quite late last night, and woke up quite early this morning. Went to the Cheras DBKL pool with the kids, they swam, I dived.

I didn’t dive for long…half an hour the most. That bunch of floating hair you see up there is one of the reasons.

I really need to spend a few days on an island doing nothing but dive, eat, dive, sleep, dive, dive dive…