Dive till i drop

.Mabul Island - Sipadan Water Village.

Finally, the day is here. I'll be off to KK tonight. And tomorrow i'll be soaking in the crystal clear waters of Mabul Island. Angel found out that we're staying at the cottage right next to the Dive Centre where you go off to do free shore dives, and she said "seems like we can just jump of our room and into the sea!" Muhuuhuu. I can just imagine falling asleep to the sound of the lapping waves and waking up to a panorama of water.

We've planned to do a minimum of 5 dives a day for 4 days and simply relax on our 5th and last day. I've yet to set foot there and i already feel a tinge of sadness thinking about leaving the island. Besides all the amazing underwater creatures we're going to see, we're hoping to bump into marine biologist, Alexander Mustard, who is now a full-time professional underwater photographer... who happened to be in Sipadan on a Marine Wildlife Group Trip during our period of stay but is based at Sipadan-Kapalai resort! Sigh..

Some of the creatures i want/have to see during this trip:
- Turtles, not just one but 20-30 of them at one single dive site
- Thousands of barracudas and jacks swirling, so i can get a tornado shot
- Fish porn at sunset, the beautiful mandarinfish mating.. the male is said to change partner every few seconds
- Blue-ringed octopus
- Pygmy seahorse!
- Crocodilefish
- All sorts of nudibranchs
- Napolean wrasse
- Bumphead Parrotfish at sunrise
- Hammerhead shark, if we really get lucky
- Whaleshark, that the DM saw while he was snorkelling :/
- Seamoths
- Flambouyant cuttlefish
- Ghost pipefish

I'll definitely post some pictures up when i'm there! Toodles...

Btw, Caryn just saw 30 devil rays during her 1st dive at Layang-Layang, the home of hammerhead sharks, yesterday!

Nyonya Kueh in the middle of South China Sea

Day: Friday, 25 May 2007 - Day Dive
Crew: Myself, Caroline, Tuon, Caryn, Eric, Tat, Boon Hui, Linda, Sebastian, Simon, Joseph, Philip, Diana, Uwais, Cik Azli (Instructor) and Hj Kula (Captain)
Dive Site: CL (Cik Li) Wreck @ UBD Wreck, CL Reef
Viz: Very Poor ~2m to Good ~8m
Max Depth: 15m & 18m
Dive Time: 50m & 60m

.Scuba babes :P.

My morning started at 6am. On the way to Muara Port, Caryn, BH, Linda, Sebastian and I detoured to a house for yummy kolomee, lou-she-fan (fat noodles that look like rat's tail hence the name rat noodles), milo-ping kao kao kosong!! Bless Brunei's home-operated restaurants.

Viz towards the bottom of CL Wreck was kinda crap. I cant see beyond 3 feet of me, and a few times i swam straight towards my buddy's fin and WHACK! 15 divers finning away, it was raining silt and planktons, how refreshing is that.

.Hermit crab with claws that can punch your lights out.

There were a couple of 1st for me during this dive. Caryn pointed out a big painted frogfish that's black in colour. Didnt manage to get a good shot with all the silt around. Next up is a stonefish! I've read so much about it but never got to see one until today. It's one mean-ass looking fish, and it's just as venomous as it looks. Infact, it's the most venomous fish in the underwater world. It has spines in its dorsal fins that injects a highly toxic venom causing intense pain and sometimes death. They're much harder to spot than the common scorpionfish because they're almost always perfectly camouflaged as an encrusted rock or a lump of coral. That's exactly why we have to watch where we put our hands and feet. One way to differentiate between the scorpionfish and the stonefish is the position of their mouth. The scorpionfish has a U-shaped mouth whereas the stonefish's mouth is an inverted U.

.McNasty.


.Wire coral shrimp, can you spot it?.

The highlight of this dive trip has absolutely zilch to do with what i saw but what i ATE! I was appalled at the amount and variety of food we each brought. Philip brought lou-she-fan, kolomee, ham chim peng (fried dough) and muah chee (stuffed rice dough) all the way from Seria! Tuon brought a whole box of fried noodle, i bought nasi lemak from Kg.Mata-mata, Diana brought orange-flavoured cake and Caroline, oh caroline made chicken sandwich and the best nyonya kueh in town! from Terrace Hotel, ofcourse :P mMMm..We had a feast!

.Must have special ingredient - chili sauce.

None of us has been to the site for our 2nd dive so it was kinda exciting. We were given two options; swim west towards the reef for corals, nudibranchs and other macros or swim east to the sandy patch for gobies and rays. We descended to a sandy patch, positioned our compass and swam westwards. In less than 2 minutes, we saw scattered corals showing signs of a reef ahead. The formation of a reef slowly comes into view, sloping upwards.. vastly populated with corals glowingly vibrantly under the warm rays of the sun. The corals were healthy and stunning.

.CL Reef.

.Bubble coral shrimp. These bubble corals seriously look like grapes.


.Hup hup hup, hinge-beak shrimps.


.A pregnant shrimp!!.


.Nudis.

We finally got back to land close to 5pm, it has been a long and tiring day. Most importantly, we had so much fun. *Burpppp*

Pissy mood

Today is such a friggin' bad day.

• Been waiting for my gears to arrive from HK. And my BCD finally did but without the rest of my orders, dry bag, gloves, mask cover.
• Went to my orthodontist hoping he will remove my top braces, but got myself more rubbers in my mouth.
  
• I cant stop eating.
• My teeth's aching, i cant wait to get home, then i hear this on the radio:
  

M: "What do you think you're good at?"
J: "What do i think i'm good at?"
M: "Yea, what are you good at?"
J: "What am i good at?"
M: ".... there's a cat with wings"
J: "cat with wings..."
M: "... stg stg interesting night"
J: "mm interesting night"

J, you give me road rage! I think it's the time of the month.

Some of us could use a good laugh.

If only that's what it takes to amuse me.

HIV/AIDS Walk for Life Walkathon

Source: Maurina's blog

Organised by the : Brunei Darussalam Aids Council

Location : Padang Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien

Date & Time: Sunday, 27th May 2007 at 6.30 am

If you have any questions, please call or sms 8612244.

Liyana Imani Abdul Latif

Honorary Secretary

Chairperson, Walk for Life

Brunei Darussalam Aids Council

The freaks come out at night

Day: Monday, 21 May 2007 - Sunset Dive
Crew: Myself, Caroline, Toon, Steven, Eng (Instructor) and Hassan (Boatman)
Dive Site: Mel's Reef
Viz: V.Good ~20m
Max Depth: 10m
Dive Time: 50m

.What image stabiliser?.

It was a matter of risking it or not. Weather forecast reads thunderstorms, thick dark clouds outside my office window, looks like rain.. i actually thought i could skip this dive. But Eng called and said "The sea condition is very good, and visibility is fantastic". The fishermen gave the good-to-go. So should we really risk it? Ironic but the honest truth - I trust fishermen more than the weather forecast when it comes to sea condition. They are the lords of the sea.

I rushed like a mad woman to get batteries for my torch, rush home to change and grab my gears, rush to STI, rush to change into my wetsuit and we took off at 5.30pm. It was already raining in Muara, and Tutong. huuuuu. What's amazing is there were less storm clouds over Mel's Reef and we were only allowed to do 1 dive.

.When we submerged into the blue world.

Diving during sunset is one of the, if not, most surreal experience. You take a look at the setting sun before you dive in. It's calling it a day. It dazzles you as it glints off the droplets on your mask. It's the time people on land calls it a day. You take the plunge into the manic rush hour of the underwater world.

When the sun sets, out comes the sex-crazed lunatics, featherstars start to crawl, sponge crabs start stomping around corals, and fish are no longer friends but food. During the day, sharp eyesights keeps most fish aware of looming danger, but as daylight fades away, it becomes harder to spot their predators. I'm so ready for all this action.

When we got our feet wet, Caroline saw a huge black ray with a white tail lurking beneath us.
Steven and I descended as quickly as we could without compromising our safety. Too bad, we were a few seconds too late, i know better now not to chase after a ray/shark/turtle.. you tend to breathe like a manic and exhaust your air twice as fast.

I turned on my torch, however a small amount of light still pierced through the surface overpowering my torch. We dived at a creeping pace to ensure we catch sight of them night critters should they come out to play. We saw various crabs and shrimps that are only active at night scuttling around sponges and corals preying for food. Among the prettier crabs is the porcelain anemone crab. They may be small but they're extremely photogenic, the only problem is you have to find them! Usually, if you look hard enough, you can find them hiding among its host anemone but when disturbed it'll retreat under the anemone.

I was so engrossed in shooting the porcelain crab that when i lift up my head i realised everything is a tinge of black. Mr.Sun has punched out. My vision of this entire reef is limited to the circle of my torch. Occassionally, i will scan my surroundings just incase a great barracuda or reef shark decides to sneak up on me. Haha, i'm j/k, looking out for missy toitle ok.

.Panda anemonefish sound asleep. Baby orange anemonefish.


.Who's the rosiest of them all.

Then these sea animals disguised as plants that you normally see during the day spring to life with their tentacles outstretched feeding on various microscopic organisms. The featherstar starts creeping like a spider across boulders. It gives me goosebumps.

Right: Brittle sea star, look at those needles.

.Baby cuttlefish!.

Eng grabbed my arm and signalled to ascend. Boohuuu... how it is possible that we've been under for over 50 minutes. Now, safety stop at night is much more entertaining. You can cover your torch and a wave of your hand in the dark starts a brief but beautiful fluorescent show displayed by light-emitting planktons.

.When we emerged out of the blue world.

And you surfaced to the welcoming moonlight and sparkling diamonds in the sky. Sunset and night dives can be utterly romantic.

Diving might never have a unanimous appeal. Seeing marine life and getting out of the daily hustle and bustle is just one of the many reasons that tempt us underwater but for some it just isnt their thing.

Thought i could smell satay on our way back to shore. MMmmm.

Carried away

Day: Sunday, 20 May 2007 - Day Dive
Crew: Myself, Angel, Ams, Steven, Simon, Sebastian, Peter, Natalie, John, Alfred, Phil, Eng (Instructor) and Hassan (Boatman)
Dive Site: Oil Rig Wreck and Oil Rig Reef
Viz: V.Good ~15 to Poor ~3m
Max Depth: 10~20m
Dive Time: 64m & 40m

.Ams' such a poser.

After multiple trips to Mel's Reef, i persuaded Eng to take us to the Oil Rig Reef for a change. Onboard with us were 2 guys from labuan whom i believed were brothers cos they look so much alike but one later referred to the other one as a friend, and a few BSAC divers. Everyone ooohed and wowed at the calm sea and clear skies. On the way out, Angel and I were talking about our upcoming trip to Sipadan with one of the guest from Labuan. He's hilarious. He said "One thing about Sipadan is, they say you'll get annoyed with the turtles! They're everywhere.. You'd be like 'CHAO laaa, (shoo!) you're in the way". Muhuuhuuu. And here we are, in Brunei, sleepless after an encounter with a turtle.

Viz is really good, as usual it got everyone hyped up... scrambling to gear up and wanting to be the 1st in the water. Angel, Steven and I took the plunge and deflated into the marine world. The corals in this dropoff zone were sparsely populated and it's shocking to find quite a number of dead corals covered in algae. Marine life is not as lively as Mel's Reef, but they do have a large variety of parrotfish; blue-green, pink-black, aqua-purple.

.Baby lionfish.

.Magnificent Chromodoris.

.Whatchu looking at?. (Phillidiella Pustolosa)

Eng reckoned we should go to Abana Rocks, an island near Kuraman Island, a few kilometres away from oil rig reef for our 2nd dive. We were all up for it until Hassan told us he doesnt have the coordinates for that site. So oil rig wreck it is.

.Oil Rig Wreck taken last year.

This rig now act as a man-made reef and is home to a great variety of fish. The pylons are entirely wrapped with featherstars, soft corals, grogonian fans, sponges. The triangular oil rig jackets are about 15 metres long. Every next metre we descend, visibility gets poorer. We hit the sandy bottom at 20m. Then something red and round caught my eye.

A flatworm, wiggling inch by inch.
.Ringed pipefish.

The next thing i know is tank banging left and right, Angel spotted a lilac coloured nudi. And it's friggin fat. Before i got a satisfied shot, she nudged me to go to another spot. I kinda hesitated. Then she pointed "2", ooooh 2 nudis?? Two friggin fat nudis, Steven pointed out another big fat white nudi with orange spots. Gawd, i can only take so much surprises at one time. There were so many of them. At one point i almost went berserk deciding which one do i fancy most given our limited bottom time.

.Red-Papulose Gymnodoris. Can you see that it ate something big?

.Risbecia Tryoni.

Angel nudged me again, and pointed up.. and i thought she wanted to show me another nudi! So i signalled wait and continue shooting. Infact, she wanted me to ascend higher so we can dive longer. Next thing you know she pointed to her watch and i heard it beep. Uh-oh. We have exceeded our bottom time and had to do a 10-minute safety stop. :/

Wedding bells

Last Saturday, i drove from home to dome to dave's house. At both destination, we celebrated the love of two couples.

.Diana and Gavin. They were highschool sweethearts. That afternoon, we dug out old pictures of them, and found a picture of the day they first met. They were both leaning on the side of a car, close enough so their shoulders touched, Diana hunched her shoulders a lil' bit, had that cheeky smile thinking 'ooohh, he's so hot', and Gavin with the middle-parted hair (Diana calls it WINGS) trying to look as cool as he possibly can thinking 'what a babe, i'm gonna make her mine'.

.This is my intepretation of the picture. It could well be 'Ew, this is the worst punishment ever, taking a picture with HIM.' 'Wonder how my hair looks'.

Whatever was going through their minds that day, i bet they never thought they'd end up loving each other this long and ever after.

The first question we naturally ask when someone tells you they're engaged is - how did he propose?? If you wanna know, you should ask Diana! Dont think she minds telling it for the 100th time. haha. Peepers, it involved pissing her off in the beginning, rose petals leading a cake, her thinking she has to eat the whole cake to find the ring, a white rose, a diamond ring in the white rose and "Diana, will you marry me?"

.Ryan and Christine. They met during Xmas Eve 2005 at Terrace Hotel through a mutual friend. She got pissed drunk that night and he took care of her. They hung out. He told her about this book he's reading "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". She went back to Singapore, bought the book and read it. Phone calls later, he realised what she did and was surprised at how genuine this woman is. She thought he's the most sensitive and caring guy she's ever met.

One year from the day they met, they decide to celebrate Xmas Eve 2006 with Christine's staff in Dome and close friends. At the strike of twelve, he read out to her an absolutely touching message, about how she changed his life and his wish to spend forever with her. There were tears. He serenaded her Teresa Teng's famous "Yue liang tai piao wo de xing" (The moon represents my heart). And she said "YES!"

(Loose translation from the web)
You ask how deeply I love you,
and just how great my love is.
My affection is real,
and my love is true.
The moon represents my heart.

You ask how deeply I love you,
and just how great my love is.
My affection does not waver
and my love doesn't change.
The moon represents my heart.

So soft was the kiss
that has moved my heart.
Such a deep affection
makes me long for you now.

You ask how deeply I love you,
and just how great my love is.
Consider this,
and look above.
The moon represents my heart.

Christine and Ryan registered their marriage on Saturday, 19th May 2007.

Wedding bells

.Diana and Gavin. .Ryan and Christine.

Last Saturday, i drove from home to Dome to Dave's house. At both destination, we celebrated the love of two couples. Diana and Gavin were highschool sweethearts. That afternoon we dug out old pictures of them, pictures of the day they first met! They were both leaning on the side of a car, close enough so their shoulders touch, Diana hunch her arms together.. with the shy cheeky smile thinking 'ooooh, he's so hawt and i'm taking a picture with him', Gavin, with the middle parting hair (Diana calls them wings) trying to look as cool as he possibly can thinking 'girl, you just made my day'.
.This is my intepretation of the picture, it could well be 'eww, cant believe they made me take a picture with HIM.' '

Garden of Eden

.Blog of the week. I thought i could share my diving experience in one of Brunei's most gorgeous wrecks. The Bolkiah Wreck. If i'm not wrong, it is a fishing trawler.. not to be mistaken for this sunken junk. This wreck is relatively small when compared to Cement Wreck yet there is nothing small about its beauty. One night last year, it took my breath away.

.Bolkiah Wreck.

Day: Thursday, 24 August 2006 - Night Dive
Crew: Myself, Tracey, Reza, Annie, Tat, Boon Hui, Angel and Simon (Boatman)
Dive Site: Bolkiah Wreck
Viz: Good ~10
Max Depth: ~22m
Dive Time: 40m & 40m

This is my first night dive at Bolkiah Wreck, and true to Cik Azli's words, this wreck is beautiful. It is an underwater garden of eden. It looked like someone has put in a tremendous amount of effort in masking the brown rusted ship; draping it with soft corals in colours you can only imagine, giving it life that danced through the night.. these kind of intimate detailed grooming..only mother nature can provide.

Upon arrival, DMT b{itc}h was given the task to dive in and make sure the wreck was infact below us. It wasnt an easy task given the sun was setting fast, within a couple of minutes a ray of light shone from below - signalling OK - the b{itc}h saw the wreck. Great job! So we began our giant strides to bolkiah wreck. Since we were told of giant grouper sightings here, we were mentally prepared to bump into one. I'm not going to lie, i was honestly freaked out when we first dived in, imagine looking at your depth gauge - seeing the needle drop from 14 to 16m and it's pitch black nothingness around you, 16 - 18m, still nothing?!?!, then suddenly *WHAM* your light beams a HUGE white and black striped something.. a few spastic inhales later, you realised it's a batfish. 18-20m sediment starts to fill your surroundings, 20-22m sand..you look up to check and you see a gigantic silhoutte right infront of you and there it is, the beautiful bolkiah wreck.

We were greeted by a lionfish hovering above the sandbed. It's rather hard to get a good shot of them because every friggin time you focus and just about to shoot, they turn their back against you. Camera-shy or plain proud, you tell me. This wreck is populated by scorpionfish, cleverly camouflaged..they're everywhere you turn, so becareful.

.Lonesome tonight.

I saw something that made me giggle, sending bubbles out by the zillions.. a baby pufferfish, hang on.. not 'a' but there're baby pufferfish everywhere feeding on soft corals. Cute is the right description for them; ugly but damningly adorable.

.I know i know. I'm irresistable. (eraser-size baby pufferfish)

We also saw a hornnosed boxfish for the first time, black saddled toby pufferfish, narrowlined puffer, tons of miniscule pink cowries, hingebeak shrimps, cleaning stations, thieving crabs that do not hesitate to 'plug and dress' - dressing themselves with coral polyps to match their surroundings.

.Black saddled toby pufferfish.

.You are my sunshine.

.Wanna play dress up?. Stuffing itself silly.


.View from the top. A pink cowrie, half the size of a 1 cent coin.

Bolkiah Wreck is undeniably stunning at night - corals are so vibrant that you want them for your own backyard. However, for the keen seeker, there's not much to find on deck.. what you see during the day is almost always what you get at night, though it does not offer the same thrill as reefs exploration, it has historical hues of its own. I would recommend wreck dives at night if you wish to see a picturesque wreck, a view only torches can bring to life under intense darkness.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the giant grouper did not show itself which gives us another excuse to revisit this wreck.

.Reminds me of 'electrifying soon' @ Sebastian.
_________________________________

Sometime this year, i have to go check on them baby puffers. : )

Marcel Proust quoted: “The true voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes".