Dive Sipadan with SWV II

18th-22nd Oct 2013
Second dive trip with SWV. To date, my 7th Dive Trip.

This time, just 3 of us. Learning from last year's experience, we basically went a day earlier, left LCCT slightly later in the day and stayed in Tawau for 1 night. Was great as we get to eat so much, seafood (I think we freaked out the waiters). It was a lot less tiring since we get to rest early.

Because we were already in Tawau, we arranged to leave for Semporna earlier. Coincidentally out hotel - Heritage Hotel is just opposite SWV office. That also meant that we can get on the island earlier for our check out dive.

My only disappointment was on my flight to Tawau, I realized that my gopro casing had cracks on it. Didn't managed to get a replacement in time as it was the weekend and I'm not in KL where FedEx could delivery within the next day.

At our check out dive at Paradise 2, we saw 4 humongous green turtles! They are residents but somehow we didn't see them the year before.

The following days, we saw with School of Razor Fish, Mantis Shrimp, Purple Coby, Large Tuna, Giant Trevally, Leopard Snake, White Leaf Fish, Pygmy Seahorse, Jaw Fish, Harlequin Shrimp, Transparent Shrimp, Mandarin Fish and a Pair of Frog Fish on water surface. Some which we didn't see the year before.


Our dive masters have been great company. Thoroughly enjoyed diving with them - Felix, Andyrian, Ramil and Fauzy.

So my dive computer backlight didn't work, camera case broke before I even arrive, torch battery died just when I needed to use and plane back delayed for more than 2.5 hours. Sound as if many things didn't work for me...

But actually, everything else were just perfect. Met old and new friends. Saw almost everything we wanted to and had a great time chilling. Truly thankful for this trip. Definitely one of the most memorable trip ever.

Can't wait for my next dive trip.

Dive Perhentian!

21st-23rd Sep 2012
My 6th Dive Trip

Was a last minute decision to join Sam on this trip. I have been wanting to check out Perhentian Island. So I was right, the journey there was a long one but since we slept through the night, it was bearable. The trip cost us RM500 without boat transfer and food. Together with the chartered bus, it cost us more than expected. Accommodation at Bubu Long Beach was quite decent with twin sharing, air-cond and water heater. Strangely, the organisers never shared the bills/receipt of the trip.

Diving was ok. Visiblity was average and the sites we went weren't too spectacular. The journey back was quite torturing. Felt that my whole Sunday was totally wasted. We started our journey after breakfast. I envy 2 of our divers who were from Singapore cause they took a flight back. They got home by 12pm. We got home at 12am!

After the trip, I realized there was an interesting Vietnamese wreck nearby (darn!). Moral of the story, always do your own research of a trip.

Dive Sipadan with SWV!

19th-23rd July 2012
Dive Mabul, Kapalai, Sipadan! My 5th Dive Trip
It is a 15 months of planning (and savings) for this trip to be possible.

Had been looking forward for this for so long. The ultimate dive site of Malaysia. We stayed on Sipadan Water Village on Mabul Island for this 5D4N trip.
It all started in the wee hour of the morning for the 7am flight. Here's how the journey to SWV is like for us.
50min taxi ride from PJ to LCCT
2 hours and 50mins flight from LCCT to Tawau
2 hours van ride from Tawau airport to Semporna Jetty.
1 hour boat ride from Semporna Jetty to SWV.

*whew* Glad SWV arranged decent transport for us. It was a real long journey. After our briefing and lunch, we checked into our rooms and got ready for our check out dive. Honestly, the traveling very much exhausted most of us but seriously, the sight of the place makes it so worth it. The water was so inviting!

It was a great dive experience with Dive Masters - Fauzy, Ramily and Niger. Saw so many firsts - Giant Mantis Prawn, Lion Fish, Sweet Lips, Ghost Pipe Fish, Cuttle Fish, Giant Frog Fish, Clown Trigger Fish (Robocop), School of Barracuda, Grey Shark, White Tip Shark, Black Tip Shark, Nurse Shark, School of Jack Fish, Red Fire Goby, Gigantic Grouper, Large Parrot Bumphead, Giant Moray Eel, Baby Spotted Sweet Lips and Mandarin Fish.

Probably the only thing that was disappointing was that we had to abandon Barracuda Point for our dawn dive.
The old film underwater cam (SeaLife Reefmaster RC SL515) wasn't great but at least I had some photos underwater.

One thing for sure, I'll be back!

Padang Dive & Surf Trip

15th - 18th December 2011

Never planned for 3 dive trips a year. But this was a great deal. Buy 3 FOC 1. And this is in a foreign country (ok, it's just an hour flight, something like flying to Penang). Sounded cool so we signed up. Never expected to dive international water so soon!

It was a pretty early flight for all of us - Tee Hui, Sam, Scott, Soo and myself. Arrived in Padang and it was raining! Was a little concern of the visibility. We met Bob, our friendly guide for our trip. He owns and runs Star Ocean Scuba & Surf with his "boss" wife Dewi.

We checked in to Nature's Inn early and unpacked! Ready to dive! We were welcome by Brown and Goldie! Brown was afraid of us till the day we left. But Goldie was just big and playful. The bunk beds were probably the most comfortable I ever had on a dive trip so far (I'm the budget kind).

First thing first… FOOD! OMG, so much to try and everything just looked delicious.

 It was about an hour boat ride to the nearest dive site. This place is rather new for divers. As far as I could see, we were the only divers around. So Bob had the liberty to name the site himself. The water was pretty choppy… OK, worse than I thought. A little puking made me feel better. But once in the water, I feel better than ever. Visibility was great and every site was beautiful, untouched - quite different from Malaysia. The only thing that looked the same was the moray eel. Most of the sites we went were wall dives. My highlight for the trip was probably the coral fans and sighting the nurse shark… 2 meter long and 2 of them together. Think they were residents there. Pretty much ignored us until the cameras came. Yea, and I didn't have a camera.Got the photo below from Soo. Our packed lunch was delicious too, but my seasick was just untimely.

The food was just excellent. Bob took us to different places and have to say, the winning dish MUST be Satay Babi. Best pork satay I every had. And the cucumber pickel was perfect. The Ikan Bakar was excellent too. For drinks, the must try are Alpokat (Avacado juice with chocolate) and Terung Pirus (some kind of pink fruit) Can you see how thick the juice was? No water added!

We extended our stay to go on a day trip to the catch a view of the active volcanic mountain. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy. But we did visited some tourist area in Bukit Tinggi like Japanese Tunnel and the Zoo (?).

Our last activity day was our discover surfing session. With only 1 layer of sun block, we braved the waves and sun for more than 3 hours. Didn't feel a thing. We surf and surf and try to stand on the surf board as long as we can. We didn't want to stop! But stomach was getting a little hungry. When we returned to rest, I was shocked when I looked into the mirror. I have never seen myself so burned in my entire life. It was BAD. And the silly thing was we forgot to put sun block behind our legs. All of us were burned terribly and sitting down was a challenge (for a good few weeks as our skin started to peel). Another silly thing was we booked massage that night. It was supposed to be relaxing but with all the burns, it was a painful one. Great memorable trip.

Must go Padang again! Thanks Bob and Dewi for your hospitality.

All the dated photographs were shot by Soo and Scott and occasionally Bob.

Tioman Island @ East Divers Tioman

8th - 11th July 2011

My 1st trip to Tioman Island. We started our journey pretty late with all of us coming from work and different directions. It seemed like a pretty long drive to Hotel Seri Malaysia. Lots of dark winding road towards our accommodation for the night. Soo, Sam, Theng Theng and myself was to meet Adam nearby our Seri Malaysia. It was then that we realized our car trunk was broken into during our dinner near my house. It was definitely heart breaking to find out 2 bags were taken. We went to 2 different police station and stayed up to 4am to make the reports.

Day 1
2 dives
The next morning, we went back to the station to collect the report and thank God we managed to get Sam's contact lenses. We took our ferry from Tanjung Gemuk. The ride wasn't the most enjoyable thing. It was 2 hours and the ferry was packed full. Plus, the ferry stopped at multiple jetty on the island! We reached Tekek Jetty and our "taxi" took us on a 5mins ride to East Divers Tioman. There, we met our divemaster for the next few days - Keat. Considering the amount of sleep we had, we managed 2 dives on the 1st day. Glad that the incident didn't spoil it all.

Photo by Sly & Soo

Day 2
3 dives + 1 night dive
I had my 1st photo with a green turtle! I also buddied with Chris, a swiss guy who usually dives in lakes. One of the things we didn't do during my 1st night dive was experiencing the glowing plankton. Glad we saw it this time.

Photo by Sly

Day 3
2 dives
We did the right thing to extend our trip by another day. It was just another 2 more dives but a lot more relaxing and less rush. We took the challenge at a more demanding, less visited site where the surface waves were stronger but the sight was just beeaaautiful.

Day 4
As usual, the packing and saying goodbye is hard. Don't know when is the next time I'll see the underwater world. We went for a predinner then dinner then suddenly something adventurous came to mind - supper Beef Bah Kut Teh in Malacca. The supposingly 30mins drive ended up more than 3 hours. :-p Yup, we were adventurous.

It was a great trip where we met new friends like Hendrix, Sly, Claris, May, Steve and Cindy. Tioman is a huge island. Probably many more sites to explore next time. :)

Dive Trip 2

15th – 18th April 2011
Advanced Certification!

Can’t believe it’s been almost 9 months since my 1st dive. I was very determined to do a second dive last year but I changed job and being so new in the role, there was never a suitable time to take leave.

This trip, I gathered people and ensure it was a slightly longer trip than last year. It’s Tenggol Island again but there is just so much to explore there! Together with my buddy Tee Hui, I got Sam, Mark, Karen and Sakti on this trip. We also met Douglas and Chee Wai who were doing their advanced certification with us.

We were delayed on our journey there so we reached pretty late at Mayang Sari, Dungun.

Photo by Soo

Day 1
2 Dives
When we reached the island, we were separated by leisure divers and those taking the advanced certification. And the comedy begins. Funny story 1: Douglas descended with his snorkel! Yea, guess he thought he didn’t need air until he started to drink some water. Funny story 2: Chee Wai fell asleep drinking milk! That was a classic sight, would have been a great photo to post but we didn’t manage to take in time.

Day 2
3 Dives + 1 Night Dive
Sam was suppose to perform out of air with any one of us and she chose Chee Wai under water. To everyone’s surprise, she tapped him on the shoulder and he took a slight look and swam away! Ever since that, he is dubbed the runaway-buddy. Apparently he didn't see anyone. Haha. Guess the only thing he saw were these beautiful "Christmas trees".

Photo by Soo

After a few dives I feel I have so much better control of movements underwater. Happiness. Diving with current was interesting. You practically get pushed pretty far even with minimum movement. When we did night dive, it wasn’t as scary as I thought. Torch lights very much lighted up the whole place. But we MUST have another funny story so... Chee Wai was out of air within a few minutes after descending. He showed his pressure level going up and down as he inhale and exhale. Of course with our instructor Soo’s expertise, he found Chee Wai’s tank not fully opened. During this dive, we saw a very rarely spotted flat worm! It’s beautiful!

Photo by Chee Wai

It was a tiring day! So we slept pretty early. Half way through the night, someone started speaking in teochew! I thought it was a one off and soon it became almost conversational. :-p I found my buddy sleep talking.

Day 3
3 Dives
It was our 1st deep dive to a ship wreck! Before I know it, Soo was pointing to my right and there was it, a ship wreck. It’s really cool as many type of fish just swims around it. Did any of us experienced nitrogen narcosis? Nope. We were even emotional and heart broken when Soo said we failed. As we ascend to do our safety stop, we took some photos. Chee Wai passed his camera to Soo and somehow he didn’t loop the holder on his hand. We watched as the camera floated up and Soo not realizing it told Chee Wai to stay when he attempt to swim up to get it. It was only after Soo tried to use his camera that he realised it was missing! Thank God we found the camera floating nearby.

On our 2nd dive, we were all a little down as we wanted to attempt another deep dive the next morning to pass our certification but Soo said there wasn’t sufficient time. He had to rub it in by telling us he has never failed so many candidates at one trip before. Sigh. We saw a lot of fish on this dive – huge batfish and angel fish and was chasing after them to take photos.

Before our 3rd dive, he finally broke the news. It was another one of his con joke and we ALL fell for it. Sigh, that’s our instructor. I get to launch the sausage for our safety stop. Haha. Yes I am excited about every little thing I learned.

That night, my buddy spoke in her sleep again, this time in English... and coincidently Chee Wai got up to use the washroom. I'm sure he was pretty shocked!

Day 4
Saying goodbye to the staff and Tenggol island is hard. On our boat ride back to mainland, we were stopped by marine police. How embarrassing! Most of us naughty folks were not wearing life jackets. We got away with a warning. :-p

My 1st Dive Trip - Tenggol Island

10th-13th June 2010

After all the difficulty of finding the best weekend for the trip, we finally went!

Teresa, Chen Way, Jia Yi, Tee Hui and myself were candidates for the OWD while, Michelle, Pinky and Alex were leisure divers. We met at MRR2 McD's before we began our journey to Dungun around 8.15pm. It was a pleasant drive with clear weather. By buddy was great at entertaining me throughout the drive. Just quite a bit of road kills remains on my car (don't worry, just insects). We arrived at Mayangsari Resort around 1am only to find the key card don't quite work for our room. I was going to destroy the key by using too much force. Thank God we had Way who somehow opened up the switch to make it work. The reception ppl won't be much of any help at that hour.

Together with Divemaster Nicole and our Instructor Soo, we left for Tenggol Island excited and just couldn't wait to jump into the waters. :) We stayed in the center resort - Tenggol Island Beach Resort. We were supposed to repeat most stuff that we have learned in confined water. Some were easier and some were more difficult to execute in sea water. We only did 2 dives but most of us were quite tired from it.

The resort's food was pretty good. Love the rendang and spicy chilly sauce. We even had desserts during tea time, barley and red bean!

We managed another 4 dives the next day. I didn't feel tired. Well, I'm usually very energize when I'm on a holiday. We saw so many corals and fishes. We were pretty lucky we get to see a turtle as well. I was told that visibility was a little poor so we can't see that much further but it is this condition that the whale shark loves to come out. One has been spotted. Somebody even managed to take a photo of it from the boat. They are very shy so they usually swim away pretty quickly when spotted.

I was attacked during my last dive. By a trigger fish. I remembered I thought I hit something quite hard with my fins. The 2nd time it felt like a pulled. But being blur me, I didn't see anything. Of course the next thing I saw was Soo, so I figured he was pulling my leg. It was only after we surfaced and confirmed by Nicole that I believe. :-p It would have been a terrible end for me since the trigger fish has teeth strong enough to crush corals. Apparently we passed it's nest and I was a little to near causing it to go crazy.

It was a fun group to dive with especially with our shark, I mean instructor. He's always trying to drown me on the surface, pull Tee Hui off the boat ladder and he absolutely love to hug Way. :-p Some of the girls called him Way's second wife! Haha. Think he observed Way is always so super sweet to Jia Yi :-p

Can't wait for my next trip. Yes, we are all certified :) but I need some extra practice.

New Adventure - Diving!

Always wanted to dive. I wanted to dive 12 years ago. I didn't even know how to swim then. In 2000, I decided to take swim course to fulfill this dream. This isn't the cheapest hobby around. Just couldn't afford diving then. Not like I'm currently earning much more than when I first started working but I figured if I waited any longer, it would remained a dream forever.

During my Sabah trip for Mount Kinabalu climb last year, I managed to squeeze in sometime and tried Discover Scuba at Sapi Island - sort of a trial for people who may be interested to take up Dive Course. It was a little terrifying then but very exciting too! After that trip last year, I want to make effort to try something different/new/adventurous or at least make a short trip annually. I think it would help keep me sane.

Finally signed up for the Open Water Diver Course with Global Scuba that Chen Way recommended. One of the main reason for signing up for with Global was that they provide unlimited pool sessions till the students are ready for the real thing. Oh, they had a promotion at the same time as well.

Tee Hui and I had our 1st lesson today at Selangor Polo Club today. We were there from 10am-7pm and in that duration complete all 5 modules of the pratical session for confined water. We are not that confident yet so will be going back for another round of practice plus another session for theory and test. After that, we will be all set for the island! Yipee!

Ending the holiday

We began our day a little later than usual. Hew Yen and Yuh Fun were too fit to feel any pain but Hew Chui, Fui Ping and myself were still feeling it. We checked out from Marina Court and left our luggage at Pacific Sutera Harbour. A 30mins speedboat ride brought us to Sapi Island - one of the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. It is the island where all the water activities take place. A few of us took this opportunity to try the discover dive thingy. It’s pretty cool actually. Well, the dive master, Christian had to drag me around but it was good exposure. Now I can seriously consider getting a real license. We got back to the hotel for a nice swim after that. We had a beautiful sunset that day. A consolation since there wasn't a real sunrise at Mt. K.

I managed to meet up one more time with Janet and Eric. We ate at this little restaurant in Beverly Hills. Qing Zhou Xiao Chai. They serve Taiwanese porridge. Quite nice actually. Tasted like home cooked. We ended the day with VedaBlu ice-creams.

On our last day, we went for a walk around the shopping complex. No one bought much of the souvenirs. It was before going to the airport that I spent a bomb on fishes. I had specific instruction from family to get them. :-p

After all that excitement and fun, the flight back was pretty sad. I was already missing my it, my 1st holiday. Can't imagine getting back to work. Well, it is my passport to my next adventure. Can't wait for my next holiday!