Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Even boulders get reduced to pebbles, so it isn't with much surprise that I would one day wean off the prosaic suppers and mahjong and move on to the more costly and exotic end of personal amusement.Yes folks, I finally went for my diving trip!
As all recounts should, this one starts from the boring beginning. Not wanting to put you folks to sleep however, I'll just summarise the ever quintessential but insipid bits.
It was, right from the start, an unofficial trip that was again loosely organised by colleagues at work who were already into this skin wetting hobby. The first which I've been asked along but had given a miss due to my ex being intolerable to seawater, sand and all that kinda shite.
After regaining autonomic run of my life, all that freedom made my my balls swelled a little(Not clinically of course!) at the expense of my brains. So without so much as a second thought after the first which was "Screw longevity!", I signed up.
2 lobotomising theory lessons, a 6 hour too long pratical lessons that made me drank alot of pool water, and a test that made degrees seem like a walk in the park, I finally boarded the bus on a Friday night on Honkong Street.
Everyone doing some last minute preparation before setting off.
My fellow batch boys. We were even in the same platoon in the same company during BMT! Talk about close eh?
Penalty kick!
Part of the gang! Aren't they high?
Qi Ming and Kah Hwee obliging my request for a shot.
Me and Ah Long before we bitched about tons of things we couldn't change in life. Oh I was bitching and he was, well, listening/sleeping?
Together with many of the never seen before faces, our bus puffed smoke and drag its metalic behind into the night inching forward towards my exciting weekend getaway!
The lights dimmed and brighten every now and then, rousing me from that limbo between drooling asleep and drooling awake, often bowled over by the abrupt change in scenery. It wasn't until 2 past midnight that the lights brighten for the last time on the bus and I was ushered sandy eye down from it and onto a ferry 20 minutes later.
First stop to top up on cigs and assorted tibits. In ringgit! Do we feel we're 2.38 times richer or what?.
Still bubbling with excitement!
Half past dead.
I yawned till my jaws ached.
My sentiments were shared.
Up and down the boat bobbed, with some of us on the roof chatting away the better half of the night with a total stranger. It was long indeed before cooling sea breeze and the soothing sound waves lapping against the hull send us off to to sleep.
Taken by Timothy, the total stranger who's from SMU. Guo An get your fingers away from my face! ARGH!
Sleep depravation unfortunately cuts his IQ by 1/2.
Let's put it this way for this guy over here. 1/2 of zero is.. well.. still zero! Did I get the math right?
For two thirds of an hour before we were once again prematurely awakened and sent off stumbling into the night towards our lodging at Tioman.
You can't see or you can't read? Illiteracy is something you shouldn't be ashamed of.
The sun barely scorch the land when we woke up and head off for the first dive. Weariness hung heavily on our bones and drained all that enthusiasm from before right outta us.
A small view of the settlement in daytime.
Those beds nearly seduced me back to sleep! Arrest them officer!
Our semi-de-shack.
I huff, and I puff, and I...
...blew the shell off!
Qi Ming tried to show us another way to remove the shell of a hardboiled egg but had unknowingly performed it on a 1/2 boiled one instead. Yuck!
Meat so fresh it walks on all fours.
A happy man who just finished an absurbly cheap chocolate icecream.
But no! I'm not gonna miss the fun I've paid so dearly for just to catch a few winks.
Standing tall(Figurative of course) and refusing to sleep!
Into the sea I jump with my tight ass suits and my assorted gears on. Thrill and excitement worked its magic on me and flushed all the tiredness I was feeling right out to sea!
The first dive was experience with awe as the main course served with a generous peppering of fear. Sinking like a leaking tub, in less than a minute I had 15 meters of water above my head and was floating around like a spaceman!
Checking if I've got my shite together.
Arh fuck it. Photo taking is much more important than personal safety!
Open water classmates.
Okay okay I'll be nice and take for the couple + the extra! Kidding of course!
After the divemaster assured himself that we're not gonna drown ourselves through the customary drills, we were well on our way to touring the bottom of the seabed!
Fwah! Villa on the rocks. Bloody cool eh?
Can't possibly pass by without a shot...
...or 2!
Anyway this is Ryger, our fun loving classmate whom I've hung around with all trip long.
After that first dose of diving, I was practically living for the next dive. In and out we went, spending all the time we could amongst the fishes and saw wonders that
words just can't do justice enough to.
Chuan was faking sea sickness and oogling at the bikini babe. (Joking of course.)
Caught red handed. Or red face-ded in this case.
The advance diving peeps standing around just hanging loose.
There is no respite from my camera! WUHAHAHAHA!
Curious sea urchins stared wide eye and waved its spikes at us menacingly, lazy looking sea turtles dug and ate corals, eel slithered past silently and baby sharks loomed just at the edge of our vision.
Surface beauty.
Pseudo artsy shot.
Fun usually does that to people inmerse in it and before we knew it, 2 days had torn past us and it was time to take that longing last look. In retrospect, it was probably one of the best trips ever, with so much wonder seen and felt and quite a few friends made.
A hilarious sight that I couldn't pass up. Of course I asked for her permission to take a shot at it but that left her laughing and grumbling all the way home.
Who could have asked for more? I know I could.
K.O.
FUNKED IT ALL UP ON 10:02:00 AM