Things I Thought I'd Never Do... Diving!

I love water, when I feel safe. Shallow rivers, snorkeling with safety gear, in a boat or ferry or even canoe, and the beaches. You see, I can't swim. The moment I have to tiptoe in a swimming pool or sea bed, I'd start to panic. But, I've been convinced by my diving instructor that anyone can dive. I wish I could dive from long time ago but never give it a serious thought because I can't swim. Then hubby wanted to dive and SIL has a contact and the rest is history. I saw a video on how Western parents send their babies to classes on how to float in the water. Once the babies has been taught to float, whenever the babies found themselves in the water, sideways or face down, they'll turn their body up and float. The babies cried, but they can float. I'm sure its a good thing to know because we'll never know when disaster will strike. So I thought, if the babies could do it, so can I. Under whatever circumstances, stay calm and try to float on my back.

We went for our diving classes many months ago. Way before fasting month. We wanted to go for a refresher course in the swimming pool but synchronizing my time, hubby's time and SIL's time with our diving instructor's is a pain. In the end we decided to just do it in the open water. We went to Tioman for our first open water dive. We stayed in Tekek and our chalet is right by the beach. We can don our scuba gear and started diving. We have to swim about 200 meters to the buoy before we can dive actually. We can't really swim with our scuba gear and tank so everyone floats on their back and paddle to the buoy. It was tiring and I thought I'd never reach the buoy.

My first diving experience, we were struggling to stay submerged and not touch the sea urchin. They are everywhere. The dive spot was quite shallow, around 8 meters and later our instructor told us in shallow water, there's a pressure up so novice divers like us need more weight to stay submerged. I only wore three weights block. Then we return to our beach and rest for a while before a boat took us to Rengis. The sea was quite rough as the locals said there's a storm the night before and I got sea sick. So is another male diver. When we reached our diving spot, I immediately get into the water and just like that I don't feel dizzy anymore. The other male diver had it bad despite getting into the water later. He ended up not diving.

Rengis is a really small island with just trees on it near Berjaya Resort. This time the dive is more enjoyable. I wore more weights and as the water is deeper (10-15 meters), there's no problem of pressure up. We circled the small island underwater and the view is amazing. This time we wore our gloves so we're not afraid of sea urchins but there's not as many sea urchins here as compared to our first dive site. Hubby's further in front most of the time with our instructor so he got to see many things first like a turtle. SIL and I are at the back holding hands most of the time and behind us a more experienced fellow diver keeping watch. By the time SIL and I reached interesting places, the turtle or the fishes already ran away. Our assistant instructor has to bring a lady diver up. She later said she don't really feel good herself and her husband, the one with a bad seasick, was waiting on the boat. On our way back, once I got into the boat. I felt dizzy again.

Our chalet.
Amazing sunset after our first two dives.
That night, we were so hungry but it took a while before our meals arrive. Other people's fried rice looked so appetizing. But once our meals arrived, after a few bites, I feel like I just don't have the energy to eat anymore. If only I can abandon my group and go to sleep. I do not want to waste the food so I ate slowly and waited till everyone finished with their meals before hubby, SIL and I excuse ourselves. We went for a short walk, looking at the souvenirs and found a nice spot to eat ice cream. Hubby and SIL eat the ice cream. Since my health is more sensitive to what I eat and I do not want any problem diving the next day, I refrain myself from ice cream and cold drinks. Hubby and I slept like a log that night.

Our third diving spot was at Pirate Reef. The sea was calmer today so thank God for that. The deepest we dive is at 16.9 meters and that is about 50 feet. This time, I wore 6 weight blocks and that causes me difficulty to move. I kept going way down near the sea bed. Fortunately, after our assistant instructor helped adjust my weight, I managed to swim. I love this dive. We saw a big real life Nemo. So much better than the one I saw in Langkawi Aquarium. This time, everyone confidently dive on their own. Our fourth diving spot was at the Marine Park. This time I used less weight and we have to dive without the aid of a rope. The water was not as clear as our previous dive but we enjoyed it too. According to our instructors, divers can do treasure hunt here since many people snorkeling above loose their things like gold chain or ring.

Our fifth dive was back at our first diving spot since we still have some oxygen in our pressurized tank. The current was quite strong here and I did not add more weights after the dive at Marine Park. That was a big mistake. After a while, I float almost near to the surface and can't dive down no matter how much I tried. I saw the experienced fellow diver looking for me left and right but I was at the top looking down with no way to signal to him. Only after a while he saw me struggling and reached up to pull me down. By this time, we're already so tired I guess. The paddle back to the beach felt like it would never end. I can understand how some people lost at sea can just loose the will to swim or stay afloat and let nature took its course.

Another unforgettable moment was when hubby's oxygen tank reached zero. At that time, mine was 80. I was swimming quite at the back and was eager to show my instructor that I was already below 100. When I reached my instructor's side, hubby was already sharing with him. In another dive, hubby has about 20 in his tank and mine's still 120. Our instructor said hubby and I should always be buddy underwater because hubby uses up a lot and I used less.

We were so hungry but our special lunch 'pelanduk masak asam pedas' and 'pelanduk berempah' was late. It arrived almost at 3:30 after we clean up, rest and pack. It tastes different and it was OK but I couldn't eat that much. Our ferry was very, very late. We reached Mersing jetty at 8 p.m. We shopped for more souvenirs and said our goodbyes to fellow divers and than had our dinner at a restaurant with big screen TV showing a Kung Fu movie. We started our journey at about 10 and ETA is at 2 a.m.

After a short drive, I started to feel nauseous. All the way I was trying to keep my tummy calm with the asam halia. I took the wheel for a short while later because hubby was so sleepy. It was not even 1 hour later, I stopped at an R&R. I remember we slept for a while, then hubby took the wheel and I dozed off most of the journey. I remember hubby stopping for a rest before continue driving but by this time, I felt so groggy and tummy still unsettled I didn't open my eyes. We send SIL at her place and reached home at almost 3. I felt dizzy for few days especially after breakfast and hubby's ear ache as he can't pressurized properly, but other than that we're fine. I can't wait to go for our next dive. I never thought I'd ever dive before :) Our next adventure... sky diving hehehe...