Angel's Window

Last post we were on our way to Angel's Window - a dive site discovered and named after my dive guide, Angel.




Why is it called Angel's Window? Let's find out.




Diving in Lembeh was a whole new experience compared to all my previous dives in this region (well, I only ever dived in this region).




Firstly, the marine lives I encountered here were different.

Like this crazy colored fish.




Just kidding. I edited that one from the feisty clown fish.


But on the more blurred note, it was my first time coming across a ghost pipefish.


so blurry, like a ghost.


It was tiny and with the digital compact I have, it was difficult to capture from a distance without scaring it away.

But basically it looks pretty much like this up close.


taken off the internet


Quirky right?

They always swim with their heads down.

Cardinal fish are among the rarer fish I came about.


little nemo hiding among the soft coral


Then there's sweetlips, quite a few of them on this one single dive.

These little cuties are TINY.




And they get tinier each time I spotted one.




The third one I found was so tiny, I thought it was a speck of dust fluttering with the current on the seabed. It took the dive guide exactly 10 minutes and 10 cm distance to convince me there was something there, and another 10 minutes it convince me it wasn't a plankton. @_@

Obviously something so small couldn't be captured by a petty camera.


It likes to flutter like a butterfly, really cute, and from a respectable distance, you wouldn't know how the fish really looks like with all that fluttering.

But this is how it looks like if you use a macro up close.




Pretty ain't it?


Now let's play photo treasure hunt.

Do you see any live organism in this photo?


apart from the corals, of course



Anything? Found it? No? Yes?



Well, here's the answer.







Ta-da! Coral shrimp.




This bugger kept running underneath the coral when I was trying to take a photo of it. Hold still you!!


Then there was my favourite fish diving in Lembeh.

First time encountering a Leaffish!




Leaffish, in my opinion, is the most mesmerizing beautiful fish ever.




This particular white leaffish was so serene and settled that it allowed me to get really up close to it to take these two rather close up shots.
(keep in mind I'm using a digital compact in this, so in order to have this shot, I was REALLY close to the fish, like in-your-face kinda close)

I was tempted to hold my breath taking these shots but we all know photographing divers shouldn't do that.


Oh look, scorpion fish.




Such a big difference from the beautiful leaffish. This fish looks kinda delicious. Yum.*cough*


Oh, look at the time...




I mean gauge. Not much oxygen left.

Let's move on quickly to our main topic here shall we?


Now in order to know the true beauty of Angel's Window, watch this video.







That's right.

The dive site Angel's Window consists of two natural cave-like "windows" that divers can swim through. It's like a little wonderland underwater.




It's quite fun actually, going around, down and through circles and holes. It's the perfect place to play hide and seek, underwater style (I wonder if divers here have ever done that before on their leisure time).

On second thought, it could get pretty scary getting lost here.


Moving onto the last chapter of this entry.


I want to show you a little collection of nudibranch photos I took on my first day of diving.




The owner of the lodge I was staying in showed me his collection of nudi branch photos, being an underwater photographer himself, his pro pics of these underwater slugs got me really enticed in the vast variety of the species.

On occasions, I saw one or two not-so-pretty nudibranch here and there.

But more often that not, I would come across cute flabby ones like this.




Or really pretty ones like these.




This is my favourite shot of all nudibranch's I have.

Not only were they colorful, they have this fake coral on their backs as they slide through the corals and stones to act as a camouflage.




Don't you think they look like two mini-cows with horns on the run (a slow run, ok that's cold).




Photo Treasure Hunt number 2.




Spot the marine inside.



Can you see a nudibranch hanging off at the side?




Some of these nudibranch have hairy tentacles all over them that they look just like part of the coral.




This one's not poisonous so it won't harm you if you brush over its back to feel the tentacles, though I strongly not recommend you to touch simply if you're not familiar with a certain creature's nature and characteristic.




They're pretty aren't they?

I think I'm beginning to form an adoration toward nudibranch. :)