Wreck Dive - Journey back to World War II

I know I've been raving on diving like forever on this blog.

So this shall be the last one.

And the best one at that, well, base on my own experience anyway.


In this post, I am going to post about my first ever Wreck Dive.

Shipwreck - Mawali Wreck (a second world war sunken cargo ship located in Lembeh Strait).




Now I don't know about you. But I'm crazy about shipwreck. Something about a piece of lost history hidden beneath the sea that's waiting to be uncovered really excites me.




Ever since my first encounter with the movie Titanic, I've been fascinated by wrecks for as long as I was fascinated by birds and the bees.


Now I have compiled a documentary video on my journey down to the deep unknown. I have not done a documentary voice over video for a long time and if you're as curious about this dive as I was the first time, you would definitely enjoy this video.

Just a bit of a fact about the wreck, the giant is over 60 meters long and it's located down to 30m below sea level.




That's a long way down for any new diver. Visibility isn't great but the fun part of the dive is the penetration.

Yes you heard me.

PENETRATION.




In this video, you will see how me and a few other divers penetrating the wreck. Now not all wrecks can be penetrated, and usually it's dangerous to do so without proper guidance and research. Imagine the wreck crumples and falls on you.

There will be complete darkness. 30 meters below water. Confined in a sunken ship.

Oooohhh.... exciting.

Okay enough talking. Here's the video.




Here are some photos to share inside the wreck. I have to tell you this, it wasn't easy having a torch light on one hand and a camera recording in the other. But.. well.. the things I do for my readers.


oo... lobster. *shine at you*


It's easy to spot a few lion fish hidden in Mawali wreck, away from the current and in the darkness.







And because it wasn't easy to take photo inside complete darkness and confined area, this is perhaps the best shot I had in my entire photo album.


A shrimp.


The whole wreck is tilted in a way that the bottom is facing upward (if you look at the marker drawing white board again in the first photo), so there is plenty of surface area for artificial reef to grow and fester.


Camwhore with giant propeller


Some fish.




Corals.




The first dive master I met called this a boobie coral. Cause it's so soft and nice to touch, just like boobs. o.O




Rubbish.


tsk tsk... pick it up when you see on underwater will you?


While swimming along the bottom surface of the wreck, I came across this vast forestation of corals. It's incredibly beautiful.




I know the photo doesn't do it justice as to how vast this is. But believe me, it's like looking at a lavender field and you couldn't help but gasp at the sight.




And when you touch them (my dive guide showed me), they will retract their "tentacles" like so.


Looks like a pot of flower now.


Some of the other retractable corals.




So with this, I shall end my series of diving post.

I hope you have enjoyed my diving experience as much as I have spent diving and writing them.




I just can't wait for my next wreck dive. ^^

Muck Diving - The Deadly Flower Urchin

I learnt about Muck Diving when I was in Lembeh, a term created for dives done in muddy or mucky sea environment.

Most of the time you find only sand, or mud, along with dead corals and more sand when you go for a muck diving.




Technically speaking, muck diving is a rather boring dive, especially for amateur divers. And can be the worst form of dive to take your first ever dive experience (discovery scuba - for people who have yet to get your first diving license)

Before you think it's complete lunacy for me to fly cross the sea just to land myself in some secluded god forsaken place to see sand underwater, keep in mind that muck diving does has its own attractiveness.

Basically, the common motto of muck dive: Not all is what it seems.



Do you see anything? Almost making it out the shadow outlining the sandy bottom?

What thing is that weirdly shaped camouflaged thing?


Look closer.




Muck diving is like going on a treasure hunt with a tank and mask, except you don't know what you're looking for.




There are abundance of juvenile creatures and exotic organisms living among the hiddens. It's almost a thrill when you're able to spot one.




Most muck diving are done in South East Asia because of the rich marine lives on offer, so if you're an avid diver and you live here, it's insane not to do at least a muck dive trip in your life.

Some of the common living things are colorful nudibranch (a.k.a. sea slugs) or sometimes, colorless shrimps.




Which are quite easy to spot when you scout around the singled-out coral on the sea bed.




Well, almost quite easy.


A coral such as this is like a oasis in a dessert - they're not very common but when there's one, it's a sanctuary for all. So usually there are more than one living things hiding amongst it.





clown fish family


The other reason why muck diving can appear very dull is because the marine lives in the muck are able to disguise themselves very well.

Almost too well for some.




From far you might just think that this is a rope, stranded sea grass or worm at most.

But if you know your fish well, you know it's actually a bloody worm-like fish!




It looks like a rope, acts like a rope, but it's not a rope.


In this case, assuming we're all newbies, following a local guide is the best way to spot unusual underwater creatures.



Looks like a common coral or a rock?


NO!

Meet... the decorator crab.




Here's a video of how camouflaged a fish can be at the sandy bottom of the sea.

Click on the video and look closely in the beginning 2 seconds if you can spot anything at all.





Poor bugger was being chased by me all the way.




Until it lifted its spike in the end feeling threatened before I left it alone.

Scary!




Among other fish, I also stumbled upon a few more odd ones.


Colorful with a really long spike on its head. Reason why this is the closest photo I have of it.



some moth looking fish.



a common fish to spot during muck dives - waspfish!


Personally I like this fish a lot. Reminds me of leaffish. (click here for leaffish photo)




Not all unusual and exotic are marine lives though. Corals can be pretty quirky here too.


Looks like a bunch of condom balloons.


I always had a penchant of touching things around me (bad habit of mine last time, note: past tense :p). But for some reasons I wasn't too keen in touching that one.

Oh, about that. Here's a little tale of mine that almost took my life during this dive. *drama*

You know corals are fun to touch as long as you know you don't do harm to it (for critics: corals don't die after you touch them, they only die when you pick them up from the ocean and they harden and die, or when you pluck them from their habitat, they might die; but the common corals WON'T die if you just gently brush your finger along it just to feel its texture).

Though common knowledge is, don't touch what you're not familiar with!


So I was smart when I come across a coral-like urchin on the sea bed.




The warning statement "DO NOT TOUCH IT" flashed across my mind like a neon banner on a Casino in Las Vegas.

Like duh! Who would touch such a dangerous looking thing?! That.. that THING looks like it has a thousand needles protruding out in all possible direction, ready to penetrate and injure anyone that comes pass it.




I thought I was smart to just leave it alone and not get too close to it.

But what would you think when you come across something like this?




I was feeling all proud of myself being cautious and all when I came upon this... this.. pretty "pot of flowers"-looking coral? Which I later found out was a Flower Urchin.

Sweet name, yes?

NO!!


So basically what happened was, I felt attracted to the pretty little thing that I swam up to it and was observing it up close, tempting my finger to touch its pretty little "petal"... closing in... closing in...

When my dive master appeared out of no where. Snap my hand so hard I was thrown back in water and looked dead to me in the eye...

and did one signal no diver would ever want to see.

'He swept his hand horizontally across his neck.' - indicating.... DEATH.

(or out of breath if you're talking about oxygen left in your tank)


When I returned to the lodge after the dive. I immediately sat down and looked up flower urchin in the dive books most dive lodge have.

This was what I found - the Flower Urchin is "extremely dangerous", it can be very deadly despite it attractive outlook.

Multiple times MORE DANGEROUS than the long-spined urchin I saw and avoided earlier.




The pretty petals on the flower urchin are actually venomous pincers able to cause paralysis or even death!

According to this page about Flower Urchin, if you don't die from the sting, "The sting results in intense radiating pain, prickling or numbness, abnormally low blood pressure, respiratory distress, and muscular paralysis all of which lasting anything up to 6 hours."

So that means you would also drown from the sting, which could also result in death.

*Gulp*



Right. From this day on, I will never ever ever ever... touch a coral ever again!

*touch no evil*


Well, maybe just the corals Nemo swims in. :p

(nah just kidding hehe)

Weekend Dive in Perhentian

note: this post I will show you how I maintain my skin during my dive trips.


It's not always easy to maintain a long distance relationship with your friends, especially your best friends. ;)

Many people have their own ways to "catch up" and keep the flame going between friends. While some people let it die with time and distance.

At this age, heart-to-heart friends are hard to come by. And thus I have always made sure that every year, my best friends and I will catch up at least once, if not more, and we will go on a dive trip together.




We dived last year. And two years before.

This year, we planned for an island trip in Western Malaysia - Perhentian.




So last week, both my friends flew down to KL and stayed for a few days before we were to depart to our island.

On the day of departure, I dropped by Body Shop to check up on their body shampoo, the ones back home have only less than a quarter left and I don’t think that’s enough for a dive trip up to Perhentian.




One has to shower very frequently when one goes on a diving trip, which reminded me, I should bring more hair shampoo too, and perhaps some hair mask. PS, the honey hair conditioner from Body Shop is a dream to use!


TCM - Tropicana City Mall



walk in casually


It was cool until I spotted a range of products my friend suggested to me a while back. The Moisture White Shiso skin care series.




I’ve always loved Body Shop and I probably have 1928 of Body Shop things back home, but that never stop me from buying more products, kekeke

And….. I am going to the beach where some whitening would help,

AND the description on the product did say that it would help me with dark spots and freckles…

Then I did the craziest thing on the spot.




No la, I didn’t buy all of them la. Siao meh…

But someone gave them to me. Hehe...


xoXoxO


Keke…

For people who likes discount, you can print this voucher out (as many times as you want) to get RM10 off the product range. ;)


I got it off http://www.facebook.com/thebodyshopmalaysia, yes I’m a fan ^^


Now I was ready to pack!

In the evening, we took an overnight bus to Kuala Besut jetty, reaching at about 5am in the morning.


playing on my iphone for 3 hours.


Our boat ride to Perhentian Pulau Besar (big island) wasn't arriving until 8:30am so we waited at the jetty after our not-so-soft-boiled soft boil eggs breakfast




It was the weekend so all the buses were fully booked and local students, working adults, Chinese, Malay, Indians and traveling Caucasian was swamping into the island like bees.


note to self: never travel on weekends.



cam-whoring while waiting


By the time the boat arrived and sent us off on a 40 min bumpy ride on the sea to our lodge, we were completely exhausted.




We arrived with dread appeared like it has wind surfed across our faces. It was an exhausting trip.
note to self: take plane next time

Our lodge:




Our beach:




Our room:


3 beds


The cobble road we walked on every day:




Our dive boats:




And our dive sites:




I wanted to wash up, staying up all night on the bus makes me felt like I haven’t shower for DAYS but we have to get off to diving immediately. So I unpack and decided to just wash my face.




I took out my newly bought cleanser to wash my face.




Now I have used several types of cleanser before, but this is my first time using a cleansing powder, which literally comes in a form of.. well.. powder.

What I found this product really GOOD was that it’s extremely easy to travel with. You have no idea how many times I have traveled and when I reached my hotel, just to find that, upon unpacking, my cleanser has leaked at least more than half the bottle away in my suitcase.

Which can be the most annoying thing in the world, because then not only I have wasted a good half of my expensive bottle of cleanser, I would need to wash all my clothes and hang them dry in the toilet due to the leak.

Not with the powder!




Wet the powder and you’ll have your very own instant home-made liquid cleanser! HAH!




Finally I slapped on a thick layer of 130 SPF sunblock (I hate being dark if you’ve noticed) and headed out for my first dive!
(Will do the complete regime at night)




This trip, Miss..er...Splat (she was Miss Chocolate two years ago, then she-who-must-not-be-named a year ago, so now she's Miss Splat) and I decided to get ourselves each a rash guard.


rash guard on sale!


She got a black one while I went for a white one.




Apparently Gerald also ordered his rash guard online weeks ago so now we're all protected against corals.





wear your wetsuit over your rash guard


Upper body at least.




I scratched myself on my legs multiple times that trip T_T

Anyone know where I can find nice trendy lower body rash guard?


As usual, I didn't bring my pink bandanna (always forgetful) so Gerald lent me his red one.


I opted for a pink mask.


Which I later found out was a horrible mask to use.




It couldn't stop fogging up no matter how many times I spitted on it.

So I changed to an uglier mask on our next trip out.




We had two dive masters on this trip, Swedish Karl brought us down on our first 4 dives. While the remaining two dives was led by a very funky lady named Mel.

Our typical dive would begin with briefing.


Karl


The DM would tell me about the dive sites we're going, how we're going to go about the reef, current, where he's going to lead us and stuff. I don't think I ever listen to these except when it comes to a complicated dive site, or a dive site I'm really interested in.

Like the wreck dive we were going to do! :D


Briefing on the boat.


I've done wreck dive before, which I am going to blog about next. But this wreck was 100m long (bigger than my first one), and with lady luck NOT on our side, Gerald's camera housing leaked so we were without camera underneath. T_T

And we saw SO MANY amazing marine lives down there that took our breath away and we didn't have photos to prove it. FML.

We saw the largest group of giant puffer fish, each more than half the size of me,


giant pufferfish we saw on another dive


among the group there was a pregnant giant mother pufferfish down there, she was HUGEEEE. The wreck was huge. Even the small school of Barracuda was HUGEEE...


photo taken from Sipadan post (highlight note: not in this Perhentian dive trip!)


I mean, I saw a large school Barracudas before in Sipadan, but each individual fish was nothing compared to the ones I saw in Perhentian, these were at least 1.2m each, and 6 inches wide!


again taken from Sipadan post for illustration here.


But we did see, on the other dives, stingrays.




Stalked one.


(me on the left)


Couple of Murray Eels out in the open.




Lots of sea urchins that's threatening to sting Gerald. ;p




A wheel barrow.




Played with a sea snail.




Took plenty shots of Nemo.







and nemo family.










And his cousin.




Then we saw abundance of fish! Lots and lots of baby fish swimming in large schools.





miss splat on the left, nicolekiss on the right






chasing after a group of fish





And of course, very beautiful reef sites.


dive site name: Temple of the Sea





Oh, we also saw a super snorkeler who could held his breath for at least 5 mins! He dived down to our level (around 5-6m that time) and was swimming next to us?!


WTF??!!!


He's crazy man.


On the first night, being gung-ho (act cool), we went for a dive night together despite being incredibly tired already.




It was Miss Splat's first night dive since achieving her diving license last year, actually it was her first night dive, ever.




So with a torch each in our hands, and a camera, we boat dived in the night!




Not so bad considering we managed to capture ONE nice shot of a baby leopard shark.




There were plenty of baby leopard and nurse sharks that night. It was a fruitful dive. There were also lots of luminous worms, like crazy amount of it.

You know on land, at night, especially after rain, you will see lots of flying bugs gathering at those lights on ceiling, flying against the lights.

Well, these luminous worms are like those lights, they swim like they're flying under water, then they circle around our torch lights (whenever the lights were stationary), and they multiply in amounts every passing seconds. It's actually quite creepy, interesting, but grossed.

That night, stars were soooo beautiful when we emerged from our dive that I couldn't help but to just float on the sea with my BCD and tank on, and just stare.




It wasn't so romantic on the boat on the way back. It was SOOOO bloody cold!!

note to self: bring a towel to night dive


We were all famished by the time we got back, but we would still need to do one thing I hate most about diving.

Washing up.

Not just ourselves, the gears too.


Gerald dipping his feet in the water meant for washing gears because he got stung by red ants. *point and laugh*


Every night, we would serenade the night with grape juice and mango lassi over a nice BBQ dinner.


They served the BEST GRILLED PRAWNS!!




no photo here as were too tired to take photo already.


After dinner.

I returned to the room to perform my usual ritual.

Ok guys, it’s called a daily beauty regime.

Now I want to teach all the guys out there that procedures like these are very important. We’re not just simply applying 1001 chemicals on our face!

Let me teach what they do! I’ve been trying to teach my baby this for AGES but sometimes I feel like he hears me, but not sure if all those info really go into his head.

I still want to talk about it anyway.

FIRST there’s the cleanser, which I used earlier in the day, to wash off the dirt off your face.

Secondly, apply toner; or in this case, Moisture White Shiso Moisturising Essence I (which is for oily and combination skin). This is to hydrate your skin and tightens the pores that has been “opened” by the washing process.

Now for the whitening action with Moisture White Shiso Whitening Serum, my new best friend under the sun. :D it also helps hydrates up to 12 hours.


(I know I’m being long-winded by this hydration is VERY VERY important when you’re travelling. Because of various reasons, your skin tend to dry up really fast which can cause serious damage to your pretty skin.)


Finally the moisturizer, since I’m sleeping after this so I’d be applying the Whitening Night Treatment (else you can use the Whitening Moisture Milk). It’s like food to your skin – Vitamin C and all the healthy nutrients (e.g. shiso extract) that make your skin glow!


my friend found taking photos of me applying all these things on my face amusing *roll eyes*


PS// If you’re really hardworking, like I am,
Sometimes.
Rarely.

You can apply the Eye Serum (hydrating the eyes) and Concentrated Target Protector to help reduce pigmentations on your face.




I find these last two items really useful since I have started developing quite an amount of freckles on my cheeks and dark spots around my eyes at this age, something I’ve been dying to remove indefinitely. So let’s see how this will work over long time. ;)

Enough beauty talk for one post. It’s back to diving tomorrow. But at least now you know maintaining a face is easy as long as you keep to your commitment to your own skin. ;)

Okay. I needed to wake up at 8am next day. I was all ready for bed!


I call this photo: my diving silhouette


I might have dreamt of diving that night.