My Aur-someeeeeeeee Dive trip
(26-28 June 09)

I'm still wondering what actually came over me when I had said that I missed those long hours on the ultra rocky ferry ride. Oh my, did i really miss those hellish hrs surrounded by merlions of all races? Well, at least it didnt take 7hr30min for us to reach the island again this time. and thank god that there arent any as many merlions this time. At least I'm able to walk properly and not hobble ard with the sway of the ferry. BUT, i was pretty stunned by the layout of the boat. Quite at a lost for words actually. OKay maybe not, cuz i couldnt stop exclaiming 雾索南阳!! It totally reminded me of that old SBC (if you get my drift, SBC had ceased existing since wayyyy long ago) TV drama about migration of slaves from china to singapore - 雾索南阳.

- tiny light from only window -

We had wanted to take a photo from the top of the window with us staring up at it (just like that pose) but the boat got too rocky too fast. It was too much trouble trying to manouveur our way past the other passengers too.

- our oh-so-comfy bedroom -

(living in self-denial)

But its quite an experience, I must say.

I seriously would have sang that drama's OST at the top of my lungs, if I had remembered the lyrics. And so, we were quickly packed into the boat and shipped off to Aur. We basically squeezed and slept on pathetic plastic gym mats with absolutely no space to stretch our legs. That probably explained why I couldnt feel my legs when I woke up. Oh did I mention that there was little (okay, maybe try for NO) ventillation in the boat? It sure stank! But everybody was so darn tired, I guess, nobody cared much since all of us were sleeping pretty soundly, lined up as sardines in a tin. The fact that we couldnt even see the person next to us probably helped us squeeze better. After some grueling 5hrs, we finally survived the ordeal and reached the much awaited island of Aur! *scream yayyss*

Its pretty much just another moment of shock when I stepped into our room. And I had thought the Tioman-Genting was cui? Imagine 20x worse. No mirror, no balcony, no chairs, no warm water, just 3 double decker beds for 6 peeps to squeeze in a room which disallowed 2 peeps to walk into the room together. To add on, the bathroom door functioned just like a torn curtain (luckily I shared the room with girls only) and our door couldnt lock! Why is there a need for a door that could not provide the most basic degree of security? This is just great! But just the thought of diving in the cool waters the next morning sort of dispelled all these grumpiness.

- the best i could do. there is just no space in the room. any further, i'll be out of the room already-

Rise and shine with merely 3 hrs of sleep, we're off to the pretty bluegreen sea sea seaaaaaa! Ting and I got separated from the rest of our colleagues (they are doing AOW, which we naively thought we could tag along and relive our AOW days) and hence we joined another group of leisure divers. The fun divers were good fun but the underwater coral life did disappoint me a little. How the hell did so much coral die in just 1 year? The underwater life is just so different from what I remembered from 1 year ago. Aur/Dayang was so vibrant and colourful and fleeting fish everywhere. But all I see now are just discoloured corals dead with grey. sighhh, its just so sad to see things change so much just like that. At least the sighting of the humongous Humphead Parrotfish and friendly cuttlefish made my day. I was so excited i almost forgot to breathe.

- the morning sea, which did chase away all those grumpiness from the night before -

- An ice cold coconut and a hammock pls! -

- open concept showering fronting the beach -
(though not much of a beach to start with)
or
maybe pole-dancing anyone?

- more shots of the blue skies and sea -

- and so this is how we were transported to our dive boats, by overcrowinding the miserable sampans which are at risk of sinking. Haha! OH well, it was fun though -

- jack and our resort-
photo courtesy of another fellow diver (kram)

Jack's the instructor of my DM btw, and he's damn funny! Haha! i was saying i want to see whaleshark and manta rays, and he started doing dumb actions and mimicking them

- everyone's in serious mood, setting up -

- all ready to rock and rolla -

Thanks to kram for this nice pic of my backroll entry.

- harshil's grad stride -
we were his graduation test btw. should have given him a hard time =X LOL!

- Christmas Tree Worms -

First u/w shot of the trip and new input into my underwater organism identification file. I was having quite a bit of fun playing with them. Reminds me a lil of the mimosa plant. It'll retract back into its hole when touched.

And this also became the first and last decent shot i can get out of my cui camera which went on to fog itself up. I could barely see 5% of the actual shot through the live view display screen. sighhhh..It sure was darn irritating to be seeing good photo subjects but unable to get a good shot.

Anyways, the Christmas Tree Worms comes in many different colours too! pweetty! I wonder whether its actually a worm or plant though.

Thats when ting here started giving me weird signals. I had thought that she had finished all her puke on the dive boat before we came in. But apparently, she is still continuing her vomitting even underwater. I seriously wonder how she does it. No wonder there's this Batfish which kept following us throughout our whole dive. Ting must have been feeding it.

- Shy Batfish which obviously doesnt its picture taken -

- and so i try and try and try and try again..finally got a decent shot -

- Star Pufferfish -

i think..

- A pair of Lizard fish -

They do look menacing, dont they?

- Feather Star -

These actually curl up at the detection of light at night. Quite cool. Got me quite excited at the beginning of my night dive. I had thought that the movements were caused by fish or crabs, etc.

- Wrasse on the run! -

- ehhhhhhhhh...some fish -



- Pink Skunk Clowns protecting their eggs -

And this reminds me of Mat Yie! He taught me how to look out for such photo subjects and I was quite in luck to have spotted this for my 1st dive. A pity I didnt get a good photo of them, the skunks were obviously pretty worried at all the attention that they are getting from kram and me. To add on, I couldnt stay still at that position at all. The current kept drifting me away. I wonder how kram stays still!

- false anemone clowns -
best photo targets and courtesy of Kram.

- our one and only blue-spotted sting ray sighting -
Pretty, but definitely cant beat the family of rays I saw in Perhentien! I had to hold my breath for so long for fear that my exhalation bubbles will scare them away

- highlight of the trip : my pet nudibranch -

I was happily shooting that huge puffer when i felt a tap on my shoulder. I was quite reluctant to turn away from my puffer actually (okay lah, I admit I was trying to force it into a corner in hope that it would puff up) but was quite delighted and surprised when Jack popped a nudi into my hands. This was the start of quite a stampede, suddenly i was surrounded by all the other fun divers, with each and everyone one of them trying to grab the nudi. Poor nudi, it must be quite traumatized. Try to imagine soap slipping out of your hands and then trying to grab it again and again. That was precisely what the poor nudi was going thru.

Finally caught it and had to kiap its tail (or whatever its called) in order to prevent it from slipping away.

Poor poor nudi, but I sure had fun! LOL!!

- and then i found a better way to keep it in place for my little photo keepsake -
*beams*

- Whoever said Anemones are poisonous?? -

I was quite stunned when Harshil's fingers went right into the anemone to catch the clowns. And then ting did the same thing. Am I the only dumbass who naively thought that anemones are fatally poisonous? -__-" Of cuz, I have to try it for myself.

Was I scared? - yeah, a little apprehensive i must admit
Was it fun? - Hell yeah! But i did get like red marks on my hands after that which i accrue to the anemone's poison.
Will I try it again? - Definitely, totally, absolutely!

- extremely territorial tomato clowns -

got headbutt by one of these. Got me disoriented for a while -___-"
I thought i kena attacked by some big fish.

(sighhhh...bad fogged-up camera)

btw, they aint those cutesy little false anemone clowns we are so used to seeing. these are bigger than my palm. They must have gotten irritated by that stupid harshil and I became the innocent victim.

- spot the pretty nudibranch -

Photo courtesy of another fun diver (SooHui)

I did try to photograph it but my camera fogged up so badly that I couldnt even see the nudi through the live viewer even though I was probably only an inch away from it.

SooHui photographing me photographing something
I wonder what was my photo subject though =X

- Jack with his weirdly cool fins -

Looks pretty comfy and user-friendly

thats Liang Ye, my 1-buddy-stand! cuz ting went off puking

poor ting, she's been puking everywhere! onboard, underwater, back at resort, etc

- more clowning ard -
Photo courtesy of fellow fun diver (Kram)

- Pweety Underwater Scenery -
Photo courtesy of fellow fun diver (kram)

He's darn good right? He's a Master Scuba Diver Trainer, btw.
I didnt even remember seeing this scene during my dives =X

- the full strength of the fun dive gang -

- boatman ah bang flexing his muscles and carrying the tanks back to the gassing room at the resort -

I was washing the seawater off my wetsuit when the sun set behind ah bang. This photo is too good to miss. Luckily my u/w camera is still in the washing. But as usual, its pretty fogged up. sighh. Anyways, ah bang actually walked much slower with the heavy tanks and all for me to finish photograhping. hahah

I was soaking in the sun outside our room while waiting for ting to finish showering when the other boat pulled up to shore. And I saw this female diver lugging another diver (did i mention that he's huge and full of muscles?) up to shore. She was desperately trying to carry him up the shore but was having much diffculty as the weight proportion is just too lopsided! After a while did I realised that they are practising the rescue diver course. For a moment, I really did think that something bad happened to that group of divers. Chehhh! Its pretty inspiring watching the female rescue diver "saving" that huge lump of muscles though. And I AM motivated to take the rescue diver course *beams* Kram mentioned that he dont mind teaching me. I hope he's serious, hohohoho!

Oh yah, there's also this bald diver involved in the drill, helping to carry the extra equipment (which belonged to the "diver in distress"). I had initially thought that the bald guy is Jin Tian. Well, thats based on my bad eyesight from afar. Chehhh! I thought how come Jin Tian so gungho sia.

- ting, the puke expert and loving buddy -
LOL!!

- last shot with our DM (in practice) before we part ways and head back to SG -

The thought of 5 hrs on that gross ferry irks the hell outta me -____-" No way I'm gonna stay inside that slave-shipping compartment again this time. Definitely have to stay outside for some air ventilation.

- Now for act cutesy fun shot -

Good job photographer (whoever you are)! For your fast fingers and quick reaction.

Harshil's cutesy alter-ego. LOL!!

And then we decided to do some jump shots.

Jump shots are a must for every album, isnt it?

Harshil's retarded luh! HAHHAHA!

he's obviously trying very hard to flex his muscles

- Goodbye Aur -
I almost did a backroll entry with my backpack and all, HAHHAHA! saved by the other instructors.

- Some effective self-entertainment/waste-time measures on board ferry -
And that's precisely how I accquired that ugly tank top tanline. sighhhhhhh.

When will I ever get fair?

- And that's the end of my aur-some dive trip -

Even though I didnt quite bond with my other colleagues (which was the main motive of this trip), but gained valuable experiences and friends though. Had tons of fun and that's all that matters, isnt it?

Hmmmm..so when's my next dive destination? *heeeheeee*

(I refuse to think about the sipadan trip the rest of my dive gang are going, which I'm not involved. rahhhh!!)

Nvm, aussie's gonna be next den maybe Bali for my mola molaaaaaaaa!?