My trip to Perhentian was not just an ordinary dive trip. It was actually an annually organized Seashutterbug Underwater Photography competition by CORAL Malaysia. Well, of course my intention was to dive and test my new toys, Canon G9 with Ikelite housing with Sea & Sea Strobe light. I really hoped to meet the underwater photographer and experts, and learn as much as possible from them. And my 2nd objective was to dive at different dive spots of Perhentian after my 1st dive trip in 2007.
To start things, I would say that this trip was a long trip for me. I couldn’t get bus ticket to Kuala Besut…and not even to Kuala Terengganu. So, I took the alternative by getting on a bus to Kuantan, and with my sister’s help, I travel on another bus from Kuantan to Kuala Terengganu. Arriving K. terengganu early in the morning (as early as 2 am), wasn’t a good thing to deal with. It was tiring and of course I need to enough sleep before the check out dive. I tried to go to the mosque but it was locked. And the scary part is, I hv to walk alone, along the dark and quiet alley. Whenever I heard the roaring of bike engine, I started to get worried, afraid of getting robbed or snatched.
Enough about that. Another thing to babble about, that the fact I have to wait from 2 am till 8 am at the bus terminal. I’m blaming Cik Din for picking me up that late. hehe…sorry cik din, didn’t mean to offend u. Nothing much I could do as I was asking people courteous to pick me up. And cik Din is cool enough to pick me up on his cool ride. Cik Din is such a killer driver. He drove that fast and I couldn’t stop getting my adrenaline pumped to the max. But Alia (cik Din’s daughter) and his wife seem to get used to his driving style. Journey to Kuala Besut is quite long, 1.30 to 2 hours. So around 10, we arrived K. Besut jetty and had breakfast. There, I met kak Jam, the backbone of CORAL Malaysia. Around 10.30, we got on the boat and headed to Arwana Resort, Perhentian Besar. Nice resort though. We were given room keys, got our lunch and relaxed. For the divers, we were divided into 2 groups. The photographer group, and the non-photographer group. I was grouped with the non-photographers as they were not informed that I’ll be turning up with underwater camera. But what the hell rite? No difference where they grouped me.
I remembered my dive buddy, Juandi. Huhu…such a funny guy. I thought I might lost my mood or get bored during this trip. But it all appeared that I met wonderful divers and made new friends with various people of different backgrounds. Plus, being the only female Malay diver and photographer on the boat would definitely became a subject for them to ‘kacau’ me. Of course they have to protect me and take care of so called ‘lil princess on board’.
I can’t remember exactly all the dive sites, but here is the list of the dive sites dove at Perhentian
1) Lighthouse
2) Shark Point (but no sharks)
3) D’ Lagoon
4) Tokong Laut
5) Tanjung Basi
6) Seabell
Tokong Laut is always my favorite dive spot. Thanks to my dive master Onn for being such a good spotter for me. At Tokong Laut, we saw nurse shark, nudibranchs, lots of pufferfish and many more.
I tried so hard to get nice underwater pictures. I have good stuffs, that was what some of the photographers told me. Since my Canon G9 is still new, and I haven’t got the chance to learn and understand the settings, one of my aims for this trip was not achieved. One of the experts, Mohan, adjusted the strobe position for me but still i couldn’t focus the strobe light to the objects as I have desired. Finally, I decided to keep the strobe but use the diffuser instead. The results were not bad. At least I got something instead of nothing. Lesson to learn, make sure u know what ur doing!! Hehe…having good gadgets does not guarantee the quality of the pictures if u don’t understand the parameters need to be learnt such as aperture speed, shutter speed, 
ISO and blablabla…
Among all dive centers I have gone so far, East Marine has the best dive masters I have ever met. The cool and caring Jenny, the cool and innocent Onn, the crazy Amm and the control macho Jus….huwaaaa…I miss u guys. I hope I can return to Perhentian next year and dive with u guys again.
Cik Din, cik Din’s wife and Alia, I’m gonna miss them a lot and hope to meet them in other trip. Alaaa…cik Din…till death do us apart laa…And I would like to thank Dr. Malek and his son, Adi for being my dive buddies during the extra day at Perhentian. And really owe them a lot because they let me sleep and wake up in a room, instead of at the beach. Lalalala….sharing is caring…For the 1st time after a very long time, we had karaoke with Kak Jam and Kak Aini. I knew I can’t sing that well but who cares. I wish I could recall other divers name but time was too short to get to know them more. Of course it is such a mean of me to accidentally drop the VirtualMalaysia videographers and photographers namely, Lan, Zainal, Ezainee and…err…forgot the other guy name. Nice knowing you guys.
Enough about that. Another thing to babble about, that the fact I have to wait from 2 am till 8 am at the bus terminal. I’m blaming Cik Din for picking me up that late. hehe…sorry cik din, didn’t mean to offend u. Nothing much I could do as I was asking people courteous to pick me up. And cik Din is cool enough to pick me up on his cool ride. Cik Din is such a killer driver. He drove that fast and I couldn’t stop getting my adrenaline pumped to the max. But Alia (cik Din’s daughter) and his wife seem to get used to his driving style. Journey to Kuala Besut is quite long, 1.30 to 2 hours. So around 10, we arrived K. Besut jetty and had breakfast. There, I met kak Jam, the backbone of CORAL Malaysia. Around 10.30, we got on the boat and headed to Arwana Resort, Perhentian Besar. Nice resort though. We were given room keys, got our lunch and relaxed. For the divers, we were divided into 2 groups. The photographer group, and the non-photographer group. I was grouped with the non-photographers as they were not informed that I’ll be turning up with underwater camera. But what the hell rite? No difference where they grouped me.
I remembered my dive buddy, Juandi. Huhu…such a funny guy. I thought I might lost my mood or get bored during this trip. But it all appeared that I met wonderful divers and made new friends with various people of different backgrounds. Plus, being the only female Malay diver and photographer on the boat would definitely became a subject for them to ‘kacau’ me. Of course they have to protect me and take care of so called ‘lil princess on board’.
I can’t remember exactly all the dive sites, but here is the list of the dive sites dove at Perhentian
1) Lighthouse
2) Shark Point (but no sharks)
3) D’ Lagoon
4) Tokong Laut
5) Tanjung Basi
6) Seabell
Tokong Laut is always my favorite dive spot. Thanks to my dive master Onn for being such a good spotter for me. At Tokong Laut, we saw nurse shark, nudibranchs, lots of pufferfish and many more.
I tried so hard to get nice underwater pictures. I have good stuffs, that was what some of the photographers told me. Since my Canon G9 is still new, and I haven’t got the chance to learn and understand the settings, one of my aims for this trip was not achieved. One of the experts, Mohan, adjusted the strobe position for me but still i couldn’t focus the strobe light to the objects as I have desired. Finally, I decided to keep the strobe but use the diffuser instead. The results were not bad. At least I got something instead of nothing. Lesson to learn, make sure u know what ur doing!! Hehe…having good gadgets does not guarantee the quality of the pictures if u don’t understand the parameters need to be learnt such as aperture speed, shutter speed, 
ISO and blablabla…Among all dive centers I have gone so far, East Marine has the best dive masters I have ever met. The cool and caring Jenny, the cool and innocent Onn, the crazy Amm and the control macho Jus….huwaaaa…I miss u guys. I hope I can return to Perhentian next year and dive with u guys again.
