Pulau Tenggol, Terengganu: 1 May 2009

This is my first trip with my little friends. Why little? Because I am the oldest among all. Thank you to my colleague, Syura a.k.a Shore for inviting me to join her and pals to Terengganu. It’s nice to spend time together with new friends. The rest of the group is Ajie, Munirah, Amal, Ajie and the ‘ratu dangdut’…Ayna…hehe…sorry Ayna, jangan marahhhh
1st May
We arrived Dungun during Subuh after battling with emotion where we need to wait for couple of hours due to break down to the bus we were in. As usual, the real for me problem is, the bloody, freaking cold air-cond. But I was glad because the 2nd bus is warmer, just suit the temperature I could stand. We were dropped at the bus stop, in front of the mosque. We performed the obligatory and waited until Hazlind and the RUmbia Resort staff arrived to pick us to the resort.
Rumbia Resort is a nice place to stay. However, if anyone wishes to stay there, it’s better to have own transport as Rumbia Resort is quite far from Dungun jetty and other attractions in Terengganu. We stayed at a bungalow and it costs from RM175 to RM225. One good thing is, you can stay with 6-8 people so sharing is a wise thing to cut cost. At 7.30 am, we departed to Dungun jetty by the resort van. It took about 30 minutes to get to the jetty. We met Steve there. This was the surprise that Bryan told me. Happy to meet him for the 2nd time. there were so many people going to Tenggol and I would say, I didn’t feel comfortable with that. But the eagerness to dive, I just let the feeling flew away. I and Steve jumped-in to the boat first while my friends were on the other boat. Nice boat with 2 4-strokes engines.

Gorgonian seafan

Arrived Tenggol around 35 minutes. That was damn nearer and faster compared to the 1st time I went there. It took like around 1 hour 45 minutes with that bloody woody, slow boat.
Our 1st dive was at Tokong Laut (i think so, I didn’t get the chance to log my dive until today..hehe). Divers were me, Steve, Syed (DM) and a father and son from KL (originmust be somewhere else out of Malaysia). That kid is only like 9-10 years old and his dad had already get him involve in SCUBA diving. That’s really awesome. Well, I can say this is a nice spot and the nicest part is, we saw 2 big bumphead parrotfish. It would be much fun if I can see a group of parrotfish together. Coral formation is beautiful.As usual, my intention of diving is looking for ew and special nudibranch. Thanks to Mr. Syed for showing me one of the beautiful nudibranch. I had no idea how he managed to see that creature because its color was almost the same to the background. I saw a lot of typical nudibranch which I think I have already get bored with them. I wish to see more nudibranch as I am very much obsessed with these creatures. And there was a time where Steve were laughing at me (took out his mouthpiece and laugh!!!) because I had second buddy. There must be a little fishy attracted to me…hehe…Because I smell very much like it….huwaaaaa….

Clownfish protecting their anemone home

On the 2nd dive, I and Steve dove with other group of divers at Tanjung Gemuk. No idea why they call it ‘fat’. And itr was quite like ‘tin sardine’ on the boat. I hate this 2nd dive. We took some time to roll-back since the DM (not Syed, somebody else which I forgot his name) afraid that we might be driven away due to the opposite current. Surface current was just nice but when we descent, it was strong and drove everything to the tip of the island. I couldn’t get the chance to snap pics of a nudi when it was in my sight. There was a spot where nudibranch were a lot..they call it ‘nudibranch wall’ but because of that strong current, I didn’t manage to get ththe sweet time and explore that wall. I believe there were many types of nudibranch which I haven’t seen before. Not only disappointed, my neck started to become stiff and experience headache as well. I had no mood to observe and in the same time, felt like throwing up…Not much I can tell this place since I was hoping time passed as soon as possible.

My floating little friend

Christmas tree tubeworms

A type of coral whichexpend its polypsonly during daytime. Known as bubble coral too.

The 3rd dive was at Coral Garden. Only after SI of more than 3 hours, we manage to dive at this spot. This was due to no tanks left for us and it took couple of hours to refill those tanks.This is what will happen when there are too many divers on the island. It was almost dark. Sun was setting. Coral Garden is really a nice spot but it would be much much nicer if we dove in earlier when sun was still shining brightly. As the name indicates, it is like a garden of corals where many types of hard and soft corals are present. Again, it was too dark and I just dove around, worrying of the dark. No nudibranch, no fish but there were a big corals where colorful Christmas Tree worms were there.

Around 7.30 we returned to the shore. I rinsed all my gears and packed them. Still in my wetsuit, I took all my stuff and went to the boat. We headed back to Dungun jetty. Huhu…really tiring and very ‘hectic’. Lesson to be learnt, never ever go there during public holidays or peak season. It will be a regret. I want to go to Tenggol again and this time I want to make sure that I can see the many types of beautiful nudibranch.