Dive Lembeh Straits, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

I'm too lazy to write a complete report for my Lembeh diving trip. On top of that, when it comes to diving, we divers don't normally 'nag' too much. Instead, short descriptions on the dive sites, and most important, thousands of pictures. The dive sites I dove in for this trip were Pulau Makawidey,, Jahir 1 (day 1), Nudi Retreat, Aer Perang, Pante Parigi (day 2), Tanjung Kubur, Aer Bajo, Jahir (day 3), Magic Rock and Teluk Kambahu (day 4). This trip was handled by Pak Angel, one of the staff from Malaysian-owned dive centre, Lembehscuba. Kudos to Nazir Amin. You made my dream came true.

Water temperature was cool enough for me, i.e 26-27'C. I relied solely on my 3/2 mm wetsuit but the cool water did not prevent me from searching the most beautiful marine invertebrates in the whole world, nudibranch and seaslugs. The fertile seabed due to volcanic activities previously contributed to the high diversity of marine organisms here. At several sites, the bottom was quite eye-soaring due to trash. But I was fine with that, as long as I don't have to search for nudibranchs under the trashes.  

Besides several species of nudibranch, other organisms that are very rarely spotted in Malaysian underwater is pygmy seahorse (mostly  sighted in Celebes sea off Sabah), frogfish (also only in Sabah), banggai cardinalfish (definitely non-existing in Malaysian underwater)

Nembrotha kumbaryana

Devil scorpionfish

Pygmy seahorse. Look at its mouth. Like a barbie doll rite?

Preggy pygmy...

Chromodoris willani

Painted frogfish. Nicely camouflaged.

Seahorse. It looks down, or shy maybe :)

Chromodoris annae

Lovely creature seahorse is

Hypselodoris bullockii

Bangai cardinalfish. Only in Indonesia

Flatworm. I don't know the species name

About to mate C. annae

A pair of rhinophores , important sensory organ

Rhinopias, another stunning creature. Looks dangerous

This bizarre looking creature is rabbitfish (I hope I'm correct with this)

It looks sad

Risbescia tryonni

Porcelain crab

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.

Krabi

Amazing!! That's the only word I have in mind about Krabi. I have been loving many places in Thailand,especially the islands and beaches. They are serene, clean and have their own kind of atmosphere which I can't experience it in Malaysia. I don't say Malaysia islands and beaches are lousy or bad, mind that. Of course, being one facing the Andaman sea,and  the other facing South China sea, things are surely not the same. 

I visited Krabi when Thailand was celebrating Songkhran Festival, which is the celebration of New Year in 15th (or 14th April) every year. It was WET!! Really WET here and there.

These people are celebrating Songkran Festival, which falls on 15th April (and it's my birthday)

Ladies enjoy being wet and wetting people.

 A popular place in Krabi is Ao Nang beach. Well,it's not

Kids and water cannot be separated

 because the beauty of the beach, but it is strategically located very convenient as a gateway to infamous Phi Phi island. There are other things doable in Ao Nang, including rock-climbing, shopping, boat-riding, kayaking and others. Halal food can be found easily in Ao Nang area, just get a little bit out of Ao Nang centre (uphill), where a mosque (still under construction, or maybe abandoned!!) can be seen on the left. From this point onward, many small shops serving halal foods are abundant. And like other typical Thai dishes, foods served are fresh and delicious.

Uncles on the pickup full of melons...so happy there!!

Ao Nang seems to be quite alive at night, with all the bars and the night markets. As usual, I 'am eyeing for souvenirs like the fridge magnets, pario and the carved soaps. Daily trips to Phi Phi islands are sold by most tour operators by the road side. Surveying for the best price is a must here. The price for a day trip to Phi Phi Island (covering Monkey Bay, Maya Bay,Bamboo beach, Phi Phi Don, Lohsama Bay and a few others I don't remember) should be around 1200-1500 Baht per person. But again, it is possible to get cheaper than that if we keep looking around.

Lohsama Bay

Clear emerald water.

Viking cave

Viking Cave with millions of bird's nest on it's walls

Maya Beach

The nicest part is to enjoy the beauty of Phi Phi islands and the surrounding places. The boat will pass through the limestone carsts with clear, transparent, emerald water. IT IS REALLY AMAZING!! It will be nicer if swimming is allowed but it is just not possible. The Viking Cave also is nice to see but unfortunately, one cannot enter the mouth of the cave. This cave is a place where it generates income for the birds' nest harvesters. Freaking risky job to do but worth the money earned (I guess). Lunch is included in the price and it is buffet style, spaghetti, noodles, rice, soups, chickens, fish etc. Phi Phi Island is mainly inhabited by Thai Muslims, so one do not need to worry about the status of the food served. They are delicious too.

Manila & Cebu, Philippines

My first trip to Philippine was truly a mixture of emotions, shocked, impressed, surprised, happy and disgusted. Shocked that this part of country is not what I have been imagining. I mean, initially I thought Manila is a city resembles Bangkok or Saigon, but it is not. I do not want to elaborate more on this. Impressed to see the historical remnants eg. Intramuros. Happy to get to see Philippines, and precisely, the cities of Manila and Cebu. Disgusted to see 'lechon baboi' here and there. But all in all, Philippines has its own beautiful sides especially it glorious and amazing underwater.

OK, so we took AirAsia to get to Clarke Field early in the morning. After 4 hour or so, we arrived Clark Diosdado Macapagal International airport and took a taxi to Manila city which is almost 2 hours away. It is really far and because of that, we did not have much time to see Manila in close. On our way to Manila city, we passed through Mt. Pinatubo, an infamous volcano in Philippine which has caused major disaster in the past eruptions. Other than witnessing this amazing volcano, we slept all the way to Manila. The journey was smooth and I'm impressed because they have such a smooth and wide highway road without potholes here and there

When arriving in Manila, we first searched for a hotel and checked-in, could not remember the hotel name though. And later, we hired an MPV and a driver to take us around Manila. We visited Philippine Cultural Centre, Jose Rizal Monument and The Intramuros. I love the environment in Intramuros as it looked a little like Europe in the Medieaval time. By the way, 'intra' means within and 'muros' means wall, so basically it was a visit to check out what they have within the walls. There are a cathedral, a fort, community buildings and several others.

It was really difficult to find halal food in Manila, so we just had our dinner at clean restaurants(clean as in they do not have 'lechon baboi' on display) and requested for dishes without any sort of meat except seafood.

And by the way, pictures taken in Manila were posted here before but for several reason, I have removed it.

The next day, we woke up early to catch flight to Cebu. Our 'el capitan' woke up the earliest and he went to the McDonads and got us Fillet-O-Fish and tea for our breakfast. We departed Cebu from Nino Aquino International airport (it looks more modern and organized than the Clark Field airport). The flight took only 1 hr ++. At Cebu, we were greeted by our dive guides, Windy and Jun Jun and took us to our chalet. We rested and got ourselves ready for diving.

To be frank, I love Cebu underwater a lot, especially at Mactan Island. The beaches are clean and the underwater visibility was superb. Need to reopen my dive log to write some short report here. I managed to take couples of pictures here.

Stonefish

Nemo and its home

Pipefish..I think

Chromodoris magnifica

My first encounter with seahare

Obese pufferfish

Pulau Sipadan, Sabah: 17-20 July 2008

It has been 3 months since I last updated my Friendster blog. Now here I am again, to jot a couple more trips to be shared with my fellow friends. For month of July, I managed to arrange time to dive at Sipadan. This time, more people and more ‘extraordinary’ people were joining this trip. Before I start to write, I would like to express gratitude to my new friends…Cik Din, Tan, Lim (Tan’s wife), Cha’am, Sabri, T-rex, Aidie and Al-Azahary..for making this trip memorable. Of course, I shouldn’t drop Maniza  from the divers list. U guys are just awesome fellows.

Me

The team

Well, as early as 3 am on 17th July, we (Maniza,, Aidie and I ) took a bus to LCCT from KL Sentral. Actually, our real plan was to catch a midnight bus ride but it all happened that the last bus service was at 10.30 pm. That meant, we have to wait for couple more hours at KL Sentral until 3 am. Sigghhh…but not a big deal though because KL Sentral is actually a kind of cool place to sit and chit chat. Our flight was at 7.20 so that means we have to wait for 4 hours at LCCT. There were so many people…and most of these people slept soundly on the benches, and I had to remain awake with extreme sleepiness. Around 6.30 pm, all other divers from Terengganu arrived LCCT and we checked in together.

At the mouth of Turtle Cave

Flight to Tawau took around 2.30 hours. We arrived Tawau airport and greeted by the SCUBAJUNKIE staff. We dumped our stuff in a car and a van. From Tawau, we have to travel to Semporna..and that took another 1 to 1.30 hours. Along the journey to Semporna, T-Rex was the one to make us remain awake with all his jokes. It’s good to know new people.
We arrived Semporna and checked in at the Scubajunkie backpacker. Later, we had our lunch and get ourselves out from our rooms. Semporna is actually a small town, so we managed to completely explore the town in a short while. It’s such a waste as we couldn’t do any dives that day. So basically, we had nothing much to do on our arrival to Semporna.

School of Barracudda

18th July 2008
Diving Sipadan is just every diver's dream. Being there for the 2nd time didn’t mean I had nothing to enjoy there. I was excited…really excited. By the way, this 2nd trip, I didn’t have to rent the equipments since I have already bought mine. It should be much better diving with own equipment. From my past experience where the BCD hose didn’t function that well, I think diving should be fun to the max without having to think about this kind of flaws.

School of Batfish

So, to start the dive, we descend at Hanging Garden, Sipadan. It was not a pleasant feeling to see the water appeared green. According to Kay (our female divemaster), that happened due to spawning of the corals. I felt a bit uncomfortable but for the sake of enjoying the dives, I just jumped in without any fuss. There was nothing much to see as I remembered. I believed there were so many things down there but when u keep on wobbling down there, and ur BCD didn’t fit u that well…definitely u would give attention to yourself rather than the surroundings. Bottom time was around 35 minutes if not mistaken.

Second dive was at Barracuda Point. As expected, school of batfish, school of jacks and school of Barracuda were seen. Current wasn’t that strong..or perhaps, very minimal, so the barracudas didn’t form a swirl as what most divers wanted to see. Rather, they swim slowly towards south and it was like a very intense moment. Now I remember, I didn’t get the chance to see that school of barracuda on my 1st trip to Sipadan.

The naughty one

And 3rd dives was at Turtle Point. We went to the cave that most divers talk about. Definitely we didn’t explore the cave as we didn’t have the experts to do so. We were visiting the mouth of the cave and experience the feeling to approach the cave. It was quite a panic moment for me as I hate darks or gloomy conditions. For a couple of minutes, we went out and proceed. There was a big nudibranch, yellow and black in color but my digicam didn’t function. Really frustrating.

19th July

This day was quite a frustrating moment. I was separated from the main group. They headed to Sipadan again but I had to join other English divers to Mabul. frankly speaking, I didn’t enjoy the dives as I was expecting to dive with other group members. And the worst was, I would not be able to dive at Kapalai, by right initially I have arranged with them before to dive Kapalai. Maybe this is an indication that I have to return to Sipadan again and dive Kapalai. Next year maybe.

1st dive began at Artificial Reef of Mabul which is near the Mabul Resort (not sure the exact name). Well, as Mabul famous for it’s muck divings, I was quite amazed with this site. Visibility wasn’t that good but as long as I can see the unique creatures, that’s good enough. There was scorpion leaffish, 2 lionfish resting side by side, giant cuttlefish and others. No nudibranch spotted. And guess what, the shelf-life of my digicam finally came to it’s end. Well, actually, I was the one cut short it’s shelf-life. Ahakss…I was so mad that I couldn’t snap the pictures, and with anger, I unclip the safety clip annnnddd…there it goes. I FLOODED MY DIGICAM. It was a disaster and I lost my mood to enjoy the dive. Sigghhh…..Bottom time was 45 minutes

2nd dive spot was at Seaventures. As compared to the previous trip, this time I saw many other creatures especially the giant froggies, giant morray eel, stonefish and the sweetlips. I was looking for the seafan where the Pygmy Seahorse was said to reside at it, but the seafan was no longer there. Tried to spot some nudibranch but all I saw was the common nudibranch. And even if I saw one, it was useless because my digicam was dead. So it’s better not to see any.

And finally, the 3rd dive was at Froggie Lair. Visibility sucks. Nothing much to see and such a waste of time. To conclude, I was disappointed because things turn out bad and under expectation. Lesson to learn, never put too put much expectation, and control my emotion when going underwater.Hehehe…

20th July
Time to say goodbye with a broken heart…kehkehkeh

Pulau Perhentian, Terengganu: 22-24 August 2008

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.