Travel Note - Dayang Dreaming

it was a great weekend, a weekend where i finally FINALLY got my open water certification. my dream since high school. a dream that kept on getting postponed until now.

prior to the weekend, i attended the class session and pool sessions. pool wise, i had another extra session as i was panic on the 2nd session. why? water kept on going inside my mask. not to mentioned my problem with mask clearing and mask removal. the easiest they said, for me that's the toughest.

a week prior to my trip, i found out about a diver who died during diving in that particular island. and on the morning of my trip, a friend reminded me about that incident with few additional info that made me freaked out. i ended up calling mum and dad asking for their blessing, giving a copy of my travel insurance to my workmates and non-stop praying. i tend to panic and my friend wasn't helping me with the info she gave me (she did apologies when i returned *safely*).

as for the trip? here it goes ...

day 01 - friday, aug 15th 2008

we gathered at the diving shop and left at about 7ish pm. made a stop to fix the hand break which was causing some burning smell. stop for supper and we arrived at mersing late night. as it was low tide so the boat couldn't get into the jetty, we ended up in a speed boat and changed to the boat in the middle of the ocean. reached pulau dayang at 4ish am we straightaway get ourself to bed for the following day.

day 02 - saturday, aug 16th 2008

after breakfast we get into the boat at 9am for our 1st dive at pulau lang. i was a bit nervous doing my 1st giant step in the ocean. i managed to do so and after calming myself i descended with the others. it was awesome. the fishes, the corals everything. we were welcomed by a bumphead fish which our instructor said was something fascinating as you seldom see them in that depth. somehow while swimming i ended up floating and couldn't get myself down. i couldn't do anything when i saw my instructor was swimming around looking for me. luckily one of the guy looked up and saw me, he came up and pulled me down. the dive continued with me floating up every now and then. it just get frustrated when the instructor was pointing an angel fish to us and up i went. i was told afterwards that it was due to my way of swimming. i need to learn flipping better.

back to the island for lunch. afterwards we did another dive at another location, this time it's at cador bay. here we did all the test we need to do for the certification. i was quite worried about the mask clearing but i managed to do it well. woohoo. 2nd regulator exchange, regulator retrieval and few other tasks then off we went for another diving around the area. of course me floating up here and there as well.

back to the island for tea break and off we went for our 3rd diving - captain's point. here we continued our task. the instructor asked us to do all within one day so that we could spend the next day simply enjoying the diving. i was a little panic here as we have to do mask removal. a little bit puzzled when i was only asked to do the hovering and pivoting. apparently she didn't want me to feel pressured doing the mask removal in front of everyone, so thoughtful of her. while waiting for the rest i was down below with her hubby, who is the advance open water instructor. him floating cross legged just reminded me of zeus, haha. once everyone were on the surface she came down to pick me up. that was when she asked me to do the mask removal. took it off and put it on and then i have problem with the mask clearing that i simply shot up. she approached me and asked if i'd like to do it on the following dive. i said yes, and continued with the cesa and tired diver tow tests.

back to the island - end of diving for us. we had dinner and chit chatted while waiting for the advance diver doing their night dive. somehow the accident story came up and i told them that i knew about it, how it made me panic now as i tend to shoot up without realising it (the accident was because the diver made a quick ascend and hit the boat).

day 03 - sunday, aug 17th 2008

we started early. first dive was at 7am. as per usual, we were briefed prior to the dive. we're told that this time around we're going 18m deep, no longer 12m deep. i was a bit restless because i still have the tendency to shoot up and with that depth i can't afford that, not if i want to avoid the decompression sickness not to mention the nitrogen narcosis *something like that*. and this time around we're no longer accompanied by bob, the buoyancy ball we hold on to once we're in the water. not to mention the water is very choppy. i was always the last one to go down because my buddy is my instructor. this time around she told me that i had to get in fast as everyone were drifting away. prior to this, while rigging i noticed something wrong with my tank and they had to change the o-ring. all these made me kinda panic but i jumped anyway. once in i felt the taste of my air was strange. my mind started to run wild that i kept on saying i wasn't ready to descend. she asked me to make up my mind fast as the rest were drifting further and further. i then decided to abort the dive and the boat came to pick me up. its better for me to abort the dive then continuing with panic. God knows what'd happened if i panic down there, and this is pretty deep - at least for me. apparently the funny taste was because i didn't drink enough water. and guess what, few minutes after they descended one by one popped up. apparently some got separated from their buddy and the visibility was very bad. the diving was then aborted. i made a right decision.

back for breakfast and we left again at 9.30am - pulau lang. this time around i had to do the mask removal. that or fail. the hubby was so cute, he came to me and said "you, don't kancheong. i saw you yesterday. you were pretty close". i did the removal but as usual had problem clearing the mask. i don't know.. it should be the easiest task but my mouth and nose never work great together. several times i wanted to descend but my instructor hold me and asked me to look into her eyes. anyhooo i made it! her hubby did some salto and chicken dance for me and guess what, the minute we started swimming a turtle came out from behind a coral and swam toward us. the instructor later said "even the turtle congratulated you. it was like 'finally!!'". i spent most of the time holding my instructor's hand though as once i was alone i floated. sooo frustrated. i've already given additional weight but still floated. one of the guy said its because of my flipping. seriously i need to practice more on this. did our equipment removal in water near the jetty. that completes our certification 'exam'.

after the dive we went back for lunch, had a shower and left the island.

it was a nice weekend. i am so blessed to end up having her as my instructor and the guys as my course mates - each and every one of them really took care of me. especially one of them who was always looking above for me and fetched me once he saw me there. my instructor said that i am the most determined student she's ever taught and she hoped to see me again. my answer was "definitely".

i want to do more leisure dive and i hope to do it with her. she's so patience and so loving. not to mention beautiful.i am just blessed to have her as my instructor.