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Published: June 27th 2010
Well its been a whlie since my last blog so thought i would update you as to what i have been upto. As you all know for the last 3 weeks i have been on the perhentian islands, well for the first week and a half i was just doing some fun dives with Sunlight divers whilst i was looking for some DM work in SE Asia. When i was on the perhentians an oppurtunity arose for me to do some free lance DM work for Matahari Divers on long beach, perhentian kecil. this was my first experience of working as a DM in a resort environment as the only other experience i had was whilst i was working for Coral Cay Conservation (which is where i did my DM course).
I was diving between 2 and 3 times a day taking down between 1 and 4 people on dives and guiding the divers around all the dive sites around the Perhentian Islands. I was lucky that the other DM working for the shop had an ear infection so was unable to dive at the time so i managed to make some ok money and take a lot of people
diving and practice all the skills i learnt during my Dm course and havent really used since like giving Dive briefings and selling dives in a shop environment.
I also had the experience that all dive professionals which have worked in the perhenitans have had to experience and that is the initiation into an "elite" group of people that have guided dives on Tokong Laut otherwise known as "Temple of the Sea"........ The initiation is fairly simple, it starts by leading a group of paying customers on a dive, the second step is to alert your group that there is a Titan Triggerfish (Balistoides Viridescens), and now for the "Fun" part, the final step is to use yourself as a human shield as a one metre long chunky and heavily armoured fish charges you repeatedly in an attempt to ward you away from it's territory. At this point im sure many of you are thinking that it doesnt seem like fun or something that happens very often, and this is true everywhere else i have dived but around the dive sites at the perhentians it is a fairly common occurance. the only way to avoid the Titan taking chunks
out of you, your dive equipment and the paying customers is by swimming down and away from it as it charges you, making sure that you keep your fins in the way and if it gets too close then proceed to boot/fin kick it in the head. Ok, well im sure all of you reading this are now thinking that it doesnt sound like a very nice or environmentally friendly thing to do, and usually i would agree but there is nothing else really that you can do if it decides to attack, and lets be honest if he is trying to take a chunk out of me or my fins then he definately deserves a barrage of kicks to the face!!!!
I have since been offered a DM role in the Gili Islands in Indonesia and have taken the role. This means i have 3weeks or so in which to do a few fun dives in some places that i have always wanted to dive. I am currently In Kota Bharu in Malaysia but will shortly be moving on to KL again before i make my way to Sulawesi for a "holiday" and to dive 1 of the
most prestigous muck diving locations the world has to offer! Here i am hoping to give my underwater camera a thorough work out taking photos of all the weird and wonderful offerings Lembeh Straits has to offer to those of us divers who prefer the thrill of the hunt for macro life. Due to the fact i was working i didnt
have much chance to use my camera for my last week and a half on perhentians but here are some more underwater
photos that i took whilst i was fun diving!
I will update you all with my travel plans once everything has been finalised!
Take care and i hope you enjoy the blogs and photos!
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