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Published: March 24th 2009
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21st March 2009
Once again at 6:00am were up and suited up, actually I’ve been up a good hour and a half taking some long exposure shot of the complex and waiting for the sunrise. I’m also pretty excited about our first proper dive to 12 metres, I can’t wait.
After going through all our equipment safety checks we carefully climb down the steps into the water at the entrance to the complex. Pili’s out and away with her face down and breathing confidently. We all gather around and are told we are going to follow a safety line down to the bottom and there we will have a brief swim around at 12 metres. As I’m about to submerge, I’ve been chosen first, Pili get the horrors and insists she is not doing it and heads for the steps. We all think sheis joking at first but I then see in her eyes that she’s really scared and she wants out. We are all surprised, in fact it was Renata who first thing this morning said she wasn’t going to go as she was uncomfortable at the idea of being at 12 metres and it was mostly Pili
Twelve metres and going up
I'm ready to take my PADI, YEAH!!! who talked her into having a ago. Normally I’d try and calm her but decided against it as this is a dangerous thing to do and I want her to be confident without any pressure from me. Saddened I start to release the air from my jacket and start to guide myself down the line to the depths below. The pressure does make my ears hurt but only for a moment and then everything is fine. Renata and Zbynek are soon with me. The instructor then takes me out on a open water swim around. It’s hard to put into words how amazing this is, I have no fear at all and just basically want to do more. I thought I’d feel uneasy in the gloom at this depth but all I could do is look around in awe at the life before me. The guys then take it in turns to do the same, we have some photos and then go back up to the surface with only a couple of brief stops to depressurize ourselves, it’s very dangerous to go up too quickly. The whole dive has lasted about 35 minutes and I have to say it’s in
the top three best experiences of my life. Our instructor informs us that we could easily pass the PADI qualification, and that is what I’ll be doing given the first chance.
Pili is very sad, as soon as she bottled it she knew she’d made a mistake. I will make sure she has another go, she’ll be better than me, she’s a much better swimmer so we put it all down to experience.
After lunch we go to Sibuan Island for more snorkelling, it isn’t as good as yesterday by we still have a great time.
On return we pack and get ready to leave at 4:00pm. Vicky the manager hasn’t come to work and it seems she is wriggling out of the compensation we’d agreed upon. I get her staff to call her on the mainland and she give me a load of bull so to cut a long story short I tell her I will stay and send the others home and personally greet all her knew customers and tell them about her company's false marketing. We get paid!!
Back at the mainland we then have a few problems with arsehole taxi drivers trying
to rip us off. I’m starting to get mad especially when we agree the fare from one guy who then takes us to the petrol station, ask for half the fare, fills up and then takes us back to the pick up point and asks us to get into another taxi. I get out the taxi, throw my sunglasses on to seat and very firmly demand my money back. The guy and his friend see that I’m fired up and ready to go and again I get our money back. I don’t know what it is, whether they’ve previously had an easy time exploiting the western tourists or they just try it on with everyone, today they picked the wrong white boy!
We eventually get a taxi and head for the airport for an internal flight back to Kota Kinabalu and Lucy’s. We arrive at 11:00am and we’re happy to see Lucy’s friendly face. Pili and I then go outto grab a quick beer and something to eat, great chicken & beef Satay with peanut sauce, then to bed.
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