Day 19 - The Dive That Never Was...

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So as we'd planned, we were supposed to be up at stupid o'clock again, but rather than it be to catch yet another flight, it was for diving. However we never made it. It wasn't because we'd gotten drunk; it wasn't because the weather was bad for diving; it wasn't even because the alarm hadn't gone off or it had but we'd overslept. No, we were ill.

Pre-bed on the previous evening the feelings of offness had struck both me and Daniel in different ways. I felt nausious and had the feeling like my stomach was spending the night playing in a lift. Daniel had a more typical complaint whilst travelling. So we had to cancel the morning dive, with the jury still out on a verdict for the afternoon dive.

Either way, in between feeling like I was Long John Silver on a boat, in a storm, riding a bucking bronco, I did manage to get some sleep, on the stinkiest pillow ever. So after letting the dive centre know we were not good, we went back to sleep till about 12. Feeling a little better but still not convinced of being well enough to dive, we showered and headed off to sit around the dive centre with a stop off to get some isotonic drinks for fluid and electrolyte replenishment and some bananas for general goodness.

A few hours out of that sodding room in the fresh air and a couple of cups of free tea later and he was feeling well enough to dive, I decided that relaxing with a book would be a more relaxing route to feeling better.

We started meeting some of the other divers - an English woman from KL called Rebecca, a Swedish girl called Heidi on her travels home after studying in Sydney and Danish couple called Katerine and Rasmus.

So, all acquainted with one another, he kitted up, got briefed about the dive ahead and headed off to Seabelle Rock.

The two hours flew by (for the both of us). I finished another book and chatted to Cissie, one of the Divemasters; he was looking at fish, coral, fish and nudibranches. They got back at about 5.30 pm and hee had tales of underwaterness and about how the pressure of the deep must be good for his ailment somehow as he said he never felt as good above the surface as he did when he was under it.

With the Perhentian Islands having less than reliable electricity, and with the task of logging the dive and de-kitting, we hung around till the lights and fans all came back on at around 6.40pm.

As we were still not feeling great and the mozzies being out in full force (a swarm had surrounded me in the dive centre), we headed back to the furnace for a freezing cold shower (the one temperature) and to change for dinner. We couldn't be bothered going far, so we ate at the Panorama resteraunt, that shows a film every night at 8. We ate a meal of cooked veg and rice to be good to ourselves for a change. We then went back to the sauna (it was that humid in there) to sweat it out a bit before trying to get a decent sleep so we could dive the next day

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