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Hello! Ben here, i haven't done many of these entries so i figured i should do one. I'm passing the time between getting back from our diving course and having dinner.
So yesterday we had our first day of our PADI open water diving course. Did plenty of theory stuff, did some diving in a small pool (not much bigger than me!) and then much to our surprise were taken into the sea for a dive! Sarah has been once before but i have never, and i was really hoping to soak in all the facts and theory before being dumped on the bottom of the ocean!
Now some background information for perspective. For a lot of my life i was very scared of fish. Once my sister (Naomi) pushed me off the end of a very long jetty (in Monte Carlo i think) into a huge school of pretty big fish, at the time, my worst nightmare. I'd never swam so fast as i did then away from those fish. Moving through life i realised i was a bit silly and started liking fish a bit more, to look at from a distance. I would sometimes panic though if i was in sea and couldn't really see below me, the thought of what might be there gave me chills. But i kind of got over this irrational fear as well, but am still not that comfortable in sea that has other things in it apart from me! In Padaing Bai recently in Bali we snorkelled (rather stupidly) over rock and coral at low tide with strong currents, which was pretty rubbish and i didn't like that either! So i was a bit apprehensive coming to do this diving, but i thought it'd toughen me up a bit and sort out my relationship with the sea and everything in it.
The outcome of the dive is that i realise i couldn't care less if a fish came and rubbed itself on my face, i like fish now, and coral is pretty cool. But when you're on the bottom of the ocean for the first time and not really sure what you're doing it's a bit worrying (for me anyway because i am a wuss). So i panicked and came very close to giving up there and then. I looked up and saw the masses of water above me, and couldn't help thinking that if i screw up i'm a goner. Silly really in retrospect. But thankfully i stuck at it and it was pretty good. Once i could get off the ocean floor (it took me quite some time), i would push off (bad technique) then just sink again! and then when i thought i'd got the hang of it i would start rising uncontrollably towards the surface, and had the instructor keep pulling me down! i was a bit worried id float up too fast and my eyes would explode out of my nose or something. But i got the hang of it! (after a very long time). We swam around a bit, saw some nice fish, tube fish, fake clown fish (small Finding Nemo fish), and some other fantastic things that we can't remember the names of! So that was fun, i think Sarah has found something she really loves which is great. I'm still undecided. That evening we had beer (!) and our stomachs held up! (and we're even back on the hell melting curries!), but we were very tired after the diving so went to bed fairly early (after learning from a lady we were talking to that they film the worldwide versions of a program called 'Survivor' on the nearby islands (Norwegian, South African and American i think), anyone heard of that?).
So today, back to the old diving centre. More theory, then into the pool for more techniques.
I'm a bit rubbish with fin control, very rubbish really.
Our second technique to perform was to simulate an emergency ascent, with no air (just one breath in your lungs), but as we were in the swimming pool (not much bigger than me remember!) we had to do it horizontally in a curcuit. I tried many many times and just kept swimming head first into the wall in front of me, much to the amusement of Emmy (our instructor) and Sarah, and even to myself really, it was pretty funny. It took me a good 10 gos to half get the hang of it. We moved on before i really got the hang of it because time doesn't grow on coconut trees. Coconuts do. (but they're not hairy on the outside, just the inside! crazy huh!?)
We went in the sea once but just for a smimming test, easy peasy, and some skin diving and snorkelling. We had no idea what skin diving was before hand. Its basically going very deep with just a mask, snorkel and fins and swimming along the bottom for as long as you can on a held breath. This was brilliant. I could actually do this. We saw this amazing big fat eel thing with crazy beady eyes that stared at us from under its rock (we only saw the head but they're over a metre and a half long apparently). Sarah: 'diving down and smimming with fins fulfils the dream of being a mermaid that every 8 year old girl has, and never grows out of!'. It was good. Tomorrow apparently we're going off in a boat with a lady from Stoke/Taunton (as well as Emmy) to a dive site which has lots of sharks (white tip and black tip sharks- apparently very timid, lets hope so!).
So that is our diving experience. Two days down, two to go (for this course anyway).
For any of you wondering who we might have mentioned to before, we're doing it here instead of Sabah because we needed an excuse to stay here longer!
a little bit about Tioman (and Air Batang, or 'ABC'):
You can walk from one end of the village/town to the other in around 15 to 20 minutes. On one side you have a coconut tree lined beach and the ocean, the other side you have perhaps 10 to 40 feet of man land (chalets, restaraurant huts, the odd shop, the locals houses) then you have thick thick jungle that rises up and over the hill/mountain in the centre of this island. It is amazing. It is apparently peak season but to us this place is deserted (at other parts of this island (far awy from here) there are two big hotels that house the Malay holiday makers). There are cats wandering around, one that has taken a huge shine to me and Sarah and keeps coming through our window looking for affection, i think we are too nice to it). In equal measure to the wandering cats there are these huge monitor lizards, 6 feet at their longest, forked snake-like tounges, scaley green things, that don't really take much notice of you, they will just walk out in front of you casually. It is incredible. You see them swimming around in the sea inlets, and they are amazing, the kind of thing you'd have to go to a zoo to see, and never hope to see in the wild (but to the locals they seem to be treated much like the cats, just a part of the background). Also there are lots of bats flying around, and apparently loads of monkeys just inside the jungle (apparently we should have seen them by now). This place really is excellent.
The food place where we are staying supplies such delicacies as chips with cheese and gravy ('poutain' apparently), potato wedges and burgers, although their idea of a vegetable burger is a homemade beef burger with carrots in! thus last night for dinner (our western food treat) Sarah had two burgers and i had a bun and some chips!) We do stick mostly to the local food though as it is at least half the price, and really really nice. For our lunch today Sarah had a rice dish with a vague fish element (the occasional small fish crunch apparently, a mystery), something she never would have attempted at home. For me, i stick to vegetable currys and sweet and sour vegetables.
Right, that is quite long enough, sorry if i have bored you. It is time for dinner. Take care everyone.
(PS Sarah has decided to become a scuba instructor in the summer and a lawyer in her free months at home)
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Shiv
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Wow, that was a long 'un Ben! Glad you have overcome your fish phobia. Send us some pics!!! We've just confirmed that we'll be doing the Big Chill and you two won't be there :( Why do I always say yes to it? All I do is complain! xx