Miss you Ocean, Miss you Island life & your vibe.
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I believe I made one of my best impulse buys on a balmy saturday afternoon while wandering in Chinatown – I decided to head up to Eko Divers Dive School and booked myself an open water course dive at Tioman.
I knew if I was not going to do it then, it will be years later before I would consider again.
And I am glad I did it.
I was actually wanting to DIY my OWD course, choosing between Indonesia Lombok, Cebu or Perhentians, for better waters, marine life and visibility. Sadly, Tiger no longer flies to Lombok, Cebu flights are too expensive and Perhentian seems too much of a hassle to get there. Hence, leaving me with Tioman and getting the dive school to plan the travel and logistics out, its a nice feeling to just show up and everything is prepared 🙂 No struggle to figure out connections, language and what not.
The OWD consists firstly of 2 theory lesson – which I attended after work and sat for the final test at the end of the 2nd lesson, at 11pm. Seriously, after 1 full day at work, 4 hours of theory and a test that requires me to calculate some mathematics!? Well, let’s say I am glad I passed!
Next up – our pool session!
Again on the Sunday of our pool training, I felt lazy and unwilling to attend. Dragged my legs there and at the end of the day, I was tired but happy. Happy to have learnt more things, something out of my comfort zone.
A week later and the big day arrives, left work on a Friday evening and met up with the whole group of 30 students where we bused to Mersing in Malaysia to rest overnight and congregated again the next day at 5am to depart on the ferry for Salang Bay. Looking at all the other people sitting and waiting for the jetty boats to operate while we just bypassed them, hopping onto our boat and heading off, boy I was glad in a way I went with a package (I Know, so unlike me who will DIY everything).
On a side note, I need to thank all my lucky stars that one of the girls I met at the pool training gave me a sea sick pill. This life saving pill kept me from vomitting and feeling absolutely sick like the many times I have experienced in the sea – surfing in panana and having to be dragged back by a 10 years old kid where it ended with me vomitting on the beach beside him, in shame. Snorkelling in Gili T and Cebu was quite nauseating for me too, although I have to say these two places have such amazing waters, in retrospect, I regret not knowing how to dive and not having dived when I went there. I shall return!
So anyone who has sea sickness, do yourself a huge favor, pop this pill to really enjoy everything!
Passed out on the ferry for about 3 hrs before we arrived at Salang Bay. Lovely island, palm trees on hills and blue water! We saw some fishes already while walking on the jetty to the chalets. Had our breakfast and on to the real thing!
The water turned out to not be that great and currents were quite strong, and I think I am just spoilt by Gili and Cebu. But the experience being so free in the ocean was so liberating, defying the human body to glide on the ocean floor. I absolutely loved it, the ocean, the island, the whole vibe! I was even trying to do some ballet moves 🙂 Maybe next time when I have more dives done and become more familiar with the ocean.
Plus our instructors were great and friends made there made a difference to this trip! (More fun injected, of course)
Never thought I would be a beach ocean person, but at this present moment, to choose a vacation to hike a mountain (which is my number 1 thing on a vacay) or to do a dive on an island, I may have to betray my first love and go with diving…something about being in the water makes me so happy, so relaxed, and to see things in perspective…
There is just so much in life to experience and learn, so much more than my own world, and I never want to stop learning new things new skills new experiences.
I am so glad I did this, everyone should just push themselves to do things they normally will not do, we only live once – Be smart, push yourself and you find your heart beating with life. And beating to do it over and over again.
Wild Heart, Play Free 
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