Return to Dayang..AGAIN!

Trip Report Pulau Dayang 25-27 September 2009

Dive Sites : Jawa, Telu Ran, Pulau Lang , Pulau Pinnang, Out of the Blue
Average bottom time per dive site: 40-45mins
Max depth ranges between dive sites : 17m -20m
Visibility : super good lo 15-20m
Water Temp: 26 degrees happie!
Dive Master : Gloria
Leisure Dive Group Buddies : Heng, Lenny , LeRoy , Chris , Peter
Diver Operator : Equator Dive

Yes i went diving over the weekend :D woohoo! Compressed air withdrawals were getting too unbearable..

Dive Trip Highlights

• It was a land trip , something i havent done in awhile. allowed me to rest and stone on the island



• my very first moray eel shot!



• discovering the "underwater" mode camera function (albiet only on the last dive) that gives my pics more red! no more blue blue blue shots!



• underwater photography skills have greatly improved! less blurry shots, more cool clear shots of fishies!



• air consumption has greatly improved



• watermelons on board



• beautiful sunrise and sunsets



• beautiful scene of rainstorm in the middle of the open sea



• magic rock with curtains and curtains of fishies!



• compressed air induced deep slumber



• Orh Bee Ber dessert !



• skipping night dive in favour of being first in line to the BBQ dinner muahhaah

Dive Trip Lowlights

• It was a land trip , something i havent done in awhile. 2-3 hours by bus. 4 hours by boat. not funny. Im getting too old for this



• 15-20 pax in a room. Im too old for non resort accomodation...lucky for me all that traveling and scuba diving made me too sleepy to care



• dont worry staffy I love you its all that matters



• all meals are SPICY...booooo



• surfacing on choppy waters and feeling nauseated on 3rd dive



• BCD inflator hose button got jammed. causing bouyancy problems and coral scratches on 3rd dive



• sand sand everywhere



• Dayang resort is SPARTAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!



• Why does it always thunderstorm and rainstorm when i go on dive trips? huh? why huh? we hit a really angry thunder rain storm on the journey back to mersing jetty It was beautiful and Powerful at the same time. very awe inspiring!

It was an exhilirating dive trip, I'll let the pictures do the talking :)

I took over 475 photos on this dive trip. snapped away without care ! Guppies love digital cameras! Im pretty pleased with alot of the underwater shots i took on this trip.

Friday, i ditched work early and rocked up to Rambai Road, where equator dive was supposed to be based. when I got there then i realised it was somebody's house. I arrived at 7pm

Where the hell is rambai road? you mean the dive centre is somebody's house? dive gear bags lined driveway of the house.

After we got the paper work settled ( indemnity forms, gear checks , introductions etc) we boarded the airconditioned coach and made our way across the causeway . We only left rambai road at 8pm by the time we cleared malaysia customs it was well past 9pm already
close to about 11ish, we made a pitstop at Kota Tinggi where we had some supper before resuming our journey across the sea.. on a 4 hour boat ride to Dayang island!

Ya we hungry..where is our din din! feed us feed us

Guppies ordered Nasi Goreng Ayam and ended up with fried rice and some chicken smothered in sambal chilli, ....so she changed her order to Nasi Ayam..and got steamed chicken rice..with some fried chicken and an egg.

what i really wanted was fried rice and fried chicken...but it was too hard to swing - dont speak malay ..booooooo

Gloria and grace...dive masters..who are on the job for our trip..sharing a plate of dinner..wah times are bad man ...so poor thing must share dinner..hhahaha

we arrived around 3-4 am at Dayang island after 4 hours of a rocky boat ride across choppy seas. As i was travelling alone, i ended up having to share a double bed with another leisure diver. who was nice enough not to "mind" staffy also sharing the bed with us hahahahaha. Ultimately i think everyone was too tired to care where we slept we just did.

And for the next 2 mornings, sat and sunday. we awoke to beautiful sunrises like this --

Dayang is one of those amazingly located islands, look to the left of the jetty, you see beautiful sunrises...in the evening, look to the right of the jetty you see the most orange brilliant sunsets ....

Dayang island is Spartan. its rustic. its bare bones. you're lucky we get airconditioning, electricity and hot water. ...ah but theres nice white sand sand sand sand everywhere..on day 1 i was so elated and excited to feel sand between my toes...by the last day i was annoyed that there was sand sand everywhere ..in the room, on my bed...in my booties...eeeeeeee OKAY ! Lets go diving!

Gloria ( who incidentally is one great dive master..i havent seen too many female dive masters around. and i was impressed! ) giving a pre-dive briefing .. one thing i noticed is Equator dive does not do topography drawings , drawing of the island what shape etc for the dive briefing. they just brief. its ok for me ive been to dayang so many times i know where and what to expect each dive site.,. but for noobs it might be useful..hmmmmeveryone trying to stay awake..and listen to the briefingThere was 27 people in our group, the bulk of which were on course..either taking their open water certification or advanced open water certification. I went with a group of guys who were just like me...on holidays..leisure diving. no course for me thank u very much.

here we go here we go here we gosign on the boat...mustve been written by boatman...open water divers rigging up for their first dive! they are on the starboard side of the boatWhile advanced divers and leisure divers rigged up on Portside of the boatReady set go!!twas a dive full of crampy men!Leroy got foot cramp and the guys helped him to remove the crampthen someone else got foot cramp! aargh! and leroy went to help

Thankfully we sorted all the crampiness out and it was on to some serious fish perving !

Here are some of my happie underwater shots...

yellow damselsblue damselsmoray eel - YES YES YES!!!!!!!!! Ah i love this pic i took of another diver..observing some percula clown fish a.k.a nemos...this will give you a sense of how big these fishes and anemones are..vs an average diver!i had to literally hover..aim. balance and shoot to get shots of these fishies tada,,,no more hiding nemos...this time round..can get colours nicer but now i have clearer nemo shots! so happie!My super clear shot of a cuttlefish in camouflage..only me and one other diver spotted him..everyone else just swam over him!another type of clownfish its a nice shade of grey...i love nemos!coral patches are really pretty too underwaterstarfish GIANT - a.k.a must be damn old nudi branch! safety stop cam whoring time!
More cam whoring on the surface..while waitin for the boat to swing back and pick us up after the diveHeheheh yes this is me being insane with my watermelon on board the boat.this pic is dedicated to moomoo the undisputed melon seed spitting queenafter almost each dive we will return to the island for tea break, lunch, snacks, and surface interval breaks while the boatmen replendished and restocked on the air tanks

A beautiful sunset greeted us as we returned from our dive on saturday evening.

Before I knew it, the weekend was over, we had done all our dives and it ewas time to make the same long arduos journey back to mersing jetty and then to Singapore again...

And this next photo is something you dont see very often - on the way back from pulau dayang to mersing jetty on the mainland of malaysia we sailed smack into the middle of a thunderstorm..

I went to the bow of the boat...there were no railings..it was still kinda dry but we can smell the thunderstorm ahead..waters were choppy..i sat my ass on the glass window ..the captain of the boat behind me faced the oncoming thunder clouds and took these amazing shots before running back into the boat ..just intime as we sailed into the storm...

awesome!! it rained so heavily that the boat was leaking throught the roof!

This was a great trip. I think Im in trouble now,.,,now i want to do more diving...blyeaaah but got to get back to work..sigh...wait for me my love...i will be back again to swim and play in the depths of your blue beauty...