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SAY NO to SHARK FIN!!!

Watching this hilarious video makes me a little worried that one fine day, I might, like her, lose it with people who insist on slurping their shark fin... 

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YouTube - Shark Sister tantrum in Hong Kong 鯊魚有壓力!
  

3rd quarter 2008, budget airlines - Air Asia & Jetstar (& subsequently - Tiger Airways) announced that they were starting direct flights to Kota Kinabalu from March 2009 & a friend had bought Air Asia's promo tickets for the long weekend of 1st May. Found out that 9th May is another holiday, so I started to plan for a long trip to Sabah, using both holidays & until my birthday (so that I didn't have to work on my birthday). Priority was to dive the famous Sipadan. As we (I) researched & finalised our plans, priority somehow shifted to the famous & more exclusive Layang Layang http://www.avillionlayanglayang.com/ (only 1 resort there) because staying at Mataking, Kapalai etc would cost us nearly the same... As priority shifted, funds allocation also shifted, so decided to go budget for Sipadan area & chose Scuba Junkie http://scuba-junkie.com/.

To cut the long story shorter (I try), this was our itinerary:

• 30 Apr: S’pore to Kota Kinabalu KK. on JetStar Afternoon river cruise
• 1 May: KK to Tawau on Malaysia Air Services (MAS), Tawau to Semporna
• 2 May: Semporna to Mabul (Dive Mabul 3 dives)
• 3 & 4 May: Dive Sipadan (3 dives each day) & night Dive at Mabul on 4 May
• 5 May: R&R at Mabul, 3pm transfer to Semporna
• 6 May: Semporna to Tawau to KK (Air Asia) 
• 7 May: KK to Layang Layang on chartered MAS. (2 dives)
• 8 – 10 May: Dive Layang Layang (3 boat dives + 1 dusk jetty dive a day)
• 11 May: Layang Layang 1 Dive. Visited Bird Island. R&R rest of the day.
• 12 May: MAS Layang Layang to KK to S’pore on JetStar. Reached S’pore b4 12noon.

This is the long story… (non dive day are highlighted in Orange & dive days in Blue)

• 30 Apr:
• Morning: S'pore to Kota Kinabalu (KK) by Jetstar S$192 each (Jetstar cancelled the 1st May flight, so need to take leave for 1 more day). Coincidentally, Terence's army friend & his friends were also taking the same flight, their flight on the 29 Apr was also cancelled! They only found out at the airport, as nobody reconfirmed the flight.  
• Afternoon: Reached KK in the late morning, checked into Daya Hotel KK (booked through Nemo Travel - who handled our Layang Layang booking). The room was very comfortable, although a little on the small side. Had an early lunch at the Kopitiam (coffeshop) at the next block. Only In Borneo http://www.oibtours.com/ picked us from Daya around 1:30pm for the Proboscis Monkey & Firefly River Cruise MYR180 (booked through River Junkie http://www.river-junkie.com/proboscis-monkey/) We were transferred from a van to a bus at a hotel at the outskirts of town. From there, it was a 2+hrs drive to Garama River, or so we were told... We were 1+hr into our journey, when the bus stopped at the roadside due to problems with the brakes, abt 12 of us had wait to join another bus & 1 family of 5 continued their journey in a van.
• Upon reaching Garama, we walked for 5mins on the boardwalk through a marshy area (reminded me of the boardwalk in Pulau Ubin) to the rest area aptly called Monkey Cafe. A gang of long tail macaques were foraging for food in the marsh. Tea-break was served - Tea/Coffee, some yummy snacks (goreng pisang & glutinous rice cakes). We rented a powerful binoculars equaled by its size & weight & boarded a fiberglass speedboat for the cruise. We started the cruise abt 4pm. The river & the surrounding forest was peaceful, only to be disrupted by the roar of the boats’ engines. It was not a comfortable cruise (it was more like a longgg boat ride), we were sitting on the hard fiberglass with not much of stretching space for 2hrs (do get your bladder emptied before boarding), luckily near the end of the cruise, we managed to spot a family of abt 10 proboscis monkeys foraging on a tall leafy tree (Terence & I were the 1st ones to spot them!). We watched them for awhile & were making our way back, when another smaller group was spotted! They were nearer to the river but the evening was wearing on & it was getting too dark to observe & photograph them. The cruise ended in near darkness. After having a nice & simple buffet dinner, we went back onto the boat again, this time to see fireflies! We did see some twinkling in the forest, it was quite nice but the twinkling was quite weak & some Asian tourists were flashing their cameras away & dazzling (blinding) us! Was glad that the cruise ended soon after. We were dropped at the village’s jetty, it was a nice walk back to the bus, passing by the villagers’ houses & mosque. We reached Daya around 11pm & were dead tired!
• 1st May. Had a late breakfast at Daya, packed & checked out. Transfer did not show up, so we took a cab to the airport., 20 MYR. Quick browse around the new KK airport & then boarded the relatively empty MAS flight MYR106 ea (w 20kg of baggage). Mt Kinabalu looked majestic & near. Scuba Junkie (SJ) arranged pickup at Tawau airport, there were only 2 of us in the van so MYR 80, it was an hour plus drive to Semporna. We checked into 1 of SJ Backpackers' maroon coloured ensuite rooms for the night MYR 60, with breakfast for 2 & free internet. It was an ok room, except we could hear rats (or something) running on the roof (scared us initially, we got used to it gradually, only hope that none fall onto the bed) & the roof was leaking when it rained heavily in the middle of the night... We had very nice no brand chicken burgers (MYR 2 each) at the corner stall at the end of the block of SJBK. Until today, Terence still misses the burgers dearly.  In the evening we had dinner 1 of the coffee-shops  near the circle, the bbq chicken wings were quite nice but our clothes reeked of bbq smell after that.
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• 2nd May. Assembled at SJ dive shop at 8am, there were 3 boats of abt 30 divers going out that morning, 2 to Mabul/Kapalai, 1 going to Sipadan, it was quite chaotic. We had to get our own luggage to the boat. Hey, no frills ya... Abt 40mins bumpy, high-speed boat ride later, we arrived at Mabul. SJ's Mabul Beach Resort MBR looked wonderful & inviting. And we met pretty Nana again! She was diving with us for 2 days. After a mad rush to get ready our gear & such, we were off to the boat again. There were abt 18 divers, led by 3 DMs. Our 1st dive was at Manta Point which was 5mins away, with our DM of the day - Jenny. Max Depth MD: 30.9m, Time In TI: Bottom Time BT: 50mins Viz: 20m. Very nice wall dive, anemone with shrimps, blue nudi w white edge, 2 nudis - 1  abt 10cm "big", the other s half the size, a 30cm big crocodilefish! Longfin batfish, a large green sea turtle scuffled  by, just no manta. 2nd dive was at Sting Ray Alley also abt 5mins away, TI: 12:51pm, BT: 64mins, MD: 31.9m Viz: 20m. It was a beautiful wall dive similar with Manta Point with a splendid reef top. There was nice nudi Phyllidiopsis pipeki, I spotted a small skirmish scorpionfish & the name-sake of this site sting-ray (blue-spotted), Jenny spotted a bigger crocodilefish abt 50cm! A lovely green sea-turtle swam towards us & then zoomed into the blue when it noticed us. There was a small school of longfin batfish. After a late lunch, not very worth mentioning, we went diving at the Sea Ventures Rig, just directly outside the MBR jetty. TI: 3:39mins, BT: 52mins, MD: 17.7m Viz 12m. Surface surge & current was quite strong but it was a nice muck dive, really enjoyed it! Jenny wanted to show us a pygmy seahorse which they saw yesterday but we were not as fortunate. We did get to see a blue ribbon eel, a cute blenny which made his home in a pipe, network pipefish, peacock mantis shrimp, a small white mantis shrimp, beautiful nudis - a Halgera carlsoni & 2 Chromodoris wallini (quite alot of them at Sipadan too), trumpetfish, many-spotted sweetlips, a large scopionfish near the line, small school of barracudas & a very friendly batfish.
• 3rd May. The boat came from Semporna, picked us up around 9+am, 20+mins later, we reached Sipadan at last. It was a gloomy morning & our DM of the day was Paul. Our 1st dive was at South Point. TI: 10:27am, BT: 51mins, MD: 27.3m, Viz: 30m. We were dropped onto the reef-top, then descended down the 45deg wall, it was quite colourful. I spotted a moray eel, a green sea turtle swam above us. Paul spotted a white-tip reef shark resting at about 40m, then a couple more white-tips at shallower depth.  We saw several large unicornfish was having a bubble-bath provided by the Czech & a large green sea turtle was "harassed" by the other group of divers. Next dive was at the most famous Sipadan site - Barracuda Point! TI: 12:38m, BT: 53mins, MD: 23.5m, Viz 17m. We were greeting by a large pickle-handle barracuda, when we descended. We also saw a green sea turtle. At the channel, there were several white-tips resting on the sandy bottom, they were quite tolerant of divers. Then we met the famous barracudas cyclone - very nice! Our surface interval was on Sipadan! I wanted to get some fresh water for the camera & ventured into the flooded toilet complex, yeeks... After a barely edible lunch of 3/4 cooked rice, 3/4 cooked noodles, watery potato+chicken curry & very little veggies, the only nice thing was the bananas! (The noodles & rice were a little better on the next day) Had a walk around the nice white sand beach & a dip in the sea. Only a small area of the beach around the jetty & rest area, was accessible. 3rd dive was at Lobster Lair, maybe there used to be lobsters at this site... TI: 3pm, BT: 61mins, MD 20.4m, Viz: 20m. Colourful wall dive, lots of Chromodoris Wallani & Chromodoris, usually in threes, they were on brown sponges. The Czech lady spotted a large green sea turtle on a ledge looking at us with its large shiny eyes, very cool! We also saw several white-tips swimming below us. Nice dive! When we got back to Mabul, Nana had to rush around to get her things to the boat & we bade her farewell, she had enjoyed the Mabul/Sipadan part of her trip.
• 4th May. Our DM at Sipadan was Rosie. She was to exhaust herself, taking care of some newly certified AOW & OW divers, was glad that she was really steady & those divers were pretty well-behaved & opened to instructions! & we also made some new friends, including European - Imants & S'porean - Fay, they also joined us for the night dive. Like the previous day, we had to sign in at the Sipadan jetty, get the flag before we can dive. There was some commotion at the jetty that morning - a napolean wrasse was spotted! The water was so shallow & we could see it clearly! Our 1st dive was at the beautiful Turtle Patch - we did indeed encountered several turtles & was close to 1! There were also several white-tips & grey reef! Nice! Altho it was a little choatic in the beginning, the good dive more than made up for it.TI: 10:39am, BT: 57mins, MD: 24.8m The next dive at the colourful Hanging Garden was also very nice! TI: 12:45pm, BT: 60mins, Viz 20m. We were much more organised & had another close encounter with a fearless green sea turtle, met several white-tips & grey reefs (so many that we stopped notifying each other, after the initial few...) Rosie even led us into the blue, in search of hammerheads! None seen, else we can cancel the Layang Layang trip. She had encountered hammerheads in Dec 08! At the colourful reef top, there was a school of mid-night snappers, a white-tip & a small tuna, both scuffled off fast. We had lunch on the beach, the rice & noodles was cooked. Next dive, Barracuda Point! TI:3:08pm, BT: 50mins, Viz: 17m. As soon as we descended, we saw a large school of travellies! There were so many of them, many divers were watching them, it was hard to leave them. Then a large grey reef cruised by a school of red tooth triggerfish & bannerfish. We went into the channel & the large school of barracudas was at a distance. There was a white-tip & many other reef-fishes - titan trigger-fish, unicornfish & other surgeonfish & also a very friendly green sea turtle. Rosie spotted a large hunting moray eel abt 2m long & a white leaft scorpionfish! Excellent!
• Video of turtles http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=91734843051#/video/video.php?v=91400808051
• Video of Sharks http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=91734843051#/video/video.php?v=91507443051
• What a fantastic night dive we had! TI: 6:43pm, BT: 81mins, MD: 11.6m. We geared up & jumped in from the SJ's Mabul jetty. Oked to descend, we released the air fr our BCs & then descended & when I wanted to equalise my ears, suddenly realised that I forgot to put in the reg into my mouth, totally panicked & finned up to the surface as fast as I could! So embarassing! Jenny followed me up but I didn't tell her what had just happened... The day before, Imants was asking her if there were any funny dive incidents she had encountered for her 350+ dives, she didn't recall any... Haha, anyway, that was the only stupidity that happened on that dive, everything else rocked! Except my camera battery went dead towards the end & I don't have photos of the bright blue spiny lobster (abt 8cm long) & a damn cute squid which was hiding among the sea urchin & a large sea-hare. The star find of the day was a cute juvenile brownish colour cockatoo waspfish! It was abt 2-inches long & swaying with the current! I spotted a cute 2-inch cuttlefish, a green flatworm, a shrimp & a sleeping green sea turtle & Fay spotted another bigger one when we were heading back to the jetty - the carapace was more than a metre! He also spotted a large cuttlefish which was annoyed by us & squirted ink at us! There was of course the usual night dive critters like lionfishes & hermit crabs (1 spotted by Terence). The drama didn't end there, it was low tide when we surfaced & the jetty platform was so high. The very fit & very heroic Fay climbed up the slippery wooden planks overgrown with barnacles, with his gear still on his back & then he helped the rest of us up. I had helped from Imants who literally had to drag me up, cos the barnacles were cutting into my fingers. Wonderful guys! Wonderful dive to end our Mabul leg of the trip!
• 5th May. Didn't do much, spent almost the whole morning packing, then went "exploring" the rest of Mabul. 1st stop was our neighbouring village, then SWV etc. We ended with lunch at a local coffeshop which served delicious food! Terence ordered the Mabul Chicken Rice, it was yummy. At last we had a good lunch on Mabul. We got transferred back to Semporna abt 4pm, when we reached SJBP, reception informed us that there was water problem affecting most of Semporna & we might not have running water in the MYR70 VIP room, oh well, luckily we were only there for the night. Terence went to settle the bill (total: MYR 2880 -  while I snoozed. To play safe, we decided to have dinner at the more "upmarket" cafe - Mabul Internet Cafe. Food was quite nice & not awfully more expensive than the coffeshops. We had a nice chat with Switzerland/ Canada based Iranian - Shahram... There seemed to be less rats running around that night.
• 6th May. We loaded our bags onto the van & went to get a quick breakfast & was on our way! Shahram was also on the same flight. As there were 5 of us in the van, the transfer was MYR 20 each. We were overweighted for the Air Asia flight (air ticket MYR 32) eventhough we had bought supersize baggage 15+ 20kg (MYR 48 - more exp than the actual air ticket!) "Sorry, Air Asia does not give free check-in" the excess charges for 3kg was MYR30. The pre-ordered Air Asia food - fried rice set & foccacia was quite good MYR7 each. Upon checking in to Daya KK, we took a long nap & went walking around the KK waterfront area & had some food at the open air market, then went shopping in the air-con shopping centre & Terence had a craving for the mee goreng at the waterfront open air market, so we went back. 1 big plate of mee goreng for MYR3 but it turned out to be the most expensive mee goreng I would ever have! When we crossed the road to head back to hotel, I realised that the less than 3 mths "old" Samsung F480 was missing from my bermuda's back pocket! We spent the next 2 hours frantically searching for the phone which was still ringing, without any success... Duh, could only blame my own carelessness & laziness - could have brought a bag out... We went back to our room to find a message left by Vicky of LL, she had called me on my hp... Anyway, she wanted to tell us that our morning transfer was at 4:45am & flight at 6:30am! On our voucher, the transfer was at 6:30am, anyway, she had called Wildlife Expeditions to arrange. Angus checked into Daya slightly before 12am, all of us crashed out after conversing. The Layang Layang package was from Nemo Travel - Per divers $1732/-. 5D 4N packages = $1055/-, Additional one night = $245/-, Domestic Flight = $382/-, 3 way airport transfer and 1 night stay at Kota Kinabalu = $50/-
  
• 7th May. All of us managed to wake up in time! Haha, the allure of diving... Daya's front office was so wonderful! They got the kitchen to prepare 3 sets of packed breakfast for us - an apple, a hard-boiled egg & tuna sandwiches! while waiting to be checked in, I had all the 3 eggs, as I no longer eat tuna... We waited around & the boarding board didn't show our flight, nobody knows which row we should check in at, we had to "run around" ourselves. Anyway, we managed to check-in to the chartered MAS flight S$382 on time, get our baggage & ourselves weighed & be on our way! We had to walk to the small 18 seater plane from the terminal. It was the 1st time we were so close to the pilot & the 1st officer! Slightly more than an hr later, we landed smoothly on Layang Layang. From the air, LL looked exactly like a Maldivian atoll. At LL, we filled up some diving & check-in forms, got briefed by dive manager Christy (who was also our DM for this trip) & then hotel manager Alex & got to know the rest of our dive group - Marcus (also on SB) & his friends - Lenard, Mey, Jennifer, & then checked into our comfortable room! We even managed to catch a wink before our 1st dive at 11am to Middle Reef. TI: 11:31am, BT: 48mins, MD: 34.9m. There were many large barrel sponges at this site, lots of soft corals too. We also saw a white-tip & turtle. After having a nice sumptous lunch, we had a short nap before the afternoon dive at Gorgonian Forest. TI: 3:41pm, BT: 53mins, MD 24.2m. It was a very colourful wall, besides the normal reef fishes, a feeding turtle, we saw 5 pygmy devil rays & 1 of them stuck around for a couple of minutes!
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• 8th May to 10th May Our days at Layang Layang started with a light breakfast, 1st dive briefing around 8am, sometimes earlier at 7:30am, dive, have full breakfast, 2nd dive at around 11am, have buffet lunch, nap, 3nd dive around 3pm, tea-break, jetty dive around 5:30~6pm, have buffet dinner (pool side bbq dinner on Sat - yummy!), sleep.
• SOP (std operating procedure) on dives, go into the blue to 30+m in search of the elusive hammer-heads for 15mins, during which we try to stick together as a group to "fool" the hammerheads to think that are a large school of large fish, then spend the rest of the dive at the reef-top (at certain areas, depth was about 20m & looked deceivingly shallow, watch your non deco-time!)
• The dive sites we went to: the Valley 2x (8th May: a hawksbill turtle - the 1 w a chip off its shell (spotted by Terence), trevallies, 3 giant trevallies. 10th May, I had to sit out diving due to flu, the rest saw a lone hammerhead!) Shark Cave I (Napolean Wrasse! & moray eel (spotted by Christy) White-tip & giant travelly on the ledge, blue spotted sting-ray, large yellow lobsters, 2 nudis, the same hawksbill!). Shark Cave (we saw a large pod of dolphins but they were still only interested to play at the boat's bow. A large white-tip in the cave, 2 large grey reefs in the depths, a large school of giant travellies at the wall but quite deep). Crack Reef (turtle on the ledge, yellow pygmy sea-horse! (spotted by Boris - a new-found friend very handy at spotting small stuff), small gobies, shrimps that tried to clean me, peacock flounder on table coral (spotted by Angus), Flabellina sp (spotted by Jennifer), a turtle in the distant. We went to The Point for 4x. 8th May - magical encounter with 2 friendly manta rays & a school 17 devil rays! It was a lifelong dream coming true! 10th May & 11th May - large schools of pygmy devil rays.   
• Jetty 3x. Small school of juvenile batfishes, spinecheek anemonefish, 2 banded pipefishes, 1 network pipefish, school of baby catfishes, a big pufferfish, small crabs hiding in corals, octopus, mating nudibranches, porcupinefish, numerous juvenile lionfish, a huge spotted moray eel. It was good to have sharp-eyed Angus & Boris to do the spotting! (that was provided they didn't ditch us...  )
• We encounter large pod of dolphins 3x. 9th & 10th May - the sea was flat as a lake & we were on the way to The Point & Shark Cave I. The dolphins were only interested to play with the boat, although we did went into the water, they didn't want to come close to us. 10th May - Johnny the captain gave me a private fantastic dolphins tour when the others met the hammerhead! I wouldn't trade the dolphins for the hammerheads, they were so close that they would spray water on me (from their blow-hole) when they breathed! Lovely mammals! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=91734843051#/video/video.php?v=91734843051

It was a quite a long trip, we had slightly more than 7 dive days, doing mostly wall dives, all together 22 dives (Terence had 2 more). Rustic Mabul was wonderful for macro stuff - especially at night, charming Sipadan had its whitetips & green sea turtles, beautiful Layang Layang casted its magical spell with dolphins, manta rays, pygmy devil rays & hawksbill turtles. Most of the dives were very good and the company was lively throughout - hopefully we will get to dive together soon!!!

 
Map of Bali

Michael & Janet went on a liveaboard to Raja Ampat on 5 Mar 09 and they were transferring in Bali, so Terence & I arranged a trip to Bali to catch up with them. Plus Jetstar Asia was having a promo! (our all inclusive air tickets cost $403.76 for 2).

Coincidentally, Tulamben Wreck Divers Resort (TWD) was having a 20% promotion to celebrate their anniversary in Jan & Feb, so going back there was such a pleasure! Our 3D2N, 6 dives package was US$368 (for two) & Tony, kindly (very nice as always) threw in the first night FOC! We were out of the Bali airport by 10pm on 24th Feb. TWD’s driver – Wayan picked us up in TWD’s new Toyota SUV, acquired just a week earlier. ;-) We reached TWD slightly after 1am (also the reason why we get the 1st "night" free), to discover that we were assigned to one of the two large Penthouse rooms, with a king-size bed & a single bed, plus the "usual" kettle, fridge etc... Ah, sweet joy of being repeat customers! Tony is the best!   http://www.tulambenwreckdivers.com/dive-bali.asp?active_page_id=623

Breakfast was served freshly-made in the dining area now, overlooking the pool – very nice! And there is a small variety of choices, instead of the same old cold egg and packed cereal etc served in a basket (the basket idea was quite nice but after the 2nd morning, it became quite boring). I thought that we might meet other divers at breakfast but it seemed everyone had their own timing…

Diving at TWD has always been 1 dive guide to 1/2 divers. Ketut was our guide this time (our previous guide – Nyoman was having fever). He has 15 years of diving experience & has been been with TWD for more than 4 years. He is a Tulamben “native” & has more years of experience at Tulamben, since he has worked in one of the other Tulamben resorts previously. Diving at Tulamben was as usual at own time, own target and as Ketut put it – we are the boss. ;-) It was nice to pace ourselves, not having to “catch the boat”. Furthermore, Ketut would setup our gear for every dive and “call” for the porters to bring it to whichever dive site and after the dive, he would wash our gear. :-p We are getting spoilt.

Liberty Wreck: 25th Feb 09 – 2 dives & 27th Feb 09 - 1 dive

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23392006@N04/sets/72157615825933032/ or http://cid-74010af9ecfc869a.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/2009%20Bali%20-%20Tulamben

1) Time in: 10:44, Time out: 11:43, Bottom Time: 59mins. Max Depth: 19.8m. Viz: 12m. Water Temp: 26degC.

Very sunny day, the sea was placidly beautiful, there was a zen-like atmosphere in the air. For the 1st time, I did a shore entry in Tulamben, unassisted! Sharp-eyed Ketut spotted a beautiful peacock mantis shrimp, at 3m – we hadn’t started on the dive proper! Then at 10m, where it was still rocky at some areas, there was a group of divers looking at something, when we approached the “crowd”, we realised that it was the large famous Liberty barracuda, it coolly returned our curious stares with dead calm in its eyes, with numerous large teeth in its partially opened mouth. *shudders*  Other highlights of the dive: green leaf scorpionfish and many nudibranches (eg a beautiful Flabellina sp & Nembrotha-cristata). It was the 1st time I was using my new UN macro lens, it worked quite well with the nudibranches!

Although there were quite a lot of divers on shore, we didn’t meet many other divers around the wreck, there was always a lot to see at the huge Liberty wreck, no need to “fight” over the critters..

2) Time in: 14:58, Time out: 15:47, Bottom Time: 49mins. Max Depth: 28.1m. Viz: 8m. Water Temp: 26degC.

The sky was overcast, viz dropped. Our aim of the dive was the pygmy seahorse, Ketut had us swimming over the wreck & then descend to the deep. On the way to the pygmy seahorse, he spotted a beautiful white Glossodoris atromarginata, then descending further, he found a tiny weeny delicate looking pygmy seahorse on a white gorgonian seafan... Then we ascended to about 16m & Ketut spotted a congregation of 3 beautiful, large nudibranches – Halgerda batangas (translucent with bright orange lines & spots). Then more nudibranches – Phyllidiella pustulosa, Nembrotha kubaryana and another fat Nembrotha-cristata. A small school of large mandarin sweetlips were taking shelter at the shallow protected areas of the wreck. As Liberty is a protected area, fishing is prohibited, all the fishizens (common reef fish - unicornfishes, surgeonfish, sweetlips, coral groupers & butterflyfish) manage to grow to their full size. Ketut commented that there were quite alot of nudibranches due to the cold water.

3) 27th Feb. Time in: 07:04, Time out: 08:10, Bottom Time: 66mins. Max Depth: 30m. Viz: 12m. Water Temp: 25degC.

We dropped to the depths to see pygmy seahorse & on the way, there was a school of bumphead parrotfishes. Ketut expertly found 2 pink pygmy seahorses, 1 of them seemed pregnant! I was trying hard to get decent photos & Ketut was very anxious that we were approaching the limits of non decompression, I rechecked my dive comp, still had 3plus minutes left, well, that was the problem of some brands of dive comps. Then we ascended into the hull where there was a large bumphead parrotfish. At the coral bommie, I saw a blue spotted stingray, closely followed by 2 lizardfishes which were hoping for an ez meal. Among the rocks, Ketut spotted a small beautiful nudibranch - translucent white with pastel yellow Bulbous rhinophores & spots, then a sapsucking slug blue with brown ridges & rhinophores (Thuridilla sp). I spotted a green Thuridilla ratna & Terence pointed out a yellow Phyllidia occellate. We ended the dive watching the jacks whirlwind. Cool!

26th Feb 09 – 3 dives

1) Dive Site: Liberty Wreck. Time in: 06:43, Time out: 07:46, Bottom Time: 63mins. Max Depth: 18.3m. Viz: 8m. Water Temp: 26degC. Overcast.

We started quite early but were delayed on the water surface, when the o-ring of my tank burst. Luckily Ketut was prepared, he had extra o-rings. The delay was compensated by the rare encounter of a large napoleon wrasse at the stern ~17m! I didn’t dare go very near, afraid to scare it off. It stayed with us for a few minutes & then swam away to the left, towards the direction of the Coral Garden. We sincerely hope that it will be able to live a long life & have many off-springs, as the napoleon wrasses are highly endangered. Ketut said that he seldom sees them at Tulamben. Of course there was the usual school of bumphead parrotfish but they were at an usual shallow depth of only 10m! The viz was bad, I wanted to get closer to them for clear photos & was quite worried as there was a gentle current carrying me towards them. Other highlights: 2 commensal shrimps hiding on a white sea whip, an orangutan crab with 2 cleaner shrimps on a hard coral & the garden eels.

2) Dive Site: Drop Off. Time in: 11:40, Time out: 12:43, Bottom Time: 63mins. Max Depth: 19.1m. Viz: 10m. Water Temp: 25degC. Drizzle.

Another critter galore dive! Nudibranches: Hypselodoris zephyra (white with with stripes), orange one, white with violet spots, Hypselodoris infucata (green with bright yellow spots). We went back the large sponge again to see the cleaner shrimps, there were 3 species – the red/ white ones, the larger yellow ones & the small translucent ones with bright violet tip on its tail (I spotted 1 which was carrying eggs). A very small & fragile pipehorse – its body was long, like a pipefish & its tail  could wrap around the coral, a small strange black small fish on a coral. Towards the end of the dive, Ketut spotted a tiny white fish jumping underneath the rocks. We also saw many damselfish and school of beautiful snappers, a lone tuna & at the shallows, a large barracuda. The good people at Wetpixel id the pipehorse as short porch pygmy pipehorse Acentronura tentaculata, the small strange black small fish as a fang blenny & the tiny white fish as a juvenile fingered dragonet. Cool!

3) Dive Site: Coral Garden. Time in: 17:00, Time out: 15:54, Bottom Time: 54mins. Max Depth: 17.2m. Viz: 8m. Water Temp: 25degC. Drizzle

Whoa, a very cold dive, lots of thermal clines. Ketut pointed out a black ribbon eel, a small scorpionfish & in a hole a few mtrs below, a blue ribbon eel. Terence spotted a flounder. Ketut overturned a crinoid to show us a zeno crab, a tiny weeny juvenile sweetlips, tried to "persuade" a octopus to come out from the crevice & a beautiful Glossodoris hikuerensis. I spotted a red mantis shrimp but the camera was already out of battery at that point.

At Tulamben, we had all our lunches at the economic Warung Kumang & dinners at Warung Esa. The boss of Esa - dive guide Ketut (not to be confused with the TWD Ketut) had became a partner of the dive shop - Marta Dive (for enquiries call +81 363 23403), which was just next door. Ketut's day job - DM of Eco Dive at Amed, he had been there for many years.

We left TWD at around 11plus am, travelling in the Northwest direction & abt 2hrs later, we stopped for lunch at Lovina. Coincidentally, lunch was at Aditya Lovina Resort, where we had stayed 5years ago! Local buffet lunch at 70000Rp per person. We were amazed to pass by large areas of vineyards, Wayan said that the grapes could be eaten & also made into wine, so we got him to stop by a roadside stall to buy some grapes but after the Lovina area, we didn't see any. Finally at Pura Pulaki, we found a stall by the beachfront. 1kg of grapes for only 5000Rp!

We reached Mimpi Menjangan at 3plus pm. I found a good deal on http://www.bali-travelnet.com/hotels/339/Mimpi_Resort_Menjangan at usd68  per night plus daily breakfast (more than 25% less than Mimpi's published price on its website). The area of the patio room was generous, had a very comfortable queen size bed, the big open concept bathroom was a winner, sitting area was at the large front porch, our room #223 (& that whole stretch) even came with an individual small but tastefully decorated lily pond. At night, we heard frogs croaking from the pond, in our bathroom & 1 even came into the room through the gap beneath the front door! The grounds were extensive & beautifully manicured, we could enjoy any of the 2 large swimming pools or (the best stuff!) 4 natural hot spring tubs - 3 of them with beautiful mangrove & bay view! When M & J reached Mimpi around 5plus, we wasted no time to checkout the infinity pool & hot tub by the bay. Hunger & the mosquitoes finally drove us to dinner.

M's longtime Balinese travel agt Dewa  julyseven_dewa@telkom.net recommended his friend Ketut Seri Dana DM of Wisnu Dive Center http://www.lovinadive.com/index.html to take us diving. Ketut was very nice & worked hard to make sure we were happy. We spent 2 days diving at Pulau (Island) Menjangan & 1 day at Permuteran Bay. The scenic boat ride from Mimpi took slightly more than 30mins to get to P Menjangan.

28th Feb & 1st Mar 09 – 4 dives at Pulau Menjangan 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23392006@N04/sets/72157615829095346/ or http://cid-74010af9ecfc869a.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/2009%20Bali%20-%20Menjangan

1) Dive Site: POSII. Time in: 11:15, Time out: 12:17, Bottom Time: 62mins. Max Depth: 22m. Viz: 20m. Water Temp: 26degC. Sunny.

I was expecting a boat dive but Ketut had the boatman anchored at the beach & told us to get ready to do a shore dive. We waded out for a few meters and then started to descend. We could see the gentle sandy slope dropping to the depths at abt 20m away. We swam over the edge & descended at the edge of the wall. The scenery, added by the wonderful viz, was spectacular! The gorgonian seafans were huge & numerous, lots of colourful soft corals & large barrel & tube sponges, lots of sea squirts (tunicates), hydroids, algae. It was quite overcrowded. The lack of current made this a very relaxing & enjoyable dive. Mike spotted 2 white seawhip shrimps, Ketut found a beautiful polyclad flatworm (Pseudoceros lindae) & at the shallow a small white scorpionfish. A fearless lizardfish posed for my camera on sponges.  The parrotfish/es of Menjangan Island were fearless, it/they kept zipping in & out in our faces! (it happened at all sites)

We had lunch on the beach & it started to rain quite heavily.  Terence didn't want to be rocked on the boat, we seek shelter at the abandoned house, which was infested with red ants & mosquitoes. We were quite glad when the rain stopped.

2) Dive Site: Cave Point. Time in: 13:36, Time out: 14:54, Bottom Time: 78mins. Max Depth: 14.6m. Viz: 15m. Water Temp: 26degC. Overcast.

We drew anchor & stopped abt 100m away. Again it was shore entry. Terence spotted a black pipefish at abt 5m, we were still at the sandy area. He was beginning to develop good sea eyes. At the reef crest,  Ketut pointed out some beautiful cleaner shrimps in the gigantic anemone. General scene was similar to POSII but the star attraction was a small cavern with blow hole (there were many other overhangs & crevices). Mike found a tiny, beautiful & feisty, pink & yellow crinoid crab camouflaged among some soft & spiky coral...

3) Dive Site: Eel Garden. Time in: 10:25, Time out: 11:28, Bottom Time: 63mins. Max Depth: 23.6m. Viz: 20m. Water Temp: 26degC. Overcast.

Boat dive. General seascape was the same as POSII, very beautiful. The buttons of my camera housing were stuck! I was going into despair, although I succeeded in "unstucking" them, I have missed the opportunity to get any good photo of a large lobster! & the photos of a big tasseled scorpionfish resting its head on seasquirts were out of focus. Luckily, I didn't miss the precious chance to take photos of 4 pygmy seahorses on 1 large pink gorgonian seafan! The "junior" dive guide found them. As the dept was less than 20m, I was able to spend many minutes observing them.  1 of them was fat - maybe "pregnant". Terence insisted that I see the next critter & I reluctantly bid the pygmy seahorses goodbye & thanked them for tolerating our intrusion. They were excited abt the large octopus on a table coral. Upon my appearance, it promptly hid under some corals. We also saw 4 types of nudibranches! This was 1 amazing dive!

Lunch was at a a pavilion on shore. We asked for nasi goreng, which was yummy. We could see lots of rubbish around the shoreline, it was not a pretty sight, to think that this place is a nature reserve!

4) Dive Site: Eel Garden. Time in: 12:59, Time out: 13:47, Bottom Time: 48mins. Max Depth: 20.3m. Viz: 23.6m. Water Temp: 26degC. Sunny.

We were supposed to go see the garden eels which gave this site its name. We splashed off around the same place as previously, the reef was beautiful. An octopus was spotted, then a blue spotted sting ray went flying up from the depths, a large, heavily pregnant map puffer was seen, although pregnant, it was quite fast & I didn't wanna stress it by chasing. The junior guide signaled for us to follow him, so we left the reef & begin to fin into the current, it went on for a long time, as the current was strong, I opted to stay near the sandy bottom which was at 20m. It was strenuous & boring. After awhile, we decided that the guide might be lost & we ascended to do our safety stop, as we didn't have much air left. Mike was pretty pissed off with Ketut & the junior guide after the dive...

2nd Mar 09 – 3 dives at Permuteran

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23392006@N04/sets/72157615743647217/ or http://cid-74010af9ecfc869a.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/2009%20Bali%20-%20Permuteran%20Bay

I wanted to see the Turtle Project, so Ketut suggested we go diving at Permuteran Bay. The Projek Penyu Turtle Hatchery (also known as Reef Seen Turtle Hatchery Project) is located there www.reefseen.com. Permuteran Bay is abt 20mins drive from Mimpi. The powder fine sand on the beach was a mix of white & volcanic black.  

1) Dive Site: Napolean Reef. Time in: 10:37 Time out: 11:33, Bottom Time: 56mins. Max Depth: 32.2m. Viz: 15m. Water Temp: 26degC. Sunny.

It was a 20mins scenic boat ride out of the bay. The green mountains provided a lovely backdrop. The current was strong & I told Terence not to delay on the surface. This was a beautiful site -  the current was manageable, the corals were very healthy & there were lots of soft corals, sponges & reef fish.  We descended to abt 30m & Ketut pointed to something in the distance, only realised that he was showing us garden eels, when I got close... Ah, at last he managed to show us garden eels. After a few mins with the garden eels, we had to ascended & we saw many many Sergeant Majors at the reef flat, had nearly seen a congregation of so many of them! The viz was so good that I couldn't believe that we were at 16m! Mike then found another of the cute crab among the spiky soft coral.

When we got up the boat Janet dropped the "bombshell" -  a whaleshark came visiting 15mins into our dive! The boatman was spooked by the shadow of the 5m whaleshark, which bumped the boat & came so close to Janet that she could touch it! Damn, we missed a big deal!

2) Dive Site: Middle Reef. Time in: 13:21 Time out: 14:30, Bottom Time: 69mins. Max Depth: 14.9m. Viz: 10m. Water Temp: 27degC. Overcast.

Shore dive from the gently sloping Permuteran Beach to visit the reconstructed reef maintained by the Permuteran Reef Gardeners. To regenerate the dynamite damaged reef, they welded large metal structures, transplanted the broken corals onto the structures & to accelerate coral growth, low amount of electricity generated by solar panels was passed through. There were a lot of small reef fish making their homes on these reconstructed homes & soft corals & small tridacnaes were plentiful too. 2 octopi showed up at one coral bommie. Was pretty glad that we had stopped eating octopus since last dive trip, as we had been rewarded with many octopi encounters on this trip.

After the dive, we went to visit the turtles at Projek Penyu. There were a hawksbill and a loggerhead that were brought in by the fishermen, who were compensated by the Projek. There were many baby green sea turtle hatchlings & a very adorable 16 yr old green sea turtle - Boomer (as in boomerang), who kept coming back to the Permuteran Beach after being released & he had already done that 5  times!

3) Dive Site: Monkey Pirate Jetty Time in: 18:16 Time out: 19:27, Bottom Time: 71mins. Max Depth: 10.1m. Viz: 6m. Water Temp: 27degC. Clear.

We walked into the ocean, admiring the beautiful sunset & observing the local kids enjoying their playground. Ketut got help from his friend, a local of these waters, to show us the amazing critters. This was the only night dive of the trip & it was an  action-packed muck dive – Cowfish, numerous juvenile lionfishes, banded shrimps, anemone crabs, sea slugs, scorpionfish,  juvenile sweetlips, flying gurnard, 2 large seahorses & a congregation of many many pipefishes – saw more of them here, than the total of all the pipefishes I had seen during my 100+ dives! Maybe I should be doing more night dives & cut my day dives?! Maybe I should snorkel in the day (remember the whaleshark?).

TWD’s Ketut came to drive us to the airport, from Tulamben. He wanted to supplement his pay, as it was low diving season. That was a 3.5hrs drive fr Tulamben to Menjangan, then a 4+hrs drive through the scenic "mountainous" lake district, to Denpasar, then another 3hrs drive back to Tulamben... Balinese are a hardworking & friendly bunch! & Bali is really a very rewarding place to dive at! 

We bought the promo tickets to Cebu, way back in May & we hadn't decide where to go then. Was amazed that it was so inexpensive! Just S$123 per pax!  Must fly, must dive! Terence chose Malapascua. He wanted to see for himself the beautiful thresher sharks that I, Angus, Bee & Bok had been raving to him about.

Trying to meet the threshers proved to be rather difficult. It was on the 5th & final morning to Monad Shoal, that we finally managed a "close" encounter with 2 thresher sharks, circling at the cleaning station. That morning, our time-in was 5:44am, the sun had just risen over the horizon, the ocean was still dark, it felt like a dusk dive. Toto (the cool DM)'s hunch was correct, these silvery, long tailed, doe-eye beauties preferred to appear when the water was still dark & cold. Well, his email to make appointment with the thresher sharks helped, of course.  The date before - on 11 Dec, we only managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of 2 thresher sharks rising from the depth, while we were making our ways down the anchor line. The other morning 10th Dec, we were teased by DM Wilmar, whose group had a 10mins encounter with the thresher shark/s, after our Nitrox group left the crowded locale! Good Grief!  Yet the other morning 9th Dec, we had chose to sleep in & the early risers managed to see the thresher shark!  Maybe all the misses made our 12th Dec morning all that precious & memorable, thank merciful heavens for the blessings! Also indebted to the very kind Toto for slotting us in for the 5am departure with the Thai group. 

We arrived at a sunny Malapascua Exotic Resort at around 10+am. There were some obvious changes at there. The restaurant was decked in Christmas deco & the grounds (beach) looked clean... The dive area was expanded, there was a new bar area in front of the dive area, tho not yet functional. The 2nd storey above the dive shop was still under renovations, an internet cafe was planned... When explored further, there were now abt 30 rooms at Exotic vs 15 last year? Glad to see 1 of my fav places doing so well! The improvements were not only in Exotic, the surrounding areas - in the villages too, the grounds looked swept & the villagers were building a short bamboo fence around the paths & a couple of days later, the fence had been painted white.

Also did 2 night dives at House-Reef, 1 was with Paul & Terence 9th Dec, time-in 18:09, MD 14.6m & rest of the "gang" (Robin & Meng Wei) & the other on 11th Dec, time-in 18:09, MD 14.5m, with Toto & our new friend (the Brit) Michael. Both dives were very interesting & pretty productive (photo-wise). On 11th Dec, the full moon was shining beautifully, casting a silvery sheen on the waves when we embarked on the dive, half-way through the dive, we saw regular flashes of bright lights, I thought we were close to the Lighthouse, when we surfaced, it was raining cats & dogs! Very dramatic indeed! Michael complained that the dive was too long - 70mins  & he was very hungry towards the end. I was only partly to blame, when I indicated to Toto to surface, it took him a while more to find our small boat... The poor boatman was huddled under a small umbrella , braving the storm.  It was also the dive with the invasion of sun dollars - I think there were millions of them! It was like a C grade alien invasion movie - they looked like a patch of seagrass from far & when near, they looked like cockroaches! Yucks!

9th Dec - Pantaw Pantaw, time in 09:57 (Rainbow! ), MD 23.7m. This is a new dive-site. Toto was proud to be part of the Exotic team that found it. A beautiful dive - 5 pygmy seahorses! 3 tiny "worm-like" lilac ones (couldn't "find" them on the lcd screen, once Toto removed his fingers) & 2 slightly larger yellow ones! Several schools baby catfish, 1 snowflake moray eel which was out & abt & an anemone with many tiny transparent cleaner shrimps & a red/white crab! 1 loud explosion of dynamite fishing marred the dive. Buntong Batu also a new dive-site, very pretty with lots of pink & orange soft corals, 2 cleaner shrimps in an anemone, several beautiful nudibranches & the BIGGEST peacock mantis shrimp I have laid eyes on! Think it must be abt 30cm! No kidding! It was trying to hide under a soft coral.

East Garden time in 14:06, MD12.2m. Shallow easy, enjoyable dive, only Michael & the both of us, led by Toto. Micheal & Toto cut opened a fish trap & saved many fishes - including 1 small lionfish & filefish!  A crab was hiding under the fish trap. A small flatfish appeared when they lifted the fish trap.

We enjoyed our dives at Malapascua very much, except on the few occasions when it was too crowded - Malapascua diving rocks! Many thanks to the DMs - Will & Totong & especially Rey, Paul & Toto, they worked tirelessly to find interesting creatures for us on every dive, they never stopped working just because the dive was alreay 45mins or 1hr long, they would rest briefly only when we were safely on the boat, then they had to keep our dive gear into the store & make sure the gear was there in the morning. Rey would even set-up our gear for us, so nice (ya, we were so pampered)! Also many thanks to the hardworking boatcrew who had to hold onto us, while we gear up, who literally had to drag me up the boat ladder after almost every dive - I was so wasted after diving, they would also remove the bc & reg after the dives. The DM & boatcrew have to wake up for the early morning Monad dives & stay back late to accomdate night dives ( & brave the occasional stormy nights). Will looked much more wan than last year - the crew had to give up their weekly rest days during the peak season. Even the beautiful Milrca at the Exotic Restaurant looked very tired, she had to put in too many hours, the restaurant opened from 7am till 9-10pm... It is really not easy to do that without a word of complaint & wearing a sincere smile - day in & day out - kudos to everyone single 1 of u!!!  U make Malapascua a true paradise...

Appreciate the nice company of Robin & Meng Wei. We are also happy to make new friends - Eddie, Siew Wan & Claus from Singapore, Oliver from Germany, Michael from Britain & Raphael & Chris. Thanks for your merry company!!!