FOX - Dive Hard and Harder

Diving Lembeh @ 29 Sep - 4 Oct 2010

2010-11-07T06:24:00.001-08:00

I booked the same diving package almost right after my Lembeh diving trip last year. Yup, I just could not get enough Lembeh and the diving lodge was simply superb in all aspects! This year, I was determined to spot those critters that I could not cross out last year. With ease, I spotted most of those critters in this trip …. Wonderpus, mimic octopus, blue ring octopus, bobbit worm, hairy frogfish etc. Definitely surfaced with contended smile after each dive, especially on my first day.

Two surprising shots from this trip - anemone shrimp and squat lobster bearing eggs!

A recap for those who are not familiar with Lembeh Straits. It was located opposite Manado city in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Don’t worry, the place was protected and could be dived year round. Most of the dive sites are black sand and rubbish enriched. Exactly it is the rubbish which nourishes the underwater critters here. All sorts of scorpionfish, frogfish, stonefish, octopus and small alienated critter lurk under the polluted straits. It fits its diving nature perfectly – muck diving, a true heaven for underwater photographer. Your naked eyes will always fill with unbelievable sights. Those critters are not earthly, each of them is either equip with extreme poison pouch or has near perfect mimic behaviour!

Disguise master - Scorpionfish & pygmy seahorse.

Octopus Maniac
Met my first wonderpus during the checkout night dive. On second day, met my first mimic octopus. This fellow got its unique and peculiar charisma. As its name suggests, mimic octopus is the master of mimicry. It could mimic seasnake, flounder, lionfish and other poisonous critters to avoid enemy’s attention. I was thrilled and when I made the snapshot, it actually changed so many form to feign off my camera. Ha… of course I enjoyed every moment of its performance.

Mimic octopus trying to fool my Canon camera.

Blue ring octopus is perhaps the most photogenic critters. When it is undisturbed, it remain as mud like colour which was bored and uninteresting. When it is agitated, it flashes its blue ring deeply and madly! But don’t ever mess with it, it is perhaps the most poisonous critters after seasnake. Worst of all, there is no cure for its bite currently. Fortunately, it does not bite unless it is life threatening.

Blue ring octopus was so pissed with my Camera. Yup, same octopus which could change colour in second.

It was always pleasant to spot coconut octopus. It usually grabs coconut shells with its tentacles. When it senses danger, it will “close” the shell and hide inside for a long time. Also, it is a very curious creature which likes to try various hideout point, such as empty bottle, shoes or containers.
Another scene to behold. My dive master showed as a GIGANTIC octopus in a reef dive. It was as huge as a car wheel! Ferociously, it ejected large volume of black ink when my dive master tried to sneak it out. Sweet!

Coconut octopus holding a shell.

Flamboyant cuttlefish, another poisonous critter.

Ugly Betty
Hairball frogfish is the ugly betty of Lembeh Straits, so ugly but yet cute and hilarious. First, our dive guide managed to find us a hairy frogfish. Yet, we complained that its hair is not “hairy” enough. He then found another one which was really super hairy! It crawled clumsily, yawned nonchalantly as if it had the whole world by itself. I liked the attitude very much. Don’t misjudge frogfish, again, it is poisonous and its ambush + hunting skill is perhaps the best! A lighting fast blow and the poor fish in front was no where to be seen. Its mouth could stretch enormously and this allows it to swallow a fish bigger than you expect.

Hairy frogfish about to yawn!

Another beast lurking at night is bobbit worm. This little alien-looking worm is not something you want to mess with. It always sticks out its shinny and plasticky body from the ground. Its snap is powerful that it could cut the poor fish to half in millisecond. Believe it or not, this worm could grow more than one metre!

Fearsome bobbit worm which could tear fish to pieces.

The Usual Suspects
As usual, I spotted the other common critters here, such as pipehorse, seahorse, coleman shrimp, spider crab, skeleton shrimp, squat lobster, pygmy seahorse, nudibranch etc. It is always Give & Take. I did not have any luck on rhinopias and tiger shrimp. But what the heck, it is the perfect excuse to revisit Lembeh Straits again.

Startled hermit crab.

Hiding goby.

Seahorse.

My name is Vodka and I am a great dog!

2010-07-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

I always wonder how the feeling of having a dog is. Coincidentally, my aunt is in the pet business and she had reserved me a Dalmatian puppy recently. Yeah, Dalmatian, the naughty and energetic synonym, exactly what you have seen in 101 Dalmatian movie. It was actually 2 months ++ ago when I took Vodka from my aunt. Why only I blog now? Well, good question, I was so scared that Vodka could not survive under my clumsy care. Haha… Apparently, now he is cute and lively, I can proudly present his pictures. Cheeky…

I was actually choosing from two puppies. It was an easy job because Vodka looked so much smarter than his brother. His mother is gorgeous but his dad is a bit albino. That is why Vodka has less spots. Fortunately, he inherited his mother’s good look and his eyes are full of emotions.

The first week was a nightmare. As a small puppy, he cried when I left for work, not to mention my first experience of cleaning the mess! I was almost at my limit of giving up. Once, I almost choked him to suffocation when he destroyed my carpet and slippers. After a week, things get better, a whole lot better. He seemed to learn quite fast. Now, he understands to sit quietly when I prepare food, shake my hand when I present my hand… Only now, I appreciate how intelligent a dog can be. They can literally guess your emotion! When Vodka broke something, say food tray, he would plead with his cute piteous eyes so that I would not punish him. Smart…

It is not all bed of roses though. The expenses to raise a dog are shocking! The injection cost, food, toys, treats, shampoo, nail cutter, vitamins etc. etc. It is in a monthly basis! Vodka is a destructive dog for sure. His toys could only last for few days intact. Also, Dalmatian has a HELL lot of energy! I think I shed some weight off myself just jogging with Vodka. And he is never tired of playing the throw-and-retrieve game.

That’s it. Let me show his pictures. He is now 7-month old. Healthy and fit, weight heavy and heavier. Hope he grows as stunning as his mother.

Front-view of Vodka. His dots only showed little by little as he grows.

Side-view of Vodka. When I said "Vodka, turn away", he actually obeyed. Haha..

Innocent look of Vodka. This look means he wants some treat.

Travel Yogyakarta @ 26 - 29 June 2010

2010-07-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

Prelude
I had forsaken backpacking for quite a long time. Yogyakarta would be a great idea to rekindle the long lost feeling. My backpacking mate did all the itinerary preparation and I had absolutely no remorse because I was one decade older than him… haha. Hardship should left for youngster. AirAsia really surprised me this time. Not only I managed to book its free return flight for only RM35 nett, the flight actually flew on time!
First, let me introduce Yogyakarta (or Jogjakarta). Located in Java Island, the region is located at the foot of the active Merapi volcano. Famous Buddhist temple of Borobudur and Hindu temple of Prambanan are the attractions that draw the tourists all over the world. Both are in the list of UNESCO world heritage. What a perfect backpacking spot – cultural, majestic, historical and yet affordable.

My favourite Borobudur sunrise shot from Yogyakarta.

Kraton and Malioboro Street

After settled down, we hired a local tuk-tuk to tour around Yogyakarta city. Well, that was quite a life-threatening experience. Inside the cramped tuk-tuk, we witnessed all sorts of vehicles criss-crossed before our eyes and yet the brake system was far beyond functional! Arrived in Kraton in one piece, we bought the ticket and started to explore the so-called Sultan Palace. The compound was decently spatial but the grandiose was nothing compared to the palaces in Europe or China. We had the chance to witness the wayang kulit performance, not too much of a fan though.
Maliobora Street is famous for shopping. You could find all sorts of souvenirs, sandal, T-shirts, decorations, wood carve etc. If you were T-shirt fans, you might like their creative slogan and catchy phrase. Day and night, the street was so packed that you had to fight your way through.

Wayang Kulit performance in Kraton.

Prambanan Temple (Hindu)

Built in the 10th century, this is the largest compound dedicated to Shiva in Indonesia. There are three temples at the complex of sanctuaries. The biggest temple is called Candi Shiva and the others are called Candi Brahma and Candi Vishnu. If you happen to visit Angkor Wat in Siam Reap before, this complex may look awfully tiny to you. Other than that, the temples were worth a hike.

Sunset at Prambanan Temple.

Dieng Plateau and Mt Merabu

Dieng was very much like Cameron Highlands – high ground, fresh air, winding road and so on. It was a pleasant getaway from hustle and bustle. We visited the volcano area. Yup, you could still see the smoldering smoke and hot spring oozing from the ground. The presence of sulphuric environment was constantly intimidating, as if to remind you stepping in the dangerous zone. Another two-hour of winding journey, we arrived at the world-renown Borobudur during sunset.

Cultural occasion in Dieng Plateau.

Candi at Dieng Plateau.

Borobudur Temple (Buddhist)

We visited Borobudur twice, dusk and dawn. The sunset experience was appalling because the crowd took the toll. I was actually speechless to see the locals picnicking at the top of Borobudur – polluted, smelly and noisy. Sunrise experience was completely different, it was AMAZING! Thanks to Manahora Hotel, we were given privilege to climb Borobudur at 4.30 am before public could access. Of course, you need to pay extra but it worth every cent, or I should say rupiah. I witnessed the most breathtaking sunrise. It was such a surreal scene - the feathery clouds, the picturesque greeneries, the calm Buddha and stupas, the purple sky hue, the crawling sun in between the two volcanoes, the reflective light…. It was magical. Since then, clicking noise from my Canon SLR never stopped. I was breathing in fulfillment because I knew I would bag in many good shots.

***

A series of breathtaking sunrise shots.

Food and Javanese Coffee

Not to be conclusive, but I think the food in Bali are far better than Yogyakarta. Though, it was still worth to try their local delicacies – Amanda Brownies and Javanese coffee. Out of impulsiveness, I tried the most expensive coffee in the world – Coffee Luwak! This coffee was internationally recognized as the most high-quality and expensive coffee. The local Luwak (a type of nocturnal Indonesian mammal which resemble cat) will pick the best coffee seeds to consume at night-time. The enzyme inside its stomach will help neutralize the acidity and fermentize the coffee seeds. After the Luwak desecrate, the wastes (its poo with neutralized coffee seeds!) were reprocessed to make the top-notch coffee. The first seep was confusing. Hmm… It was neither smooth nor bitter. Somehow, the taste was nice in a way that you could hardly expect. Will I try it again? Well, with that price, I probably would pass.

The famous Kopi Luwak.

Closure

Some other side story. It was World Cup season and ironically, the locals wish their old Dutch friends to win the game. If you happen to forget, Holland conquered Indonesia and left quite a legacy there. It was also the night when England lost to Germany. Lampard’s agonizing face was rewinded over and over in the TV, haha… I was impressed that the normal TV channels in Indonesia aired World Cup matches. Shame on ASTRO and Malaysian TV channels.

How should I rate Yogyakarta? In some way, I like peaceful Borobudur sunrise as much as I hate its congested sunset. Not so much of a cultural shock as I had travelled to Indonesia before. Borobudur is still worth a journey as its sunrise will really astonish you.

Travel Rome @ 7 November 2009

2010-01-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

I know I have been slacking in blogging recently. The reason being is that I travel less frequent recently. Hmm.. Is that a good thing or bad thing, I wonder. Cut it short, I had a full transit day in Rome on the way back to Malaysia from Venezuela. Let say, South America never stop amazed me. Though, I did not have chance to wander around Venezuela and therefore, no photos. But I had plenty of time to revisit Rome. My last visit to Rome was about 10 years ago, right after my graduation. Damn, scary to even think about how fast the time passes!

In my memory, Rome was sunny hot, dry and crowded. This time, Rome was breezy, still sunny but much relaxing! Of course, statues and buildings everywhere were still screaming to my Canon camera to flash. After reading and watching Angels and Demons, I said to myself - Silly me, why not follow Dan Brown’s foot step, save my time to think about the itinerary. I then visited St Peter Square & Basilica, Vatican Museum for the masterpiece Sistine Chapel and Colosseum.

I did not remember if I saw Swiss Guard in my previous visit but I spotted them this time. They were guarding the St. Peter Basilica. They wore those silly, circus-like, orange-blue-stripe baggy uniform, exactly what we saw in Angel and Demon. St. Peter Basilica was still as impressive as it was.

I was probably too young to appreciate Sistine Chapel 10 years ago but this time, the masterpiece just struck me speechless. The guide book explained that the essence of the design was to create a ‘seamless’ and ‘endless-feeling’ ceiling. Michelangelo was such as a damn good interior designer. The Last Judgment was insanely animated after so many millenniums. Well, as usual, I eavesdropped around to listen the stories from those tour guides. Apparently, Michelangelo was so furious when a high-rank priest condemned his work as being too obscene. He then purposely painted, in the fresco, that the bad-mouth priest slumped in lowest hell, with his genital bitten by an evil python. Hah… Michelangelo definitely had some sense of black humour.

Strolling to Colosseum to take the perfect night shot. I was standing there for almost an hour to capture a perfect nightscene. What a regret to left my tripod at home!

The revisit could not be better. Hope to revisit miss-out Trevi Fountain and Pantheon someday and I guess that should be easy because - All roads lead to Rome!

Diving Manado 27 Sep 2009

2009-10-21T07:34:00.001-07:00

The PRELUDE

You will not believe that I booked this diving holiday one year ago. Since then, I had done the most thorough research on the critters I expected to see. The dive sites not only meet the high-rank reputation, but exceed my imagination. Simply blow away my sane mind. Lembeh Straits underneath is a place for aliens, you will agree after looking at the shots I snapped underwater. Yup, I finally indulged in the hell of underwater photography which will slowly gnaw away my precious money and time. My toy is Canon G10, equipped with underwater casing, Sea & Sea YS-110 alpha Strobe and wet macro lens. Taking pictures underwater is a big WOW in difficulty and technicality. I was like an apprentice all over again. Imagine the multitask, checking everything at once - air consumption, depth, no deco time, buoyancy, any nasty triggerfish around (another story later), any leakage of camera casing, current, torch, coral … Alright, I stop the babbling and here comes my diving experience in Bunaken and Lembeh Straits.

I did 2 diving days at Bunaken (5 dives) and 3 diving days at Lembeh Straits (12 dives). I know I am crazy. I took the unlimited diving package in Lembeh, where I could dive until my knee buckled and my neck strained.

The DIVES

Talk about Bunaken first. Mostly wall dives with some current. Really not much to mention as the wall dives were very similar. Having to dive Sipadan before, wall dives at other dive sites seem to lose their colour. I also did some house reef dives where I spotted my first Ambon Scorpionfish and Harlequin Shrimp. Also, during one safety stop, I spotted a gigantic jellyfish, as big as my head!Impressive!

Lembeh Straits had tons of story to talk about. The dive sites were pretty much the same – murky, dark sand bottom, rubble and rubbish. The critters were, though, abundant and lively. Definitely worth to revisit. The trademark of Lembeh are frogfish, scorpionfish, octopus and other macros. Since the dive sites were featureless, I might as well write this section referring to the critters I spotted.

*****

Paddle Flap Scorpionfish, Ambon Scorpionfish and Weedy Scorpionfish
Scorpionfish were stunning creature. They had the meanest look and poisonous spikes but when they flapped their wing, the beauty hidden would certainly drop your jaw. I spotted three different species. Both had their unique characteristic but the arrogant Ambon Scorpionfish’s expression won this round.

*****

Spider Crab, Mud Crab, Urchin Crab, Porcelain Crab
Alien resemblance creatures. You could easily overlook this critters as they were so good in disguise. Meeting with Urchin Crab was so much fun. It carried the thorny urchin on its back while moving, so that the predators dared not attack them. Porcelain Crab were common neighbor with clown fish. They were very photogenic, with the beautiful soft coral as background.

*****

Pygmy Seahorse, Denise Pygmy Seahorse, Pygmy Seadragon
Pygmy Seahorse was simply adorable. It was tiny but full of facial expression. It lived on the sea fan for the rest of their life. During dawn, they mated passionately and spent the rest of the day clinging on the sea fan. Pygmy Seadragon was the new species discovered in Lembeh. It was so much insignificant unless you knew their habitat.

*****

Painted Frogfish, Hairy Frogfish, Sargassum Frogfish
These creatures had amazing characteristics! They could be as big as football size or as small as thumb size. Ambushing skill was phenomenal. Their mouth could stretch twice the normal size. They were abundant in Lembeh Straits. Well, I spotted 3 Sargassum Frogfish swam until the shore of the resort. This species was a bit special as they liked to float on the surface for food searching.

*****

Mandarin Fish
I did a dawn dive at the house reef. Wow, this was madness. In the rumble, practically, more than 50 mandarin fish came out for mating. They were everywhere! Once they were happy with their sighting, they rubbed each other and disposed the eggs and sperms simultaneously. It was extremely hard to photograph although there were virtually hundreds of them swimming around me.

*****

Flamboyant Cuttlefish, Coconut Octopus, Mimic Octopus
There was one dives that I spotted at least 5 flamboyant cuttlefish! Their gland were strikingly beautiful. When they were stressed, they showed amazing warning colour. Also, I spotted one of them sticking out their tongue to catch the prey, a blink of your eyes and the fishy was gone. The other highlight was the Coconut Octopus. It fled from a shell when my dive master found it. I followed it step-by-step, it was “walking” rather than jetting in the water, super adorable! Occasionally, it peeped at me and other photographers while searching for the hidden place. Mimic Octopus, sigh… I had 5 seconds spotting before it escaped to its hole.

*****

Zebra Lionfish, Shortfin Lionfish, Spinny Devilfish, Painted Stingfish
Again, the sea floor were full of these creatures. I love lionfish. They were always the love of photographer. They liked to stretch their impressive wing, making it looked like underwater butterfly. Painted Stingfish, you got to have some luck to spot them as they only appeared at night. Spinny Devilfish was as cool and nasty as scorpionfish.

*****

Harlequin Shrimp, Crinoid Shrimp, Bubble Coral Shrimp, Cleaner Shrimp, Squat Lobster
Shrimp was my favourite subject. They were candies of eyes. Crinoid shrimp had the best disguise while Harlequin Shrimp had the lavish colour and pattern. Squat lobster was strikingly pink while bubble coral shrimp and cleaner shrimp could be transparent!

*****

Electric Clamp, Banggai Cardinalfish, Banded Seasnake
These were special creature. Electric clamp emitted electric ray to scare off the predator. Banggai Cardinalfish were endemic to this region. Spotting both of them were so much delightful but not the Banded Seasnake. Banded Seasnake is the world most poisonous animal and definitely not a joke I could afford.

*****

Ornate Ghost Pipefish, Robust Ghost Pipefish, Ring Pipefish, Stick Pipefish
Ghost Pipefish were beauty to behold. They normally existed in pair, hovering above the crinoids or feather stars. The female was larger, with pelvic pouch for eggs. Their slender body always appeared to be frozen and easy to be photographed.

*****

Nudibranch
Last but not least, how could one overlook nudibranch, the gem of underwater. Lembeh Straits had the diverse species of nudibranch. The most attractive one was skirt nudibranch, whereby it earned their name by flapping their rim gracefully.

*****

The RESORT
I booked the unlimited dive package with Diver Lodge Lembeh (www.diverslodgelembeh.com). This was the best diving resort I had been. The diving boat was comfortable, spacious and modern. As it was family run, the service was warming, considerate and well-rounded. Staff were polite, helpful and friendly. I did not have the chance to carry my dive equipment since they fetched me from Bunaken. Food and drink was also unlimited. Dinner was nicely set up and the Dutch owner family dined with the divers every night. Apparently, Rob the owner was contributing himself for the good sake of Lembeh Straits. There are many plans in the future to make Lembeh Straits a better and cleaner diving location. Good faith for Lembeh Straits.

The MEMORY
Lembeh Straits is truly a macro heaven where photographer can not afford to miss. It stole my heart and it is now left 20 ft underneath the murky ocean. I would have to retrieve it someday, sometime….

The END

Travel Hanoi @ 29 April 2009

2009-05-12T06:02:00.000-07:00

Pampered with luxurious tours, I had long forgotten the feeling of backpacking. To revive its spirit, I travelled with 4 other friends in semi-backpacking style to Hanoi and Sapa, Vietnam. Vietnam is always an icon of postwar, hardship and suburban. Though mentally prepared, we were still awe struck by the scent, the view, the culture and the people of Vietnam. We definitely had mixed feeling with Vietnam. We were both impressed and, at the same time, surprised. Due to the compacted schedule, we had yet to have chance visiting Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and French Quarter. The following were something that impressed us, at least myself, very much:

The landmark Ho Kiam Lake located right in the middle of Hanoi.

Old Quarter 36 Streets, Hanoi
After an eye-opening journey from airport to our hotel (the driving attitude), we started exploring the famous Old Quarter of Hanoi city. Ho Kiam Lake was the landmark for every location. Ho Kiam Lake was translated as Sword-Returning Lake, depicting the legend of sword returning to a gigantic tortoise after a victorious war between Vietnam and China. Rather disappointed with the Ho Kiam Lake view, we ventured into Old Quarter 36 streets. To impress you, each street was selling the same goods in grandeur – shoes, silks, silver, incense, tomb carving, cloths, spices, souvenirs etc. You name it they have it. My first impression was, well, being a Vietnamese woman was difficult. Most of them did the hardwork and ‘run’ the family. Salute….

Lucky snapshot of a beautiful couple in front of St Joseph Church.

***

Water Puppet Show
The status was rather similar to our Wayang Kulit but their puppets were more animated and colourful, performing on a water stage. It appeared to be quite interesting for awhile and the show was later paled by the recurrent lyric which sleepened most of us. There were different folklores portraying the daily lives of Vietnamese, legends and mythologies (dragon, phoenix, unicorns etc.). My votes went to fire-spitting dragon dance and marriage story. Nonetheless, it was still something we had never watched before.

St Joseph Church is the best place to capture daily local life.

***

Vietnamese Vs French Cuisine
It was unbelievable that the best French restaurant – The Green Tangerine, was actually located in Hanoi. The excitement started right after we stepped into the restaurant. The setting was beyond elegant and we could not help to jaw-drop with the food selection, of course the price as well. I was rather shocked when my food arrived. I made a mistake of ordering a plate of raw beef and surprises came one after the other. The raw beef was unexpectedly delicious and I could hardly felt the rawness, no doubt a world-class cuisine. Cha Ca La Vong was another famous local restaurant. They had only one menu, which was fried fish and rice noodles. It was rather embarrassing if you visited Hanoi and not trying the local specialties. We tried some tasty Vietnamese breakfast – rice noodles, sticky rice, Vietnamese coffee etc., sitting along the street side just like locals. Thumb up!

***

Spring roll in Hanoi style, dining in Green Tangerine, the best French restaurant.

***

Vietnamese Coffee
Out of nowhere, we bumped into a coffee stall accidentally that was highly recommended by forumers. The boss not only spoke fluent Cantonese, but also generous enough to treat us his coffee. The price was reasonable and the quality of coffee was top notch! To enjoy Vietnamese coffee fully, you need to prepare it in Vietnamese way – to filter the coffee with special filter and to add in dense and viscous milk. Exquisite taste it was! Having drinking coffee from Brazil and Italy, Vietnamese coffee definitely deserves the same level of excellence.

Lantern shop nearby St Joseph Church.

***

Traffic, Vietnamese National Day and Labour Day
Jackpot for the most peaking holiday in Vietnam, it was a nightmare for us. During our excursion to Tam Coc, we experienced the worst jam of all. We trapped inside the traffic for almost 4 hours. Unmovable and bored, it was the best moment to observe the locals because even the motorists were trapped on the road. If you think there are too many motorists in Malaysia, well, think again. We saw a sea of motorists packing with their family and heading back home for their national holiday. You got to amaze on their driving skills too. Honking and foul language exchange were not uncommon.

Trishaw along Old Quarter 36 Street.

***

Tam Coc
After gruesome 6 hours on the road in total, we finally arrived Tam Coc. This place was often called as land Halong Bay due to its landscape. Boating on the winding river through grottos, I had a wonderful time. The scenery was pleasant and greeny, very typical rural view of Vietnam.

Flower Hmong lady absorbed in processing their colourful embroidery. Man smoking local pipes.

***

Cat Cat Village, Sapa
It took us 8-hour night train and 2-hour bus to reach Sapa, the most northern part of Vietnam. The train journey was disastrous and excruciating but, well, that was the beauty of backpacking – to experience the unexpected and unimaginable. The reason of visiting Sapa was to catch a glimpse and to visit the residency of minority groups in Vietnam. There were many tribes but mainly from Hmong, i.e. Black, Green, Red, White, Flower Hmong etc. It was a rainy day and we had to trek through the mountain to reach Cat Cat Village. Cat Cat meant for waterfall in Hmong language and this village was occupied mainly by Black Hmong. The word ‘Black’ was symbolized from the indigo colour of their dress. It was indeed an eye-opening experience for us. Their costume, embroidery, residency, terrace rice field, food, herbal drink etc. kept amazing us. Buffalos were walking freely and abundantly across the waterfall and rice field – peaceful and scenic views that every photographers craves for.

Scenic Cat Cat Village.

***

Bac Ha Market
Sunday morning, Flower Hmong tribal people will gather in Bac Ha to buy their daily necessities, to socialize, to exchange goods, to gossip, to wander around etc. The moment we stepped down the bus, our eyes were filled with colours. Flower Hmong’s costume was amongst the most colourful costume I had ever seen. They were unique, striking and unimaginably bright – each sending signals to my camera to snap them. Frantically, we snapped and snapped while squeezing into the market. It was such a frenzy of snapshot, everywhere we saw photography enthusiasts like us taking pictures, squatting or telephotoing. There was an animal market too, where they sold ducks, horse, buffalos, pigs, dogs, birds etc. Laughter, bargaining, gossiping, children bearing…."Wow!”. that was exactly the word crossed in my mind at that moment, definitely worth a long journey to be here. We also spotted a scene that mind-blowed everyone – a 60++ year old women bore a pig, probably heavier than me, on her back. Full respect!

Colourful Bac Ha Sunday Market, where many Hmong people socialize.

***

Halong Bay
It was quite a let down to us. We were getting very bored with the monotonous view. The food was rather uncreative and pale. The stalagmites were even not as impressive as those in Ipoh. Perhaps, we should apply World Heritage ownership for Gua Tempurung. In fact, we decided to play Mahjong on the boat. Yup, you heard it right, we brought our Mahjong tiles along to Halong Bay! Wish you were there...

The famous Halong Bay and the caves.

Travel Mexico City @ 23 March 2009

2009-04-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

A business symposium brought me to the amazing Mexico City. As usual, the flight and transit time were excruciatingly painful, about 30 hours in total one-way, but it was worthy. It was my first exploration in Central America region. It struck me that this city shared many similarities to Rio de Janeiro, which I visited not long ago. Both of the cities are huge in population (Mexico City has a population of 20 Million), presence of slum areas, Latin America and soft spoken (yup, that surprised me or perhaps Spanish are just too loud). Though I did not stay too long, I still manage to squeeze some spare time to explore some exotic attractions this city offered – The Basilica of Guadalupe, Teotihuacan Pyramids and Anthropology Museum.

The whole City is full of these trees with purple flowers. Awkwardly similar to sakura!

The city night view from my hotel room.

Majority of Mexicans are Catholic which had been incorporated with local beliefs and cultures. The interesting fact is that Mexicans still celebrate some festivals which were rather contradictory to Catholicism, such as Festival of Dead which glorifies the return of dead souls. Lady Guadalupe is the most worshipable saint throughout Mexico. She has an equivalent status to virgin Mary but her skin colour is black. According to the local history, Lady Guadalupe showed her miracle image to the priests in a poncho, a type of Mexican costume. The original copy was exhibited in Basilica of Guadalupe. According to the tour guide, many parts of Mexico City are currently suffering sinking problem, Basilica of Guadalupe is one of the examples. Tracing back to the geological history, Mexico City was built in the midst of five lakes. To prevent the further sinking, many buildings have been undergone the structural strengthening.

The Basilica of Guadalupe, which suffers from sinking problem.

The miraculous puncho shown by Lady Guadalupe.

Mexico is popular with its exotic civilizations, such as Aztec, Maya, Teotihuacan etc. This was indeed the first time I had the chance to study these civilizations. They were indeed equally stunning, striking and different from Egyptian civilization that we are all accustomed to. They built step pyramids which were solely deployed for ritual scarification. Their pyramids were normally solidified whereas Egyptian pyramids were purposely compartmentalized to store mummies and artifacts. One similarity was that the priests sat at highest hierarchy in the social status after the God or King. Teotihuacan was a blood-thirsty nation whereby they believed God could only be appeased by blood offering. Therefore, people would poke (finger, arm, penis!) or even sacrifice themselves to squeeze the blood out of their body for God. Teotihuacan was a parallel civilization with Maya, interesting enough, both of the civilizations disrupted in the same period. The most probable cause might be the lack of water and food resources. The alien theory was considered as the lamest and most ridiculous one, from the despicable tone of our tour guide.

Teotihuacan Pyramids which glorified human sacrifies. Citizen were sacred if their blood was sacrified to God. The above is Pyramid of Sun.

Before visiting Teotihuacan Pyramids, our tour guide brought us to a Mexican Indian corporation shop. My first thought was that it must be an usual trick of our cheeky tour guide. I had to apologize for that thought as the corporation was really genuinely local and his explanation of tequila and artisans definitely deserved my purchase. This region was famous for obsidian, quartz, jade and other mineral rocks. Obsidians rock is extremely rigid, a black solid which glows with various stunning colours (gold, silver, rainbowish etc.) under the sunlight. In the ancient time, Teotihuacan conquered the trade of obsidians in the adjacent area as it could be used to produce decorations as well as weapons. Besides, we were shown how to produce a local drink known as Pucke, a similar drink to tequila. Jokingly, Pucke is also known as Mexican viagra. It was milky and has a strong fermented smell. I still preferred my tequila with limau and salt.

Tequila, a blasting drink with the twist of lime of salt. Pucke, a milky white fermented drink which was known as local viagra. Tried both myself, tequila beat the hell out of pucke.

Obsidian rock with glowing gold colour under sunrays.

Colourful costumes of Mexican culture.

Teotihuacan (as exotic as it sounds) pyramids – The Pyramid of Sun and Moon, was known as “The City of God” by translation. Apparently, it was the place where men could turn to God. The base area was same as the Giza Pyramid in Egypt but the height was only half of that. It was windy with scorching sun but I enjoyed the scenic view very much. The steps were numerous but having experience of climbing the unimaginable Angkor Wat, this was just ABC. Vertigo was always my phobia but strangely enough, I have no problem with deep diving which involves great height underwater.

Pyramid of Moon in Teotihuacan.

I spent 3 good hours in Anthropology Museum, having my foot sore so much but worthy. It was the finest museum of its kind in the world. I was awed with the varieties, quantities and qualities of the exhibitions. Extremely impressive, it gave you the best perception of Central America history. The only drawback was that the descriptions were mostly in Spanish. Chronologically, the style and nature of the exhibitions altered but equally awesome. On the second floor, the Mexican costumes were well presented, such a colourful race! Outside the museum, I witnessed a very typical and interesting ritual, whereby four local Indians hung their foot upside down and spinning from top to down, stun show! See the picture and look at the height! It supposed to spin 52 repetitions to represent one year cycle and to cast away misfortune, accompanying with indigenous music and chanting.

Mexican locals who performed stunning ritual shows.

In conclusion, Mexico city surprised me. I did not expect too much prior to the trip but its rich culture and uniqueness caught me off guard. I wish I had more time to seek for more surprises.

Some of the amazing collections from world-class Anthropology Museum.

Tioman Shark Dive 8 March 2008

2009-03-15T06:14:00.000-07:00

I had my Advanced Open Water Dive certificate in Tioman. The feeling of revisit Tioman with more relaxation was definitely somewhat different. Our diving date coincided with public holiday. The booking was so full that we had to board the night ferry from Mersing jetty, so did the return journey. I should conclude that the night ferry experience was ‘rocking’ up and down due to downpour and current. My dive buddies were Apple, Carrie and Fei. We stayed in Berjaya Tioman and dived with B&J Dive Centre. B&J was professional in diving business – equipment was well-maintained, boat was spacious and dive master was responsible. We did 3 dives with B&J, together with many foreigners. I did not rent any underwater camera this time but our Finnish diver friend, Timo, was kind to provide me photos for blogging.

Berjaya Tioman Beach and Spa Resort. Comfortable and scenic.

Magician Rock (52 min, 18.9 meters)
Magician was famous for its cool and colourful coralscape. I did not spot many special fish species but the coral view was pleasant. Right after descending, I spotted a juvenile harlequin sweetlip which was in the middle of transition to its adulthood. The physical appearances of juvenile and adult sweetlip differ from the dotted size on their body. This transition sweetlip had both big and small dots on its body, sweet!
Another adventure was my personal confrontation with the Titan Triggerfish attack. That was a hell of an excitement! I was taking my sweet time to glide through the coral while suddenly my buddy and dive master signaled warning to watch out my back. By the time I turned around, a nasty and bitchy triggerfish charged to my direction. Retreat and recharge again, it was within my arm-length and I could clearly saw its sharp and piercing tooth. Fighting to save my ass off, I hit the triggerfish repeatedly with my pointer. Huh, the stubborn triggerfish finally backed away and I was halfway to the surface! My buddies were watching the whole show with amusement, pity me…

Striking nudibranch searching for mates

North Point (52 min, 20.7 meters)
The dive site had some coral walls. Both macro and large species could be spotted here. I was excited to spot my first Barramundi Cod. It was shy and searching for shade when we went after for closer look. Besides, we also spotted a giant moray eel, as long as my height! Its sleeky body was pretty much exposed between the boulder slit. Check out the photo!

Giant moray eel! Secure your finger first...

Barramundi Cod, one of my wish list to spot

Renggis Island (61 min, 12.0 meters)
My 2nd time to dive Renggis. It was right in front of Berjaya Tioman Resort. My first dive was a night dive and I did not really enjoy it. My anticipation for this dive was therefore a bit reserved. Well, it turned out that this dive was awesome! We spotted many creatures – black-tip shark, cuttlefish, chevron barracuda, turtle, all sorts of clownfish and anemone.... It was a close encounter with a pair of cuttlefish. These creatures were amazing. They changed their body colour and pattern in a blink of time. Once, I spotted them emitting fluorescent colour while hunting at night, cool thing. There were more than one black-tip shark in Renggis. They were as big as my size, but fatter and bulkier! The only thing I wanted to complain was the surging current and thermocline.

Ever changing cuttlefish

We had half-day strolling Kampung Tekek, enjoying the fried rice and chicken, chatting non-sense, annoying Apple and Carrie, playing ‘moneyless’ mahjong…. In short, we had a quite relaxing diving holiday, well, put aside the ferry ride and gruesome driving journey. Also, I was satisfied with my diving skill, improving bits by bits. Keep diving, diver Fox…

My Travel Experience, Part 3 (Europe & Amsterdam)

2009-03-05T04:09:00.000-08:00

Part 4 (Europe, Amsterdam)

Not wanting to travel alone, I shared my prize with a friend. The tour that I won was a budget tour. In fact, the itinerary was so compact that we stayed in every country for only two or three days. So much to see but so little time to utilize, I would say it was quite a challenge. The countries that we had covered were France, Holland, Germany, Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and so on. I had vague memory on this tour, since the schedule was too congested. During that time, Euro was not established yet and therefore, we had so much fun in exchanging foreign currency in each country. As the first time to explore Europe, European countries were very similar and very different to me. Odd enough, their languages were so different in pronunciation but yet they shared the similar wording. They had their own food and cultures but soccer was pretty much dominant throughout the whole Europe. As much as I like French food, Italian food was exquisitely comparable to Spanish and Chinese food. Brand name, such as Gucci, Prada, Armani, Porsche, Ferrari etc. became too common in Europe.

There were two small but intriguing European countries worth to mention in this tour. Liechtenstein was the smallest country in Europe. It was famous for its stamp publication. The country still has their king system. Similarly, Monaco was small and scenic, popular for its winding F1 track and world-class Monte Carlo casino. Unfortunately, I still used film camera at that time and none of the photos were taken digitally.

Bridges in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was the most typical harbour city to me. Local sailors bid farewell and travel far ashore while foreign sailors stopped by to refuel, to rejuvenate and even to get laid in the red-light district. That was always the image in my mind and it was exactly how I felt when I set afoot on this city. Amsterdam are world-renowned for many things – clog, cheese, tulips, window girls etc. Afterall, Amsterdam is always branded with XXX – Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll.

Sea of Tulips.

The cutest snapshot in Keukenhof Garden.

In Keukenhof garden, I had seen the prettiest and the most variety tulips in my life. Their colours were so vibrant as if they were artificially painted. We spent more than 3 hours to snap shots but none of them justified the freshness and perfection of those tulips. You got to see with your naked eyes, for once in your life! Strolling along the notorious red-light district, I did feel some kind of pity and, well, kinky. The truth was raw and savage. Inside a transparent cubicle, the prostitutes elaborated their body to attract customers. The customer could even negotiate the price before making a deal. How pathetic… but somehow, prostitution was legal, so did the drug taking, and no one was complaining about the free window browsing.

Can you believe that Tulips originated from Turkey!?

My Travel Experience, Part 2 (France)

2009-02-16T05:16:00.001-08:00

Bon Jour, we are talking about France today. France is worth to visit a dozen. Fashion, political power, wine, agriculture, architecture, history, sports, glamour, cinema…. Anything you can think of elegance, France has it all and be the best. It is a country which can self provide and self maintain, a country with veto power, strong defense system and yet stylish and artistic to the max. There are hundreds reasons French people can be so proud of themselves. Strangely, I found French people warm and friendly. The trick is to speak French with them, no matter how broken, they will offer their help more than willingly. Why they abhor English so much? Please study European history.

Paris is the most beautiful metropolitan city I have visited. No question about it. The air is aromatic with scent of romance and roses. Café and perfume shops are around corners all the time. The fact that from London to France is just 3-hours train distance made me travel to Paris for 5 times during my study. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacré Coeur, The Louvre….. You definitely need more than a week to explore Paris. The Louvre… how can I not mention that. The museum design is a beauty itself. It holds 4 most famous masterpiece in the world– the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory of Samothrace (Nike), Venus de Milo and Slave statue by Michelangelo. Another art museum worth a visit is Centre Pompidou. Totally different style from the Louvre, Pompidou exhibits the most futuristic and modern art works, be it in video, painting, audio clips or merely random poets. It may not be the cup of your tea but it definitely stretches your imagination and challenges your tolerance.

I travelled to Southern France (Loire Valley) with a small group of friends and had a blast of mid-spring time. At the heat of my final PhD writing, I decided to take a break and it was the most relaxing tour ever. We cycled to the suburb of Southern France, where Poppy flower blanketed the field casually, the sunny sky was painted with bright blue hue, freshest air and green vineyard combination, backdrop of unbelievable royal castles, mouth watering foods served in any restaurant you bumped into…. The peace, relaxation, fulfilment and tranquility was something I can never forget. I can only imagine if I retire there, I can live more than 150 year-old.

Next stop is Europe…. Yup, you heard it right, Europe. I always believe in lucky draws because I did win a Europe trip before. Yup, you heard it right again, do not shot me. I paid nothing to travel Europe one time when I won a lucky draw from STA Travel…. To be continued…

Moulin Rouge

Castle in Loire Valley

Poppy Field at suburb of Southern France

Rideau Castle in Tours

The most famous landmark - Eiffel Tower in Paris

My Travel Experience, Part 1 (England)

2009-02-13T07:40:00.000-08:00

I always want to write something about my travel experiences. This is the best timing to flash back as I started to explore the world in year 1998. That will make it 10 years of unforgettable experiences. Flashing back, I am contended and proud of the journey I overtook. Most of my friends already knew that I am a travel hunger freak. My travel style and expectation changed with time. I will write it in many parts, symbolizing phases how I embraced my travel hobby, how I felt about each country.... The feeling are raw and personal, please do not get offended.

England was my virginity (God bless Queen Elizabeth!). Well, practically, I conquered Singapore before England but please forgive me for saving my virginity to England. The culture shock was nothing but all. Ashamed of myself, I was clueless about the differences between England and United Kingdom during my very first visit. In fact, they spoke ‘unconventionally’ as what I expected from TV. England oh England… I definitely had mixed feeling on this country. I love Her and I hate Her as much as I love London and I hate London. It was the country full of palpable antiquity, academic excellence and staunch believe in science and novelty but at the same time, it was also a country stained with hypocritical history, notorious gloomy weather and filthy snobbishness.

I had been staying in England for more than 5 years. It was my greatest privilege to pay countless visits to British Museum, my favourite place besides Science Museum. Living in London is excruciating when costs and expenses drown you but it will be a paradise if you have no worry on money. Leceister Square, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Buckingham Palaces, Greenwich….some places worth to set my footprint. I did explore other cities besides London, such as Manchester, York, New Castle etc. but they were somehow shapeless to me, similar castles, similar garden and similar weather. Scotland was something different. It was William Wallace (Mel Gibson from Braveheart) who drafted the image of Scotland to me and it was exactly how I felt when I visited Edinburgh, a city with preserved history, breathtaking sceneries and unique accent.

Huh… I definitely need more spaces to blog. England itself already consumes a substantial part. To be continued… my next country is the dearest France, where I keep going back falling under Her irresistible charms. London or Paris? You must be kidding me, my friends….. London is old grumpy grandma and Paris is young sinful gorgeous mistress, make your pick….

Tower Bridge

Oxford

Chatsworth House, Sheffield

Trinity College, Cambridge

Visit to Malaysian Association for the Blind

2009-01-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

I was glad to begin year 2009 with such a meaningful day. Serving community service organized by PETRONAS, I had the chance to visit Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) in Brickfields. Part of the new executive training, we were required to design activities for the blind people but out of our surprises, the MAB principal decided to plan the activities to surprise us. We virtually reached there without a clue what to expect.

I was so worried that I might step into a gloomy hut where many blind people started to complain and weep. I realized the thought was absolutely silly! We were welcomed by cheerful Geofrey, a blind graduate from University of Malaya. Watching him deliver a lively speech with Braille note, we were all deeply touched. Later, we were shown a short video clip on their Mt. Kinabalu conquer. Personally, I climbed Mt. Kinabalu before and I knew exactly how challenging it was. To me, they were more than heroes, but living proves that determination was invincible. According to the principal, they were planning to conquer Mt. Tahan, which was more challenging and thrilling.

Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) in Tun Sambanthan. www.mab.org.my

Touring the centre, we knew more about the MAB facilities. MAB is a place for blind people to learn their skills and having fun, such as Braille reading, learning massage techniques, friendship networking etc. By then, we knew how blind people read, use computer, carry out sports and recreation activities etc. We were paired with a blind buddy each to interact and communicate. A blind person can officially declare blind for 3 level – B1, B2 and B3 (Total blindness, visual impaired and blur vision). My blind buddy, Rostam, was fully blind since born. We chatted about living, activities, future and so on. Throughout the conversation, I had not heard him complaining a single thing about his life even though he had not seen the world before. At that particular moment, I was so ashamed of myself. We complaint how ugly is the colour of a shirt, we complaint how dark is the sky, we complaint how bad is the building design, we complaint how ridiculous is the movie, on and on….

My cheerful buddy, Rostam, who has the positive attitude about his life. My full respect.

My buddy was a skillful massager. He was due to finish his course in this May. Of course, I was more than willing when he asked me to become his practice subject. Huh…. That was such an awesome experience, a first class massage. I was no doubt that he could pass his test with flying colour. He told me that he hoped to earn living by himself with this skill. It was a fine Friday. So, after lunch, Rostam would have to walk for almost 1 km to reach the mosque for praying. As a non-Muslim, I stayed in the centre and chatted with other colleagues. We were all touched by many different true stories – some lost their eyesight after brain cancer or accidents, some born with blindness, some gradually became blind out of no reason etc. The most heartbroken one was about a little girl who could not see, hear and talk. All she could interact was by hand touching signal.

Afternoon activities were fun. We had the chance to experience their leisure activities. I played goal ball (blind hand ball) and blind ping pong. How? By hearing of course, you can imagine the difficulty. Our day ended with ‘We Are The Champion’ song and whole-hearted speech. The day was unforgettable, the day that I remind myself how to cherish life, how to appreciate everything in my life, how to treasure each moment you can see…. No doubt this visit changes the perspective on how I view life. I will always remember this day before I complain something.

Any donation to Malaysian Association for the Blind:
P.O. Box No. 10687, Kuala Lumpur 50722.
You can donate, to be a volunteer or to provide employment for the blind. MAB is just off the Tun Sambathan station in Brickfields. Around Jalan Tun Sambanthan, there are also plenty of massage centres by blind people.

"WITH YOUR HELP, OUR WORLD BECOMES A LITTLE BRIGHTER, EVERYDAY"
~ Malaysian Association for the Blind

World Heritage - Malacca

2008-11-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Being recognized as world heritage (Penang and Malacca) is definitely a good news to Malaysian. Congratulation! This means an influx of foreign tourist, booming the tourism to maximum. Malacca has indeed full of its own charms. This place is the birthplace of Sultan system in Malaysia as well as many tradition and culture. Baba and Nyonya are legendary while Hang Li Po story gives you endless imagination. Let's hope Malacca flourishes with more colour of history....

....

This building is absolutely an eye candy for photographer.

Unique and colourful trishaws add spices to Malacca culture.

Stunning statue to guard the church.

Typical protocol and counsel arrangement with Sultan.

Pearl of West Coast - Langkawi Island

2008-10-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

It has been more than ten years I set foot in Langkawi. Back there, I still vaguely remember I and several schoolmates started from Ipoh bus station. Only after a long bus journey, we reached Kedah harbour which was full of rats, then it took us many ferry hours to arrive Langkawi harbour. Now, just after an hour flight and you are heading the way to your hotel from Langkawi airport. Langkawi’s development really amazed me - wide roads with many traffic lights. The most shocking one was the Makam Mahsuri, which transformed from a tiny graveyard within my reaching hand to a big guarded graveyard, with video story-telling auditorium!

The residents where Mahsuri family were resided, tourist junk probably.

Makam Mahsuri. Apparently, according to the guide, many people came to consult for lottery tips.

Laman Padi, providing you an experience of agricultural activities.

In this recent trip, I visited two places which impressed me so much. The first place was so-called Laman Padi, where you could get acquainted to all the agricultural activities. It was nicely set up, one of the paradise for photographer. The second place was The Bon Ton Resort. It was a famous honeymoon resort, ranging from RM 900 onwards for a night stay. We had a gourmet dinner at its sunset deck. The Nyonya food was delicious while the sunset view was more than breathtaking. I ranked it the best sunset after the Santorini sunset in my travel log. Frenzily and losing my mind, my Canon 40D was virtually clicking non-stop for half an hour. The view was a simple pond, floating with many little bright white flowers as if they were shinning under the amazing hue of sunset. The background was a natural artistic tree to perfect the view. All in all, it was spechlessly scenic! My picture could hardly justify my description.

The breathtaking sunset view from Bon Ton sunset deck.

The Bon Ton Resort, a famous honeymoon resort owned by a foreigner.

Will I revisit Langkawi? Absolutely, I still have not tried the cable car and diving there. Anyone is visiting there, book me in please…

My Cleaner Shrimps Spawned!!!

2008-09-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

Look carefully, the microscopic juvenile shrimps 'snowed' in my aquarium.

It had been 2 months since I established my nano marine aquarium. A lot of busy incidents happened inside, of course. First, my bully damsel killed most of my bottom feeder fish. Then, it started to annoy my clown fish and someday later, the pair of clown fish could not take anymore and went to netherland too. It finally hit my boundary when it attacked my favourite fire goby (the cutie fish in the picture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemateleotris_magnifica) until it hopped out from the aquarium. Furiously, I isolated the damsel and the residents in my aquarium now are only a fire goby and a pair of cleaner shrimps. I expected to loose my fire goby as I noticed that it bleeded after falling to the floor. In fact, it survived the ordeal and getting more active and happier ever since! Miracle did happen sometimes.

With the bully damsel gone, the shrimps practically felt more safe. They devoured anything I dropped in. Sometimes, they even swam upside down to catch the floating pellets! I suspected that the lady shrimp had eggs under her belly. It proved me right last night when I found that my aquarium was 'snowing romantically'. The shrimp spawned! Not eggs but juvenile microscopic shrimps! It was an interesting sighting. The happiest one should be my goby, first time ever tasted live food in aquarium. This morning, all of the baby shrimps were gone, which I have expected to be eaten or being sucked by into the filter. Nevermind, at least the shrimps are happy with their lifes and I am not a bad fish keeper afterall.... Make more babies please....

Whale Shark Smiles at Tenggol Island

2008-09-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

The blog title speaks all - a memorable dive in Tenggol Island, close encounter with a juvenile whale shark at Tokong Timur. To feed you the details, carry on reading then…. All of the photos were captured by my fellow divers as I did not rent or bring any camera this time.

Happy divers who spotted Whale Shark at Tenggol Island!

Long journey of driving, stranded boat due to spoiled engine, cumbersome gear up etc. etc. are some of the nightmares that drive diver to the wall. Though we experienced all of these mishaps during the trip, everyone was still going home with a big smile. New friendship + good dive guide + luckiest sighting + positive attitude counterbalanced all of the unlucky events. In fact, I think this is the luckiest dive trip I ever had so far since I am still in one piece after the driving journey. Well, my fellow divers will understand what I am referring to…

Yeah, I was not to be lost thanks to the striking red wetsuit.

Tenggol Island is exclusive for divers. It does not have a breathtaking beachview nor spectacular chalet, nor tempting food, nor bikini girls. What you can do is just dive, dive and dive. I logged 6 dives in two days (5 day dives and 1 night dive) but I could only recollect 3 dives (Tokong Timur, Lost World and House Wreck at Night).

Tokong Timur
This dive site is located at the southern tip. This was the first morning dive of the 2nd day, after a torrential rain at night. Visibility was simply superb. Backrolled into the clear ocean, we were greeted by schoaling ‘DIGI’ fish, i.e. all sorts of yellowish fish such as yellow stripe snapper, yellow fusiliers etc. The sheer number of the yellow species alone would make this dive unique. I could never imagine fusiliers could grow to such an extensive size! Along the dive, I also spotted my favourite schoaling barracudas.

At the turn of the boulder, we spotted the idol of all divers – Whale Shark. I believe I was the first person who spotted the whale shark after Charlie frantically bang his tank. The moment was just sensational. First, its head emerging from far away, then its full length body appeared, with many remora fish sticking under its belly, swimming alongside was a lone king fish. If I started finning upwards, I believe I could reach the whale shark and block its direction. Too afraid to scare it away, I just watched motionless. I had a delusion that the king fish peeped at me with a despicable expression, laughing snobbishly at my fans-met-idol silliness. The whale shark had not fully grown yet, about 4 meters plus. It passed by and almost wanted to turn back to check on us, but later with a flip of tail, it vanished into the blue. Oops, forgot to mention that most of the photographers missed the sighting and, therefore, no photo to prove.

Giant puffer cleaned by a wrasse at cleaning station.

Lost World
The coralscape was something to keep you amazed. Boulders were standing tall and high, lots of bright colour seafans with transparent shrimps and fries as their residence. I spotted some monstrous-size angels, such as bluering and six-banded. I am always an angelfish fan, no matter how frequent I spot them, I will still get excited. The six-banded angels were the largest angels I had ever encountered.

Healthy table corals scattering everywhere.

House Wreck (Night Dive)
I was almost doomed by this dive. First, tangled regulator which made me difficult to grab my first stage while descending. Second, bloody virgin torch light died beneath 20 m. Third, buoyant tank and current which keep pushing me upwards. Definitely struggling not to loose my buddy. To compensate the mishaps, plenty of night creatures to spot – cuttlefish with bioluminescent signals, big banded shrimps, crocodile fish, decorator crab, puffer etc.

Banded shrimp inside the wreck.

Turtle Point, Mini Highway, Tanjung Gemuk
These were the blur dives for me. Right after descending of one dive, we saw a grouper being trapped in tangled robes. Charlie, our dive guide, rescued it by cutting off the robe mess.

Poor grouper trapped within the robes

Turtle Points - checkout dive and spotted a schoal of juvenile barracudas, batfish, giant bumphead, giant puffer at clean station.
Mini Highway - there was a sandy bottom where shrimp gobies were abundant. Also, spotted the red Spanish dancer resting on the bottom.
Tanjung Gemuk - the last dive of the trip. The visibility was crappy, strong and many thermoclines, loud clicking sound made by coral during feeding (told by Charlie).

To sum out the dives, Tenggol Island was incredible. I definitely see myself revisit it again someday sometime. Until then, take care my dearest whale sharky….

City of God – Rio de Janeiro, Aug 2008

2008-08-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

I was very fortunate to have a business trip to Brazil. Talking about works, I was nervous as I had to meet some of the international top researchers in this industry while I was a total newcomer. Well, finger cross, the meeting turned out to be quite OK. Let’s skip the work part and chat about Rio de Janeiro. The flight was excruciatingly long but the thought of virgin exploration to South America continent made any hassle worth. Brazil is a nation with legendary legacy in samba, football, capoeira (martial art that two people kicking without touching), carnival, racial diversity etc. I just could not wait to reveal the curtain of this country with my own eyes. My total flight time was about 25 hours, with a transit in Paris. The Brazilian timing is 13 hours behind Malaysian timing. The official language is Portuguese, yup, not Spanish.

Aerial view of Rio de Janeiro from the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain.

The hotel I was staying had the nicest location, in front of the Ipanema beach. It was a posh and classical beach. Brazilian are health freak by the way, I had stop counting people jogging along the beach. They jogged day and night, half-naked or bikini style, alone or in groups, with dogs or etc etc. It was a crime to be not exercising and healthy! The waves were gigantic too! I was swept away by the wave, no kidding, I almost shouted for the lifeguard but luckily a big wave swirled me back to the shore. Phew... swimming above the ocean is definitely more dangerous than diving into it. Surfing was another common practice there. Watching the surfers glided through the waves was simply joyful.

Surfer having so much fun with the giant waves.

This is what I called crowded beach (Ipanema) during a beautiful winter Saturday!

Coffee - Brazil has met its reputation. The Brazilian coffee was a lead in its type – moderately strong but smooth and addictable, not those kind of coffee that you would be thirsty and make your pee smell like hell after drinking. Our host also brought me to a very unique restaurant. As a photography geek, I was spell bounded by the elaborated decoration and cultural environment of the restaurant. Its name was Rio Scenarium (www.rioscenarium.com.br), situating in downtown area. It was huge, three-storey high, with extensive spaces of each storey. I would recommend any visitor to Brazil to experience the sensation. It was a converted antique house, full of stylish and camera-magnetic antiques. I really meant FULL, you turned a corner and you see wooden horse, then old-style pharmacy bottles, then statues, then musical instrument, then clocks, then car….. You guess it, I forgot to bring my camera. Don’t scold me, I was crying loudly in my heart. There were also some singers singing mesmerizing Brazilian songs, instrumenting Samba music. Diners came out and performed sporadically, delighting the audiences with their exceptional Samba moves. The vibes were something I could never forget in my life. This was all I had imagined about South America – bits of Latin flavour, pretty and expensive taste of livingstyle, relaxing.

Brazilian coffee motto: One Country, Many Flavours.

Of course, I had been living in bed of roses. There was no such thing as perfect in the world, I had yet to see the ugly side. In fact, Brazil is notorious for its favela where the poor housing area stationed by many drug addicts, perverts and criminals. It was taunting that it occupied quite a lot of area in Rio, either uphill or near the coast. I passed by the area on the way to airport. The lake in front stunk to the max and the houses were nothing more than simple brick build-up from nowhere. Backpackers should definitely avoid these places but ironically, they had favela tour available for curious backpacker. I was so tempted to join the tour but finally dropped the idea after advised by my host. Better to see the famous Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) statue, one of the new Seven Wonders. Nonetheless, Jesus must hate me because when I ascended to the hill, the fog rushed in and covered the statue. Only several of my photos were clear. Needless to mention, I did not see the aerial view of Rio, what a big let down. In my opinion, I do not think it deserves to be one of the Seven Wonders. Imagine that I took elevator and lift to reach the statue, totally no match with the Giza Pyramid. Equally popular tourist spot was the Sugar Loaf Mountain, which could also offer the swept view of Rio de Janeiro. Rio was certainly something extraordinary, half-moon-shape beach with monolithic granite mountains in between. I believe this is the city with the most accessible beaches (Ipanema and Copacabana) in the world. Double thumb up!

The Rio symbolic Christ the Redeemer Statue, Seven Wonder of The World.

In short, do I like Rio de Janeiro? Hmmm… It’s complicated. Do I want to live there? Definitely NO. Do I like to visit Rio again? Definitely YES. The best beach that I have ever been (Vs Greek island beaches and Italian beaches, yet to comment on Australian beaches).

MET EXPECTATION: Spectacular beaches, machos and chicks, football fans, cool Capoeira dance, diverse races.
CAUGHT OFFGUARD: Soft and polite Portuguese speaker, artistic and cultural, dog lovers (as comparable as European), fatless and healthy food.

Paintings displayed at Hippie Fair on Sunday Morning, Ipanema.

New Toy – Canon EOS 40D

2008-08-06T03:39:00.000-07:00

Eventually, I upgraded my camera gear to Canon EOS 40D, 17 – 85 mm IS USM lens kit (inclusive of UV protective filter and 4GB CF Memory card). For the Canon noob, IS stands for Image Stabilizer and USM denotes Ultrasonic Motor which gives a quieter zooming sound. RM 5200 flew from my bank account but I figured out that I will have so much fun with the new toy for quite some time. Virgin shots were snapped to capture our Malaysian Pride - KLCC Twin Tower. The feeling was somewhat different compared to that of EOS 400D. The camera body is larger, more robust and heavier. Quicker response and quieter shutter, equally pleasing results. I have yet to discover the hidden pleasure. The photos below can be a teaser for you. All photos were taken handheld, photoshop finesse. Enjoy!

My Underwater Box

2008-07-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

Fishkeeping has always been my passion since I was a kid. At some point, I know I will end up indulging in either planted aquarium or marine aquarium. As the marine setups are getting more reasonably priced, plus the evil friend’s persuasion, I began my marine aquarium challenge two weeks ago. I know my dive instructor/master will be mad at my act but I think, with proper care and moderation, fishkeeping is not a crime to environment. Deliberate purchase the hard-raising marine species and being ignorant are somehow unforgivable. Say if you are not capable to raise seahorse, then please do not buy it or if your aquarium is too small, please do not stuff too many species.

In fact, starting a marine aquarium is not as complicated as I expected. It has nothing much different to starting a freshwater aquarium, except the water salinity. My setup was pretty simple - dead coral and sea sand as decor, mounting filter and overhead lamp. The major challenge is always the first stage – introducing the fish to new environment. My earliest residents are clown fish and mechanical shrimp, following by damsels, strawberry grandma and doctor shrimp. They are extremely picky on food. Only after I switched to several brands, they started to consume. Now, they gulp ferociously whatever I dump to them! It is quite a sight and I enjoy watching them. It is funny that the doctor shrimp (a.k.a cleaner shrimp) tried to clean the two nemos while they refused to be cleaned; or the grandma darted in and out among the coral slits just to avoid my observation…. At least, it can quench my diving fever for a while..

Ok folks, will update you further. Or you can join me with this wonderful hobby!

Gem of Malaysia - Cameron Highland

2008-06-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Cameron Highland was perhaps the first travel destination during my early childhood. I was less than 10-year old when my parents brought me there. As a young scout, I also camped overnight there during my first ever exciting primary school trip. Later, I also joined a tea factory trip with my secondary schoolmates, one of our Geography lessons. In short, lots of handsome memory I had imprinted in Cameron. I could still remember the chilly breeze and coolness. Somehow, I was not impressed with the temperature during my weekend overnight trip yesterday. The night temperature was barely 19 degree Celcius. Global warming again? Lame topic...

I went to this trip with couple of OLD friends. Basically, the activities consisted of releasing stresses by chatting nonsense, playing mahjong, consuming the youth we barely spare.... The most meaningful activity was the 'tea factory trekking', at which I could spend some time taking good pictures of scenic tea terrace. The view was soothing and refreshing. By the way, we also bumped into some MY FM DJs during the trekking and pasar malam strolling. What a plus.... well, although I knew nothing of their faces.

It was a good meaningless trip, haha... Until then, I let the photos do the talking. See you at the top next time.

Living community nearby the Boh tea factory, with Hindu temple, primary schools, settlements.

Popular background for wedding shot.

Another scenic shot

Bumped into MY FM van. Music unlimited, Heart in the air.

Chessy shot in Boh tea center.

P.S. I Love You

2008-05-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

I always felt that blogging personal emotion is like exposing your own diary to public, naked and embarrassed. My friends always said I tend to have a protective shield to push away anyone who tried to approach and understand me deeper. Ok, get the message and will try to open up my heart more…

I recently watched a movie called “P.S. I Love You” and would like to share it with you (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431308/). The movie scene started with a couple fighting for some stupid issues. Not a typical attractive opening but the director did an excellent job by selecting the beautiful couple, starred by Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. Out of curiosity, I carried on with the flow of the movie and had not left the chair since. The storyline could not be more simple but it was absolutely hilarious, emotional but yet not too dramatic. This is the movie with every element I love and possibly the best movie I have watched in this year so far. Did I cry watching the movie? Nay.... Boys Don't Cry...hehe

The movie and book. Movie is the adaption of book, shorter and tighter pace.

The movie was actually written based on a novel with same name. I am reading it now. The feeling of reading is totally ‘sky-and-ground’ different. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very good book. The book has more depth and more elaboration, equally as impressive as the movie but I felt that the book will be more suitable for the ladies, too much tears and drama.

I ever wonder if there is a guidebook to find a true soulmate. I read this book before “Men Are from Mars and Woman Are from Venus”. Closed to the purpose but some of my female friends do not agree. The book suggested that soulmate is always an extreme version in some way of yourself. If you are extrovert, your soulmate is probably introvert and so on. Hmm…. That even puzzle me more because I am an extreme entity in both! I like clubbing and I like reading. I like arts and I also love engineering. I like complicated puzzles but also enjoy simple brainless game. I like swimming and sports but I also prefer luxurious treatment. I am talkative and I like to keep silence. I like shopping and I hate shopping…. The list can go on and on. Does it mean that I will not have my soulmate? Or my soulmate is my similar type? I am certainly a very confused person now.

John Gray book series - relationship counseling.

There is one shot in the movie, Denise told her friends, “ Your soulmate must be somewhere around the corner or he/she is just stucked with the wrong person.” How true! And I love the saying. For the past years, I have seen many couples. Some of them are so lucky that they found ‘the one’ and some of them just got so lost in the process. Although I hate wedding invitation as much as I love it (Hate it because need to prepare big Ang-pow, Love because it is time for my wedding photography practice), I always share their palpable joy. They are such lucky bastards, haha… mind my language. Relationship is probably 100 times harder than getting a PhD. Some people get it right once without slightest effort, some people never get it no matter how hard they try, pretty unfair… C'est la vie! My soulmate is somewhere with wrong person or she already appeared but, somehow, I have just stupidly overlooked?

Enough for one day sharing. Why I blog this? This is non-negotiable secret, so don’t bother to ask me. But what I can tell is – my big 30^th is hitting me soon. Whoa… that is something freak me out even to just think about it. So, friends, please remember to console me with piles of gifts during my big 30^th . I prefer designer watch, cash is only marginally accepted…. Haha… I heard someone cursing.

Earning My Passion

2008-05-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

My first ever wedding photo shot for my sister two years ago.

It has been a dream if I can turn my passion into earning. Well, it probably is dream of everyone in fact. I have identified some of my ‘passions’, leading to some part-time jobs which I can fantasize:

Wedding Photographer
Sleeping Investor of a Diving Centre
Leisure Stock Broker
PC Game Tester
R&D Researcher to Tackle Insomniac
Photography Judge

Forget about the last 5 fantasies. I am probably still quite crap and not up to the level to dream. But I do think I may have a shot with the first fantasy. I had been started photographing, mainly travel photography, since year 2000. For the past two years, I had grown interest in capturing wedding pictures for my colleagues, relatives and friends. It was the most exhaustive and time-consuming job but yet it was rewarding and exhilarating. Each laughter and emotion captured could easily melt down the tiredness.

It is amazing that my skill in photographing and photo editing are getting better each time. Ya… may be a bit too big head to commend this. Recently, I felt that I hit the bottom neck due to the limitation of my photo gear. So, it is time for me to upgrade my gear but so much pity that these sophisticated and expensive gears will cost me a fortune.

To my delight, it is from a renowned wedding photographer’s advice that if you need someone to recognize and appreciate your artwork, you should ask for monetary rewards, regardless the amount. Absolutely not a bad idea to fund my long wish list of photo gear (lens, flash, memory etc. etc.). So, friends, please help me out to advertise. Officially announced, I am ready to be a part-time freelance wedding photographer. Anyone interested to hire a wedding photographer during the actual day, please contact me via my email address yoongyow@hotmail.com For all my single friends who are going to marry in the future, sorry that I do not offer free service anymore but discount for you is guaranteed. I can only work part-time during weekends or I will get my butt fired by my current company. If you choose to have a photobook, longer period may be required for the photo editing. Also, I prefer Chinese or Church wedding as I am more familiar with their procedures.

My service fees will yield wedding photos in digital format, colour and art edited. Others are negotiable, with or without hard print/ photobook:

http://www.photobook.com.my/

The following are some of the photos that I have shot from year 2006 to 2008. Big thank you to my friends who allow me to polish my skill. If you enjoy them, please spread the words and advertise for me.

Sharkwater - The Truth Will Surface

2008-05-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

I just watched one of the most fantastic underwater documentary today, besides Planet Earth and Blue Ocean. This documentary was titled Sharkwater, directed by Rob Stewart. As the title implies, the documentary was about the story of himself fighting to conserve sharks, to create awareness among the public. Along his journey to reveal the truth, he was charged with attempted murder, suffered from deadly disease, manhunted by Mafia gangsters... All and all, the documentary was dramatic enough to be true but in fact it was happened right now in the other corner of Earth, Costa Rica.

Sharkwater, directed and narrated by Rob Stewart. The trailer can be viewed in the website www.sharkwater.com Go check out, lots of cool wallpaper and banner images.

I am not a big fan of sharks, well... except whale shark, but I was moved and touched by Rob's devotion and determination. His documentary will definitely shake the fundamental thinking of other people towards sharks. You will never view sharks as you thought before. Sharks are always portrayed as cold killing monster with horrified jaws and despicable meanness. However, the facts and figures show that sharks cause fatal injury to human being so much less than tiger, elephant, snakes and other wild animals. The alarming fact is that shark population has been dropped up to 90% at present!

There was one scene in the movie that broke my heart - a living shark was mercilessly hooked; its pectoral, dorsal fins and tail were slashed; and was released back to the ocean alive. It drifted down to the seabed, waiting helplessly for its death moment to come, as it could not swim and could do nothing. For this, the people who are responsible to this crime deserve to go to hell.

Many people will start asking. What could we do? We are not the poacher and fisherman. Yes, in fact, we can do many things. We can start educate our friends, parents, boss, subordinates, passengers in the plane, bus, taxi driver, tourmates, blog readers, one-night-stand lovers or whoever, that shark fins has no value to your health. It was neither tasty nor has any mythical health strengthening function. It is a shame, oriental people still believe the mythical fact that so-called royal delicacies shark fin soup can strengthen your health.

Highly recommend you to watch this documentary. The DVD was not yet released in Malaysia but you can get it from Singapore. It was scheduled to be aired internationally in Europe and other continents. Check out Rob's website and blog. www.sharkwater.com

Below are some of the photos of white-tip reef shark that I captured during my Sipadan dives, enjoy... You don't need to love them, but you don't need to kill them too.

White-tip reef shark that lurked in Midreef, Sipadan. They are shy and alert animals.

To Dive For In Mabul, Kapalai & Sipadan 18-22 March 2008

2008-04-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

TO DIVE FOR MABUL, KAPALAI & SIPADAN 18-22 March 2008

PROLOGUE

Mabul, Kapalai and Sipadan are indisputably one of the pilgrimages for divers around the planet. I was further spoiled by diving this spectacular dive sites at my dive log number 18. What a lucky start! This time, I pocketed 15 dives in 4 days, not a bad record at all. In fact, there were many expected and unexpected occasions along the journey… For the sake of colorful blogging, I rented an underwater camera at the last day and, therefore, I managed to snap some photos in Sipadan (Midreef and South Point) and Mabul (Paradise II).

Seaventures Dive Centre (converted oil rig) and surreal Mabul sunset.

Rather than staying luxurious resort, we were staying in a converted oil rig called Seaventures in Mabul. Hmm… definitely something unique to start with. We entered the oil rig in style – ascending via a lift to a 4-storey high platform, with welcome drinks awaiting. I definitely felt the palpable vacation feel as the platform had the 360o Celebes seaview, with leisure divers scattered around. All of the staff were cheerful, kind and helpful. Our dive master was Amir, a local bloke with typically fit diver body. And not to forget our Diver Richard as our dive leader…

Happy divers at Seaventures; Dive Master - Amir.

With pounding heart and a sense of desperado, we began our checkout dive under the oil rig. For the sake of simple reading, I categorized my dives based upon the dive sites.

MABUL Dive Sites:
Seaventures House Reef, Paradise I, Paradise II, Ribbon Valley II and Froggy Lair

It was extremely busy underneath the Seaventures. I could not imagine how a checkout dive site could be so compacted with marine lives. Right after the descend, we saw a flying gurnard, a peculiar fish with wings, that I had wished to see for so long. Then, one after another creatures appeared to us effortlessly – crocodile fish, trumpet fish, pipefish, bumphead parrotfish, yellow ribbon sweetlips, spot-face moray eel, frog fish etc. Well, this was just the first checkout dive (52 min).

Hawsbill turtle (Fei, good job, what a nice shot!); Hard coral at its healthiest form.

We also did two night dives at Seaventure House Reef. The first night dive was nightmarish as the current was assaulting from everywhere. Too busy to keep attached with the group and only spotted two hermit crabs, bumphead parrotfish, lionfish, scorpion fish and normal soldier fish. The 2nd night dive was a WOW – no current + clear visibility! Our first mission was to search for yellow pygmy seahorse and the mission was accomplished with ease. Although I was not a fan of pygmy seahorse, I was still thrilled to meet the tiny fellow hanging his life at the fan coral. I really wondered how long could he cling there… His life must be so bored with uncountable psychedelic observation from divers, plus unstoppable strobe flashing. What a poor little thing... Also, spotted other creatures such as gigantic painted frogfish, tiny black leaf fish, decorator crab and a school of rainbow runner during safety stop.

Juvenile lobster with striking blue colour; Colourful angel; Spotfin lionfish and snake eel.

Paradise I was a muck dive with macro sighting. Nudibranchs were just scattered everywhere like candies on the floor. Some appeared in pair, solo, sex party pool... in various styles and colours of course. It was my first sighting of razorfish, catfish and juvenile lobster. The dive was getting more challenging in Ribbon Valley II as our mission was to spot super macro creatures. Nonetheless, I was very satisfied to spot orang utan crab (What a hairy thing), black ribbon eel, hingeback shrimp etc. By myself, I discovered a pair of beautiful spotted hawkfish… how I wished I had camera at that time.

Sexy nudibranchs; In the process of mating, they were holding hands (or perhaps something else) !!!

There was something special about Froggy Lair. Artificial reef were deliberated located to attract the marine lives. The varieties of marine life were impressive – a mix of macro and giant creatures. Giant groupers were the usual residents there, as well as schooling jacks and many firefish. Also, my first spotting of famous and unmistakably lovable creature in Mabul – YELLOW BOXFISH. It was not a question that it stole our heart with its ever cute wiggling movement, darting in and out. To add the bonus, I also saw other boxfish, white moray eel, luminous shrimp and clown frogfish. Definitely a dive experience I could not forget.

Big fat clown fish; harlequin sweetlips

We dove twice in Paradise II, first and final day. As the former dive was dusk dive, the mandarin fish showed its appearance in just a glimpse. First sighting of ghost pipefish and snake eel. A giant turtle was spotted here, 1.5 m ++, no kidding. The final dive was officially classified as the busiest dive for me. I had the underwater camera tied around my wrist and there were a bunch of marine lives shouting for their pictures to be taken. I managed to snap the cute longhorn cowfish (well, it approached me on and off to attract my attention, well must be a lady cowfish… hehe), banded pipefish, cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish, whip coral shrimp (tiny mimicker!), crinoid shrimp, commensal shrimp, coral shrimp, juvenile lobster, nemo (yeah…. nemo was unexpectedly rare here in Mabul), a pair of juvenile harlequin sweetlips (best belly dancers underwater!), snake eel…. Well, look at the list and you could imagine how busy I was at that time.

Lady longhorn cowfish (What a stunner!); White-tip shark resting in South Point.

KAPALAI Dive Site:
Mandarin Valley

After referring back my dive log, I was surprised that we only made one dive in Kapalai. My memory with Kapalai was not too sharp but I remember venturing through many artificial wrecks. Greeted by giant snappers, yellow boxfish, a pair of white jawfish etc.

Schooling snapper; nudibranch swaying to attract attention.

SIPADAN Dive Sites:
Barracuda Point, Hanging Garden, West Ridge, Turtle Cavern, Drop Off, Midreef and South Point

During the boat travel to Sipadan, we were greeted by lucky dolphins! Also, we saw seagull feasting. Many fish, both victim and big predators, jumped from the surface occasionally. We suspected the fish were tuna. Huh… What a good start! While at the journey back to Mabul, we saw many flying fish. They could fly more than 10 m from the surface, amazing creature! I guess they were just curious about the other side of the world, just as we were curious underneath the surface.

Bubble coral shrimp; commensal shrimp

What can I say about Barracuda Point… In fact, it was indescribable, you have to experience yourself! Impressive wall, slope, coral dive! The visibility was superb when the sunrays shone from above. Healthy staghorn, table, soft coral etc. were fighting for their territories, as if they were afraid of being unnoticed by divers. My favourite angelfish and butterflyfish were abundant, in gigantic size! I am absolutely an Angel and Butterfly fan and quite sad that many divers overlooked them sometimes. My favourite sighting was the scattering of hundreds and thousands bannerfish. According to my fish ID book, they deliberately swam in scattered and random direction unlike other schooling fish, so that the predators were unable to focus. What they could see were confusion - bands of black and white, cool! I also spotted Napoloen wrasse (sighted in many dives that it became so common), black-tip and white-tip sharks, nurse sharks, hawkbill turtle (everywhere, left right up down..), clown trigger (big and fat!), unicorn fish etc. Huh, what a dive…. How can I manage to dive Peninsular Malaysia again, sob…sob….

My lovely butterfly and blue-faced angels. They were GIGANTIC! Whip coral shrimp, totally opposite in size, so tiny!

And here it came the notorious Turtle Cavern (or so-called Turtle Tomb)… This was the site where many turtles got lost and died due to lack of fresh air. Two Japanese divers were also found drowned in this cursed site. The cavern was dark, dangerous, spooky, claustrophobic and miserable. Not a dive site I would revisit again. The more I tried to avoid stirring up the silt, the more I stirred up the silt, nervous kill! We managed to see the skeleton of turtle, not a pleasant view though. Without slightest affection, we escaped from this place as soon as we could. It was such a relief to see the deep bluish exit and I swear not to enter it again. Right next to the cavern was Drop Off. We saw schooling of jacks and batfish. The visibility was not at all impressive. Due to the disgraceful cavern, my bottom time for this dive was only 37 minutes.

My buddy Fei abandoned me and find his new Turtle buddy. They were playing merry-go-round!

Hanging Garden, West Ridge, Midreef and South Point were very similar as they were impressive wall dive sites in Sipadan. Visibility varied but overall not too bad. Spotted Napoleon wrasse (Again…) and leopard shark from bottom at Hanging Garden. Virgin sighting of great barracuda in West Redge. The highlight of the dives in South Point was the encounter with a solitary yellowtail barracuda and a school of chevron barracuda. Although the school was not very huge, but their harmonization and synchronization was absolutely fascinating. They swam as if one body, super cool! Well, I let the photos to do the talking.

Highlight of the dive in South Point - Chevron barracuda; Blue-stripped snapper (Just follow my fish ID book, yellow-stripped would be more appropriate, I think)

To conclude this dive trip, there were many expected and unexpected occasions, as was mentioned earlier.

Expected: Super healthy coral, variety of fish especially angels and butterflies, lost count of turtles and sharks….

Unexpected: Rainy and gloomy weather, roller coaster boat trip (fun actually), fever and flu, stung by anemones….

Just to annoy Diver Richard, I summarized my sighting… in food type. Why? Ask our beloved Apple… hahaha

Starter: Joyful dolphin, seagull and Olympic type flying fish.

Main Course: Turtles, yellowtail and chevron barracuda, Napoleon wrasse, sharks, cuttlefish, lobster (yummy!), batfish, jacks, giant snapper, grouper, coral cod, trumpetfish, juvenile sweetlips, bumphead parrotfish, painted and clown frogfish (if you dare to eat!), leaf fish, blue-spotted ray….

Side Dish: Puffer, yellow boxfish, longhorn cowfish, lionfish, hermit crab, nudibranch, moray eel, snake eel, angelfish, butterflyfish, triggerfish, surgeonfish, neon fusilier, rainbow runner, hawkfish….

Dessert: yellow pygmy seahorse, catfish, razorfish, ornate ghost pipefish, banded pipefish, coral worm, orang utan crab, decorator crab, bubble coral shrimp, whip coral shrimp, crinoid shrimp, commensal shrimp…

Huh… I am stuffed and full now. Until then, see you in next dive!