I am terribly sorry that it has taken me this long to get another post up. Life has been horribly busy, etc, etc. So enjoy this post b/c I don't know when the next one is going up. Hahaha. =)
Tuesday, was a relaxing day. Didn’t do too much except for
pow around town with Baby and Aku in the morning and then talked, ate, and ran
errands with Auntie Belinda and Uncle Paul. They’re hilarious. It was fun going
to the kebun with them, even though I fell asleep halfway during the bumpy ride
into the plantation. Lol. They just bought a new contraption that’s supposed to
help with the harvesting of the palm oil fruit and this 10-yr old kid is in
charge of it. O_o Apparently he doesn’t want to go to school anymore so he’s
working full time but is super bright. We went to the Ramadan food stalls to
get some snacks and they had the most amazing tofu fua!!!!
Wednesday, it was a day of family fun with a dash of close
employees. Since there was a boat that wasn’t being used, Aku Apo, Baby, Jefrey,
Tot, Yan, and Mulpi (or was it Mahadir?...I get the boat drivers mixed up) went out to Bohey Dulang and Mantabuan to dive for fun. The
waves were super choppy and the vis was terrible, but I had a grand ol’ time
with everyone. =) The typhoons in Asian have been horrendous recently
(including my nightmare in HK) with the Philippines and Korea being hit right
now. It’s affected the diving here even though it hasn’t been extremely
typhoon-y over here. Just the waves and vis are bad which isn’t that much fun
for the rest of us. But hey, I get to go diving, so I’m not complaining. So
apparently this is a place that’s dear and near to my uncle’s heart, but he was
super disappointed b/c of the horrible vis and the fact that all the fish are
gone b/c of it as well. Sad times. This was my first time diving there so I
wouldn’t know. Jefrey had to wait with Aku’s watch b/c it was being stupid and
the deco time was super long, so instead of waiting with Jefrey like he wanted
me to, I misunderstood him and surfaced…Whoops! After that we headed to another
island, Mantabuan to take our surface interval and to eat. We decided to dive
at Mantabuan where the vis was a bit better. The coral there is amazing!! I
want to go back. Aku’s dive watch was acting up again so since I got scolded by
Jefrey for leaving him, I stayed underwater with him this time. Yeah. Bad idea.
He tried to drown me and then attacked me. No play-play ahhh!!!! Lol. I always
have fun diving with him. =) During our surface intervals Baby and I jumped
into the ocean off the boat and I tried to teach her how to dive off of
it…except she calls it jackknifing. She was doing well…until the last time…when
she did a total belly flop. Hahaha. We did our third dive at Mantabuan as well
with nothing super exciting happening.That night Aku took Baby and I to get
martabak b/c I was craving it again. The place we had gone the other night was
packed so we drove to another restaurant. At this place I had more roti canai
and roti telur with some fantastic sardine dish. I’ve never really liked
sardines until that dish. HAH. Apparently the DO (district officer) of Semporna
goes to that restaurant every time he’s in town just to eat that particular dish.
After we were done we went to a local bar across the road (And everyone GASPS!
Lol. I promise it wasn’t that serious. There were little kids running around
the place.) so that Aku could go have some happy hour time with his friends. After
like 5 mins Baby and I got bored with that so we walked around till he was
done. Lol.
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| Jefrey decided he was tired... |
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| Baby did too...... |
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| Lionfish |
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| Baby Nudibraches |
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| Pulau Mantabuan. I love the coral here! |
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| Our awesome but gila DM, Jefrey |
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| Christmas tree worms! They're so fun!! |
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| This even makes me laugh. |
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| Zebra eel |
Thursday, I went to Sibuan Island with Letter, his
instructor, Dominic, his three OWD students, and a French couple that were just
there to enjoy the island and snorkel around. Since Dominic was JUST starting
the course, Letter and I were able to do three fun dives! You have no idea how
great it is just to dive with one other person and not have to worry about
anyone else. We covered a LOT of the reef there and found the yellow frog fish
Letter had been dying to find (please remember this frog fish reference for
later) that someone had told him about earlier. It was so cute!! Back on the
island during our surface interval we had one of the Bajau boys (the locals
living on the island) climb one of the coconut trees to get us some coconuts.
RM1? Can’t beat that. Basir, one of our staff hacked away at it for us to drink
the sweet coconut water and then later on split it for us to scoop the meat
out. Ok, I really, really like young coconuts b/c the juice is sweeter, plus
the meat is like jelly, none of that hard stuff people are accustomed to. Second
dive we covered the rest of the front part of the island’s reef with nothing
super exciting except for the fact that Letter was freezing and I was fine even
though he was the one wearing the wetsuit and I was the one wearing the
boardshorts and rashguard. And yes, it IS possible to freeze on the equator.
I’m always in the sun sitting between the warm tanks trying not to freeze to
death. BUT, I wear the rashguard and boardshorts b/c I’m constantly peeing
while I’m diving. Not that you needed to know that, but hey, it’s a fact of
life…well, of my life. HAH. I usually
pee between 3-6 times during a 45-55 min dive. Yeah….and when it’s cold, I pee
a lot. You never want to pee in your wetsuit b/c then it’ll smell horrible
afterward if you don’t rinse it right. And no one wants to smell that. Hahaha. After
a lunch of nasi kuning (yum yum yum) and watching Letter get shown up by the
little Bajau kids in sculpting sea turtles in the sand, we went out for our
third dive on the other side of the island where it was freezing. And by
freezing, I mean colder than the other side, which meant that Letter was REALLY
freezing. Lol. Poor thing. That night Baby and I went out for yum cha with the
boys…and watched Letter and Baby eat. I’m not the only fatty in this family. =)
Black, our friend that picked us up, has a super tiny car but for some reason
thought it would be a grand idea to put a turbo on it…and you can’t really go
that fast on these streets b/c you’re constantly dodging dogs, goats, people,
and cars. Seriously.
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| I found Nemo!! |
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| The infamous frog fish! |
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| I found Marlin! |
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| I found the whole family......lol. |
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| As you can see, the vis is horrible...and yes, I am following a sea turtle... |
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| Mantis shrimp |
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| Nudibranch |
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| I don't know what it's glowing...but doesn't it look like a giant tooth?! |
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| More glowing giant tooth soft coral...haha. |
I've realized I really like to take pictures of
clown fish. Maybe b/c I love the movie "Finding Nemo" and the fact that
it's coming out in 3D soon!!! HAH.
Morning dawned and we were off to Sibuan yet again, this
time with Baby in tow as well as a diving couple, a different snorkeling couple
and the OWD students from the day before. Our day of diving did NOT start out
well. At all. First, the marine park people refused to give us the flag needed
for our boat to be able to stay and dive in the area b/c we had forgotten to
give it back to them the day before and didn’t bring it to them that day. That
was strike number one against us. They almost kicked us off the island until
the boatman, Mahadir, went to talk to them and convinced them we would the flag
back to them in once piece soon. Lol. Kudos to him. Then strike number two came
when all the divers were in the water ready to go down when the guy informed us
that he had just lost one of his fins. Great. So Letter went down to look for
it, but since the current was strong, the vis was still pretty bad, and it was
in deeper waters, he came up empty handed in the end. During that time, one of
the OWD students lost their mask somehow while still on the boat…still not
really sure how that happened. All I saw was Dominic jump in the water
hurriedly with his fins and a mask and snorkel. I almost had to dive down to go
find it, but b/c of the conditions and they didn’t really care about the mask
(I guess it was old and they had an extra one), I thankfully didn’t have to. Oh,
and Baby’s BCD was leaking very slowly somewhere unidentifiable. That was
strike three. But, back to strike two. So he came up empty handed and we had
drifted off a ways so we all were trying to get back to the reef against the
current and losing. So we made the boat come to us and we all hung on to dear
life to a rope attached to the boat as it towed us back to the reef. Oh, and
the fin situation? Basir, bless his heart, was going to give him his fins since
he can snorkel just fine without them…he grew up in the water I suppose, but
they were too big for the guy. Thankfully, I think we somehow had an extra pair
of fins on the boat…or something to that extent. All I know is that a pair of fins was handed
down to us from the boat and everyone lived happily ever after. Well, at least
for that dive. During our surface interval we, again, had the Bajau boys climb
a coconut tree for us and Basir hacked away at them all for us. He’s hilarious,
that guy. I just met him this trip and we’re already buddies. Yay. Letter also
challenged the little Bajau boys to see who could do a running jump the
farthest. Of course, he just wanted to show off. Haha. But it was amusing to
watch them all. Right before we went out to dive, the Italian guy challenged
Letter and proved to be equally as good as him! I can’t remember where we dived
for our second dive…obviously it wasn’t that memorable. Oh, I think we went to
the drop off, which really wasn’t a drop off….Haha. Oh well. Anyway, during our
next surface interval we ate lunch and then Baby, Letter, Basir and I wanted to
walk around the island (it’s super tiny), but we only got about 20 steps when
we decided it was too hot. LOL. So we went under a tree that had a small
table-ish thing under it and we all took a nap instead. Hehe. We slept so much
(well I kept on waking up b/c of the ants and flies…gotta love island life) that
the boat had kind of left us. Haha. Well, it took the students out to do their
last OW skills dive and then had to come back for us. Whoops. Meanwhile…and by
that, I mean while we were waiting for the boat, Letter tried to attack me and
I managed to somehow catch him and throw him off of me…don’t ask how, b/c I don’t
know how either, and now he thinks I’m really strong, when I’m not really. HAH.
Our third dive made me realize that Letter still has a lot to learn about being
a good DM. =.= I would make a better DM
than him. Hahahahaha. Ok. So we went to go find the frog fish from the day
before (I told you to remember that). But apparently Letter has a horrible
memory…worse than me, which is pretty bad. So we’re going along all happily and
then about 40 mins into the dive without finding the frog fish, Letter got
worried and told us to stay put in one place…and then LEFT US. And then, if
that wasn’t bad enough, he came back and we went in the other direction and all
of a sudden (after I told him we hadn’t gone far enough to find the frog fish)
we zoomed off in the direction we had JUST come in. Like, what the heck!? He
went crazy trying to find that fish. When we finally went up about 10 mins
later I yelled at him for being so crazy. He told me that he couldn’t remember
where it was and I had to remind him that it was further down the reef. Tsk,
tsk, tsk.
That night we had another BBQ party, this time for the bakery workers plus Kian’s
friends in front of the house. There was much laughter, eating, joking and
banter going on. Raymond, his wife, Brian, and his girlfriend were there as
well (Kian and Baby’s cousins) and other extended family of Auntie Beth’s side.
I challenged Letter to a sing-off but he was being a pansy and pretended to
leave. The workers started to karaoke and then it became a party in there. At
some point I think it became a club. But I wouldn’t know b/c I fell asleep. =)
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| Blue-spotted sting ray. |
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| Baby nudibranch...isn't it cute?! |
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| This is how the karaoke party started...it did NOT look like this by the end. |
The next post may or may not be up within the next week...we'll see how busy I get. =)
