Ok, for those of you who find S'pore boring and are not interested in any of the activities I mentioned in the previous articles such as jet sking or kayaking, here is another alternative. Supposedly Southeast Asia is one of the best places to scuba dive in the world. There are lots of colorful life-form in these waters for you to feast your eyes upon. I have snorkeled in Hawaii and Florida and always wanted to pick up scuba diving. Unlike Jersey, in S'pore, there is really no excuse for not to learn to scuba dive. For a measly S$500 you can take the NAUI Open Water I course, which includes 3 classroom and 3 pool sessions. For that price, they even throw in the trip to Pemanggil for free 8-) What's even better, if you are a NUS or NTU student, you can get the whole package for around S$300!! I would do anything to be a student again provided that I still getting paid 8-)
The second pool session was an experience. It was the first time we put on our scuba gear and stayed underwater. We can clearly see people swimming on the surface of the pool. It was very distracting while taking lesson underwater. But it was bearable since most ladies in S'pore do not wear bikinis 8-) According to our instructor, scuba used to be a very "manly" sport. He mentioned that in the old days (back in the early 80s) people have to dive 80 feet, without the scuba equipment, to collect their C-cards. People who scuba used to have this gung ho mentality. He mentioned that there is this once that the students wanted to do night dive so bad that they swam across a channel so they can do the dive. Fortunately things have changed a lot since then. We are a more cultured bunch nowadays 8-)
I have tried to go to M'sia in two previous attempts. But somehow the trip always get cancelled at the last moment. I was hoping that third time is the charm, and it is. We left on Thursday night around 8pm. Somehow we have to take a S'pore bus to the border. Got off the bus at Woodland to pass the S'pore immigration. Walk across the causeway on foot. Then into the M'sian immigration for the chop. Didn't get much time to see JB at all. Off we go on a three hour bus ride to Mersing. The roads in M'sia are in pretty bad shape. I was a bit spoiled by the condition of the S'pore infrastructure. In some places, because of the road condition, the ride was worse than the boat ride we were about to take. We arrived at the port of Mersing just before midnight. Set out for Pemanggil right away after we loaded the boat. I didn't remember much about the boat trip. Most of us took the sea sick pill and went right to sleep. All I remember was sea water splashing, wind blowing and boat rocking. Next thing I knew, about 3 hours later, we arrived at Pemanggil. Needless to say, all of us simply dived into our bunk and slept until the next morning.
The accommodation at Pemanggil is not the best in the world. We had eight bunks to a room without fan or air-con. The mattress is bearly sleepable. Lots of bugs and mosquitos even with the insect repellent. Then again, my roommate in college used to call me the "bug strip" 8-) The shower is simply a hut with water in the tub shared by other hut. The bathroom facility is that you have to bring the water in a bucket to flush it yourself. But at least the food was ok. Fish with every meal. The chicken was quite good also. The locals are very friendly. Kids always practice their hellos when you walk by 8-)
If you are ever in Pemanggil, you will notice the huge rock facing the ocean. It's quite an awesome sight. The peak itself is about 1000 ft. Flying or going above 1km is not recommended after scuba diving. Since it was within the limit, six of us decided to set out for the peak. The trail was in pretty bad shape. It is not marked at all unlike the trails in the States. It added more excitement to the hike 8-) We started around 4:40pm and stopped after hiking for 45 mins when some of us were afraid that the sun is going to set and the dinner is going to be gone 8-) Food was ranked as one of the highest priorities during the trip. So the two ladies that came with us decided to turn back and the other two "gentlemen" decided to escort them down. This left the two of us - one German and one American - to conquer the peak. We went on with a much faster pace. Although it was a more difficult climb, we reach the peak at around 5:50pm. From the peak, we had a nice view of the whole village. We could see beaches on both sides of the island and the view was simply breathtaking. Both of us wished that we had brought our sleeping bags so we can sleep on the top. After a while, we reluctantly decided to "slip and slide" our way down the trail. Going down was much faster and tougher than the way up mainly because we were sliding most of the way. We even had some killer coconuts chasing after us 8-)
From what I heard, diving in S'pore is like diving in coffee. Diving near S'pore is like diving in tea. Diving in Pemanggil or near Tioman is pleasure 8-) This particular open water course consists of 5+1 dives. Two dives on the necessary underwater skills. One dive on rescue and navigation. And the best part was the two leisure dives at the end. There are lots of things to see underwater. Within our group, people have reported seeing turtles, sting rays, moray eels, and sharks. And of course, with my luck, the person who saw the shark just happen to be my dive buddy. All I know was I got this strong tug and seeing this person with two wide open eyes and with hand moving like the month of the Jaws (we learn later on this is not the sign for the sharks) What made it worse was we were alone in the sandy bottom with no obstacles in the way. We quickly swam back and stayed near the boat for the rest of the dive. Both of us wished that I had seen the "beast" (it wasn't that big according to my buddy). The dive instructor said that we were fortunate because people would pay thousands of dollar just to see the shark while my buddy saw it for a measly S$500 8-) I would rather see little cute cuttlefish anyday.
The feeling of underwater is indescribable. The ocean is a whole world by itself. There were three Japanese ladies with us. One of them had logged more than 50 dives within a year. I can see why the sport can become addictive. There are simply too many thing to see in the open water. Yes, and that includes sharks 8-) One of the suggestion I have if anyone ever go on scuba diving is to hang around the instructors. They usually know what and where to look for. Things like morel eels in the reefs which all of us beginners missed. Since there were just so many things to note I will simply list them in bullets:
One more thing to note is that on the way back passing the immigration at the causeway. It's such a pleasure if you have a foreign passport. Unlike Changi where the queue for foreign passport is always long, at the causeway, the S'poreans and the M'sians have to wait on queue while we with foreign passport simply walk right through. I am looking forward to my next venture into M'sia, hopefully for something more civilized, like food and shopping 8-)
31/08/94
