Crazy Weekend

My weekends generally fall into either of the following two categories. 1. Good weekends - where I have lots and lots of fun and not even realizing the time flying by, till its Monday morning and yet I feel more energetic (even with all the lack of sleep) and 2. The bad ones - where I usually sit at home doing nothing and simply feel empty by Sunday evening and hate Monday’s so much that at times I end up taking a day off.

Then there is the third type, the one which happens once in a “Blue Moon” - The Crazy One. Two weeks back, it was a “Blue Moon”.

To make the long story short, one Thursday evening, I was at my apartment in Singapore wondering what I am going to do the next day at work and how boring my weekend’s gonna be. But less than 24 hours later, I was a 1000 miles away from home - Phuket, Thailand - the Vegas of South East Asia, trying to figure out how I ended up there.

Now to the long version as on why I was wondering about the next day’s work and why my weekend had nothing planned. Like in all crazy stories, I have a bunch of crazy friends with whom I usually do a bunch of crazy things. A lot of things were happening during the last couple of months (like one of my friend’s finding his better half) that we all wanted to have some time together and thought of planning a trip. Due to some technical difficulties, Manju and I had to skip it and my friends ended up planning it. Since their flight was on Friday early morning, Manju and I decided to meet them on Thursday evening to wish them a good trip. Generally when we meet, we end up suffering from lack of sleep (and hang over) the next day, which was why I was bothered about the the next day’s work. Since they were flying, we didn't have the “default meetup” planned and my weekend schedule was kind of empty.

Well, I forgot about all my worries once I was among my friends and started partying. I remember how we started the evening. I remember we playing cards, loud music, having nachos, singing songs, lot of laughs and talks (some about me not going for the trip) and like all parties, after some time, everything started to seem like a blur and time started to slow down. Soon, it was time for the last bus to head back home and I remember reaching for my shoes. We wished them happy journey (I thinks I did) and walked towards the bus stop.

I've heard people saying that love and alcohol tend to amplify our emotions. Well, I had both in my system and I remember feeling a void somewhere in my head. I think I started my usual philosophy session and after sometime, that crazy idea stuck my head. (I do not remember whether it was me or Manju who initiated it). “Why can’t we go back, book the tickets right now and go with them?” Immediate, as the afterthought, the following questions also popped into my mind. “But then how about work tomorrow, the weekend plans? I haven’t packed anything, well I don’t even have my passport with me, how am I going to do it?” Then Manju said, “The worst thing that can happen if we go back now is, we will miss our bus and may have to get a cab to go home. But the best case scenario is, we can have a crazy weekend”.

And yeah, we did go back, partied more, arranged for “emergency” leave for next day, booked the (super expensive, last minute) tickets (barely 6 hours before), took a detour to get our bags packed, and made it to the airport just in time to board the flight - extremely hungover and with little sleep the night before.

Now when I think about that night, all I can recall is only some flashes here and there. But it was just the beginning of a crazy weekend. What happened in Phuket, is the subject for yet another post. Sometimes in life, there comes a point when you have to do something, without thinking a lot. That’s when you have to remember about the Nike ad campaign - “Just do it” (I remember thinking about it just before boarding the flight). Because, during most of these situations, you know very clearly what you want deep inside. If you ponder a lot over the decision or try to come up with every possible consequence it will make in your life, it might never happen. You might  cherish the memories forever or might regret it in future. But always remember what the “wise man” said, “Never regret anything you have done in your life, because, that’s what you wanted the most at that point in time”

Sabah: An experiment from God

According to the popular travel guide Lonely Planet, Sabah is the result of an experiment from God. It goes on like this, “After the first six days of work (creation), instead of resting, He wanted to see what happens if He takes an island, covered it with impenetrable jungle, add lot of new life forms and turned the temperature up to 40 deg C. The result is the ‘tropical Eden’ of Sabah”. In my opinion, to His test tube He also added some kind of “over-sizing” portion so that everything is either the biggest or the largest in the area.

Mt. Kinabalu – one of the tallest mountains in Southeast Asia is located in Sabah. On the other side of the state are the seductive blue coral reefs of Sipadan, also called ‘The Diver’s Mecca’. One of the world’s incredible cave systems and karst formations can be found in Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, the other state of Borneo (UNESCO world heritage site). Borneo is also home to the largest flower in the world – Rafflesia, the largest living arboreal animals – Orangutan and the list goes on and on.

Even though, I wanted to visit Sabah for the above stated reasons, none of the above was the actual reason I made my first visit to Kota Kinabalu last week. Two of my ‘self-proclaimed mountaineer’ friends were visiting the place for the sole purpose of ‘conquering Mt Kinabalu’ and exploring the Mulu caves (around 10days). Being a travel enthusiast, I immediately agreed on meeting them. Since everything was last minute, I couldn’t cater time for conquering the mountain or exploring the caves or diving with the sharks (yeah, sharks are the major attraction of Sipadan). So I decided to use this trip as a survey trip for planning the future expeditions. Also, this trip was different from my usual trips as I concentrated on ‘less traveled paths’ and of course, spending time with my friends and concentrating more on my photography skills.

Our stay - Hotel Jesselton, KK. Jesselton was the name of KK during the colonial period. Located at Gaya St. – still cobbled, another remnant of colonial rule

 Night markets of KK - Great place to spend time after dinner if you are a shopaholic, especially because there is a lot of room for bargaining.

 Handicrafts market in KK - It was too late by the time we reached there and most of the shops were closed. These shops will give you a peak in to the rich culture Borneo has to offer.

‘Street dining’ in KK – One can discover the local cuisines in its authentic form here

 We started our jungle/river boat ride from here. Located near a tropical reserve, this place is home to some of the unique species of flora and fauna.

The boat ride through the calm river during sunset was so relaxing

A lot of tourists – especially those from non-tropical countries seemed very curious about wild monkeys and got very agitated whenever one was sighted.

 A ‘family reunion’

 King of the trees -
During our jungle trek near the Mt. Kinabalu national park, the local guide pointed out this particular tree to be known as the king of trees

 Hanging Bridge Canopy walk – The view down below is overwhelming, but I wouldn’t recommend this for those who are afraid of heights and also afraid of walking on a ‘rope’.

 Nature at its best - After the trek we visited the poring hot springs. I have no idea why they call it hot springs when the water is cold and chilly. All my tiredness from the trek just vanished after a bath in the ‘natural’ pool.

 Mount Kinabalu hiding behind the clouds. A view from Pine Resorts near the national park

By the time we returned, the clouds were up on us and the air was chilly. Our guide had a hard time driving through the S-shaped roads.

 Sunday market in Gaya St. I found all sorts of interesting things in these shops. Both visitors and locals were shopping with equal enthusiasm

For Sale - A kitty in a pet stall in the market

Even though I spent around 3 days there, I parted with the feeling that I hadn’t even 'scratched the surface' of all the things I could do there – all the surprises Borneo holds. As my return flight was taking off, I was busy making a mental note of all the things I should do during my next visit.

Finning with the fishes

“It feels strange the first time. Your mask. Your awkward gear, a bit heavy. You ease into the water and your face slips below the surface, Inhale; the air comes with a reassuring hiss and for the first time, you breathe underwater. In moments you forget your mask. Your equipment transforms to light and agile and you’re free like you’ve never experienced before. With that first underwater breath, the door opens to a different world. And your life will never be the same again. You can see more different species in ten minutes there than in ten hours in the most unspoiled wilderness above water” – excerpt from PADI OPEN WATER DIVER manual intro.

I don’t think I can explain the way I felt when I first descended down to the ocean more accurately. It was on the second week of august that I went for my diving certification trip with gill divers to Tioman islands, Malaysia. When I enrolled for PADI certification, all I wanted was to get to know the sea and after my theory and pool session, I really was looking forward for the dive trip. The only downside was that, I didn’t have any friends to come with me. But, I made some very good friends during that trip and that weekend turned out to be one of the best till date in all aspects. When you dive, you enter a completely different world. There were people from all parts of the world with me for diving - US, Canada, Korea, Indonesia, France etc and everyone was really cheerful. After my first dive I promised myself that once I reach back Singapore, I am going to enroll for the advanced course, and yeah, I did. Officially, I am now a PADI certified open water diver.

As always, this is another photo blog and I believe pictures tell stories in more details than words.
We started our trip on Friday august 14th from Singapore by around 8pm. We crossed Malaysian border, had a nice and long dinner and set out for Mersing to catch our boat to Tioman. (Tioman is an island in Malaysia, one of the most beautiful ones, I will say) Usually we are supposed to be starting from there by 11pm, but that day, there was some problem with the tides and we could start from there only by 1:30am. Reached our resort in Tioman around 3 and fell asleep immediately.

The next day, I woke up to see a beautiful resort which overlooked the sea. But the weather was not that good, it was drizzling. We had our breakfast in the resort in nice cool weather. I didn’t want to go out though. Just wanted to stay there lazing around and enjoy the weather.
The resort we stayed is called the Island Reef Resort and it contains small cottages build around a hilly area.

Finally, we got on our boat and started towards the dive sites. Our instructor, Monica told us to streamline our equipments and get inside our wet suits. Since we were trained all these during the pool session 2 weeks back, it was relatively easy for me. Also I was fortunate enough to have the same buddy – Raline – from my pool session. She is a cool and funny person.

Briefing Session - That’s our instructor – she is one of the coolest teachers I ever had. She told what we were going to do and also the possible fishes and corals we may find there.

After the boat came to a stop, other dive master/instructors – Vijay, Johnny and Gray – went in the water to tie the buoy and rope for us to use for our first dive. Even though I had my underwater camera with me, I didn’t want to take it during my first dive. Also I hadn’t cleaned it properly and Monica showed me some hair strands in the O-ring of the casing.

We descended one by one and had to equalize frequently and I was a bit scared about equalization. But once I was down, it looked awesome. We were holding on to a rope and looking around in amazement. Since it was our first dive, we were in a reasonably deserted place. But there was a small anemone and a couple of clown fishes were there. Also there were some sea cucumbers in the bottom and some corals. A variety of fishes were coming and going from all sides and I was not sure what to do there. After everyone was down and we familiarized with the environment, we demonstrated a couple of skills and by that time our air were running out. We went back on deck.

Lunchtime!

Even if there was not much of moving around, we all thoroughly enjoyed our first dive. We had our lunch in the boat itself while our gas tanks were refilled.

Since I loved being in water and also wanted to try my underwater camera, I simply jumped to water and took some random snaps. Someone was feeding the fishes.
The next 2 dives were the most awesome ones. We finned along corals and rocks, up and down, through schools of colorful fishes and I cursed myself for not taking the camera. By around 5, we were all tired and we back on boat and set our journey back to the main island.

Tioman Island, Malaysia

The beautiful Sunset from the dock. We all became friends by evening and we were happily chattering about all that we have seen on our first day. Before we got to our resort, we stopped at a nearby shop to eat and they made tasty food.
After that the leisure divers who were going for the night dive, left and me and my other open water diver friends left to our cabins and took a bath. Then we came down for the barbeque dinner. By that time the leisure divers were back.

We came down to the beach by 9pm and got ourselves a couple of beers and some snacks and talked for around 2 hours about the first day. The seasoned divers shared their experiences.

The first thing I did next day was to clean up my camera properly with the help of Monica and made sure I am not going to miss anything this time I dive. Thanks to Johnny for taking this shot.

That’s Monica, our instructor. I wonder how she manages to control her buoyancy that well.

That’s a Bridled monocle bream. I had to chase this guy for a bit to get this shot.

I spend some time studying the fish charts after my first 2 dives as I didn’t know any of them. With the help of Monica, I managed to remember the most common fishes. Still I have not find out the names of couple of them.

That’s Raline – my buddy. She was funny, all the time making funny faces when I tried clicking a snap. She was trying to smile or show me something when I was clicking this snap. According to Monica, we both made a good buddy pair. Since I was consuming air fast, she had to check my air regularly.
This little guy was furious at me when I was trying to take this snap as I was interfering with his home. I got lots of shots of clown fish; even one brave clown fish came out of his anemone and danced in front of my camera. When I change the camera direction, he stayed in front of the camera without allowing me to focus on him. I guess he wanted me out of his domain.

A pack of sea urchins. The first day, I didn’t notice the blue color inside the spikes, which looks like their eyes.
A large table coral. According to Monica, this is around 70-100 years old. So we were very careful not to go near them, we didn’t want to destroy them as our buoyancy control was not that good.

That’s an eight banded butterfly fish. I saw all sorts of butterfly fish there.

We finned through rocks and narrow paths

Even through schools of fishes

That’s Astri, I guess she spotted something in the coral. She was also helping me with the photos, whenever she saw something interesting, she called me.

That’s Morgan and Laetitia from France

That’s Raline again, trying to hug a coral.

And that’s me again, thank you Johnny…

Check this out, a car wreck in one of the dive sites. It was a change; you expect some ship wrecks and see a car wreck instead.

That’s Johnny, our dive master and he was the one who kept track of me when I was wandering off to take pictures of everything I saw. Also he helped in controlling my air consumption.

Time to come up!

Took a snap of the dive comp when I was doing my safety stop.

Up up, there you go!

Our boat coming to pick us out!

The diving team! Uh! I miss them already.

That’s Vijay with his summersault from the upper deck to water. We all jumped in to the sea when we were waiting for our air to be refilled. We had all the fun in the water.

We even took some photos under water. That’s Monica and Raline, I am not sure whether they are trying to smile or scream or threaten me there, ha ha.

Finally, after our five dives, we had to pack up and get ready to come back to Singapore.
I don’t know about others, but my mind was stuck in there with the island of Tioman and the underwater world. It was more like a dream, swimming with the fishes and touching the corals with my own hands. (I am pretty sure it’s the same way everyone else felt). Anyway, by 2:00pm, we started our journey back to mainland of Malaysia. During our journey, we filled out our dive log books and I spend some time matching the unknown fishes in my camera with the ones in the books. Then I went out and simply sat on the side of the boat, with my legs touching the waves and enjoying the moments. After we reached Mersing, we took our bus back to Singapore and we reached back around 8pm.
There are still a lot of things for me to learn and practice especially buoyancy control, breath control, proper equalization etc. It was an incredible experience and something that I can cherish for a long long time. I am looking forward for my dive trip for PADI Advanced Diver course soon. Thanks to all my friends for giving me such a good time. Hope we can all dive together soon.