It's all about adventure

Exactly a month ago, I headed out to the east coast for some diving. The resort wasn’t your typical dive destination, but there was a dive operator on a nearby island and I was convinced, so why not. As usual, any trip I make with “the dive buddy” usually has its fair share of drama. So would it surprise anyone that this trip wasn’t without the usual gung-ho, by the seat of our pants plans? But both being super easy going, we’d plunge ahead regardless, and as it happens, it ended up much like the other trips… one pretty memorable adventure yet again.

This time though, it started with frustration. Fuming, sleepy and bored stiff, we were kept waiting to depart, late by more than two hours cos Trish was simply not contactable, not answering the mobile nor responding to sms… WTF! Eventually she called up and we were off. To top it off, we made it to the island by mid-morning despite missing our ferry. As a result of the delay and the fact that none of us were in any condition to drive any further by 6am, we lost an additional hour sleeping by the side of the road at some rest stop. To make matters worse, we realised we’d overshot our jetty at Marang and not Merang when we’d reached KT, almost 20minutes past it.

You’d think our misadventures would end there, rite? But no… on arriving at the island, we’re then told that there were too much jellyfishes and that conditions were bad so there’d be no diving for the day but that we could wait and see how it was the next day. The frustrations were just mounting…

But what happens when you put 2 crazy gung-ho fellas together on a holiday? Well… they lounge on hammocks and spontaneously turn 1-hour kayak rentals into a 4-hour adventure by kayaking from Gemia to and around Kapas island, rounding the open seas and stranding on reefs due to low tide, socializing and having tea with the local dive master, stopping a fisherman in the middle of the sea for a cigarette lighter as well as jumping in the water for a spontaneous dugong search. Frustrations? Long gone by the time the sun set. This is how holidays are meant to be!

Generally, that’s how the rest of the holiday unfolded as well… hiccups at the start of the day, but all rosy and hunky dory by the end. The highlight of the 2nd day obviously was that we finally went diving, but to top it off, it became a very memorable dive. Let’s just say my buddy left me behind and I had to surface by myself, but was not missed by the group, dive master nor my buddy. I was fuming as I finned 30m back to the boat on the surface to find the rest of the dive flight surfacing, oblivious to the fact I was not amongst them. So much for the buddy diving system. Let’s leave it there for a future post as that’s not what made it memorable. What did was swimming with and photographing the first dugong sighted in Terengganu in 30 years. That itself cast off all my frustrations with my buddy during the dive.


You’d think after that it would be difficult to top the 1st dive and you’d be right, but there was more in store for us as we came across huge cobias and a shovelnose ray. Not too bad for a dive site that’s not rated too highly amongst all the other east coast sites.

Our dives that day had all been at a site named Coral garden and although we’d approached it by boat, I’d made a mental note of our proximity to Gemia Island and judged that it would be well within snorkeling distance and accessible safely during low tide. After a pleasantly delightful late lunch and a soothing massage, it was back to Coral Garden, this time without any dive gear. With the frustrations endured before getting to the island, we were getting our just rewards. Within the hour and a half snorkelling, we’d come across schools of barracuda, garfish, sharks, triggers, stingray and a pair of cuttlefish at the far side of Gemia.

Another amazing starfeesh adventure.

More pix accessible from my sidebar…