Limping Marathon Runner

Meant to be a refresher to diving, BeauQi, Kit-Kat and I went up north for a weekend of sun, sand and sea. I remembered all the necessary and do not think I require the refresher. I took it as a short trip / getaway.

Unable to reach Woodlands at 6.30am using the subway, I took a cab to our meeting point. BeauQi was already there and Kit-Kat arrived within 10mins. We took a bus to immigration and had to walk a distance to the checkpoint. Clearing both checkpoint was pretty easy without much delay. We took a cab to Larkin bus terminal where we were suppose to board our coach to Mersing. After oiur breakfast, we bought some doughnuts as tea time snacks just in case we got hungry along the way. We slept on the coach during most part of the journey to Mersing. It took us probably 2-3 hrs to reach there. Upon arrival and much to our horror, the return seats for the coach were sold out - completely. Seems like we have only one way out - public buses back to home. Think about that later. We bought our ferry tickets to Pulau Tioman and packed some Ramly burgers to fill our stomachs. The air-conditioning in the ferry was powerful! We were curling up like moth balls. But, we were amused by an English family, with two little boys running around in the ferry. Oh.. the English family alighted at the same jetty and we stayed at the same resort.

We settled down in our room and started our first dive at 3.30pm. BeauQi had to do a refresher with the dive instructor and all of us moved out for our first dive. Kit-Kat was my buddy and I went through with her on the back flip / roll entry. She did pretty well for a first timer and I followed next. Once all of us were in the waters, we descended. However, my buddy was "stuck" on the surface. When I turned back to fin towards her. The DM was already with her. Once at 6metres, we proceeded with our planned dive. Now, my buddy is really cute. She wrote on my slate board "lOOking for what?". I scratched my head. She meant, looking for what. Well, her Os looked like they had CAPS on. Carrying on, I pointed out on a few occasions to her where udibranches were. She echoed with an OK sign. Slowly, but surely, she made me laugh. All of us surrounded a cuttlefish which was flashing its colours to confuse us, thinking we are predators. My buddy said that was a jellyfish. LOL. I pointed out to her a couple of barracudas. She stared at me in blank space and shrugged her shoulders. ROTFLMAO. Hey.. not too bad. At least she saw those nudibranches and two batfishes that I pointed to her. I do have to say her buoyancy is good for a n00b. Thumbs up! We ended our dive, headed back to land. Not a minute to lose, we went to the beach to hang out and played with the English family's kids. We chatted with their mum, watched the sunset before we shower and get changed for dinner. Before we can step out, it was pouring like madness. We had dinner with some new acquaintance and chatted about cultural differences till 11pm. My sleep weren't that great. I had a miserable towel to cover just my legs and I got stung all over my mosquitoes. Only at around 2am in the morning, I realized and remembered that I have my hammock with me. I used it as a blanket and wrapped myself up. Bingo. No more mozzies harassment.

The girls woke up early and had their breakfast. With just a couple hours of sleep, I could definitely use more rest. I asked BeauQi to buddy Kit-Kat for this dive. They went out to sea where I had my tea and started reading my book. Half way through, the little English boy came and talked to me. I started to chat with him. Soon, I found myself talking to his family with him sitting on my lap. One hour passed and I headed back to the beach to find the girls back from their dive. We cleared the stuff and checked out from the resort before returning to the jetty for our ferry. This time round, the ferry had no air-conditioning - probably faulty. We were baked. Immediately after docking, we dashed to the terminal to check if there is any chance we can get tickets back home. :( Nope. We took our lunch before heading to a local bus terminal for public transport. We took a public bus to Kota Tinggi. They are still using those old skool tickets in the 80s!! The interesting part was that the driver detoured to pick up some keropok to be transported to Kota Tinggi. Sideline?! LOL. It was enjoyable to experience a local bus ride through their estates. We transferred to another bus to Larkin, once we reach Kota Tinggi. By the time we reached Larkin, we had to battle our way back to home through customs and crowd. Madness. But, I enjoyed this trip tremendously despite that it was a short one.