Haanism

Learn to Dive | Back from Redang | Open Water Diver Certification | Scuba Diving | Loneliness | Shore Dives | Boat Dive | Sunrise at Redang | First Leisure Dive | Redang Bay | Redang Trip People

My trip to Redang would not be fun without these people, who went together for the same purpose (get certified as an Open Water Diver), or with the responsibility as an instrutor or dive master.

Apart from Cyrena, my instructor since Confined Water Dives at the Shah Alam Panasonic Sports Complex; Shaiful, the Dive Master, was the one I met the most near the pool.

Mei Siew and I at the Merang Jetty.

Among all the divers who went for certification, I had met Mei Siew for about 5 times before the trip. Then, the runner-up was Kim (3 times), followed by Ben (2 times). For the rest, it was either 1 time or none at all.

On 18/7/08 (Friday) night, I met them at the Hentian Putra neaby PWTC. I was almost late due to infamiliarity with the area. The journey from KL started at 10:30pm, and we were with Sani Express. The ticket for a one-way journey costs only RM30. Additional charge incurs if you book online - RM2 per ticket.

Honestly, the bus was good, but it was not easy to sleep on the bus. In the middle of journey, the bus stopped at somewhere near Cherating. We then arrived at the Kuala Terengganu bus terminal at about 5am.

5am was very much earlier than we expected.

I was still a zombie (a soulless body). Others had started to talk a lot, got to know each other, took breakfast... but I was still in sleep.

When I felt my rest had been enough, they felt tired and tried to grab little while of sleep.

After 2 hours of waiting, someone picked us to the Merang Jetty at about 7am. At the Jetty, we waited for another 2 hours, for the first boat to Redang at 9:30am. The boat ride costs RM10 but we had paid that beforehand.

While waiting for the boat...

The sleep on the night bus was of very low quality.

The food sold nearby the Merang Jetty is expensive. My fried beehoon with no ingredient, together with a curry puff, costed me RM3.50. Someone else had nasi lemak and ended up paying RM8.

When we all arrived at the island, the first open water dive took place just in the afternoon, after lunch. At other times, we had our own entertainment :) Lot of stuff can be borrowed FOC from the counter.

I'm not good in playing this, so I never win.

Dive, dive and dive. Our main activity was to dive. Our main topic during whatever time was also about diving. Who made what mistake, who vomitted, who had sea-sick, what we saw underwater etc.

I didn't really select my mask very carefully. I just told my instructor I'd like to purchase it, then she brought me one from her centre. I didn't use it much during confined water dives. Therefore it was still considered very new during when I used it for open water dives.

Went for boat dive. (From left) Ben, Mei Siew, Haan... and Gerald's palm.

Haan in the water with snorkel on. My hair was too short to be tied up, and a bit too long to do nothing with it.

The bad thing about a new mask is, it could get foggy very easily. Fedrick offerred to "burn" the mask for me (using lighter), then scrub it using sand. I passed my mask to him without much worry. But few burns did not really get it to the desired condition. He told me, some would need up to 10 burns!! So I just told him the effect after each burn and dive, then he'd know what to do next.

Having a foggy mask, to certain level, decreases one's confidence in the water. You could not see others clearly, had to waste time clearing the mask, and could not get to see the beautiful underwater world satisfactorily.

If you feel tempted to dive, but do not really sure whether to get licensed, you can consider Discover Scuba. It costs around RM150, lasts for 2 hours. You will get to know the basic knowledge and skills about diving.

Eight of us got certified as Open Water Diver after 4 dives.

Shaiful: the Dive Master - he started only March this year but looks very experienced now. He dives a lot, from time to time.

Hanafi: felt scared during boat dive due to increased depth.

Kim: spent about RM5K for a set of advanced and complete dive gears.

Mei Siew: the only girl apart from Haan.

Cyrena: our instructor - she's just 24, younger than all her students.

Goh: the youngest among 8 of us, and was always so energetic.

Azli: he vomitted during every dive.

Gerald: supposed to get certified in Sipadan but delayed due to flu.

Ben: gotta conquer his sea sick.

Haan: said to be steady but definitely needs more practices.

Sunday night, we gathered to do our dive logs after dinner. Cyrena presented us our certificates for photography purpose, then collected it back (we also didn't want to carry, worrying that we would spoil it).

The last night in Redang, with accomplished mission.

Haan and Darius. He has been a very helpful and dedicated instructor. He'd volunteer himself to take care of the not-so-good divers, instead of pushing them to the other instructor. He also brought us to snorkel, and to see high quality underwater photography work.

The More More Tea Inn at the Redang Island. In most people's mind, More More Tea is like equivalent to Redang.

Monday morning, Mei Siew and I woke up early to see the sunrise. For sure I'd capture some photos ^^ After that, we had breakfast then collected our gears from Redang Bay Dive Center at 7am. We left the island at 8am.

Few more rounds of travel then took place. From Merang Jetty to Kuala Terengganu (we had Bak Kut Teh at the China town), then to bus station to catch the coach back to KL at 1pm.

This is the first double-decker I took in Malaysia. It's good and comfortable, but it's kinda slow (due to drizzle). Our diving talk did not stop, till reaching KL.

We finally arrived back at KL at 9pm... a long 8-hour journey. Due to some other reaosons (got lost here and there), I was home only after 12am. The next day, I went to work as usual, but with a little lost mind (due to insufficient sleep and rest).

Redang Trip photos