underwater here we come

was hoping my back injury will recover before the diving trip, but after a week, it never did although it did get better. i had a hard time deciding whether to go for the trip as on one hand, i thought it would be a waste of money and time if i missed the trip. but on the other hand, i was afraid i may waste my time going there if i can't dive because of the pain. i was in dilemma for the whole of friday with my parents discouraging me from going and my diving kahkis urging me to go. i only decided to go for the trip at 5pm and my mum got real angry with me for telling her last min because i had intended to go for my sis's convocation that day.

nevertheless, it was a long journey to tioman. we had to travel 3-4hrs by bus to mersing before travelling another 3 hrs by a "wu suo nan yang" boat to tioman. we finally reached the "resort" (well i wouldn't call that a holiday resort, more like a room with 2 beds) in the wee hours and had a few hrs of sleep for our first dive begins.

i was really scared during the very first dive in the open water. the visibility in the water is really bad. we had to stay close to avoid losing each other. i did quite badly during the first few dives as i really couldn't control my buoyancy well in water. just keeps floating up and down. the other group was lucky to have a nice instructor showing them many things underwater and they were discussing what they saw during dinner. our group just sat there with envy because we didn't see anything at all.

but during the leisure dive on the second day, we managed to see more fishes and also a shipwreck because the 2 groups combined. it was fun but my buddy and i couldn't fight the strong current during the last dive and was forced to abandon the dive after 20 mins while the rest saw a stingray and turtle. it was quite a pity.

it was really an experience visiting the underwater world with such close contact with the marine life. it was definitely a nice experience despite the back injury and the many souvenirs i brought back with me... insect bites that are itching like hell...