Now, I have just been to my first Deep Sea Diving Trip, and I was completely and absolutely ecstatic after that trip. The trip was last Sunday, but I am still elated even until today (it's Thursday today, by the way).
Why? Well, first of all, this was my FIRST deep sea trip!!! Previously I had only been to sites around the Talang-Talang island which depth was only down to 15 m, that would be about the height of a four or five-storeyed building. Places like that are fun, but if they were the ONLY place that you had visited since passing your exam, they could get pretty boring after the third trip.
Secondly, we were a bunch of crazy kids (I called us 'kids' because we all played like any five-year-old would), even though some of us were in our forties (not me definitely, I'm still in my sweet twenties, my skin is still taut and smooth). We played pranks on one another and told silly jokes, before and between dives. Kim, the assistant, was constantly throwing ice down our wet suits, and Edward, our instructor and dive master, would spray tanning oil on everyone and drew pictures on our backs while we were dozing in the shed.
We did three dives that day, at three different sites. The first two sites were where the Japanese war ship had sunk in the days of WW II. The first was a smaller ship and the the second a much bigger one. I was pretty nervous when I did my first dive. The last time I did my dive was roughly about three weeks ago. You start to get a bit rusty if you stop for even two weeks.
It was a long way down, with nothing between the sea bed and the surface. All that you could see was a wall of sea green and white sun light filtering through. But once you reached the bottom, the richness of life underwater would overwhelm you!!! There were corals, and angelfish and even lobsters!!! So much life around you, yet it was peaceful, even with the wrecked ship looming up beside you.
I got seperated from my buddies once, and was ('probably') carried away by the current. Then I lost visibility, seeing nothing but tiny microorganisms floating towards and around me. No ship, no people. I was lost at 20++m under!!!
I was lost under water, but I was not lost myself. One of the most important thing to remember when you are down under is that you must not panic!! Think!! Girl, Think!!! What did the instructor said when he taught about ascending from a depth of more than 18m? (It is considered deep sea if the depth is more than 18m).
Ascend slowly, and do your safety stops.
Alright, ascend slowly, and do my safety stops. I could do that. Now, 20m, 19, 18, 17... 15m, STOP! Now, breathe... Check the air pressure.... keep on breathing.... air pressure ok.... how long am I suppose to stay here???
By the time I reached the surface (I did another stop at 10m), I was alone, and the ship was roughly 200m away. Alright, at least I could still see the ship, though the swim back would be tedious....
Kim gave me a good talk later.... and I hung my head down like a good puppy would trying to show my remorse. But when Kim turned around, I was myself again... Hehehe.... Hey, what's that?? Edward found some bullets from the ship!!! (They were real bullets, those that they used in the standing-type of machine guns, and you use those to bring the airplanes down.)
The last dive was at a sunken barge. It was said that this was a Portugese barge taken by the Japanese. This was the largest of all three ship wrecks. Now this was where all the big lobsters lived. Too bad it's against the law to catch lobsters. Kim saw one that would weigh roughly about 80 grammes, and it was huge!!! Well, at least it was larger than the ones that I saw in Talang-Talang.
Fish, another lady diver (she is really called that), suffered from mild decompression symptoms. Pity her, she vomitted thrice and had a throbbing headache, which paracetamol did no help. Oh well, so much for going to the RainForest after our dive.
By the time we reached the jetty, the sky was dark, mosquitoes were everywhere. Never, ever, get yourself bitten by swamp mosquitoes. Their bites are the worst!!!
Oh, I am going back to Talang-Talang for my next dive. Now that I know, I need more practice. So, next trip, Talang-Talang, be there for me... :)
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