Manta! Manta!

Manta Ray Near Talang Besar, Sematan, Sarawak, Borneo.

13 April 2008, Sunday

We saw a pair of manta rays, otherwise known as the devil rays, in Talang Besar!!!

It was near the end of the trip out, and I just got out of my third and last dive. Disassembling my gear, Mui Ling was laughing and dripping with water when she told me that she and CS had just saw a Manta while snorkeling out there.

I jumped at that moment, grabbed my mask and fins and jumped into the water swimming towards the patch of water that they pointed me.

Never was I so eager to see another sea creature as I did a Manta.

It took a few rounds of snorkeling before Edward finally spotted the Manta. I was about to give up looking for the Manta, and had actually started thinking that the Manta might have been scared off by the snorkellers. I was already at the side of the boat when ML asked me if I had seen it. I said no. Then she said to me that the group had just found it!!!!

I clambered out of the water, ML knew that I had no snorkel on, and passed me her mask and snorkel. Almost cursing, I flopped to the other side of the boat and jumped into the water. ML and Kim were both laughing at me.

I finned as hard as I could out there, and when I reached them, they told me that the Manta had gone. But I did not give up, no way was I to give up since I was this close to see the Manta!!!

And then, I saw it. As magnificent as I had always imagined it. A graceful, gliding Manta.

I could not help but felt the rush of happiness running through my veins. I dared not blink for one moment, afraid that at the next moment, it would be lost from my sight again.

And then, I saw them. Two of them!!! One bigger than the other, gliding towards each other at an angle. I was so happy that my heart could burst right there and then.

Following the smaller Manta, I saw it glide slowly towards a school of fish, and swooped in for food. It moved so fast, that for one second it was only a blur.

Slowly, it moved away, gliding as gracefully as nature had made it, and disappeared into the depth.

I have never been so happy to see another sea creature in my life. I just hope that my friend would be able to be there to see it too.