Diving with Bubbles @ Perhentian Island

The recent weekend was an amazing one. Saturday, Sunday & Monday were spent at Perhentian Island with my favourie people. And with them around, it's always a blast!

To add to the excitement, Robert, Grace and Jo finally visited the spectacular underwater world. They're now fully qualified PADI Open Water Divers. Congratulations guys! Pity Soon Yean & I didn't get to dive with them, but I'm sure our next trip will be even better.

Soon Yean, Pei Yin & I are now qualified PADI Rescue Divers. Though, I think I speak for all of us when I say that knowing what to do is one thing... actually doing it is another. My confidence in handling an diving emergency isn't strong. I think I could do with a bit more practice before actually helping out in any rescue effort. Fortunately, diving accidents are rare and can usually be avoided.

I think the best thing that came out of doing the PADI Rescue Diver course is that I now have a greater awareness on the do's and don'ts, the consequences of not following those do's and don'ts as well as how to handle an emergency resulting from not keeping to those do's and don'ts. That in itself is a huge improvement to my previous ignorance.

We did 5 leisure dives this trip. Apart from the slight discomfort in my ears from not being able equalize properly on the first dive, and my mask fogging up on the first and last dive, everything was real fun. I especially enjoyed the final dive which was a night dive. Our initial worries of not getting to see much was nothing. We saw so many amazing nocturnal creatures come alive during that dive. It was just a matter of knowing where to look, and a bit of luck. Pictures will come once Pei Yin & Soon Yean upload what they captured.

On the fourth dive, I made a last minute descent to retrieve a compass one of the other divers dropped as they climbed back onto the boat. During the search, I caught a glimpse of a gorgeous sea snake. This was my first ever first-hand encounter with a sea snake underwater so understandably, I couldn't recognise which species. And because I was down there with another objective - to find the lost compass, I didn't think to pay attention to the snakes features and check later. The worst thing was that I couldn't even find the compass which was lost to the sea. I kept the search short since I went down alone... didn't want the others to get worried. Turns out, the compass wasn't even working anyway. Go figure!

Apart from the long drive home, all in all it was a good trip. Great dives, great meals, great sights, great weather, great company. What more can I ask for?!