Salang @ Tioman - 1-3 May 2009

This trip was a long wait since my last dive in August last year. The trip to Tioman was for 4 Open Water Diver students and 3 Advanced Open Water Diver students to get certified... and also 3 leisure divers to get themselves wet. :) I logged dive# 29-33 over the weekend.

It was quite a bargain as we managed to squeeze 10 people into 2 rooms, each person only paying about RM66 for the 2 nights. There was also the RM70 return ferry transfer from Tanjung Gemuk. Normally ferries to Tioman depart from Mersing. But the holiday rush prompted some operators to have additional ferry services go between Tg Gemuk - Tioman.

We dived with Fisherman Dive Centre, located right next to Salang Indah Resort. Leisure divers paid RM80/dive, assuming we had our own equipment. It was RM90/dive inclusive of full set of rental equipment.

The staff at Fisherman were generally friendly towards us. Affian, their resident divemaster was very accommodating and helpful. But I heard from the students that their instructors were very strict and fierce with them in the water. I guess they take their work quite seriously. No fault there.

Overall, diving was good. The poor visibility on most dives didn't deter us much even though Soon Yean and I lost the group twice on the same dive. I even got lost on my own on one of the dives. Training as well as instinct led me to search underwater for a minute and then surface to see if maybe my buddy or divemaster surfaced to look for me. They didn't. I also couldn't spot their bubble trail so I swam back to the boat where the boatman suggested that instead of wasting the rest of the dive, I should dive near the boat for another 20mins or so.

That was a fair recommendation so I went down again solo, keeping to the shallower reefs and circling the boat. Diving alone is very leisurely. There was no need to rush just to keep up with the group so I could actually just take my time to scour the reef for interesting marine life. It was there which I spotted a small yellow eel swimming between some staghorn coral, a blue spotted ray, and some other stuff we'd usually miss while trying to keep with a large group. I see why some people prefer diving in small groups, or with just their buddy.

I know I promised pictures but I forgot to bring my camera with me to Tioman. Waiting for Soon Yean to touch up the pictures we took underwater, then I'll post some here.