Whale sharks in Tenggol island, Malaysia

If the Whale sharks continue to camp in the Malaysian waters off Tenggol island , Malaysia will soon become THE place to dive with the majestic whalesharks.

I couldn't resist as I find these animals so fascinating and I went there with my buddy and partner in crime, Noor Hadi. Although I must have seen at least 30 whale sharks in the last 3 years ( mainly snokelling in Donsol ), but diving with whale sharks is still one helluva experience. You just do not know when or where they will appear.

We decided to do a budget trip and went there by bus on Thursday night. It was a 40 seater bus ( all tickets on Executive or Luxury liner /buses were sold out ) and we reached at 5 am. Killing 3.5 hrs wondering the street of Dungun can be no fun as even small hotels were full.

The first day we did 3 dives and 2 were in areas that the whale sharks have frequent. On the third dive at Gua Rajawali, our group of around 8 ( 6 were divers from UKM~ fun people ) saw the whale shark except me as I had wondered off further out from the reef. It was a small whale shark and there are good photographs and video of Hadi avoiding being slapped by the shark.

The next day we did a 3rd dive at Gua Rajawali again and this time we went into the water at around 5.30pm. There were 12 divers and I dived with a fellow called Chan who is doing his Masters in UKM. We swan ahead of the rest as they were taking a long time getting into the water. It was just a simple dive. Just dive parallel to the reef about 50 meters away .

Chan swam just above me at around the 10 meters depth mark and we swam for some 25 minutes in blue water ( visibility was just 5 meters ) seeing nothing but plankton. It can really be a real strain on the eyes as you see black shadow in the water and you think its a shark. Chan then signaled to me that he has had enough and wanted to surface because of a headache. I decided to surface with him and as the area that we were diving had a lot of boats, I deployed my safety sausage. I struggled with the release clip of the sausage for awhile and finally inflated the sausage. As I swam upwards towards Chan, I realized that I had dropped my camera with the attached HDI Video light that weighs like a ton. As the camera would sink, I decided to give the sausage to Chan and asked him to go up whilst I go down and search for my camera.

I prayed that the depth was not too deep and with 100 bars of air, I ventured downwards in almost pitched darkness. After a few kicks, I saw the bottom and it was a flat garden of soft corals. The depth was just 25 meters. After just a few seconds of search, I saw my camera. I picked it up and slowly ascend. As visibility was getting bad, I switched on my video light and sang the song "you light up my life" ( just kidding, actually I was beginning to feel a little nervous ). Then it all happened!!!!

I saw a one 0.75 meters length cobia ( a species that always seem to be the tour guide of Mantas and whale sharks ), then another and as I turned left, I saw the eyeball of the whaleshark. Honestly, the whaleshark appeared right in front of me and I think it must be the light that had attached it or my body odour. I immediately switched on my camera and happily videoed it for the next 2 minutes. The shark seem so curious and I could see its eye focusing on me wondering what sort of strange creature I am . I swam right in front of it twice to shot the video of its mouth and face with all the cobias and remoras and we were avoiding each other from near fatal collision. Then all of a sudden, my camera powered off. I thought it must be the battery. Not now!! the whale shark is still there. I turned it on again and then cursed myself. I forgot to turned on the video button and had actually not recorded the whale shark the whole time. Shit!!

I turned it on and whispered to the whaleshark ..."please stay for more video shots". It did. I then took the video that I have attached for you all to see on www.youtube.com/redwhaleshark .

The shark this time was swimming a little faster and I had some difficulty keeping up with it and after 2 minutes decided to let him go as it was no point chasing him.

It was an experience that I will never forget and the constant thought that my first sight was the eyes of the whaleshark still sent a little tinkering thru my body.

I saw a few videos taken of the sharks during my weekend stay at Tenggol and ahem...none was as lengthy as mine ( all just say..your shark swam slow lah....blah blah blah ) and from the markings at the side of the sharks, I must say that there are definitely more than 5 different sharks in and around Tenggol now ( 2 babies and 3 medium to large sharks ). This has never happened before and one day, Malaysia may become famous for the whale sharks as Ningaloo reef in Australia.

So guys, you need not go far to dive with whalesharks...sacrifice some time and comfort, stay at Tenggol and see the sharks whilst they are still there. For the sake of some of my friends who are going there soon, I hope they will still be there until mid September....if they are i will go again.

see www.youtube.com/redwhaleshark

Tulamben Dive report ~ June 2009

Tulamben Dive Report~ GOD ‘s Inaugural trip 19^th to 23rd June 2009

I had the honor of leading GOD’s first trip out of Malaysia to the beautiful island of Bali.

I have done so many trips before but this being my first under GOD, kind of made me more apprehensive and I hope that all will go down well with the group of 7 divers whom I regard as “ The Magnificent Seven”. It was also nearly the two years ago that I first met these 7 divers when I brought them to Bali to Nusa Penida.

We arrived around 1 pm from Malaysia abroad the Malaysian airlines and the immigration was fast and within 10 minutes we were all out of the airport and on the way to Tulamben, some 2 hours away by road. On the way, we stop at a good Nasi Padang shop to fill our stomach. We arrived at Mimpi Resort, Tulamben which is regarded as the best sea front resort in Tulamben at around 5 pm. We all slept early that night in semidetached cottage rooms.

After a 7 am wake up call, we headed for breakfast ( 3 course selection ) and then walked over to the beach facing the most dived sites in Bali, the Liberty Wreck at Tulamben. The Liberty Wreck lie just 30 meters from the beach at depths of 5 meters to 30 meters.

It was a huge cargo ship which was sunk by torpedoes during the WWII and although the damaged vessel was brought back to the shore, a massive Volcano eruption from Gunung Agung in 1963 pushed back the wreck back to the sea to its current position. The wreck is scattered in several large chunks and there are several big holes in the hull where divers can swim through. The wreck is scattered about 100 meters on steeply sloping black sand.

Getting to the wreck is challenging for most of us who are not used to shore dives and walking on black gravel, stones and rocks. The trick is to wade in and don your fins when you are chest high in water. Better leave the regulator in your mouth as I experienced a near death incident because of this. More later.

The first photographic customer we met was the ghost pipefish. There was a pair at just 10 meters depth. Next was just a few bump heads feeding on hard coral. On a given day, you will see hundreds of bump heads as the wreck is their hotel. A school of about 100 jacks circle above the wreck and on approaching the wreck, I could understand why so many varieties of fishes lived or sheltered in the wreck which provides protection and a good breeding home. Nevertheless, a giant barracuda will suddenly dart in to catch unaware prey. I headed to 28 meters depth and to a particular gorgonian where there were 3 pygmy seahorses or Bargibant’s seahorses, Hippo-camous bargibanti waiting to be photographed. Engrossed in photography could catch you unaware with deco time and luckily my early years of “errors “ messages in my dive computer, made me more aware and all of us made it up safely with different stories to tell.

We did the second dive to the right end of our resort at The Coral Wall which plunges to “out of bound “ depth. There is a massive sea fan at the corner and along the slopes are nice colorful soft corals, sponges and a variety of fishes. We caught the glimpse of the rare comet ( Calloplesiops altivelis ), a beautiful fish with elaborate finnage and a false eye.

The last dive of the day was in front of our resort, the Coral garden. At 3 pm , the current was around 1.5 knots and ribbon eels of all ages ( black for young to the yellow for old ) can be easily found. We surfaced about 50 meters before the Liberty wreck, some 500 meters from where we went in. Coming out of the water and walking on slippery stones were no fun.

The second day we again did an early morning Liberty Wreck dive, followed by two dives at Seraya. Seraya is pure macro haven and is Bali’s answer to Lembeh.

We finished the day by doing a fourth dive at Alamanda which I consider the best dive site in the Tulamben area. The site profile was excellent which walls, little mounts, sandy resting areas and beautiful hard and soft corals. Good variety of fishes and nudibranches. This was our only boat dive.

The thing about Tulamben is that almost all the dive sites are shore dives so the right season to go there is important. Avoid the rainy period and period when sea is rough. Entering the water is one thing but getting out with high waves hitting your back and pushing you face down onto stones and rocks can be dangerous. Oh yes. My almost death drowning experience. I went into the water backwards and had just put on my fins and was watching the others coming in when I felt someone pushing me down into the water. I immediately inflated my BCD but in the struggle I could not find my regulator and I turned around underwater and realized that one of the divers was struggling and was climbing on top of me to keep afloat. I search for his inflator hose but there was no air entering his BCD. I managed to push my head out of the water and gasped a few breath of air. The dive guide managed to jump in and pulled the diver back to the shore.

I in the meantime was glad to be breathing and floating on the water with a fully inflated BCD. The diver panicked when he waded into the water and begin to sink when his BCD leaked. The slope steep sharply after just 3 meters from the shore. He also did not have his regulator on. Moral of the story, keep you regulator in your mouth. Less air for diving not important. Better to be safe. That happened on our second last dive and I am glad to say, after regaining his composure, the diver did the last dive on borrowed BCD. If he had skipped that dive, he may not have dived again.

We left the next day as we wanted to spend a relaxing night in Kuta and do some shopping and have some fine food. After dinner, we relaxed over a couple of drinks at Hard Rock Café where there was this 7 person band from Jakarta playing. They are very good and they played both my requested songs, Poker Face by Lady Gaga and Hotel California by The Eagles excellently. They will be coming to Hard Rock in KL in August and September. Catch them.

The next day, we boarded the 1pm flight back to KL.

Hammerhead John’s rating;

**** resort and food

***** divers

*** dive sites. We just didn’t like the shore diving

**** Overall package price

Tubbataha reef- a disappointment

Well, someone forgot to tell all the large pelagic that we are going there.

We arrived at Tubbataha on the morning of 9th May after 12 hours overnight on the Apo Explorer. There were 16 of us, 10 from Malaysia and the other 6 from Singapore. We had very high hopes that this is the area to dive esp after a 45 minutes check out dive at Malayan wreck, my best check out dive todate.

Malayan wreck sits atop the reef at only 5 meters and the same wreck is a home to about 100 bumpheads which were just leaving home when we dived in at 8am. The visibility was around 35 meters with no current. We then swam towards the wall which drops to about 70 meters. Swimming at depths of 36 meters on our first dive was amazing. It is exactly like the Barracuda point at Sipadan minus the school of barracudas. There were sharks all over and it soon became clear to us that the reef is a nursery and kindergarden to reef sharks. Looking out into the blue, we saw only one thing...blue water. No large pelagic was swimming past us. Something amiss, I thought.

The following dives were all mostly similar, wall dives and beautiful reef that were mainly covered with hard corals or sandy bottom. There were few soft corals and hence, not many anemones and macro like nudibranches. We were really disappointed.

As we were using Nitrox most of the time, we were diving very close to our MOD ( maximum operating depth before oxygen turned toxic ) becos of the great visibility ( maybe that is why there is no pelagic...they are camera shy ). I did most of my first day dives with air as i wanted to explore the deep end and went down to 56 meters to see some juvenile barracudas.

Our dive on 9th May was on Full Moon and despite this, there were no current, the sea as calm as a dead woman, and no large pelagic. No Mantas, no rays, no whale sharks, hammerheads, etc etc. The conditions were perfect but no big stuff.

In most of our dives, we could hear dynamite exploding some 50 miles away. It was common to hear 2 to 3 explosions on each dive. Maybe these scare away the big fishes. Unless the filipino government takes some drastic actions, no fishes will dare come into filipino waters.

Tubbataha reef is beautiful and it definitely beats places like the Great Barrier Reef in terms of marine life and there are corals ( many barrel corals ) of enormous sizes. It is definitely a breeding ground for turtles, sharks, Napoleon wrasses, octopus and reef fishes. Maybe it was parent days off when we were there.

The renown washing dive site was also a disappointment. Someone switched off the power and no noticeable current were felt. Imagine..we had brought reef hooks, gloves, mini anchors etc etc.
Some brought down some dirty linen.

We visited the Ranger's station that houses around 10 Rangers that patrol the area to keep out fisherman and pirates . It also double up as a T-shirt sales center.

Our group of 10 Malaysian makes use of the nights drinking away the beer that cost USD1 per can and the two bottles of liquor that we brought. The other 6 Singapore divers kept to themselves mostly except on the last night when they decide to have fun with us.

The manager of the boat, Colin who is a Canadian is great and very attentive to our needs. The crew on board the Apo Explorer who we were told only earns less than RM150 a month, are friendly and good at their work. The Malaysian gang were so taken by the services and each of us gave USD40 to the crew as tips. Sad to say, the Singaporean group only gave a fraction of this.

Tubbataha "the Africa of diving"

Tubbataha. Never heard of it ? Well, it is described in one dive magazine as" The Africa of Diving"- Wild and Unexplored. And I will be going there this Friday, 8th may 2009.

Where is this place ?? Tubbataha reef is an atoll coral reef located in the Sulu sea of the Philippines. It is a marine sanctuary protected as a National park and is nominated as the New 7 Wonders of Natural World.

The reef is made up of two atolls which are 5 miles apart and in between is a channel that provides passage to all large pelagic and fishes. Wall dives, reef dives, drift dives and "washing machine' dives are all available here. The marine life here is so vivid and diverse that this sanctuary rivals the Great Barrier reef.

Declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1993, Tubbataha can only be visited by Liveaboards that weather only permits entry in March to June each year.

The Magnificent 10 of us will be going and hopefully all 10 returns will fish tales......more soon.

How I wish to be underwater now..

God,please get thie Election over and let the good guys or gals win for once. The corrupt politicians must pay for their sins and all their properties and their relatives which are acquired by unlawful means during their dictatorship must be confisicated and given back to the people.
What a wish! Daydream boy for I do not see it happening.

A wish that most likely to happen to me is ...being underwater and see all the marine traffic pass me by. Pure fantasy. No toll. Me with my Bare wetsuit with a camera or video in hand snapping at all the macro stuff with an occasional pelagic be it a shark, manta or whale peepping over my shoulder.

I am going to Layang Layang at the end of this month with a group of really fun guys who works hard and play hard...sometimes drink too hard. I cannot hardly wait. You see, when you dive in places like Layang Layang which is in the middle of nowhere ( some 600km offshore of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah ) you have no time to think of politics or problems back home. Your mind is just engrossed in what you will see, whether your air is going to run out, whether you have gone too deep or where are your dive buddies. No time for stuff like Bodohwi has lied to the people although when I return from my dive trip...petrol prices would have been raised to RM2.50 per litre. Then i just sell my car and dive more.

How I wish i was underwater now..........Hadi hadi where are you now?? Hazel????