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Shark Dive One.
Well the alarm was set for 3:30am but we didn't actually get out of bed until 4am. We quickly jumped up and met the others diving in our group at 4:30am. We all sat there waiting for the ever so enthusiastic diving instructor. I went into the office and asked him for the camera. He said in a dopey voice "Oh, i forgot to ask the boss about it, and theres no silicone....." So even if he had checked with the boss we still wouldn't have been able to take it out because they don't have any silicone! He then said we can risk taking it but its likely that the moisture in the camera would mess the camera up. What a dumb arse, I told him I'd leave it.
About half an hour later all the gear was ready and on the boat. The tide was out so we had to take a small boat out to the big one.
There was a light glow over the mountains where the sun was coming up. The sea was so calm and quiet, the only thing ruining the silence was the noise of the bloody roosters crowing on the island. We could still hear them from at least 100 meters away!
We were asked to check our gear once we boarded the big boat. They gave me a larger suit and more weights this time, I had my mask, and there were small fins - check, check, check and check!
It took forty minutes to get to the dive site. We were at a different dive site this time where we were guaranteed to see the sharks. We didn't see the sunrise, it was blocked by thick clouds but some guy was still obsessed with taking photos lol.
As we got closer we all started to put our gear on. Then I suddenly realised something was missing, my bloody boots to go in my fins! I told the instructor and he just replied "I told you to check." Yeah I admit I forgot about boots, I hadn't used them until yesterday so they didn't cross my mind. Chris asked if there was a spare box, nope. Luckily the dive didn't require much swimming so I managed without boots and just strapped the fins around my ankles.
Chris really enjoyed the dive, I didn't think it was as great as I imagined it would be. There were so many divers in one spot. Maybe fifty people all sitting on a slop, kicking up sand so the water was a bit blurry. My mask kept fogging up so I couldn't bloody see anything half the time and had to keep clearing it. At the same time I couldn't keep still on the slope because my legs kept floating up. I wasn't used to a full length suit and remembered I had the same problem when I was doing my open water course in a full length suit.
So from Chris's experience, apparently the sharks came within four to five meters of us. I made out the outline twice and that was it, so to be honest I had more fun seeing them in the aquarium in Hong Kong.
I was expecting to be in a small group, sitting still on a flat surface while sharks circled us, it was nothing like that. Chris said he saw five big sharks swim by and wants to dive again tomorrow. At first I told him I wouldn't bother. But hopefully it's third time lucky, I'll have a better experience and I will be checking all of my gear and equipment twice from now on!
Back on the boat and again it was the same atmosphere as yesterday. Everyone looked bored. Maybe they were all tired and hungry, we definitely were. We got back to the resort at 7am and had breakfast.
When we got back to our room we found a ginger and white cat sleeping right next to our steps. The cat looked dead! It was so skinni and had a crusty looking face. I poked it and it made a very dry meow. I ran into our room and grabbed the ashtray, filled it with mineral water and brought it out to the cat. It managed to drink the whole lot then walked over to the shade of the trees nearby. Poor thing looked starving, I wanted to help it.
We spent the rest of the morning around the pool sunbathing. At noon it was too hot so we went back to our room to watch a film, then headed out for lunch.
We spent a few hours on the Internet in our resort, then it was happy hour and we had a couple of cocktails and beers.
I started thinking about the skinni cat again and decided to go and buy a can of food and some milk for it and hope to see it again at some point.
We didn't want to drink too much as we had to be up and diving at 4:30am again. So we got showerd and changed then went for a barbecue dinner. We bumped into the weird couple again. They asked us about the diving and I told them what happened to me yesterday. The lady told me it can happen to anyone, even the most experienced of divers, which made me feel better about it. She said she experienced an anxiety attack not that long ago while completing her masters. She just freaked out, worked herself up and had to go up after only fifteen minutes!
When our food was ready we realised we had ordered too much! Chris asked me to get two of everything, so I did. Except for chicken feet, they didn't exactly look very appetising.
We had two large plates piled with meat! Sausages, chicken, pork belly, some other pork meat, some wiggerly looking thing and large chunks of liver! Yuk! We gave the liver straight to the dog that was waiting patiently next to Chris. Some how we managed to eat most of it and Chris told me that he thought the wiggly things were chicken intestines! It turned out he was right! They were actually quite nice but now we know what they are I don't think we will be in hurry to order them again.
We finished up and paid our bill, then waddled our fat selves back to our room and went to bed. I hope the sharks won't think we look like a good meal after eating all that meat!
Charlotte & Chris
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