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Ok, so here I am in Kota Bharu. Spent a couple more days diving over the weekend and qualified for my Advanced Diving! - So I am now qualified to dive pretty damn deep; 40m - but actually it's more realistic to be looking at deepest of 30metres - as the deeper you go the less time you have and obviously the longer you're under the more fun it is and the more you can accomplish! You have to do at least 5 dives to qualify, which means a different speciality for each dive; so i chose Deep, Wreck, Night etc etc... and you have to do 2 necessities; Peak Buoyancy (about staying neutrally buoyant wherever you are, saving energy, and pissing about actually; like going through hoops and stuff) and also Navigational; using a compass underwater (needed for further dives; like wreck diving; to save time getting to your dive sight if you actually can navigate yourself there... and also for poor visibility... night dives... and generally keeping orientation, plus can be damn useful in an emergency/ when currents are strong to know your whereabout when you surface)...
I SAW SHARKS! And pretty much everything that could've gone wrong in our first night dive did! - Firstly my mask kept filling up and the usual clearing wasn't working; then my regulator was letting in water so i had to go onto my alternate (your buddy's emergency regulator if their air runs out)... then Khoa's fin flew off - so i had to keep him neutrally buoyant (neither sinking or heading upwards) and sort him out... but it was so cool and totally different at night... Saw a barracuda; thankfully my ignorance during the dive meant i didn't emit fear when it was showing too much interest in us (sensing fear is more likely to cause an attack as you're vulnerable)... but when we surfaced, we found out our instructor witnessed a previous diver have his whole mask and face crunched in leading to a year of constructive surgeory. Diving can be dangerous.
My favourite? Well, the deep dive was down to 30metres; my first time going that deep... i was diving with a familiar buddy; Khoa who i'd initially done my Open Water with back in Koh Tao in Thailand... and you have tests unbderwater to see what early effects of Nitrogen Narcosis are on you (the deeper you go, and generally when you dive the nitrogen in you blood increases; reasons for safety stops on ascent etc) but it kinda means you start losing it; which can be easily eliminated when you ascend, but the effects get stronger the deeper you go, and generally most people are only a little suceptable at 30metres. Me? - I just got the giggles and when i had to do a task of counting how many happy faces out of happy/sad faces on a picture, it took me 3 times as long as on land - basically i found it ridiculously difficult to tell the difference between the up/down mouths! Khoa and me also had to write our email backwards - again, taking considerable longer... It's all about management and experience, and the more dives you do - particularly if you specialise in Deep dives, then you learn to control it, and write points down on a slate on what your objectives are and stuff... It can get serious, as people start taking their regulators out and doing stupid things compromising their safety and their buddies'... But yeh...My first deep dive and it was pretty poor vis - less than 4 metres; this and the wreck dive (less than 2 metres visibility!!) were probably my favourite training dives for the reason you concentrate more on what you can see. We saw bamboo sharks sleeping in a crack in the Reef! The Wreck Dive. If anything, this and the Night dive were the most intriguing. We dived an old Vietnamese plane wreck; which as it was such poor visibility, we didn;t know we were at until we got up on top of it! Mesmerising. I want to do some more fun dives, but maybe thinking about doing my specialist course in Wreck Diving; you have to qualify in that to then get inside wrecks and stuff; it's really dangerous, as you need to apply a lot more safety measures; wrecks are one of the most dangerous places for divers; people who are not trained go in to look around, get disorientated and get lost. Most divers that get lost and die, are found to have died of panic - as most are found with air still in their tanks. You have to get really skilled in not kicking up silt and stuff - as this can lead to no vis. - so that combined with a narrow walkway, in a ship turned on its side, 30metres down (most wrecks are pretty deep) can be very problematic... Anyways, enough of diving for now! As you can tell; i've got a bit of a passion for it now, bloody typical for me to get addicted to a crazy expensive hobby [which is unlikely i can continue back home... not to mention, British waters are freezing!] - That was in the Perhentian Islands... I hope to dive in Sipadan in Sabah where i'll be heading in a week or so...
Kota Bharu. What a lovely town. Just what you need after wearing yourself our diving! Laid-back. I am currently in the Muslim state of Kelantan. The people here are so friendly and helpful and i have had every single smile returned. Lovely people. Tried my hand at Batik painting yesterday - Did a class for a few hours; was really nice as the guy who was teaching me had no other students that day so it was just me taking my time; and completely messing the craft up! But still my gecko didn't turn out too bad, even if it is a bit far-removed from the traditional styles... So i've been eating out, getting more street food in me; afterall, that is the best way to sample the local food... It's great here; there's such a mix of cultures and tastes... Stuff's inspired by Thai, Malay, Indian, Chinese... food is gonna be so boring when i get home; and if i have any money left i think a rice cooker could very well be worth investing in! Today, i headed to the most raved about noodle place called Noodle Station. Um, I did have a rather great curried noodle soup, however i tried to eat as many fish balls as possible (i am so going back to being a proper veggie when returning home) but i had to end defeated. Fishballs aren't for me.
Where next? Melacca: the next 'culture' stop for me before flying out to Sarawak... Where i'll trade the museums and churches for, fingers crossed, wrecks, more sharks and turtles! I've stepped into underwater realm now; i just wanna keep going back for more!
Love to all. I am home in 3 and a half weeks lovely people! (Believe me, i will try squeeze every inch outta my budget and do as much as possible before i board my homing flight!) xxx
(apologies for anything making no sense. I have no time to re-read right now + my brain is officially frazzled from the heat!)
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