Monday, October 20, 2008
PADI: Open Water DivingBuddies: Norman, Nicholas, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise (can't remember their Chinese names)
13/10/08 @ 7pm - Had our first theory lesson and realized that all of us were ex Fairsians! Certainly enjoyable.
14/10/08 @ 6.15pm - Had our first pool lesson on the usage of scuba equipments, our first ever breath underwater. The feeling was awesome even in a two metres deep pool. Our instructor Rafi, he is one hell of a funny guy and taught us really well. After the lesson, it was rather exhausting but somehow I went home feeling high, couldn't sleep! So I started playing Quantum of Solace's Demo.
15/10/08 - Theory test will be held at 7pm and I spent my entire day trying to mug during lessons. Well, good thing the test wasn't difficult and we all scored with flying colours.
16/10/08 @ 6.15pm - Our second pool training, this time we were much better in everything, setting up our tanks and gears were easy and we started having fun under water, making stupid hand signals and commenting on lady swimmers swimming above us. I must say diving isn't much of a sport but more of a therapeutic exercises to distress.
17/10/08 @ 7.45pm - Left the Dive Company and brought our bags into the vans. At the exact same car park where the vans were, we witnessed passengers from two vehicles arguing over a parking lot, debating about who it should belong to. It was quite a funny sight as one was a blond middle aged man and the other party was a boyish chinese lady. In the end the blond was threatened by the chinese calling the police and left hurriedly. Somehow I felt that we were pretty lucky to catch such a dramatic commotion even before leaving Singapore. In Malaysia, the driver somehow became Lewis Hamilton, his speed was insanely fast and he doesn't seem to bother about breaking at sharp turns! So it was very difficult to sleep in the van, we spent most of our time staring at the road up ahead, 'praying' nothing would go wrong.
@ approximately 9+pm - We reached this little food village where we settled to have food and drinks, the three of us had Ramli Burgers which were nice but unhealthy. Then Rafi treated us each with a can of Carlsberg, Nicholas drank it up like water, beating all the adults seating in the same table. After which we continued our journey to Mersing.
@ approximately 12am - Checked into the mersing hotel, the three of us were sharing the room with a British whose name is Nathan. The four of us went out with the instructors to a nearby coffee shop for more beers and once again, Carlsberg.
@ 1.30am - Lights out.
18/10/08 @ 5.30am - This time, it was our wake up call. You might think that the hotel guy would call your room right? No, not in this hotel called the "Sweet Hotel", they would go to your room's door and knock so damn loud. Nathan went like, "I wonder what the phone is used for in a wake up call."
@ 7.30am - We boarded the ferry to Tioman island or rather Paya Tioman.
@ 9.30am - Arrived at Tioman, my very first time there and the view was spectacular, reminded me of the TV show LOST. The mountains on the island were entirely filled with green, clouds danced lowly around their peaks, the beach seemed untouched by humans and the water, so sparklingly clear. An absolute paradise.
@ 9.45am - Had our breakfast then headed to check into our rooms before gathering to get our diving equipments. Had a briefing before going on board the boat which brought us to the other side of the island called Tomok where we, the uncertified divers would do our skills for Rafi to see. We descended to a depth of 7 metres for 50 minutes, we had our first hand experience having fishes swimming by our sides.
@ 11.15am - Reached back ashore for lunch.
@ 1pm - Formed a human line at the jetty stairs where we carried tanks down into the boat, quite tiresome indeed. After which we headed to Salang Reef for our second dive, also our last showcase of skills to Rafi before our leisure dives. Got to 9 metres and lasted 27 minutes.
@ 4.53pm - Our first leisure dive at Renggis, 10 metres in depth and we lasted for 49 minutes, I almost landed on a sea urchin, good thing I reacted quickly. It is amazing how fast you can descend. Managed to touch a huge turtle but Nicholas chased it away.
@ 6.30pm - Went to our rooms to bath and change before having buffet dinner which was pretty good except most of the fruits were taken. After dinner we went to watch soccer which I wasn't a big fan of, seriously, I do agree with those ladies saying, "Whats so nice about watching men chasing a single ball." So instead of watching, I joined Brad and Tom in a game of Poker, then had fun playing with a flying fox.
Rafi joined us in Poker later before teaching us a new concept of game called the "Asshole Poker" which was quite stupid but very fun if you play it crazily. Two lady divers joined in later which made the game ever more challenging.
@ 11pm - I turned around to find Norman but his brother told me he had gone to bed already, itching for some alcohol, I persuaded Nicholas to have some with me. He got himself a Gin Tonic while I got a Johnny Walker Black Label. The bar tender was insanely generous, I asked for a shot and he poured half a glass for me before adding ice! Well after finishing everything, I was feeling overheated on my face and I knew I was looking like Iron Man. Stood up, walked to the bar and paid then headed straight back for my room. Walking felt like floating and it was quite hard to keep my balance, but the worst part comes at this moment when I started turning the knob of the room's door and it won't open. Nicholas told me earlier that Norman didn't lock the room but why is it locked now? So I started knocking the door profusely till the door open and I was greeted with a lady in her night gown. I was so damn embarrassed for going into the wrong room and waking those people in it. So I walked away, stood there for awhile and started to think deeply, which on earth is my bloody room?? So I took a gamble, I turned the knob of that particular door and it opened, thank god Norman was sleeping in there. Climbed up the bed and knocked out.
19/10/2008 @ 7.30am - Had breakfast then went to the jetty where we once again unloaded the tanks into the boat. My back muscles were aching already but it was good, hadn't done much exercise for weeks.
@ 9.50am - The boat brought us to Che Beh, a place quite very far from Tioman but the long wait was worth it. For the past few dives, my mask kept fogging up so this time I spit a whole load of saliva into the mask and didn't use water to wash it off, surprisingly I didn't have to clear my mask due to fogginess for the entire dive. We descended to 17 metres, the corals, fishes and sceneries were so much better. Rafi got hold of a puffer fish and purposely got it to puff up, I saw a underwater snail that looked like a green dragon in Mulan. The dive lasted 44 minutes.
@ 11.31am - Reached another dive site where we stripped off our wet suits to have our graduation dive. Location was at Soyak, the place seemed scarier, dark and unfriendly. We reached a depth of 16 metres, everything was as beautiful as the other dive sites but at the end of the dive, Rafi and I saw a school of Barracudas just metres below us swimming quickly away, it was a scary and magnificient sight. Total dive time lasted 42 minutes.
@ 1pm - Had our lunch and packed our bags before heading to the jetty to wait for the ferry. We waited for 2 hours before the ferry came and it was packed with Caucasians. As we were about to reach Mersing, the ferry stopped in the middle of nowhere. Two small boats started circling our ferry. I told Norman it was security check and he was so happy as he had never seen one before... then we realized that it wasn't police, so we started guessing who they were, I even made a guess that they were pirates. Then after awhile we saw Rafi taking his bag and moving to the fore end of the ship so we followed, no instructions were given to us, we were like silent followers, everyone's mood was stagnant, felt as if a tragedy was going on. We left the ferry and hopped onto a smaller boat before being ferried to shore. On the way there did we then realized that the transfer of boats was because of the low tide, the larger ferry couldn't access the jetty.
@ 6.30pm - Had our dinner at Mersing before taking the same van back to Singapore.
@ 12.00am - Arrived at my house's door step.
artificious ' 12:00 am
Thursday, October 09, 2008
CHANGI CHALET
DAY 1
7/10/2008
Location: Aloha Chalet Resort near Changi Village
Events occurred:
- Rent Bicycles
- Played PS2
- Bryan and I went to search for Old Changi Hospital
- Found OCH and went in. The place is torn apart, as if people were ripping the place apart. Broken glass pieces from the windows were everywhere; it was terribly dark at some places even during day time, good thing we brought our torch lights along. We went up to the third floor where the famous medical ward stood. According to Bryan, previous thrill seekers speak of the place having the smell of medicine in the night. As haunted as it seemed, in practical terms, the place was the best hideout for drug abuse convicts. The entire place was covered with graffiti, words saying like “Do not enter”, “Beware, at your own risk”, sexual comments, “Trade mark signatures” and devilish faces.
- Ate KFC
- Went to explore the view at the beach and discovered a smaller road by the beach which had spectacular sunset views. After that I became a tour guide for three times, bringing guys to that trail.
- Played PS2
- Went for supper and at the same time, took a good look at Changi’s beautiful transvestites. Bryan was crazy enough to ask how much they cost.
- 4 of us crossed a bridge to the other side of Changi Village where we then cycled all the way to an unknown park beside Changi Airport then cycled back again.
- 2am, most of us went up to explore the abandoned hospital, our plan of exploring the other section where there were 5 storey didn’t succeed as their main reason was that it was dangerous due to the glass fragments on the floor (we were all wearing slippers) and only 3 of us had torch lights. The second main reason was that they were scared. Well, everyone has a different limit to their fears so we only strolled around the first floor of the hospital.
- After the thrills, 3 stayed in chalet to sleep while the rest went for an unplanned and unexpected night cycling trip. We cycled from Changi Village all the way to East Coast Park and back again. The trip was quite tiring but extremely demoralizing, the highway beside the airport was gruesomely long and straight, seemed like a never ending stretch. Somehow we made it back in one peace except Poh Han who had to lose his shirt and ride back half naked as an ants nest dropped directly on him. We reached the chalet at exactly 6am of 8/10/2008.
DAY 2
Events occurred:
- Woke up at 10am, rushed to return the bicycles and had breakfast at Changi Village.
- Played PS2 and Mah Jong
- 4pm, Bryan, Wei Min and I went to explore the hospital once more. When we reached the steps leading up to the hospital, it started raining. The entire ambience of the place changed, temperature started dropping, the splatter of rain water started filling your ears and the place grew darker every minute. We went up to stroll around the medical block before going up to higher levels. As we went to one of the levels, I heard the screams of a teenage girl, definitely not the scream of a supernatural being. I quickened my steps to the source and found a group of teenagers exploring as well, 2 girls and 2 guys. They were about to leave the place, probably because of the weather. We then continued to the second section of the hospital where we had never been before. There was this corridor linking section 1 to 2 and it was certainly creepy. Section 2 I must say is very much darker than section 1. Graffiti was scarce around section 2 and that certainly gave Wei Min the shivers as lesser graffiti meant lesser tourists and he hated to think of the reason to that. Well we did manage to explore 95% of section 2 and that particular 5%, its precaution well taken.
- Played PS2 and Poker Cards
- Started the BBQ together with Jeremy and Si Ni.
- Played PS2 and Poker Cards
- Walked to Changi Village for Supper
- Played PS2 and Poker Cards while drinking Bacardi.
- Lights out at 2am.
Day 3
Events occurred:
- Woke up at 9am, started packing things before leaving at around 10.30am.
- Got into a cab and headed to Yishun for a Dota game, sadly the place was filled with people so we ended up having lunch at a nearby coffee shop.
- After which, time for home.
PICS
artificious ' 2:00 pm
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Caught Heroes 301 today, then I realized that I had quite very much forgotten some parts of Heroes, then I went back to watch 211, indeed it was refreshing.
After which, I watched Heroes 302, Fringe 102, Chuck 201, Six Feet Under 108, Pushing Daisies 201.
Normally I wouldn't watch so many shows in a day, but as you can see for my absence from the media world for 6 weeks, this ought to be done.
One hell of a ride parked outside my gate.
artificious ' 8:13 pm
