Some diving photo's from the Perhentains

These massive beauties are Lumphead Parrotfish. Large (and I mean large) coral eaters, we encountered a group of twenty or thirty on a dive. Awesome.
More of the Lumpheads
This is from a place called Fish Heaven. It's a barge or transport of some sort half way between the Perhentians and Redang: need GPS to locate it and the buoy is at 6m... someone needs to skindive done to attach to it (this is to stop other dive centres finding it for themselves). The wreck lies on an otherwise sandy bottom and is rarely visited (it's a 40 minute ride out) so it attracts incredible amounts of fish life: I saw schools such as these, bamboo sharks, white eyed and green morays, bat fish, mappa puffers, the list just goes on and on. Incredible.


And now I must away and book a flight to Borneo. I'm in a dither about this though... well, more for continuing on afterwards. Rather than spend days buggering around through the jungle I'm tempted to take a couple of flights and get straight to Sulawesi in two or three days rather than a week. Having said that there's still buggering about involved and backtracking. Argh, I hate having to make decisions like this!

Lastly a joke: when the chicken in Kuala Lumpur cross the road? Because it could and you don't get that sort of opportunity round here very often!

TTFN

6.30am, Kuala Lumpur, not what I planned

Came down from the Perhentians tonight on the overnight sleeper train, which was all well and good. Malaysian travel is a bit hectic at the moment as the school holiday is in full swing and it's coming up to independce day as well: at first it looked like I wasn't going to be able to get a ticket for the train which left flying at four times the cost as my other option given that I've sworn off overnight bus journeys on the grounds that being cramped into a seat, depreived of sleep and toilet facilities and winding in in coach stations (never the most salubroius of places) at odd hours in the morning just doesn't do it for me any more. Getting old I guess.

Tempted as I was by the flight, a 40 minute hop, it is, when all is said and done, unecessary and something to be avoided if there is a viable alternative. And, lets face it, there's the romance of sleeper trains you know? Country speeding by, getting lulled to sleep by the rock of the train to arrive at your destination in time for coffee, the English language paper of your choice and a light breakfast before sallying forth to face the day in a new place.

So train it was! After I booked the ticket complications began to arise though. First up, I had to pick up my ticket 2 hours before the train left otherwise the reservation was automatically cancelled. OK, fair enough, but the only way to make sure I made it was to catch a 12 o'clock ferry which allowed my to get a great morning dive in but then left me hanging around Tanah Merah station for about four hours: not the most inspiring of places, a one track station on the edge of a light industrial town with nothing to do except admire the smell of the durians being cut up in the "cafe". Unfortunately it's in Kelantan which is a "dry" state so grabbing a beer was not an option.

No worries, I'd done a book swap for a Dan Brown book, Digital Fortress. To go OT here, if this book is representitive Dan Brown (author of the Da Vinci Code) is a one dimensional hack of a writer displaying a grasp on the world outside of middle class america on a par with 3 year old. Seriously, I was laughing out load at the hackneyed sterotypes and telegraphing of the plot. Punks, fat German tourists, spanish whores, hell, even spanish toilets all got the view from America. Lets just say it passed the time.

The train arrived on time, 19.27, which boded well. It was due to arrive in KL at 8am which was perfect from my perspective, time to get a lesuriely breakfast and find a hotel as the guests are checking out. I drifted off easily enough in my cot with the help of a couple of ear plugs (children, gawd bless 'em), only to be woken at 1am. A train had derailled ahead of us and we were being putting on coahces for the 3 to 4 hour road trip to KL. Fucking fantastic: so I pitched up at KL, nowhere to stay organised at 5.15am after having spent a half sleepless night.

Oh well, managed to find a hostel that had 24 hour reception (sometimes the Lonely Planet does come through for you), grabbed a taxi and at least got a couch to sit on for a bit, being as how they were full. Couple of people checked out a little while ago although I'm waiting for them to clean their room (hint: I don't fucking care, even if they've been eating durians in there). Currently sitting the 24hr internet place downstairs from my hostel, killing some time. USB connector for the camera, and, come to think of it, the camera itself are still upstairs so I won't be posting any photo's this time round but at RM4 an hour I'll get round to it in the next couple of days!

Shout out to Mo

This is say Hi to Maurice le Sal and wish him a speedy recovery from his motorbike accident. I first worked with Mo when he did a stint contracting at InterVoice Brite as a tech author. He left to join Ericsson, as it then was. A few months later he got in touch and asked if I was interested in a job with them. Is the pope catholic I asked? Do bears defecate in the fucking woods he replied. That was five years ago.

Mo is, well, Mo. I've greatly enjoyed working with him, as do most people, even Wendy Coy (the people who need to know, know, those who don't are probably best kept in the dark).

So Mo, hope you mend as quick as possible. When you get back the pork pies are on me.

And thanks to Fay for letting me know.

Photos

Ah-ha! So, although there is an option to upload multiple images it doesn't work. Bleedin' typical.

Currently a DMT...

No, not the drug but Dive Master trainee. Yes, the lowest of the low in the pro PADI world, a DM wannabe, slaving away learning umpteen things (well, I'm meant to be anyway) and generally busy busy busy. More of that later (maybe).

So what've I been up to since Cherating, which was a good week and a half ago, at least. Well, after Cherating Nick and I headed up the coast to a place by the name of Pulau Tenggol. Two tiny resorts on a gorgeous tropical island with white powder sand and nothing to do but dive. Blissful. The diving was great, far better than Tioman with respectable vis. Got 7 dives in over the two days, during which time Nick and I were the only guests. Saw sharks, turtles, crickey, all sorts. During the first night a turtle came up the beach leaving tracks two feet wide, awesome.

This was followed by a quick boot up the coast to here, the Perhentians and the start of DMdm. After a two or three days here Nick and I headed over to Redang, yet another island, for two days of diving. The first day started well, with a dive on an offshore reef and then another. On the second we saw a black tip shark on the way down which boded well for the rest of the dive which was, well, pretty damn fantastic. Until about the 35th minute. At which point I had a full blown veritgo attack. Imagine spinning arround for a good five minutes then stopping. Got that feeling in your head? Right, well keep that then imagine you're 15 meters underwater. Total disoreientation, feeling one is about to blackout and unable to move. Lasted a good (if that is the word) 5 or 10 seconds. I grabbed my buddies arm and stuck it out. Managed to finish the dive off but that was it for a good two days. I went and saw a doctor the next day who gave my ears a quick check up and there were no external signs of trauma so he perscribed me some pills for the continuing verigo and advised me stop diving for a couple of days. No shit!

Well that was it for diving on Redang for me and apperently I missed out on some great dives. On the birght side I was in the water again yesterday and today and am generally OK to dive as far as I can tell. It would appear that quite a few people get this occasionally, so one dive out of a hundred is good for me. Best advice would appear to be hold on to your regs and let it pass. Throw up if you have to.

That's about it for now: I'll probably post again in a couple of days. I'm going to try to upload a couple of photo's one of batfish and one of a turtle with a couple of remoras on it.