Friday, April 13, 2007

Tekek, Tioman (Day 3) - 12 Apr 2007



i graduated!
i am now a NAUI Advanced Scuba Diver.

* Sorry to Abect, my dive instructor, though. i put his photo here without consent. But i really wanted to have my graduation photos here!



The seaview looking from the dive centre.



Tekek Jetty. People were busying loading and unloading the goods from the ferry.



This is one of the resort/dive centre/restaurant at ABC village.



Salang Village. The chalets on the hill really looked nice in the picture.



Renggis Island. This was where i did my last dive before i left and saw the sharks. Last time, we saw turtles here.



My dive mate is very kind to send me some underwater photos for the dive at Renggis.
So, this is me with fishes swimming around.
More of the underwater photos can be seen at his blog:
http://sun.ap.teacup.com/alamshah/
http://www.geocities.jp/kuantannih/



We saw this blue spotted sting ray.



You won't miss to see clown fish! This is something 'die-die-sure-can-see" for every dive trips.



i was taking picture for whatever... (i couldn't recall now).
i brought a manual underwater camera.



Mersing street, near to the jetty.



EXTRACTED FROM MY DIARY

Time to leave.
i woke up late at 8.30am due to the late night yesterday. i took a quick breakfast and then started to have my photo sessions with staff in the dive centre.
One last dive before i am off and completed my course. The certification card will be sent to my address later and i guess i need to photocopy my dive certificate for my up coming dive at Vietnam then. (i planned to dive at Nha Trang)
The last dive at Renggis was good. A beautiful closing to my trip with the sighting of 3 blacktip sharks and a giant groupe. The visibility was the best in the past 3 days but no current, too bad. I was looking forward to a drift dive. A Japanese who dived with me offered to send me some underwater photos, so at least i would get other than the 'dried' photos.

i hope i will see more Asian single traveler like me, but it was really unfortunate that, i did not even see one Japanese single traveler. Probably this is why i always end up to hang out with some foreigners, as there are not many crazy Asian woman would do what i am doing.

Initially, i planned to leave at 2pm. But Akemi said, there is no ferry at this time, so i better leave with the ferry at 12.30pm. It was almost 12pm by then, so i took a quick lunch, bid farewell with them and Akemi sent me to the jetty using her motorbike.

As usual, the ferry was delayed. It was there at Tekek Jetty at 1.30pm. Then went here and there to drop and pick up passengers, so by only 3pm then we really headed to Mersing. With this, we got to Mersing at almost 4 hours later by 4.15pm.

It was embarrased that, i somehow put my ferry ticket in my pocket and i couldn't find it later. i almost emptied my pockets and sling bag, but couldn't find it. The ferry staff was waiting for me while everyone were staring at me. Then finally someone saw my ticket on the floor. Phew... Or else i would need to buy another one. Lesson learnt, always keep whatever ticket or receipt properly.

i learnt another lesson from this mini trip. i really should avoid wearing short or small T shirt during my long trip. This small shirt was barely covered my money belt so i had to wear my money belt inside of my pant! It could be really inconvenient if i wanted to ge something like my passport from there.

The whole journey from Tioman to Singapore took me 9 hours! i left for Tekek Jetty at 12.30pm and arrived at home only at 9.30pm. I was very tired, so when i got a call from my friend, i basically just told her that, "we will talk next time!" Sorry to her, but i had really no more energy to talk. Remember, i slept at around 3am last night.

i met two girls on the same bus from Tioman to Johor Bahru. When we alighted from the bus, a tout approached them for trip to Singapore. Out of good will, i told them that i am taking bus to go back to Singapore, so they could follow me if they want to. i think, they were likely to pay much for a trip to take a cab to the town then from there to Singapore. It would be better if they just take bus to Singapore and then take a cab in Singapore to wherever they wanted to go. They followed me to the bus 170 platform, but later decided to take a cab though. i think this is because their bags were really heavy and they did not want the hassle to on/off the bus and custom with their bags.

The encounterment with them made me think about, what will i do if a local girl told me that i could follow her? i think, i am likely to just follow the local despite of the hassle. In a way, this will definitely be cheaper and should be safer to follow to someone who knows. It reminded me also, don't bring more than i am able to carry with ease.



MONEY MATTER AND LOGISTICS:

1.) Food - RM 12

2.) Transport -
* Speed Ferry from Tioman to Mersing: RM 35
* Express bus: S & S International from Mersing to Larkin - RM 8.80
- The last bus is at 5.30pm and they don't go to Singapore directly now.

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