Missing… Presumed Having A Good Time

After an amazing 9 dives in 3 days, I managed to get the Bends. I’m not sure if the Scuba Junkie dive shop is to blame, but my instructor most likely is. Frankie, possibly not really a PADI certified Dive Master was the “leader” of my Sipadan dives. He had a group of 7 people of varying skills from 3 newly certified open water divers to some more experienced divers. He was also my dive buddy so I technically was supposed to follow him wherever he went. He went into the cave so I went into the cave. He went to 30 Meters, so I went to 30M. Unfortunately, he has a lot more experience than me and can control his breathing much better than I was able. So I managed to go thru 100 of my 180 Bars of air in about 15 mins in a strong current drift dive with a possible down current at the end of the dive. I still slowly ascended to finish my dive in about 30-35 mins with a safety stop at 5M for about 3 minutes. I didn’t have a watch. When I surfaced with less than 10 Bars left, I had a slight headache, but I hadn’t been feeling all that great anyway so I didn’t think much of it. I did one more dive that day and still seemed alright. I hopped on a bus that took me back past Mt. Kinabalu back to Kota Kinabalu for a flight to Bangkok. After the suggessted 24 (26 actually) hours before flying I got on a flight and really didn’t feel well. I tried to shrug it off with daily massages to sooth my aching muscles, but the symptoms didn’t clear. So off to the Thai Navy Hospital I go to see the doctor. After a few Xrays and a quick check up, Doc says u got the bends and I recommend a Table V decompression regiment with pure oxygen. Unfortunately, that’s a 10,000THB treatment. OUCH! Nothing I can do, I can’t go around with expanded nitrogen bubbles in my body so I get in the decompression chamber for about 3 hours breathing pure oxygen. They bring me down to the equivalent of 20M and there I sit for the next 3 hours with no fish to look at. They should have at least given me a fish book to study. I didn’t feel better right away, but after a day or 2, my headache went away, my dizzy spells cleared, my joints didn’t ache as much, my muscles felt a bit better (after several more massages) and my body returned back to normal. But the doc said that I’m not allowed to dive again for at least 1 month. So much for my glorious return to Thailand to do the diving that I had planned to do 13 years ago on Koh Tao, but didn’t make because I got stuck on Koh Phanghan for 45 days. Ooohhh the backyard bar. I’ve heard from people that were just in Koh Tao that the diving isn’t that good anymore. Much of the coral has been killed by the thousands of divers that go there every year. The running gag these days around Koh Tao is that you see more divers than fish on your dives.

Just a quick update! On a whim, I decided to go to Sipadan, one of the worlds top dive sites. After a 10 hour bus(es) ride from hell, I arrived in Semporna, coastal town at southern tip of Borneo, and I immediately started studying for my Open Water course. Within 2 hours, I went through the first 3 of 5 modules for the course. The next day, I did 3 dives and loads of skills tests off of Sibuan Island. Sibuan has a gentle beach slope perfect for learning in the open ocean. The island comes to a sharp point where the waves from both sides of the island meet.

The best part of the day was after 2 dives and lunch. I managed to pass the Open Water swim and float test after only learning how to swim about 3 weeks ago on the Perhentian Island. What a relief! Thanks for the Help Alja and Eva. I can’t even believe I did it! I did another 3 dives today up to 18 Meters and tomorrow, I’m going to dive the Sipadan Marine reserve itself with my fresh new Open Water Cert. I hope to see loads of sharks, black tip and white tip reef sharks, leopard sharks, and maybe even some hammer head sharks. Maybe if I’m really lucky, I’ll get to see a Whale shark. I’ve already seen loads of sea turtles and more fish than I can count. Pictures to follow. SWEEET!!

WOW! Sipadan RULES! Seconds after dropping into the water I saw tons of Reef Sharks, Green Turtles and loads of fish! My first dive at South Point off Sipadan was amazing! Visibility of 35-40 meters (that’s like 120feet). Click this link to watch a video of a sea turtle swimming straight at the camera.

This is what diving is all about. The previous 2 days I saw lots of small aquatic life, today, I saw a huge 3 meter Grey Reef Shark (click linkto see video of shark). I have a video of this magnificent creature, but at 12.5MB it’s too large to upload. I also have a nice video of a large sea turtle swimming directly into the camera. If anyone wants to see them, find me on MSN Messenger and I’ll send it to you. Here’s a closeup of a Moray Eel.

On my third dive of the day, we went to “The Drop Off” where the sea literally drops off to a depth of 600 Meters. On the way down, there is a cave that is filled with turtles skelletons. It’s a very deep cave with tons of caution signs not to enter. Unfotunately, the turtles can’t read. The dive instructor and I swam into it until we couldn’t see any more. While we still had some light if you looked up you could see your air bubbles run along the cave’s ceiling like a stream of mercury. Very kewl.

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