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Archive for May, 2007

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Ev Cheng… Open Water Diver :)

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Well, today was the last day of the Open Water Diver course… we finished our last 2 open water dives as well as the confined water dives and the final exam (94%… woo!). It felt like I was in school again… all stressed out about stuff. But all is done now, and we are certified by PADI as open water divers!

However, I can’t forget to tell you about our last open water dive. We took a boat out to Police Reef… which was absolutely, positively AAAWWWWEEESSSOOOMMMEEE. The waters were clear so we could see lots of fish, coral… everything… yet, we were deep enough that it felt like we were waaayyyy down there (it was actually only 16m). We didn’t see a sea turtle or anything like that this time but the coral was way cooler… all different shapes, sizes, colors…. man. I am so happy that we decided to take to the water instead of climb the mountain…. although I still wish we could have done both. Actually, this morning, the peak of Mt. Kinabalu came out of the clouds…. it has a really cool looking peak.

Annnyyywaaayyy… Yeah, what a great experience. I did get really stirred up today though… I pulled up on the zipper of the old, tattered wetsuit that I was borrowing for the class and the zipper broke… then I found out that they are charging me 300 ringits for it… that’s $100! $100 goes a long way in Malaysia… that’s like 20-some meals…. or like 15 nights accommodation! I mean, it’s not like I pulled the zipper hard… and it’s not like it was a new wet suit that I broke… I don’t know how many people used it before me but there was a huge hole in the butt part…. so the poor sucker that is using it when it finally DOES fall apart (me) has to foot the bill? That’s BUNK. Especially since I don’t have that kind of money to be throwing around this late in the game. BUNK! Grrr…. I’m still all stirred up from that.

Anyway, woooosssaaaaaa….. I think we will do a little bit of snorkelling tomorrow before saying goodbye to Kota Kinabalu on Saturday. Hopefully I can get some good under-water pictures to share with you guys.

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I Found Nemo!!

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

OH MY GOD…. if you’ve never been SCUBA diving, it’s time to start. Today was the first day of diving that we have done. Oh, for those of you who know me and know I can’t swim, apparently if I really have to, I can! haha… yeah, there’s a swimming test and a survival float thing that you have to do before you get started…. so, I just kind of hoped for the best, got in the water, and there I was swimming! It was only 200m but still!

Anyway, so we spent a lot of the morning just getting used to how to use all the SCUBA gear and all that stuff and just learning about diving. We got to do our first open water dive just before lunch… and Daaaaammmmnnn, like… I can’t even put into words what it’s like seeing the reefs. There are such beautiful fish and sea life… the colors are vivid and the shapes are so intriguing! I can’t even share pictures with you for this one though folks…. unfortunately, the bottom of the ocean is not the easiest place to take pictures…. we have some disposable under water cameras but the chances of those photos being good are slim to none. I really wish you could all see it though.

After lunch, we headed back to learn a few more dive techniques for deeper water and then we went for a 40 minute dive…. honestly though, it felt like 10 minutes. We glided through the water seeing schools of the most colorful and COOL fish I’ve ever seen. I mean, I’ve seen them in books and at Sea World… but WOW…. I’m still on a high from it. There were clown fish (Nemo) everywhere and they really do just poke their heads out of those sea anemone things… and there were plenty of those blue fish (Dora on FInding Nemo)… and we even saw a huge sea turtle!! It swam way too fast for us to keep up but it was still incredible!

The words I write can’t come close to descibing it… and I can’t take photos. It makes me feel so bad that I can’t really share this with you! I will try to take my digicam (waterproof to 1m) into some shallower water tomorrow to take some pics. Even the shallow water has some spetacular sea life. We have 2 more lessons, 2 more open water dives, and a final exam before we are PADI certified divers! If you’ve never thought about SCUBA diving before, think of it now. If you are ever anywhere where you can try it, do it. They have day trips where you can just go diving without being certified too.

Mom, Kota Kinabalu has changed a lot since you’ve lived here…. I think we will have to come out here sometime… I will take you diving!

Man, from the top of Kilimanjaro to the depths of the South China Sea…. and from my little home in Edmonton, all the way East to Malaysia (with a little bit more to come still)… what a great journey. I hope I’ve inspired at least one or two of you to travel and see more of the world…. there is so much out here.

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All day in a classroom??

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
Yeah, that's right... John and I were in class from 9-4 today! Books, tests, forms, and all.... today was the first day of our PADI certification course for SCUBA diving!! That's right, we've decided to go all out and certify ... [Continue reading this entry]

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