Breakfast in bed! You couldn’t buy it……actually we did, it just arrived 15 mins early when Becky was smothering herself in suncream and me snoring on the bed. Couple of pancakes with omelette went down a treat.
Our short one minute walk to the meeting point to catch up with our diver instructor King to see what the plan was for today.
Think King had a rough night as it seem he couldn’t be bothered today and knew he wanted an early finish. Didn’t bother us too much as Becky didn’t sleep much for being nervous about going 18m deep.
As we were gearing up ( wet suits are very difficult to put on might I add) Becky noticed her oxygen tank was making a strange hisssssss noise that didn’t exactly calm her nerves so King switched it out for another one. The tasks for today we’re simple, how to take your BCD (vest and air tank)off in shallow water and open water, how to work a compass in shallow and open water plus removing the weights from our body and refitting them.
Into the water we go! Much quieter than yesterday and the water even more calm which made it easier to put our fins on. First task was removing weights and putting them back on. Fairly simple unclipped and let go Infront of body and then put back on as if on land.
Second task was slightly more tricky taking the BCD off and then putting it back on. I went first and struggled a little bit when trying to put it back on as my arm kept catching part of the equipment. Becky was a pro and did it no bother! I was well impressed.
Out to open water we went around 6m deep. King pulled a fast one and asked us to remove the mask and put it back on again. HATED doing this as I couldn’t rub my eyes after putting the mask back on. Becky’s hair tangled under the strap everytime, and had no choice but to yank it out to get it back on
It was onto the BCD work, I went first again and the minute I take mine off it sunk to the bottom hitting the sea bed. This time though it was easier to put on and both Becky and I passed with flying colours 😁.
With those being completed we worked on our buoyancy control in deep water reaching 17m deep, Becky’s nightmares were soon eased and she was enjoying it!!!!!!All the stress before and nerves and she’s loving it! It was a great feeling knowing she was fine and giving me the 👌ok all the time. We headed back up to complete our dive logs and take a break.
During our break King was teaching us how to work the compass underwater. Becky cracked it straight away I just followed her at first until I got the hang of it.
Gear up once again for our final dive of the day until Becky had to change her oxygen tank AGAIN 😂 I was responsible for the camera and not to lose it.
Our final dive was much more relaxing and we finally reached 18m deep! Woohoo! King took the camera to take a few pictures and also a couple of videos. I accidentally touched the coral just when swimming and did NOT realise how sharp it was. Stung in the sea water but the cuts are merely paper cuts. On our dive we managed to see Scorpion fish, sea slug, Moray eel and some sort of sea horse. Not much around as it’s a very popular dive training centre with multiple companies working out of the bay.
WE ARE NOW QUALIFIED DIVERS (to 18m deep)
As we finished earlier than expected our next job was to find a laundry place as I was down to my last t-shirt and shorts and Becky was running low. Our journey took us into the local area of Maribago where the locals would just stare at you constantly….haven’t they seen westerners before with red sunburn marks over their face and hands? Anyways we carried on till we found the laundry service. Turns out we had to pay double for a quick turnaround as we are flying out on the 6th to Borneo and I have NO clean pants left so I was happy to pay!
A quick stop off for a bite to eat, Becky opted for the pineapple rice and I went for the fries. The service was typical phillipino style of take the order then wait like 15mins and then bring Becky’s food out first and make me wait another 5mins or so. Straight to the 7/11 afterwards for crisps and water for the afternoon.
Chill out afternoon with Becky sitting on a little veranda, blog writing, wat Hong the local boatd and I fell asleep for a bit only to wake up to Becky breaking in shouting theres a crab in the room! After a little drama, Becky scooped the tiny crab🦀 up and returning it safely back to the water. We planned tomorrow……beach, we were looking at island hopping tours but they were just too expensive for what it was and we would rather spend the money on tours in Borneo.
South East Asia 2019 