We are certified advanced divers!

Tioman Island, 27 April - 29 April 2012
Advanced open water diver course (:

After a hiatus of 8 months, we finally get the chance to breathe in compress air again!

Before the trip, we were searching for advanced open water courses in Tioman and came across Gill Divers.
What caught our attention was the incredible rates that was offered - $569 for everything! That includes lodging, food, transport, AOWD course and equipments rental. Both of us thought it's a steal!

Of course, we don't expect luxurious stay at the resort. I had to manage my own expectations prior to the trip. I googled the "resort" - Salang Tioman resort and it was really basic. For that price, both of us had to share the room with 2 others, so that's 4 to a room.

It took us about 6 hrs to get to Tioman from Gill Divers shop in Hong Kong Street. Approx 3 hrs coach ride + 3 hrs ferry ride. Thank goodness the ferry isn't bumpy at all, else i would have puked given my low tolerance for ferry rides.

We departed at 630pm and arrived at 2am, with dinner break in between.

The room may be shabby and old looking but at the very least it's clean and doesn't come with any smell.

We woke up at 7am the next morning and ready for our 1st dive!!

All in a day, we did 4 dives on that day, including 1 night dive.

I was pretty nervous prior to our night dive as I've heard from my friends that it's pretty scary? Since it's pitch dark and all.
But I found it to be pretty exhilarating as it opens up to a whole new world of deep blue sea!

Being dark has its own beauty and catch - you get to see almost luminous sea creatures, something that you are unlikely to see in the daylight! Awesome!

Since we are on AOWD course, we have to practice on old and new techniques. I really suck at controlling my buoyancy urgh.

We did something really cool underwater during one of our dives - drinking Ribena! I was bewildered when our instructor suggested that and thought he was joking. Turns out that it can easily be done! What an experience!

One of our dive sites:

Our instructor brought us to wreck diving where we see the famous "7 sisters" wrecks in one of the sites. These wrecks were intentionally sink down by the authorities, either to promote tourism or to promote marine growth.
We went to Diver's playground too! It has structures for divers to swim through and a thread mill! That is a favourite spot for photo taking hahaha.

Like i said, my buoyancy control suck big time so most of the time i'm all over the place during photo taking heh.

The food provided by the "resort" was surprisingly delish. Very Singaporean cze char style for lunch and dinner.
I had at least 2 plate full of rice for each meal!

There wasn't much to be explored on this tiny island, so it's basically chilling by the sea with bottles of beer or munching away with seafood after sun sets.

Needless to say, wr and I belonged to latter category hee.
After our provided-for dinner, we went for our 2nd round of dinner at another seafood restaurant near the jetty.
My oh my! The seafood was superb! Must have been darn fresh!

In my opinion, Tioman's marine life is literally pale in comparison to Redang's.
Most of the corals look lifeless and colorless to me. There aren't alot of fishes that are worth looking swimming around, and the visibility was bad too.

So this is most likely the 1st and the last time I visit the island. There simply isnt much things worth seeing in there.

Even so, Wr and I enjoyed the trip alot because of the company. Our instructor, Douglas, was awesome. He may look like a retired "ah beng" at 1st glance but he is really experienced and skillful when it comes to diving. Not to mention he is one helluva big joker as well! :D

We made friends with our fellow course mates, who are really friendly and nice people.
These two ladies supplied us with baby johnson shampoo for anti fogging purpose throughout our dives!

Now that we are AOWD certified, I can't wait to venture out to those beautiful seas!!!

Next on my list will be Manado, Indonesia ;)