Heya, just had an awesome trip to Manado with the usual bunch plus our trip organizer Nazir aka Pakmat. Although this is tagged as the first entry, its actually not my first dive. I will try to chronicle the dives from day one in future posts. Now back to the trip. Where do i start?
It was the 3rd day of Eid 2009 and we were all at the LCCT waiting to board the plane to Manado, Sulawesi. The tale of the now "infamous" Beg London is now almost basi, so its good timing for my account of the trip (enough of Adrie bashing, Alie and Luts!!!)
We arrived at Manado at 2045 and went straight to Hotel Celebes. I wouldn't recommend this Hotel to anyone for hygiene reasons. We headed to Bunaken Island in the morning and got there around 11ish. To late for the morning dive and too early for the "sore" dive.
Upon arrival we were greeted by nice Indonesians who brought us up to our "home" for the next 2 nights. It was majestic. More pics will be put up on my Facebook. Awesome bathroom too (more of that later). At around 1600, the German dude told us to go suit up. Off to the diveshop we went. It was a very hot day and all of us cannot take the heat so we quickly went into the murky Bunaken beach. I've never felt so geli in my entire life and was promptly reminded the monsoon drain kat Cheras...(when I was doing the MLA course way back in err 1993) after a pasar malam session. We waited for the dive guide for god knows how long only to find out that he wasn't gonna join us. Instead, some Indonesian SPG took us out to the divesite. And boy was she lousy, she was more interested to find some spot to make out with her Italian husband by the looks of it. As it was our check dive, where all sorts of problems came our way (refer Alicia's note), we were very well pissed with that incompetent woman. Nasib baik Pak Mat ada. I dropped my weight pouch...so descending was a MAJOR problem with half of my weights gone.
I saw nothing during that dive, save for a turtle. Visibility was about 5 meters at best as it was getting dark real quick. Conditions could have been worse as there were some currents. I was a bit nauseous but didn't puke, so thats the second consecutive dive trip which was vomit free!!! I am so proud of me...hehehe!
We had nice food that night, but the sight of khinzir-khinzir berkeliaran was a bit of a turn off to say the least. The girl reconfirmed with us of our meal preferences, Mas nggak mahu babi ya?
And of course we duly reaffirmed that we would like out meals to be "babi free"
Then it was back to the our "house" as we retired for the night.
Which brings us nicely to the story of our bathroom. It was a superbly designed bathroom with an ultra relaxing balinese theme. When i went there in the afternoon, and to officiate the "throne", my whole head felt like it was burning and i looked up to see that the ceiling was actually made out of plexiglass, a see through plastic+some compound made material. Awesome.. but it was too hot for my liking so i quickly sorted myself. Later at 3 a.m I felt like peeing and went to the toilet again. It was windy with the damned dogs barking. Everyone was asleep after watching Robert De Niro's Taxi Driver.. as I was peeing, I remembered that the ceiling was a see through and that thought triggered a flurry of "koleksi cerita hantu asrama" in my head..so again i had to accelerate the process of easing myself only this time..sebab takut...hehehehe, I told the rest of my ordeal that morning, and everyone went to the toilet early the following night.
Back to diving. The German dude, somehow I can't remember his name; decided to join us. He seems more of a dive guide compared to the SPG as he gave us the briefing properly as all divemasters would. I actually enjoyed the dive, with my most expensive "baju raya" ever!!! hehehehe (not so nicely pictured here). Not many sea creatures here in Bunaken, that much I can tell. Visibility in the morning was very good. The walls of corals in Bunaken was beautiful but cannot better those in Mataking. Or Tioman.
Me and the rest had a whale of a time drifting with the strong currents here in Bunaken. I was separated from the dive group for the last part of the noon dive that day. Not panicking, chewah.. ahahaha.. i went to about 5 meters for my safety stop, ( which was not actually stationary since there was a MAD current going on!) ; and eventually when I surfaced I was at least 2 kilometers away from the boat! I saw the Italian couple from my same group and waved to them as they were dragged by the current as well and shouted wheres our boat? And the genius that the man was replied : "THE -BOAT IS IN MANA-DOH..."in carbonara flavored english. Idiot! Buat lawak pulak..anyways there was another boat from another dive operator which promptly signaled for the PANORAMA operators to come and fetch me. I had fun drifting with the currents though. It feels like you are on a carousel. Nice.
Other than that it was just the nudibranches, few turtles some frog fish and etc..nothing new.
I didnt join The Wife and Alie for the third dive, opting to chill with the boys at the house; which happened to be a bad idea as the electricity supply was cut off. Damn.
God I am getting sleepy now. Must be the effects of writing up my mid year review at the office tadi..guess I will continue next time for the "Lembeh Straits" dive, which promises more relevant dive accounts rather than stories of yours truly going to the loo. Ciao.
