Freddie's birthday

The few of us had a last minute meet up at Freddie's house for his birthday. He wasn't at home when we reached, Winnie and us first ate the durian George bought.

And when Freddie came back, he had birthday cake with durian. hahaha....

The durians George bought were very nice indeed~ So was the tiramisu cake WInnie bought.


So sorry... this photo was blur, didn't notice it....
Hopefully the next group photo we take with Freddie will be at Tioman~~

Tioman Jun 09

Wow. THis year we only dive Tioman in June... Every year we will go in March or April...

So many hiccups before the actual day, end up only 6 of us going. This trip only me, Winnie, Ivan, Mila, George and wife Louisa. I was saying, if everyone cancelled, I will go by myself, you all pay the van transport still and I alone take one whole big van. Wahahahahahaha... Super VIP seat. heeheehee...

Anyway, it was a great trip in the end!!

This is Abec. Trying to wind surf. There was only mild breeze. But he managed to move a short distance.
Xeno crab in Tioman~! And this is not the only one~ Last year people saw ghost pipefish in Tioman. This year xeno crab~ never really saw it in Tioman before~

Reeno dive with us throughout~ brought us to see many things. If we didn't dive with him, probably won't see these xeno crabs. THere's one xeno crab and one shrimp on this whip coral.

Another xeno crab, and a shrimp on the same whip coral! I only noticed this shrimp when I look at the picture! kekeke....

Reeno is getting more and more comical by the day!! I wish I can video him telling us his stories. Damn funny! haha!

It was extremely foggy on Friday morning along the roads to Mersing. Even at 8+am it was still covered with thick fog. The visibility on the road was also limited! That was the first time I experienced such thick fog in low land... It was the same on Tioman. 8+am the sun was already very high up, and it was still foggy. It wasn't haze. I wonder what's going on..

Winnie and.. Irene was her name? Wasn't sure. The instructor helping Eugene.

Big fat Jorunna funebris. Saw a couple of them.


This was so small, no one is sure what it was. Reeno also not sure. Until we zoom in in the photos and saw the pincers. Should be a crab then. Half way taking its photo it "flew off"!! I didn't touch it and I didn't make big movement. Scared me!! I tried to catch it but it just won't rest on my palm. Luckily George was beside me and saved it to a safer spot.. Gosh.. What a scare...

A different colour xeno crab.

Now I know how this kind of photo was taken. Kekekekeke... Too bad mine wasn't a DSLR camera..

That's a nudibranch you looking at. hehehe.. See the body and rhinophores?


Nudi and eggs.

Now this is a good one. kekeke.. Ivan upside down, WInnie patting Ivan's tummy. haha!

This looks fun ya~

Eugene going to do the sandscrew thing for OW students.
Eugene bought us dinner at New Mui Tau on Sunday nite. THanks Eugene~

Winnie helped preparing the students for shore dive.

George and Ivan also helped with the OW's shore entry. The buoy Eugene set was very far away... I would say, at least 350m to 450m. George wore a life jacket and swam with the students to the buoy.

Mila and Louisa, looking pretty.

Snake eel right in front of the beach!! Only at about 1.8m deep if I remember correctly.

THe shrimp was almost invisible. Reeno enjoyed finding the tinniest thing which is sooo difficult to shoot..

Pipefish! The others have seen this in Tioman but it was the first for me, so I was really really excited about it~! And it wasn't shy at all.
After 2 dives on Saturday, Winnie, George and Ivan didn't want to do the third. I urged them on (Reeno heard me) for another dive (I wanted another 2 dives actually, kekeke), just one. But they didn't want to, looked at me laughing.. hahaha... Then Reeno talked about the next dive, and asked me "You want to dive, right?" and I said "but I need a buddy..." Then he said "Dive with me lah." (or was it "I dive with you lah."?) wahhhhh.. so honoured~ VIP status like that ya. Sooooooooooo happy.

Afterwards, the rest of the boats were full and I said to Akemi forget it, I don't dive then. But then Reeno came asked me about the next dive again, I said there's no space in any of the boats. Him and George said just do shore dive! Since the seahorse is at house reef (Reeno told us earlier). I have forgotten about that! GREAT then!! YAY!! kekeke...

And TADA~! The biggest find of the trip!!! This was after 5pm. The next morning went the same site again, this time with Ivan, George and Winnie, but the seahorse didn't come out. There're plenty of places for the seahorse to hide in these hard corals. If they don't want to come out there's simply no way of seeing them. I guess they prefer to come out in the evening huh.
I must thank George and Winnie too, heehee.. for helping me to do shore entry. It was hard for me to stand up after donning the gears on the stairs, very heavy for me, both of them helped me get up. heehee.. I am also clumsy at wearing fins half submerged in the water when the waves keep pounding. Wahhhhhh, felt so much like a VIP this dive!! 2 people assisted me and dive with Reeno (along with Eugene's 2 Japanese leisure divers)!!!! heeheehehee...
It's a bright yellow seahorse, sooo pretty. But it was too shy. Difficult to take photo. But this is good enough. I'm happY! This dive lasted 96minutes. Luckily it wasn't too cold and it's shallow. The deepest we went was 11+m.

Reeno thinks too highly about me. He didn't know about my "blur" and "losing way" history. kekeke. When we talked about doing house reef again on Sunday morning, he said to me "You know where the seahorse is right?"

........................................

He then went on to tell me which buoy it is, when my face went blank. I couldn't even understand which buoy he was talking about and that's ON LAND! In the end, he said he should be not going out on Sunday morning, he'll go with us again. Wahhhhhhhhhhhh.............. soooooooooooooooo nice right? Ohh hohohoho... happy!!!

This time we went to 13+m. Muck diving at 10+m. There were soooooooooo many gobies. Everywhere on the sandy floor. And all kinds of colours. George saw a flounder with 3 pairs of vivid fake eyes on its body. Really weird stuff! I was hoping for a blue ring octopus, or bobtail squid or something, I know I hope too high, kekeke.. but Reeno said there is one blue ring at er... I forgot where. Paiseh. hehe.

Nice sunset~

George saw this preying mantis in toilet. It slit a small cut on George's finger. I asked George, "Pain or not?" hahaha... George said "Of course lah!" hahahaha.... soooo funny... I wasn't teasing him but I really wondered pain or not. hahaha.... That's Ivan's body by the way.

Fish attack!! It bit Reeno's calf, luckily Reeno wasn't wearing a shorty. Reeno wore a few layers of rash guards and wetsuits...hahaha. He said "One hour's dive leh" . I totally respect that. Rather than pretending to be a hero and wear a shorty and shivering like crazy on boat afterwards (I've seen such instructor before) which is really... stupid.. hehe.

This is a tiny tiny shrimp.. Reeno is really good at finding the tinniest stuff.
Shrimp in feather star. Reeno got his hand full of feather star for this pic...

Mila, Ivan, George, Louisa, Winnie, me and Reeno the man! He's preparing his strobe. Eric Leong coming with big big expensive camera on Sunday.

Took this pic in the van~
It was a great trip, mainly thanks to Reeno lah. Otherwise we probably see the normal stuffs we always see at Tioman only. Also, everyone's great fun. Oh, there was also a simple birthday celebration for Louisa. PHotos are in Mila's camera. Will post it when I got the photos.
This was also the first trip we took a ferry which the seat is adjustable, even have trays! Like an airplane! Only lack of stewardass. We actually sneaked in the ferry at 2:30pm with Eugene's group although our ferry was supposed to be the one at 4:30pm. And that was a big and fast ferry. We arrived at Mersing a little faster than usual.

HOpe the next trip will have more people eventually.

See all photos here : http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/ocean_goer/Tioman_Jun09/

and photos from Mila's camera : http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/ocean_goer/Tioman_Jun09_Mila/

Ubin and Andy's b'day

We went Ubin again last 2 weeks. Went cycling for a while, Gab, me, Tiff and Tiff's friend Kelvin. The rest joined us afterwards.
Stopped by a place to have some nice coconut drink. Look Tiffany imagining herself using the wood-made-lavatory, hehe.
Tiffany driving speedboat~! kekeke.

The birthday boy. Another mug printed with photos from Similan. Andy, are you the mug now? Must use it in office to show people. ahha...

Philip, Doreen and Megan had to leave early, so did not join us for dinner.

Dinner was half paid by our pool money from previous trip and balance "sponsored" by the birthday boy~~


See all photos here : Ubin Dec 08