Tioman Mar 08

Tioman diving season started again and we can't wait to go there~ and there we were, on the 2nd weekend of March. This time, we have a big group~! Unfornatuly George has fallen sick and he and Tiffany couldn't go with us.

All of us here, waiting for our breakfast, from left corner clockwise : Alex, Frankie, Gabriel, me Lilo, Julien, Mila, Ivan, Andy, Sally, Fred, Catherine, Laura, JunWei, Jonathan, Andy Lee, Philip... ee? Where's Winnie? went to the toilet perhaps. Joining us for the first time were Julien, Harold, Andy Lee, Jonathan and Jun Wei. Hope you guys had a great time :)

The weather and water was surprisingly cold... It was due to the El Nino thing. El Nino and La Nino are different? Lazy to read about it... Anyway, because of this, it had been raining for a couple of weeks, as if it's still rainy season. While we're there we had like, 30-40% of sunny times... better than none I guess. But the visibility was bad, bad bad bad... And the sea was choppy. On the way back to Mersing, ferry had to go sooooo slow... I had never seen such big waves during diving season months....

This is a photo from Alex. What is the orange thing?? Who's it at the back? JunWei? I think so.

Nice blue background~

What's this? Soft coral?

Alex's favourite shot of the trip. This is... blenny, right? How come it's out of its house..

This is sea lice... about 5mm, said Andy. Can't see clearly...

Andy in action.

These little clownfish are so cute. Due to the wind/waves, there's surge in the sea, quite badly, makes photo taking sooooo difficult. You'll find your subject swaying left...swaying right...... and photos all turn out blur.....

Winnie was using new Panasonic camera this trip~ can't wait to see her photos. And some others are buying Panasonic as well~!

This is a photo from Gabriel. Look at its "antenna".

Aiks! One's doing all the hardwork studying, one doing all the drinking?? hahaha.....

During day time, little moray eel came out investigating.

My own favourite shot of the trip. Check out its "antenna", looks like somebody has taken a bit on it.

HUUUGGGEEE sea fan~! but it's broken a bit. Gabriel in the background.

Having steamboat dinner~ from left, Gabriel, Ivan, Mila, Jonathan, Andy Lee.

Freddie, Catherine, Alex.

Frankie, Andy Lee, Philip.

Ee... Why is everybody so tired..? Too much nitrogen?

Julien and Harold, chilling, after their exam finished.

Their friend Patrick, joined us on Saturday. Too short a time for him to take up a course like Julien and Harold did.

Everybody except Julien and Harold as they went out diving earlier than us. From back row, clockwise, Reeno, Gabriel, Andy Lee, Freddie, Laura, Frankie, Alex, Winnie, Andy, me Lilo, Mila, Ivan, Jonathan and Philip. Ee.. where's Jun Wei? Somewhere around taking photos I guess.
We saw quite many interesting marine animals, HUGE baraccudas, cuttlefish laying eggs, turtles, shark, etc.. but it wasn't "shiok" enough, as the water was cold, and vis was bad. Hopefully the weather get back to normal soon~!

Go here: Photos of Tioman Mar 08 to see all photos of mine, Gab's and Alex's.

I will be editing the video clips taken into videos. Watch out for it soon~!

Videos of Similan

Have a look at the videos of our trip to Similan~ Video shot mainly by Gabriel, edited by me (Michelle). Please give me comments of the editing and music~ (Do note that these videos were taken using digicam video function, no red filter nor lightings. Therefore the colours are not good.) Part 2 and 3 are most interesting.

Part one (9:03min) - intro of friends and the journey from Spore budget terminal to jetty to our liveaboard : The Excalibur.


Part two (9:20min) - underwater footage, sneak up on divers taking a nap and interesting turtles that kept coming back for food. Oh, and Andy being pushed into the water~


Part three (8:09min) - scene before a night dive (the one which Tiffany said after the dive "Nobody 'hiu' me...!!" and underwater footage with interesting octopus (notice the fish beside which kept followed the octopus~).

And I deliberately delayed the start of the music so that the part of music which started to sound "exciting" coincide with the many little fishes coming in.
Also, there's one part showing tiny fishes being cornered among the rocks and many predator fishes came to join the feast.


Part four (6:26min) - photos of Andy's birthday celebration, end Tiffany "wanting" to take her weights home , scenes of returning journey, scenes in shopping mall and don't miss out the ending, which I thought was pretty good. hehe.

Similan LOB Dec 07

Diving~ diving~ Liveaboard the Moskito to Similan~

Please click here : Michelle's Similan Photos for all photos. Please go to that link to download your photos. The photos here are small size version.

See we got a huge trolly for all our gears. haha. This is Phuket airport.


We were onboard~ This is the upper deck. Laura and daddy Freddie.

Me, Gabriel and Winnie.

Guy, Laura, Freddie and me.

Our guides, Alain and Champ, George, Tiffany, Andy, Doreen and Philip.

Alex, Guy, Laura and Freddie.

The star of the trip~ Manta~!!! This is from Gab's camera. I was so caught in surprise, as we saw the manta 2minutes into that dive... and the manta went off quite fast. Vis wasn't good. My first time seeing a manta~! happy ~ :D

Guy.. saw a manta? happy face? hahahaha...

2nd star of the trip~ turtle! They were so friendly. This one kept coming back for more watermelon, even longgg after we ran out of it. Everybody got to touch it and it wasn't annoyed by us at all! Amazing! Guy and Alex jumped in the sea and played with it till they were tired.
There was another turtle came asking for food on another day! Amazing!

Everybody marvelled at the turtle.

Lots and lots of moray eels in Similan.
Why were we always made to swim for long distance? When we were on MV Grace, we had such a longgg distance surface swim, I thought that was the last. Then at Sipadan, long surface swim and also long swim to find the reef.... I thought that was the last. And now this is the best, swam 20minutes, a full 20minutes to see this stupid wreck! Swam at 20m deep! When we reached there, I never bother to see the deeper part of the wreck at all. Everybody was cursing underwater..... man... i hope this is the last.

Similan has this pretty, soft looking sea grass. Very nice~

This is from Gab's camera. Similan has lots and lots of lion fish as well.

Don't you just feel like giving the rock a push? hahahahah....

Someone pushed Andy into the sea when we were still playing with the turtle. hahaha...

Gabriel shooting video.

The turtle was still around when we ran out of fruits for it.

Alex and Andy trying to pull Tiffany into the sea! Too bad I didn't manage to get Tiff into the pic. hahaha!

Gabriel, army man's habit? hehe.

Similan's sunset.

BIG BIG lobsters!

First time I got to see so many octopus~ happy!



I thought I was the only one who took a photo of this one-tooth-less triggerfish. Turned out that everybody has the same shot and almost exactly the same pose! hahaha.... First time I was this close to a trigger fish. I will never do this in Tioman.

Super big crab~!!

Gab called this "kuku-diver". hahaha.. The "cowboy" diver. I was totally stunted when I saw him!

The act-macho-wearing-only-swimming-trunk diver. The water was cold, man. Lots of thermocline. And we think he was cold. Serves him right for trying to be macho! wahahahahaha...

And pink diver!!! George and Tiff saw "zebra diver"!! A diver with a black and white horizontal stripes wetsuit!!!! Can you imagine that??? Too bad I didn't see him else I sure follow him and take a photo.

Hawkfish always make good picture.

Don't you just wanna lay in the grass with the stonefish? It looked soooo comfortable. Well, on second thought, you DON'T wanna lay beside a stonefish. hehe.

Chill out at night.


Alex secretly drew a birthday "board" (not card) for Andy.

Party time, eh?

Birthday boy~ It's one week earlier, but doesn't matter~
Happy Birthday Andy~

Last day before leaving.


Me and our guide Alain. He's from Belgium. He came to Phuket 2 years ago for holiday instead of California as his father strongly suggested Phuket. And he decided to stay~! Good choice Alain! Good choice!

Everybody~~! From left, Guy, Winnie, Freddie, Laura, Tiffany, George, me, Doreen, Philip, Andy, Gabriel, Alex and Alain.

Our boat, Moskito~
A 5 day trip, gone. Looking foward to Tioman diving when season open~

p.s. I will be editing video for the trip and burn into CD. Hope it'll be good~!

Gabriel's cast

Gabriel was so careless to hurt himself again. Just 3 weeks before our Similan trip, he hurt his arm/wrist. During the last check doctor said cannot see fracture lines in x-ray, but it doesn't mean confirm no fracture. So he'll have to go x-ray again. Hopefully there is no fracture.

This is his photo when his arm needs to be in cast.

The cast has been taken off few days back. HOpefully he'll recover soon. :)