Komod LOB Dive Trip

The Komodo Live-on-board dive trip was absolutely amazing! Scary but amazing and relaxing and exciting at the same time.

All we did was ......

- wake up when someone bangs on our door and yell "BRIEFING!!!!"

- come out of our rooms, still in our jammies, rub our eyes and listen to the briefing.

- after the briefing, straight away check our equipment and suit up

- jump onto the small boat, head out to the dive site, jump in and do a 45min - 1 hour dive

- get back onto the big boat for breakfast, rest, dive, have lunch, dive, have tea, dive, rest, do a night dive, have dinner & watch a move, sleep

- wait to be awoken by "BRIEFING!!!!" the next morning.

We saw manta rays, black tipped sharks, white tipped sharks, blue spotted ribbon tail eels, barramundi cods, Napolean wrasses, turtles, dolphins, helmut gurnards, moray eels, bob-tailed squids and so much more.

I don't have all the pics with me yet because when we all met up last weekend to exchange pics, we couldn't burn them all cos the photographers among us were shooting in raw so the file sizes were huge!

But I'll post whatever pics I have this weekend or early next week.

Hopefully I'll get every one's pics by then and I can post up the best pics. And some videos too.

For now, here are some of the pics I have.

The little boat which takes us from the LOB boat to the dive sites.

One of the manta rays!

A school of ... err I'm not sure of the name of this fish.

Sea apple.

Pigmy seahorse. It's so tiny and camouflaged.

Orang utan crab. So hairy!

Flying gurnard. It was a pretty big fellow!

Bob-tailed squid. Tiny, hard to find and totally adorable. Yenny & I wanted to bring him home.

The Komodo Dragon!

The crazy divers. We love the fish eye lense!

L - R: Yenny, Paul, Bubbles, Jon & Gan(asai)

Pics on this post curtesy of Yenny, our only underwater photogarpher.

Off to Komodo Tomorrow!

The day has finally arrived!

I'm actually headed to Bali tomorrow and to Komodo the next day for 9 blissful days on a boat without internet connection or phone reception. Just the sun, the sea and some really huge sea creatures.

I promise I'll take loads of pics!

And since I've quit my job and have short notice period and will soon be out of this hell hole, I will have time to post up the pics and blog about the trip.

I love that I've quit my job and am going on holiday!!!!!

Bubbles is Going to Komodo!

I know that the economic situation is bad and we should all be bucking down, eating in and spending less but an opportunity has come along that's too good to give up but it will cost RM12,000 (For Paul & I)!

Jon the Diver, Paul & I are going diving in Komodo! Yes, the place with the komodo dragons.

But we'll be living on board a boat so we'll be safe. From the komodo dragons at least.

My last dive trip, which was also my Open Water Certification, was in Redang 2 years ago. So I've forgotten a lot about the technicalities and feel of diving. So yesterday Jon, Paul & I went to the Polo Club in Kota Damansara and did a diving refresher.

I'm actually very freaked out with water. I swim with my head above the water. So diving and being totally submerged in water is really scary for me. Yet it's something I really want to do. Maybe not doing pool sessions and learning everything in the sea during my Open Water added to my fear. But yesterday was great and I re-learnt a lot of the skills and am now a lot more comfortable in the water. At least my bouyancy is under control somewhat.

And I'm ready for Komodo!

Komodo sounds so exotic and it's a place I never thought of going. But Jon the Diver who just came back from Makasar, suggested it and it sounded great!

It was supposed to be just for 6 days, followed by 4 relaxing days in Bali. But we've been told that there are so many dive sites in Komodo that a full 10 days is recommended.

So now I need to go buy my pink fins and pink mask, pack up and go! Komodo!