my 2011 birthday present, by myself.

i had been wanted to pick up something new long time ago,

wanted to get myself a diving licence but nobody wanted to go with me.

after a year of working,

and meeting someone who is as passionate as me,

i decided to pamper myself a little,

treating it as my 2011 birthday present as well as my first anniversary working present.

transport to Tioman was kinda easy,

either by road or by air.

since the departure time of the bus don't favor us,

we decided to go for air.

Berjaya Air.

my first time seeing our luggage unloaded manually.

first beautiful view that greeted us upon our arrival at Tekeh.

our dive center is situated at Salang,

thus we need to board on a ferry to get there.

the ferry fare was kinda expensive,

RM20 for a 30minutes ride.

finally we're at Salang beach,

registered at the dive center - Dive Asia,

got our materials and started our diving path.

here are some of the scenery pictures i took either using my phone or LX3.

view from my dive center

after our first confine water diving experience,

our energy was drained.

so we basically spent our first night resting and reading up the materials.

on the second day,

the routine was fixed.

more classes and more diving exposure.

and a friend joined us!

it was unexpected but i'm really glad that he treated us as friends,

that he came to us when he's at his weakest moment.

after dinner,

we ended our second night with some beer.

RM4 for each. dirt cheap.

on the third day,

it would be our first time for boat dive.

it's kinda exciting.

but believe me,

putting on full coverage wet suit is such a pain in the ass.

and i only have the one and only picture with me in the wet suit.

haha!

this is my gear. =)

the underwater experience was merely indescribable.

we saw turtle, bumphead fish, barracuda, and etc.

i'm happy!

finally, here comes the end of the whole course.

with 2 confine water dives at shore

and

4 open water dives.

i just LOVE it!!

call me a Diver =D

we had ordered a half roasted chicken for our dinner.

heard it was good,

and it is good.

haha..

since we had beer last night,

we decided to go for liquor tonight.

choices for miniature was none other than just JD.

and we concluded that JD + coke is not a good combination.

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

initially we wanted to do an extra dive on the saturday,

but guess we're kinda tired,

had too many dives for the past few days.

so we just chill around on the last night in Tioman,

enjoy the sun, sea, and beer.

we had been asking around where to find good BBQ,

at last, our dive instructor, Shah told us,

we should try this, MINI WHITE HOUSE restaurant.

this restaurant is just beside our dive centre

but the outlook was too doggy,

thus we never thought of trying until Shah told us to.

part of the menu

the recommended Trevally fish.

and we opt for the BBQ style with home made sauce.

dinner for three.

and to blend into the Malay culture,

we ditched the fork and spoon,

used our hands to eat =)

the fish was BIG!!

3 happy faces.

time was good

last night of dirt cheap beer.

and that's the end of my diving trip.

time was good.

those were the days, full of hopes and dreams. (AT, 2011)

bye Tioman, till we meet again.

and

happy birthday to me!