I
have my diving license, I've had
it for a few years now but I haven't
logged that many dives... in fact,
in the 4+ years that I've had my
license, I did a total of 10 dives.
Why is that you might ask? Well,
here's a little confession... I
am scared of the water. I thought
that I got over it but no, I haven't.
Still, for this trip, that didn't
stop me from going into the water.
No guts, no glory I always say.
It was reassuring to have my own
personal dive instructor as my dive
buddy though
.
I am digressing here. Anyways, as
I don't regularly go diving (I go
snorkeling a whole lot though),
I don't get to encounter the the
really, REALLY hardcore divers.
By hardcore divers, I mean the ones
who have logged tens, or hundreds
and sometimes even thousands of
dives. The ones who have been diving
for YEARS, the ones who have a complete
set of equipment, sometimes even
two sets of everything. No, the
ones that I've encountered are beginner
ones, the ones who have done maybe
20 or perhaps even 40 dives in their
life. So, meeting the people who
went on this trip was an experience
for me, an experience and a half.
Now, the kind of people who go to Sangalaki, well, they are hard core divers. Why? Well, I guess that most beginner divers aren't too interested in making such a long trip. It does take a fair while to get to the dive lodge. Then, it is EXPECTED that you'd have your own equipment. Sure, you can rent equipment but the range they have there, well, it is fairly limited, and expensive. Also, Sangalaki, from what I've been told is far better than Sipadan, which is more accessible. Sangalaki is more remote and would appeal to the those who are serious about diving.
Now, the divers that were on this trip, they were all experienced, even the "young" ones had logged tens upon tens of dives. By "young" ones, I mean those in my age group, the early 30s. We were the youngest of the whole batch. There were about 40 - 50 divers in total. The other divers, well, they've been diving for YEARS... Now, this is what I've noticed about the "older" divers. Talk about the great divide. Prior to us leaving for the island, we had dinner together and as we were in Kota Kinabalu (which is known for it's sea food), we had sea food and oh my gawd... we are all going to hell for this meal I can tell you
. At the recommendation of one of the divers on the trip, we ended up at Port View restaurant in KK.
Now, this restaurant is known for it's seafood, the quality and freshness etc. Why is the food so fresh? Well, as you enter the restaurant, they have these huge tanks containing the live food that you select for your meal. Now, I don't really have THAT much of a problem in eating seafood but I do have a problem in eating endangered type food. When I say endangered, well, the fish that is not commonly available such as the bumphead parrot fish. Unfortunately, this fish, whilst not on the endangered list will soon be on the list. Why? Well, it's because their numbers are decreasing and when compared to other species of fish, they don't reproduce as often or as many. I have a problem with eating reef fish, well, most fish basically but eating reef fish is a big time NO NO in my book. Why? Well, in order to get reef fish on the menu, fishing people have to go to reefs to catch the fish. Reefs are such delicate organisms as anyone with half a brain would know and to go into a "reefy" area with the soul purpose of catching food that is considered a "delicacy" well, that's down right STUPID. I will preach about this in another story.
Anyways, the fish that this restaurant serves, amongst the other more common deep sea ones was the magnificent reef fish, the bumphead parrotfish (it had a HUGE one in it's display, not-to-be eaten tank) and a few little ones (to be eaten). It also had a trident triggerfish (seen here... wonderful looking creature isn't it??). A clown triggerfish was also available for your dining pleasure, not to mention giant groupers. They had two giant groupers on display (not for consumption I think) and a few "little" giant ones for the table. There was one or two little reef sharks I think and heaps of crustaceans e.g. various species of crabs, lobsters, prawns etc.
Now, the thing that really sickened me was that a number of people in our group expressed interest in eating the giant grouper and the bumphead parrotfish. I had thought that divers would be conscious about the underwater environment and were keen in preserving them but NOOOOOO they were looking forward to the meal!! I am pretty sure that non Asian divers who are reading this would be shocked by this restaurant and the "services" it offers as I don't think that these kind of eating establishments are the norm in non Asian countries. Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy my meal even though most of them were raving about it. I did notice one thing though, the younger ones didn't enjoy the meal as much as the older ones.
Now, another thing that I noticed about experienced / hardcore divers... well, they are destructive to the reef!! Yawp! If you are an experienced diver, take heed. So much for preaching about saving the environment, protection of the corals etc. My FOOT!! Experienced divers are one of the biggest threats to marine life I can tell you, after witnessing this first hand!! And no, I am not exaggerating here.
So why do I say this? Well, experienced divers have seen most of the more common things to be seen in the sea. Instead of swimming above the corals, they have go get up close and personal with the corals, like the diver pictured here. You see, experienced divers aren't satisfied with looking at marine life which are easily seen... they seek the ones that are less common, the ones that hide, the tiny ones etc.
These people aren't satisfied with the giant groupers (as pictured above). These are the ones who look for the pygmy seahorse, a breed of seahorses that grow up to TWO cm long (as pictured here)!!
They strive to find them, to touch them, take pictures of them... this is all well and "fine" but unbeknownst to them, whilst fulfilling their selfish wants, they break and kick the corals, without even realising it. One of the things that we were told NOT to do whilst at the Sangalaki was that gloves were NOT encouraged. Why? Well, corals are poisonous to humans and in order to get up close and personal, some divers wear gloves to they can hold onto corals. Despite gloves not being permitted, the divers on the trip did get up close and personal, some even wore gloves.
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The pictures above look great don't they. But don't you think that in order to get so close to the coral, accidents will and do happen? Take that picture on the left for example, I have no idea what that lady is playing with. However, if you look carefully, you will see that she (and her equipment) is resting on the coral below. As for that one of the right, can she possibly get any closer? Looks like she is plowing through the corals doesn't it?
Diving equipment is bulky at best. Just have a look at the tubes and stuff coming out this diver. In this picture, he isn't anywhere near any corals but when he goes near corals, I can guarantee that his regulator (the tubes sticking out of his being) would drag through some corals. Knowing this, one would think that experienced divers would stay clear of the corals right? NOPE. They don't. They are the ones that get as close as possible to them. Humans are forward "seeing" creatures... we have eyes at the front of our heads and not behind. When diving, I have noticed that divers don't bother looking behind. Whilst their hands, head and torsos might not touch the corals, they forget that they are wearing fins which are relatively big, thus when they kick, they don't realise it but they kick the delicate corals as well. The best part is, as divers, we wear protective clothing e.g. the wet suit, gloves etc. Thus, if and when we hit / kick corals, we don't realise it.
A friend of mine recently
participated in a coral conservation
program held in Redang. If I am
not mistaken, the purpose of this
program was to clean up the reefs
around Redang. Now, this was the
first and probably the last coral
conservation program my friend will
ever go on. Why? Well, the coral
DESTRUCTION that he saw sickened
him and he has vowed never to participate
again. Apparently, part of the program
was to help straighten some comb
corals that got flipped due to turbulent
waters. He said that for every coral
that got straightened, another 4
- 6 got flipped due to the carelessness
of the divers that were there to
straighten them. He wished that
he had a camera with him then as
he wanted to document the underwater
carnage that took place. Somehow,
I am not surprised at this. This
picture here isn't of the program
in Redang but of the one held this
year in Sipadan. Note how close
the divers have to get in order
to "replant" the corals.
I am digressing here...
Anyways, some of the divers that were on the trip, despite their lack of concern regarding marine life, they were lovely, LOVELY people. You could tell the hardcore ones from the novice ones, just by looking at their equipment. Never in my LIFE have I seen such a wide array of underwater cameras, torches etc. As photography is going digital these days, two guys even brought along their laptops in order to download their photos as soon as they were taken!! One guy even had a GPS. I may be a little biased here but one fairly matured lady (she was approximately my mum's age) was part of the group and she had one of the more upmarket cameras amongst the lot! Now, my mum can't even operate my simple point and click camera and it astounded me that this lady could manipulate an underwater camera complete with strobe, filters etc! I brought along my Canon Ixus X-1 underwater camera... a birthday present from my parents. Now this camera is a simple point and click one with a flash and according to the good people at Canon, has a depth limit of 5m. Now, we took this camera down to 30m and the casing didn't crack or anything. The camera could take pictures at 25m!! Handy little camera to have
. Quality wise, well, naturally it can't compare to the more sophisticated ones with micro and macro lenses, the ones with the powerful strobes and many filters but it took decent enough pictures.
Then, aside from the equipment they carried, you can tell who are the serious divers and who aren't, mainly by their attitude. You could tell who were the divers who truly enjoyed being underwater and the ones who dive for the sake of "being cool". What do I mean? Well, serious divers, the ones who truly enjoy being out in the clean open air, the ones who enjoy what mother nature has to offer, they are all very laid back and "go with the flow". They are the ones who understand that the best dive spots in the world are the ones which are virtually uninhabited, untouched by mankind, thus modern amenities are limited. Then on the other hand, you have people who INSIST on air conditioning and kick up a fuss if they don't get it, the ones who INSIST on spraying their stinky perfume in the air (and sometimes into the eyes of those standing around them) for they need to feel refreshed, the ones who complain about the lack of water pressure and expect to be waited on hand and foot by the staff and sometimes by the other divers. "LOVELY" bunch of people these ones are. You can so tell that they are the ones who only dive for the sake of the "bragging" rights and the fact that they want to tell the rest of the world that "yes, I've done that". These are the ones who look like they are in agony when eating the same food that everyone else eating and the ones who somehow have very loud voices. I pity these people as they spend so much money and don't seem to have as much fun as the rest of the group.
Another thing I noticed about divers... my word... talk about your all time punctuality. Malaysians will understand what I mean when I say "Malaysian time". For the rest, well, Malaysians are not known for being punctual. In fact, if a meeting is set at say 11am, the meeting probably won't start till 1115 or even 1130. This is especially true when dealing with Malaysian government agencies where meetings have been known to start at least 2 hours late. Anyways, I was VERY surprised to find that if a dive is set for 0800, the divers would be getting dressed by 0740 and ready by 0750!! This surprised me BIG TIME! Everyone was ever so punctual, aside from a select few who chose to remain in their airconditioned rooms till the very last minute, hence keeping the rest of the people waiting. Oooohhh I can be such a bi@#h sometimes
. Enough about the two legged creatures...
The Experience
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