just got back from a dive with the Hantu Bloggers (www.pulauhantu.org).. we were at the West Coast Pier at about 8.. filled some forms and headed to load our equipment onto the bum boat.. those greenish sort you see sprinting up and down the singapore river.. took the boat about 45mins to reach the southern side of pulau hantu.. rigged up and started making bubbles at about 11am.. jon, junyi, eddie (a new friend) and myself were in the same group, led by debby, from the Hantu Blog.. visibility was not as bad as we expected it to be.. about 2m? haha.. but yes, it is way poorer than that of pulau aur and tioman.. it was a pleasent surprise to be able to see so many marine animals in our local waters.. this is also the 1st time i ever saw nudibranchs! and boy are they strikingly colourful and beautiful.. saw a pair of copperbanded butterfly fish, gobies and a couple other spieces of fish.. chanced upon a tiny pipefish on one of the concrete stilts at the bottom of the sea.. i managed to sneak up on a crab that was hiding in a crevice.. despite the murky conditions, i enjoyed the dives thoroughly.. i am glad that i've decided to take up this local dive trip.. you'll be surprised what treasures we have in store in our own backyard..

Let's Go Diving!

chiyu

just messing around..

chiyu

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I was just doing a little bit of equipment maintenance when suddenly, i had this stupid idea of taking a picture of my babies.. haha.. yes.. i was bored..





took tuesday off.. figured i needed more sleep and due to the fact that i COULD take off, i did.. met shu in town in the late afternoon for a little shopping and movie.. i bought my toshiba dive torch.. (the second item from the left).. watched the skeleton key.. not too bad a show.. liked that little twist at the end of the show.. had steamboat dinner after work on friday at marina bay area with louis, gene and kian leong.. ate to our hearts content.. saturday evening.. met junyi and desmond for basketball at redhill.. met up with garrie at zion rd for makan.. then headed across the road, to kim seng starbowl to... yes.. bowl.. i am pathetic at the sport.. most of the time, i was trying to keep myself from falling over after rolling each ball.. bleah.. that's humilitaing..

chiyu

Many a times when we eye a dive site, one of the 1st questions we would ask would be, 'so how's the visibility like?'.. does this mean that if the visibility was poor, it wouldn't be worth the effort traveling there and getting wet? i believe that how good a dive is, is mostly dependent on the attitude adopted by the diver.. 'lets go dive at our southern islands..!' most people would go look at me as if i just told them that Ray Charles was still alive.. indeed, visibility in singapore waters is very poor..3-6m on very very rare days, but averaging at about 1m or so.. if any of you have been to the beach lately, i'm sure you know what i mean.. occasionally, you can see small shoals of fish swimming about in the shallows, their movement masked by the greenish brown water.. how you'd wish the waters were as clear as that of the maldives.. how many times have you heard someone say 'singapore waters are murky and polluted.'?.. i have heard this statement so so many times.. murky, yes.. polluted? no! singapore has a law for almost anything.. like how you can be charged for oral sex regardless of the fact that both parties are in consent, or how cab passengers can be fined for not buckling up.. you can be sure we do have strict laws on illegal dumping of our waste into the sea.. even water that gets released into the sea are treated at purification plants before release.. why then, does singapore waters have such low visibility? easy.. reclamation and high ship traffic.. with all that dredging and filling, the sediments from the sea bed are tossed about and suspended in the water.. plus the fact that singapore happens to be one of the busiest ports in the entire world, super tankers and other large ships inevitable stir up quite abit of our waters.. these, we have to live with, no matter how unhappy we are about it.. but that doesn't mean all is lost.. you'll be surprised how diverse our marine ecosystem is.. i always get a pang in my guts when i speak to other divers and they tell me that they do not want to dive because the visibility sucks and that the dive will be 'like fuck'.. for me, i'll jump into every opportunity i can get to dive.. indeed, if water conditions are great, all would be well but what if water conditions aren't? i prefer to take it as a challenge more than a bother to dive in low vis conditions.. i enjoy the feeling of being able to 'magically' breathe underwater.. visibility isn't a factor in this.. i enjoy seeing critters i have never seen before.. some of them thrive in murky waters.. if i were to dive only in waters with good visibility, i would be missing out on alot of these.. who knows, i might be able to discover a 'never before seen' species of nudibranches in our waters! i also enjoying being such a small speck of dust in our massive world.. as i swim amongst the reef, i feel almost like i actually part of the underwater ecosystem, even though i know that i am merely a visitor who is 'kay-pohing' about the reef.. beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. i find greenish brown water as alluring as clear blue ones.. i enjoy being overwhelmed but the charm of the open ocean regardless of what i see, and that, no one can take away from me.. if you dive because you think diving is cool.. if you dive because you want to see beautiful corals and fishes.. if you dive only to see the clearest and best dive sites in the world.. i'm telling you, save it.. you are but another selfish diver who wants the best for yourself.. when you love someone or something, you love the whole of it.. be it good or bad, be it blue or greenish brown..

Safe diving..

chiyu

confirmed.. i'm going muck diving off pulau hantu on the 29th.. haha.. wonder what i will see.. not expecting much though.. but i think our waters hold more than what we think.. yes, visibility is going to be bad.. say.. 1m? current is going to be strong.. but hey.. if i can survive and navigate in such a low visibility area, i can do so anywhere! think it'll be mostly macro spotting.. hoping to catch sight of colourful nudibranchs.. i'll be contented.. haha.. LET's GO DIVING!

chiyu

I've been down, now I'm blessed
I felt a revelation comin' around
I guess its right, its so amazing
Everytime I see you I'm alive
You're all I've got, you lift me up
The sun and the moonlight
All my dreams are in your eyes

And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows you away
I wanna be the one to hold you
Every bit of air your breathing in
A soothing wind, I wanna be inside your heaven

When we touch, when we love
The stars line up, the wrong becomes undone
Naturally my soul surrenders
The sun and the moonlight
All my dreams are in your eyes

And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows you away
I wanna be the one to hold you
Every bit of air you're breathing in
A soothing wind, I wanna be inside your heaven

When minutes turn to day and years
If mountains fall, I'll still be here
Holding you until the day I die

And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows you away

And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me to the place you cry from
Where the storm blows you away

And I wanna be inside your heaven
Take me the place you cry from
Where the storm blows you away

I wanna be the one to hold you
Every bit of air you're breathing in
A soothing wind
I wanna be inside your heaven

Oh yes I do
I wanna be inside your heaven


chiyu

nothing much's going on.. caught 2 movies over the weekend.. the myth on friday night and corpse bride on sunday night.. headed to jec with kenneth, darius, junhao and whai kit on friday night.. was too bored at home.. plus, my saturday's burnt coz of commissioning parade.. the myth was so so.. fans of jackie chan will love this.. his usual fists-and-feet-galore style action and humour.. comms parade.. just like any other one.. i boycotted the sharks' fin soup again, much to the horror of the guys at my table.. enjoy your little bowls of carnage guys.. met shu on sunday evening.. went shopping and dinner before we headed to cine to catch corpse bride.. its a fun but short show.. johnny depp fits into the character very well.. seems like he is born to play such dark roles.. but the movie's still a little bit too 'dark' for my liking.. planning a trip to thailand at the end of the year.. for dive of course.. hope my funds roll in as planned and that i wouldn't spent every cent of my pay this month and the next.. finger crossed..

chiyu