Diving in Bunaken

Life on Bunaken was pretty simple.

I sampled it immediately the moment I hit the shore.

Basically, it's only three words here: Dive, dive and dive.




I was told to chuck my bag to one side (even before getting to my room), ushered to change into my swimsuit and was walking out to sea to get on the speed boat waiting for me with the rest of my diving friends who have been there for the last few days having a blast diving in various dive spots.


Jason and Erik



Gerald sleeping


Talk about diving straight in from 30,000 feet above ground into 30 meters under water.


Still pretty jet-lagged


First time for everything.


The sea at Bunaken was blue.




Really blue. A good sign of non commercialism. (for how long, god knows)




There were many foreign divers on the boat, mostly Europeans, some Japanese. I tell you, foreigners do have the weirdest sense of fashion underwater.

Like this Swedish guy for example.




His dry suit was like a big bright orange jumpsuit construction labour worker wears on a rainy day when working on muddy road.

Maybe it kept him warm, but Indonesia is a pretty warm country and waters there were just great for leisure warm weather friends. Or maybe he thought it looked cool.

Then there's the odd Japanese.




This dude has a shark fin shaped hood!

I wonder if he thought it was funny to be swimming at the surface with it?

Thank god we Malaysians still have our fashion sense intact. :-O




Plain normal blue wet suit.


The world of underwater is a magnificent sacred place.




Diving into the sea is like entering into another realm, it offers a world of different views, creatures, living things and colors.


Shrek?


Hearing is dimmed down to almost mute, where the only sound you hear is your own breathing, your visual senses are darkened as you dive deeper, sometimes all you see is blue, or bluish gray.




Nothing speaks down here, everything is serene.

But if you look closely, you might just find that it's not such a lonely world down here.




Surprises are always around the corner, in the cracks, on a stone when you least expected it.





sea slug





And it's these constant surprises that makes diving so fascinating.


Murray Eel








After some time, you'll realize the sea can get pretty crowded.







Sometimes it's almost like watching divers commanding an orchestra underwater.




Other times, it's just a market place down here.




Because communication can't be carried out like normal underwater, most of the time we (divers) uses a lot of hand signals to tell each other something.

One of the most used signs, by yours truly, is the Look-At-Me....




I-Want-To-Take-Photograph sign.

Whereas the second most used signs, I guess, is my most signature sign, on or off land.




The V Sign.










I mean come on! How else can you pose underwater?!

I tried to sleep on the sea bed for photography sake, but the result showed as if I was trying to bend a half curl while floating few inches above the sand.




We also tried taking our mask off to show off, but could never do it in time at the same time.




Either one of us will run out of breath first.

There's also another thing I realise when you dive, you always get this neutral stare from other divers which I always wonder what the hell they're trying to tell me.




I mean, I can conjure a thousand things this guy is trying to tell me when he looked at me that way.

"Hey! Look at me, I'm so cute in this outfit"

"Hey, why are you looking at me?"

"Hey, you scared the bejesus out of me creeping up on me that way"

"Hey, are you okay? you look constipated."

"Hey, let's have sex right now by the corals there, I'm so turned on now"

"O, hey... what are you trying to tell me with that look of yours"

"Duhhhh~~~~"


What do you think he's trying to tell me? huh?
See what I mean.

But we always managed to act silly in the water.
Afterall, divers are fun people. Right? right? *wink to all divers*


blowing bubbles



I'm a Stalker! Muahaha






Call me floating buddha. I've reached nirvana!





Sometimes mother nature decides to join in the fun with her pranks.




Click video to see us in action.




The problem was, we had so much fun, we almost forgot to watch our air gauge.


Super low on air





Still, it was a great dive. :D




But you know what's more exciting than all those of the above?

Yes, more than going crazy underwater with thousands of marine lives surrounding you, more crazy than being attacked by a snake underwater,

It's diving underwater....




in the dark.