Day 88- Swimming Race around Perhentian Besar

Saturday morning I was up at 5am and made myself a coffee, shortly after I woke up my volunteers. They weren’t very happy about being woken up, a couple of them had breakfast before we went to community house at 5:30 am. We all headed down to the Jetty, there was 9 of us in total we would be the feeders to swimmers that would be competing in the 16km Swim around the Big Island. This meant handing them food and water when they ask for it or at certain times. We got on a boat to Coral View jetty, here we were assigned boat man and swimmer. There were two events going on a 4.5km swim with a trek back to coral view and a 16.5km swim around Perhentian Besar.. Most of the swimmers competing in the swim didn't look like very fit athletes but I suppose it's about endurance rather than physical fitness. I was with swimmer number 7 a Malaysian guy probably in his 40-50s and two boat guys from the village. We set up a bottle of water on a string and had bananas and biscuits at the ready. The race started just after 7am. We waited just past the start/finish line and we waited until our guy showed up. When we spotted him we stayed close being his line marker so he didn't go too far out to sea or too far into the coast. They used large red balls like beach balls to mark the edge they should be keeping. During the early stages many of the swimmers were quite close and one Scandinavian bloke got very annoyed as he could taste the petrol from our boat. Our guy was fine and was about 6th. A few hours in the swaying sensation of being on a boat made me need to pee so went and joined the swimmers for a pee before climbing back in the boat. We had Malaysian music while we followed our swimmer and the other guy in the boat got seasick halfway through. When we were at the east of the island we heard people getting very excited and being loud near one of the dive sites. My boat guy told me that he got a text there was a whale shark there, I asked him to take me there but we had to stay with our swimmer unfortunately. It was coming up to the last stretch and our guy was still in 6^th, but we could see another swimmer up ahead slowing down. He had stopped free style swimming and started using breast stroke, we could see him going to his kayak helper a lot so we knew our guy could take him. We timed the water stops perfectly and our swimmer kept a steady rhythm compared to the guy we took who was changing stroke and kicking to much which meant he tired out. We got round the last stretch and could see the finish our swimmer was knackered but he carried on. At the finish he swam to the beach and there was a tape for him to run the rough and his wife waiting for him. We went a parked the boat and gave him his stuff he didn't use. He thanked me for my help and asked where I was from, I told him England and he was like what you doing here then. I told him about the project and he was taken by it. I was just getting back on the boat to take me back the village when the guy handed me 100 rm, he said thank you again and said it was a bonus. This was lucky as I am very short of money and with visa run coking up needed a bit extra, was very kind of him.

No.7 My swimmer I was helping

The Big Balls used to mark the swim line around the island

This was a 7 hour event and I got back to the house about 2pm, my volunteers on the other hand got back at 4pm. They did not have as a good day. One of them had been put on a boat with the other race and dumped at beaches where he had no clue where he was or what he was meant to do. The other three weren’t fed like promised for 7 hours and one had no job to do as he was on a boat which already had a feeder. They came back to the house and shouted at me it was not a nice experience, I was very disappointed at how they were treated as I had been told they would have a good day out like I had. Instead they went almost 12 hours with very little food and not a lot to do. They also got left at PIR beach when they should have been taken back to the village after the race, it was only cause they asked someone that they got a lift to the village. I listened to their concerns and then gave them some money so they could go for lunch. I spoke to Ainn who had organised it and she didn’t really have much to say, I was off to Tiga Ruang in the evening but I still felt guilty they had an awful time. I spoke to them after and apologised on behalf of Ainn and they seemed to be in a slightly better mood. I got a boat at 6:30 to Tiga Ruang, I offered to do the late shift as I was knackered. At around 11pm fisheries woke me up and I spent about ½ an hour chatting to Jarr with Maisy, Jarr cracks me up and we had a great laugh. Jarr also told me we are down to our last 3 nests so I think Tiga Ruang will be shut soon. Now that it’s the end of the season we are doing 1 ½ patrols which make it easier to sleep between walks.

 The view while waiting for Joju to take me Tiga Ruang

Day 86-87- Visa Ruang

Thursday morning Maisy and I went out on Survey to PIR, we were planning on shooting some more video of tourist interaction as well. We both hadn't slept very well and the kayak over there was tough. We did however see 7 turtles when over there which was cool and managed to get some nice turtle footage. While over there we saw Connor and his girlfriend they were with Abang Sabri our neighbour as Connor's girlfriend wanted to get some turtle pictures. After Survey, Dan was back at the house with the volunteers and I took them for lunch. Wid was due to visit with shopping tomorrow but we were off to Tiga Ruang tonight so I went out to get some Bread, Carrots, onions, eggs and apples. After this I walked to Alunan to check my parents booking was all good which it was. On my way back I saw a bird trap net just off the path which angered me, I was going to take it down but I didn’t have anything to cut it with. Once back I got ready for Tiga Ruang. Just as we were leaving it started to rain so I put my bags into a big bin bag to try and keep them dry. Once at Tiga Ruang we set up camp most tourists had left probably cause of the rain. Maisy cooked us dinner while I finished unpacking the stuff. I agreed to do the early shift as Maisy said she couldn't sleep so she would do the late shift. Maisy was talking to me about my visa run and was talking about how she was 2 days over and was lucky to be allowed back in which made me wonder and count my days. I had asked the travel agent to fit me in before the 90 days so assumed my flight was fine. Turns out it wasn't I would have also been two days over. There wasn't a lot i could do about it at Tiga Ruang so planned to go back to the village the next day. I watched two movies during my shift and there were no turtles, fisheries didn't turn up so there were no hatchlings to release, I think we are getting to the last few nests as well. The next morning we made breakfast and I went to chill in the hammock for a bit, before having a swim followed by a sunbathe. After my swim I went back to the hammock, I had just put another film on when Maisy came up to me and said there was a snake in the kitchen. I thought it was going to be another vine snake but it wasn't it was a 1m-1.5m wolf snake. It had got itself underneath the hob and had its tail sticking out one end and its head out the other. It was a really cool but a pain to get out our kitchen, eventually I got the Broom and helped it onto the tree outside the kitchen. I then went for a shower, when I got back I was just getting changed when I saw this tail behind the bed I pulled the bed and the snake was in our hut. I grabbed Maisy and used the Broom again to eventually move the snake out of the hut. Luckily Joju was late as I was due back at the village at 3pm and only just got the snake out.

Snake Pictures will be added

I got picked up and immediately looked at options to fix visa problem. We talked about a few options but eventually went for a trip to the Thai border to get a fresh visa stamp. Then come back to Kota Bharu stay 3 nights in Kota Bharu then get the normal flight. As I needed to confirm with Wid that her taxi friend could take me I asked Dan to go to Tiga Ruang for me and I stay in the village tonight. He was fine with that, it did mean I had to go to Malay dinner but that was fine as it was at Kah Dahs. We went and she fed us well, she asked when I go Singapore and o told her meet week she said you bring my t-shirt as last time I saw her I said is a would. She also asked about parents coming told island and having Malay dinner with her. After dinner I booked a room in Kota Bharu for 3 nights for 93RM hopefully taxi to the airport is cheap. They moved my flight to 10am from 6:45 am so have more time in the morning luckily.

Day 83-85- Best Survey Ever ft Video Links

Monday morning I came back from Tiga Ruang with Ramona and I met the new volunteer at the house. She was called Katie and was also from Essex like Dan and just like Dan didn't have that over the top accent. Maisy was doing Katie's orientation, Dan was out doing a beach clean at Teluk Keke with the Volunteers which meant I could catch up with the world. In the afternoon I borrowed Lenny and went for a Snorkel Survey to PIR with Nadia and Priyanka. We only saw 4 turtles, 3 juveniles and an adult however, one of the juveniles couldn't be identified. This was partly due to Lenny's poor photography and we only had one side so even if it was a new turtle we can't confirm it unless both sides are photographed. Never letting Lenny with the camera on survey again can't risk a new turtle being missed.

Video footage of Long Dragon one of the males in our database

https://youtu.be/t6UZSXlQNz0

Turtle Surfacing

https://youtu.be/R-LY3eTngqY

Adele not the singer but the turtle

https://youtu.be/Q6hs_EDNWQc

Tuesday myself and Maisy went on another survey in the morning and we were meant to be picking up Nadia and Priyanka, however Priyanka had text Maisy saying Nadia was ill so wouldn't be coming on survey. We met Priyanka at the Jetty and started our survey, in the first 5 minutes I saw Hope, followed by Long Dragon. Priyanka swapped with Maisy and most of the survey it was me and Maisy in the water. It was such a fun and successful survey and we saw 11 different turtles. We also got some amazing video footage of the turtles swimming, eating and tourists interacting with the turtles. Normally we do not bother with videos, but Sian from Community project is going to be making a turtle awareness video so we got lots of footage for her to use. This was the first time in ages that two Interns had been out on survey together, it was also the first time I had a photo of myself taken with a turtle.

Me and Konnington

Me and Joelle

Wednesday was Maisy's day off and I didn't realise. I am so used to Maisy being first one up I stayed in bed until 10 when I finally checked the time and jumped out of bed. I had a day full of computer work, I was sat for 6 hours review the last of the underwater data. I was checking photos to make sure they were the correct turtle and there was only maximum 3 photos in each folder. Yesterday was a much better day. In the evening we went to Tuna Bay to Coco Hut for dinner as it was Ainns 26th Birthday. I spent too much money, the taxi was 15RM return, then I had a beer with my meal which was 11RM, tuna friend rice 13RM and then got tempted by a king tiger prawn at the fish stall which was 18RM but was so tasty. 

The gang- Some of Turtle Team and Community Project

Fresh Fish Stall (Too expensive!)

Day 79-82- 4 Nights at Tiga Ruang

Not a lot can be said about the last few days at Tiga Ruang with Priyanka and Nadia. Each evening when Fisheries turned up we released some hatchlings which was cool. We are getting down to the last few nests as it is the end of the season. There hasn't been a nesting turtle for a week and we don't expect there to be anymore. During the day consisted of sleeping in the hammocks, reading my advanced open water book, my biography on Dave Grohl an absolute LEGEND and watching movies. On Saturday Lenny and Ainn popped over for the afternoon which was nice. Lenny and I went for a snorkel and I saw two new Angel Fish species I had not seen around the Perhentian Islands before. One was a Six Stripe Angel Fish, but not sure about the other.

Six Striped/Banded Angelfish

http://www.marineworld.com.pk/sites/default/files/Sixbar%20angelfish.jpg

When we finished we showered and were drying off when all of a sudden there was a loud bang followed by a scream. Ainn who had been sitting in a Hammock screamed as a coconut from the palm tree had fallen behind her and landed on the boat wreck. It was so funny, Ainn ran away and refused to sit in the hammocks anymore.Later on Lenny had decided to stay the night and Ainn went back to the Village. I told Lenny it was unlikely to see turtles again but he was happy just to stay anyway for a change of scenery. In between patrols the girls had been playing a Monopoly card game which they taught us. Once we got our heads round it, we all got very competitive and I won quite a few games. Would definitely recommend it if you are bored of normal card games. The girls left in the morning with Lenny, I was staying the Sunday night as well and Nick was going back to the village. Around 4:30pm Ramona turned up and Nick went the other way, Ramona had been looking forward to getting away from the Village for a night. She was due to join up with Blue Temple the following week to see how they do orientation and research with the Volunteers as Ramona was going to be running dive project next year. When she settled she filled me in on everything I had missed in the village and also told me something about one of our volunteers arriving Monday. I wasn't sure if it was my tiredness or Ramonas German accent maybe a combination of the two, but I thought she said that the volunteer had "Cancer". However, Ramona carried on chatting like it wasn't a big deal which made me question it and it turned out she meant "Cancelled" my bad, panic over. This meant we only had 1 volunteer arriving Monday.

Me and Lenny messing about on Ainns phone

Day 77-78- Learning Individual Turtles and Fish Species

I forgot to mention Wednesday I was looking after Dive Projects Volunteer Jess for the morning as Ramona had a meeting with Steph and George as Ramona is taking over Dive Project next year. As Dive Project focus on coral and sea grass their volunteers don't get to see many Turtles so I took Jess out for a Survey to PIR. Jess was really nice company and it was a fun survey, we saw 7 turtles. There was a sad thing about this survey was seeing 100 people all swimming around Joelle the turtle with the broken shell. I have got so good at recognising turtles just from one side of the face or a distinguishing feature on the carapace or flippers. Even the juveniles I can spot patterns and know who it is without having to Manual ID. Which is what we did when we got back to the village in the afternoon.

Turtle Sightings:

P2F- Polly

P3M- Long Dragon

P20J- Pippi

While I was on survey Dan welcomed two new volunteers who would be helping us out for just under a week. They were staying at PIR but would be joining in with activities during the day. Their names were Nadia and Priyanka, they both lived in Kuala Lumpar Nadia was Malaysian and Priyanka Indian but raised in Malaysia. Dan went through the welcome presentations and took them for water confidence, it turned out the pair of them were not very confident in the water and would definitely need life jackets for snorkel tour and survey. In the evening I cooked for the pair of us, as Wid had only just been shopping there was plenty of food in the kitchen. I decided to go for a pasta as Dan wanted to add his disgusting tinned sardines. I chopped carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic and a couple of chillis. The chillis is the important part of this as these chillis were fresh, they were only small chillis but even cutting I had a feeling they would be strong. I started cooking the pasta and frying the onions, garlic and chillis. As I was doing this instantly there was this intensity that filled the kitchen I cannot begin to explain, lets just say it made us a bit emotional. Ramona walked into the kitchen and said "What you cooking?" followed by "Woah chillis I can feel the heat from here!" I've never experienced something like it. Once it was all finished we sat and ate my creation, immediately we got a glass of water as it was that strong. Dan started dribbling at one point but it tasted good so we kept eating. We must have finished 2 litres of water between us at dinner.

The next morning I was taking the volunteers and Eleanor the Media and Marketing Intern at Marapoh who had been over a few days to try to find ways of promoting the project and things we want our volunteers to know before they come out to the project. We started the tour by going to pick up Nadia and Priyanka from the PIR Jetty, our boat guy was Mat Lias and he asked where I wanted to go with these guys. I knew these guys wanted to see some nice coral and fish so we started at Fish Point. I knew the two volunteers were not confident swimmers so made sure they had life jackets however I thought Eleanor was going to be okay. It turned out Eleanor hadn't even worn a snorkel before, I asked if she wanted a life jacket but she said she'd be fine. It only took 5 minutes and realised Eleanor was not fine, when using the snorkel she thought she could dive down and then wondered why it was filling with water. I sorted her snorkel out and got her a life jacket to make it easier for her to enjoy the coral etc.

Eight-Banded Butterfly Fish

The next spot on our snorkel tour was Shark Point, but not our normal stopping spot at Shark Point. This time we went further round in the shallower water, we got off the boat and Mat Lias joined us as he had some tourist that wanted to see some sharks. I went off to the left away from everyone as I saw that my volunteers appeared to be following Mat Lias as well. On my own tour I saw a large Titan Trigger Fish, Blotched Foxface Rabbitfish, Gobby and a couple of Blue Spotted Stingrays

A Pair of Blotched Foxface Rabbitfish

Blue Spotted Stingray

Goby Fish on a Clam

I met up with Mat Lias in the shallows and saw a couple of baby black tip reef sharks however, didn't get a photo unfortunately. We had a quick head count and only got 6 when there was meant to be 7, Eleanor was missing. I climbed on a rock to see if I could see her life jacket or if she was on the boat, however I couldn't see her. We all swam back and when I was on the boat looked around to see if I could locate her, off to the left I saw her with a different group of tourists in red life jackets. Luckily she was in an orange Ecoteer one, Mat Lias brought the boat round to her and she got on. Turns out when she was in the water she lost us and just followed the others, she had a good time and didn't mind getting lost. The next stop was Tiga Ruang Meningis, here I saw another Titan Trigger Fish a Goat Fish and a cool group of Golden Rabbit Fish.

Five Golden Rabbit Fish 

Titan Trigger Fish with trigger up!

Goat Fish

The final spot was at the rocks just before PIR, there is a lot of really nice undisturbed coral there. I was tired so just stayed on the boat with Mat Lias, while I waited I did go for a little swim not to look for coral instead to practice my freestyle swimming. We dropped Nadia and Priyanka at the PIR jetty as they needed to get ready for Tiga Ruang as they were going there with me in the evening.

Day 75-76- Advanced Open Water!!

Monday means new volunteers, on the 8am boat we had Ben and Rita. These guys were a couple and are staying with us for 4 weeks. Ben is from Belgium and works half the season with the homeless and the other half at a bar where he met Rita. Rita is from Portugal but moved to Belgium to Brussels and works in the same bar as Ben full time. They had been travelling since April and were planning on continuing traveling til next April. I took them round the village and to the house for orientation. Our other volunteer arriving was Rob from the UK, he was due on the 12pm boat. The portuguese 3 were still in the house in the morning but were leaving on the 12pm boat, we said our goodbyes at the jetty but there was no sign of Rob. I waited til 1 and then headed back to the house, back at the house Rita and Ben were getting hungry so I took them down for lunch, Dan came with us and while we were eating I had a look across to the jetty and thought I could see someone who could be Rob. Dan had already eaten so he went to meet him. When Rob joined us he was a very stereotypical traveler, he even came with a guitar. Turns out he'd done some busking to pay for a couple of hotel rooms. After lunch Dan took them for water confidence, Rob was like a little kid and couldn't wait to get in the water. I was reviewing nesting data which is incredibly boring but important. Maisy was off to Tiga Ruang with all the new volunteers so we were free for them for a few days. We did have two volunteers arriving Wednesday for 6 days, but they were staying at PIR. This meant me and Dan could go to Sea Voice tomorrow to start our Advanced Open Water Diving!

Tuesday we were meant to be meeting someone down by the village beach at 7:45am to take us to Sea Voice as we would be diving at 8:30am. We were up at 7, I made myself a coffee and we bolted down some breakfast before we knew it we needed to leave. We got down to the beach and couldn't see the guy we were meant to meeting we waited til 8:00am then headed to the jetty to find another taxi guy. When we arrived at Sea Voice turns out the guy was sitting by the Police Station not by the beach oops. We met our instructor Chris, he was from Glasgow, Scotland, I met him last week and he seemed pretty cool. Our first dive we were going to Temple for a Deep Dive, Temple is meant to be one of the best dive sites in the Perhentians. It is a stone pinnacle with different levels of habitat that goes down to around 24 metres. At deeper water your oxygen consumption increases so the plan was to slowly circle around the pinnacle increasing ascending as we go round. It was so amazingly beautiful down there, so many fish everywhere. We saw angelfish, pufferfish, groupers, snappers all sorts of fish. The highlight for me was seeing this little Porcupine Fish, unfortunately I didn't have a camera but here is an image off google of one:

http://www.fish-species.org.uk/marine-fish/diodon-hystrix.jpg

We also saw an interesting nudibranch, these are kind of like sea slugs. They are worth looking up if you've never seen one before. Our next dive was to Batu Layar where I did my last dive of my Open Water, on this dive we would be doing a fish identification test using hand signals to identify fish family species in the water. Before our dive Chris went through a quick briefing showing you all the different fish family we need to know and should look out for on our dive. I may make a link demonstrating the different signals later and put it on here. It was a really cool dive and we saw 6 giant pufferfish all in a little group as well as some blue spotted stingray and lots of batfish. The final dive of the day was to Romantic Beach this was for our Peak Performance Dive, this was a test we could use our breathing and understood the importance and skills of navigating underwater. When we got there Chris had brought a hoop with him which we would be using later, he sunk it to the bottom using waist weights. First of all we tested we could use our breathing to stay neutrally buoyant while horizontal and vertical. This was really interesting trying to steady yourself while head down at the sand trying not to end up face into the sand. Once we had perfected this we moved onto the kiss weight test, three weights were placed out on the sand one in front of each other. Our test was to swim up to one go vertical and kiss the weight with our regulator without headbutting it, we did this to each of the weights and it was really fun, I especially enjoyed watching Dan headbutting the sand. Next activity was using the hoop, first of all was just a simple swim through it without touching. Sounds easy right? However with a tank, fins and BCD on its much harder than it seems it took a few attempts. We did this a few times in different ways, swimming upside down, swimming over then through it and swimming sideways it was really fun and difficult. The funniest test we did was the writing test while vertical head down, here you had to try to hold your buoyancy as well as write your name with a rubbish pencil on this tiny pad. We had two attempts and if Dans A of his name didn't look like a pound sign he might have won but in the end we couldn't decide between me or Chris. The final thing we did was an underwater race with our fins and weights off, we found a clear bit of sand where there were no Goby fish these are small fish that live on the sea bed. When I took off my weights I very quickly started to float it was quite hard to try and keep myself down. 3....2......1.....Go! and we attempted to run, Dan in his competitive mindset went for it and won the first race. We then turned around and had another go, this time I decided to use the water to my advantage and as I ran throw my arms back which meant I won, Dan was not happy that I kind of cheated. After the racing we put our gear back on and followed Chris to try and find our hoop as visibility was poor before heading back to the boat. We got back filled in our log books, we still have two more dives before we are officially Advanced water divers but Chris did say we can now deep dive to up to 40m. The last two dives we have left are the Wreck Diver (which I'm excited for) and the Navigation Dive, hopefully get this in before the monsoon season starts, fingers crossed. Kib from Sea Voice needed to take a day off the next day so he asked if he could come back to the village with us for a night. I thought it wouldn't be a problem as we had no volunteers and Ramona knows Kib from all the time she was at Sea Voice doing her Dive Master and she said it was fine. Kib was having some issues at Sea Voice so we went out for dinner and helped him with his problems. It was funny as they were very similar to the problems we have had at the Turtle Project. Before dinner came out he went to talk to his boss who was in the village for a check up as she was a few months pregnant. He took our advice and came back and felt a lot better just like what happened with us, it was so relatable it was scary. He had some work to do so I left him to finish that and sorted him out some bed sheets for him to sleep in the volunteer room. However, when I woke up he was still on the sofa he hadn't moved. 

Day 71-74- Hari Raya Haji and Amazing Cake

Today or the next day was Malaysian Independence day from British rule. It had been arranged Dan, 2 volunteers and I would do a beach clean-up at Tiga Ruang. Mr Tan boss at PIR had got some of his workers start at PIR beach and then join us at long beach. We met up and we made Tiga Ruang spotless. After this they had a picnic that they invited us to join. They had cake and noodles in that order which was weird and some orange juice. 

When we got back to the village we noticed there were cows on the island. This was due to Hari Raya Haji festival this was a Muslim festival the cows would be slaughtered and the meat would be split between friends family and the poor. Was very weird seeing cows in the village they must have come on boats, me and Dan went to get a selfie with one and got charged luckily it was tied up. Back at the house I started reviewing the nesting data. This involved looking at our turtle from this year that nested and comparing them to two years ago photos as turtles return every 2-3 years. It was a long process as not all the photos are clear, we worked out that 26 individuals have nested in our beach with some coming back 6 times. I was cooking dinner with the Portuguese guys and I wanted to cook beacon again as they are so good. I started prepping the vegetables and Goncalo brought out this meat substitute that looked like bread but cooked like chicken. It was called Satan and he fried it with black pepper and garlic and if was delicious.

In the morning I went out on survey with the Gonçalo pair and Sara to PIR. They call one of the Gonçalos king to stop confusion between the two. It was dome joke at university but made it easier for us to talk to the pair of them. We saw 7 turtles thought it was 9 but we were moving around a lot and it seemed the turtles were too. We also saw 3 juveniles together feeding they were so cute. These guys were a good laugh gutted couldn’t spend more time with them, we were cracking jokes on survey. I had a cold so couldn’t free dive so got the guys to take the photos. When we got back to the village we analysed the data and I edited a picture of one of turtles Baby Kev to make him look awesome. If you look at his face you can see a moustache. I didn't want the cape but one of the volunteers requested.

The next day I went for a beach clean to Teluk Keke with the same guys I surveyed with yesterday, Gonçalo, Gonçalo and Sara. I brought the Ecoteer volleyball as there is a net at the beach, we started playing the four of us and then some random locals asked to join. We played for an hour just for fun without scoring as we all weren't that great. We then started the beach clean, the guys all had a big bin bag each and I had a 2 litre plastic bottle to do the cigarette but challenge. This involved picking up as many cigarette butts as possible and there was a lot I collected 1111 in 50 minutes. The boat guy was late so we chilled in the sea for a bit.

When we got back we had the afternoon off so we all had a rest. Nothing really happened until the evening, Ramona, Maisy and myself was sitting in the living room when all of a sudden I hear one of the Gonçalos shout my name. I guessed he'd flooded the kitchen with the washing machine which is a common occurrence but this was not the case. I entered the kitchen to find the hob on fire and our electric kettle on the hob. My immediate response was what the @#$ followed by ensuring the gas was off. I got some water and put out the burning kettle. The plastic had melted to the hob and burnt the valves so had to completely disconnect the gas. Apparently he thought it was a metal, despite the kettle having a plastic base with a cord it sits on and a switch. Anyway once we got it all cleaned up the kettle was unusable and the left side of the hob also unusable. I checked the right side and it seemed okay, Ramona then went to use it and had some concerns so I went back in to check. Despite having separate valves the heat had burnt through the close valve so could hear gas hissing to so we couldn't use the hob. I was gutted as I couldn't have my morning coffee, yes I drink coffee now. So without our hob and all the food already prepared we went down to community house to use their hob. Safe to say Gonçalos learned his lesson. In the evening I went to Long Beach with Maisy, Lenny and Sian from Community project and the Dive Project Team. I wasn’t going to go but it was Effy from Dives Team last few nights as she had got a new job. We got the boat over at 9pm and went to get a drink. Many a drink was drunk and we all had a good time, the only downside was I realised halfway through the night I had lost my phone. We carried on partying until about 3-4am and then we got a boat home. Getting in the boat George almost fell over into the sea, back in the village was very surreal as it was so quiet. We got back and crashed, successful night other than the phone losing. 

Not a lot happened Sunday, two of the Portuguese left Alex and Maria. However the other 3 were staying one more night as their flight wasn't until Monday. Wid came back to the village for one night and brought lots of shopping which was greatly appreciated as we were very low on food and brought a pack of cookies each for everyone. Nick came back to the village from Tiga Ruang to talk to Wid as Maisy and Ramona went to Tiga Ruang. Wid’s parents had made it safety to Mecca and were having a good time. Due to the stove being broken and not having s replacement yet Wid took me, Nick and Dan down the jetty for dinner. The volunteers came as well and we all ordered, however in village style it was taking a while so Nick went off to get some sausages. These are the best sausages on the island I think they are still chicken sausages but they have a kind of batter and some seasoning and taste amazing. Back at the house the Portugese guys wanted to give us something, they had intended to give it to all of us but due to the way we rotate this wasn’t possible. They had very kindly gone down to the bakery on the Jetty and brought us an amazing cake. This cake was huge, it had 6 layers all different colours and was covered in icing with sea grass on the side and a turtle on top with a little palm tree. Underneath the turtle was writing saying “Thank you Turtle Team”, this was so sweet and the cake tasted amazing as well. We all had lots of it and even one of the Gonçalos who was Vegan had some as it looked so good.

Day 68-70- Open Water Diving!!!

Monday morning we left Tiga Ruang and quickly made it back to the house to grab my things along with Alex one of the volunteers who was also doing his Open Water course same time as me along with me. We went to get some lunch from the Jetty, 3 RM for rice and beef before getting a taxi to Coral Bay. When we arrived at Sea Voice Dive Shop, we were greeted by some of the staff . They all seemed really nice and could see why Ramona enjoyed going there. We put our stuff down and a guy named Kib gave us a little introduction to how our day would go. I was very tired from Tiga Ruang and Kib said there was free tea and coffee for us. Normally I would turn this down, but I was so tired I decided to give the coffee a go. It turns out I like coffee now. To start our Open Water course off we had some forms to fill out with some personal details on. After this we started the theory of our diving this involved looking through the Open Water Diving book and then watching some videos. This is what we would be tested on Wednesday after we had done our diving. When this was done we met our instructor Sue, she had been at the dive shop for 4 years. She explained what we would be doing 1 dive on the first day, 2 on the second and then 2 on the third. Before we went out on the first dive we were allocated equipment in relation to our size etc. First was body suit either a wet or a skin suit, a wet suit is mainly for people who get cold easily in the water. As I am in the water most days most weeks I opted for a skin suit. Next up was fins and mask followed by weights. Weights are important as they help you sink when diving, however it is important to get the right weight, too much weight and you sink to the bottom and can’t swim properly too little and you float up and have to kick more to keep yourself down. Both me and the other Alex had 3kg extra which turned out to be perfect for me. We also were assigned a BCD, this is our buoyancy jacket that acts as a controllable life jacket. It uses air from the oxygen tank or from your breath to inflate so you can stay on the surface when you’re not diving. The tank was fitted to the back and the final piece of kit was the Regulator this is one of the most important bits of equipment. The regulator is what connects to the oxygen tank and consists of your breathing tube, your back up breathing tube, the tube that connects to the BCD so you can inflate and finally the gauge so you know how much air you have left when diving. This is super important as it allows you to plan your dive and make decisions during a dive. Our tanks were 200psi which gives roughly 50-60 minutes diving time in water 10m. When we were happy we checked our equipment and then headed to our boat for our first dive. We were going to Romantic beach a small beach round the coast from Coral Bay and a common starting spot for divers. It was really fun getting used to the equipment and learning different skills under the water. After we done a few techniques we went for a little swim, it took a while to get used to using your breathing to control your height in the water. Another thing I struggled with was using the fins, I hadn’t really used any before so was hard to get my head round as you use them very differently to how you kick normally when free diving. When we got back to the Dive Shop, Sue showed us how to dismantle our equipment for the next day. She seemed happy with how we were progressing which was a good sign as normally the Open Water course is done over 4 days but we were getting it done in 3. We had a quick shower and collected our things and headed back to the village. I was so tired I had a little chat with the guys before heading for bed.

The next day we were up at 7:30am ready to leave at 8am. We had some breakfast and headed down the Jetty to grab some lunch to take to coral bay. Once we got our lunch we waited for one of the taxi boat boys to turn up to take us to Coral Bay. It was 15RM per person to Coral Bay which wasn’t to bad as coral bay is towards the north west of Kecil. When we arrived we had a coffee and went to watch the remaining videos for our open water. At 12pm we were going diving this time to D’Lagoon, I had been to D’Lagoon a few times with snorkel tours and it’s really nice there I had seen stingrays and Bumphead parrot fish so I was excited. Before the dive Sue gave us a briefing on what skills we would be doing and things to look out for at the dive site. We set up our gear and went through the safety checks to ensure our equipment was safe and secured properly. Then we got on the boat and headed for D’lagoon. When we arrived compared to yesterday where we just stepped off the boat today we were doing a seated roll off the boat. This is something I had really been looking forward to doing. Its incredibly simple and involves sitting on the edge of the boat with all your scuba gear and then holding your mask and regulator and letting the weight of the tank roll you into the sea. During the dive we went through more techniques about emergency situations like losing your mask or being out of air and having to use your buddy for help etc. I struggled with some at first, but eventually got my head round it. We tried to get a taxi to go home after our dive, however there were no taxis available so Zak one of the boatman at Sea Voice kindly took us back to the village. Can't wait for my final day of diving. 

Today was our last day of our Open Water Diving. We started the day finishing off the knowledge review of the text book before doing a quiz to test our knowledge. The quiz was also to get us ready for our Open Water Exam which we needed 80% to pass. After this we brought a roati at a place called Fatimah’s. They claim to have the best roati on the island, he puts on a little show while he makes it and it tasted delicious. I’ve really enjoyed hanging around the dive shop Zak one of the boat guys has been joking around with me playing music and singing with me. Also Zak pretty good on guitar, he played hotel California before our first dive. The lunchtime dive was to D’lagoon again but a different spot. Here we did our weight check underwater, this involved taking the weight off sitting it on our knee and then re-attaching it. We also did compass navigation my 10 years of scouts made that nice and easy. Once this was dome we went for a little swim around the coral reef, we were about 11m deep. While on our dive I saw 6 blue spotted rays and some pufferfish, but the highlight was when we had to stop as sue spotted Alex floating to the surface. I waited around about 1m above the coral while sue helped Jim. Then Nick another instructor went past with his student and signalled the turtle symbol. I got very excited and checked with Sue if I could follow. We spotted the hawksbill and followed it for a bit before I turned back to re-join with Alex and Sue. This was only the 2nd Hawksbill I had seen all season. When we got to the surface we did some diving tow techniques and checked our weights as Alex was having issues. We put our gear on board and waited for the others to surface. While we waited we got back in the water for a swim we both dived off the end of the boat. There were some tourists who had s lilo that sue borrowed. After our dive we moved our equipment onto our final tank and then went or do the final exam. We bath passed and were ready for our test dive. This was at Batu Layar which is just off from Tiga Ruang .We did the final checks, BCD (testing it inflates deflates), Weights (checking location of them and correct amounts, Releases (checking we can safely release our BCD), Air (smelling the air and testing the regulators), final check mine and my buddies equipment. We then set off on our dive we were 16m, we saw Barracuda, Bat Fish, at one point there was a map Pufferfish one side of me and a Giant Pufferfish the other. We also saw an African pompano which are quite rare. When the dive was at an end we did our safety stop which involves waiting 5m from the surface for 3mjns before surfacing. We them inflated our SMB which shows the boatman we have finished the dive. We were now officially open water divers! We filled in our diver log books back at the shop and Sue completed our forms which we would need to send off to get our licences. I know Dan has wanted to do his advanced open water so maybe I will be back to do that. I love diving.