Pulau Tenggol, 28 April 2007 - 1 May 2007

Labour’s Day, Wesak Day..long leave, hangs the ‘Gone Diving’ sign.

My fuel gauge was blinking as I turned left from the main street towards Kuala Dungun. The petrol station’s in Kuala Dungun still closed. Probably, the owner still sound asleep blanketed with the early morning drizzle. Hmmmmm….I’ll just fueled up on the way back, I’m not far off Kuala Dungun anyway. Parked the car in front of Kasanya Hotel (the spelling probably wrong) and went up the stairs to meet the rest of the group who arrived last evening.

Had locally brewed coffee and half-boiled ayam kampong eggs as breakfast at one of the old-styled coffee shops in Kuala Dungun. Met Aaron of Malaysian Diving Community and Melvin from Singapore. Finally, met Melvin, the other reference point for my Fuji E900 underwater shots. Heard he’s selling off his Fuji E900 set-up. Wanted to have a chat with him but we sort of rushed to the jetty to the boat that’ll take us to Pulau Tenggol.

Rendezvous with the rest of group from Global Scuba at the jetty. Everybody’s kinda still in their shell and spare each other only with the normal formality, introductions and hand-shakes. Maybe, still tipsy from the long journey to Kuala Dungun.They’ll crack later.

After the boat journey about an hour and 45 minutes later, we arrived at the resort, Tenggol Island Beach Resort (‘TIRB’). For simplicity of reference, it’s the one in the middle. There are 2 other resorts on the left and right of TIRB. Assigned to a room with 4 other guys (obviously), Jijoi, Asun, Leo and Nazri.

After lunch, our check-out dive was at Teluk Air Tawar followed by Tanjung Gemuk. Tanjung Gemuk really lives up to its other name, the ‘Mini Highway’ because immediately after our descent, everyone had to fight the current. I almost decided to abort the dive caused the current was quite strong and it seemed as if the regulator not supplying enough air (despite the huff and puff) to my body to swim against the current. We decided to eventually drift with the current which somehow somewhat subsided. The remaining of the dive at Tanjung Gemuk was rather pleasant with a big gorgonian fan and abundant marine life. But, the highlight was surely the turtle that was rummaging through the staghorn looking for something to chew while snapping the staghorn and pushing it out of its way.

The following day dives were at Teluk Nakhoda-Teluk Rajawali, Gua Rajawali (please don’t be looking for a cave because there’s none) and Batu Changchang.The best of them all would be Teluk Nakhoda-Teluk Rajawali since that was the first dive with my buddy, Shiraz who remained as my buddy for the remaining of my dives in Pulau Tenggol.

We had something in common. We are freaking slow divers and enjoyed the sightings of nudibranch with eggs, pufferfish, butterfly fishes, blue ring angelfishes, six-banded angelfishes, yellow mask angelfishes, scorpionfish, juvenile batfishes and a bumphead. Batu Changchang offered nothing much and the reef is not a pristine as the ones visited earlier. Once again, sighted a turtle and different species of angelfishes. A night dive to the Vietnamese Wreck followed suit. Nothing much at the dive site except for sighting of hermit crab and decorator crab. The trip back to shore offered more sightings of marine life such a sleeping puffer fish and heaps of greenish/bluish toad fishes scattered almost everywhere dozing. By that time, the camera’s already out of battery which is not bad since I hadn’t changed any since the first dive. Energizer e-lithium batteries recommended by Bobo was a marvel. Thanks Bobo for the tips.

The next day, we went to Tokong Timur, Moonracker and another dive at the Vietnamese Wreck(s).

To be continued.