In actual fact, sharks are misunderstood animals and they have a lot more to fear from us than we do from them. Worldwide, they have been threatened to near extinction by over fishing for their fins and meat, for sport and have been terrorized by humans made stupid by fear. Installing shark nets in the South African waters is one stupid idea that protects us, humans at the expense of sacrificing sharks and many other marine animals. We need to recognize that we do not belong in the seas (They Do) and we are the ones invading their territory and not the other way round.

Diving with sharks is a wonderful experience. Some people say that interaction with sharks by baiting them changes their natural behaviors and provokes attacks, and hence it should be banned. I beg to differ. No doubt there are few rare occasions on shark attacks but that doesn’t mean that we should ban them. Many operators performing baited shark dives are passionate shark lovers and have educated many through conducting these dives.

I just got back from a Tiger shark diving trip with Mark from Blue Wilderness and wanted to share this amazing video of us diving among these incredible and misunderstood creatures. Fear NEVER enters the picture! It’s heartening to see how some of my non-diver friends opinion changed after watching this video – they are now convinced that sharks are not as dangerous as JAWS made them out to be.

Sharks are beautiful creatures and people just need to be educated about them, and they might realize there is no reason to be afraid of them.

Dear friends, do share this video and help to educate your friends. Save Our Sharks.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=714866463#/video/video.php?v=116406552600&ref=mf

Ambon, island in eastern Indonesia, is home to the capital of Maluku province that consists of about 1,000 islands formerly known as the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. Ambon Island has an area of about 775 km² of generally mountainous, agricultural terrain that produces nutmeg, coffee, corn, cloves and cloves and cinnamon, among others. It was a center of the European spice trade dating back to the 1500′s which saw this region being occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and English at various times. Ambon has populations, which are split fairly evenly between Muslims and Christians. Ambon became the scene of a conflict which went on from 1999 to 2002, a major clash between the two major religion group known as the Moluccan War. 9,000 people died in this war. Peace has now returned to the island but occasional unexpected small-scale conflicts still go on but they are not too much of a concern for travelers. The main city is also free from Malaria.

The journey to Ambon from Singapore was a long but uneventful one. Flight connections mean a stopover at Jakarta. Arriving at the International airport at 9pm, I was met by Zain from Discover Indonesia and ushered to the domestic airport. The Lion Air flight was delayed for about an hour and departed at 2am. After a 3.5 hours flight, I was met by Jimmy, the translator from Blue Rose Divers (BRD) who helped me to register my visit to the airport police and also collected my return tickets for confirmation. After collecting my baggage, Henrick, a partner at BRD picked me up and another one-hour car ride later; I finally arrived at the Santai Beach Resort, which overlooks a beautiful and sandy beach with crystal clear turquoise waters.

Santai Beach Resort has 11 beach bungalows and my bungalow was just next to the dive center. The air-conditioned room was basic but clean and roomy with 2 single beds, a mirror table, a cupboard with locks and a large bathroom with sitting toilet without flushing system and without hot water shower. Water supply got cut-off sporadically so I took my shower at the dive center twice during my stay. The electricity supply was erratic and it usually ran from 6pm to 6am. The dive center has it’s own private generator so I charged my batteries at the dive shop during the day.

The hotel does not have a restaurant so it was a bit of a bummer. For most of the days during my stay, I was the only guest staying there so the meals were provided by the dive center. They were generally simple but delicious home-cooked Ambonese food consisting of rice served together with fish, vegetables, chicken and sometimes noodles and soups for lunch and dinner. The samba chilies were absolutely yummy and I usually finished a whole plate of rice just mixing them in. I ate so much rice that I think I have gained a few pounds. Now I need to lose them but with the mouth-watering Chinese New Year goodies at home, how am I going to? Egg sandwiches and fried noodles/rice were served for breakfast.

On the evening of day 2, the dive center prepared a sumptuous Ikan bakar (grilled fish) farewell feast for the group from Jakarta. The crew at the dive center were always eager to please and obliging despite our language barrier. Most of them speak very little English and I have the slightest clue with Bahasa Indonesia. I remember one day I was casually mentioning something about having Mee Bakso (meat balls noodle soup) in Manado and the following evening, they brought me home-cooked Mee Bakso. How sweet! Amusingly, in the town where electricity was erratic and the locals using to drinking warm beers, buying ice-cold Bintang beers was more difficult than finding critters underwater. On days when there was no night dive, I would be riding pillion on the dive masters’ motorbikes in search of ice-cold Bintang beers.

I guess that not many people know that there are actually two dive centers in Ambon, the well-known Maluku Divers Dive Center and the relatively unknown Blue Rose Divers whom I chose to dive with. It was a local dive center setup just barely a year ago with Augustine managing the office in Surabaya and another 5 partners (Henrick-manager, Johnny – boat captain, Wimpe – compressor man, Robert and Frankie – dive guides) running the dive center. Boat crew also includes two young boys, Ah Dok and Free John who helped with gearing up and handling out towels/refreshments before/after each dive. Toby, the most highly rated dive guide with more than 15 years experience diving in Ambon free-lanced for the shop and we dived together for the first two days.

The dive team is really cooperative and accommodating. Among them, only Robert and Toby speak good English. Despite that, I was always greeted with smiling faces and they try hard to fulfill any of my requests – 4 dives a day and each dive no less than 75 minutes. Jokingly, they said that when I (the gila (crazy) Singaporean go home, the dive guide, Robert, whom I did most of the dives with, will mati (die).

Tanks were set-up with BCDs/regulators and taken care by the boat crew throughout my entire stay. BRD has two dive speed boats, both fiberglass made and each can accommodate 8-10 divers. Diving was done via back-roll entry. I did a total of 23 dives covering Kandang Babi, Maluku’s House Reef, Pintu Kota, Laha 2, Rhino City, Lehari Cape, Lehari 2, Hikurila cave, Tanjung Hukurila, Tamjung Mahio. I also explored few new dive sites around the muck area and found an excellent site overflowing with abundance of nudibranchs, which I am going to name it after my dive guide, Robert. Water temperature was a constant at 29°C and visibility ranged from site to site, with the wall having better visibility ranging from 15-25 meters and the muck diving sites around 8-12 meters. The dive sites that I visited were about 20-30 minutes away from the dive center. The briefings were short and direct.

Although diving here is all year around but the best time for diving in Ambon is around September to December. During the months from May to August, diving is only possible on the Northern side of the islands and also the quite bay of Ambon. Ambon offers both impressive reef systems as well as world-class muck diving. The diversity to be found in this area make for an unbelievable dive adventure for even the most seasoned diver.

Some of the highlights …

Wall diving – Because the reefs aren’t heavily dived; they are in superb condition. The highlight of diving in Southern side of Ambon is its underwater garden. Walls are lush with bright colors of both soft and hard coral colonies, large sea fans and barrel sponges. There were many different types of whip corals at most sites and making their homes were dozens of Xeno crabs, whip coral shrimps and gobies, sometimes few cohabiting together on the same whip and I counted one with at least 12 whip coral shrimps. Fish are plentiful, though the bigger pelagic are not so often found here. Blankets of red tooth trigger and schools of fusiliers and snappers scoured the reef with huge Napoleon wrasse, Bumphead parrotfish, and groupers regularly spotted.

The landscapes at Ambon’s Southerly coast with the full splendor of underwater colors provide excellent photographic opportunities for wide-angle photographers. Diving Pintu Kota reveals incredible underwater architecture, with a huge underwater archway mirroring the rock formation above water, and Hukurila Cave has twisting caverns and canyons swarming with life. We were the only divers there and each dive gave me that exhilarating feeling of discovering the unexplored.

Muck diving – Laha or formerly known as Twilight Zone, it’s past reputation is well deserved. It was the muckiest of muck dives but the debris is studded with living jewels. The diving is not dissimilar to Lembeh but far surpassing the former with the congregation of photogenic, unusual and even creepy macro critters in one relatively small location. It’s another of God’s dirty secret! Divers from all over the world will never hesitate to get down and dirty here in the legendary Ambon’s underwater junkyard.

On the left hand side at the old jetty, few fishing boats usually tie up side by side creating a canopy over the main area. With their engines still running, the fleet create the feeling of continuous twilight as sunlight penetrate through the openings. Rolling into the water near the brightly painted fishing boats, we descended a steep, dark gray rubble slope filled with car tyres, wood planks, metal tins and also fish carcasses discarded by the fishing boats. Beneath the jetty, a large shoal (bait ball) of silversides were seen swimming continuously in a dazzling flowing stream. Living among the thrash heaps, there are dozens of snowflake moray eels and every opening seems to be occupied by at least one, but often two or three will be co-habiting.

Dotting the seabed on the right hand side of the beach were fire urchins, which on closer inspection provided protection for zebra crabs, Coleman’s shrimps and a purple shrimp that I simply can’t name. As we combed the sandy bottom, we came crossed everything from the elusive wonderpus to seahorses to harlequin and bumble bee shrimps and numerous colorful nudibranchs. I dived this site repeatedly over the next few days and were amazed by the diversity of marine life.

Further right along the beach, about 50 meters from Laha 2, another site called the Rhino City promise to satisfy any macro photographer’s wish list. The site host an enormous variation of critters: a pair of the legendary Rhinopias (white and yellow) at 18-meter depth, stone fish, scorpion fish and lion fish, harlequin ghost pipefish, octopus, flounders, several different variations of frogfishes, numerous shrimps and crabs and many more.

Together with Robert, I also explored a few new sites along the beach and discovered an area filled with an abundance of brightly colored nudibranchs and egg mass around 20-meter depth. You can image how thrilled I was! I couldn’t stop clicking. I also found an Oatesii crabs on the “broccoli” coral and many commensal shrimps and crabs. Of course, I hit Deco and that was another 100 minutes dive. Up on the dive boat, Robert told me that that was his first time diving that site and said he is going to name it after me. Well! I decided to name it “Robert’s Nudi City”.

The nightly night dives were a whole additional story. As soon as the night falls, the sites transforms and the nocturnal predators emerge. Many bizarre looking decorator and spider crabs emerge from their daytime hiding crevices to roam the sea bed, worms and snails crawl across the sand leaving trails behind them and some animals like lion fishes and moray eels are much more active at night, swimming freely in search of prey. In a single dive, I saw more critters than could be written on an underwater slate. The marine life was just inconceivable and I don’t know of a better place for after dark encounters than this.

Ambon diving far exceeded any expectations I had. 7 nights was just not enough. Each dive I saw something new and exciting. Life is good diving in Indonesia! And of course I will keep going back!

Photo Link: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Ambon-Jan-2009

Useful Links:

Blue Rose Divers: http://bluerosedivers.com/pages/home.php/

Discover Indonesia: discover_indo@indosat.net.id

]]> http://babyjo3373.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/ambon-trip-report-jan-2009/feed/ 3 babyjo3373 spice hotel crab wonderpus frogfish pipefish shrimp rhinopias nudi group http://babyjo3373.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/sulawesi-trip-report-dec-2008/ http://babyjo3373.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/sulawesi-trip-report-dec-2008/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:49:52 +0000 babyjo3373 http://babyjo3373.wordpress.com/?p=54 ]]> Strange as it may sound but the destination of my year-end trip for 2008 was not the first, second or even third choice in my plan. Neither have I heard about it before when Zain (discover_indo@indosat.net.id), my helpful travel agent from Discover Indonesia offered it as one of the few alternatives from Manado, from which I have booked my flights into. As secluded as it sounds, there isn’t much information from the Internet that I could find. The only site that I gathered some information from was from Prince John Dive Resort’s website (http://www.princejohndiveresort.com/page/cat/1/), the only dive resort on the island. I learnt that it is called Donggala, lies at the top of Palu Bay, in Central. Sulawesi. Not knowing what to expect, I jumped on the chances to explore a new tropical paradise and booked on a 6 days dive package, followed by another 5 days diving the Lembeh Straits with Bastinos Lembeh Resort.

Joining me on part of the trip to Donggala was May Lin whom I get to know from a trip to Malapascua 4 years ago and this was to be her first dive trip for year 2008. To get to Donggala, the easiest way is to fly directly from Singapore to Balikpapan, then connecting onto Palu. But because we have our flights booked into Manado, we flew from Singapore to Manado via a 3 hours 15 minutes Silk Air flight on Saturday afternoon, promptly picked up by the driver to Grand Puri Manado Hotel for our overnight stay as the flight schedules of the local airline, Lion Air to Palu, via Makassar were incompatible. Upon arrival at the hotel, we decided to indulge on a two hours spa treat of scrub and massage for Rp200000 each. Feeling rejuvenated and hungry, we headed to a local seafood restaurant, about 20 minutes taxi ride from our hotel, recommended by my masseur. The waiting staffs at the restaurant did not speak any English and both of us do not know much Bahasa so it was chicken and duck talk until they eventually brought us their local chef, who speak Chinese to our rescue. Okay, I’ll try to learn Bahasa soon! After a sumptuous dinner, getting a taxi on the dimly lighted street was almost impossible. Luckily for us, the kind chef patiently waited with us and helped us to get onto a taxi back to the hotel.

Early morning on Sunday, we made our way to the domestic airport for our flights to Palu, transiting in Makassar but we checked our luggage all the way to Palu. The flight to Makassar was uneventful and landed as scheduled at 8am. We collected our connecting flight tickets scheduled to be at 12.30pm from the Lion Air table, had a light breakfast and decided to go down to the ground floor baggage claim area to make sure that our luggages do not arrive by mistake. While making our way up the stairs, May Lin tripped and fell over. Her head hitting the step hard and she has a deep cut on her forehead and almost immediately, blood was flowing. I made her sit down on the steps to rest and then frantically looked around for HELP. I ran to a souvenir shop but was helpless with the communication. Damn! I MUST learn some simple Bahasa soon!

When I got back to her, HELP has already arrived. Thankfully! A few very helpful airport staffs including two guys from Lion Air helped her to the airport clinic for a quick bandage to stop the bleeding. We were told to follow them to the office, as they will be arranging for a car to take us to the hospital. From them, we found out that our 12.30pm flight was cancelled and our tickets stated that our departure time to be 4.15pm. Why didn’t the staff informed us when we collected the tickets? How strange! Well! It was probably God’s will or maybe it was blessing in disguise, as that will give us sufficient time to get May Lin’s injury treated.

We waited for about an hour before the Lion Air staff found a car and one of the Lion Air staff took us to a local clinic nearby. The clinic looked sparsely equipped. We were feeling rather apprehensive and asked if they could send us to a hospital for foreigners but was told that it would take 2 hours to get there. The public hospital is about 20 minutes away but always expect a huge queue. Helpless with the communication and having no other choice, May Lin eventually decided to let the friendly female doctor stitched her up. She had 3 stitches, a tetanus jab and prescribed a course of antibiotics and some painkillers. Poor girl!

Back at the airport, we had lunch and waited impatiently for our flight while people watching, seeing numerous flights landing and taking off. Time passed so slowly and our flight was further delayed for an hour. Finally at 7pm, we arrived at Palu airport, tussled with the locals to collect our bags and were picked up by the driver on another one-hour land journey before reaching the Prince John Dive Resort at the bay of Palu. We were told to have dinner, filled up some forms and escorted to our room, which is right on top of the hill.

The resort has 16 simple but well built Indonesian wooden stilt bungalows, surrounded by beautiful tropical gardens and each with a terrace overlooking the beautiful Palu bay. Our Category 3 was quite roomy with a double bed and a single bed fitted with mosquito nets, some shelves and an Indonesian mandis without hot water shower. There was no 24 hours electricity supply and it usually ran from 6pm to 6am. The resort’s private generator supplies electricity to the restaurant and the dive shop at daytime so we can charged our batteries at the dive shop.

The restaurant served simple original Indonesian food. Choices of eggs, pancakes, cereals or fried rice for breakfast, served with coffee or tea. Lunch was either fried noodles or spaghetti. In the late afternoon, cakes were served with coffee or tea. Dinner was usually fresh salads, staple rice, noodle soup, fish cooked in different styles, fried vegetables or tofu. Meat is rare except during Christmas dinner when we had two chicken dishes. Desserts were fresh organically grown tropical fruits like bananas, mangoes and pineapples.

The staffs were welcoming, hardworking, and always smiling and ready to be serving you. Most of the guests here are either local Indonesian or from Germany. Apart from that, we met a very nice Canadian couple and were privileged to be the very few Singaporeans visiting.

A German couple, Alex and Gaby, manages the dive center but they were on holidays back in Germany during our stay. Their friend, Bruno, from Switzerland helps to run the dive shop. Together with 6 local dive crew, the dive operation runs in an orderly manner and they were very obliging with my request of 4 dives a day schedule. Tanks were set-up with BCDs/regulators and taken care by the boatmen throughout our entire stay.

May Lin did not dive due to her injury. I did a total of 13 dives covering only 6 out of the 16 dive sites: House Reef, Green Wall, Anchor Reef, Natural Reef which are inner circle dives within 20 minutes from the resort and a day trip about an hour away diving South Atoll and Pasi Kawe. Water temperature was a steady 29°C throughout and visibility from 10-15 meters. Our dive masters, Igede, Nasrun and Baisr, have experience ranging from 4 years to more than 10 years and they were all excellent critter spotters and know absolutely every inch of the underwater landscape.

Diving can easily be done from the beach, and Prince John Dive Resort offers a 500 meters long reef that drops down to 40 meters deep, with House Reef on the right hand side and Green Wall on the left hand side. Here on the house reef you can spend hour upon hour throughout your stay. The corals on these sites were not in exceptional conditions and sadly there were thrash on shallower reefs (discarded by weekend picnickers and the villagers) but what amazed me was the tons of wondrous critters living here. I dived these sites 8 times and was never bored. How could I? I can never get enough!

The House reef is truly a macro haven, perfect for underwater photographers. Ghost pipe fish, scorpion fish, nudibranchs, razor fish, leaf fish and many species of shrimps on sea cucumbers, feather stars and whip corals kept me busy during the day. In the night, the house reef becomes the most colorful and vibrant show of nature’s splendor you can think of. Nocturnal creatures roamed the reef- decorated and hermit crabs, bobtailed cuttlefishes, reef octopus and ghost shrimps, just to name a few. I even saw the tiniest baby reef squid, about 1cm and it was very hard to photograph but I’ve got a few keepers. It was almost like every time I explored a new part of the reef, there were dozens of treats waiting to be discovered.

To get to Anchor Reef and Natural Reef, which are less than 10 minutes from the resort, we took the smaller dive boat. The corals on these sites are in healthier conditions but visibility wasn’t at it’s best, about 10 meters but similarly they provide ample opportunities for photographers to click amazing snaps of marine life.

On Christmas Eve, we did a day trip to the outer circle reef diving South Atoll and Pasi Kawe using the large wooden dive boat. The diversity and conditions of the corals on these sites were outstanding but it was harder to find the macro critters. At Pasir Kawe, Nasrun found me a very inquisitive jaw fish at 18 meters depth and I was totally enthralled and engrossed on photographing it that I didn’t realized that I went into deco-stop. My deco-stop was to be for 25 minutes and I gradually ascended to shallower depth. My super conservative Stinger computer drove me nuts as it stated that I will have to perform my deco-stop between 3-6 meters (nothing more) but the shallowest reef was at 6.5 meter. Eventually, I took it off and passed it to Nasrun and signaled to him that I’ll continue to check out the top reefs while he helped me to complete my deco-stop. Maybe I was narced!

After we bid farewell to the folks in Donggala, we had an uneventful journey back to Manado and were picked up by the driver of Bastianos Lembeh (http://www.bastianoslembeh.com/) for a 3 hours journey to their resort. May Lin was to stay with me for the night and then returned to Singapore the next day.

Arriving at resort over-looking the Lembeh Straits, we were offered a Welcome drink and told to filled up some forms for the room and diving before assigning our room. The resort offers 10 air-conditioned (with walled fan) superior cottages, each with its own private balcony with a beautiful view of Lembeh Strait. There are also 4 standard rooms for the budget travelers. Our spacious cottage has a queen-sized bed, a huge cupboard, a mirror table and a large a western-style bathroom with hot shower and flushed toilet.

The resort has a huge restaurant connecting to the swimming pool facing the sea. All meals served are buffet style traditional Indonesian food and the variety surprised me. What surprised me further was the meals were served punctually: Breakfast between 6.30-9.30am, lunch between 12-2pm and dinner between 7-9pm. I found the food very good and plentiful. During my 5 days stay, I don’t remember seeing a dish cooked the same way twice. Actually, I was glad not having to eat the instant noodles that I had bought from Manado airport.

The staff at Bastinos is really helpful and seems happy to be serving you. We were always greeted with smiling faces and they try hard to fulfill any of our requests. The manager running the resort was out to town during my stay and I only found out that his name is Harley.

Lembeh – This is the land of critters; strange, bizarre and some really cute looking ones. Some said that it’s God’s rubbish bin, one where He dumped all his mistakes in creation, hoping that no one will ever find them in the muck. But each year, one, two or even few new species are still being discovered. Hmm, just how many more mistakes could God make?

Well, sometimes it pays to get dirty and often dirty is the rule to dive Lembeh. There are close to 40 dive sites and I did 12 dives covering Nudi Retreat, Nudi Falls, Tandu Nusa, Comprene (Night), Magic Rock, Pante Parigi, Jahir, Batu Sandar, Teluk Kembahu (TK)3, Makawide, Batu Sandar 1 and Air Prang. Although most divers come here for the muck diving, Lembeh has much more to offer; especially around Lembeh Island, there are some small but very beautiful coral reefs at shallower depths. Wreck diving is also possible.

The diving was done in small groups and I was grouped together with Kenny and Celia from Hong Kong and at times some other guests with our dive master, Winston leading the dives. Diving was done via back-roll entry from a sturdy custom wooden dive boat. Water temperature was unusually warm, at a steady 28°C and visibility ranging from 10-15 meters.

Before the trip, I was told that there aren’t as many critters as before and seemingly I noticed, that there weren’t as many nudibranchs at Nudi Falls and Nudi Retreat. Actually, I only managed to see less than 10 species for the entire trip, which was a little let down. The renowned hairy frogfish and the resident scarlet Rhinopias scorpionfish were also nowhere in sight.

Nevertheless, we did see multitude of other macro treasures: two juvenile frogfish, many flounders and flying gurnards, two pairs of Pegasus seamoth, tons of shrimps and crabs, many small schools of Cardinal Banggai, few species of pygmy seahorses and pipehorses and many more. Our first dive at Nudi Retreat scored a winner when eagled-eyes Winston found us a new species of pygmy seahorse called the Lembeh sea dragon, which was discovered by famous Manado guide Noldy only a few months ago and has not been properly named (possibly similar to Kyonemichthys rumengani). This tiny little thing is about 2.5cm in length, has brown body and is as thin as a piece of string. I was lucky to be the first few hundreds photographing it.

My main objective of the trip was to see and photograph the other species of pygmy seahorse called the Hippocampus Pontohi. Winston found me two different ones, one with a whitish body and another one with a light yellowish body with red markings. They were found hanging onto the hydroids in small recesses at shallow depth, around 8 meters. I was absolutely delighted!

It’s a fact that Sulawesi offers some of the richest and widest biodiversity on the planet. I have indulged in an underwater experience that totally exceeded my expectations. Can’t wait for my next splash …

Photo Link

Donggala: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Donggala-Dec-2008

Lembeh: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Lembeh-Dec-2008

The world-renowned Beqa Lagoon offers some pretty handy resort diving, close to Fiji’s main island. Once christened “The Mecca of Pacific Diving”, Beqa Lagoon (pronounced “Benga”) is surrounded by over 350 kilometers of pristine reefs and is considered the soft coral capital of the world. It is known for its tradition of Fire walking and made world famous by its Fijian dive masters who hand feed the resident sharks. The species usually present on these dives include Black-tips and White-tip reef sharks, Bulls, Silvertips, Lemon, Grey reef sharks, , Nurse Sharks, and the occasional Tiger shark. My primary purpose for this trip was to see the Bulls, as well as the massive 5-meter Tiger shark, nicknamed Scarface.

Our journey to Lagoon Resort was lengthy and quite an adventure. The resort is situated in the south of the main and largest Fijian island of Viti Levu. It is 50 kilometers; about 40 minutes drive from the capital of Fiji, Suva, and about 120 kilometers from Nadi International Airport. We departed Vavu’u at 9.15am on Fiji Airlines for Tongatapu and then boarded a 2.5 hours Pacific Blue flight into Suva International Airport. At the terminal, we have to collect our luggage and check-in again although we were flying on the same carrier but on a different aircraft. One of Daniel’s bags containing their dive equipments didn’t arrive in Suva and he wasn’t very happy about that. Connecting on another 40 minutes flight, we finally reached Nadi International airport.

From there, we were picked up and transported on a mini-bus, traveling along the magnificent coral coast on sealed roads. Along the way, we picked up two cartons of local Fiji Bitter beers and stopped over for 10 minutes at a souvenirs store where I bought 3 dresses and 2 packets of kava. Suddenly, about 2.5 hours into the journey, we saw smoke coming out from the engine compartment of our vehicle and promptly evacuated. Although exhausted from the long-lasting voyage, the fun-loving bunch were still in good spirits and were having fun drinking beers and posing for the camera on the pitch-dark road while waiting for the replacement bus. We finally arrived at the Lagoon Resort close to 9pm, after more than 12 hours of traveling. Note: Fiji is one hour ahead of Tonga. We didn’t quite figure out why we had to take the longer route but were all glad that everyone was safe and arrived in one piece. Feeling jaded and hungry, we promptly checked-in and were assigned our rooms before dinner was served. I emptied the bowl of delicious corn and chicken soup, fish and chips and half a serving of ice cream before retiring for the night. The atmosphere at the resort, the room and the first dinner was “Paradise” found as compared to Paradise Resort in Tonga.

A friendly couple, Heather and Jim Sherlock, owns Lagoon Resort. The outstanding Fijian staffs are accommodating and always seem happy to be serving you. So, it’s Bula here, Bula there and Bula everywhere! The resort was originally built in 1988 as a casino and bordello and is nestled among 3 acres of landscaped grounds on the banks of the Qaraniqqio River, which leads out into Beqa Lagoon. It was soundly built of permanent materials and has been lovingly maintained. Gwen and I were assigned to a spacious deluxe room with 3 single beds. All rooms feature air conditioning, a private marble bathroom with a bath, ceiling fans, refrigerators, Cable TV, direct-dial phones and broadband Internet access. The resort also has a full service bar and a swimming pool for lounging in the hot afternoons.

All our meals were included in the dive package. All breakfasts were the same, with fresh fruit, yogurts, cereal, juice, coffee and tea, with toasts. Lunch and dinner were varied and the serving was huge so I usually asked for half a portion. There were 2 choices to pick from per meal. Lunch menu includes beef burger or chicken sandwiches with salad and fries, beef stir-fry or curry chicken with rice for main course. Dinner menu includes a choice of salad or soup (tomatoes, spinach) for starters, lamb chops with mashed potatoes, pepper steak with greens or assorted pastas for mains. Desserts are either raspberry cake, ice cream served after lunch and dinner. The food was fantastic but I did not like all of them, particularly the super thick dhal soup and over-powering tomatoes soup.

Sharks are Friends …
We dived with Beqa Adventure Divers (Beqa Adventure Divers – Welcome to Fiji-Sharks.com), a professional on-site dive operation, which specializes in the world famous Big Fish feeding and the soft coral reefs of the Beqa Lagoon. The shark diving team on the Shark Dive is the original shark feeders and has been conducting the Shark Dive in Beqa Lagoon since 1998. The shark feeding is carried out in a very safe and controlled way, the feeders are incredibly experienced and know the individual animals’ characters. The shark dive is conducted at an innocuous hard coral reef named Beqa Channel within the Shark Reef Marine Reserve and about 30 minutes from the hotel. Beqa Adventure Divers are the trustees of the Shark Reef Marine Reserve and have formed partnership with two local villages and the Fiji Government dedicated to the protection of sharks and has the sole rights to dive this reef. Every diver that dives this reef must pay a FS$ 10 which goes to the villages to compensate them for not fishing on the reef and for protecting it from other fishing boats.

Our itinerary for the next 3 days will be 2 shark dives on Day 1, 2 reef dives on Day 2 and another 2 shark dives on the final day. I only came to learn from Daniel on the trip that we were at the peak of the low season for Bull sharks and would be lucky to see just a few. The high season for the Bulls is from Jan-Mar and accordingly to the dive crew, you can expect to see 10-20 of them in a single dive.

On the way to the Beqa Channel on the first day of diving, Pedro, the lead dive guide, gave us a thorough dive briefing with detailed map on what was about to take place. All divers must wear full-length wetsuits and gloves. We were to descend in a group, stay down and behind the wall when watching the feeder hand feed the big pelagic fish. We were told that the first dive would be a “lure” dive to attract the bigger guys like Bulls, Silvertips or the elusive Tiger shark and then the second dive will be the Real thing! The two shark dives will be conducted at different segments: The first dive will at “The Arena” at 30 meters for 17 minutes, and ascending up to “The Den” at 8 meters for the remaining time of the dive and then followed by safety stop. The second dive will be at the “Take Out” at 16 meters for about 35 minutes before hitting shallower water for safety stop.

As soon as we arrived at the dive site, we were told to geared up and the crew began chumming by throwing dead fish heads into the sea. Within seconds, large school of giant trevally, red snappers and rainbow runners was seen splashing on the surface, fighting vigorously over the bait. It’s this commotion, together with the fish scent that attracts the sharks.

One by one, we jumped off the boat via giant strike entry, re-grouped at the surface before descending together with the four guides and two feeders. The feeders carried with them two huge bins full of dead fish and once in the water, I was overwhelmed to see the huge clouds of hungry fish scrambling around us, all trying to filch a piece of food from the feeders’ bin.

The first level of the shark dive took place at 30 meters on a reef ledge next to the drop off into the abyss of the Beqa Passage. We immediately took positions, kneeling down and hiding behind the constructed coral wall, waiting anxiously as Rusi, the lead shark-feeder entered “The “Arena”, about 2 meters in front of us. With his hands covered with mesh gloves, he began hand-feeding the gigantic ball of pelagic fish with fish scraps from a plastic bin. Soon, a few gray reef sharks and a couple of nurse sharks joined the never-ending streams of trevally and red bass. The pelagic fish were trained to come from left to right and only the obedient ones will be fed! I was at the end on the left-hand corner of the wall and 10 minutes into the dive, one of the safety guides ushered me down onto the floor in “The Arena” near to Rusi. Finding myself in the middle of a shark feed, my heart was thumping really fast as I watched in awed and excitement while trying to capture this magnificent moments on my camera. As I went busy clicking away, a 1.5-meter nurse shark suddenly swam right towards me, almost knocking into my camera before it slipped over my head and away to the outer edges of sight. Holy sh**! I squealed.

Soon, our bottom time was up and we ascended to the second level of the shark feed. Up in “The Den”, smaller shark species like White-tip Reefs and Black-tip Reefs were found circling, completely at ease with the presence of the divers. Then, they instantly joined in frenzy and together; they put up a reality show showcasing the survival of the strong versus the weak in the underwater world.

Back aboard the boat, the group was contented and looking forward to the next dive hoping to see the bigger sharks. During the hour-long surface interval, hot tea was served and we chatted with the Fijian dive masters. From them, we learnt that there was never an incident involving a shark bite during the shark feed in the past 10 years at Beqa Lagoon. Only the giant trevally bites! And so, I affirmed my belief that sharks are our friends if we respect them in their natural habitat.

The second dive took place at the “Take Out”, halfway down the reef slope at 16 meters where most of the feeding occurs. Again, the huge ball of large pelagic fish and few nurse sharks immediately entertained us with a show, which was both exciting and intriguing. They soon kept their distance, and we soon learned why. The Bulls have arrived! They were about 4-5 of them and each one about 2.5 meters. They looked impressively massive even from a distant. As soon as the fish scraps were out of the bin, the Bull sharks took the bait and then began devouring the food. One of the bulls after swallowing the huge chuck of bait cruised closer to within one meter from me with its wide mouth still agape. I could see clearly row upon row of its huge triangular teeth and small eyes. Wow, what an intense moment, what a thrill! This one just seemed curious, but not aggressive and I never felt at all under threat. I missed capturing this truly magical close and personal moment due to the shutter lag on my camera. Damn! This magnificent creature then glided slickly over my head before disappearing into the blue.

Most of us went into few minutes of deco-stop for this dive, as everyone wanted the dive to last as long as possible. Big smiles of contentment were painted over our faces after the adrenaline rush of this dive as we motored back to the hotel, ready for lunch and a big kava party after that.

We returned to dive the shark dive again on Day 3. It was raining, gloomy and the sea condition was windy and rough. The dive plan was the same as the first day so dive briefing was only given to the newcomers in the group. Despite the lousy weather, the visibility looked better than the first day. We had the usual large fish action at “The Arena” with a handful of nurse sharks. There was also some really cool White-tip and Black-tip reef shark action at “The Den” but I was not able to make good photograph from my spot. I then decided to swim away from the feed with the permission from a safety guide nearby to make some photographs of the cruising sharks before ending the dive. The exit from the water was slightly different from the first day due to the harsh surface conditions. We were instructed to ascend up the rope one at a time towards the side of the boat, removed our BCDs and hand-over to the dive master on the surface before kicking and then sliding up the side of the boat.

The winds were blowing stronger and after enduring the cold during the hour-long surface interval, we re-entered the water. Much warmer, I felt. Descending down to 16 meters, we waited and waited but besides seeing the same huge ball of trevally, red bass and many playful surgeonfish swimming around us and trying to nibble our gloves, no shark was in sight. After 25 minutes, two Bull sharks appeared but kept their distance and only came in a few times to feed from Rusi. I didn’t get a good look at these big guys. The legendary Tiger shark evaded us again! We ended the dive feeling somewhat disappointed but everyone was in full agreement that we were lucky to have participated and experience the best shark dive in the world. Not quite yet but I’ll be back!

A Kaleidoscope of Colors and Shapes …
You can’t call yourself diving in Fiji if you have not dive the reefs! The Fiji archipelago is encircled by pristine coral reefs, offering thousands of scuba dive sites and its underwater vistas are the stuff of fantasy. Steep drop-offs, magnificent reefs, shallow lagoons, stunning canyons and swim-throughs decorated in vibrantly colored soft corals, sea fans and feather stars await you.

On Day 2, we made two dives at the local reefs. Our first dive was at a dive site called Seven Sisters. Seven Sisters is said to be a site with seven easily discernible pinnacles, but it is not an easy task to identify exactly where these seven start and end. Underwater, the magic never lets up, offering a plethora of soft corals, hard corals and macro life; this pinnacle is literally a fish magnet.

The fish life in Fiji outshines Tonga by far. There were many large shoals of fish and the variety is spectacular. There was no shark on this dive, but plenty of amazing creatures that kept us entertained. There were many tropical fish like wrasses, angels, damsels, surgeons and snappers streaming by, and an astounding array of macro critters like Zanzibar shrimps on whip corals, orang utan crabs in bubble corals, as well as pipe fish, nudibranchs and flatworms lying on the sandy bottom. The shallower reef was filled with many different anemone fish cuddled coyly amongst the anemone tentacles, surrounded by legions of colorful anthias, fusiliers and basslets. When I was doing my safety stop, one of the dive masters found me an anemone with some newly hatched Nemo’s eggs and the female anemone fish tending her eggs was seen bravely charging out to confront us when we hovered too close by. I spent the last few minutes of the dive watching nearby, totally enthralled and moved by the motherly love portrayed by this female anemone fish. It was a nice leisurely dive after all of the intensity of the previous day’s shark dives.

The second dive was at a site called the Golden Arches and this site live right up to its name. The reef has a series of arches and swim-throughs covered with golden yellow soft corals and magnificent sea fans. After we descended, we swam through a large swim-through with many big trees of gorgeous gorgonians growing densely on the underside. Then, we gently finned over and round the reef, between ridges and small bommies, all the while having our eyes feasting on the sheer splendor of its underwater rainbows.

The Kava Party …
While the diving is superb it would be a shame to leave Fiji without sharing in the culture of its hospitable people. In Fiji, drinking kava is one of the foundations of Fijian life and the social cement that bonds society. Made from the ground root of the yaqona pepper plant (Kava – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), the mildly narcotic, mud-colored earthy beverage is enjoyed in ceremonies as well as casually nearly everywhere you go in the country. It has a mildly anesthetic effect so your lips may tingle or feel a bit numb when you try it.

The most important aspect of kava drinking is psychological. Sitting around a bowl in the village, exchanging talanoa (conversation, chat) and listening to the guitars hammer away is a very pleasant experience. Most importantly, the act of sharing a bowl creates an invisible bond between the participants. The visitor feels a warmth and acceptance among complete strangers that is normally associated with family or close friends.

Well, the kava parties that we had were unlike the traditional kava ceremony performed in the Fijian villages. I had my first taste of the kava drink in Tonga when Daniel invited a Fijian guy, Tim to help us make the kava beverage at the hotel. Daniel is a non-alcoholic but he loved the kava drink after drinking it in Fiji prior to our trip. He said he was feeling “high” after drinking 2 bowls. We had 2 kava parties in Tonga on our last 2 evenings and I had 6 bowls on the first evening and 11 bowls on the following evening but didn’t feel anything. Hence, I was called the “Kava Queen”. But I believe that drinking this somewhat “spiritual” drink gave us good luck and we had the best whale encounter on our last day!

In Fiji, kava flowed profusely. We had kava party with the dive crew everyday starting from late afternoon till night. Our new Fijian friends even brought us to a local village to buy the “Real” stuff. Wonderful Fijian hospitality is the hallmark of the Beqa Adventure Divers and welcoming us into their community, Pedro would spin the poison offering “low-tide”, “high-tide” or “Tsunami-tide”, and then passing the kava bowl from one person to another, we had some wonderful time drinking kava and sharing stories while listening to the Fijians singing along to the beautiful tunes from the guitar boy or sometimes CD player.

Dreams do come true, sometimes twice better …
While my primary aim for this trip was to swim with humpback whales in Tonga but I’m glad that I did the Fiji extension. Fiji is one magical, friendly, musical, and stunningly beautiful place. I left the country with great sadness but with superb memories of great diving and friendships of my new Fijian friends.

Photo link: Jovin’s Cool Photos!! :: Fiji – Beqa Shark Dives Sept 2008

Whales are memorable
My heart skipped a beat as I watched in awed when the 40-tonne mother humpback whale breaches her entire gigantic body out of the water within point-blank range from our boat. The sound of her landing back onto the surface was amazingly powerful, the splash huge. Together with Natalia and Jake, I was sitting on the bow of the boat, some on the top deck while others still in the waters, we were all caught by surprise and were screaming in excitement but none of us has our cameras ready for this magical moment of life’s greatest wildlife encounters. That captivating display was the finale for my whale watching experience in Vava’u group of islands in Tonga and I took home with me many cherished and unforgettable memories.

Southern hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a baleen whale and a rorqual whale that sings amazing songs. An adult female humpback whale can grow up to 16 meters in length and weigh as much as 45 tonnes. Adult males are slightly smaller. A humpback whale calf at birth is around 3 meters in length and weighs around one tonne. The humpback has a bulky head with bumpy protuberances (tubercles), each with a bristle. Humpbacks are acrobats of the ocean, breaching and slapping the water. They live in pods and have 2 blowholes. The name humpback describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive. It spends around eight months of each year in Antarctica, feeding on krill, small prawn like critters, and shoals of herrings. The South Pacific kingdom of Tonga is one of the only places on the planet where tourists can swim with humpback whales. From July to September each year, the humpbacks migrate to Tonga to mate and calve in the island-nation’s warm, sheltered waters. Boisterous courtship displays and mating occur during these months … it’s an exciting time to be observing the whales of Tonga.

Tonga – A distant Paradise
Tonga? Where’s that? Most people I mentioned to do not know about this unique archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean; let alone what the Friendly Islands has to offer. Tonga lies east of Australia and north of New Zealand with its closest neighbors Fiji in the northwest and Samoa in the northeast. Tonga, a constitutional monarchy, is the only South Pacific country never to have been colonized by a foreign power. Its comprises a scattered distribution of 171 islands, spread out in a north–south direction across 800 kilometers (500 miles) of the South Pacific Ocean. Only 45 of Tonga’s 171 islands are currently inhabited, but the population of nearly 100,000 is growing rapidly. There are four island groups including the mostly low-lying Tongatapu group, the volcanic and coral Ha’apai group; the flat coral islands of the Vava’u group, and the volcanic Niuas group in the far north. Tonga personifies the beauty of the South Pacific. It has an abundance of remote (almost endless) white sand beaches, all protected by reefs. Snorkeling and scuba conditions are pure perfection, and the Tongan people are very welcoming.

Getting there was no small task, I took off from Singapore to Sydney on an overnight 7 hours flight, stayed two days in Sydney catching up with some friends and did a dive at Bare Island for the weedy sea dragon before continuing on the planned Tonga/Fiji trip organized by Ron Hunter from Dive Forster (http://www.whaledive.net/). A 3.5 hours Pacific Blue flight into the main island of Tongatapu, overnight and then 45 minutes on an early morning Chathams Pacific flight later, I stepped foot onto Vava’u to begin an incredible experience beyond words.

The people I met on the trip are an interesting and fun loving mix. Our tour leader, Ron from Sydney is one such lucky guy and was on his 6th year whale trips; he yellow-carded me for chasing whales. Hey! This was my first! Go figure. My best traveling and kava parties mates, Daniel and Natalia from Brazil – Daniel, famous underwater photographer, was on an assignment working for National Geographic featuring humpback whales and Natalia, his beautiful fiancée and underwater model. Gia, my amazing roommate, was on her first snorkeling trip and even did her first Discover Scuba dive at 50. Big girl (as Steve call her) George, who cried for 10 minutes after seeing her first whales, is from London. The rest of the group is from different parts of Australia: Scott and Coleen from USA are now living in Brisbane, “Santa” Roger and lovely Ann, Neil and Poh Sin, Steve, Michelle, Gwen, Tony and my dive buddy, Jake aka Mr. Chef, from Germany and is also living in Brisbane working as a banquet chef. The new group who joined us on our last 2 days is also from Australia: Matous, Josephine, Tina and Lynn. They were very lucky, very lucky indeed! Not only are they on a small group (meaning more opportunity with the whales), they had the best first whale day on our last day!

After we cleared immigration and collected our luggage, we were met by Mano, the friendly driver from Paradise Hotel and transferred to the hotel by bus via a 45 minutes journey. The road, which snakes through the township of Neiafu, has spectacular views of the harbor, with the Catholic mission occupying one of the most commanding locations in the township. Along the way, Mano showed us the banks, Post Office, Market Place, and Beluga Dive Center which are located about 7~15 minutes walk from the hotel. Occupying a 15-acre site and overlooking the Port of Refuge Harbor, the hotel was constructed in the early 70s and is need of a “facelift”. Upon arriving at the hotel, we checked in and were assigned our rooms. Gia and I were allocated a double room but changed it to a twin room instead. Many from the group also have their rooms changed due to some utilities not working or cleanliness of the room. The rooms are obviously in need of some cleaning and maintenance. Our room is spacious, with a double bed and a single bed with a private balcony and en-suite hot shower. It is air-conditioned but the air-con is old and noisy. The temperature was set at 24 deg C and not adjustable. It was constructed with wood and wood shavings were falling from the ceiling. Carpeting the whole room is a bad choice as the floor has become rather moldy due to snorkelers/divers walking in wet over prolonged time. The water supply was cut-off for the whole day on our last day and some of us didn’t get a shower. I have stayed on many small islands in Asia and the rooms might be smaller and basic but clean and well kept. On a sad note, this hotel just isn’t Paradise at all! On a very positive note, the welcoming and accommodating Tongan staff made our stay a pleasant one.

Where and what to Eat … The hotel offers free continental breakfast everyday and the menu was the same each day. The menu consists of fresh fruits (papaya, pineapple, bananas and watermelon), cold cereals (Wheatabix), toast, eggs prepared to order and omelets, juices, tea and coffee. I miss my Asian breakfast and had to make do with instant noodles for the last three mornings. Lunch was usually the delicious egg, Tuna or chicken sandwiches prepared by the ladies from Beluga Diving on whale-watching days or a quick sandwich or pasta meal washed down with a glass of fruit smoothie at the Aquarium Café after dives. Most afternoons, I enjoyed stopping by the Aquarium for a Gin & Tonic or two, reading my book or just chilling out. From 5.30pm – 6.30pm daily, free cocktails and beers are available from the hotel bar. It was when we will all gathered together to recount the happenings of the day, had fun and lots of laugh on the “Truth Chair” while enjoying the free drinks before making dinner plans. We frequented few restaurants suggested by Ron for our dinner. Actually the food is decent here but can’t speak much of a variety comparing to Asian cuisine.

Aquarium Cafe is an Internet cafe, restaurant, tour-booking agent and general social area. Its’ waterfront location provides a beautiful view of the harbor and I like the fun and laid-back atmosphere here. The American owners and staff are very friendly and the waiting time for our food was reasonable. They served Tapas style dinner consisting Spanish style potatoes with paprika dip and Mexican samosas, Chicken curry with rice, Tongan style tropical fish, French style Chicken Cordon Bleu or Blue cheese Ravioli and so on. I did not try the desserts but those who did say the coconut cake, brownie and ice cream was a treat. We also had a small birthday celebration for Gwen here and we had an absolutely fun and lovely time playing drinking games and singing along to the musicians. If for some reason you can only eat at one dinner at a Vava’u restaurant, don’t even think of passing up the Aquarium!

Mana’ia served an assortment of Italian inspired dishes and freshly made gourmet style calzones and pizzas. I had the Marinara and Capricciosa pizza with Gin & Tonic on 2 different evenings and they were delightfully good. Actually, everything that the group had here has been really good. No complain.

Mango is a modern waterfront bar/restaurant situated in front of Moorings yacht charters. The menu is rather limited and on 2 occasions when we were there, they do not have fresh fish and therefore do not have the tuna rolls that we liked. The fish and chips were quite good but the pizza was non-appetizing. It was more expensive to dine here and the portion was quite small. Also, this place runs on “Tongan” time so expect more than an hour for your meal to be served.

Dancing Rooster offers a very popular Wednesday night “All-you-can-eat” BBQ comprising of fish, chicken, sausage and lamb with assorted salads and fruits. We were here on both Wednesdays and I found it to be value for money.

Humpback whale encounters and Dive trip itinerary
Day 2 (10th Sept) – 2 dives for divers and cruise on Catamaran for snorkelers
Day 3 (11th Sept) – 1st whale day: Swim with 2 adults and 3 juveniles, witness heat-run between 2 males and a female from the boat, breaches and tail-slap.
Day 3 (12th Sept) – 2 dives for divers and Go-Kart rides for snorkelers
Day 4 (13th Sept) – 2nd whale day: Swim with a mother and calf pair (in the waters 4x) before handing them over to another boat, more breaches and tail-slap.
Day 5 (14th Sept) – 3rd whale day: A male whale singing upside down in mid waters (So surreal) and swim with 3 adults (briefly)
Day 6 (15th Sept) – 2 dives for divers and Free & Easy for snorklers
Day 7 (16th Sept) – 4th whale day: Very brief underwater encounters with 2 juveniles and a mother and calf pair, followed 5 whales at the surface for 30 minutes while seeing them separated, re-grouped, breached and tail-slapped etc.
Day 8 (17th Sept) – 5th whale day: Whales at the surface but avoided us as soon as we went into the waters for 5 hours. Finally, got the chance to swim up-close with a mother and calf pair with 1 male escort for 10 minutes. Awesome.
Day 9 (18th Sept) – 6th whale day: First mother and calf pair didn’t want to play, was with another mother and calf pair with 1 male escort for 3 hours before handing them over to another boat. Female whale breaches her whole body out from the water about 5 meters from the boat. Truly sensational!

It is illegal in Tonga to swim with whales without a licensed whale-watching operator. There are 12 licensed whale-watching operators and we use Beluga Diving (Diving in Tonga Vava’u. dive courses Tonga Pacific Island. Whale watching tonga), which has 7 years experience and the crew are truly professional and helpful. Moa, our skipper is the BEST and always positioned us to have the best encounters with the whales. The humpback whales encounters are very clearly regulated by a code of practice and professionally handled. Only a licensed whale-watching operator may be within 300 meters of the whale. There can only be 4 snorkelers and 1 guide in the water with the whales at each time. Snorkelers are told to perform a Soft-In-Water entry, avoid big splashes and any rapid movements while in the water to avoid stressing the whales. No flash photography is allowed and strictly no touching or any physical contact with the whale. Respect and Do Not harass the whales.

An experience beyond words …
Some say it’s a life changing experience. I think that the excitement and emotions one felt while in the presence of the humpback whales cannot be described by any words. The experience you have and the dazzling array behaviors of the humpback whales you witness will leave you feeling joy, awe, amazement, humility, gratitude and respect. Simply put – Speechless!

Stunning first whale day – The skies were clear blue, the sea was calm and the water crystal clear. Two huge blows erupt from afar. Someone called out: “Whales at 10 o’clock” and instantly, 19 pairs of eyes were looking towards the same direction. Moa, our skipper and whale-spotter, motored the boat towards the sprouts. A hushed silence fell as we drew closer and all eyes watched the water off the sides of the boat. All of a sudden, with a loud roar, up came a whale as she let a large gush of water out her blowhole before lurking below the water’s surface. Almost immediately, another big gush from another whale followed, this one smaller and presumably a male escort. The crowd clapped and watched in delight as the gentle giant then flipped back into the water lifting his tail for all to see. While we were recovering from this unexpected spectacle, they returned, this time passing within a couple of meters of us. Moa shouted: “Get Ready” and skillfully maneuvered the boat following the whales.

There are 16 of us and we were divided into 4 groups. I was in Group 3 and the chances are 1 out of 4. This is my first time with the humpback whales and I wish to be in a smaller group (say to have more opportunities with them). As such, I traded one diving day and the catamaran sailing day for 2 additional whale days and paid extras. Many from my group paid for extra whale days too. The new group was only 4 people. How lucky! Next time, I’ll check before booking my trip.

The first group of snorkelers got ready and waits eagerly for Moa to position the boat. At the command of “Go, Go, Go”, the snorklers gently slipped into the water and then bobbing like corks in the sea, they followed behind our guide, Conna, swimming towards the whales. From the boat, we watched as the two whales swim so effortlessly and passed by the snorkelers before disappearing into the deep. The whole encounter lasted for slightly less than a minute but the smiles on the faces of those returning to the boat were huge.

Whales behavior patterns are remarkable and unpredictable. The encounter can lasts as long as the whales want to play, as brief as seconds, or sometimes missing them completely as soon we were in the water. In the time I spent with these tremendous giants, I experienced all of the above and had few incredible encounters.

On one day, we met a humpback mother with a calf pair and 2 male male escorts. We followed the leisurely moving group for about 30 minutes and once they were used to the boat, they stopped close by the boat, seemingly as inquisitive to see us, as we were to see them. We slid down into the water from the boat and “slowly” snorkeled over – The whales were unfazed by our presence and were curious about this unfamiliar species they had encountered. The mother was at the surface, the calf was nearby and the accompanied male escorts swimming 20 meters under. Soon, the mother descended to about 15 meters below the surface and stayed there. The calf needed air more frequently, about once every 7 minutes, so it surfaced more often but always swam back down to its mother. When the calf swam back to its mother, she would open her fins and allow the calf to swim under her and inside the fins. Then she closed them around her calf, as if in a hug. When the male escorts together with the mother and calf pair surfaced to breathe, they rose to the surface and back into the sea, entertaining us with their graceful movements of a fine ballet, with the choreography only Mother Nature could compose. I went into the water 4 times and each time was totally different experience. We stayed with them for close to 3 hours before handing them over to another boat. At that point, I do not know the significance of this “handing over” rule; I wanted to have more time with the whales! Why can’t we stay with them longer? I pondered.

On another occasion, we saw a sprout from distant and as soon as we motored our boat near to the spot, the sea remains glassy, as if untouched, with not a whale in sight. Then, another sprout will surface some distant away; we again motored over and still couldn’t find any whale present. This whale was playing hide and seek with us and this pursuit continued on for the next hour. It got to the point when all of us were losing hope to catch a glimpse of this evasive giant when Moa suddenly stopped the boat and gestured to Conna to get into the water to have a look. Almost immediately, we could hear loud guttural groans, long-winded whines and melodious moans coming from beneath the water and felt slight vibrations from the boat. “There is a whale singing nearby”. Ron cried out; overjoyed. About 5 meters from our boat, Conna signaled that there was a whale underneath and the first group of snorkelers got in to join him. When I got into the water and swam towards the whale, the complex song that he was singing was so loud that it was literally vibrating my entire body. In the water, I saw a 30-tonne male humpback, hanging upside down stationary about 25 meters beneath us. Floating above him, I was completely entranced and enamored by the complex pattern and rhythm of his song. The song lasted for about 10 minutes before he decided to move, surfacing for air for a brief period before submerging and stopping to sing again. We spent about an hour with him before Huib decided that we should give the whale a break. It was an incredible sensory, emotional, and utterly mystical experience. How did Moa know that he was there? I wondered.

Black or Not so Black Wednesday … A perfect day with clear blue skies, sun shining, glassy sea and not a breath of wind to disturb the tranquility, we motored around the islands and found several groups of whales but they were just not interested in having us around. They entertained us with breaches, tail slaps, rolls and flukes but avoided us and dived into the deep as soon as we got into the water. Up, down, up, down, up, down. No one see any whale in the water that morning and we all had some good workouts instead. We spent 5 non-rewarding hours following these “yo-yo” patterns of the whales. Feeling disappointed, we decided to call it a day after lunch. On the way back, Moa radioed another boat and have some good news for us. The other boat was going to hand over their whales, a mother and calf pair, with a male escort to us.

Too lazy to suit up again, I got into the water wearing only my short-sleeves red rash guard and board shorts in 24 deg. C water. When we approached, the mother was almost stationary and vertical with her nose few meters below the surface. The calf was hanging above. The mother then positioned her calf on her nose and gently pushed her precious baby sideways through the water. The playful little one then decided to swim towards me with its mother following closely. At first I froze, afraid to move a muscle, as they swam right up to me, barely an arm’s length away. But as we came eyeball to eyeball, it dawned on me how harmless and gracious they are. During the whole encounter lasting over 10 minutes, the inquisitive calf swam another 2 times towards me (I think it was attracted to my red rash guard), the mother following and watching nearby. Of course, Murphy’s Law was in effect, I was camera-less for this incredible encounter because my camera housing fogged up after it was left in the tub under the hot sun for long hours.

What struck me about this experience was how gentle this massive mother humpback was and how she knew exactly where I was at all times during this encounter. Whenever I drifted past one of her flippers, she would tuck it under her belly so as not to strike me with it, then turned and positioned herself so that I was next to her massive head. She seemed to be quite content to have me hovering in the vicinity of her watchful eye. I feel welcome in their underwater world. Cold, wet, exhausted and grinning, we motored back, with a well-recorded memory that we would re-live again and again over kava party and dinner that evening.

Saving the Best for Last … Our luck held and the following day, after patiently waiting for an hour, we were rewarded with a cooperative pair of mother and calf, together with a male escort. We spent 3 fruitful hours with them before handing them over. This time round, I have fully appreciated and understood the term “handing over” and gladly do so. As we watched them go, I think we were all aware that we had been privileged to witness something quite extraordinary, a one in a million, certainly once in a lifetime moment of pure magic.

In the moments I spent with the whales, I communicated with them in a way I didn’t before know possible. Our souls seem to be connected and when we met eyeball to eyeball, I told them just how much I respected them. Fear never entered the picture. All I could feel was love, admiration and respect. I now also appreciate a good breach photo, as mine were all just big splashes.

Now onto the Diving …
I did 6 dives over 3 diving days (10/09, 12/09 and 15/09) covering The Fingers, Rhino’s Point, Split Rocks, Chinatown, Fotula and Sea Fan. It was winter in Tonga and the weather was as varied as its whale’s behavior patterns. We had clear skies, calm sea and gin-clear visibility around 40 meters on the first day. Overcast skies and slightly choppier sea conditions on the second day. The weather on the third day was horrendous; the wind averaged 25 knots, dark clouds filled the skies and it was raining cats and dogs making entry and exit into the water difficult. Luckily the visibility wasn’t bad, around 15 meters.
The water temperature was around 24 deg. C and the current varied, from nice and easy dives with non-existent current to pretty strong current with surface surge on some dives. The dive sites were about 20-30 minutes from the harbor.

Tonga’s underwater realm is filled with interesting rock formations, caverns, swim-through and tons of species of hard corals, many rising close to the surface. Some reefs have profusion of hard corals adorned with Christmas tree worms of every color while some are filled with beautiful soft corals and sea fans. I do not have any diving photos for this trip; my strobe wasn’t working properly on the first dive on our first diving day and so I did not bring my camera for the second dive. I found both my macro lens missing after the dives, I must have dropped them underwater during the first dive. And so, I decided to be my buddy’s critter spotter instead and did not bring my camera for the rest of the dives.

There are many species of brilliantly colored reef fish playing around the reef but I did not feel the constant spectacle of action and we did not see huge shoals of them swimming together. Neither did I see any pelagic, just a few juvenile nurse sharks resting in a cave and a Wahoo cruising passed. However, I did find an astonishing array of macro critters ranging from crinoid shrimps, lobsters and many cling fish hiding in the colorful feather stars, swaying carpets of garden eels on the sand, which Ron teasingly labeled the Tongan boys, few species of nudibranchs and flabellina, crabs in soft corals, an occasional huge carpet of anemone housing anemone crabs and shrimps, a dragonet and many more.

Dreams do come true …
The Friendly Islands – For me, visiting Tonga is yet another dream fulfilled. Apart from the incredible whale encounters and fantastic dives, what made this place special were the qualities of the Tongan people I met. Not yet jaded by mass tourism, the island people are mostly shy, genuine, and are graced by great generosity, exuberance, and with a sense of humor. Tonga became real to me.

Photo link: Jovin’s Cool Photos!! :: Vava’u,Tonga – Swimming With Humpback Whales Sept 2008

Pulau Weh (Weh Island) is located on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. This is one of Indonesia’s hidden treasure and a little known diving paradise where you are likely to see manta ray or whale shark, or even a Mola Mola and the extremely rare Megamouth shark, unpredictably magnificent, pristine and to many beyond description. Off the beaten track, it is only accessible via Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province. This was my second trip to this unspoiled tropical paradise and I embarked on a different route, a lengthy and rather tiring journey, yearning to see the unusual deep water Megamouth shark.

On Monday evening, I took a 5.5 hours coach from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and spent the night over at daddy’s place in Petaling Jaya. We started off bright and early the next morning, taking an hour taxi to LCCT terminal to catch the one-hour Air Asia flight to Bandah Aceh. We cruised through customs but checking in our luggage at Air Asia’s counter was cumbersome. They allow 15 kilos for personal check-in baggage and an additional 15 kilos for sport equipment at a fixed rate at RM40 each. Daddy had a pelican case weighing 12 kilos and had originally packed his dive bag together with his personal belongings in a big trolley bag weighing 20 kilos and was told to pay for 5 kilos excess baggage. I had only one bag for dive gears and personal belongings weighing 17 kilos and the check-in staff wanted to charge me RM30 for excess, despite not exceeding 30 kilos. She said that we can have more personal check-in bags within allowance but will have to pay for excess if we decided to keep to one bag. What strange check-in policy! Eventually, we had to reshuffle our bags, having them rescanned and paid RM80 just for the two sport bags. We had a quick breakfast before immigration clearance, and then head over to duty-free for some liquors and cigarettes before the flight took off on schedule at 12pm.

Upon arriving at Banda Aceh airport, we were welcomed by a traditional drum dance performance and promptly cleared immigration but another nightmare began at the luggage collection area. The area was crammed and stuffy. There was no conveyor belt system and unloading of the bags was done manually. We had 4 check-in bags and took us more than half an hour to retrieve them.

Important note: Air Asia had recently rescheduled their departure flight to daily at 3.40pm temporary (7th of August till 25th of October 2008) so one night stay in Banda Aceh is unavoidable if you taking this route. Other routes are possible- do check out details from Lumba-lumba’s link (http://www.lumbalumba.com/travel.html). Also, foreigners requiring a visa will have to obtain their visa prior to entry into Banda Aceh as the airport is NOT a Visa-on-Arrival port yet.

From there, we boarded a pre-arranged taxi and it took 45 minutes to get to Ulee Lheu ferry habour where the fast ferry leave for Balohan on Pulau Weh. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 4pm and we spent the next 2 hours having a light lunch and reading at the small shop near the ticket office whist waiting for it to open. At 3pm, we finally got our VIP tickets, boarded the ferry and after “enduring” an hour Karaoke session, we arrived in Pulau Weh. We got picked up again by another pre-arranged taxi driver before embarking on a bone-rattling drive through about 20km of the island’s pot-holed roads to finally reach the shores of Gapang at close to 6pm. After checking in to Lumba-lumba, we proceeded to Dat’s Zero Café to have dinner before retiring for the night.

Gapang Beach is a unique beach, with white sand halfway around the bay, surrounded by large overhanging trees. Its charm is endearing and it is not difficult to unwind in this tropical paradise. It seems like we have traveled almost to the end of the civilized world and beyond. Here, the people we met are of different origins, age, occupations and beliefs.

Lumba-lumba (http://www.lumbalumba.com/) is well run and professionally managed by Ton and Marjan, a nice Dutch couple. They have recently expanded with few newly completed bungalow chalets just right behind the dive shop where we chose to stay. The bungalows are beautifully done- the room is fan-cooled and is very spacious. Our room has 2 single beds, a sitting area, a small pantry, a fridge and a wooden verandah. The attached “kampung mandi” style bathroom do not have hot water but unlike the previous time when I stayed at Leguna up the hill, I found the cold water showers bearable. It has also a large sink platform for toiletries and flushing toilet. YES, No more squatting ones! The local electricity supply is erratic, with intermittent cut offs happen almost daily. Be prepared if you need to recharge your batteries. Mosquitoes are also a problem during the night when the electricity got cut-off. Ton said he is getting a new generator and will be installing air-conditioning soon.

The food selection is rather limited, especially for Westerners not used to having rice and noodle as a staple. My friend, Richard, who is working as an instructor at Lumba-lumba since April told me he has already lost few kilos. As such, when I offered to bring him some boozes when I visit, he traded them for Heinz baked beans as he misses his beans on toast too much. I got him 4 cans and he said he is going to ration them since he has got another 2 more months there. On Gapang Beach, there are 6 cafes. Out of which 3 of them served the same menu, offering local Acehese food like noodles or rice served with fried fish/chicken/vegetables, curries and some basic Western food such as pancakes, sandwiches, fruit salads, Taco and spaghetti. A word of advise, allow ample time, usually about 30-45 minutes for your food to be served since the locals tend to take their own sweet time to prepare their food. To avoid the wait, every afternoon after the first boat dive, daddy would walk to Walet, a small shop up the road to pack our favorite curry with rice for lunch. Grilled fish (Ikan baker), which was amazing fresh and delicious can be ordered beforehand (before 4pm). Not forgetting the donut lady who turned up after each surface interval with delicious snacks like donuts, fried vegetables patties and cakes to satisfy our sweet tooth.

And then, onto the diving…

Pulau Weh diving consists of a variety: full-adrenaline current drift diving, hot spring diving, deep diving, wreck diving, macro and shore diving amidst intensely rich marine life. During the plankton seasons (Nov – Jan) pelagic such as manta and devil ray, whale shark are frequent visitors. Underwater, the landscape was just as varied as its visitors. Each site is different and mostly spectacular. Many dive sites are characterized by big volcanic rock boulders with partial coral cover, with lots of nooks and crannies.

Lumba-lumba run 2 boat dives daily: a morning dive at 10am (with the exception on Friday due to the local religion practice) and an afternoon dive at 2pm or 2.30pm after lunch. Most of the dive sites are about 20-30 minutes away by boat. You can also do as many unguided shore dives and guided night dive is upon request only. The dive boat is a sturdy wooden boat & can accommodate up to 20 divers, via back-roll entry. The dive crew consists of very experienced local guides and boatmen and few foreign instructors. We did a total of 11 dives covering just few sites: The Canyon, Batee Tekong (2x), Arus Balee, Pantee Peunateung, Batee Gla and Gapang shore dives (5x). Water temperature was always around 28°C and visibility wasn’t at its best at this time of the year, ranging from 10-25 meters.

The Canyon – It’s the island trump card and a favorite for most big fish divers, located on the Northern tip of the island. Two huge volcanic rocks forming a canyon about 5 meters wide and drop down to 50 meters or so. The strong currents and nutrient rich water attracts pelagic species such as huge school of barracuda, Napoleon wrasse, gray reef sharks, manta and eagle rays, occasional oceanic white tips and very rarely Mola Mola. It is listed for advanced diving mainly due to the strong currents that can occur but the current was almost non-existent during our dive and so was the big pelagic. Nevertheless, we descended right in the middle of the canyon and saw a huge Napoleon wrasse being cleaned. The first rock was covered with many beautiful soft corals and huge gorgonian sea fans and teeming with fish life. The view was just breathtaking. The second rock has less coral growths but more deep crevasses; it also has an abundance of reef fish, from schools of triggerfishes to free-swimming lionfishes to brilliantly colored anthias and fusiliers. My fiber optic cable wasn’t working so I did not take any photograph on this dive. This gave me an opportunity to look at the reef more closely and I enjoyed every bit of this unique fish bowl.

Batee Tokong – A steep slope densely covered with magnificent gorgonian sea fans most measuring one meter or more in width, continues downwards till well over 40 meters, where a second wall starts. This dive site has an amazing number of moray eels and so named the “No. 1 Moray city in the World”. Numerous masked morays with accompanying cleaner shrimps concentrated on one part of the reef, counted at least a dozen or two, and you’ll have to be careful when getting near for photography as one will stick it’s head out of it’s hiding place unexpectedly. Giant, fimbriated, white-eye, snowflake, white-mouth, honeycombed, zebra and yellow margined morays are also commonly sighted. There is also an abundance of hard corals providing a home for many species of brightly colored reef fish and the sheer concentration of the creatures here is astounding. The sea conditions here transitioned very quickly. On one dive, it was bright and sunny when we descended and there were some mild currents and it was fine for the first 25 minutes. I was spending too much photographing the gobies and hawk fishes on the sea fans at 30 meters depth and hit deco. As I worked my way up the slope to clear my 7 minutes deco-stop, the sea just turned dark suddenly and the currents were ripping. I found a big rock, hid behind it and hang on. Looking up, I saw white patches out in the blue and thought they were schools of jacks but as they got closer, I realized that they were whirlpools created by the ocean currents. They just drifted passed, one after another and each one getting bigger. I was lucky enough to have ascended to shallower depth and hiding behind a rock, I could have been sucked into the whirlpools? WOW! This was the first time I have witnessed something like this. Pretty freaky but what an enthralling sight! 15 minutes later, the currents became manageable. I have completed my deco-stop and surfaced to a gloomy sky with heavy rain and strong winds. That was Mother Nature at work!

Arus Balee – meaning bastard current in Acehese and is the name of the water passage around the rocky pinnacle between the islands of Seulako and Rubiah. This narrow passage often sees lots of strong current bringing with them, sharks, rays and other current loving sea creatures. It was a mass of moving color and a spectacular sight to watch as streams of neon bright fusiliers, anthias and other colorful reef fish were out to play, swimming against the currents. It is also the best site for spotting Blue ribbon eels; here you can easily manage to find both the black juvenile as well as the blue male adult, and sometimes even the yellow female adult. Ignoring the No. 1 rule of diving: Look into the blue occasionally, I saw 6 ribbon eels, 2 blue and 4 black and was so focused on photographing them that I missed the 3 Manta rays, which the other groups saw. Feeling a little disappointed, I would have to “kill” myself if it was a Megamouth shark.

Gapang Beach Shore Dive – Right in front of Lumba-lumba, the shore dive is a great-relaxed dive where we immersed in a profusion of hard coral garden and anemones, evidently minimal damage from the Asia’s 2004 Tsunami. Amongst them, there are an abundance of reef fish and prolific communities of invertebrates. The place is literally teaming with life. The reef is also densely populated by an abundance of butterfly fishes and snappers, scorpion and lionfishes, razor fishes, schools of red tooth triggerfishes and many more. On the sand you can find swaying carpets of garden eels, Flying gurnards, pipe-horses, ribbon eels, flounders, snake eels and many more.

Topside-wise, there wasn’t much to do. The dive shop has a large comfortable deck facing the sea where most guests chill-out, read books or simply take a siesta in the hammock. Internet is sporadically available but I gave up after trying for 10 minutes to log onto my emails. At every surface interval, daddy and I were engrossed on playing Bejeweled on his I-phone and challenging to beat each other’s high scores. Eventually, I have set a high score that will probably take him months to beat On Friday’s afternoon, we finished dive early and started drinking the bottle of “Jack Daniels” which we had bought with Ingrid and the dive crew. On our last night on the island, we invited the dive crew and some of the new friends we quickly befriended, Michael and Sergi from Germany and Erik and Simone from Holland for dinner. The evening was wonderful with a delicious feast of 2 huge grilled fish, chicken curries, and shrimps, vegetables and of course beers, amongst dive tales, “sugar daddy” jokes and endless laughter. Yo-Yo used the phrase “Never try, Never know” so often that it has got embedded in my head. Funny!! We ended the night with a nice whisky back at Michael and Sergi’s veranda, calling it one for the road and we promised to keep in touch.

Walking down memory lane in Pulau Weh, despite not seeing the evasive Megamouth shark, we found what we came for – great diving, interesting people and a tranquil atmosphere to slip into a groove. It was wonderful to be able to see Ton, Marjan, Richard, and everyone else again, and good to also meet the new faces who had stopped over at Lumba-lumba. One day, we would like to be back.

Here is the link to my photos: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Pulau-Weh-Aug-2008 

Happy bubbles,

Jovin-

Chasing Dream…
The months of May to July offers an unusual and magical event in the waters along the Ribbon reefs in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – the migration of the dwarf minke whales into this region and regularly approaching close to boats and snorkellers. Dwarf minke whales were first recognized and described as a unique species of whale in the mid 1980s and there is still little known about them. They are classified as the second smallest of the baleen whales and feed on lantern fish, krill and crustaceans. Although they are termed “Dwarf”, a fully developed adult can still reach approximately 8 meters in length and weigh up to five tons. The dwarf minke whale (Scientific name: Balaenoptera acutorostrata – acutorostrata means ‘sharp snouted’) has the most complex color pattern of any baleen whale; and has a characteristic white band on each fin that contrasts with a very dark grey tip on the flipper; these markings are as individual as fingerprints. Most dwarf minke whales also have a scattering of circular scars on their bodies; believe to be caused by the vicious deep-sea cookie cutter sharks taking a mouthful of the blubber.
Refer to link: Minkw Whale Biology for detailed biology information.

On Friday the 13th June 2008, I boarded an overnight 7.5 hours Qantas flight from Singapore to Brisbane and then connecting onto another 2 hours Qantas flight to Cairns for what I excitedly hoped would be my first whale watching dive trip. In search of both adventure and scientific observation, I was booked on a week dwarf minke whale expedition on board the Undersea Explorer from June 14th to 20th. Upon arriving at Cairns airport, I boarded a pre-arranged bus to the local marina in Port Douglas, where our ship was docked. I embarked the boat at 4.30pm and was met by Qamar, the dive supervisor; who checked my C-cards/Nitrox certification, asked about my dive experience and most recent dives, filled up some forms, told to set-up my equipments and assigned my cabin.

The Undersea Explorer is a 25-meter sturdy steel vessel used for research in the area of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Fully air-conditioned, she can accommodates up to 20 guests, 5 crew and 2 researchers. The boat is well laid out with roomy queen and bunk style cabins on the main deck and hull; and 5-shared bathrooms. The salon/dining and kitchen area is located on the main deck and there is a biologist/lecture room for talks/group discussions and slide/video presentations. There is a general covered top deck with a lot of room to stretch out, for donning on wetsuits, whale watching and is the only place on the boat where smoking is allowed. The dive deck is pretty small area and entry to the water is via a large hydraulic dive platform. Each diver was allocated a tank pod and a crate for mask, fins and any other gears, to be shared by two divers. There are 3 camera rinse tanks, one large and 2 smaller ones.

The meals were buffet style, always enticing and plentiful. Usually, we will have a pre-dive light breakfast consisting of toast, cereals, fresh fruit and juice at 7.30am, and then a heavy breakfast consisting of bacons, eggs, tomatoes and more toast after the first dive. Lunch was usually served at 1.30pm, consisting of assorted salads, cold cuts and breads. Muffins and homemade pastries for afternoon tea. Dinner consisted of roast lamb, steak or chicken, corn, carrots, mashed potatoes and assorted salads will be served at 8pm after night dive and then the absolutely not to be missed (or should I say to die for) desserts from Tony, which we usually had in the biologist room during slide/video presentations by the researchers/biologists. A wide variety of drinks, including two kinds of beer were permanently available in the refrigerator. Tea, coffee, Milo and different types of cookies were also available throughout the week. Each person was provided with a complimentary water bottle and we were encouraged to stay hydrated.

Once the other guests have embarked and were all settled in, we were briefed on boat and safety rules. One very important rule is to make sure that you’re sign-in whenever there is a scheduled dive or any entry into the water. We were also introduced to the crew – David (skipper), Sean (engineer), Tony (cook), Qamar (dive supervisor), Gabriel (marine biologist and DM), Kerri-Ann (volunteer instructor) and Leoni (volunteer hostess). We had 3 minke whale researchers on board – Susan, Arnold and Jessica. The passengers were an interesting and fun loving mix from different countries: Helen (nurse from Cairns) – the “can’t get enough” minke whale enthusiast who was on her 3rd trip this year; Leoni (artist from the Blue Mountains) – who listed seeing whale in her bucket list; Kinza from Seattle – Qamar’s lovely mum; Torsten from Germany – my dive buddy, a marine conservationist, who absolutely love the clown fishes; Ian and Rachel – the father and daughter team; Fabio and Cristina from Italy, “Doug” and Laurel from Florida; Paul and Eric from Perth; Andre and Eveline – the underwater photographer from Netherlands and his ever trusty dive buddy cum model; Kevin and Mark from USA – the former is a outstanding wildlife photographer and the latter is a zoologist and is also a award winning writer/wildlife photographer with numerous publications. From them, I have gathered many information regarding where to see gray, blue, beluga whales etc, etc and have included them into my next dream destinations.

We left Port Douglas after dinner and steamed out to the Ribbon reefs overnight. There were some tossing and turnings but compared to Cocos, the 7 hours crossing was considered smooth and pleasant for our trip. It was Sunday and day two of the trip, and now that we’ve moved to the northern ribbon reefs where dwarf minkes are most often present. After a light breakfast, Qamar gave us a detailed dive briefing and then Susan walked us through the “Dos & Don’ts” of the Minke guidelines before our first dive. We were all eagerly waiting for the first minke to show up but it’s appears that Sunday is minkes’ off day accordingly to Helen and sure enough, we did not have any sighting. Sign L.

Dive Trip Itinerary and Minke Scoreboard
Day 2 (Sun, 15th Jun) 0 minke 3 day dives and night dive
Day 3 (Mon, 16th Jun) 8 minkes (~3 hrs) 1 day dive and night dive
Day 4 (Tues, 17th Jun) 8 minkes (~1.5 hrs) 2 day dives and night dive
Day 5 (Wednes, 18th Jun) 15 minkes (~4 hrs) 2 day dives and night dive
Day 6 (Thurs, 19th Jun) 4 minkes (~1.5 hrs) 2 day dives and night dive
Day 7 (Friday, 20th Jun) 0 minke 1 day dive

Minke Here, Minke There…
What makes the swimming with minkes unique is that the whales actively seek out the boat/ snorkellers and hang around for hours. The minke encounters are very clearly regulated by a code of practice and professionally handled. As soon as a minke is sighted, the boat is to throttle back to no wake speed. If the minke approaches the boat, then Susan will be first in the water and a towline, measuring about 50 meters with deflated inner tubes for a maximum of 6 snorkellers, is put in the water near the stern of the boat. She will swim to the furthest end of the line, usually reserved for the researchers and monitor the situation before giving the go ahead signal for the guests to join in. The second towline can then be put in near the bow.

What is important to understand is it is the minkes that initiate the contact. We found that there was no best position on the line. The minkes were keen to approach and eyeball all of us regardless of our spot. To avoid startling a surfacing minke, the space between the two drift lines is a no swim zone and snorkellers are told to get in/out of the water gently to avoid splashing and to remain close to the hull of the boat. Snorkellers are told to lie flat on the surface, avoid all rapid movements while in the water and must not swim towards the whale. No flash photography is allowed and strictly no touching or any physical contact with the whale.

The Minkes Highs – Breathtaking and Mind-blowing Moments
During this trip I had many incredible encounters. Curious minkes approaching me as close as my arm’s length and checking me out, apparently as inquisitive as I was with them. Sometimes, one would just swim by me so slowly, almost stop, and take a good look with its exposed eye. I really see eye to eye with the whales!

I calculated a total time of 10 hours in water interaction with the minkes and I hit the scoreboard at 35 minkes. Wednesday was our best day with about 15 whale sightings and I’ve counted 7 at one passing. Wow! The researchers recorded a total of 42 different individuals and a total interaction time of more than 20 hours. Wow! Wow!!

Beside the extremely close encounters, I witnessed few amazing behaviors from the minkes: Headrise and spyhopping, belly presenting, speed-up and also saw 10 breaches from the deck. On one occasion, a 5-meter whale approached within one to two meters, rolled on its side and presented its white belly at me before diving straight into the blue. This behavior is called belly presentation and it happened almost too quickly. I was screaming out for joy through my snorkel and at the same time, tried to photograph this performance but the shutter just wouldn’t click. Damn! I had encountered a few more of these acts but they were further away and I also had not much luck with the shutter lack on my camera. On another encounter, a 3.5-meter juvenile swam close to me and presented its full head out of the water. For a few seconds, I was making eye contact with little fellow and he seemed to be also checking me out. Sweet. Very sweet indeed. This behavior, called a “spyhop” is commonly thought to indicate the whales are actually looking at activities on the surface.

A very cool component of the total minke experience is listening to them communicate. Mostly they produce a series of pig-like grunts moans and belches, but sometimes a lucky listener will hear the minkes’ answer to the Star Wars theme: three rapid pulses and a longer trailing note. Arnold has attached a hydrophone into the water from the boat at the space between the two drift lines and we can listen the vocalizations through the headphones in the skipper room.

Most of our encounters ended because the boat wanted to leave. On my last encounter, as I was swimming slowly back to boat, the three minkes that had been with us followed me back seemingly as curious about me and I was about them. I wondered what they were thinking. To me it felt like the whale was saying, “So where are you guys leaving, don’t leave us; please come back to play with us?” I only wished that I could stay longer! It’s addictive.

The Undersea Explorer has an outstanding Dwarf Minke Whale educational program with lectures, videos, and briefings to insure that all guests are properly informed about both whale behavior and proper etiquette while in the water with the whales. Every guest on board is helping fund the project and is part of the exciting research.. After each day’s encounter guests are asked to complete a brief questionnaire designed to assess both whale behavior and their responses to the direct contact with humans. We can also help by contributing copies of our photographs or video to the identification database.

I only did 11 out of the 16 dives offered, covering Tracey Wonderland, Steve’s Bommie, Challenger Bay, Snake Pit, Cod Hole, Lighthouse Bommie, Pixie Gardens and Clam Gardens. Dive briefing with drawn map will be given before each dive. I was buddied-up with Torsten; and we were given options to choose to dive with a guide or explore on our own, which we did. The weather was considered balmy but always windy. I had hoped for more sun and was always scrambling to keep warm after exiting from the water. The water temperature was around 25 degree Celsius. The water was not gin-clear, with visibility averaging 10-15 meters, due to an abundance of nutrients, which in turn make the sea life so prolific.

We were given a reef awareness talk by Gabriel on the second night and were told to participate and look out for target species (shark, ray, mackerel, grouper, bleaching corals etc, etc) on the reefs. We will then provide him with information on sightings after each dive.

While the highlight of the trip was the minke whales, there were a couple of spectacular dive sites that should not go without mention.

Steve’s Bommie – A classic “oasis in the desert”, is a single large pinnacle that drops down to 30 meters with large concentration of fish schools- big-eye trevallies, barracudas and blue-lined snappers were seen circling the bommie and an occasional white tip shark or gray reef shark will cruised by. Macro photographers will find joy exploring the shallower reef between 5-8 meters, with a surprise waiting around every corner: nudibranchs, clown fishes, pipe fishes, leaf scorpion fishes and stone fishes, blennies and gobies, cleaner shrimps, and many more.

Lighthouse Bommie – A group of coral outcrops teeming with marine life and definitely my favorite. Here, you’ll come face to face with residential turtles resting on the reef, cleaned by small wrasses; and on top of their shells are interesting visitors like blennies and gobies, and sometimes a solitary pipe fish. I also found a very tame long-nose hawk fish, which is unlike its Indo/Philippines’s cousin, was not trying to play hit and seek with me and was actually waiting to be photographed. Another peculiar and fascinating sight; was the many free swimming lion fishes feeding amidst thousands of glass fishes – watching the predator drifting from side to side to corner it’s intended meal and then using it’s fins to propel it forward to snatch its prey. Kewl!

Cod Hole – The most famous dive site on the Ribbon reefs and attracts divers from all over the world. I descended to this fabulous and endless coral reef with excellent hard coral growth abounds in the shallows; that housed many large (150kg or more) Potato Cod, Queensland Grouper, and Maori Wrasse that have become accustomed to divers over years, and will approach quite closely. Opening their mouths to be cleaned by cleaner wrasses, some of them look like mutants from an alien movie. Combing the sandy area, I saw a white-tip shark resting, an octopus hiding amidst the rocks and also 2 razor fishes.

Challenger Bay and Pixie Gardens (Night Dive) – Diving the Ribbon reefs at night was somewhat an exhilarating experience. It took a while to get used to the giant trevallies zipping past our shoulders as they dove in to eat what was spotted in our lights. My torch was attached to my camera set-up and occasionally they came so close to my light and were in the way when I was photographing my macro subjects. These reefs also offer a myriad of colorful crustaceans and home to a wonderful variety of invertebrate life.

Final Notes –
The Minkes – This is what I came for and it was such an incredible experience and the memories will last forever. I’ve become a friend of the minkewhaleproject.org and hope everyone will help to protect these beautiful and amazing mammals. Save our whales!

The Great Barrier Reef is a treasure and a delight, with a staggering array of corals, fish, and other sea life, and it’s a wonderful place to dive.

It was a great week that ended with new friendships and future diving plans already in the works. Overall this was a very good trip. The group on the trip was fantastic – all of them got into the spirit and had a great time. I’m privileged to have shared with them. The crew is awesome and the hardworking researchers did an outstanding job. Thank you so much!

Photos link: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Great-B…Reef-June-2008
Video link:
http://wahlaoeh.multiply.com/video/i…t_Barrier_Reef
http://wahlaoeh.multiply.com/video/i…t_Barrier_Reef

Happy bubbles,
Jovin-

I’m sad by the recent ecological disasters happening around Asia and my heart goes out to these people. My initial reaction was donating a small sum of money, a measly $100 that I’ve put into the donation box placed at my company lobby – I was glad that I have done my part. The topic of donation came up during lunch yesterday – Mark told me that he went to the China Embassy on Monday to make a donation of $1000. He also quoted that he saw many others donating big sum of money ranging from $6000 to $20000. How generous, I thought! When asked how much I have contributed; I was almost embarrassed to answer. I know I didn’t do enough!

Last night, I started to question my conscience – I would spend few thousands on a single diving trip lasting a week or two but why wouldn’t I donate that amount to help others in need? Desperately in need! The victims are homeless and starving, they’re left without anything. I feel sad when I read the newspapers, I cry when I watch the news, I feel for them but how am I helping them? Is chasing my dreams far more important than feeding them, proving a shelter for them? I struggled! Eventually, I wrote a cheque and sent it to the Red Cross this morning. I know that I might not be able to go on a big trip this year-end and will have to put on hold some of my dreams till later. But at this very moment, I’ve found a new source of happiness in helping others. Finally, I know that I have done my part. What a privilege to be able to!

“No one has ever become poor by giving” – Anne Frank

Going forward…

Emotions are my worst enemy – I want to learn to have better control of them. I almost lost a special friend recently due to some misunderstanding. At that moment, I was deeply hurt by his indifference; my bottled up emotions and anger got the better of me and I almost given up on the friendship we shared. He, whom I thought didn’t care normally actually care enough to take time to explain things over and we’ve cleared things up. How silly of me to have doubt him! I’m really glad that we’re still good friends or I’d have regretted that for life!

Procrastinating – I need to be independent and stop putting dreams off. The yearning to see faraway places and the fear of visiting them alone seems to be universal human traits. I can’t deny that this is also my greatest fear – traveling solo. I love traveling to different places to pursue my passion – Diving but I dislike the idea of traveling alone. Lately, I’ve been thinking – If I don’t experience all the things that life has to offer now, I might never will. So, even when my regular dive buddies can’t join me on my trips this year; I’m going to conquer my fear to chase my dreams…I want to see my first whale…I’m going solo. I’ll survive!

Appreciate life – I shall not take life for granted and learn to appreciate the little things in life. Life is what we do between the time we get here and when we go. We don’t measure life in hours, minutes or even seconds. We measure life in memories and moments. I am now GRATEFUL for the lowest lows when they happen because they make me appreciate the highest highs.

“Everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives.”

Together with Conan, Phua and Aiwee, We left Singapore on 29th March early morning, on a 3.5 hours Philippines Air (PAL) flight to Manila, and connecting on another 50 minutes flight to Legaspi, for the much anticipated whale shark encounter. Upon arrival, Conz and Jun from Adventure Bound (Dive with Manta Rays in Ticao – Whale sharks Donsol, Philippines), who have helped to arrange for our trip, picked us up. We had a “quick” breakfast before proceeding to Donsol, which is about 1 hours 10 minutes van ride from the town of Legaspi.

After dropping our bags at the Woodland Resort, we set-up our camera equipments and
headed straight to the Vistior’s Office to meet our BIO (Butanding Interaction Officer), Michael and registered for the butanding interaction program. We set sail at 11.30am on an assigned outrigger boat with 4 boat crew- members and can’t wait to have our first rendezvous despite lacking of sleep from the overnight journey.

The whole butanding encounter started as our outrigger boat cruised about 20 minutes to the bay where the gentle giants congregate in the municipal waters of Donsol. Michael and the boat crew will be standing under the hot sun on the look out for these elusive creatures. The sea was crowded with boats competing for interaction opportunities as only one boat is allowed to swim with whale shark at each time and the interaction has been limited to 3 hours for each boat, a new regulation imposed recently.

Minutes later, our guide announced a sighting and asked us to get ready for our first jump in the water. We frantically put on our masks and fins and sit on the boat’s ledge whilst the boat captain slowly moored the boat towards it and positioned the boat in its direction before making a full stop. We all jumped into the sea as our guide shouted “Go Now” and not knowing where the whale shark was, we followed and kept pace with him. Then within seconds, nothing quite prepared us for that massive rush of adrenaline when we saw a monster of the deep, with gigantic shark fins, seemingly rushing straight at us, mouth agape. We swam and tried to keep up with it for a minute or two before it vanished into the murky waters. This one is about 6.5-meters, and was Conan’s, Phua’s and Aiwee’s first whale shark sighting and they were grinning from ear to ear when they got onto the boat and ready for more.

Our second encounter came twenty minutes later, and we had an awesome interaction with a small-sized fish about 4 meters. We swam with it for close to 10 minutes and definitely had many opportunities for photograph, but Conan and I did not bring our cameras with us. Feeling a bit disappointed, we could only wished for another similar experience the next time. Aiwee blurted “The feeling was just so surreal” when we clambered back onto the boat and we all had the same mutual agreement.

We had another 4 more sightings on Saturday afternoon but they were all fleeting rendezvous lasting about 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Time passes and before we knew it, it was 3 hours into the interaction and time to head back. We decided to try our luck the following day starting out at 6.30 in the morning, which was reported to have better sightings and requested Michael to make the necessary arrangement.

We invited Michael and the boat crew for lunch and beers at the resort’s restaurant. We ordered the Bicol Express, a spicy local dish and some other local dishes, which were quite appetizing but the service was slow. The afternoon was spent reminiscing about the whale shark interaction experience, sharing conservations with some other guests from USA and Denmark, watching a spectacular sunset falling below the horizon before we headed to Barracuda Bar & Grill for dinner and drinks. This is a small but nice restaurant by the beach, about 100 meters from our resort. Juliet, the owner makes the best Margaritas and she served the freshest catch of the day, which is always appetizing, particularly the grilled prawns and pasta. Juliet- she has got to be one of the most welcoming and gracious person I have ever met, always with a big smile despite having to make drinks, help out at the kitchen and serve, all almost at the same time. We had a delightful dinner and a few Margaritas before retiring back to our rooms at 9pm.

Sunday was judgment day! We woke up at 5.30am, had a light breakfast and feeling energized, we were all ready for the interaction. Our boat left just after sunrise, at about 6.30am and the sky wasn’t fully lighten up, making the waters gloomy. This made underwater photography harder due to the lack of natural light. Luck was not on our side and we did not have very good sightings, only went into the waters 4 times and the interaction were brief- they seemed to be in a hurry to lose us. This has got to be mother’s nature at work, as the wild refuses to follow schedules.

Not content with the morning’s experience, Conan & Aiwee decided to go back and try their good fortune later in the morning whist Phua & I were scheduled to do 2 dives at the macro sites at Ticao. The sites are about 1 hour away from Donsol and we did our first dive at San Miguel, with Carlos as our dive master. San Miguel was as wonderful as I had remembered but visibility wasn’t good at around 12 meters. Stunning soft corals gardens are abundance and pristine and every macro photographers’ favorites – nudibranchs were everywhere. Colorful feather stars with crinoids shrimps were also aplenty and I also saw a sea snake and some whip gobies.

2nd dive after lunch at Capating was also interesting. The corals at this site weren’t as rich as San Miguel but it was another great site for nudibranchs, nudibranchs, and nudibranchs. I couldn’t stop clicking away. The visibility was much better, around 20 meters and the water temperature average 27 degree Celsius for both sites. On the boat ride back to Donsol, we were lucky to see few dolphins performing their acrobatic acts at the surface.

When we got back to the resort, Conan was thrilled and told us that they had some good interaction with the whale sharks and showed us some amazing photos he took. I was jealous! We showered, watched another beautiful sunset and then head over to Barracuda where we had pre-ordered our dinner. That evening was crazy and naughty- we had a fabulous dinner of grilled prawns and fish, pasta and garlic rice with potatoes. Juliet, Jurgen, Michael and Martin joined us for some drinking games and I do not remember how many glasses of Margaritas and tequila shots I had. I only remember dancing and swimming in the sea under the stars and waking up the next day at 5.30am for my morning dives.

Conan and Aiwee left early that morning for their journey back to Singapore. Phua and I went diving at the muck site, Bantol Kokok, about 20 minutes from Donsol. This site was considered to be an open water classroom until the recent discovery of the critters- hairy frogfish, wonderpus, the flamboyant cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish and blue-ringed octopus were sighted here. I made both dives averaging about 6 meters depth and visibility about 5 meters and found numerous colonies of anemones with different species of anemone shrimps, 2 seahorses, cleaner shrimps, juvenile lion fishes, ringed pipefish, mantis shrimps and many strange looking fishes. My housing fogged up after minutes into my first dive so I do not have many photos to show.

After the dives, we went for our 3rd and final interaction program with the whale sharks. As soon as we hit the bay, Michael shouted “Get Ready” and we were in the waters and came upon a 6-meters giant that headed straight at us and then paused face-to-face. The gentle giant then allowed us to swim beside it for as long as we could. I think I must have swam about 15 minutes continuously, till my legs turned jellies and decided to stop. I still vividly remember the gaping mouth, the swift motion and elegant stokes of the tail. The gills were huge and so was the dorsal fin, which was broken. The moment was magical! 30 minutes later, we went into the waters for another one but this small one was shy and took off into the deep before we can approach it.

It was the best for last. Imagine, having two whale sharks, a 7-meters giant and another 3.5-meters juvenile, together at the same spot- we were spoilt for choice on which one to photograph. Absolutely mind blowing!

That evening, our hospitable friends, Conz and Jun invited us for dinner in Legaspi town and Jun picked us up at the resort. We had a great time spent catching up, as well as sharing dive trip stories at a German Restaurant, Gasthof, which served delicious pork knuckles, sausages and back ribs. The car broke down 9 Kilometers from the resort on the way back and we had a chance to ride on a trishaw, which was a pretty cool experience.

Unforgettable and surreal as it sounds, this is the true Donsol and Ticao experience.

Photo link: Jovin’s Cool Photos!! :: Donsol & Ticao Mar 2008

Happy bubbles,
Jovin-