Wildlife Wednesday – My first snorkeling experience

This entry is given high priority in this blog. It is not another holiday entry, it is not another collection of pretty pictures. It is a story and collection of pretty pictures about THE DAY DIYANA BATTLES THE OCEAN!

Weeehooooooo! Come on people give her a big round applause!

When I was about 5-6, I had gone on a train ride from Kuala Kangsar to Butterworth. Along the way, the train had choo chooed its way across Lake Merah; now popular for Bukit Merah Lake Town Resort.

Maybe because I was just a child and short, when I looked out the window at that time I couldn’t see any land just endless and endless of blue.  The water was dark, deep, mysteriously calm and cold in my gaze and at that moment I had this strange feeling slowly developing inside me and making me feel like running!

I wanted to run run run untill I reach a safe place that is warm and sturdy WITHOUT A MONSTER. Because I swear in any water that deep and calm THERE HAS GOT TO BE MONSTERS waiting to emerge slowly, look into my eyes and and say boo!  Then I would die after I crap in my pants.

I was about 6 at that time and I still have the same sentiment 16 years later. I have always been afraid of water in large quantity, although the fear is not too great that I avoid the pools and rivers altogether but enough to be the reason that I cannot swim. And it was also the reason Azman had not gone snorkeling or diving or even swimming on our holidays even when we were in one of the world’s best island- Bali.

In April, Azman and I went to MATTA Fair to get some ideas and great packages for our Sabah vacation. I wanted to see the proboscis monkeys and I could see that he was influenced by the travel agents to go diving. Two or three days later he told me that we should try island hopping in Sabah and he wanted to go snorkeling. Kerana chentaku padamu tak dapat ku terkata… eh tu macam lagu Faminin.. aku pun tak tau kenapa aku pergi kata ok! Amazing tul!

So on the day itself, Azman’s best friend sejak zaman kanak-kanak ribena Abul and his lovely Atiqa has played world greatest travel agent and brought us to Manutik Island off coast Kota Kinabalu.

Here is a very nice photo of them. We really appreciate this couple’s help and great hospitality. They packed delicious lunch for all of us to the island and showed us around, brought to nice dinner etc. Must be very tiring for Atiqah she was heavily pregnant. Thanks a lot to them.. 🙂

Atiqah doesnt look pregnant at all  I am jealous..

Please bear in mind that I was an aquaphobia trying to be a supportive wife to a life long adventurous husband. I was a very jakun island girl from the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. I am only used to muddy sea water, okay?!

As we got the boat at Sabah, I was already marveled at the water, so clear and teeming with fish! Miki was also super excited. He kept repeating “Miki nak mandi!” and holding his floaties like a prized possession but once he got into the cool water he changed his mind. He didnt expect there would be so many fish swimming around him, he was only used to swimming pool water. haha!

But seriously, Manutik Island if you ask me is all about FISH! FISH! FISH! There were so many fish!

All sorta fish…

Colorful fish…

The tadpole-lookalike fish…
These school was swarming the sea bed and here almost making a heart shape…

The camouflaging among coral fish…

The famous film star fish… haha!

These clown fishes reminds me so much of the movie Finding Nemo, not only because well they were the leading stars (duh!) but the fact that they occupy the anemone in what looks like a family. A biggest one- most probably the Dad, slighly smaller one must be the Mom and a tiny baby. Really cute and Mr Dad is aggressively  guarding his crib and family by charging at other fishes swimming near by. Tak padan dengan kecik! Gedebe!

The fugly fish…
kesian mamat ni tak berapa nak handsome…

The angry fish…
This one is pretty fleshy (sedap masak kari) and colorful. But if it’s a woman I’d say it having a period. It liked to come charging to our faces and then swim away. Ko pehal ikan??? Ko tahu tak aku tengah memberanikan diri snorkeling ni, yg ko nak feeling-feeling piranna ni apsal? Belasah kang!

That’s me in such a awkward position, my left hand was held above the water because it was holding to a sandwich and my right hand feeding these fishy their cousin Tuna. Bloody cannibals!

Azman dan isterinya yang penakut tetapi supportive (konon)

I am glad I went to this island for my first time snorkeling because we just had to waddle our way from the shore to how-ever deep sea that we wanna go. If I were to snorkel straight from the boat, my chicken shit self wouldn’t be able to determine my whereabouts and freaked the hell out. Azman ended up snorkeling for quite a long time. At one point I felt pretty confident and that’s when my curiosity aka jakunisity aroused. I wanted to touch everything. Which was wrong. You shouldn’t be touching the corals but nope that’s what I wanna. And all of a sudden I felt sharp pain on my toes.

I was like dammit AZMANNNNN A SHARKKK GOT MY TOEEEE!!!! SAKITTTT!!!!!!!!!!

So we went back to the shore and I saw sharp black needles planted in my big and second toe. OMG! I cannot believe I would be needing a foot removal!! Matilah aku jadi ibu tanpa kaki… kesiannya kat Miki mak dia kaki kena potong… huaaa…

Then Azman called the lifeguard. I was imagining David Hasselhoff comes running in spender merah but yang datang adalah seorang Iban ke Dayak wallahualam tapi beliau baik! Terima kasih encik kerana meneyelamatkan kaki saya. Dengan menuang cuka. Ya cuka sahaja. Part potong-potong kaki tu imaginasi saya.

He said I must have stepped on a sea urchin. Actually I kind knew I stepped on a sea urchin but Azman would walk faster if I said shark ok? He also said next time if we don’t have vinegar around, alternatively we can pee on it. It’s ok. Thank you very much. I rather wait a hundred years for the wine to become vinegar rather than be peed on. Hmmp!

Anyway, the pain went away after 5 minutes only. And then I went back to the sea. Begitulah kematunya kaki aku pegi sepak landak sakit 5 minit saja. Ada sapa-sapa nak rasa sepakan aku?