Finally did my Open Water Dive Course and got my PADI certification. Such a great achievement lol Been wanting to do it since when I was in UTP and just excuses after excuses, I got to nowhere. Now that the island has been "brought" nearer to me, I've got no excuses to give haha Wonder if that's the reason I got posted to East Coast.
So, one of the weekend when I knew there's a Malaysia Day holiday, I straight away took a leave on Sunday (yeah..I'm working on a Sunday) and signed up a 4 days diving course at Pulau Perhentian.
Was recommended by people, Panorama Diver is a great diving shop to start out. It was quite a last minute thing, and we thought ok, if we can't book a place then we'll just go next time. But of course, when you hope for something, it turned out something else haha
Off we went on a Friday, totally excited! Woke up super early and starts our journey about 5am. It was my second time to Pulau Perhentian. The last was at Perhentian Besar Coral Bay which I finds it too boring and small. Perhentian just didnt give me any great impression.
But when I arrived at Long Beach Perhentian Kecil, it was totally different. The scene is almost like Redang although not as beautiful. Then, I realised it was an 'ang mo' island :) Anyway, first thing you will see is Panorama Diver shop itself which is great, you don't have to search for it.
The place was decorated nicely which makes you feel welcomed and excited for the holiday. They made the environment seems fun. There you see Panorama Diver and panorama Chalets & Restaurant. Please do not be confused as both is two different entity.
We checked in and met some dive instructors. It was quite a free and easy kind of schedule. They arranged our dive schedule according to our preference and time. It was quite relaxing and enjoyable. First day, was more like theory, watching videos about diving fundamentals. We did it together with another two Germany girls who came and decided they want to take the diving license spontaneously. How awesome.
Kinda like I'm the Panorama girl. lol Since first day has nothing much, we just hang around the beach and thank God for all the 4 days we were there, it was not even raining at all despite the rainy season. There are lots of things you can do there. You can even sign up for yoga class by the beach.
We had our first dive on the second day. Like Yay! the fun part finally arrived. Our dive instructor was Pablo and he gave us a short briefing on our first dive. He was such a great instructor, funny, witty and friendly. Diving was made easy by him.
First very important lesson to learn is to breathe continuously in water and stay calm. I did have some difficulty in equalizing the pressure in my body and hence got disturbed by it during the first dive. But the next one onwards, I actually manage to master the equalizing part and voila! Everything else became amazing underwater.
We have to check and fix our own diving stuff after being taught. That's still fine. The only thing I hate is to carry that heavy tank to the boat. The first time I carried it, maybe they fix it the wrong height, it hurts my back badly. I remember how I hate carrying my own ski when go skiing at the mountains too. It's heavy and troublesome lol
This is the after diving moments, cleaning equipment and keeping it the correct way. Not something you would like to do after diving haha But in any case this diveshop made it very organized and neat. There are specific bins for BCDs, fins, goggles and appropriate area for hanging.
The area is cosy for hang out and not to mention the people there are awesome. What we do every morning is we ordered the food from the restaurant and eat it at the diveshop while the instructor explained our next dive mission. Ok mission sounds like a big plan haha
Too bad we don't have a waterproof camera to capture all those creatures underwater. The only creature we manage to capture is that sea cucumber lol Will make sure the next round we get someone with GoPro cam =P
Well, couldn't express how awesome underwater life is until you experience it yourself, really. As a beginner, the deepest we could go is 18m and the deepest we managed to go is 16.9m. Best creature seen is Jenkins' Whirpray Stingray and Porcupine fish. Porcupine fish is my all time favourite since a kid, am always amazed by its bloated body haha But sadly during that time it did not bloat. Still, it's great I finally see it underwater myself.
The one I saw is the one on the left. The one I wanted to see is the one on the right.
After the fourth day of diving, we wanted to try an adventure dive at Sugar Wreck where there are thousands of fishes around the sunken boat/ship. Sounds like a mermaid fairytale already lol It seems scary at first but I think it's worth exploring. Anyhow, we just have to go back because it was a working day the next day. We will be back for this for sure.
Sugar Wreck at Perhentian Island. Credits to this youtuber.
Our diving package + accommodation sums up to RM1050. Rating wise, diving shop is great but accommodation sucks to the max. Advisable to stay somewhere else but dive at Panorama Divers :)
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