Singaore & Malaysia Trip - Mersing & Pulau Aur

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Mersing & Pulau Aur (21st Jun)

Got 5 hours to kill at Mersing before we get onto another boat to Pulau Aur.

Ok, where are we?.

With 30kgs of dive gear in our hands, we walk around Mersing. It's a typical small Malaysian town.

There are signs of Chinese everywhere.

Another street shot.

We finally stop at this road side restaurant. We find that the people at the restaurant speak neither English nor any Chinese dialect. So I go to all the tables and point finger. Dinner turns out to be really nice, and cheap.

Looks and cooks like a Chinese but he doesn't speak Chinese at all. I feel at lost figuring out what Malaysia is made of.

From 10:30pm to 4:00am, we are trapped in a boat going to Pulau Aur. There are refugee-camp style bunk beds in the boat if you want to sleep. Air inside the cabin is conditioned with the smell of diesel. I am sure there will be firework if someone lights a cigarette.

I would rather poke my eyes to keep myself awake.

We got there around 4:00am. Diving has never been this hard.

Pulau Aur is a very small island. There is perhaps nothing to do here if you are not diving.

Rough sea? Ha ha, 5 shots were pasted up into this PIC. Can't get rid of that distortion.

On the ship, in the water .. ..

Here is where we stay.	There is another Pulau Lang on the other side. Same kind of diving-only resort. Look at the blue water. Can't wait!	Getting ready buddy.	Kam, not so fast. You forgot your tank.
Yeah. The tank .. ..	Turtles and fishes, I am coming .. ..	BBQ dinner after a good day of diving. Here is our dive group.	And outdoor party after dinner. They even have a smoke generator. Divers are at the same time serious party animals.

I didn't have much time to organize this trip and thus I wasn't able to get a set of underwater photo equipment with me. Looking at other people's underwater cameras, my teeth are bleeding with enviousness.

sea star	nudibranch	nudibranch	another nudibranch
lion fish or butterfly fist? I never know how to tell the difference.	Color is all absorbed by sea water in depth. Without a strong flash or a filter, it's all gray and blue.	sea cucumber - can't imagine it's an expensive Chinese food.	A million thanks to fellow diver Ms. Lee Wan Sie for sharing these PICs with us. Without her, the underwater sectionof this trip log would have been blank.
some fish	you know this one, a sea turtle	a graceful flyer	some shrimp
Oh I drop my brain! Wait, it's just a ball of coral.	Without color and the waving motion, this patch of coral doesn't look like coral.	Damsels and their coral house.	this is a flashed version of the PIC of the left. See the color on the damsels coming back?
"You don't see me, you don't see me .. .. I am a cuttlefish"	"Once off the ground, I change color."

After 2 days of diving. We say goodbye to the clear blue sea. 10:30pm, 23rd, we are back in Singapore. With my exhausted body and tons (seems like) of diving equipment, I wait 40 minutes before I can get on a cab. That is definitely not a good way to start my acquaintance with Singapore.