Scuba diving on the east coast of Malaysia....ahhhhh

So for those of you wondering where I was all last week (mom and dad:-), here are a few pictures from my scuba trip. I went to Pulau Perhentian, Terengganu (pronounced Terengganu), Malaysia in the South China Sea. It was a great week of relaxation and scuba diving with a 5-star Padi center called Flora Bay Divers. I usually spent two hours or so a day learning about scuba, then another hour or so would be spent in the water, learning skills seeing fish, etc. To give you an idea of some of the stuff I needed to do: swim without my regulator (breathing apparatus), breathe without my mask (more freaky than it sounds), get accustomed to having my tank of air turned off, and also generally get used to seeing my air bubbles escape my mouth and ascend 16 meters of water. Haha, actually it was incredibly relaxing, fun, and really not too scary.

On almost every dive, I saw some really neat stuff. A school of squid gracefully passed above me, a school of large humphead parrotfish munched on some coral (see an internet picture at http://www.gooddive.com/diving-photos/show.php?start=0&id=672), boxfish--one of my favorites--were a staple of each dive as well as angel and butterfly fish, and one of the coolest was the anemone and clownfish (see Finding Nemo)...just beautiful. Excepting the first dive, the visibility on the east coast was awesome, very clear! Even when I snorkelled I could see a stingray and a large turtle...I tried using my surfer/california accent (see Finding Nemo) on the turtle, but I don't think he was interested.

I included the first pic of the white boat and a small boat frame because a smaller island near Perhentian had about three boat yards that made boats entirely out of wood all by hand. Although the museum-like shop was technically closed, my friend and I managed to get in to the largest of the boats...the shipyard commenced construction in 2004 and hopes to launch in 2006. Though an industry in decline in Malaysia, these boats are spectacular!

The picture of the baby in a mini-hammock I posted because this little monkey was a staple of every day. She would wake up and prance around the restaurant/hotel in her Malay traditional clothing then take a nap in the afternoon:-)

note: The 20 ringgit (USD 6) A-frame huts were nothing spectacular but provided a good night's rest despite the bats outside, the few frogs and cockroaches inside, and the occasional rat (my A-frame didn't have any, but my friend's had many).