Redang Diving Trip - PADI Open Water (Part 1)

After 3 fun & enjoyable pool sessions, the time has come for me to take my Open Water Diving test at Redang Island, Terengganu Darul Iman from 6th until 8th June 2011. Arrangement of my trip was done by my Dive Master from Scuba Amigo.

According to my Dive Master, it ain't necessary for one to use a wetsuit while diving in Redang unless the water is too cold. So I packed up 2 of my swimming short plus 1 newly obtained Akona Rash Guard as to become my dive suit during the diving trip.

As there were only 3 student that will travel to Redang from Melaka including myself, I decided not to drive to Terengganu as it will be surely be a tiring journey. The other 2 students are still in secondary school ages 17 and 14 so passing the car steering will not be an option during the journey if I happens to falls tired. So, decision made that I would take an express bus from Melaka to Kuala Terengganu even.

On the 5th of June 2011, I boarded the MARA Liner Express Bus at 2130 hours to start my trip from Melaka Sentral to Kuala Terengganu. Melaka Sentral was quite busy with crowds on that night as it was still on school holidays. The bus condition was great and clean in the inside. My seat was a single seat and it was quite comfy. But from what I had noticed, those who were on the double seat were not that comfortable because of small room legs spaces in between the rows.

 Crowd at Melaka Sentral on 5th June 2011. A bit busy as its school holiday season.

Right after I had settled down on my seat, I took a flu/cold medicine to help me falls asleep. Then, I think I slept like a baby right until the bus reaches Kuala Terengganu somewhere at 0600 hours. I called up the resort representative to let him know that we had reached Kuala Terengganu so arrangement of our pick up can be made. It is happened that the resort branch office is situated just right in front of the Kuala Terengganu Bus Station so we were instructed to wait at their branch office. We met the resort representative and being told that our pick up bus will start to depart to Merang Jetty at 0730 hours. Beside myself and 2 of my colleague from Melaka, I think there were another 10 guest on the resort bus. The resort bus then departed to the Kuala Terengganu airport to pick up a few more guest before heading off to Merang Jetty.

 The Redang Pelangi Resort bus ready to pick us up at Kuala Terengganu Bus Station.

From Kuala Terengganu Bus Station, the bus made a quick stopped at the Kuala Terengganu Airport to pick up more guest.

Merang Jetty was very busy on that morning. Busy with tourist and crowds even. We were told to paid RM5 each as for the Marine Park Fees collected  by the resort representative. Here, we waited for another 30 minutes as our boat (Princess Pelangi) was on fueling mode. I can say that the boat is a 3 and a half decked boat, more like a mini ferry. Guest can free seat on the bottom deck, 1st floor deck, 2nd floor deck (same level as the captain's deck) or even on the top deck with open-air. I choose to seat on the 2nd floor deck as I think it is more comfy and if I want to get an open air, I can just climb up 1 stair to the top deck to get fresh air.

 The Pelangi Princess boat.

Inside the Pelangi Princess boat. There were enough life jacket inside the boat but some passenger seems not to care about safety and ignored to wear them.

One may choose to seat at the same level as the Captain's Control Room.

The journey from Merang Jetty to Redang Island took us around 1 hour and 20 minutes. The sea was calm and weather was nice. It's a non-smoking boat but I saw a few passenger just ignored the non-smoking signage and smoke, well even the Captain and his assistance smoked. As a smoker, I did not bothered much but pity for the non-smoker guest even. Once reaches Redang, we had notice that it was on high tide. Although there is a floating jetty, we need to jump into the water (knee high) to go to the shore. Those who were wearing long pants / jeans / skirt will definitely get wet. The check-in process was good. Both Pelangi Resort & Ayu Mayang Resort staff were already at the shore calling out names. Myself and the other 2 student was set to share a chalet at the Ayu Mayang Resort. The resort staff brief me on the 3 days 2 nights itinerary. Most important part here is definitely the 'makan' time.

Before we get into our chalet, we met our assigned Instructor and he told us to get rest and our class will start after lunch somewhere at 2pm. The chalet that we were in was nice. First I had noticed that there are only 2 single bed inside the chalet but after a few second we found another 2 single bed situated on the 2nd level inside the chalet. So, I will be staying on the ground level while the other 2 youngster will be staying on the 2nd level.

Inside the chalet, there are 2 single bed at the ground floor.

There is a ladder to climb up to the 2nd level inside the chalet.

2 more single bed on the 2nd level. So basically, this chalet can catered up to 4 person per room/chalet.

 The bathroom is small. Clean with acceptable water pressure level. The only setback was that the water heater was not functioning. I did not lodged any complaint on the heater as I knew that the reason I was in Redang for this trip is to dive. So, either it's hot water or cold water, it doesn't really matter.

After my bath, I went to the resort restaurant to enjoy my lunch. They served plain rice with 4 different menu as side dishes. The taste of the food was okay (not too good and not too bad).

The Ayu Mayang's Restaurant is just a steps away from my chalet. This would be the buffet line where Breakfast, Lunch, Evening Tea & Dinner are served. They also accept a la carte order.

I thought of taking a quick nap after the lunch but as I knew that my 1st dive will take place in another 1 hour, I just laid on the bed resting, I did not sleep. Then just before 2pm, I got into my swimming short & puts on my rash guard headed to the Dive Centre.

On that evening I did 2 session of Shore Dive just in front of the Dive Centre and the chalet. The dive site is called Tanjung Tengah. I did not bring my camera as for this first 2 dive as the session were meant for me to revised the skill that I had learn during the pool session plus some new skills being taught by the instructor.

Some important lesson I had learn on my first 2 Shore Dive session :-

• Mask clearing underwater
• Removing and wearing mask underwater
• Fin Pivot (getting neutral buoyancy)
• Removing BCD and wearing BCD underwater
• Right way of finning underwater
• Underwater hand sign
• Regulator recovering
• Cleaning & washing up scuba equipments

Did I enjoyed my first dive into an open water? Well, I can't say that it was a total fun dive, its like a mixture of fun and adventurous feeling where the mind was on full alert mode. You did not want to make any mistake and you need to gain as much knowledge as possible either its being directly taught or you learned it by yourself. On the 2nd dive, during the point of decent, I actually felt like my vision was circling upside down then I had realized that I should not get carried away with the feeling, I yelled to myself to concentrate and overcome the feeling. It was just like 10 seconds kind of upside down, then I gained my confidence and got back to the normal state of mind.

At 7pm, myself and the other 2 student had our buffet dinner in the restaurant. We were really hungry, maybe it was due to the dive that we had made. After dinner, we had a quick revision on the blue 'PADI Open Water Manual' with our instructor before we stopped somewhere at 9pm. My immediate dive instructor went straight to his room after the session, leaving me with another dive instructor(from the same dive operator). We talked mostly on diving especially on his experiences. The chitchatting ended somewhere around 1130pm. I had a very good sleep on my first night in Redang Island ...