A Malaysian Prelude ...
It started as an idea for a ski holiday …
Before long, baby logistics meant Irene (my sis), Jim and Heather came to the conclusion that a ski holiday wouldn’t be that practical – one for another year. A conversation over a Chinese meal with Andy (my cousin Fiona’s husband) and the idea of scuba diving was planted. About this time, my Dad suggested heading east to Malaysia for a wee visit to the Big Yin. An old email was resurrected which mentioned something about combining Mount Kinablu (13,500ft) out in Borneo with some “world class scuba”.
A month later, research done and a couple of PADI Open Water courses were booked with Splash Sports in Partick. Time was tight … very tight. On paper we didn’t have enough time to complete the course in Glasgow – thankfully the guys in the dive shop had a solution. Do the first three pool / theory sessions on consecutive Monday evenings then on the last week throw in dry suit orientation on the Thursday evening in Edinburgh – then join the east coast team for the open water dives that weekend before flying to Kuala Lumpur the following weekend.
The Open Water course was harder than we expected with a mix of physics, maths and common sense in the theory and a good few skills to learn in the pool. Mirren and I thought it was great when my Dad got into trouble two weeks running for leaving his tank standing up unattended. The humour wore off quickly when I got into trouble for ascending too quickly (Mirren is still calling my “Jack in the Box”! By the time the last Thursday (and the associated exam) came … ma heid was burstin ! The forecast for the open water dives looked good – cold but dry. The BP Finnart dive site looked very cold …even wearing fleece trousers, fleece top, a full thermal undersuit, dry suit, 5mm neoprene hood and 3mm neoprene gloves. In the end it wasn’t too bad with only the hands suffering a bit. Pool skills were repeated and over the weekend we logged four dives down to a depth of 17m. On the Sunday afternoon the work was rewarded with our Open Water dive tickets.
Next stop Malaysia …
In the week leading up to flying out, the email traffic east to west had been increasing by the day. Chooi Tan (top guide who had been sorting the Malaysian arrangements) was raising expectations with comments like: “we'll provide the hammock, coconut palms and the beach!” and “See you in Paradise!” – we were not to be disappointed!
To be continued …
