Dive time at the Fish House

Time for a story ...


I wrote up my episode in the Jungle, for the NOBRA website, or Mountain River Blog, or whatever it's called. I realise I've been silent for some time, so I've put in the effort.

I also went Scuba diving to paradise at the weekend. Pulua Perhentain is a couple of Islands out in the South China Sea, about 45mins speed boat ride from the Malaysian Mainland.

I flew early on Friday morning, arriving at the Jetty at 9:30am. By 11:30, I had the gear on, and heading for the first of my Open Water dives. Its was Mega Mega. Like swiming inside a fish tank. I found Nemo, and 1000's of other tropical fish.

By Saturday afternoon, I had completed all 5 dives, and was now PADI Open Water Qualified. This gives me licence to dive anywhere in the world to a depth of 18Meters (Which is deep, when diving along a reef).

I was due to fly home on Sunday evening, however Sunday was a No Dive day, since you need 18hours between multiple dives and flying at altitude, because of Nitrogen levels in the body.

The other people on the course had driven from KL, which had taken 6 hours, over narrow roads to reach Kuala Besut (The Jetty), however they were able to dive Sunday. I was satisfied with my weekend, and planned to read a book and do some snorkelling.

Then after dinner on Saturday night, one of the instructors suggested we gear up and go for a Night Dive. I jumped at the chance, since my Nitrogen level would still recover in time.
The dive was mental, which I'll explain in a pub when I get home at some point.

When we were finished, we were getting the gear sorted out, when one of the guys from the dive resort came over and said "If you guys can keep a secret, I plan to go to the Fish House tomorrow, and you could join if you want."

Since I'm obviously clueless, I keep sorting out gear, however the two instructors who had been leading our dives almost made a mess of their wet-suits. I couldn't believe how excited they were. I asked, what's the story with Fish House. They told me it's a mysterious place, which is a bit of a legend in the Diving world (A bit like our Secret bothy in the cairngorms)

It's out in the deep sea, where fishermen have dropped weights to the sea bed, with a 42meter chain of Bamboo leading all the way from the bottom to the surface. The bamboo has branches tied to it, which creates a catch zone for plankton. Small fish feed on the caught plankton, medium size fish feed on the small fish, and big fish feed on the medium fish. It's very scary, since its a deep blue dive, all the way to 42meters.

These guys were like wains, all excited and chit chatting. I kept asking more questions over the next hour, until one of them said do you want to come?

I explained about the flight, and they said F-ck your flight, come down the road in our car with us. He didn't need to say it twice. I was in.

I went to bed with the same feeling I had the night before I climbed point five on the Ben. Part of me really excited, part concerned I was being stupid, not responsible, etc.

By morning, I was totally fired up.

One of the instructors had a Sony T1 camera, like my own, however he had a dive housing. I asked to put my camera in the housing and he agreed, no problem.

The photos below don't really capture what it was like. As we entered the water, I couldn't believe how amazing the deep blue descent was. All dropping into the thermocline. It was an experience of a lifetime. We had Shoals of 5ft long Barracudas, Bat fish, Tuna (although I missed it).
Whale Sharks commonly go to the spot, however we didn't see these 15ft monsters. But it was just tremendous.

The car journey home took 9 hours, because of bad weather and traffic, and I didn't make it back to KL until 1:30am, however it was worth it.

Cheers,
Alan