Terengganu : Part 1 - 11 Hours Drive to Syahbandar Jetty

It was in the month of June when I decided to pursue an Advanced Diving Course with my sister in Redang Island. She got her Open License 2 years back and she was hesitant about doing the course. But I managed to convince her. I booked with Redang Bay Resort for 4 days 3 nights for RM1,332 per person, including ferry tickets, meals and accommodation in a dormitory. It is slightly expensive due to me booking during the public holiday of Malaysia Day.

But this course did not happened on Malaysia Day. My sister had to leave and she is not coming back. So, I changed from a 2-pax to a 1-pax. I told her that I will finish the course for her. So, the diving course was amended to Oct 4th where there was another public holiday. Did I not mention Malaysia has so many public holidays? :-) I had to take one day off only.

041014 - I drove the night before from Kuala Lumpur. I predicted about a 6-hour drive. Boy, was I so wrong! It was a very bad crawl out from Kuala Lumpur because it was the public holiday. The disadvantage. A bad crawl of 3 hours on the highway. I thought to myself how was I going to manage the drive. But good thing I had an insight to drink Gloria Jeans coffee that evening. It was literally an eye-opener. Since I am not a coffee person, the single intake of coffee keeps me awake the whole night. I had a 1-hour sleep in one of the Rest Area along the highway. Then, I kept driving and driving with the help of Waze (I love Waze!) and managed to reach Syahbandar Jetty by 730am. The ferry leaves at 9am and I have to meet the person-in-charge at 745am. In total = 11 hours drive! I was so thankful I managed to reach in 1 piece, and alert too. 

Next to Syahbandar Jetty is a spacious carpark. Opposite it is the below photo. This is the emblem of the state of Terengganu. You can see this from opposite the carpark. I walked to the jetty and met the person-in-charge at the resort's counter. I got my ferry ticket from the Counter - Redang Bay Resort.

Time to board the ferry at 9am! It was about 1.5 hour ride. And it was the coldest boat ride ever. I could not stand it and had to walk out. I stood watching a Thai movie. It was a pharmacist who treated a killer but she did not know she was a killer, because he pretended to be mute. And then when the killer disarm two robbers who attacked them, she was in so much shock and ran away. Then, the ferry reached the destination. :-)

The weather was perfect! The skies were so blue. I remembered the first time I went to Redang. The weather was gorgeous too. I have been very lucky. I was afraid the weather will be bad because the monsoon season is approaching in 2 weeks' time. The ferry stopped us at a spot different from my initial visit. We transferred to another ferry and walked on a make-shift platform from the ferry. There were a bunch of tractor-cart waiting for the customers.

At the resort, I checked into my dormitory and went to the reception to enquire about my course. My dive instructor came out. Her name is Marina Williams, and you will see her photo in my next post. I am so lucky to have her as my instructor. She taught me some of my basics, and she was pretty shocked on how much I have forgotten considering I took the license early this year. Haha! She laughed a lot at my lack of skills but that was the best lesson I ever had. I remembered it clearly, and she made sure I practised in front of her.

 

 

I did not take any photos during my course because there was no one to take for me. It was just me and my instructor. Plus I don't have an underwater camera and my buoyancy was pretty bad to handle a camera. In the Advanced Course, one has to do 5 courses. Mine was :

(1) Peak Performance Buoyancy :: she thought I was bad the first time, and she brought me out the 2nd time to practise and I am so grateful for that. Plus I saw sharks! They are 1 meter in length. And I was like - I SAW SHARKS!

(2) Fish Identification Awareness :: so many colourful fishes I love them, 

(3) Night Dive :: I was very afraid because my freedive buddy warn me to be aware of the ghosts in the sea and I was so afraid to shine my torch light, resulting in my buoyancy failing at night but it was beautiful at night as my eyes adjusted to the darkness,

(4) Navigation Dive :: I got confused counting my legs stroke as I looked at my compass

(5) Deep Dive :: the corals at 30meter were beautiful. There was a garden of corals. The temperature changed from 28 to 27 degrees and I could feel the difference. 

But I did have some photos finally taken on my last dive which was my leisure dive after completing the course. Read on!