Asia Underwater (The Scuba Post)
This is it! I’m back in the United States. I can’t believe it. But it the meantime, I’m going to be chugging out these blog posts, before I forget all of the crazy memories that the trip has given me. This post is the first directly out of chronological order, as it covers learning scuba in Malaysia in August and again in Thailand in October. You can read my other posts here.
I don’t know why I wanted to get scuba certified. I know my Southeast Asian guidebook talked about it, and that there were some great spots to learn the sport and to see some fantastic wildlife. Honestly, I was probably just bored of sightseeing, and was looking for other ways to spend my time abroad. Who knows.
Attempt One- Mabul Island, Malaysia
Anyways, we decided to learn scuba in Malaysian Borneo, on the island of Mabul, back in August. (You can read about neighboring Semporna here.) We signed up for the 3 day class, which involved 1 day in the classroom, 5 confined water dives, and 4 open water dives. The confined water dives each have a set of skills to practice in the pool (or in our case, in a walled in part of the Sea). The open water dives review the most important of the confined water dives, but this time in the open water. Each open water dive also allows some time to enjoy the wildlife below.
We went about the first day in the classroom, taught by a pretty indifferent instructor, and the material was pretty dully taught. I was able to understand most of it, but it was hard to absorb since I hadn’t actually been in scuba gear or practicing in the water. They had 5 modules and quizzes, and then a final test. Multiple choice and fill in the blank.
Day 2 was quite, quite different. We had a different instructor, thankfully, and we put on our scuba gear. I must say now that I have never even snorkeled underwater (except once, briefly), and did not grow up doing a lot of water things or water sports. Our instructor went over the first confined water dive, which went over things such as recovering a fallen-out regulator (what you breathe through), and clearing a partially-filled up mask underwater. Well, all of that went quite out the window when we first submerged underwater. The feeling was indescribably foreign and disorienting. I could hear my breathing apparatus, sounding like Darth Vader, I could say nothing, and my compadres looked quite different beneath the surface. I immediately went up (only several inches), my confidence thoroughly shaken. Water was not my comfort zone, I saw that clearly. I tried my best to gather myself, and went back down, but it was too much. I left Lena and her instructor for the day, and left to lay down and process things.
See, the thing with scuba (as I can tell), is that it is a mental game. Your body is not meant to be underwater. It tells you “hey! this isn’t right, we’re going to die”. But you are breathing as normal. You can’t hear much, you can’t talk, but you are in safe hands and with some of the most wondrous beings in the underwater world. So it’s up to you and your inner dialogue, to navigate, soothe, and confide in that things will be okay. Sometimes my inner dialogue is not so cooperative to those goals, and I did not expect (read: was blindsided) to have to grapple with that realization so totally and completely.
Against all odds, I decided to try once more the next day with something simpler. I requested a discover scuba course, which involves having an instructor guide you around a dive, to see if you like the sport. I had a 3rd instructor, but he was patient and able to work with me, and I was slowly able to get used to The Life Aquatic. And I did go on two successful open water dives, where we saw Nemo, Gill (the Moorish Idol from Finding Nemo), several 6' green sea turtles, and plenty of other fishes and corals.
I couldn’t believe it! It had been quite a whirlwind of sentiments towards scuba, and while I had to leave right as I started enjoyed it, I left with not a scar, but an itch that needed to be scratched.
A Proper Do-Over: Ko Tao, Thailand
Fast forward to October, and coming from the infamous Full Moon Party, we found our chance to scratch the itch again. We headed to Ko Tao, nestled well into the Gulf of Thailand. Ko Tao is colloquially known as the place to get Scuba Certified. It’s cheap, it’s beautiful, and it has tons of fantastic dive spots. At this point, Lena had gotten her Scuba Diver certification (the Learner’s permit of Scuba), and I had only my classroom work. Her goal was to get the Open Water certification (which lets you dive anywhere in open water up to 18m with a buddy, and it is the certification people refer to when they say “scuba certified”), and mine was to get the Scuba Diver cert.
The new scuba resort we learned at was wonderful. It was us, our wonderful Brazilian instructor Thiago, his Czech assistant Petr, and our burly Icelandic classmate, Bjartmar. They were able to handle our three different levels of comfort and experience, and let us all do the confined water dives together when Lena wanted some extra review. Plus, we did it in a pool and not in a confined oceanic area, which helped hugely. Fears methodically dissolved and the desire to be in the open water intensified. I was able to succeed at each skill and task and felt more and more comfortable with longer and longer stretches underwater. Thiago and Petr were so patient and offered clear, down-to-earth explanations for the questions we had, and were fantastic at quelling anxieties about X & Y.
We learned concepts including running out of air, checking our levels, staying neutrally buoyant underwater, communication underwater, helping our buddy should they run out of air, navigating underwater using a compass, and safely ascending back to the surface. We then took those skills to the open water.
Just getting out to our dives the first day on the water was dumbfounding, from hopping onto the back of a pickup truck, to transferring to this giant boat with 2 stories, and about 100 scuba tanks lined up on each side, to the incredible thunderstorming monsoon that surrounded us,leaning visibility to near-zero and raining coming in sideways. Thunder boomed around us as we took off from shore. I was in shock! How was this safe in any way. But morale was high on the ship, and no one seemed to be phased in the least. Plus, people were saying that the safest place would be deep underwater. I guess this is how you do it in Thailand. Then, BOOM, a clamorous clap of thunder not 100 meters from our boat. Well, okay then.
Meanwhile, Bjartmar and I got our scuba gear ready and performed our buddy checks, and went off into the deep underwater of the Gulf of Thailand. The first dive was simple and quick, so we didn’t see much, but we got our skills done quickly. We surfaced again, and the boat spent about 45 minutes going to our next destination (thankfully, the rain was subsiding). Our second dive was a bit longer, thankfully, and we got to see a sea of brown-red corals lining the ocean floor of the dive site “Twins”, along with numerous types of stunning fishes.
For our final dives the following morning, Lena rejoined us, and we set off to do our final Open Water dives. We even had a videographer make a video for us for those dives, so I’ll post that down below so you guys can get a sense of what it was like and what we saw. (yes, the video is cheesy and too long, skip around for fun bits)
We both headed back to shore as PADI-certified Open Water Divers! Without realizing it, I skipped over the Scuba diver cert and made it straight to the proper certification. I am so happy for myself to have come so full-circle with such a dizzying and foreign sport. While I haven’t had the chance to dive since, I can see myself planning fun trips to go dive in the future — I’ve heard the Caribbean has the best in the world.
