Seeing a Whale Shark.

So, I ended my last dive for 2014 in Redang during it's closing season and coincidentally, I'm there again for it's opening season, just last weekend. Consider it a break from my work before GST's happening. 

The island was no doubt, packed like sardine on the first day of our arrival, due to school holidays. But it gets better on second day onward as people starts to leave the island and head back to the reality.

Arriving!

As a diver, I usually do not mind about the stay I'm getting as long as it's clean (not easy), and providing hot water and CLEAN, again. 

We stayed at Redang Bay, same resort as our last visit and surprisingly, they had the whole resort renovated! They now have more vendors surrounding the resort including a chill out bar, mini market, dessert shop and even a Taiwanese chicken chop stall, great stuff to kill time.

I personally think they provides kinda good packages including accommodation, food and dive packages (if you're a diver) at reasonable prices.

So, keep calm and gear up. Did I mention that I've got a beautiful birthday gift from T? A new BCD in my favorite red. Perfect timing for me to test it out before our Anilao trip in April.

My new set of gears. 

Anyway, I can mention many unforgettable and beautiful moments under water. But there's one dive that mark my most significant dive till date -- I saw a whale shark ! 

I was getting bored throughout the entire dive as there were nothing much to see, and my ass were freezing was all I can remember. While the few of us were doing safety stop at 5m before surface, i saw it swam gracefully passed us! I swear to god I thought I was dreaming for the first 2 sec before I alert the rest!

Not that hard to spot me under the water, really. 

In case you don't know,
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a slow-moving filter feeding shark and the largest known extant fish species. - Wiki
It is NOT a whale.  They are harmless to people and usually indifferent to divers.

Image taken from Google. 

Well, it was a juvenile whale shark but it still counts! WHALE SHARK, geddit ?! 

Many were surprise that we saw it in Redang as it is definitely not a hot spot for it. We did not manage to capture any picture as it happened too random to our surprise. But boy, it definitely set a new milestone for my dive journey.


The sea, 
once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. 
- Jacques Cousteau



To summarize the trip, view video below:

 

Till my next dive in two weeks time,
L