diving in sangalaki, indonesia - part II
ocean is not a zoo...
more words of wisdom from yuki. i was recounting my disappointment of not seeing as many mantas as expected in sangalaki and she replied with these words above that are now etched in my mind.
the beauty of nature is its unpredictability. in the zoo, you get instantaneous gratification cos all that you want to see is displayed behind the cold hard glass case or behind a cleverly landscaped moat/fence. but you soon realise that the satisfaction is short-lived and you get bored after a while. the difference with nature is that the patient will get rewarded and the joy of discovering new things everyday lasts forever. what we can discover about the world is limitless. i ve been diving for some 5 years now and i m still discovering new things about the ocean...
such as, sea foam is formed by planktons. when a phytoplankton bloom offshore dissolves a large amount of organic matter in seawater, and this water is transported onshore by winds and then agitated in the surf zone, sea foam is formed. how i discovered this was cos after our night dive at a dive site off maratua, we surfaced into the foam and the smell was like vomit or fermented beancurd and we were all really freaked out thinking that it must be sewage water washed off from the villages in maratua. disgusted, we washed and washed our dive gear that night. we had never been so diligent in washing our gear..... anyways, the resort manager told us the next day that it is just fermented plankton. i came back to search the web and found the above explanation and finally felt 'clean'.
anyways, there were a few other funny things that happened on the sangalaki trip which i wanted to put on record so i can laugh about it years later.
the malay staff at nabucco resort couldnt quite tell three of us apart: bonz, wangz and i. cos we are all quite petite and have long dark-coloured hair. just like all ang mohs looked the same to me, i spose we looked the same to the malay staff and this generated a few laughs. it was bonz's birthday and i had ordered a cake the night before. it was meant to be a surprise. however, the following morning, the waiter came over to our table and told bonz with big assuring smile on his face, the cake had been arranged. i was absolutely mortified. she gave a confused look and then it dawned on her what was going on. the staff thought that it was my birthday and bonz had ordered the cake. *gasp* the next morning, putu asked if it was my birthday and i was like no, no, NO! it's my sister's bd!
there was this other incident when the waiter brought hot chocolate to wangz (when it was actually bonz who ordered) and she gave them the 'i didnt order this' look and i saw him getting all nervous... i think generally the resort staff were very eager to please - could be the result of being subjected to nazi treatment by the german management haha...
the other night, the waiter also got very nervous after i asked him what is the famous indonesian fruit dessert with avocado and he didnt know the answer. i thought about it for whole night and suddenly recalled that it was esteller!! told the waiter and saw the smile of relief on his face.
other light-hearted moments included us getting terrorized by the residents of the island. there were the geckos that appeared everywhere. a particularly gross looking one was waiting to ambush me at the door of the bedroom one morning and in a stupor, i had walked right onto him and realising what touched my foot, gave the most bloodcurdling scream of my life. the guy was stunned and stayed there for quite a long while. he survived and crept away while i was hiding out in the bathroom. edy also suffered a gecko attack. one night while we were sitting around at the dining table, he got hit by a missile from the ceiling. the other scary resident is Benny, the mongrel. thought he was a friendly guy till he grabbed my leg with his front paw one morning and i was quite freaked out and avoided him ever since. he had the habit of appearing suddenly beside you while you were walking on the narrow path. bonz, who isnt very fond of dogs, got shocked outta her life when he did that to her once. after that incident, we noticed that Benny 'disappeared' for the next few days, possibly locked up and subject to nazi treatment.
other not so light-hearted moment was when cheng discovered that he had forgotten to bring the o-ring for the uw casing for his camera. he had brought everything else - yup, all of 20kg of heavy equipment, strobes and all.. oh well, i m sure he ll go back to sangalaki again to capture them magnificent creatures in his camera.
the last night of the trip, we stayed in a nondescript town, berau. there was really nothing to do besides eating and shopping for gold. according to putu, the gold here is of pretty good quality. he bought a gold ring for some S$120 cos he was going travelling for the next two weeks and he thinks its better to carry gold than cash. we sat by the yellow river for a while to chat and kabs commented that it was just like phnom penh, cambodia. yup, next to the tonle sap, there was also a row of little shops selling food and drinks and there was also nothing much to do.
we had ayam sate and seafood for dinner that night. while waiting for the sate, had a little chat with putu. he said that he wanted to work in singapore and in fact, stayed with his aunt in singapore for 6 months once but cldnt adapt to the crazy pace. talked about the escalators being so fast, he took the stairs instead.
the next day we left on a little plane. it was so little that all passengers had to be weighed to make sure the load is not too heavy. plane touched down, picked passengers up and took off again. it was like taking a bus. putu had left earlier on another flight to balikpapan and went on his way to bali? jakarta? who knows. one regret. i wished i had touched those soft brown curls and satisfy my curiosity that it really is as soft as it looks!
more words of wisdom from yuki. i was recounting my disappointment of not seeing as many mantas as expected in sangalaki and she replied with these words above that are now etched in my mind.
the beauty of nature is its unpredictability. in the zoo, you get instantaneous gratification cos all that you want to see is displayed behind the cold hard glass case or behind a cleverly landscaped moat/fence. but you soon realise that the satisfaction is short-lived and you get bored after a while. the difference with nature is that the patient will get rewarded and the joy of discovering new things everyday lasts forever. what we can discover about the world is limitless. i ve been diving for some 5 years now and i m still discovering new things about the ocean...
such as, sea foam is formed by planktons. when a phytoplankton bloom offshore dissolves a large amount of organic matter in seawater, and this water is transported onshore by winds and then agitated in the surf zone, sea foam is formed. how i discovered this was cos after our night dive at a dive site off maratua, we surfaced into the foam and the smell was like vomit or fermented beancurd and we were all really freaked out thinking that it must be sewage water washed off from the villages in maratua. disgusted, we washed and washed our dive gear that night. we had never been so diligent in washing our gear..... anyways, the resort manager told us the next day that it is just fermented plankton. i came back to search the web and found the above explanation and finally felt 'clean'.
anyways, there were a few other funny things that happened on the sangalaki trip which i wanted to put on record so i can laugh about it years later.
the malay staff at nabucco resort couldnt quite tell three of us apart: bonz, wangz and i. cos we are all quite petite and have long dark-coloured hair. just like all ang mohs looked the same to me, i spose we looked the same to the malay staff and this generated a few laughs. it was bonz's birthday and i had ordered a cake the night before. it was meant to be a surprise. however, the following morning, the waiter came over to our table and told bonz with big assuring smile on his face, the cake had been arranged. i was absolutely mortified. she gave a confused look and then it dawned on her what was going on. the staff thought that it was my birthday and bonz had ordered the cake. *gasp* the next morning, putu asked if it was my birthday and i was like no, no, NO! it's my sister's bd!
there was this other incident when the waiter brought hot chocolate to wangz (when it was actually bonz who ordered) and she gave them the 'i didnt order this' look and i saw him getting all nervous... i think generally the resort staff were very eager to please - could be the result of being subjected to nazi treatment by the german management haha...
the other night, the waiter also got very nervous after i asked him what is the famous indonesian fruit dessert with avocado and he didnt know the answer. i thought about it for whole night and suddenly recalled that it was esteller!! told the waiter and saw the smile of relief on his face.
other light-hearted moments included us getting terrorized by the residents of the island. there were the geckos that appeared everywhere. a particularly gross looking one was waiting to ambush me at the door of the bedroom one morning and in a stupor, i had walked right onto him and realising what touched my foot, gave the most bloodcurdling scream of my life. the guy was stunned and stayed there for quite a long while. he survived and crept away while i was hiding out in the bathroom. edy also suffered a gecko attack. one night while we were sitting around at the dining table, he got hit by a missile from the ceiling. the other scary resident is Benny, the mongrel. thought he was a friendly guy till he grabbed my leg with his front paw one morning and i was quite freaked out and avoided him ever since. he had the habit of appearing suddenly beside you while you were walking on the narrow path. bonz, who isnt very fond of dogs, got shocked outta her life when he did that to her once. after that incident, we noticed that Benny 'disappeared' for the next few days, possibly locked up and subject to nazi treatment.
other not so light-hearted moment was when cheng discovered that he had forgotten to bring the o-ring for the uw casing for his camera. he had brought everything else - yup, all of 20kg of heavy equipment, strobes and all.. oh well, i m sure he ll go back to sangalaki again to capture them magnificent creatures in his camera.
the last night of the trip, we stayed in a nondescript town, berau. there was really nothing to do besides eating and shopping for gold. according to putu, the gold here is of pretty good quality. he bought a gold ring for some S$120 cos he was going travelling for the next two weeks and he thinks its better to carry gold than cash. we sat by the yellow river for a while to chat and kabs commented that it was just like phnom penh, cambodia. yup, next to the tonle sap, there was also a row of little shops selling food and drinks and there was also nothing much to do.
we had ayam sate and seafood for dinner that night. while waiting for the sate, had a little chat with putu. he said that he wanted to work in singapore and in fact, stayed with his aunt in singapore for 6 months once but cldnt adapt to the crazy pace. talked about the escalators being so fast, he took the stairs instead.
the next day we left on a little plane. it was so little that all passengers had to be weighed to make sure the load is not too heavy. plane touched down, picked passengers up and took off again. it was like taking a bus. putu had left earlier on another flight to balikpapan and went on his way to bali? jakarta? who knows. one regret. i wished i had touched those soft brown curls and satisfy my curiosity that it really is as soft as it looks!
posted by nan at 1:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home