Finally, the images for the trip. This has to be one of the best trips ever. My first dive trip after almost 3 years. It’s also a confirmation trip for my recontstructed eardrum. Not forgetting, the very nice people at Two Fish Divers who gave me a little birthday surprise (complete with a delicious chocolate which Tina, the owner, baked herself). Traveling alone sucks, but celebrating my birthday with a whole bunch of strangers rox!:D
The trip was split into two parts, one at Bunaken marine park and the other at Lembeh Straits. Bunaken has some of the best wall diving in the world. One can walk through waist deep water for about 300m and suddenly drop a few hundred meters into the the blue ocean. Wall diving at it’s best. The current also provide some really good drift diving. Photography was a challenge tho.
After 3 days at Bunaken, I headed for Lembeh for some serious muck diving. The creatures underwater look somewhat odd and scary. Alot of them walk and hop rather than swim. As my housemate put it, “it’s a dumping ground for god’s creations gone wrong…” And it’s a paradise for underwater photographers.
Here are the photos. The land photos were taken with a Canon 20D and 17-40mm lens. Underwater photos were taken with an Olympus C5060.
click photograph to view slideshow
Wansheng, welcome back & Happy belated birthday!!
Amazing pictures…..simply breathtaking. Glad to know that you had a great time 
Looking at your pictures, makes me feel as if I had been there and dived there myself. And with the music… I felt totally relaxed (even with a pile of work stacking up just next to me!). Thanks for the wonderful slideshow and the “short mental” holiday!
Amy: Thanks!:D Yeah, I had a very very good time! Now refreshed and so looking forward to work!:D
Jean: Heehee, thanks!:) I’m glad my pictures offered some relief ya. Like those aquarium screensavers:P
Hey, nice one there.
Amazing how many things you can see from a diving trip.
You look really tall in the self-portrait too.
What next? An underwater solemnization? You have all the necessary gear anyway.
hey KC, thanks man!:)
i AM not very tall… maybe that’s the only time i look a little taller:P
i’m going to do a pre-wedding underwater!!:D any takers?:D
What a wonderful set of photos! And you are very knowledgeable in underwater creatures! Happy belated birthday too
One suggestion…. I think it would be good if you go on another dive trip before Jan 2009? (For obvious reasons) Heeheehee!! Cebu maybe?
Your pictures really make me drool!!!
Dying to blow some bubbles soon……
How about post-wedding underwater shots?
Bali (wall dives in menjanagan) in Oct?
WOW!! Lovely pictures!! You made us felt as though we were watching National Geographic or Discovery Channel on underwater creatures!! Very aptly and great soundtrack to go along with the slideshow too. =)
Wai Yi: Thanks man:) I’m not very knowledgable, I hear them from the more experienced divers at the resort. And they have books for reference too:D I’ll get back to your email soon… formating the damn windows again.
Amy: Hehe! You want to sponsor?:P I hope I can go for another big trip this year, but looking at the schedule, it’s abit hard. Maybe early Jan. See how it goes!:D
Jade: I’m actually thinking of that soon. Oct, we can discuss:P heehee!:D
Chris+Pris: Thanks ah! Now you make my head swell. Only if I can get into that 黄色杂志:P I love that song too!:D
wow… and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY bud!
wat can i say… beautiful photos and looks like u did c a lot a lot of stuff underwater! fruitful trip manz!
wow… post-wedding underwater photos
something we wanted to do also
but hahaha now with baby liao
hur hur hur
Hey hey Cindy!:)
Thank you very much!:D
Wait till you settle down first. Then we go for some big trips ya!:D Btw, when is baby due? Still got time for crabs?:P Did you last weekend?
The song is indeed very nice. I opened the slideshow on last Sunday and left the song played again and again and again… and my wife actually didn’t complaint! That shows how nice and soothing it was 😛
Yeah, it’s very soothing. Been on repeat on my PC. Love it to bits!:D
Ho ho ho
your photos are already making me miss the deep sea leh
yea, wait till my bb is about 2 or 3 then we prob can try plan for dive trips tog
the bb is due anytime? the estimated due date is 12 july
let’s see how punctual this bb is
haha
no more crab after the one we did
and now i’m confined at home
not to trigger labor as my gynea wun b back in town till 11th!
hur hur hur
*i wan crab*
wow!! I’m shooting on that day. I hope to hear some good news from you:D
I think you’ve got to wait awhile before you start diving again. When everything’s more settled.
For now, just 望梅止渴:D
hee… yea u’ll hear from us when the baby pops =)
and yes, it’ll be awhile before we can dive again
we’ll see how
HEE
Hey Wansheng, came across your Manado pics when I was surfing around. Am planning to go to Manado during CNY and used your pics to entice friends to go, haha! (Can assure you that those who can’t go regret it immensely!) How many days would you recommend for Lembeh for novices btw?
hi karen! thanks for dropping by.
i’d can pretty much assure u that those who are used to diving in west msia waters, manado will really be an eye opener:)
lembeh is not exactly for novices. it’s muck diving most of the places, which means there’s alot of sediment and vis is pretty erm… bad. but the nice thing abt lembeh is the creatures that resides there. amazing stuff. and they dun move about much. if the bouyancy control is not good, you might be kicking up a storm if u know wht i mean.
i did 3 days in bunaken and 3 days in lembeh. i wished i had done 2/4 instead. bunaken is nice for beginners… i suppose blue water, pretty corals appeal to them more than brown water and bottles, cans… etc:) But not all of Lembeh is like that tho, some sites still have pretty nice corals.
hope this helps:)
Thanks for your endorsement of Manado, really looking forward to it now!
It was good that you made the comment about Lembeh not being suited for novices. I checked and what you said was true. Bunaken is nice for beginners–if we go in Jun-Oct. The reason why it’s Lembeh and not Bunaken is because of the season. Seas will be rough during CNY and Lembeh is sheltered. So I guess we’d have to put up with the bad visibility and sediments! Hopefully, we’d get to meet all the creatures you mentioned! You just gave me an evil idea–make the person with the worst buoyancy control give us a treat, haha!
Any plans to go again?
Hi karen,
Not sure abt the seasons. I’ve only been there once. I did ask the guides, they told me it’s dive-able all year round, but july/august is the best. Although he also said that, different months, you see different things. Bunaken is an island and the dive sites are all around it. So I don’t think the seas will be rough throughout.
And wherever you are going, please try the mandarin fish dive. It’s amazing… I mean, watching the fishes mate. I heard the ones at Lembeh are nicer though.
Due to the nature of my work, it’s hard to commit too far in advance. I usually make very last minute trips. Well, keep me informed if you guys have firm plans, I’ll see if I can take time off:) Have fun!:D
Hi Wansheng,
Yeah, also heard that Jul/Aug period is the best, too bad I can’t switch the dates of my trip though. We’re going from 28-31 Jan, in case you’re interested and happen not to have projects lined up.
Mandarin fish dive? What’s that? And is that what the dive operators call it? How do you know their ‘show times’?
Hope you had a great Halloween! How did you celebrate? My epiphany is that the hardest part isn’t getting the costume (less of a headache than I expected) but getting from place to place decked out in it without folks staring, haha! :p
Oh, you guys are heading down over CNY? 4 days is kinda short (meaning, you only have 2 dive days), you might want to consider making it a little longer. I’m not too sure about my projects yet, but do keep me updated ya? I hope I can join you guys if I’m free over that 2 weeks.
It’s called the mandarin fish dive. Basically, you’ll jump in to the area just before dusk (you’ll need to certified for night dive) and the DMs will tell you where your “seats” are. Just before the last light, the mandarin fishes (about 2-3inches) will sort come out of their hiding and mate. You can see them in this slideshow, it’s blue with orange stripes. Each session is probably 3-5 secs. If you are lucky, they’ll go afew rounds. Oh yah, you’ll see fish sperm floating all around.
I spent my halloween at home since I have a wedding the next morning. I guess I missed out quite a fair bit of fun out there. These days, halloween seems to be more fun. I think Zouk will be a nice place to be at:) What did you dress as?
Yup, we’re heading down over CNY and I know 4 days is kinda short. We did consider extending (we’re returning on Sat) but as there’re no flights back on Sun, we can only extend by 2 days (i.e. return on Mon) and not 1 day. Which might be a bit of an overkill as it means an extra day of leave.
Argh, shucks, I’m not certified for night dives and won’t be able to go for the mandarin fish dive! Such a pity, it sounds so interesting from your description! Have heard from friends it can be quite scary doing night dives though as you dunno what’s lurking in the waters. What do you think?
Aww, too bad, you missed out on all the fun! Why do you say that Halloween seems to be more fun these days? As compared to? Um, isn’t Zouk a NS boys hangout? Or am I mistaken? I was dressed in a long Dracula countess-ish dress which garnered comments of ‘nice!’ rather than ‘scary!’, go figure! :p
Hey Karen,
Sorry for the late reply. Almost missed this one!:s
Ok, honestly, I think you should take the extra leave to go for 2 more days:) I don’t want to be a spoilsport, but I can tell you, you’ll regret not extending:P Ok, but the level of regret will depends alot on how much you love diving:P
Why don’t you guys take you advance certification there? I’ve seen people doing that. It’s an awesome place for night dives. Plenty of critters to see. As for night diving, I think it varies among people. I feel really comfortable in the dark and I love the feeling of being in unknown territory. Like I said, different people feels differently, I may be the weird one:D But if you never try, you’ll never know if you are as weird as me:P
Haha! dracu-lass. I’m sure alot of willing men out there who’d want to die happy:P
Hey, thought you dropped into a hole or something!
Alright, have taken your suggestion into serious consideration and proposed it to my friends so am now waiting for their replies. Hopefully, there’d still be flight and accomd availability.
Well, the thing is, I haven’t dived since I got my open water certification 2 years ago and am not sure if I’m up to taking the advance test. What do you suggest?
You feel comfy in the dark and being in unknown territory? Guess you probably fall into the weird category!
Draculass? Haha, I think Dracula will flip in his grave with this word pun! On a sidenote, have you read the book? It actually is kinda scary.