While we were descending I felt little pinches on my face and hands; the only exposed parts of my body. I couldn't see anything no matter how hard I looked, but I was sure they were jellyfish stings. My face didn't turn out so bad, but my hands and chin developed a rash afterwards. Itchy little suckers, too!
Stingose Gel helped in the healing process a lot, although I didn't dare put it on until right before bed because it dries white. I didn't want to burden my dinner companions with a situation where they forcefully look you straight in the eye to avoid looking at the stains on your face and secretly scrutinize the markings to try and figure out what it is when the you're not looking. How awkward. Especially if you end up catching them, and they play it off like they're looking past you or just sweeping the scenery and you happen to look at them right when their eyes are on you. And to be honest, I'm usually that person secretly staring at people's faces. Hahaha!
As usual, it was a beautiful dive. By the way, have I ever pointed out how warm the water is here? All my dives had been in 29 degrees Celsius water (84 degrees Fahrenheit). How's that compared to California's 15 degrees Celsius (60 degree Fahrenheit) freezing water? Let me tell you, like heaven! Perfect temperature for diving, I would say. :)
On this first dive, we saw a big bumphead parrotfish. He stuck around with us for a little while, swimming back and forth. Ismail pointed out these little tiny crabs by the corals, and I found my own crab! I think it's an anemone crab, because it was hiding there with Nemo fish. Its white color was what caught my attention. There was also a couple more mantis shrimps and a moray with his cleaner shrimp by his mouth.
The coolest part of this dive is towards the end. We were led through a very short and small tunnel right by the edge of the island on top. I actually felt a little claustrophobic going in. I was mainly scared I was going to destroy the corals in there. But I made it out fine. Emerging from the tunnel gave me such a weird sensation. It was like a mixture of relief and awe in the beauty of nature, especially because as I was coming out, there were soft sunbeams shining down from the water surface on the colorful patch of corals that greeted me. What a wonderful sight to end the dive with, don't you think?
The next dive site we went to is Sardine Reef. Isn't it amazing how since I got here I've never had to go to the same spot twice? Well, Manta Sandy doesn't count because we were hunting for manta rays. The amount of dive sites around here is just amazing. And I wouldn't mind revisiting any one of them, actually. There's just so many things to see!
The moment we got down, we saw a couple of reef sharks swimming around. They're actually really shy creatures. They don't get close to divers at all. I mean, either that or they just think they're better than you so they just ignore you. Like, a snobby kind of fish.
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| A white tip reef shark in the distance. |
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| Getting closer... |
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| And closer. After this point it swam off. But you can actually see that it's pregnant. A mama shark! |
There was a bit of a current so we just drifted with the flow. There were a lot of good-sized striped trevallies around. We also saw a few mid-sized Napoleons! I initially had trouble distinguishing between the bumphead parrotfish and napoleons. They look kind of the same except one has a protruding forehead and the other has big, puffy lips. I can't tell them apart when they're small and those parts are not as developed. There were also a lot of striped sweet lips. I wonder why they're named "sweet lips." Their lips don't look that kissable or anything.
The entertaining part of this dive came right at the end. As we were drifting (pretty fast at this point) by a relatively sandy plateau for our safety stop, I saw Eddy signalling me to back up with a serious face. I was with Ismail and he kinda pulled me away. That was when I saw a big triggerfish swimming rapidly below Eddy, circling the area madly.
Jutta said she isn't scared of sharks, but of two kinds of fish. One is the barracuda because they'll sometimes attack if they see winking shiny things. Another is the triggerfish. At first, I was like, but they look so harmless! They're apparently a fighter fish. If, for whatever reason, they're annoyed of you, they will bite you. While most fish will swim away once you get too close, these guys will pull up their little head fins, which are usually flattened when they're calm, and start attacking. Mind you, their mouths are small but they'll still nip you!
The one that was mad at Eddy was around two feet long. When you're underwater and not totally in an element where you can make a quick anything, fish exceeding a foot long that can ram into your face and knock out your regulator and mask is considered pretty scary. According to me.
This one looked really pissed off. I literally thought it was gonna go wild and attack the closest threat to it. So, naturally, I steered clear. That was when I realized Eddy was provoking it into a fight. -_- He was jabbing repeatedly in the fish's direction like he was having a fencing tournament with it. As he "fought" the fish, he wore a face of stern anger like they were sworn enemies. It was pretty funny to watch actually. Water leaked into my mask when I laughed. This went on for a while. But the fish never actually bit him. It just chased him until it saw that he was going away.
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| The kind of triggerfish that Eddy was fighting; a titan triggerfish. (Photo credits to Google Images) |
Ah, the fun things we do underwater. :)
The third dive of the day was at Sleeping Barracuda. And it was named rightly so. This site is a sandy bank at the depth of around 20 meters where big fish like barracudas come to rest their eyes, even though it's still wide open. There were some coral blocks, but not many. We weren't focused on looking at them anyway. Definitely saw quite a few sleeping barracudas. They were right down by the floor.
The cutest thing was we would sit and wait for the many wormfish to reappear on the sand. They get scared from our movements and retrieved. But once we settle, a whole colony appeared. It was so funny how they all reach different heights with their bodies and started biting at little dust. I guess they're eating floating particles that were passing through the current.
As we were drifting along I also saw another titan triggerfish about the same size as the previous one in Sardine Reef. However, this one was actually sleeping! How could I tell? Well, it was actually resting on its side in the slope of this crater that it probably made. Oddly enough, it looked peaceful as it was sleeping. I pointed it out to Eddy, and he went over. I think he was trying to provoke it also. But when the fish woke up, it was too drowsy to really care and even looked a little confused, if you can imagine a drowsy and confused fish. Hahaha!
Then, right when we were surfacing, we witnessed a few black tip reef sharks hunting a school of fish. It was very interesting. They were shooting through the water this way and that. The big group of fish quickly dodged. The sharks just kept at it. It's so different from when we see them just casually cruising along by the reef 10-15 meters under. They looked bored compared to the frenzy of feeding.
I guess that's what fish do when they're bored. They swim around. Especially if you're on top of the food chain in that area. Nothing serious to worry about. You're not really fending for your life like the other small fish. So what can you do when you're living a carefree life, a life without threats? They could just sit and wait until they need to feed again. But what do you see the sharks doing?
They roam the area like a boss!
I actually have no idea why they do this. Maybe to look for a school of fish big enough to chase for food. After all, it's harder to catch a reef fish when they can easily hide in the nooks and crannies created by corals. But they're always alone when they swim around. And I always see more than one reef sharks when they're feeding. It's like a gathering of friends or something.
Or maybe they're just bored and need something to do.
The one thing I notice about marine life is that it's always moving, shifting, and changing. When something's not moving, it's usually for its own protection. The initial step of camouflaging itself includes being very still and looking like its environment. Great examples of this include the frogfish, flatfish, and cuttlefish. Sometimes staying still is also to up the chance of survival. Camouflaging for food and looking harmless. Examples are wobbegong, scorpionfish, and crocodilefish.
Most animals sit still because they need to survive.
Which brings me to the topic of lazy people who sit around all day. You're not exactly sitting for survival; more like sitting til death do you move. I get it. Some people have reached the top of the food chain whether it be through effort (like working) or not (like marrying and inheritance). They don't need to fight to make a living anymore. Life's great!
And what do you do? You sit.
When I say "sit" what I really meant is wasting life away; doing unproductive things like watching TV all the time, going to tanning salons (you know, they're actually bad for you?), and the simple, old, literal sitting and doing nothing (people actually do this). Every once in a while and in small dosages, those unproductive things help with stress and getting through life (except for the tanning salon). So I'm not saying I'm against them. I'm against obsessively and habitually doing things that lead to no end.
Some might argue if they earned it, they can do whatever the hell they want. Which is true. It's their time and money. I have no right to dictate it, and I'm not trying to either.
But I'm just a strong believer that life is about the journey, not the destination. And your destination is basically your death. So there's no point in stopping when you've reached your goal or fulfilled your dream. Have another goal! Live another dream! Nothing should stop until the moment you breathe your last breath.
I really reflected on this point after Jutta told us about some of her experiences working in the Maldives. People travel half way around the world and paid a fortune to sit by the beach and get drunk. You can do that in your own backyard! You're in paradise! Don't you want to do more? Sure, it's vacation. If by the end of the vacation you're back home and you're not dead tired, I think you did something wrong.
But, in my opinion, the worst of them all are those who think they're entitled to sit. Because the world is against them. Because no one gave them a chance. Because this person did that to them. Because that person did this to them. Because no one's being fair. Etc., etc., etc.
Excuses! They're all just excuses! Well, let me tell you, you won't find a fair game even at the end of the universe. The true culprit behind these excuses? Fear. Because deep down inside they're scared of changing. They're scared of the work needed to change. And sometimes (although I believe it to be most of the time now), people are just lazy.
I used to be a sitter. Still fighting to not fall back into that pattern of life. It's a struggle. And you know why? Because it's easy. Sitting and doing nothing is easy. Moving and changing and challenging yourself is hard. It's like a battle between life and death. I guess that's why people say death is the easy way out. It wants to still you. While, on the other hand, life is a beautiful struggle. If it's not overpowering we wouldn't be alive today.
I was scared of changing. I was scared that it would hurt me. That it would hurt the people around me. And after a long process of searching and discovering myself, I realized that I was letting others control my life because it was the easy way out. Everybody else was happy except for me. I would be the perfect whatever role you can think of in front of people (daughter, student, friend, etc.), while I go back and have no idea who I really am. It's easy to figure out the norms of society, follow it, and sit around not figuring out who you are because that is hard.
Self discovery is time consuming and hard work!
People sit because they don't know themselves. They don't know what to do with their lives or how to make themselves happy. So they just go with the flow. Follow the crowd. Sometimes I still struggle to place my happiness before others because I've been raised to put others indefinitely before myself.
It's important to realize that your own happiness is key in propelling you forward to the life of action, because happiness is never still. The only thing you have to worry about is not becoming selfish... Oh, the paradoxes of life. :)
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