300 faces

Yes I know you guys told me I should wear sunscreen! But really my sunburn wasn't too bad, just looked a little worse due to the clear cut-off from the wet suit sleeves. Don't worry, we had a good laugh. Oh and my 20 dollar hotel splurge included free buffet breakfast - toast! Very different to what I had become accustomed to. The weather was nice but the sea a bit rough as we headed out on the little boat to the outlying islands. We had already tried on wetsuits, flippers and masks back at the center. The boat was made for scuba diving and there were over a dozen tanks lining the seats, making it uncomfortable every time we hit a wave and slammed into a tank. At first we did a swim test, which was easy enough despite my fears from over-buffeting. Then into the wetsuits and we learnt how to assemble the gear and bang, we were in the water breathing through tank air! I'm not going to go into to much details about diving but all I can say that you should do it at least once! Its bloody fun and I now understand why william said I shouldnt do it until the end of the year as its addictive and I want to go again and again! We just learnt a lot of skills, most of which I didn't know were possible - like how to take your mask off your head and then replace it, breathing through the nose to fill it with air. Personally I didn't like that one as the salt would sting for a little bit, especially if you didn't do it right. Then after our take-away lunch (no cafes on this island) we did a bit of an exploration but didn't see much due to poor visibility frm the weather and its only a starting island - just sand bottoms for easy learning. But we did see plenty of clown fish, a few black-pitted eels which I proudly spotted - they only stick their head out of the sand! Deepest depth for the day was 12m, but you have no idea until you look at the dial, i thought we were at 6 or 7m! same thing with time, it really flies underwater! I am definitely keen for tomorrow as we will go to a better island to learn bouyancy and have a free dive in the afternoon. After we had cleaned our gear I had a seafood platter for dinner with the others - the banker, hk chick and her friend who cant swim but was trying to snorkel. I wasn't keen on spending the money but didn't want to say no, plus it worked out to be like 7 dollars or something - not big in the scheme of things! Back at the hotel all the free internet computers were taken, so I kicked back with a beer and watched Malaysian soapies until the locals took pity and gave me the remote - the movie channels here are pretty good!