Open Water SCUBA Diving Lang Tengah

Ahh, the wide open azure seas and cooling breezes as we make our way on the boat to D'Coconut Resort on Lang Tengah Island for our first open water scuba diving adventure. Jan is smiling in the middle, but it's hard to imagine Jan without a smile! Jan started diving less than a year ago and already has almost 100 dives under her weight belt! She's my idol! The ferry boat we are on doubled as our dive boat. The resort was probably the smallest I've been to and catered to divers.

We've arrived at Lang Tengah which means "Middle Island" because it is between Prehentian and Redang. Everyone was excited to see where we'd be diving. I don't think anyone was disappointed. The water was a beautiful aquamarine, clear, warm, and welcoming. I love the South China Sea.

Jaime, Jerad (on crutches because he sprained his ankle), Eileen, Carlo (taking a photo), our dive instructor Robert, etc. It was a beautiful day and the seas were calm for the crossing which took about 45 minutes.

I haven't thought much about how clouds form over land since science in high school, but when I looked across the still waters and saw these clouds forming over the islands in the distance it came flooding back. Looking back toward Kuala Terengganu, near where the ferry departed from, the whole mainland was covered in clouds as well.

Here is the view looking towards Perhentian Island. Perhentian means "stopping place islands" and is a much larger island than Lang Tengah. The green and hawksbill sea turtles (my favorite) lay their eggs there between May and September when the bay is closed to visitors.

When I was snorkeling near the rocks I found a sea turtle and followed him all around the lagoon. It was amazingly fun!

Here Van and I are at 16 meters "unda the sea" just off the island of Lang Tengah. After a anxiety filled couple of dives, I was finally able to relax and enjoy the newness of being underwater and not drowning! This photo is from one of the "four" required open water dives that needed to be completed before I could get my PADI certification which will allow me to SCUBA dive without an instructor anywhere in the world. We had to do stressful things like take your mask off underwater, put it back on, and clear the water out of it so you could see again. It is a little scary, but once I learned to let go and relax, it really is quite easy. I stuck with it because I knew our instructor wouldn't let me graduate unless he was convinced I was comfortable. It took some good positive self talk to keep me under the water when every instinct told me to swim to the surface. Thanks to my daughter's words of wisdom, I was able to stick it out and graduate. Now, we can't wait for the next dive!

Carlo (Van's boss) was my "dive buddy" for most of the dives because Van already has his certification. Carlo was so nice to me. It was a big stretch for me to trust someone other than Van under the water, but after a few minutes with Carlo and his wonderful protectiveness, I was almost as comfortable as I was with Van. Carlo can be my "dive buddy" anytime.

The resort had two locations. Were the lagoon is where we got off the boat is the older part of the resort and down a jungle path around to this side of a cove is the newer part. This view is from the newer location looking down the beautiful white sand beach.

This is the infinity pool at the newer side of the resort. We managed to swim in both pools to cool off when we were relaxing between dives.

Here is a view of the dock at the lagoon.

You know, I can honestly say that I have never noticed webs and spiders in the jungle before this trip. I don't know if I never noticed them before or if the island just had a lot of them. I decided that I never ever wanted to be lost in the jungle because if I ran into one of these in a web I'd be so freaked out!

Jan took this photo of a sea turtle. We aren't allowed to carry cameras until we finished our course work, but Van and I are already looking at what kind to buy.

I love the sea turtles the best. They are so wonderful. I could follow them around for hours (if I had enough energy and air)!







Jungle vegetation. You never really realize how much things grow until you stand and look at the jungle around you. Some leaves are as large a two-year old children! It's amazing. Just imagine how many spiders (not to mention other things) are in this jungle - yikes!

Tanks, tanks, and more tanks!

Here is a side view of Mr. Spider. He was an armor plated monster. Honestly, he was as big as my closed fist if you included his legs! I understand from the dive shop boys Kamal and Eddie that there are no poisonous spiders on the island. It's a good thing, too, because I saw these same type legs on the inside window of Eileen and Dennis' bathroom!

Another photo of the sea turtle! Isn't he magnificent! It's amazing how well he blends into the bottom when you look at him from above.