Sunday, January 7, 2007
Our 3rd day in Maui already. Today instead of snorkelling in substandard beaches we had planned for a snorkel + snuba trip to Molokini crater! Where really good snorkelling is supposed to be. And no I didn't spell that wrongly.. it's Snuba. it's diving for noobs.. instead of carrying your oxygen tank, they leave it on the boat and there's this hose that supplies your oxygen that goes down to you..
So we met, early in the morning at Maalaea Bay. It's really near our hotel. In fact we were so early that the crew wasn't ready yet and we went for a short walk, and a toilet visit before going back to register. As we registered, the guy said that our names weren't in!! horrors of horrors. Luckily they still had space. Also, he later said he found out that we had booked the wrong date instead. I don't think we were that blur but oh well, at least they let us hop on!
Our 3rd day in Maui already. Today instead of snorkelling in substandard beaches we had planned for a snorkel + snuba trip to Molokini crater! Where really good snorkelling is supposed to be. And no I didn't spell that wrongly.. it's Snuba. it's diving for noobs.. instead of carrying your oxygen tank, they leave it on the boat and there's this hose that supplies your oxygen that goes down to you..
So we met, early in the morning at Maalaea Bay. It's really near our hotel. In fact we were so early that the crew wasn't ready yet and we went for a short walk, and a toilet visit before going back to register. As we registered, the guy said that our names weren't in!! horrors of horrors. Luckily they still had space. Also, he later said he found out that we had booked the wrong date instead. I don't think we were that blur but oh well, at least they let us hop on!
The crew of Aqua Adventure giving us an introductory talk. They were superbly friendly people and made jokes all the time.. Really really enjoyed their company, you feel like part of their little family when you're on board! They even refer to you by name, every single one of them.. Very nice people. We were then served breakfast of some coffee and muffins.
This is part of molokini crater. I didn't bring my camera down for the snuba cos my underwater casing can only take 10 feet [~3m] whereas our dive could go to 20 feet cos that's how long the oxygen hose is.
Before we went down, Anne taught us the main things we need to know to snuba dive. Basically it's just breathing underwater and stuff.. sounds simple yes?
er.. no. When you go below the surface of the water and you breathe, there are lots of bubbles that come out and they will go by your face/ear and make this sound, and it's really scary. It just made me panic I don't know why. In fact I even resorted to putting my head above the surface of the water to breathe in, even though I had the mask and oxygen tank on. Haha.
But yea after a while you kinda get used to it.. so down we went. It was pretty cool that you get to kinda dive even without a cert.. But half the time was spent equalizing my ears [you know, the pinch your nose and breathe out to alter the pressure stuff] and when I am actually down, after a while I float up again and I find myself really near the surface when I thought I was actually doing quite well. Stupid. it's so hard to stay at the bottom. No one else seemed to be having that problem so i don't know what's wrong with me.. Guess it's the equalizing or something.
About the fish.. well..... you see, b4 we went down, Anne was like, ooh, we're gonna see manta rays and octopus! But it was really disappointing. Molokini crater leh.. supposed to be really good for snorkelling but there were hardly any fish as usual. Sigh. You know, Redang which is the only place that i've gone snorkelling has so much more marine life than this. There are like schools of fishes there and you kinda worry about avoiding them right? In Hawaii.. there are hardly any.. =( Maybe it's cos the water is really cold? Anyways, yes, disappointing.
Before we went down, Anne taught us the main things we need to know to snuba dive. Basically it's just breathing underwater and stuff.. sounds simple yes?
er.. no. When you go below the surface of the water and you breathe, there are lots of bubbles that come out and they will go by your face/ear and make this sound, and it's really scary. It just made me panic I don't know why. In fact I even resorted to putting my head above the surface of the water to breathe in, even though I had the mask and oxygen tank on. Haha.
But yea after a while you kinda get used to it.. so down we went. It was pretty cool that you get to kinda dive even without a cert.. But half the time was spent equalizing my ears [you know, the pinch your nose and breathe out to alter the pressure stuff] and when I am actually down, after a while I float up again and I find myself really near the surface when I thought I was actually doing quite well. Stupid. it's so hard to stay at the bottom. No one else seemed to be having that problem so i don't know what's wrong with me.. Guess it's the equalizing or something.
About the fish.. well..... you see, b4 we went down, Anne was like, ooh, we're gonna see manta rays and octopus! But it was really disappointing. Molokini crater leh.. supposed to be really good for snorkelling but there were hardly any fish as usual. Sigh. You know, Redang which is the only place that i've gone snorkelling has so much more marine life than this. There are like schools of fishes there and you kinda worry about avoiding them right? In Hawaii.. there are hardly any.. =( Maybe it's cos the water is really cold? Anyways, yes, disappointing.
So.. after the snuba, we went for a snorkel, and another team went down to snuba. We didn't snorkel much cos it was so damn cold and there weren't much fish anyway. When the snuba people emerged, they were so excited cos they saw this octopus! And they seemed to enjoy it sooo much this family wanted to do it again at our next destination.. pb and I thought wth.. no fish also so happy.
next destination was at turtle island! so there'd BETTER be turtles ok!
next destination was at turtle island! so there'd BETTER be turtles ok!
see the turtle? well, yes it was pretty cool to see it cos these are really endangered hawaiian sea turtles! But you can also observe that there is pretty much no other fish in the water.. Boo. We saw about 3 turtles.. it was cute. =)
this guy who was leading us, he's called Jesse and I thought he was really cute. He's got lots of dirt in his fingernails, like a true sailor! Haha I kinda melted when he pushed my fringe out of my goggles.. keke. but he did the same for pb as well lah haha. Anyway, he saw this 'snow flake eel' which was sooo tiny and most of it was concealed under some coral/rock. And he was so excited about it after he showed us and we got back onto the boat, he was telling the crew that he saw it.. i thought they'd be sick of these things by then but they really seemed to enjoy what they were doing.
there was also another guy called Poconos [dunno how to spell]. He was damn zai! He's like a fish or something, they say he's got gills.. haha, he was the camera man and he videoed the whole thing.. and when he goes down into the water he freaking doesn't need to breathe! He just goes down and films without any oxygen tank... My my. He says that he used to smoke but he quit it.. and then he kinda trains so that he can keep his breath for a longer time. He was also really cute. Muscles and all. Hohoho. No wonder I enjoyed my trip eh. =)
this guy who was leading us, he's called Jesse and I thought he was really cute. He's got lots of dirt in his fingernails, like a true sailor! Haha I kinda melted when he pushed my fringe out of my goggles.. keke. but he did the same for pb as well lah haha. Anyway, he saw this 'snow flake eel' which was sooo tiny and most of it was concealed under some coral/rock. And he was so excited about it after he showed us and we got back onto the boat, he was telling the crew that he saw it.. i thought they'd be sick of these things by then but they really seemed to enjoy what they were doing.
there was also another guy called Poconos [dunno how to spell]. He was damn zai! He's like a fish or something, they say he's got gills.. haha, he was the camera man and he videoed the whole thing.. and when he goes down into the water he freaking doesn't need to breathe! He just goes down and films without any oxygen tank... My my. He says that he used to smoke but he quit it.. and then he kinda trains so that he can keep his breath for a longer time. He was also really cute. Muscles and all. Hohoho. No wonder I enjoyed my trip eh. =)
All the tiring stuff is over! No more cold cold water, time for lunch! On the way back, we made our own sandwiches and the Captain made 2 maitais for us. Yay. However, some shouts on the deck made us abandon our maitais.. They had spotted whales!! Yay!
First a dive with the fin showing..
then the tail remaining..
and then disappearing..
Yes. this time it was much closer! And it wasn't even a whale watching tour. I find it totally awesome, yet kinda scary at the same time, that there are such huge huge beings right around/below our boat. One of the crew members told us he met some whales when he was kayaking once! I would seriously freak out if that happened man. He says it kinda brushed against his kayak, and he could see the barnacles on the whale and all.. Whoa!
Although there weren't much fishes, the crew really really made it up for pb and me by being so so friendly and cheerful. I don't know if it's cos we're tourists so they try to be nice to evryone, or whether they are generally carefree and happy.. But they really made my day. We enjoyed the whole experience so much and it was such a feel-good tour! The whales really helped as well.. that mini whale watch was so much better than the whale watch we took the previous day!
After buying a couple of photos and deciding NOT to buy the very expensive video [which they edit and put your face only if you buy it!] we went back to Boss Frog to return our snorkel gear.. And also pick up a Surfboard! And a boogie board for me cos I have no idea how to surf. Ok neither does pb but he gian3 so yes, we rented them.
Although there weren't much fishes, the crew really really made it up for pb and me by being so so friendly and cheerful. I don't know if it's cos we're tourists so they try to be nice to evryone, or whether they are generally carefree and happy.. But they really made my day. We enjoyed the whole experience so much and it was such a feel-good tour! The whales really helped as well.. that mini whale watch was so much better than the whale watch we took the previous day!
After buying a couple of photos and deciding NOT to buy the very expensive video [which they edit and put your face only if you buy it!] we went back to Boss Frog to return our snorkel gear.. And also pick up a Surfboard! And a boogie board for me cos I have no idea how to surf. Ok neither does pb but he gian3 so yes, we rented them.
Cool? Our pontiac g6 with my boogie board and his surf board on it!
Ok, remember yesterday there were no snorkellers at Kaanapali and we were the only snorkellers around, but there were many surfers? This time, there were no surfers at all! You can see why by the calmness of the sea. Haha. So as we were carrying the hugeass surfboard towards the beach, we saw a group of hawaiians [i think] having a bbq and they were grinning away when they saw me and pb, must be either cos the surfboard was so big [the bigger, the easier! small surfboards are for pros to do their tricks] or cos there's no wave to surf at all.. probably the latter.
This wasn't at kaanapali but some beach at the south, I can't quite remember. We left the surfboard by the beach and I let pb use my boogieboard instead. Me? I lazed on the beach, again. muahaha. I was reading my Angels and Demons borrowed from Ameek's bf ok.
This wasn't at kaanapali but some beach at the south, I can't quite remember. We left the surfboard by the beach and I let pb use my boogieboard instead. Me? I lazed on the beach, again. muahaha. I was reading my Angels and Demons borrowed from Ameek's bf ok.
Notice that the beaches here.. aren't really fantastic. Not the blue green waters kind. The colour is almost like Singapore's beaches, just that the water is clear. The sand is just normal sand. Not like, white powdery sand. I think Oahu, though more civilised had nicer beaches with pretty waters. You know, actually I think redang's beaches [which aren't even the best right] can qie4 these anytime. In terms of sand, water's colour and visibility, and amount of marine life. I'd really appreciate the malaysian beaches from now on.. and they are 1000x cheaper to go to!
After a while it started drizzling. And drizzling even more.. Poor me was just stuck in the rain, while pb happily played on with MY boogie board.. grr. That's when the book got kinda wet, oops sorry ameek. I waited for the longest time and I got fedup so I went back into the car to read.. The rain was too irritating!
Finally, pb came back to the car.. and we drove off in search of food! Went further south to get fish tacos from here.. and a super overpriced fruit smoothie [$5 i think] which pb likes.
Finally, pb came back to the car.. and we drove off in search of food! Went further south to get fish tacos from here.. and a super overpriced fruit smoothie [$5 i think] which pb likes.
see the rainbow behind me?
my ahi ahi (tuna) taco! flakes of tuna in it.. nice!
The place in the south where pb bought the satay ish meat on the first day had closed by the time we reached it, so we went back north towards our hotel. We dropped by a hawaiian cafe to order some noodle and taro (yam) pastry. They make quite a big deal out of Taro here when it's like how normal in singapore.. in fact whenever i think of the yam plant i think of how the people ate them during the war cos it's filling. but the pastry was nice.
I think there's no more photos for the day meaning we just went back to the hotel and were too tired to resurface for dinner.
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