bronzed

ok, legam more like but bronzed sounds better.

after much delay (airasia, surprise, surprise) we finally reached pulau (sans mraccenture who had a fever and would follow the next day).

had our brush up skills (hey its been 6 months!!) the next morning followed by open water dive 3 in the afternoon with surface swim and underwater compass navigation (and 2 blue spotted stingrays, no less!).

also had our first backroll entry with only fins and mask for the surface compass navigation.

i wont lie and say my heart didn’t lurch when i saw how deep the water was after 25 cycles of finning, and me just with my mask and fins (i am not the best swimmer in the world).

had some trouble (leakage) with my mask, and the sensation of having water in my nose/throat while trying to breathe through my mouth while at the bottom of the sea is not the most pleasant one (note to self – buy own mask!!).

lost my left contact lens with my wise decision to keep my eyes open during the first fully kitted backroll entry (open water dive 4), and attempts to put it back in failed miserably and the sea soon claimed it.

passed our exams in the afternoon : )

.....................

thereafter day 4, 5 and 6 passed pretty much as follows:

wake up around 8, stretch, shower (variation – day 5 I did callanetics at 7 am, and yoga later in the p.m. while instructing mraccenture on callanetics)

have breakfast on beach with toes digging in the sand.

lazily move self either on pareo on beach or in hammock and read, and sleep.

read a bit more and sleep more.

nibble on choccies.

lazily wonder what time it was.

change into swimsuit and head to dive centre.

after post-dive briefing call up mraccenture and have some food, reading a bit more in between.

go back to room, shower, nap a bit.

at around 7 pm, go out to look for dinner. read or play cards (‘declare’) while waiting.

stuff ourselves silly.

finish by 9.15, 9.30, in bed by 9.30/ 10pm (seriously).

had 8 – 10 hours sleep every single night.

bliss.

............................

i was trying to decide which picture to put up – the one taken at tuna bay resort during our first day lunch (after a 20 minute trek through the jungle), with the lone coconut tree, white umbrella and clear and beautiful demarcations of the dark blue/lighter blue/ lights blue / green sea and blue sky, or the one of my feet in the hammock against the blue green water and blue sky or of that lone coconut on the beach on the pristine white sand with the surf breaking in the background…

or even the picture of mraccenture he had given the green light to put up here..

but alas …, its not to be. we had a bit of an accident with the camera, and all pics were lost (pic of our pretty blonde danish instructor suzanne, and our cute dive masters R -the winner of lita's most beautiful pair of eyes on a male award 2007 and P, various kids of all races, etc .... sigh).

pics here are from our 2005 trip.

so now we just have to go back and take some more!!