The Magical World of Scuba Diving
I have found a new love, even though it gave me an ear infection.
In my ever growing maturity and wiseness, I spent all the money I'd saved for school in Canada on a tour of Taiwan and Indonesia. Very clever of you Diana. Anyhow, there was a plane flight, then another plane flight, then a car ride, then a boat ride and then the wonderful, unparalleled Gili Trawanagan Island.
I like water. I distinctly remember one of my first swimming lessons, dunking my head under, and realizing I couldn't hear my mother blathering on about something. Go under, grab the 30 seconds of peace, lather, rinse, repeat. I made Jason aware that our next vacation would involve MY idea of sport, none of this rocketing down a mountain stuff. I also wanted to be productive on my vacation so I decided I would obtain my scuba diving license by taking a 3 day course. Yes, I spent my vacation studying scuba theory and writing exams. But...
I lugged the airtank onto my back, suited up and attached everything together. I sat in the pool, deflated the vest, sank under, then....breathed. I COULD STAY. I wish I could explain how stupendously wonderful this was..
Later on I rolled backwards off a boat, and went down, down, down. Twelve meters down, the surface ages away, coral stretching out as far as I can see. YOU ARE MINE, underwater world. I saw four turtles, attacking the coral for food. Trigger fish, cuttlefish, pufferfish, trumpet fish, angel fish, clams and one fish the size of my big toe who made it its mission to attack Jason's face.
I breathed in slowly, let the current take me, and drifted along the sea bed. Seems I'm either calmer or have freakishly small lungs, because I always ended up with more air than everybody else by the end. As in you have to go up when the first person reaches 50 bars, and I still had 120. Starting from 200.
On the second day our instructor pointed off down the seabed, which rolled away to maybe 50 meters deep, where I saw 3 giant, 2 metre long eagle rays, raising their giant wings in slow motion, the shadow disappearing to be replaced by white underbelly, then shadow again. It may be the most amazing thing I've seen with my own two eyes.
After each dive I came to the surface like I was a Tibetan monk, placid and calm. Around the third dive I realized I am unable to think in words underwater. I couldn't form sentences in my head. Odd.
Burst back onto the reality of Japan. I am now the proud owner of a worldwide scuba diving license, which is a pretty way of saying that insurance companies will cover me to 18 metres deep. And my God, it's expensive as hell. Figures. But regular swimming is going to be so lame after this. I have to come up for air? What is this shit?
Yeah, Taiwan was nice. It's almost like a forgery of Japan, but with people who smile. Bali was a total rip off, a giant tourist trap with 20 somethings drinking themselves to oblivion at wild parties with insane prices everywhere. I'm not sure why all my co-workers here love it. I spent the same amount in 5 days in Gili as 1 day in Bali, AND got to eat breakfast/watch movies on the beach AND wasn't harrassed incessantly by people trying to sell me overpriced sunglasses.
Time to build up my bank account again. Sigh.
In my ever growing maturity and wiseness, I spent all the money I'd saved for school in Canada on a tour of Taiwan and Indonesia. Very clever of you Diana. Anyhow, there was a plane flight, then another plane flight, then a car ride, then a boat ride and then the wonderful, unparalleled Gili Trawanagan Island.
I like water. I distinctly remember one of my first swimming lessons, dunking my head under, and realizing I couldn't hear my mother blathering on about something. Go under, grab the 30 seconds of peace, lather, rinse, repeat. I made Jason aware that our next vacation would involve MY idea of sport, none of this rocketing down a mountain stuff. I also wanted to be productive on my vacation so I decided I would obtain my scuba diving license by taking a 3 day course. Yes, I spent my vacation studying scuba theory and writing exams. But...
I lugged the airtank onto my back, suited up and attached everything together. I sat in the pool, deflated the vest, sank under, then....breathed. I COULD STAY. I wish I could explain how stupendously wonderful this was..
Later on I rolled backwards off a boat, and went down, down, down. Twelve meters down, the surface ages away, coral stretching out as far as I can see. YOU ARE MINE, underwater world. I saw four turtles, attacking the coral for food. Trigger fish, cuttlefish, pufferfish, trumpet fish, angel fish, clams and one fish the size of my big toe who made it its mission to attack Jason's face.
I breathed in slowly, let the current take me, and drifted along the sea bed. Seems I'm either calmer or have freakishly small lungs, because I always ended up with more air than everybody else by the end. As in you have to go up when the first person reaches 50 bars, and I still had 120. Starting from 200.
On the second day our instructor pointed off down the seabed, which rolled away to maybe 50 meters deep, where I saw 3 giant, 2 metre long eagle rays, raising their giant wings in slow motion, the shadow disappearing to be replaced by white underbelly, then shadow again. It may be the most amazing thing I've seen with my own two eyes.
After each dive I came to the surface like I was a Tibetan monk, placid and calm. Around the third dive I realized I am unable to think in words underwater. I couldn't form sentences in my head. Odd.
Burst back onto the reality of Japan. I am now the proud owner of a worldwide scuba diving license, which is a pretty way of saying that insurance companies will cover me to 18 metres deep. And my God, it's expensive as hell. Figures. But regular swimming is going to be so lame after this. I have to come up for air? What is this shit?
Yeah, Taiwan was nice. It's almost like a forgery of Japan, but with people who smile. Bali was a total rip off, a giant tourist trap with 20 somethings drinking themselves to oblivion at wild parties with insane prices everywhere. I'm not sure why all my co-workers here love it. I spent the same amount in 5 days in Gili as 1 day in Bali, AND got to eat breakfast/watch movies on the beach AND wasn't harrassed incessantly by people trying to sell me overpriced sunglasses.
Time to build up my bank account again. Sigh.