/Friday, June 23, 2006
The dive package we took from "SeaGarden Dive Centre" (seagarden sounds like some cheena-pok seafood restaurant rite?), one of the few dive operators stationed in Kusadasi, cost us USD$150, which was dirt cheap for 5 dives.
Kusadasi has one of the best beaches I've been to so far and it's outright Gorgeous. But we need to take a two hour bus ride($8.50 YTL) from Izmir to get there. So travelling there can be quite a hassle.
We wanted to squeeze 5 dives into two days (to save $$ on transport) and hence we ended up doing 4 deep dives (22~26 metres) and a Shore-dive (LITERALLY walking from the shore and into waters of about 7 metres deep).
We were a little worried on the first day that we might get cheated by them.
YUP, Never trust Turkish people who touts tourist-sy stuff and packages to you! They're (most of the time) trying to rip you off. Lucky we always hang out with the locals, Hence, though we always get approached by touters, we have the locals to tell us whether what they are offering is a good deal or a total Ripped-Off.
Yupz. We're officially JAPANESE heres. We're always mistaken as Japanese tourists. Sometimes as Cheena-pok Mainlanders (Turkish calls us"Chins"). But we always like to bluff them and say we're Koreans or Japanese. MORE GLAM than China MAH. HAHAHA. *hecks*
I checked the PADI webby and found out that SeaGarden is NOT A RECOGNISED PADI CENTRE!!
Sucks. I was worried. I dun want a lousy-gonna-sink-any-moment boat, Lousy equipments and torned wetsuits that could rival those from "simply scuba". Yesh, the equipments of simply scuba are downright old and disgusting!
But soon my worries were alleviated by the sigh of a Spacious, Clean and new boat and NEW oxygen tanks and NEW wetsuits that cost 400 Euros each. Yesh. They have very good equipments onboard. Love it love it love it.*hecks*
Luckily, on our first day, we have other angmohs from Belgian and UK. No doubt we were the only cheena-poks onboard. But it's indeed comforting to see OTHER Foreign Tourists onboard for the dives. If we was really cheated, then all these ang mohs would DIE with me and Hob too. *Muah haha*
But the freakin' first dive was freakin' terrible. The water was 18 degrees cold and we were given shorties!
S-H-O-R-T-I-E-S. Which means those wetsuit with short sleeves and leave yr legs bare-naked from the Knees below. *sucks*
We are two skinny asian girls with only 20% of the fats the other belgian angmoh has.
Yet they made me, hob and the belgian man wear shorties.
He felt ok in them. Of course. *roll eyes x 1o0*
WE ARE NOT OK.
NOT OK AT ALL.
The first dive lasted 45 mins and we spent 25 mins shivering underwater. IT WAS TOO COLD FOR ME TO ENJOY THE SIGHTS AND ALL! And when we surfaced, we spent 30 MINS SHIVERING NON-STOP!
I'm not KIDDING. We jus wrapped ourselves in towels and shivered non-stop for 30 mins. No joke. I never shivered so hard in my life before!
Luckily, THEY HAVE ENOUGH COMMON SENSE TO GIVE US UBER-Comfy, Long wetsuits from the second dive onwards.
Yesh, Hob was so shaken by the coldness that she even capped her head to keep warm underwater. That's why her pics have her with the cap on. My wetsuit comes with a cap too but my hair was too thick for me to wear to properly. Hence, I had to forgo it.*hecks* It's definately not for aesthetic reasons. I would have worn my cap if I could! *hecks*
Yesh, we were totally ripped off for these underwater photos but we don't care cos we wanted the photos badly! They charged us a total of $20 Euros for 15 Photos! So ex! They even killed a sea urchin for photo opportunities underwater. Yupz. the pics with fishes around us was because of the delicious sea urchin meat!
Ada Banko @ the Aegean Sea, Turkey, was the dive site for these 5 dives. The visibility here is good (about 8 metres) , but the seabeds here are lacklustre and littered with white scallop-like fungus and Seagrass. The corals here are Huge and scary looking, with dark mossy stuff all over it. But there's alot of sea creatures hiding in these monsterous corals and rocks.
Yup! Lots of Octopus-sy Hiding in these waters! And scary looking eels! We spotted 3 Octopus in total. And we also found a Underwater "thermal Hot spring": An opening in the seabed that has warm water sprouting out of it. Cool. At least we see something different here. I think octopus-sy thrive better in colder waters compared to tropic waters.
Surprise, surprise. I tot the shore dive would be boring and a waste of money but we had another fish-feeding session with the sea urchins and caught two octopus-sy there!
Here are some of the $20 Euros pic. Have to show them off to get my $$Buckaroos$$ Worth.
The most recognisable Jacq-Jacq sign underwater. Yesh. I forget to clear my fogged-up mask.*hecks*
Hobbit in action. Cap and all.
Yupz. Pretty fishy.
A big seashell thingy that is 50 cm wide.
One of the common fishes seen underwater.
The fish feeding frenzy. Sorry Mr Sea Urchin. We need such shots to get our $20 Buckaroos worth. *hecks*
The famous "Aceh" Hair revisited! Yesh. It's an inside (NUSHA) Joke.....
We must make funny signs or you peeps can't recognise us!
When we resurfaced, our instructor asked me why I kept making the V sign. They JUST assume It's THE "PEACE" sign.
*haha* It's definately not a peace sign! It's such an asian thing to make this sign and it's to "act cute". Haha. Yesh. Asian FEMALE Divers should do this more often. *Hecks*
it just ain't right @ Friday, June 23, 2006
