Malaysian Happenings

Well, it seems that it has been forever since I posted last, but really it has only been a week or so. However so much has happened in that time that I really don't even know where to begin. I got in some spectacular diving, and after doing my first dive course alone with three students Jerry had me go to Sipadan to check out what everyone had been talking about. The island was gorgeous, and the waters were even more amazing. The water was crystal clear surrounding the island and reef and then suddenly turned to a dark blue. This was because the reef went from 4 meters (12 feet) and then dropped all the way to 300 (or was it 3000) meters. Whatever the depth was it was deep, and the drop was straight down. This made the diving spectacular. All the diving there was wall dives that were just covered with corals, both soft and hard. There were little creatures all over the walls but then also you had some of the bigger creatures out in the blue. The first dive I did there was amazing, and I was constantly turning around to tell my divers to look there and then here and still I was missing so much. The first dive we saw gray reef sharks and white tip reef sharks. I am not saying we just saw one or two. There must have been 15 or so just on that one dive. Then the turtles. They were everywhere....and in every size. After a while of seeing so many you just got used to them and were saying "yeah...another turtle. So for our surface intervals and lunch breaks we went to the island and it literally was an island paradise. Sweeping white beaches with jungle like trees coming right to the beach. I didn't know at the time but the island has quite a few large (1-2 meter) monitor lizards that roam around. After our break we went on our 2nd dive. This was just as amazing as the first dive if not better. There were just as many sharks and turtles, and also there was a huge school of barracuda numbering about 300 or so fish. They were in a tornado formation and then came sweeping out of it and literally swam 1 meter in front of me. It was just a river of fish that swam by for a solid 3 minutes. There also was a school of jacks that formed a giant shimmering ball of scales. It was so amazing. Also on the dive were tons of garden eels, several large tunas, triggerfish, and then clouds of little pink, blue, yellow, orange, and every other color of little reef fish covering the reef. Needless to say, diving on Sipadan was the reason I had come out to Malaysia.
So not all days were diving on Sipadan and leading around awesome divers. No, that is not why I was there. I was there to instructed, and teaching was what I was doing most the time. After I got through my first three Open Water students I was allowed to go dive on Sipadan and the very next day I was to start another Open Water course with a couple. They wer an amazing couple from Scotland and England. They had been traveling around South East Asia for the last three months and were slowly making there way down to Australia for her brother's wedding. Pretty awesome road trip. They were great students and were a pleasure to teach, very serious and really wanted to learn. It was on this course that I was able to go to some different islands and teach there. I mean there were so many other islands around besides Sibuan and Sipadan.
I ended up going to the islands of Mataking, Tomi Tomi, and also Mantabuan. They were all stunning islands surrounded by crystal blue waters with amazing diving. All these islands were about an hours boat drive away from Semporna and so it was a journey just to get to them. However, it was an interesting drive and you would pass so many different islands and then also just random little developments on stilts in the middle of the ocean. It turns out that these were the sea gypies houses. They were not allowed into Malaysia, but they could live on certain islands and of course the reefs. Mamy of them would build these houses (shacks) on stilts right on top of the reefs and just live there. I mean the closest actual piece of land (maybe a 2 acre island) would maybe be a mile away. It was insane, and to think about living that way was mind boggling. ( I don't think sleep walkers surrive to long in conditions like that.) Yet there were SO many of them that did live like that. I mean there would be so many of these silt houses in one area that you were positive that there was an island there, but then you would drive by and just see that water surrounded them all.
It was also on thes drives that I found out about Russian girls. Okay, so before I start I have to tell you about the stories I had been hearing around the dive shop. Supposedly there was a group of female Russian DiveMasters that were diving with us for some weeks and supposedly some of them were causing some trouble on the boats. I wasn't fully sure what was happening but it didn't sound to good. Anyway, I noticed tht there were two Russians from that grup on the boat and so I was a little leary of them. Anyway, I had just set up all my gear and everything and when I turned around there was a 2 huge sets of knockers in my face. Yeah, I was just a little taken aback and not sure how to respond. We were supposed to make sure that everyone was to wear lifevests and what was I supposed to do. Just casual go over and ask them to put on the lifevests cause obviously their huge boobs weren't going to be enough to keep them afloat? No....I could never do that! Anyway I looked around and everyone was trying to act normal. I mean the few Malaysian boat drivers and helpers could not tear their eyes away, but that was only prbably because they had never seen skin so white. Ha! I just did my best to walk away and act like everything was normal. I set next to the tanks and tried my best to avoid looking in that direction so no one could call me a perv. I was afraid that if I even turned my head slightly in that direction someone would notice and think I was staring. Anyway, unfortunately I had failed to notice tht I sat directly next to their gear and that it was now there turn to set up gear. Before I know it both girls were bent over in front of me digging in the bags for their gear, and boobs were flopping all around. This was all of course on a moving boat so each time the boat hit a wave one of the girls would almost fall into me, and I almost several times was slapped in the face by extra cleavage. I of course looked to the backof the boat and noticed everyone staring at me and trying their hardests not to burst out laughing. It was clearly plain to see my discomfort.
That day I was never so happy to tell everyone to suit up and get their wet suits on. It was so nice to be underwater and no longer stuck on the boat with everyone. However, my uncomfortable moments with the Russian pompamousse fish (Vanuatu secret term for boobs) was not over. One of the girls for some reason decided to get chatty with me and talk to me the entire way back. It was fine at first because she kept her top on. But as we we talking but thattop somehow found a way to come off. You don't know an uncomfortable situation until you are having a normal conversation with someone and they just casually start removing clothes exposing "naughty" bits that truly I have not had much experience with. Haha....I know this sounds sound stupid but I am quite naive and don't have hardly any experience in the ladies department. Also, of course I was sitting in the wrong spot so I couldonly sometimes hear her, so I would always ask "What?" Everytime I asked this she would lean in to yell in my ear and I would find a boob restin against me. I think the first time this happened I jumped and kinda offended her. Okay, so I was not very good at keeping my cool around topless Europeans.
To top that day off, I believe I was was followed to my hotel that night by a prostitute. It was some lady (or a man that wanted to be a lady). And yes, there were many of those Asian men that dressed and acted like women, and at times it was hard to tell the difference. Anyway this one, lets just say person, just followed me and kept asking me if I wanted them to follow me back to my room. I just picked up my pace and tried not to run. It was after this that I started noticing all the hooker dressed women coming into the hotel I was at and just casually walking around the halls of the hotel waiting for something. Ugh.......what kind of place had I gotten myself into.