Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore, November 2022 - Part 10

So, quite some days to cover with this post. Not that there hasn't been things happening, but the Island is almost internet free, and yesterday was quite busy... If we rewind to departure Bali, it all went quite uneventful. We were at the airport 4 hours before departure, and there we noone. The place was almost dead, but OK, it was a breeze to get checked-in and get through security. We did however get a 30 minute delay as some G20 related traffic got priority over us. Back in Singapore we again saw efficiency can actually take place in an airport. We landed, 15:40 and 16:10 we were waiting for the driver to pick us up. He on the other hand was delayed quite a bit, so we ended up waiting almost 50 minutes for him to arrive. But once there we loaded up and set course for Tuas 2nd link. Our driver was malay, chinese malay that is, and with basically 0 English... We did not have connection, and the green cards that you fill in have apparently been exchanged for the electronic versions that we filled in before boarding the flights. We asked the driver to make a hotspot on his phone, but 15 minutes later we had not achieved to get the hotspot activated. I asked for the phone, and then maybe I could do it. Unfortunately the phone was in Chinese mode, so good luck with that. I found the APP that was supposed to be used, and at least that was in English. So a few passes further on, I needed to type my name, but again, CHinese keyboard is not very ideal when you have a non Chinese name... Everytime I asked the driver something, it was a reply that sounded like the Swedish cook from Muppet Show, speaking Chinese. Anyways, got it done as we rolled into the booth at the border, and we got across very fast, but only to wait at the Malaysian border. On we finally went, and everything looked like an 20:00 arrival to Leman, but the it got dark, and Charlie did not see well in the dark, so speed was at times reduced to 30-40km/h, obviously good the couple of times we med herds of cows on the road, but in general losing 45 minutes over a 150km stretch, where almost 100 is motorway, is depressing. But we got there in one piece, and we felt a little sorry for him, having to drive all the way back to JB again.

We got on the boat and the boatdriver, Hafiz, had an extra look at us before he asked: Are you not Maria's mum & dad? Once getting to the Island we were met real SG fashion, however, not a single girl amongst the crew, which obviouly was a bit strange! We got our V0 cabin, were apart from 4 Chinese guests, the only guests.

We met Richard and his girlfriend, a French lady called Marine, divorced and 36 years old. Had a few drinks and learned that:

1: No diving tomorrow as most alll staff were out for the wedding of one of the longtime staff.

2: That Richard would be turning 30 the next day and that Linda would be coming up to celebrate with them.

So off to bed we went, and despite the light peeking through a lot of cracks, we didn't wake up until 08:45 the next day... Guess we needed a bit of rest.

Snorkeled a bit in the afternoon, and were actually quite surprised about both the amount of coral and the amount of different fish that were in the area. Much improvement from earlier visits!

The party in the evening didn't really take off, so we were off to an unsually early bedtime, considering the place, persons involved and the occasion. This however did make for a problemless rise the next morning in preparation for todays diving. The weather was grey, with a bit of wind and thunderstorm lurking in every corner. Jannie decided against going, so it ended up being me, the dive instructor and a divemaster going, as well a another French who had arrived the day before, but he only went along to snorkel.

Our first divesite...

And here a few photos from the first couple of dives:

...and a video of Bennet's feather star travelling to find another host to leach onto.

...after the last dive the rain had passed and there was a slight improvement, but Tinggi still covered in the low clouds created by the humid warm air rising from the jungle.

On our first evening we had heard from Richard what had happened in the accident that we had heard and read about earlier in the year. Very tragic accident, and basically only one mistake make. The divemaster left the group in an attempt to get to the boat, failed and lost the group, so she had to continue alone. The other three managed to stay together, the father and son and another diver. The son suffered from ADHD, and the father could not keep him from drinking seawater while the drifted for nearly 2 days. Eventually the boy died from salt poisoning, and the were rescued by Indonesian boats, while the divemaster was rescued by a tug enroute from Indonesia to Thailand, the day before. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_poisoning)

This tragic incident had led to a lot of changes in the dive setup. There is now an instructor employed as head of the Dive Center, there are at least one other Divemaster accompanying the dive. All divers are equipped with what we in maritime circles call an EPIRB, Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon, and the dive leader has in addition a VHF so he can talk to the boat VHF, also new instalations. Apart from this, the divemaster is doing the dive dragging a deployed SMB, Surface Marker Buoy, so the boat can see where the divers are at all times. A lot of changes, and at times it seems a little excessive, but on the other hand, it does add safety, and does mitigate the root causes of the accident.

The day was a beautiful day, smooth seas and sunny. Visibility was incredible above the water and quite the opposite below. We could see islands we had never seen before, and Tinggi you could enjoy in great detail, as well as Tioman was clearly visible.

The dive didn't prove worth much to photograph. You stop for 15 seconds and the buddies are gone. The current was superstrong, so we dropped in, got down, and then it was more or less about staying clear of the coral and stick together. Would have been awesome had there been better visibility. Only arriving at the southside of the rock we managed to get out of the ripping currents and slow down to have a look around. Jannie has since Roatan always feared the strong currents, but managed exceptionally well on both dives, now being a confident drift diver!

A few poor photos from the 1st dive. We did see quite a lot of good stuff, but was never close or long enough in the area to actually get a picture.

Once topside we went back over a mirror South China Sea, with great views of the islands...

The rest of the stay the weather behaved fantasticly, and our departure day as well. As you can seee in the first of the photos we now also get "visitors" during the day!

Had the pleasure of Lindas company on the drive back to JB, so we got a lot of subjects discussed and evaluated during the 3 hours it took us to get through traffic and back to our hotel in Puteri Harbour. Latha had organized the bookings, so 1,112DKK for 4 days, breakfast included, for a studio apartment with kitchenette including washer/dryer! Once we were checked in we made a small round. Lots had been added, and in the riginal part you could certainly see the effects of covid in terms of closed businesses and in particular resstaurants.

The next morning we got our rental car which Latha also organized: 440DKK per day, for which you would normally receive a Fiat 500 if lucky, but s we had luggage we needed some thing else... No problem with shopping, or the likes :-D

Tuesday was golf in the afternoon, and seeing friends in the evening, in the old stomping ground at Olive. So great to see people after what seems an eternity, but actually only is 5 years. I played Horizon Hills with some former colleages, you know Ron, while Jannie went to the Johor Premium Outlet in the rental, with no worries in the world that she would be able to accomodate the shopping! It did require a bit of extra concentration to drive in the "wrong" side, but it came back quickly. I must admit that we quite a few times entered the car to drive, only finding that the wheel was on the other side, as did we frequently wipe the windows before we indicated that we were going to turn.

After shopping and golfing we met up at Olive and enjoyed the evening. In the photo it is Ron, myself, Latha, Jannie, and the Jørgen who is the newly arrived Seamansclub Assistant.

We of course stayed and watch Denmark against Tunesia, although it proved to be a bit of waste of time.

Wednesday was then lunch with former friends for Jannie in Spice Grill Bukhit Indah, and for me it was a vist back to PTP to see former colleagues. The place still impresses me. It is just so vast, enormous and busy... Spoke to a ton of people, and this is when I get reminded how poor I am with names... Jannie had a great lunch, wasn't allow to pay anything, and on top Poonam drove her back to the hotel. I got back a little later after having gone for a very late lunch, and then we were basically off to the restaurant where we had pepper crabs when Jens and Maria visited. They are still as good as they were, and as messy! Even with plastic gloves you get smeared in the thick black pepper sauce when ripping them apart.

So the last day arrived, and we went for a quick drive around one of the faltered top 10 of the worlds greatest construction scandals - Forrest City. Amazing what they have built since we were there 5 years ago, but also amazing what has been outright abandoned. Even worse when looking at the occupancy rate, which is close to 0... They are offering 3 bedroom apartments fully furninshed at 7-800DKK a month!

In the 5 years they have also managed to build two 18 hole championship golfcourses, one designed by Jack Nicolaus and the other by a star Chinese course designer. But all in all, considering the amount of empty apartments and houses, just standing there, deteriorating, makes it hard to see the logic in things, but does certainly make the fears of the Chinese building crash boom bang very real...

And finally: Here we are, in the Silverkris Lounge in Singapore waiting for the flight to take us back home. It has been a fantastic vacation, with so many new impressions, but also with so many memories revived and relived...

Thank you for following along, and see you round!

Jannie & Laurids