Posted under Video & Conservation & Malaysia News by Tim Yang
Real Gap, an organisation for British student overseas volunteers, sent a few students to Perhentian to learn about turtle conservation. They posted this video on Youtube.
Posted under Malaysia News by Tim Yang
Alex Bryant of Scuba Corner in Singapore posted a job offer on Scubaboard.
A position for a fulltime Divemaster/Instructor has become available at Scuba Corner, a PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Centre.
Responsibilities include:
- Managing Logistics for weekly trips to Aur and Tioman
- Assisting with the teaching of PADI course
- Leading Leisure divers
- Maintenance of Scuba Equipment (Training provided)Perks of the Job:
- Rewarding career sharing passion for diving
- Heavily discounted equipment
- Lead Group trips to renowned diving destinations such as Sipadan, Layang Layang, Maldives, Manado and PNG.Applicants must already posses the right to reside and work in Singapore.
For Rescue Divers and above there is the potential for internships leading to PADI Divemaster and PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor qualifications.
Interested parties please email me at alex@scubacorner.com.sg
Posted under Malaysia News by Tim Yang
Northwestdiver posted on Scubaboard a bad experience with Borneo Divers. IMHO: They’re not all bad. But it’s probably best to deal with one person instead of a “team” of people. And remember, in Malaysia, 99.99% of people in the service industry aren’t trained in customer service and extremely few speak English fluently.
Just wanted to let you all know that Dive Borneo Travel Agency was a royal pain to work with for our recent trip to Malaysia.
First of all, we couldn’t get our preferred dates, because their response time to emails and phone calls was so slow that the resort booked up before we could book our trip!
When we finally did manage to get the booking (and we almost switched Travel Agencies even after working with Dive Borneo for about 5 months, because they still weren’t responsive even after we finalized all the details) they botched a whole bunch of things, including — mainly — neglecting to inform us of Air Malaysia’s increased weight limit for flying divers (that alone cost us about $150 extra, and would have been more if not for an informed diver we spoke to at the resort who saved us the extra charges for our return trip).
There were various other inconveniences, including tours that didn’t materialize and other problems, but I think the major problem I have had with them is that they never even responded to me when I wrote to them after our trip to complain.
I don’t think we had a specific agent (and that might be the root of the problem). Since all their emails to us were signed “Dive Borneo Team” I assume they are all bad.
I think the best thing is to avoid them in the future and to let other people know that there are MUCH better dive travel agents out there.
Posted under Malaysia News & News by Tim Yang
To attract more divers to Pulau Bidong, the tourism committee of the state of Terengganu thought it might be interesting to sink some larger-than-life concrete (it looks like that’s what they’re made of) replicas of Malay cultural artifacts.
They’re part of the new Bidong underwater gallery, set at 15m depth. There is a giant replica of a traditional fishing boat called the Perahu Payang, the famous Batu Bersurat, a tepak sirih, a tengkolok (a traditional Malay headgear) and a kris.
The little nugget hidden at the end of the article is the promise by the government not to develop Bidong: “No chalets or resorts will be allowed on the island. As you can see, the forest on the island is growing back.
Posted under Conservation & Malaysia News by Tim Yang
The government recently noticed there isn’t as much tourism money coming in for turtle watchers. There are fewer turtles to begin with (SEATRU states that the turtle population has dropped by 98% over the last 50 years) — mainly because the locals keep eating them.
So the Malaysian government doesn’t stop the turtle eating. Instead, they build museums to turtles, as reported by the New Straits Times. In the hope that tourists will be content to look at photos of turtles instead of the real thing.
There are a few issues in this situation.
Some divers like myself try to do our part in turtle conservation by rescuing turtle eggs and paying the local fishermen to raise the hatchlings and then release them. We ensure accountability by paying visits during the release and giving bonuses for each turtle that gets released. Hopefully, we’ll see more of our hatchlings in the water when they’re grown up.
Posted under Malaysia News & Scuba Practices by Tim Yang
Unfortunately Malaysia is in many ways an ultra conservative fundamentalist country with non-nonsense additude toward nudity. So there aren’t any opportunities to sunbathe naked.
But who says you can’t dive in the buff when the only ones looking at you are the fish! So while it’s difficult to find a boat with a cooperative crew to charter, there’s nothing stopping you from doing a shore dive and disrobing underwater to enjoy the complete feeling of water on skin.
But do take care:
Posted under Malaysia News by Tim Yang
Dom Joly, the British TV comedian, stayed in Tioman for diving recently and wrote about it for Timesonline.co.uk. Here’s my favourite bit:
Most nights, I went to a little restaurant up the road called Sarng, where I became addicted to a particularly fine mutton curry. Mutton is so underused in the UK, and I’m a huge fan of the stuff. It’s perfect for stews and curries. Every night I’d munch my way through a huge bowl while watching the fascinating little fat man who ran the place. He’d always be sitting, shirtless and with a big smile, behind his desk, endlessly counting piles of money and smoking cartons of Lite Ups. He was the spitting image of one of those laughing buddhas that you see in tacky markets in Bangkok. It was Laughing Buddha who informed my friend Kaj, a couple of days after I’d left the island, that the “mutton” they served was, in fact, goat. Ah well, it was delicious. Goat is so underused in the UK …