escape into bluewaters

michelle's 550D debuts a night video @ Tulamben

2012-09-24T09:19:00.001-07:00

streamlined to glide, a photo by michelle's blue planet on Flickr.

I think its high time I try my hands on some videoing too!

Verdict?

Wheeeeee, its quite fun. I suspect I shall be doing this more often ;)

bonus

2012-09-18T06:24:00.001-07:00

bonus, a photo by michelle's blue planet on Flickr.

it was our mission to dive with mola molas but the gods did not smile upon us .
my little whisper of a prayer at Goa Lawah went unanswered but I did not leave Tulamben disappointed .
on our last day climbing up to the community halls located on the flanks of Mount Agung, here's the gorgeous tlandscape that made my heart sing and brought glitters to my eyes.

another great day~ thankful for my little unexpected gift from our blueplanet!

life is simple and sweet.

Healing dreams of sacred springs @ Menjangan, BALI~ michellechoongkhoo

2012-06-29T10:56:00.001-07:00

where oh where is it?, a photo by michelle's blue planet on Flickr.

Library archive of photos

A place where deers roam free .

where fresh breeze blows .

where the blue waters beckon .

where DM revels you with stories of how Muslims Christians Hindus work eat and even come together at any religious festivities in their community.

where we observe the local boatmen take turns daily to ferry the divers in equitable share of the tourism pie .

where fisherfolks gotong royong to keep their beaches clean as safeguarding their own lifelihood.

such a model community indeed :)

Menjangan on the western front of Bali some 4 hours car ride frm Denpasar airport will filled the intrepid diver with luxerating splendour of thermal hotsprings , rich culture and a glance into the culture of pearl farming, salt panning , grape cultivation, Muslim Christian Hindus community living at peace and cooperation and of course good diving !

Mimpi Menjangan Resort was such a pampering retreat, we almost forgot the reason we came here was to dive and not to spa, heh heh!

And the Barat National Park island itself was such a charming little place, the surface intervals spent there was very different from other dive spots!

unusual friendship @ Oslob, CEBU~michellechoongkhoo

2012-06-09T09:40:00.001-07:00

unusual friendship, a photo by michelle's blue planet on Flickr.

The headlines and videos that started to be reported online around late 2011 about the unusual taming of a pod of 8-10 whalesharks at Oslob made a little frenzy with our group!
We decided we must go there to see for ourselves !
Why would the gentle giants prefer to be hand fed by the fishermen?
What would happen if the supply of food dries up?
Would the whalesharks and their subsequent offsprings who have never learnt how to find food in their natural conditions have enough to eat then?
You can google for yourselves and from the vast multitude forums, you will inevitably form your own opinions.

I was awstruck of course by the strange phenomenon.
The whole beach front was a carnival and definitely a money churning event…..there's plenty to be made from the hordes of tourists mostly local snorkelers and also from continuous streaming numbers of divers!

We all were willing to put up with some inconvenience to have the pleasure of being in the same space with these beautiful creatures from the deep!

I just hope and pray the villagers will treasure this God's gift and do their utmost to ensure their "guests" the whale sharks stay healthy and prosper, grow in numbers!

It was magical for me and my group.
We will definitely plan another trip next year to revisit the gentle sentient beings.

link to more whale shark photos flickr photos slideshow

favourite uw memories~michellechoongkhoo

2012-06-09T08:24:00.001-07:00

favourite uw, a set on Flickr.

oh wow oh wow, the frogfish seems to say~
yeah we agree totally…..

oh wow oh wow, diving beats the blue anyday anytime~
Cant wait to go bubbling to Menjangan sooooon ~ Yay

Volcanic Hotsprings bubbling encounter, Pulau Weh~michellechoongkhoo

2012-02-18T06:01:00.001-08:00

This makes an interesting teaser before I complete editing and publishing our full Acheh Diving footage ~

Note of caution:

those are hot hot hot bubbles, temperatures that could give you a scalding if you wear shorties and by mistake you rest some parts of yr naked flesh onto the volcanic rocks !
As did one dive buddy found out too late and came out of the sulphurous waters with blisters for souveniers o.O

link to blog entry diving Pulau Weh

Discovering Banda Acheh, the island with the uw Volcanic Hotsprings~michellechoongkhoo

2012-02-18T05:40:00.001-08:00

A few days before our trip, an agitated dive buddy was concerned about reports of an earthquake measuring 5.2magnitude……

If we keep track of these kinds of seismic activities around Indonesia, OMG we would go nowhere near the country for earthquakes appear to be a daily occurence in one part or another in their vast chain of little islands~ Indonesian earthquakes link

With that knowledge we tried to appease ourselves, set about packing and focused on concentrating on total enjoyment for the trip :)

My first aerial glimpse of Acheh's coastline striked my imaginations of a mystical amphibous creature with a unicorn's horn ~

We had to stay overnight at Banda Acheh as the 1 hour ferry that leaves for Pulau Weh departs on the next morning at 10am.

Which was fine for we had time to be a tourist, trying out the food, checking out the sights, memorial monuments and seeing for ourselves how an entire community got back up on its feet admirably after having had its population nearly wiped out in the tsunami of 2004!

We all took hundreds of photos but I would select this montage as one that represented my most memorable image of the new Banda Acheh~

Captured on my Eos 550D lens, standing at a brand new roundabout in front of the famous Mesjid Baiturahman watching continuous traffic on a rather busy Saturday morning, seeing these people passing by, obviously carefree , happy, feeling safe….

It was quite a reassuring scene for first time visitors like me to Banda Acheh!

I for one was very glad to see with my own eyes that the place is renewed with vigour, reconstruction was evident at every corner, the place felt alive and the surroundings extremely clean, the air was hopeful, the town seemed rebuilt according to well designed plans …..totally debunking my earlier misgivings that it was to be avoided at all costs for a place of such tragic history surely cannot be anything else but sad n gloomy!

Never been so happy to be proven wrong :D

Banda Acheh reminded me of my old hometown back in the days when it had less high rise condos.

Just as those thoughts entered my mind,

I was totally charmed to meet an Indonesian Chinese who chatted to me in fluent Penang Hokkien, saying his family originated from Taiping.

Oh wow~ talking about the world getting smaller ;)

But that will be material for another blog altogether …..

Since our mission to Acheh was to dive at Pulau Weh's fav spots beneath Andaman seas famed for its super clear visibility up to 50M (sigh, which when we were there , NOT) , therefore what other Achenese endearing qualities did we find that can be shared with other underwater seekers ?

nice beautiful beachfront Villas @ Pulau Weh Dive Resort

with a view of the awsome sunset at Kilometer Zero

with an opportunity to Enjoy a charming encounter with a rather tame wild boar which responds to the crushing sound of groundnuts foil wrappers and comes running begging for the treat, just look at him as docile as a puppy dog….LOL

oh yes, it feels so good to just breathe in the cool salty sea breeze , to be able to gaze at the moonlight over cuppas of the strong Kopi Acheh , aaaah happy memories are made of these moments ~

while it became abit boring after 5 mins, oh well we earnd bragging rights at having chance to experience bubbling time diving into volcanic hotsprings

Last but not least , who could forget those night dives into those wrecks beneath the jetty?

here's where you can see photos of Acheh's uw citizens

Hence our verdict?

All in, not too bad Pulau Weh was a pleasant place to escape into bluewaters, far enough from the city and with direct Air Asia cheap flights out from KL less than 2 hours away, I would rate Acheh as definitely a refreshing discovery.

Diving the blue of Kalimantan @ Borneo~ eddiebckhoo

2011-12-06T02:41:00.001-08:00

On a quest to fulfill our dream of swimming with the famed stingless jellyfish found at Lake Kakaban, 20 dive buddies took an arduous route of 19hours and more to reach the pristine islands found at Kalimantan, on the northern tip of Borneo.

For those of us residing at KL, we had to awake at 5am to start our journey over 4 sectors:

1st sector : fly AA @ LCCT to Balikpapan (3hours) transit at airport 3 hours
2nd sector : fly Trigana Air @ Balikpapan to Berau (1 hour)
3rd sector : 4WD ride (3.5hrs) over hilly bumpy jungle terrain in pitch darkness bec here the sun sets by 5pm .

This part of the journey was spent like on the backs of bucking rodeo horses, fighting nausea and
apprehensively watching the driver steering thru fogging windscreen, avoiding huge potholes !

Welcome to road maintenance Kalimantan style where they will dig up half the road and

leave evidence of uncompleted works haphazardly left right or centre in no particular
order….no matter if these were incredibly deep gigantic holes for the risk of road users!

These dangerous road hazards are only demarcated by 4 wooden poles) .

So we can consider ourselves lucky not to hv landed in a ditch!

4th sector : 1 hours speedboat (hahaha at paddling speed tho) over low lying corals due to low tides, boatmen
using we hoped owl vision, guided only by torch light .....

Bonus?

We have the lovely starlit sky with intermittent shooting stars overhead and displays of fishes

jumping due to our torch lights! Very romantic indeed :)

We reached Derawan Resort at midnight , 19 hours later from waking up at 5am ….quite a weary trip , yup!
At that moment we just wanted to unpack and plonk into bed, shaking disbelief that we had signed on such for what seemed like ridiculous discomfort just to see some jellyfish?
However 10 nice super cool dives and 3 beautiful days later, we all felt differently :)

Now if you ask me "Would I do it again?" Answer will be a resounding Yes!!!!!

Diving Sangalaki Island with its manta rays in abundance was way way better than diving at Maldives.
Diving Kakaban Island with its unique colonies of jellyfish in a secluded jungle lagoon was a once in lifetime experience, available at only one other known location in the world.

Some of us opted out of Diving Manatua Island , too tired out to wake at 4am to catch the incoming tidal currents bringing with it, the resident school of huge fat barracudas and healthy turtles (easily 30-50) as told by buddies' video footage! It reminded us of what it was like diving Sipadan 10-15 years ago.

So indeed we feel blessed to be given opportunities to experience some of god's gifts on such pristine corners still to be found on this part on earth.

Enjoy the show ;)

a dreamy encounter with the lazy shark of Andaman Seas~ michellechoongkhoo

2011-11-12T20:36:00.001-08:00

When 20 dive buddies set out on an exploration dive on Zcubatech LOB , sailing off Phuket around Hin Daeng, Hin Muang, Koh Ha Yai, Phi Phi's Tonsai Bay n Maya Wall…..the ultimate dream was to get to see the Leopard Shark.

Hin Daeng, Hin Maung with its caverns and soft corals were enticing.
Koh Ha Yai 5 islands was rich in critter life and blessed with calm waters, good visibility.
By the time we got to Phi Phi, safe to say we had thoroughly enjoyed what we thought were 8 FUN dives in 2 days ! Our initial trepidations of choppy seas were allayed right from the first dive and the gods favoured us with a superbly built LOB Zcubatech with all the comforts of diving. Mr Keng , the owner had a most awsome fantastic Thai cook who pampered us with such slurping delicious food after each dive , it was heavenly!
We were split into 4 teams and all our divemasters did an awsome job ; fulfilling their job responsibilitiesy seriously…..last but not least, lots of kudos go to Zcubatech's back up crew who ensured that all of us experienced 6 stars' diving comfort!

So on the final day of diving, not surprisingly some of our worn out, tired buddies opted out of the dive !
The brief that this is where pelagic creatures are most usually seen did not enticed them out of their lethargy…..after all, previous briefs promising possibilities of 12 mantas spanning 4 feet wings, whale sharks had not materialized, so who could blame them?

One buddy decked with serious transforming gears did not even consider bothering to switch to wide angle lens despite some advise !
oh well that poor sod ( he knows who he is if he reads this , hahahaha) must have regretted his decision to bring camera gears set up for super macro !
For here this very dive, our video below will reveal ….indeed at Phi Phi it was where we fulfilled the dream that we wished, hoped and prayed for~

I for one was thankful I brought down my G12, powered by 1 Inon strobe and backed up with Ikelite's DS161 video light! Hubby for another was extremely glad the leopard shark swam back and stayed for 9 mins because OMG he forgot to switch on his videocam during the excitement of the first brief encounter!

It was indeed a blessed morning, if only my three sons were also diving with us too……sigh~
Oh well, at least we have videos and photos to show them :)
Enjoy the photos on flickr
Enjoy the youtube channel for the graceful moves of Phi Phi's lazy shark ♥

a wistful swim with hydromedusae jellyfish~michellechoongkhoo

2011-10-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

running into a wave of hydromedusae carried by the currents while we are doing our 5M safety stop , I decided I might as well train my G12 video lens onto them!
I am so glad that I did……they are awsomely incredulously beautiful~

Tioman Rediscovery on G12~

2011-09-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Truth be told, for us Tioman lose out to Redang:

water visibility

small dive boats

travelling distance of dive sites

But it was where we first fell in love with Scuba and got certified….and for this nostalgic reason alone, we keep coming back ♥

For those of you who want to go dive Tioman, you can either drive to Mersing Jetty, then board a ferry to get there or fly Berjaya Air and then take a speedboat to a variety of accomodations at 6 different Malay kampungs (villages)….

Our personal favourite is Paya Coral Resort @ Kampung Paya , comfortable, 3 star facilities, value for money~

But what we like best at Kampung Paya was that villagers are friendly and almost always simple down to earth kampung food/snacks are readily available for chomping in between dives !

sampling of Tioman's uw beauties~

samples of Kampung Paya's landed gems

handling my new toy uw aint easy

2011-07-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

it was really tough to handle my new monster gear underwater:

nauticam housing eos 550D with 2 Ikelite DS161 substrobes:

for starters, I need to go for re-education and throw away my scratchy macro lens!

Then I need to get a proper 60mm macro lens!
Possibly get a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens, invest in a 4.33" dome port, get a 3rd Sola 500 video light …….now I comprehend better why someone said that once I go DSLR there's no going back, hahahahah

After which I need to work on my buoyancy, how to shoot with both hands on the handle?

plus a whole new multitude of new problems!

hahahaha, yup adding more zest to diving :)

The weird and bizarre night safari @ Manado by eddiebckhoo

2011-06-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

Traveling to Manado may be considered circuitous and troublesome now that AirAsia does not fly direct from KL and we Malaysian divers have to connect via Spore's SilkAir.

Yet as we look back at the memories of what we got when we eventually reach our destination, sigh…..moan never mind, we want to consider this place a a yearly pilgrimmage dive spot and we will brave it again to enjoy the heavenly paradise on land as well as underwater ♥

just take a look at the manadonese photo journal below to see what I mean~

However 6 stars Resorts and michelin standard food aside, lets still be frank about what is the star attraction to come to Lembeh Strait, Manado!

Due to the fast flowing sea water surging thru the narrow channel of the Lembeh Strait , the dive spots are super blessed with good water visibility and its almost beyond words the safari that one can find beneath .
A whacky rather bizarre world that will charm even a well traveled diver who may think they have seen them all~

Even in a big group of 16 divers , armed with many versions of camera transformers......there is so much to see, we all have our own little patch of territory to film the incredible numbers of rare and unusual marine critters to our hearts' content!

The sky turns night as early as 6pm but then thats when the diving gets even more exciting!

The critters are amazing, some downright weird looking and hungry such that there is non stop feeding activities !
Take a look and see for yourself how Lembeh's wondrous underwater's safari show goes on display regardless of us divers acting like Hollywood's paparazzi with our blinding dive lights, strobes and torches ~ heh heh

oh yes, I daresay Lembeh Strait has become one of our favourite playground ❥❥❥
link to Lembeh flickr photos

Diving Tulamben is more than just Wreck of Liberty Bell~eddiebckhoo

2011-06-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Divers' haven and uw photographers' paradise~

yeppp thats how we would sum up diving at Tulamben swimming like butterflies around The Wreck of Liberty Bell , enjoying the wonders off Seraya's Secrets, saying hello to the residents inhabiting Drop Off Points and jumping off Bali's unique longboats into Amed's bluewaters!
Getting back onto the boat however is another long story altogether that involves abit of UK finning, and ahem long legs!

If you want macro critters , Tulamben's got them!
You want to compose wide angle shots, you'll get it!
You want boat dives, beach dives, night dives, yupppp got them too!
and you also want good food? luxurious chalets with Massages thrown in ?
No problems!!!!

And if I hv to summarize in under 10 words ?

" OF COURSE WE WILL BE BACK AGAIN IN 2011 ♥♥♥"

And I sure hope the school of bumpheads will still be waiting for us at the sunken bulkheads of Liberty Bell at dusk :D

Beneath the waters off Moe Moe Cha @ Redang, 2011 by eddiebckhoo

2011-06-07T02:54:00.000-07:00

I will forever treasure my 60 secs tender moments with the docile puppy dog eyed black spotted pufferfish who allowed me to help it foraged for crustaceans and even tolerated a few light pats of "helloo , how do you do" on its back with my pointer~
Awsome dive, Wow and Woah man memories indeed~

http://www.youtube.com/user/michellesblueplanet

underwater parade ~part 2, eddiebckhoo

2010-12-28T19:10:00.000-08:00

there are some critters uw which move at such leisurely pace, seemingly without a care in the world….I opined their beauty is best viewed thru the videocamera ❥
Enjoy ~

video link at youtube

Manadonese Indulgence~another michellechoongkhoo diving coffeebook

2010-12-03T06:13:00.000-08:00

Manadonese critters thru michellechoongkhoo's lenses

2010-12-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

uniquely Tulamben~Bali, Yes we love you!

2010-11-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

I know I have come home to Bali when I smile to see:

link to Tulamben Flickr uwphotos
the beach porters with their incredible balance and strength, found nowhere else

diving straight off the beach after trodding gingerly on black pebbles as big as nuggets

getting the lovely dark backgrounds of uw photography from Tulamben's black volcanic sandy bottom

and of coz to catch the break of dawn at 5am

Bali~ truly an island blessed by the gods

Nudibranch Parade~a macro photographer's favourite

2010-10-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

old archive files~

we tend to become spoilt really quickly when we dive too often.
I remember how we used to get so excited when we spotted nudibranches .

Now I notice that whenever some hard working dive master took effort to point them out to us, most of us just take a cursory look and maybe just a polite shot or two.

Actually looking at our archive video files, nudibranches can look enthralling beautiful and interesting.
Am gonna look forward to spotting them again in Tulamben.

remembering the cuttlefish's waltz @ Tioman~eddiebckhoo

2010-10-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

Im kinda missing Tioman…..we should make a family trip there again.

It used to be our favourite underwater playground ~

moray eels feeding frenzy@ racha yai, Phuket by eddiebckhoo

2010-10-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

it was a special encounter, a small mount of hard corals was the base for an army of juvenile eels to launch their furtive and sometimes outright torpedo attacks in a feeding frenzy at a big school of tiny glass fish.

escape into bluewaters: Frogfishes, ugly in a cute kinda way~ eddiebckhoo videos

2010-09-29T07:16:00.001-07:00

escape into bluewaters: Frogfishes, ugly in a cute kinda way~ eddiebckhoo videos

2010-09-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

escape into bluewaters: Frogfishes, ugly in a cute kinda way~ eddiebckhoo videos

Frogfishes, ugly in a cute kinda way~ eddiebckhoo videos

2010-09-29T07:14:00.002-07:00

who would hv thought these clumps that look like rotting algae are actually masters of deceits, mimics that succeed in hunging by appearing docile but are predators possessing lightning fast reactions armed with large extendable jaws~
no wonder that they usually get their prey and here at Kappalai or Makassar, they grow to fat fat monstrous proportions.
Our personal fav uwcritters....
Loveable in a bull dog kind of way <3