Reflecting on my Manado Diving Experiences

So, we've came back from our trip almost a week ago. Besides getting a tanned look, I can honestly say I'm a more confident diver now. Couldn't say the same thing after my previous (first) dive trip.

Let's see, I logged 13 dives in this trip alone. Including wreck dive, night dive, with semi-muck, multi-level and drift dive as well. And not forgetting one cavern experience too!

For me, the highlight was the night dive. When I backflipped into the water I found myself breathing hard, desperate to check my torch was still on. Then I quickly questioned "what is this unnamed fear?" My equipments were working fine, my buddy was by my side, the divemasters and Ps John were nearby. There was no strong wave or current. If I couldn't give that fear a name, it doesn't exist! I calmed my breathing down, deflated my BCD, put my right hand on my nose and down we went, into the black waters.

It was an unforgettable experience. We were told to stay close to each other, but we were definitely too close! My buddy, Sherene locked her elbow to mine within a few seconds of descent. Above me were a crowd of people, half of them within touching distance. I couldn't see the bottom, it was pitch darkness down there. Soon I couldn't see the surface nor the bottom. My only orientation of where's top and where's bottom were the bubbles, and I directed my torch at the depth gauge to ensure I'm not falling too fast. In between, there were some body contacts here and there, but my eyes were on my buddy and my depth gauge. That was all that mattered. Soon I saw the bottom and we stopped descending. It seemed like we were a long way down but the depth gauge gave the most objective answer...it was only 18 meters. There, the thrill of night dive was all over!

But the fun continued. We were all directing our beams to the coral walls looking for interesting creatures. There was this huge lobster, its eyes reflected a certain glow. There were some huge red crabs....must be juicy! What appeared odd to me was the color of the coral walls. They were much redder than during daytime, it's like somebody had thrown buckets of red paints all over them.

As we were floating around, my sensation was as if I was flying in my dream. After all, it was nighttime. I asked myself a few times "Am I dreaming?" That surreal sensation alone made it the most unique dive experience I've ever had so far.

To be honest, I expected to see more brilliant colours of beautiful fishes but not too many were around. We all probably should have switched off our torchlights to see if there was anything glowing. Next time.

When we ascended from our dive, we were greeted by hosts of stars in the open night sky. And Benny's torchlight from the boat. Hehe. On our trip back, we lay down on the boat to admire the starry sky. Talked about the universe, existence and infinity. What a night it was.

In the other dives, we also saw barracudas, bumpheads, turtles, stingrays, small sharks, eels, sea snakes, stone fish etc. The drift dive was also quite exciting. Like flying out of control kinda feeling.

During the last day of diving, we even got a strong lecture (about safety stop) from Ferdi, one of the divemasters as well. I've to comment that the divemasters there are excellent, very friendly and helpful, always ensure our safety in the midst of all the fun.

Next dive trip? I'm not thinking about it yet. Still lingering on my experiences from this trip.