Been to Koh Tao, should I go to PERHENTIANS?

In article <CebEe.12737$5V4.10215@pd7tw3no>, slarson@shaw.canada (chilly)
wrote:

> *From:* "chilly" <slarson@shaw.canada>
> *Date:* Fri, 22 Jul 2005 18:51:14 GMT

> What do you mean? What happened?

I was asked the same question in a local UK scuba conference, this was my
answer,

> Did they explain why? I take it your Indonesian visa was in order?

They did explain, we didn't have a visa on arrival ????????? but my office
manager was there in April and he got his visa by filling out the
immigration card on the flight out there (the flight was on a small
Twin Otter, 18 seats) and getting the actual visa put
in the passport AT immigration on arrival ??????
We arrived there on the 7th !!!!!! (London Bombings) dont know if that was
significant ?
When they confiscated the passports there was a lot of people badgering us
and asking lots of questions, very stressful for my wife who was worried
about me......(two heart attacks the day after arrival at Mabul
last December)......after a while they put us in a car and took us of to
an immigration center/office where we had a dressing down and a question
and answer session, we did not know where we were......after that they put
us in a car and we were driven to a hotel (the Makmur in Tarakan
which was cheap and quite nice) (yes we had to pay for the hotel)where we
were told we would be collected the following morning at 7am, at 7am we
were ....then taken to the
local port (still no sign of our passports) we had to buy tickets for a
local ferry then given our passports and put on the ferry back to
Tawau...not a ferry that you or i visualise though..........the ferry
consisted of old airline seats, two seats on the left, a tiny gangway down
the middle and then another two seats on the right, the boat was quite a
fast boat, very long and slim, the journey back to Tawau took 3hrs, but
getting through the Malaysian immigration at Tawau was going to take
forever, at the dock the ferry could not get to moor properly so we had to
clamber over 5 boats to get onto dry land, this with hand baggage, laptop
bag, camera, photo case and dive bags was not easy.....the story goes on
and on but i wont bore you with that now........



We did dive in the Tunku Abdul Rahmen Park in KK, we were told it was
crap, just sand and not worth the bother but we wanted to get wet so we
tried it, we really enjoyed it, Janet was fing Nudi's that we had never
seen before, (no camera with me as it was supposed to be crap) we were
even
showing the guide little nudi's that he had never seen before......he was
amazed......so the two dives we did there were allthough expensive very
good.

On the way out from the UK we flew to KLIA via Dubai with Emirates, we
wont go with them
again....seats are crap on the Airbus 300's, check in staff very pedantic
and want to charge for excess if you are 1 k over......and at £30.7 per
kilo our excess on the way back would have been close to a thousand
pounds, hence me getting FedEx to take my big dive bag from KK to here for
£200.
I wont go to Sangalaki now , it is remote, even Sangalaki dive lodge
said they could not guarantee to get us there over the weekend even if we
got a visa on the Fri afternoon (which we did) so it would be Mon before
we "might" get there, and coming back on the Thursday gave us no dive
time. We could see problems arrising with ferrys and planes on the way
back........and just thought that enough obsticles had been put in our way
and something was saying "dont go".......it makes getting to the Rig a
picnic.
Sangalaki is guaranteed Manta's......lots of them.........and lots of
macro too.
Its owned by a guy called Ron Holland, he took it over when Borneo Divers
pulled out, he was with Borneo Divers for some years i understand, and he
hails from Manchester in the Uk.


Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

<morgand@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote in message
news:_J-dnZttAuzxnH_fRVnysw@pipex.net...
> In article <CebEe.12737$5V4.10215@pd7tw3no>, slarson@shaw.canada (chilly)
> wrote:
>
> > *From:* "chilly" <slarson@shaw.canada>
> > *Date:* Fri, 22 Jul 2005 18:51:14 GMT
>
> > What do you mean? What happened?
>
> I was asked the same question in a local UK scuba conference, this was my
> answer,
>
> > Did they explain why? I take it your Indonesian visa was in order?
>
> They did explain, we didn't have a visa on arrival ????????? but my office
> manager was there in April and he got his visa by filling out the
> immigration card on the flight out there (the flight was on a small
> Twin Otter, 18 seats) and getting the actual visa put
> in the passport AT immigration on arrival ??????

Wow, what an experience!

Where did you enter Indonesia? Did you pay for your visa upon entry?

For example, upon arriving in Jakarta, and upon entering the airport from
the causeway, there's a booth set up. You line up and pay for your visa
there and then proceed into the airport to pick up luggage, immigration,
customs, etc.

> We arrived there on the 7th !!!!!! (London Bombings) dont know if that was
> significant ?
> When they confiscated the passports there was a lot of people badgering us
> and asking lots of questions,

Where were you when your passports were confiscated?

>very stressful for my wife who was worried
> about me......(two heart attacks the day after arrival at Mabul
> last December)......

I would think a situation such as this would be stressful for anyone!

>after a while they put us in a car and took us of to
> an immigration center/office where we had a dressing down and a question
> and answer session, we did not know where we were......after that they put
> us in a car and we were driven to a hotel (the Makmur in Tarakan
> which was cheap and quite nice) (yes we had to pay for the hotel)where we
> were told we would be collected the following morning at 7am, at 7am we
> were ....then taken to the
> local port (still no sign of our passports) we had to buy tickets for a
> local ferry then given our passports and put on the ferry back to
> Tawau...

Quite the adventure. I'm sure it will become a most interesting and amusing
anecdote in the years to come.

>not a ferry that you or i visualise though..........the ferry
> consisted of old airline seats, two seats on the left, a tiny gangway down
> the middle and then another two seats on the right, the boat was quite a
> fast boat, very long and slim, the journey back to Tawau took 3hrs, but
> getting through the Malaysian immigration at Tawau was going to take
> forever, at the dock the ferry could not get to moor properly so we had to
> clamber over 5 boats to get onto dry land, this with hand baggage, laptop
> bag, camera, photo case and dive bags was not easy.....the story goes on
> and on but i wont bore you with that now........

Was that the only way back, or the only way they would allow you to go back?
Why couldn't you go back the way you arrived?

> We did dive in the Tunku Abdul Rahmen Park in KK, we were told it was
> crap, just sand and not worth the bother but we wanted to get wet so we
> tried it, we really enjoyed it, Janet was fing Nudi's that we had never
> seen before, (no camera with me as it was supposed to be crap) we were
> even
> showing the guide little nudi's that he had never seen before......he was
> amazed......so the two dives we did there were allthough expensive very
> good.

Sometimes things work out the way they are supposed to. It's just that it
can be hard to see that at the time it appears everything is going to crap
all around you. :^)

>
> On the way out from the UK we flew to KLIA via Dubai with Emirates, we
> wont go with them
> again....seats are crap on the Airbus 300's, check in staff very pedantic
> and want to charge for excess if you are 1 k over......and at £30.7 per
> kilo our excess on the way back would have been close to a thousand
> pounds, hence me getting FedEx to take my big dive bag from KK to here for
> £200.
> I wont go to Sangalaki now , it is remote, even Sangalaki dive lodge
> said they could not guarantee to get us there over the weekend even if we
> got a visa on the Fri afternoon (which we did) so it would be Mon before
> we "might" get there, and coming back on the Thursday gave us no dive
> time. We could see problems arrising with ferrys and planes on the way
> back........and just thought that enough obsticles had been put in our way
> and something was saying "dont go".......it makes getting to the Rig a
> picnic.

I'm more confused now. Do you mean to say that you will *never* go to
Sangalaki? Do you mean to say that it is too difficult for most any of us
coming from halfway across the world? Or are you just saying that on this
trip, your attempt was so much trouble and your experience has tainted the
idea of going there for the time being?

> Sangalaki is guaranteed Manta's......lots of them.........and lots of
> macro too.
> Its owned by a guy called Ron Holland, he took it over when Borneo Divers
> pulled out, he was with Borneo Divers for some years i understand, and he
> hails from Manchester in the Uk.

How long has he been running this place?


>
>
> Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
> Take out the "goes diving" bit....
> Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

In article <42E1A1D6.9979BF2@seatraveler.com>, steve@seatraveler.com
(Steve Kramer) wrote:

> You never 'need' to use nitrox. It's a bonus for your dives in terms of
> bottom time.

Yes, i understand all that.............must admit that some of our dives
under the "old Rig" did drag on into deco, we were doing a lot of 60 to 70
minute dives at 18m which is bottom under the Rig.

> Secondly, it reduces the surface interval required between dives as
> there is less nitrogen entering your body during the dive. And third, as
> a result of the shorter surface interval need to off-gas (less nitrogen
> in the body to begin with,) you can make more dives safely in one day.

Four dives a day is usually plenty for us, and i hardly get enough time
between dives as it is, by the time i have sorted the kit, showered, had a
cup of tea, downloaded the camera to laptop, charged strobe, sorted my
wifes video light battery everyone is saying "are we ready to dive"...and
there's me hardly had time to sit down and take a break. So shorter SI is
not what i am looking for........

> The main drawback is a limited usable depth,

Yea......i'm aware of that........i suppose that untill we have dived with
Nitrox we can hardly make a proper comparrison as to whether it is of any
benefit to us.

> Here are some old photos shot in Coron http://seatraveler.com/coron.htm
> The viz was pretty bad that week.

The vis was not good around the Rig either, and on Paradise on Mabul it
was hold hands or loose your buddy.........

> Anecdotally, many people state that they are much less tired after a day
> of nitrox diving, but there is no scientific proof of this.

This is what we hear everyone say........
Perhaps we will get round to it, but its something that we will both have
to do, we wont do it as individuals as we dont do trips without each
other.


Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

In article <42E0E957.87B94E19@seatraveler.com>, steve@seatraveler.com
(Steve Kramer) wrote:

> *From:* Steve Kramer <steve@seatraveler.com>
> *Date:* Fri, 22 Jul 2005 19:40:55 +0700

> Or Coron Bay in Palawan Province in the Philippines.

Some nice photo's Steve........

Your photo and comment "ferries can get crowded in Asia" made me smile a
little, our ferry from Tarakan to Tawau was not so much crowded, but it
was a real scramble to get off and get through the thousands on the quay
side trying to get through immigration.......



Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK
Take out the "goes diving" bit....
Trip photos on line at www.morg.co.uk

morgand@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:

> ...and
> there's me hardly had time to sit down and take a break. So shorter SI is
> not what i am looking for........

I think you are looking at this from the wrong perspective.

It's not about the time, it's about the safety. In the same amount of
time, you have much less to off-gas if you're diving Nitrox.

Dive safe,

/Don

Dan Bracuk wrote:
> Don Ward <dwward3863@nospam.sbcglobal.net> pounded away at his
> keyboard resulting in:
> :It's not about the time, it's about the safety. In the same amount of
> :time, you have much less to off-gas if you're diving Nitrox.

In just two lines, Don managed to contradict himself!

Of coures it about the time! If you have much less to off-gas,
then it takes much less TIME for the "mandatory" SIT for the next
dive.

>
> Only if you have the same bottom times and surface intervals as you
> would have done on air.

That's a secondary nit.

-- Bob.

Dan Bracuk wrote:
> Don Ward <dwward3863@nospam.sbcglobal.net> pounded away at his
> keyboard resulting in:
> :It's not about the time, it's about the safety. In the same amount of
> :time, you have much less to off-gas if you're diving Nitrox.
>
> Only if you have the same bottom times and surface intervals as you
> would have done on air.
>
> Dan Bracuk
> If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

I stand by my comment. Go back and read it in the context of Morgand's
comment (the context in which it was written).

Dive safe,

/Don

morgand@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
>
> In article <42E0E957.87B94E19@seatraveler.com>, steve@seatraveler.com
> (Steve Kramer) wrote:
>
> > *From:* Steve Kramer <steve@seatraveler.com>
> > *Date:* Fri, 22 Jul 2005 19:40:55 +0700
>
> > Or Coron Bay in Palawan Province in the Philippines.
>
> Some nice photo's Steve........

Thanks!

> Your photo and comment "ferries can get crowded in Asia" made me smile

It lets people not familiar with SE Asia understand why, when a
passenger ferry sinks here, news reports read; '43,796 people drown...'

Steve Kramer
"PhotoEnvisions" Freelance Photography
Chiang Mai, Thailand
http://www.photoenvisions.com
--
"The voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new horizons, but in seeing
with new eyes." - Marcel Proust

Don Ward <dwward3863@nospam.sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> It's not about the time, it's about the safety.

More like "safety trade-off".

True, you can dive Nitrox on air tables and not approach the deco limits
as closely and thus be "more safe". However, the risks from Ox-Tox and
the risks of someone pumping the wrong mix are increased, so its really
just a big safety trade-off.


Besides, if your BC isn't O2-cleaned, it can spontaneously explode


-hh

H Huntzinger wrote:
> Don Ward <dwward3863@nospam.sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >
> > It's not about the time, it's about the safety.
>
> True, you can dive Nitrox on air tables and not approach the deco limits
> as closely and thus be "more safe".

No table or EAN is "safe" for grossly obese (short of morbidly obese)
and physically unfit specimens like Don and his Fascist Dictator and
Censorship pal Nick Simicich of Scuba-L.

-- Bob.