One. I know I must be crazy to be leaving for Manado soon after returning for my 2-week holiday in Australia. But that's just me. Besides, when else can I find the time to do crazy travelling like this once I start working? So I don't really care if I go broke after these trips. I'm just going to live life to the fullest without regrets.

So off we flew to Manado, in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Silkair flight was pretty comfortable for a small plane, but hell, when the plane started on its descent when nearing Manado Airport, the turbulence was so bad you could feel your stomach sink when the aircraft dropped altitude. My measure of bad turbulence is Ryanair, and yes, that particular turbulence was worse than any of my Ryanair experiences, which induced much screamings among the passengers. Fortunately, the flight attendants were very professional. They made us feel that such turbulences were commonplace, prob due to the build up of cumulus clouds over the coastal areas. Besides, the turbulence didn't last very long. With such bad weather, we could not venture into our first dive on the first day, but took pleasure with bumming around the 3-star resort, where all the attendants treated us like kings and queens.

Mysterious-looking Pulau Manado Tua, an extinct volcano.

Two & Three. Bunaken. Diving at the Bunaken dive sites were eye-openers. For the first dive, we had difficulty with managing our buoyancy due to wrong no of weights and a long time since we last dived. Moreover, Manado was famous for its small, queer and rare marine creatures which required an eye for. So, being the amateur divers we were, we were relegated to the backseat, merely following the rest and discovering what they found.

Usually in Tioman, Dayang or even Redang, dives were usually on slopes. However, there were quite a handful of wall dives. I had never been on one, until now. And it was just amazing. Wow... Imagine, the wall stretches about 200m from the seabed to the surface, while we were diving at about 20m. When you look up, you see fishes swimming past, the colourful corals and the sun gleaming above the water surface. When you look below, the visibility is more than 30m, so you feel that you are floating in midair, not knowing where the bottom of the ocean is. You see bigger fishes swimming below you, seemingly unaware of your presence. Buoyancy is also all the more important especially with the strong current, and to maintain our depth, careful not to venture into decompression diving, which could become dangerous for a continuous 3-day dive plus a flight right at the end of it all, and especially for amateurs like us.

And guess what, the discovery here was just amazing. Not just the marine creatures, but also the company. We have 2 dive instructors, Jaws and Epy. Jaws is a Singaporean, whom I mistakenly thought was mispronounced for Josh. The latter is indigeneous, whom I mistakenly thought was Happy, so divers can remember his name better. One Jaws was enough to keep us all occupied with his stories. To name a few, his shitting escapades in OBS 5km run and underwater, his poaching escapades at the oil rigs, how he came to venture into diving, tattoo and fish farm businesses, the story of his condo and childhood. This is an example of a guy who was driven, entrepreneurial and street-smart, and despite of his lack of educational qualifications, made full use of the resources he had. Reminds me a little of Jazreel except that she's both intellectually and street smart. ;P

Other people in the company were the more experienced divers, including 2 similar-aged students, owner of an oil trading company and his sunshine girlfriend, and an ethnically German and Chinese-speaking Singaporean who loves the Asian culture, photography and diving.

Now you see it

now you don't.

Lionfish

Another one

Scorpionfish

Trumpetfish

I nearly thought it was a pipefish. It's a seahorse!

Moray eel - my most hated marine creature.

A very friendly turtle

One specie of anemone crab

Try spotting the coral crab

Looks cooked

Is that a lobster or shrimp?

The character of the day - a pregnant Pygmy seahorse, about 2mm in width, and camouflaged in the seafan. I had to put my face on the seafan and squint to see it.

Nudis!

R21

Four. Lembeh Straits. We heard from the experienced divers that Lembeh Straits is a must-go. These dive spots are not the colourful dives on corals, but muck diving on black volcanic sand. What makes it amazing is that anything you find on the sand, be it a log, a bucket or a can of coke, you'll find a community living there. True enough.

Beware...

Octopus

Spot the 2 moth fishes

Black lionfish

We were in Porcupine City

Shrimp on a sea cucumber or was it a sea worm?

so cute, a cleaning shrimp

Hermit crab

Fisherman on Lembeh Straits

We spotted some flounder fishes, squids and blue-spotted rays as well, but could not see the flamboyant cuttlefish or mimick octopus.

But this has to be my favourite! Cutest fish on earth!

Happy with Epy!

The charm of diving in Manado is not about seeing huge marine creatures like whalesharks, orcas or manta rays. It's about the small and rare marine creatures. Apparently the experienced divers in our company are here for the second or fifth time, because every dive you do at the same dive spot you see new and different things...