Ras Mohammed! diving diving in e Red Sea.

Wah..finally i'm back in london.seems like these past 5weeks had been a dream. A surreal but yet amazing dreams. Had spent these last 5 weeks in Egypt. To sum it up : 1 week travelling with ninghan to Cairo-Luxor-Hurghada... 3 weeks in Ras Mohammed Marine National Park (diving!!! did reef ecology & monitoring)...1 week in the desert, St.Katherine Protectorate...last day : climb up tp the peak of Mt. Sinai to see THE best sunrise (the best i've ever witnessed in 20 yrs of my life, surreal).

I think i'll spent soo ong to write it al down. It's just so many things to say and write about. Need to upload loads of photos as well. Didn't even know where to start! lucky I wrote down things tht happend during tht one week of travelling alrd hehe..

Hmm...ok, so story continued after we arrived in Hurghada, we spent one nite there, then took the fast ferry to Sharm El Sheikh the next morning. 2hrs..then at Sharm, Ahmed picked us up. Went to Ras Mohammed site. 1st impression : incredible beaches and blue blue sea!! being shown our tents/common area/toilet (farrr farr...awayyyy)/dive centre. which all situated far apart lol.. Spent the day doing nothing. get to know Joe, Gerben, Caroline, Ahmed..slept the whole day! then on Sunday (8th agt), met Alex! we thought he was spending e nite at the airport..but then in the morning, ninghn said 'hey look who's tht wit e back hair..?" ..then we all ran to greet him..lol, so funny.

1st week : did our PADI Open Water !! our group consist of me, caroline, maya, claire, ninghan..and our instructor is the best ever : Gerben! (magic finger..magic finger..hmm hehe) plus the best DM as well : Dave (OK? ok!). Its amazing how fast we seemed 2 get used to put together all e dive kit! BWARF : Bruce Willis Ruins Ancient Films..Buddy check! (me n ning = perpetual buddies, Tweedledee n Tweddledum as Jane said..we looked identical in our shortie). Did skills.. gerben is amazing. he made us felt reaxed, yet secure all the time. U can be sure he'll b there if anythg goes wrong. Did 3 confined dives..then 3 open water..did theory test (pretty easy). All passed!!! yayyy...

Our normal day routine in Ras will b sth ike..woke up at 6.30..breakfst 7-8am.. then 1st dive..lunch 1-2..2nd dive..talk2/rest..shower!!.. dinner 8-9pm..tea/shisha/dominoes/card games/talking2 while staring at the night skies.. amazingly bright wit all the stars and moon! shooting stars are sooo common...saw countless of shooting stars! then sleep ard 11pm. Sleep outside under the stars every nite!! (too bloody warm in e tent...).. me, alex, claire are the sleep outside ppl..whilst ninghnn n maya slept inside usually.

One nite got a crab tickling my ear! omg i was damn surprised! n actually caused me to jump literally in shock! woah... Also one morning got DOLPHINS!! swimming pass the tents.. 3 of them!! i was wide awake in an instant when I heard alex said dolphin, then ninghan also shot up awake in seconds..wahh...telling ppl tht there's dolphin is the best way to wake 'em up!! haha...

Played endless card games/shisha/tea at nite..egyptian mint tea is just the best!! sweet and hot.. wahh... apple shisha also so nice..too bad shisha often crowded, so dun often get e chance to do shisa-ing hehe. Like alex mentioned : gerben is shisha master.. dave n alex advance shsiha makers lol.

Food wise was great!! main food :pitta bread, tomato n cucumbers..!! honey/cheese..fried / grilled fish soo yummy..dinner aways better thn lunch! endless melons and watermelons :) !! tea..also water water water,..drinks loads otherwise get dehydrated!

2nd week : did reef ecology course where Joe taught us how to recognise n id diff reef/corals/fishes/invertebrates etc..so we can help steve in his research.. Spent 4 consecutive days diving in 'toilet bowl' (Solar Bay..callled tht as it is situated in fornt of e toilet building!)..right reef : amazing..left reef : ok..We saw a shark!!!!! grey reef shark..was swiminng aong..then Kim suddenly saw it.i saw it. then everying got sooo xcited..wuah its amazing how ..majestic it seems to be..n no worries. its harmless if we dun disturb them :)
aso saw this big big eagle ray..HUGE moray eel near the jetty...puffer fish who foollowed us ard...lionfishes etc etc ect..
Jane was our dive leader for tht week..(got sum..argument bwn her n maya..woa..quite tense tht time...) ..Jon as our DM.. he's damn nice guy! the quiet but funny Joe as our teacher..plus I i think we all are such good students!! we all passed our reef tests by memorising the slides!!! haha....

Claire left at the end of 2nd week.. so sad :( she's super nice to talk to. can b quite clumsy at times..damn funny she is hehe... she's very open minded as well. Miss her!! also she always struggle to get into her wetsuit. so funny..plus her mask-wiper hair..blublublub phone call..omg.. :) spent the day before she left taking loads loads of photos!

3rd week : spent on the boat (aka : Fuck Knuckle as Gerben humbly named it..hehe). got seasick a bit the 1st 2 days..then I actually cured!! no more seasick!!!! waahhh sooo happy!! at 1st me alex maya looked dead..then after we got used to it (excpt poor maya who still got seasick..we all fine. ninghn never get seasick! so lucky...hehe..all boat crews : me ning alex maya simon jon steve..chef/ali..mohammed..etc.. all soo helpful! boat dives are amazing..exciting! to get off frm the boat, esp if we drift dive..felt like a military mission! then if e current is stonrg..getting back on e boat is also hard! Shark's Reef are e best so far..saw HUGE fishes n turtle there..! but so strong current..can't do transects.. Shark's Observatory..Ras Um Sid (cheesy italian song!).. Visitor Centre (lady frm italy 'help me'2x..swa shark behind her eating fishes!)... Old Quay.. Ras Satar (our last fun dives). Did fish id/count on 50 m transect..learnt to control buoyancy much more now.. steve n alex did corals id. jon just floating ard watching us looking bored..poor him. Boat lunches are amazingly nicer!!!! slept n sunbathe in bwn..dive in e morning n afternoon... back to camp ard 3-4 pm.

Also did our PADI Advance Open Water!! deep dive : narked maya! go down to 30m..but felt alrite.. hehe..only we use up our air much much faster.. only 25 min instead of e usual 50 min..for 200 bar. Navigation : use compass..made squares/triangles.. PPB w arthur : ninghn's sand headstand! 'charie chaplin' kick..somersault (maya's so good in this).. phtography : ok..cant really get nice pics..got jude a bit angry for taking her camera... drift dive : amazing..triingbut the best!

Did a total of 28 dives over 3 weeks.. unbelieveable.. truly.
Got to know loads of ppl..esp toby claire maya ..met karim n hassan n ahmed as well (rescue diver ; 10 bar n dunno how to use compass..hehe.. )..torch ppl invasions...dave/jon/owen/jane/jude/arthur...haisam.aiman.musa n all the friendly bedouins! ..ninghan's toilet runs..super blur alex in e morning... steve/joe best buddies... steve o indonesian speaker... caroline/jackie/all the school kids..wahh.. countless things..soo many ppl..so many memories. its been totaly aamzing 3 weeks!! best ever.