Disappointing dives

Today, we did two dives with Alu Alu Divers:

• Our first dive at the Sugar Wreck had only 5m of visibility. We could hardly see the ship; only the bit that was immediately in front of us. We were told to expect certain barracudas and also to look into the Captain’s bridge for red snappers. We couldn’t even make out the bridge! We couldn’t see any sign of fish due to he poor visibility either. Apparently the visibility was quite good as far as this site goes and it gets worse much worse. Why bother! All of us agreed this was a shit site.
• The second dive was at Tanjung Tukas Laut. Visbility was much better but the sea life and coral there was unexciting. The most interesting stuff we saw was Parrot fish and Clown fish; that’s a pretty sad situation! I thought this sight was poor while others thought it was average. Talking to other dive masters later, they all reckoned it is a boring site with not much interesting sea life. Why on earth were we taken there?

It was quite a surprise as the waters around the Perhentians are pristine and crystal clear; the situation under the surface can be very different and disappointing.

In the afternoon, we walked the jungle trek to the west coast of the island, Tuna Bay. The beach better was much nicer and still swimmable at low tide, unlike at our place on the south coast. Our accommodation and location was good but the west was much better. I had tried to book a few place there some six months in advance and they were already fully booked. While over there we spoke to Seahorse Dive Centre while out there and they seemed very pleasant and helpful; more so than our dive centre.

That evening, I enquired with the dive master as to the dive spots for tomorrow. He told me the names and I asked “Are they good sites?” He replied “They’re all good here.” I replied “How do you explain this morning then.” He said that this morning was good by most people’s standards. I admit I have been quite spoilt with Sipadan, Bunaken and Weh in my short time diving.