Two dives

Breakfast at the Impian Inn started at 0730 which was perfect for my dive meet-up at 0830.  The two dives were OK, bearing in mind I’m a bit hard to impressed after having done repeated dives in Sipadan.

Surface conditions were perfect, being calm, blue and sunny.  Underwater it wasn’t as good as expected.  You can read more about the two dives pleased without any dives went without issue; I had been huffing and puffing while going up the stairs in the Korean subways last week.  I was afraid I may have some shortness of breath underwater.

Tioman seems to be the place Singaporeans and peninsular Malaysians come to learn to dive.  Many people seem to be doing courses rather than fun dives.

I was back at 1145 and went out for lunch after a rest.  The burger stall near the jetty had come highly recommended.  But that was closed together with all the neighbouring stalls.   I had confirmed yesterday that the burger stall was for lunch only so it was a great disappointment.

Continuing to the north, I found other places closed.  Eventually I found a place that was open but they only had bakso available, which was fine.  I learnt that many places had been busy and some take the opportunity to rest, being Monday.  Some places also close when provisions run low.

I spent the afternoon resting indoors for a while before heading out for dinner with Dixie, whom I dived with this morning.  She’s from Singapore and despite only having dived for the two years prior to the pandemic she’s done double the number of dives I have completed in more than 10 years!

Her chosen dinner venue, the Chinese seafood restaurant, was closed due to a group booking.  I tried asking if they could fit us in beforehand but nope.  We wandered to the Malay/Western restaurant run by the nice friendly man that always chats to me when I go past.

The deep-fried chicken chop with black pepper sauce and potato salad was awesome.  And so was the conversation.  I finished the evening with a pricey dessert of Nestle Musang King ice cream bought from the convenient store.

I had felt a little silly dressing up in long pants and long sleeves for dinner.  But it proved to be a wise move seeing Dixie badly bitten by mosquitoes after an hour.  Not to mention the possibility of sandflies as well.