This was the last weekend, end of season. Whale Sharks were sighted in previous weeks. And we went there hoping to bump into something.
Dayang did not disappoint.
On the Saturday dive, 5.54pm, we encountered a manta ray, a white one. Let's call it - "Mr White". It was huge - measuring 5m+ in wingspan. It dwarfed the ones I saw in the Maldives. I was mesmerized by the sheer size of the thing. Wow, it was massive. It would probably fill out two snooker tables.
And it was so cute too. We first saw it at about 6pm. Then it circled around and surprised us. Maybe it was playing a game with us. But it would come close- and tempt us to chase after it - which is a futile effort on or part. Then it would turn around and catch us in our blind spots again.
Visibility was very bad. A fair number of the dive teams had to abort the 2oclock dive because when they descended - it was like swimming in a fog or green bean soup. This is the start of the monsoon season so the waters are being churned by the stormy winds. The seas were very choppy. One or two of the divers got seriously seasick.
The down current was especially dangerously strong in some areas - Pulau Lang. What happens is that as you descend, the down current will push you down suddenly. Some divers have been pushed downwards to 50m before they could recover. The max dept for leisure divers is 30m). If this happens to you, you are suppose to inflate your BCD to rise up. Trying to swim against the current will exhaust you.
Anyways, we went back there the next day - but Mr White did not deign to appear. We left after lunch- but we suspect that if we hanged around til evening time - he may have made an appearance.
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