Kuantan Hotels
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Redang Island
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Redang Island:
The journey from the Perhentian Islands to Redang Island was a little more eventful.
There is one ferry per day & we managed to miss it!
After leaving the Perhentians on the 8am speedboat soaking to the mainland, we jumped in a taxi to Merang, arriving at 10am, only to find out the ferry departed at 9.30!
After some head scratching, we were told to board a speedboat & were whisked out into the sea on our personal boat.
After about 20' minutes we stopped, & in front of us was the Redang Ferry - they had phoned the ferry skipper up & told him to stop & wait in the middle of the sea for us.
For 30 minutes they sat there waiting for us, & then we changed from a speedboat onto a small ferry laden with backpacks, & greeted with some coy smiles from the gaggle of Malaysians on board. Great fun chasing the ferry 'shotgun' over the waves - and it didn't cost us a penny! We only found out it had waited 30 minutes for us a couple of days later, when diving with an Aussie guy who happened to mention he was 'on a ferry to Redang, when it stopped & waited in the sea for 30' minutes for a couple of latecomers'. Oops.
When we finally reached Redang - it was a jaw dropping moment, an absolutley stunning sight - a beach to die for, one of the most pristine beaches i've ever seen, and our 'home' for 5 days was right on the best beach, awesome!
We were staying at the Pelangi Resort, a kind of Malaysian Butlins.
We had a group meeting at the start, telling us exactly what time all the activities started, what time lunch & dinner were - very regimental, they actually rung a dinner bell when food was served, at specific times too! The food was basic to say the least, we promised ourselves a big juicy steak once we got back to the mainland.
But overall it was a lovely place to stay, very relaxing, & it was also the annual Redang World Cup beach football competition when we were there too - all the hotels playing against each other - right on our beach each night, had some great fun watching it & cheering on the Pelangi boys - both Pelangi teams lost in the semi finals though. The supporters had banners & painted t-shirts, a JCB digger was used to give some fans prime views, a great laugh.
The highlight though was the diving - we did 10 dives in total here, all of them memorable in one way or another. On our 1st dive on the house reef just off the beach we saw a hawksbill turtle & some stingrays, something great was seen on every dive!
The evenings were spent drinking beer with sand between our toes, relaxing in the baking heat, it was a lovely place to be for 5 days & one of my favourite destinations in the world, & certainly one of the best places i'd dived. Our Divemaster, a guy from Kuala Lumpur called King, & his boss Mr Boon were good guys too, King was a bit more daring than us & even touched a stingray on one dive!
However, the overall lasting memory from Redang was nearly the loss of my life. Again.
On one particular dive, my 45th open water dive, things went incredibly wrong for me & was lucky to get back to the shore alive.
Firstly, soon after jumping in (it was a planned deep dive, up to 100ft), my mask started leaking badly, this got on my nerves so much that i took the thing off twice underwater & tried to refit it better on my face, which was unsuccesful, & my eyes were killing me from all the salt water. As i was getting annoyed, my air was being used up quicker.
Secondly, there was tremendous underwater current - the strongest i'd experienced, & as i'm not exactly an olympic grade swimmer, i was using all my energy & brute force to stay up with Danny Boy & King, & this was also using my air quicker.
Thirdly, we found a large fishing net on the sea bed, at approx 25 metres (76 ft) down, & there were giant moral eel, crabs & all kinds of fish entangled in it. So we decided to try & gather the net up & release the trapped marine life.
Well, after doing this for 10 minutes or so, fighting the current & getting salt water in my eyes, i suddenly realised i was tiring badly, so i gave up the do-gooding, & grabbed hold of a rock & gathered my breath, and my breaths were suddenly becoming shorter & sharper.
I then started hyper ventilating & realised somthing was badly wrong, & was suffering Nitrogen Narcossis badly too, my brain was not functioning correctly & i felt delirious.
I managed to put my brain in gear to check my air, my tank had 50 Bar left in it - time to surface before the air runs out, i was surprised so little was left as we'd only been down for 25 minutes, but the extra exertion & depth of the dive all contributed - then in the matter of seconds - or so it seemed, my tank became empty, & i couldn't breath. I hyper ventilated more, & my lungs started filling up with sea water. I looked over at Danny boy & King - they were still net gathering about 15 metres ahead of me, & looking the other way.
Now it was panic stations - not enough air to get to the surface, & also the risk of getting the bends if surfacing too quickly. So with my last breath, i tried to reach Danny Boy, finally reaching his fin with my last ounce of energy & air & frantically grabbed him.
It took him a few seconds to realise something was seriously wrong - i had no breathing apparatus in my mouth! My face was turning a funny colour - i had zero air, i was 76ft underwater, my lungs were full of water, i didn't know my arse from my elbow because of Nitrogen Narcossis on my brain & felt like i was dying. Danny boy grabbed his spare air regulator (mandatory for all divers) and shoved it in my mouth - and boy - was that the best breath i've ever had - i could breath again.
Then it was no time to waste, we surfaced like a pair of torpedoes - Danny Boy trying to slow me down to stop the Bends, me just wanting fresh air. We got to the surface & no harm was done apart from feeling like my lungs & ribs had been crushed.. I almost collapsed, but kept going, got back onto the boat, back to the mainland & thanked my lucky stars.
After a sleep, some food & plenty of water to flush out the salt water, i went diving again that afternoon - i had to go diving straight away, otherwise i maybe would have never dived again. It was fine, no dramas, & me checking my air every minute or so!
That was the 2nd time this year i've nearly been a gonner - i'm using up my luck a bit too quick here!
So, a memorable stay in Redang, for more than one reason, but now it was time to move back to the Mainland, to Kuantan, & then onto Tioman Island for more diving!
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