Redang Kalong is a well oiled resort...

I have been here for 9 days now and have observed the following so far.

The resort caters mostly for locals but there is no reason why international divers and non divers alike should not come here. It is really quiet and peaceful as it is the only resort on this beach so no noise pollution from others. If you are looking for a break and want to go somewhere where you can do absolutely do nothing then this is the place.

All meals are included in diver and non diver packages so you do not have to budget for food expenses and yes the food is more than enough and good (if you like Asian food). There is also unlimited supply of water, juice and tea or coffee available 24hour.

They also have a small shop that sells limited snacks and drinks, beer is available.

This is a very well run and organized resort I find myself in, everything here runs like a Swiss watch.

Breakfast is from 07h30 – 08h30

First dive is at 08h30

Morning snorkelling is from 09h15 – 11h30

Second dive is at 11h30

Lunch is from 13h00 – 14h00

Afternoon snorkelling is from 14h15 – 16h30

Third dive is at 15h30

Tea break is from 16h30 -17h30 (snacks included)

Night dive (when requested) is at 19h00 at the house reef

Dinner is from 19h30 - 20h30

To accommodate divers, snorkelers, ferry runs to and from Redang airport Jetty (8min away) and Merang Jetty (45min away) you need some good transportation in place not to mention the restocking of supplies as we are situated on an island after all.

This is no problem for Redang Kalong Resort also known as The Diver’s Den; they have no less than 9 boats.

3 dive boats of which 2 has got a 250Hp and the other a 300Hp 4 stoke motor

2 transfer boats for between jetties, 1 with a 250Hp and the other with 2 x 250Hp 4 stroke motors

2 big wooden boats for snorkelling with inboard motors

2 small dinky boats for general commuting each with 30Hp motors

The level of dive training provided is from the top shelf, open water courses are run in 4 days not 3 days like most resorts lately. This makes the entire experience more enjoyable and the new diver does not feel so rushed and tired, SCUBA should be fun and relaxing after all.

Now let me tell you this, I have been on a 7 day live aboard safari before and would much rather choose 7 days in a place like this. Best of all it would cost you much less than the live aboard and you would have much more fun.

Well enough rambling; time for some more pictures of the dive centre that is located basically on the beach and almost next to your room…J.

Watch this space for more updates…

HELLO MALAYSIA...

I had a flight from Amman to Dubai then had to spend more than 12 hours in the airport with nowhere to sleep, I tried but it just was not possible. The next morning I flew to Kuala Lumpur and had 11 hours at the airport, this was a much better place to spend time and sleep as the seats does not have armrests as they do in Dubai so I found myself a nice movable six seat to try and get some shuteye. Yeh you guessed this did not work so well as they have announcements every so often, well I think I got about 2 hours of sleep. The good thing about DXB and KUL is that they have free WIFI so you can at least use the net to kill some time. Then the next morning I flew to Kuala Terengganu (TGG) and was greeted by the resort rep for the road transport to Merang Jetty in Merang Village not to be mistaken for Marang another village on the other side of Terengganu. After reaching the jetty in 25min I was ready for the 45min boat ride to Palau Redang Island and make my new home in Redang Kalong Resort. After about 40 hours in transit I finally reach my destination.J

See some pictures of my new home...

Now tell me that this is not worth waiting for. Yes I am in paradise…http://www.redangkalong.com/ check it out.

It is the last bit of monsoon weather then it is OPEN SEASON!

I can hardly wait…

Now for some sad news just in…

My thoughts goes out to all those effected by the Tsunami that just hit Japan’s north coast. A 10m wave swept away all in its path after an 8.9 magnitude earth quake.

Goodbye Jordan…

As some of you may have noticed I have not been very active on the blog lately; well there is a good explanation…I HAVE LEFT INT. ARAB DIVERS VILLAGE IN AQABA, JORDAN J.

This will be my last post on Jordan or at least until I return, so here goes.

Between the 3 of us (Graham, Pedro and I) there is nothing good we can say about the resort, this is my opinion as I can not speak for all of them. You all know that Pedro left and about a week later I had enough of their BULLSHIT as well, Graham lasted another 3 weeks until he also packed it in. With a bit of investigation I found out that most people that go to work at Int. Arab Divers Village last only an average of 5 weeks. Now let me tell you that the problem lies with nothing other than management, yes I said it.

The diving in general is just ok, very easy for all skill levels and all is shore entries. There is a lot of rubbish in the water although it is a marine park; this is due to the fact that locals go to the beach every Friday and Saturday for their family outings and picnic on the beach with everything but the kitchen sink and their bottles and bags ends up in the water. Even the glass bottom boat operators don’t prohibit people from throwing their trash in the water; this was witnessed by us whiles diving under them. We used to carry net bags to pick up trash during dives but I just gave up because it is a battle that will never be won, Pedro carried on until the end. There used to be a lot of turtles in the water of Aqaba and people wonder why you do not find them so often anymore; let me tell you IT IS THE LITTER YOU DUMB ASSES! I always say that education starts at home. If you want to travel to Aqaba to go diving only do so if you are already travelling in the country and want to dive, do not come here especially for the diving.

After I left the village I had time to travel around Jordan and discovered, to my surprise, that is not such a bad place after all. The people are generally very friendly and there are lots of tourist attractions around. The one thing that I did not find in Jordan is customer service, I do not think they have a word for it in Arabic, sorry if I stepped on anybody’s toes. The most people I came in contact with is very highly qualified but then you find the people that work in retail do not seem to know what they are doing there, I must admit that I have come across the exceptions to the rule as well.

Be advised that if you ask someone for directions it would be wise to ask more than one person as they will show you in a direction even if they do not know where it is or even give you only half of the directions, yes even the police did that.

Now enough bitching, Amman the capital is a very modern city with a lot of western influence. There are so many restaurants and coffee shops to choose from and they have great food and décor, almost all of them. They have plenty of shopping malls from boutique to budget shops so you can find almost anything you are looking for. Although the city is very modern it is divided into old and new, rich and poor, this is no different to any other city it the world, the only real difference I saw was the diversity between old and modern culture.

Now let me show you some of my best picture in Jordan…

There are much more to see in Jordan this is just some of the pictures as i can not post them all.

To sum up my time in Jordan...It was good just a bit cold in the middle of winter, I had an excellent tour guide J that made much better.

I you plan to tour in Jordan I would say that 7 to 10 days max is enough to see all there is to see.

Will I be back in Jordan…hell yeh!

CHAO!

Tech Talk… What scuba gear should I buy? 1st Feature

I have decided to do this feature as people always ask me what scuba equipment to buy and what to buy 1^st, so remember that this is only my opinion. Should you have different views than mine please feel free to comment?

Every week I will do a feature on different equipment until we run out of gear; this will be done in no particular order.

So let us start with some considerations before selecting gear, this will be the things to consider when buying almost any gear.

Note that price, brand and purpose will be applicable for all scuba gear.

1. Price is always a factor – when it is the most expensive it does not mean it is the best and visa versa, every person has a different budget.
2. Brand – when selecting a Brand make sure that there is a reputable service agent in your region for that specific brand. You do not want any idiot to service your gear, or have your gear send away for servicing. You also do not have to buy all the gear from the same manufacturer, although you might get a better deal if you do.
3. Purpose – how often are you planning to use your gear, what for and where do you plan to use it.

There are a couple of things to consider when buying a BCD:-

BCD – for me the most important feature of a BCD is comfort as you will be wearing it all the time. All BCD’s are adjustable; some more than others, so make sure it fits you fine with play to adjust up or down. Should you plan to travel a lot a small lightweight BCD would be the best choice (Back inflation is normally more compact than the Jackets). The down side of back inflation is that it tends to tilt you forward on the surface; this might be a problem for beginners or a distressed diver. Integrated weight pockets are nice to take some weight of your belt but I still prefer the old weight belt as you can distribute the weight evenly. If you plan to teach do not buy an “Air Trim or an i3” although it is amazing you can not show how to dump air as it has no deflator hose. The same goes for the combo Alternate Inflator Regulator as it is not good for teaching as well as the fact that you now have to give away your primary which is shorter than the standard Octo and use the Alt yourself as it is connected to your inflator hose, imagine using this in an emergency when one of you is already in distress. A lot of people will try and sell you lift, if you are weighted right you would not require a lot of lift, after all it is a BCD and not a Lift Bag. Lift only becomes an issue if you start strapping a lot of extra equipment on or for more technical diving. Now if you are a lady go for a BCD designed for women as the will be more comfortable than the men’s. Lets look at pockets and D-ring; these feature is just a bonus and would not make me choose differently, I prefer Zipped to Velcro pockets and dislike open pocket then the more D-ring it has the more gear you can strap to it until you look like a Christmas tree and it goes against the whole idea of being streamline.

Happy shopping…



Not much to report...

I am still recovering from the flu, Graham went diving today and Pedro is leaving Saturday, he has had enough.

Watch this space for a Tech Talk feature.

What next !!!

Besides the fact that I have been sick for the last 3 days, this morning I slipped in the shower and stuffed up my back. :(          I feel like a war veteran!

BIG ONE - It has been a long time since my last posting so here goes.

9 Jan '11

Sick as a dog and in bed, woof!

8 Jan '11

No diving so a very boring day, feeling a little cold and have a runny nose, hope I do not get sick as it was cold between the diving the last couple of days. I will take vitamins and meds to try and prevent the flu.

7 Jan '11

This was the last dive for Julien as he has now done the 10 dives he planned to do, so not having dived with Graham he was taken to Rainbow Reef North while I took brothers Gabriel Fersztand who is a student from Israel and Daniel Fersztand a Yoga Instructor from Argentina to Cedar Pride and then to Japanese Gardens for the 2^nd dive. Halfway through our dive I spotted Julian and Graham on the wreck just to come and say goodbye.

Julien with brothers Gabriel and Daniel after the 1^st dive.

6 Jan '11 

I did not dive with Julien today as I had another client that has not dived in 10 years.

I know what you think “PROBLEMS” but just the opposite, it was a pleasure diving with him as he stayed exactly where I wanted him and as per the pre-dive briefing, I wish I could have more people like that. Gabriel and Daniel dived with Pedro to The Tank.

So Julien had his own mission and that was to break his computer, well done buddy. I believe it is still flashing and beeping all kinds of weird numbers. Don’t worry he did not do this on his own, he was with someone even crazier than himself.

5 Jan '11

Today was going to be a beautiful day as we planned to break all the rules; we planned our own diving schedule and were going to stick to it no matter what. I was going to take Julien deep while supporting Pedro with his Adv student and Graham was going to stay at the village waiting for the other divers and get them ready to join us on our 2^nd dive (their 1^st), then he will take them on their 2^nd dive while Pedro and I return to the village and prepare for the night dive at 5pm.

And that is exactly how it went down as we were in the water about 09:30 and had a nice DEEP (4*m) with Julien while Charline and Pedro stayed at 30m for her Adv deep dive then we drove to another site for a wreck dive to 22m (also part of the Adv course) where we met up with other divers for their 1^st dive of the day. What was nice about that is we still had to wait for them to get ready and we were out of the water and back at the village at 12:30 that is how it is done!!!

This gave us over 4 hours to kill before the night dive and we have had 2 awesome dives already. The sad part of it all is that it was frowned upon by the bosses, this is not the way they want things done. Well they are in charge so we have to do as they want; at least we gave it a try.

Charline on the way to 30m at New Canyon and as cool as can be.

Julien past 30m on his way to 4*m with myself just outside the picture.

Brother and sister meeting on the way back from the deep before Julien and I had to do a deep stop.

Safety Stop at The Tank is always time for fun and games. Did Pedro punch her that is not cool buddy?

He looks like a naughty school boy, ha ha.

Julien, Charline and yours truly The Travelling Divemaster aka Jothe.

Off to the Cedar Pride for the next dive and Julien having a rest on the portside of the back cargo area, he must be thinking that it is a park bench.

Brother and sister meet again at the shipwreck.

By the way the night dive sucked big time, say no more!

The only good thing that happened on the night dive was that Charline finished her Adv Course in only 2 days, well done girl.

4 Jan ‘11

The planned dive sites were New Canyon and then Gorgon 1where I did not dive as we did not have a weight belt for a customer. How is this possible one might ask, well I got a call to collect another diver at the village after our 1^st dive and so I did, when I got there I asked if he has been issued with equipment yet and the answer was yes you can just go. I recall asking again with the same response from the boss but in a hurried tone of voice.

So I told the client to loads his gear and we left, when kitting up I asked him where his weight belt was he said he does not have one, so I gave him mine.

3 Jan '11

Took Julien and Jose to Cedar Pride and then to Japanese Gardens for the 2^nd dive.

Pedro dived with the Spanish trio Anna, Olga and Rosa who was finishing her Open Water Course, well done Rosa.

Olga is blowing bubbles.

Olga and Anna who is wearing a 5mm wetsuit not like the 3mm of yesterday.

Yes Anna you are OK, nice and warm aren’t you.

Rosa is a Scuba diver, well done girl.

It is all OK Rosa no more removing mask for you.

The girls invited us out for dinner that night, thanks girls we really appreciated it and had a good time.

2 Jan ‘11

I took Ibon San Martín Gómez, Carol Toledano and Suzy Zafrani Benoliel all from Spain to New Canyon and then The Tank where Julien from France and Jose from Spain joined for their 1^st dive. For some reason I do not have any pictures.

1 Jan '11 - NEW YEARS DAY

It was a HAPPY day as it was New Years Day, we were all up and ready for diving after a very nice night out on the town but the day just did not seem to get started. I took a girl from Sweden to Cedar Pride with Pedro joining with Anna and Olga from Spain. At decent Olga had some equalizing problems so I took Anna with me and we met up with Pedro on the wreck. On the 2^nd dive Ibon, Carol and Suzy joined to Japanese Gardens so we were a big group and Graham joined me to be sweeper. We only got in the water at about noon and got out from the final dive around 4pm, which really sucked.

Olga having fun

Anna and her buddy from Sweden, sorry girl I can not remember your name.

Anna and Olga meet at the wreck.

Olga posing for another picture

31 Dec '10 - New Years Eve

New Years Eve is a time to be out and about with friends.

What an IDIOT, go back to the water where you belong. I was trying to blend into the crowd at a 5 star hotel.

Graham looks happy, I wonder why.

Yum Yum some nice snacks and I can not eat them, what a bummer.

Pedro happy to see other people, thanks buddy it really hurts to know that you have had enough of us.

Oh yes this made Pedro happy.

Chocolate moose yum.

Some locals are showing off their moves.

29 Dec '10



The pictures below are taken by Esben Myhre from Norway on one of our exploration dives.

Crocodile fish

Octopus

Clown fish in white Anemone

Lion fish

Black spotted Puffer fish

!#$$&^(&*^

White stripped Eel

Sole

Sharp tailed white spotted Eel

Scorpion fish

Clam

4 Coloured Nudi

4 Coloured Nudi

Porcupine fish

Octopus

!#$%(*()*)&%

27 Dec '10

Tricia Patterson who did a DSD with Veronica Baker a certified diver both are from USA.

Veronica and I are getting ready to go diving, if you could not figure that out for yourself.

Veronica looks happy after the dive to Cedar Pride.

2 More DSD's Maia Mazariegos and Nadine Dupon from Luxembourg, Pedro took Maia and I took Nadine.

The girls after the fun session in the water, they put on brave faces as it was cold outside.

Tricia loved the DSD so much se joined her friend Veronica for a 2^nd dive with Graham.

26 Dec '10

Laila did a refresher and her son Gard did DSD.

Esben Myhre, Bruno Boulandet and Graham after the last dive of the day, see who is happy and who is sad.

All pictures below were taken by Esben Myhre.

Bruno and his girlfriend with Graham.

Coral

Life on the coral reef

Bruno and his girlfriend.

Pink and black Feather Duster

Cabbage Coral

Clam next to Cabbage Coral.

Urchin

Clown fish

The Tank

Gard Hoivik and I on a tour after he completed his DSD skills, well done boy.

The other side of The Tank

2 Eels

The rudder and the propeller of the Cedar Pride

Cedar Pride

Cedar Pride

Cedar Pride

Cedar Pride

Cargo area Cedar Pride

Inside Cedar Pride

GIANT MORAY EEL, this is a nice find. The head of the moray is the size of a human head.

Me just hanging around

4 Coloured Nudi

Sole

25 Dec '10 Chrismas Day

Bruno Boulandet from France

Bruno with the dive staff of Int. Arab Divers

The boys Graham, Pedro and I

Eva, Sophia, Pauline and dad whose name I forgot, they are from Netherlands.

Mom did DSD and Eva did Bubble maker.

Dad will dive with me later.

Yes it is me in the kitchen, i can cook.

Orange vegetable things to be washed and cut up.

This is how you put things in a pot.

Can opener in our kitchen.

I need a break.

40Min and we are done

Oops, not the way it was supposed to have come out.

Close up of oops.

Quiet Christmas dinner