Nature’s masterpiece, finally!

This part of the sea was flanked by reddish brown cliffs on the left side of the lagoon, which rose magnificently from the sea in a steep, almost vertical, ascent. Underwater however, the rocks had been battered by the powerful waves that crashed amongst them for centuries perhaps, until it had smoothed out in a gentle slope that stretched more than 30 metres and were colonized by an array of corals indescribably plentiful. We swam close to the cliff, steering carefully clear of the rock boulders strewn here and there in the water, some with their peaks just slightly above water and some just below, being extremely dangerous were it not for the water becoming crystal clear again here.

Below, I saw the most amazing marine Eden of my entire trip. The seabed was apple green with large purple fungi-like corals jutting out perpendicular to the huge boulders plentiful near the cliffs and spacing out further away. Everywhere, algae known as sea grapes grew. These were balls of tiny apple green grapes, filling up every exposed surface of rock between the corals. The corals were the most colorful and brilliantly bright over here.

Even the brown and white fire-branching corals were contrasting vividly against the white sands below. Even more vibrant are the pink hard corals that blossomed like sakura petals, sprinkled over the brown and green background in bouquets. There were also pure white bouquets, ostentatious yellows, intense blues, flamboyant reds, garish purples; sweeping palettes of the most imaginative artist could not compare with nature’s own masterpiece. Moreover the entire scene was tinted with lacy sunlight refracted by the constantly shifting waves; it was like a fantasy land.

I was truly impressed and from then on, perhaps for all of my life, I have the deepest respect for the underwater world. I vowed to take up diving. It was too much to miss for a color-lover, and aspiring painter like me. I was addicted straight away.I finally understood then, why the fishes were dressed in such flamboyant dresses like the parrotfish, for the corals truly matched them over here. And I supposed that this underwater condition existed everywhere that hadn’t been swarmed over by the human race.

Apart from the small hard corals that were the flowers of the sea, and the sea-grapes which substituted the grass, I also saw incredibly huge brain corals that spanned my entire height, as we swam further off-shore. At first, looking at one of the huge circular animal that was pink with red undulating patterns, stuck to the vertical surface of the rocks, I signaled to Eddie to swim nearer as I wanted to know what type of big fish that was. I approached apprehensively and was quite shocked when Eddie just swam nonchalantly towards the monster extremely fast, but found out why as I neared. It was just a benign coral.

Eddie also pointed out a huge sea-bass that was as large as my entire upper torso were it turned vertically and placed next to me. We had actually swum right next to it, but it was deadly still and passed off as a non-living large rock, if it was not for its comparably tiny pectoral fins rolling gently to keep it afloat. Fortunately, I’m very familiar with the sea-bass in seafood restaurants; were it any other fish, I might have developed a heart attack right there and then, as I was inches away from a huge fish.

All the fishes that I’d previously seen collected in these rarely visited areas in their naturally large schools, much more than seen at the tourist spots elsewhere. Whole hordes of silver pomfrets, a school perhaps with as many as 150 fishes, split ways and swam away as we approached. These fishes were already near the drop-off of the reefs and cold water brushed my legs as I swam near. As the large school of pomfrets suddenly scattered, I had a brief animal instinct of extreme fear, seeing some large fish shadows in the dark blue of the deeps not that far away. I urged Eddie to return to shallower areas by pointing desperately inwards.

He assented and both of us kicked our flippers powerfully so that we were soon once again safely in shallower seas. At this time, we had come to a basin as large as an entire stadium, of a rectangular shape with gentle side-slopes. Here, I collected my eggs.

A large turtle were lying on the sides of the basin, and as we approached slowly and gently, it stirred and gently turned its body to swim away. I clearly saw that it had a dark olive-brown shell with deep green radiating patches, its flesh were pattern like the refracted rays of the sun underwater being yellow upon a deep blue-green, the color of some people’s eyes. The Green turtle was amazingly beautiful!

I was deeply contented even as I watched it swim far away, beyond the scope of my sight. I was not prepared for more but I was about to spot another turtle! This one was quite puzzling initially, as it had 2 angel-like wings on its shell. I eventually made out that the ‘wings’ were actually bright yellow and silver shark-suckers that had the job of cleaning the turtle’s very dirty mossy shell. The turtle was probably a hawk-bill as it had sharp beaks but I wasn’t too sure as I was focusing more on its ‘wings’ which puzzled me so much. Moreover, this species are so rare that I had perhaps imagined the beak. It had swum in an arc from the far side of the stadium towards me and then below me in the opposite direction towards the obscurity beyond.

I was more than contented now, but yet another turtle, this one directly below me and was the largest of them all, was spotted resting quietly. I stopped swimming and stared at the great beast, sleeping below. It had a dirty olive-brown shell much like the Green turtle earlier, except that it was huge, easily spanning 12 meters across. I was stunned and almost forgot to breathe. Slowly it roused and swam away, leisurely as though I was not much of a threat, which I wasn’t, considering that it was that much wider than me.

There weren’t anymore turtles although I combed the entire basin carefully, but even so, I was more than happy to head home. By the time we surfaced, we had reached the very edge of the outcrop of the cliff and any further, there would be dangerous undercurrents especially at dusk. The waves were beginning to rise and crash ominously against the large rocks, causing me to wobble precariously in unpredictable directions.

Luckily, we both had flippers and swimming powerfully back, we discovered that Cherlyn and Mi had climbed onto another outcrop of the cliff nearer the jetty. They were watching sunset and even from the water, it was a truly marvelous sunset. The setting sun had colored the reddish cliff with a golden sheen, and the dark blue waters above the coral reefs reflected the gold in a brilliant contrast.

We swam close to our friends and posed for them to take photographs of us. Soon afterwards, we emerged from the seas and joined our friends atop the cliffs. It was a precarious drop into the sea below and many a times, my legs turned weak as I looked down. We had to climb bare feet on the slippery smooth slopes that slanted about 60 degrees downwards at places where we could wedge our feet in. In other places, the cliff-face was just, vertical

Fortunately, as I was thinking about giving up halfway, Cherlyn and Mi had turned around and all of us headed back. I was only too happy to turn back, but disappointed to find out that the way back was as steep and I hadn’t noticed only because I had swum out. By the time we reached the jetty, the sun had set almost completely and the sky was gray again.

My feet were suffering from deep gashes, cut by the rocks and dried corals that were found in some more horizontal ledges of the cliffs, indicating that once the water level was perhaps higher. I could imagine the agony that Cherlyn was suffering now, as I myself couldn’t help echoing her yelps the whole time when we climbed back.

Last snorkeling trip

At 530pm I dragged my dizzy cousin from the room to the jetty. She had insisted that she was too tired and seasick to go snorkeling again, and had changed into a tank top and shorts. I, on the other hand, could not wait to jump right in and see more turtles, hopefully up close and personal this time.

Mi was sitting at the bench facing the jetty as we approached him from behind. He was chatting with another Malay man and smoking a cigarette. The jetty was now dimly lit by the descending sun which was disappearing unto the other side of the island.

The jetty was composed of a stretch of platform that was only 200metres long and extended from the small beach into the shallow waters of the bay. Small boats were parked in the little space between the left side of this pier and the other side of the mountain which jutted out suddenly on the beach, creating a tiny lagoon just enough for a landing spot for Laguna’s boats.

I asked Mi excitedly, “Where’s Eddie? Cherlyn is feeling dizzy and doesn’t feel like snorkeling, can I still go?”

Mi turned to Cherlyn and inspected Cherlyn concernedly, “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes I am fine. I just feel like I’m still bobbing up and down, as though I’m floating in the sea, so I don’t want to snorkel.” Cherlyn reassured him. She had earlier told me that actually, she was more afraid that we’d have to stop and stand on more corals and she had had enough coral cuts, gaping wounds were all over her delicate soles.

Mi turned to me and pointed at one of the boats moored to the jetty, “Eddie is still tidying up his job. He’d be done soon.”

I turned to see Eddie’s head bobbing up and down from behind the boats and waved to him. He spotted me on one of his up-bobs and waved back. Shortly, he called to me to go over to him.

“Hi, are you done?” I asked him keenly.

“Yes, just a moment. Let me get your snorkeling equipment from my boat.” Eddie turned to get my life jacket and goggles, which Cherlyn and I had earlier entrusted to him for safe-keeping so that we wouldn’t need to lug it back and forth.

“Cherlyn is not coming!” I shouted to Eddie as he disappeared under the roof of the boat.

He stuck his head back out, “Why not?”

“She is dizzy from bobbing up and down in the water.” I yelled back, “Is it okay if only two of us went to see the turtles?”


“Sure.”

“Can you also lend me Mi’s flippers? I think I can swim faster in those.” I yelled to Eddie again.
 
“Sure.” He replied and briefly returned with a pair of blue flippers that were his own, a pair of bright yellow fins that were Mi’s and our snorkeling sets.
 
I put on my life jacket and sat down on the stern of one of the boats. Eddie had already put on his flippers by then.
 
I turned to him incredulously, “Do you think I can fit into these?” as I held up Mi’s flippers. The rubber shoe attached looked incredibly small, about woman-size 5.
 
“Of course.” He took one look at my size 7and half feet and nodded confidently.
 
I was baffled. Nonetheless I squeezed my foot into the rubber shoes with a toe hole, with all my might, and with Eddie’s help, and amazingly the rubber stretched until it couldn’t stretch anymore and, Lo! And behold! It was a perfect fit!
 
I held up the flippered foot, looking absolutely stunned, with my mouth hanging half-open in a bemused grin and looked at Eddie. He looked nonchalant and told me to put on the other one.
 
I frowned slightly and struggled with the other foot now, with as much confidence as Eddie had had. Easily, now both feet flippered, I held them up and admired them. I had never worn flippers before and was quite delighted at something so simple, yet it was still my first experience.
 
“Now, you have to show me whether you know how to use them.” Eddie was more concerned with my ability to swim in these cumbersome shoes to an uninitiated. I later found out from Cherlyn that the reason why everybody else did not wear flippers was because they cause cramps in beginners who struggled too hard to flap against the increased water resistant. The bigger surface area of the flipper meant that more power needed to be exerted by the calves to push the fins down against the water. No doubt people can swim faster with bigger fins, but they needed training, otherwise, they would just flounder about and get muscle cramps.
 
“No problem.” I asserted confidently, not knowing anything about flippers at all. I inserted both my legs into the water, still sitting on the low stern of the boat, and flapped.
 
“Good.” Eddie watched for a moment and instantly approved. He put on his goggle and mask and gestured for me to do the same.
 
While I was still struggling to put on my goggles, and wondering how he did it so quickly, Eddie had already jumped into the water with a small ‘plop’ and floated about waiting for me. I followed suit as soon as I was ready.
 
For the first 15 minutes, we swam through milky white opaque waters, with our heads up in order to see where we were going. The boats must have polluted this place until it was impossible to see anything underwater. Fortunately we got out of the murk after only 100 metres away from the coast.