The Morning after plus the first Dive on Tioman

Following a fabulous party that saw the return of Camille's friend, who I came to know simply as 'Omelete', to the Island, my chosen pursuit for my day of recovery was a beach day!

I swam in the cooling waters of the South China Sea.

I walked the warm sands of the shell strewn beach collecting pieces of coral as I went.

My skin prickled as the salt dried on my back and after a good hour of sun soaked relaxation I returned to my chalet for a shower.

As I dried off my skin began to itch. 

I rubbed gently with my sarong but that just made everything worse!

I checked the mirror!!!!!

Bites!!

Hundreds of bites stretched from my ankles to my neck? 

Had a swarm of mosquitoes attacked me in the night? 

I hadn't noticed them when I woke up ....

… maybe the sun had triggered a reaction!

I swallowed down some anti histamines, lay down on my belly and spent most of the afternoon feeling sorry for myself as my skin crawled with a mind of its own.

As the sun set I wandered down to the dive centre for a beer and some sympathy. 

My supply of anti histamines was going down but the bites were not! 

My normal reaction to a mosquito bite is 24 hours, in fact by 6 hours they are going down but these still pulsed and some even had developed tiny blisters on the tops!!

Chloe took one look and exclaimed “Sand Flies!”

Some where during my walk along the beach a swarm of sand flies had found my back, eaten their fill and as I had walked on, left me!

I ordered a beer, even though the bar was technically closed and sat down to do some research.

'Sandflies,' I read 'can be a real problem on all of the Seribuat islands, including Pulau Tioman. These little pests, looking like tiny fruit flies with black bodies and white wings, suck blood and cause an extremely itchy lump, which may become a nasty blister if scratched. The effectiveness of various treatments and deterrents is much debated; the general feeling is that short of dousing yourself all over with insect repellent, covering up completely or hiding out in the sea all day long, there’s not much you can do.

You may find that Tiger Balm, available at any pharmacy, can reduce the maddening itch and help you sleep. If you are able to take them, antihistamines also provide some relief.'

I had no Tiger balm but another article said anti histamine cream worked and I had plenty of that.

I finished my beer, drank a second and with the promise to be at the Dive Centre bright and early the next ready for my first dive I went home to smother the bites in cream!

The next day the bites had reduced themselves to angry red lumps and I realised that these were the same sort of bites I had received in Langkawi two years previously! 

They had taken over a week to clear up but as long as I didn't touch them they were bearable.

With a firm resolve to 'not touch' I got ready for my first dive since I had left the Philippines in February.

Be ready by 8am sharp turned out to mean be here while we sort out breakfast and all the equipment! 

Daniel and I had all I needed ready in ten minutes so I sat quietly until the other diver for the day arrived.

As the minutes ticked by I was reminded of the time in Cyprus when I had turned up for an 8am dive at three minutes past eight! 

Kris had reminded me we were diving German time not Welsh time and I had spent the rest of my time there turning up at least five minutes early.

Tioman time is even more flexible than Welsh time with an hour here or there being the norm and at 9.30 we headed to the jetty to meet the boat.

Huge shoals of fish sheltered beneath the newly built jetty, the old one having been washed away in a storm.

Dive boats were loaded with equipment as I patiently watched and then, having been helped onto the boat, it was time to head off to our first dive site.

I am a slow lazy diver! 

I take great pleasure in simply being underwater drifting from place to place with the occasional kick. 

Daniel, my Dive Master, can take laziness to the next level!! 

Above water he is efficient and on the ball, below water, even though he keeps a constant eye on where you are, he is so relaxed I don't think I actually saw him kick for the entire dive!!

He also didn't ask me about my air consumption which did confuse me slightly. 

Although I am an experienced diver, most instructors or dive masters never believe me when I tell them I can dive for an hour and still come up with over 100 bar. 

As a recreational diver once you reach 100 bar you should tell your dive buddy. Usually, on my first dive with a new place, when they think I should be on 100 bar they will just presume I haven't told them, so they will ask me how much air I have left. Sometimes they will even come over to check when I tell them 170 or 180 bar but Daniel never asked, he just let me enjoy my dive trusting me to tell him when I got to 100 bar.

It was only when we surfaced did he asked me how much air I had left and laughed when I showed him the 140 still left on the gauge. 

Apparently he had spotted my gauge while we were underwater. When he had looked at his own gauge and seen that I had a LOT more air left than he did, he figured he wouldn't embarrass either of us by asking me!!

I had been a little nervous about this first dive as my last one in the Philippines had left me with a few ear problems but with my first dive completed and no pain whatsoever experienced I was ready for more.

Our second dive of the day was a wreck dive. Emma was taking her student down as part of his Advanced Course. 

Unfortunately even after an hour surface interval Daniel and I still only had a 10 minute bottom time following our rather long morning dive. 

Emma and her student kindly waited until the dive computer raised our bottom time to 12 minute and then we were off.

Wreck diving is superb and this one didn't disappoint. 

It has a beautiful swim through that doesn't need a torch as sunlight shines through the windows silhouetting the fish hanging inside. Daniel and I quickly completed the deeper explorations before coming to the top of the wreck for the rest of our dive, we may have had only a 12 minute bottom time but by coming up to a shallower depth we still had a nice 35 minute dive before it was time to surface.

Following the laughter about how little air I had used on the first dive Emma asked how much I had left as we floated on the surface waiting for the boat to reach us. 

"130 bar ," I called out, she looked at her own, 

"130 bar too!" she called. 

Daniel groaned, "30bar!" he spluttered "but I was blowing bubble rings," he smiled.

That evening we celebrated our dives with beer followed by rum and coke. 

I told stories to those who wanted them and by the end of the night I crawled into bed wondering if the slight rocking my head could feel was the aftermath of being on the boat all day or the result of the rum!!!

Tomorrow was another rest day, so not particularly worried about anything in life, I rolled over and slept soundly through the night.

I love my life!!!!