In the last two months of juggling courses & getting some underwater time with the blennies & slugs, I’ve been writing so much, communicating with magazine editors, LoyarBurok’s administrators & the European Underwater Federation secretary, that I forgot about my dad’s death anniversary on the 29 July. Not that he would mind, as he’s having a whale of a time playing golf in heaven as I was given a glimpse of the remarkable realm on one cloudy evening. It has been a hectic month attending meetings & getting the events sorted out for we won the bid to host the next meeting for ISO Standards next year! Woohoo! We’re bringing the movers & shakers of the dive industry to Malaysia!

On August 1st, the candlelight vigil that turned ugly, never made it to the mainstream media. Upon submitting the report to Loyarburok.com, it was picked up by Malaysia Today & gained a mention in Hufftington Post! The videos had thousands of views, gaining a few subscribers whom I wish, would follow my fish & slug postings instead! Call it accidental activist journalism, I certainly prefer chasing octopus & mating flatworms or be surrounded by real barracudas than men in arms & metal plates. The dive expo came & gone. It was an event where we dive professionals touched base with the players & reestablished ties with stakeholders. It was also my girl’s-nite-out with Suzette, the owner of Seaventures Dive, the converted oil-rig resort on Mabul island! We had a great time over wine & a delicious spread of buffet for dinner in Sheraton Imperial Hotel, cherishing every minute of our friendship across the seas. Thank God for girlfriends!

September is upon us & I endeavour to do away with caustic friends who bring detriment to me & my belongings when they run at the thought of accountability. Just when you think it’s safe to trust someone, they screw it up so badly that it takes away any respect I have left for them. It’s also a new beginning with STaRT, a society that focuses on training underprivileged kids in music, performing arts & life skills. I will get to teach kids from 10 different homes to swim in the pool! Thanks to supporters like you, who have seen me through the good times & the bad to enable me to pay it forward. Thank you for being my student, my associate, my client, my supplier, my advocator, my friend, my conscience & my hope!

Coral bleaching is the whitening of corals due to the expulsion of algae – the food manufacturing processors that reside in corals by way of photosynthesis. This can be caused by a number of weather phenomenon triggers, most commonly a rise in water temperatures. Bleached corals are not yet dead.

The rise of surface temperatures in the water is caused why the El Nino weather patterns. El Nino is only one part of the Southern Oscillation. The counterpart to this coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon is La Nina, usually expected from November to January, often has reverse effects to El Nino. La Nina conditions would see a drop in ocean temperatures by several degrees, causing algae to return to corals.

I’ve witnessed a similar occurrence in 1997 and was diving in pleasantly warm waters until 1999 when La Nina brought the cold fronts of about 21 – 23 degrees Celsius back to our waters and giving the algae the much desired environment to thrive in. We had 95% recovery and I believe, we will have a recovery as soon as the water temperatures in the region begin to drop.

El Nino has been around for centuries and has nothing to do with global warming – it can enhance the effects of El Nino but it is not the cause. This is something that divers have known since encountering it during its last occurrence. Global warming is an atmospheric condition whereas El Nino occurs when the gush of warm waters spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific.

What has it got to do with divers diving near coral reefs? If we were grazing corals or mowing them, then perhaps the closure is apt but divers hover way above the corals to avoid collision and injury to animal and man. Whether there are divers present or not, the coral will remain bleached until the cold waters (fronts/currents) are brought in by La Nina, which might or might not revive the bleached reef in time. These factors are not related to the impact of divers.
bleached coral

healthy corals

So what will the dive sites closure achieve? You would think that the authorities would do some research on coral bleaching before making such a drastic move that causes livelihoods to suffer. The Maldives, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia are experiencing the same but they are not jeopardising the tourism trade because of a weather phenomenon.

The efforts of the authorities to close dive sites will bring about dire consequences to the trade depending on dive tourism. Travel agents will stop selling/pushing the sales of dive resorts and packages for fear of getting flak from irked divers. This being said, agents who are not divers, will think it’s probably a blanket closure, not knowing where in the map is Chebeh, Labas, Tulai, Washing Machine, Fish Bowl and whatnots are at (dive sites’ names). They will err on the safe side by NOT selling dive packages.

This effect caused by the announcement has also reverberated to overseas travel agents (who also have no idea where Chebeh, Labas, Tulai, Washing Machine, Fish Bowl are) and they will be less inclined to sell diving and worse of all – they are removing a source of civilian detection of “crime” at seas.

Let me give you an example of what goes on in the islands. Illegal spearhunters will plunder our dive sites and take those resident fishes that have grown accustomed to divers’ presence in the water leaving dive instructors like us with no attractions to show our students when visiting our reefs. When something like this happens, divers from different dive operators who witness the incident, would take photos and warn them to get off the site.

One such incident occurred and divers collaborated to chase the spearhunters’ boat off their territory. Several years ago, it was well-known that Kevin Hiew, the former Head of Marine Parks, detained a spearhunter in Redang waters who was also the owner of one of the resorts in Redang itself. He was prosecuted and fined for spearhunting in marine parks.

If you hold a speargun without a gun license, you are liable to be prosecuted under the Firearms Act 1971. The police have stopped the issuance of these licenses in 1985, with the minimum age set at 21 years to qualify to apply for one then. What age would you have to be now, if you are to be even seen as a legal owner? Make no mistake about this as we are not against spearhunting but against “spearhunting using SCUBA” in the vicinity of marine parks. We shall not go into the specifics of this now as spearhunting is a subject that’s been debated for years.

The presence of dive boats will also deter the encroachment of illegal and legal fishing boats from fishing too close to the marine parks demarcated sites. Regardless of whether they hold the “A” or “C” class fishing license, these fishing boats will anchor in the vicinity, causing untold damage to corals beneath. The Marine Parks and the Fisheries Department do not have sufficient manpower, boats to survey and enforce laws thus, are very much dependent upon dive operators to report and confirm sightings of spearhunters/illegal fishing boat in the area.

clown fish bleached corals

Lighthouse at Tokong Timur, Tenggol

A 100 metre well was dug in Tenggol bay, followed by a lighthouse built on Tokong Timur. What kind of crowd are they expecting to accommodate from this source of fresh water? Word has it that a jetty is being planned – which means a flurry of boats would be making their way inwards to the bay where there’s a thriving house reef and divers learn to dive. They have constructed a jetty on Pulau Bidung already, much to the ire of divers and conservationist of Pulau Bidung. The island is not opened to the public, so what is the jetty built for?

Jetties alter the current flow that brings vital nutrients and sunlight to the reefs. Seabeds are dug deep and corals are killed in the process.

Is the construction of any structure legal in marine parks? Or does it fall within the jurisdiction of district councils and land offices?

Wouldn’t you want to know if this is just a way of removing the crowd so that no one can protest after such structures are built?

bleached corals

bleached corals 2

This article is also published in LoyarBurok.com

More about the Time Tunnel later in the new travel blog.

Hardly anything was mentioned about the people who painted the mural of the now, demolished Pudu Prison Wall. On the night of the 21 June 2010, these walls that once held the regal paintings of scenes from a convict’s captive imagination of the jungles & streams from his younger days, came tumbling down to make way for a wider road. Ironically, nothing much had been said about the soon-to-be demolished former prison that once held 6,550 inmates requiring them to take sleep shifts in 240 cells over the years since it was built in 1895 until yesterday when UDA announced the plans for a mixture of commercial & residential project over the site.

The mural of the jungle & waterfall that’s left on the day of demolition.

In the 1980’s, there would be a man, with buckets of paints, preparing to spread the wall with a white emulsion. I watched in fascination as daddy sends us to school & most often we get stuck in traffic along Jalan Pudu. The earth-coloured walls would take on panel by panel of white paint, much like what the art teacher taught us to lay down a foundation before your work of art goes onto the paper. Over the weeks, these white walls were soon taking on a greenish hue, multi-tones of turquoise & stops where the outline of what seemed to be tree trunks, took place. As the branches were drawn, I could only imagine that the artist was painting a jungle – totally befitting of how the area derived its name from. Pudu in Cantonese is called Pun San Par, meaning ‘half jungle.’ With my windows down, I would watch this artist accompanied by a uniformed watchmen, with fascination as he laid the intricacies of the mural with his fingers & hand! He paid no attention to the buses & vehicles plying the route & went on to paint from morning till whenever. This stretch of 394m vertical facade made the entry to the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest mural on earth. Week by week, the walls transformed into a beautiful work of art that was vibrantly standing in the heart of the Golden Triangle.

Sceneries of the beach & seaside was also captured on the Jalan Hang Tuah’s section of the wall.

Although several people worked on this mural according to Helen Ang who wrote in the NST on April 21, 1994, only one person (Khong Yen Chong) got the recognition for it. This is what she wrote in a blogpost recounting the article:-

Let me share with you something I wrote in NST on April 21, 1994. It’s about ex-convict Pha Tee, the man on crutches with one leg amputated. A former drug addict, Pha had been in and out of jail most of his adult life, serving his first term in 1963 and last released 1990. His daughter recalled she sometimes saw her father painting the Pudu mural when she passed by the prison; “I wished then that I could have stopped and talked to him.”

In the photo, the right side of Pha’s jaw is swollen – “due to an infection which began when a fish bone stuck in his gum. In an attempt to cure the ailment he had extracted several of his teeth, using a string to pull them out”.

Pha earned his living through menial work, scavenging cables and electrical wires from abandoned buildings or collecting scrap metal.

According to Pha, the other artists who worked on the mural – and whom he remembered – were Khong Yen Chong, Cheng Tai Cheng, and Lee Kim Seng.

At the time I interviewed him in 1994, Pha said he’d painted murals on a block of flats in Jalan Pandan, another on a fence in a back lane behind Jalan Talalla, hotel in Perlis and factory in Terengganu.

As for my article headline; Pha said covering the prison walls with scenes from his captive imagination allowed him to remember the jungles and streams from his younger days, and gave him a transient feeling of ‘freedom’. “We worked outside from morning until early afternoon but the guard was always there, and so you always knew you had to go back inside.”

The main gate of the prison.

Someone had a sense of humour when this was drawn. No, it’s not part of the original mural.

When I got news of the demolition, I got hold of Aziz, my neighbour, to accompany me to get the last shots of this place. Although some of the panels had been tainted with graffiti, I was just glad to save a piece of history for my own recollection in later years. We ran across to the road divider as well as the nearest monorail station to try to get the best shots & left no holes un-ferreted. Aziz said that there used to be a little hut on Jalan Hang Tuah right beside the prison where they used to sell the handicrafts & goods made by the inmates. That hut is no longer there but the memory lives on.

Aziz peering through the hole in the tiny metal door.

Locks that secured this door.

The Watch Tower on the main gate. I was really tempted to climb it.

I could only imagine the hope of Pha Tee in being free to see the place that he held so vividly in his imagination that translated into this work that’s now demolished. It must have been this hope, that sets him apart from the rest for being able to set foot outside the prison for months. I wish all the artists who contributed to this fantastic piece of history, would lead new lives after they have served their term.

I bet if Pha Tee is still alive, he might not remember the pudgy girl who constantly yelled from her daddy’s car window, but he would surely remember hearing “Cover that section of the tree!” or “Cover this section of the grass!”… whenever the car stopped at where he was smudging!

Some of you have landed here from the link in my Twitter homepage or some of you got here from the gallery of pictures that I showcase but whichever the case, let me clarify what this blog is to me as is to you who have followed me since the inception in 2005. Maybe you got here to get an idea of who I am and what I do or maybe you are a client or prospective client for my services. What I write here is entirely my personal expression of what God had been doing in my life and how He has brought me to see much of the world to bring about the purposes He has in store for His people. I am merely the messenger who lives a life doing what she does best, diving, teaching, writing and photography. When I’m not teaching diving, I’m writing.

Friends say that I bare too much here but that’s because I don’t believe I have anything to hide. It’s not like I air dirty laundry in public that people might take and fling it back at me, it’s stuff that I encounter and personal difficulties that make me human. I’m in touch with myself, my emotions and my ability (sometimes not) to handle situations. In a world where people look at what you have, how much you earn (or think you earn), whom you know, what you know and how your popularity ranks amongst the Joneses as a measure of your success, I’d say, that’s not God’s standard of how I should live. With what I have (not a lot) I give of myself, with what I know, I share it to make others empowered, with whom I befriend, I make it worthwhile for the time spent in each other’s presence. When clients come to this blog, they will get an idea of the person that I am, not a person who has a facade that shields a warped mind or an incapable person for the task that is to be bestowed. Having said this, it’s also not the right platform to see my professional capabilities because everything here is an honest view and expression of integrity in my day-to-day living that’s above all that I do. I promote stuff that I use, places that I think is worth going because my opinion matters to students who have benefitted from my experience as someone who’s qualified, well-travelled and capable of making use of gadgets, equipment and computers.

Sometimes, you will read of my professional challenges here, but most often, you will read about how I overcome them instead. God did not call me to be a victim of circumstances nor did He say that I would be free of trouble but He promised me that He would see me through each situation as I encounter them. In my pursuit of underwater photography, I’d been messing up a lot. Firstly, in wanting to buy over Derrick’s strobes, he insisted that I take them on loan first to try. So I did. Both his SeaandSea YS110 were so powerful that at the lowest manual setting and the highest aperture and shutter speed on my LX3, I still had to pull the arms that secured the strobes back. And for some reason, the fibre-optic cable was not registering the light emission to fire in sync so I get a proper shot and several dark shots that followed. I missed a great number of shots of moving subjects and was extremely frustrated. Secondly, I get so excited going on a night dive without students that I forget to attach the fibre-optic cable to fire my strobes! Aaaah…..what a klutz! I’ve got to accept that things happen even when you are ultra meticulous.

A lot of my works, cannot be published here due to copyright issues and contracts signed with my clients (magazine publishers, portals, corporate companies, travel agents, tourism authorities and the likes) hence, until such a time that such contract cease to operate or when such term expires, I’m able to share them randomly on the net. Yes, it’s somewhat restricting to what many of you like to read about my exploits and adventure but it pays my bills and I’ve got to abide by them. I’m thinking of putting them up in a different section of my blog, once I’m able to, to show you what I’ve done with my literary pursuits. I am available for commissioning with due notice given.

Of late, there has been a string of projects that warrant me to give feasibility studies report and tourism activities potential feedback to the prospective clients and I’ve completed one in West Sumatra last month. Naturally, the piece that I’m writing cannot be published until the client accepts it and approves it for publication.

In the passed few weeks (maybe even months), I’d been having mental blocks, a period where words just wouldn’t flow. Inspiration was not forthcoming and despite putting myself under tremendous undue pressure, I couldn’t write pass 10 words. Worse, I didn’t know where to start. I thought it may be because I had abandoned my love for sharing, for the work that I am due to submit and I’m right!

Since the arrival of my nieces, sister and bro-in-law from North Carolina two weeks ago, I endeavoured to spend as much time with them as possible, thereby, abandoning work, writing, blogging and the Macbook altogether. How liberating it has been! I’m aware that I need to live and to have fun to be able to generate an output worthy of my clients’ engagement! What a tough time it has been! I’ve been sitting in the shell for too long, looking and feeling silly like this Hermit Decorator Crab that I shot. Looking at what I’ve put together so far, indicate that I’m on the road to recovery and am ready to take on challenges of having a column in a noteworthy magazine and being on the waitlist for a faraway expedition of a lifetime.

Life is a process of living through predestined encounters, some bad, some not so good and some that would leave you breathless. Ive said to myself that maybe one day, when I do have that encounter again, I would make the effort to build on it. What happens when you feel that you are in it by yourself? Would it invalidate your encounter? Or would you let that experience build on you? Uncertainties are most unnerving and many give up because they dont want to be let down. What if it was disappointment in the first place that warranted a defensive action which seemed to be a rejection but its not? What if theres really something at the end of the rainbow if you care to wait after the rain? What if the rainbow is that something that you may be beaming from within you, that can be sighted long after the rain is gone? How would that measure up to what others see in you?

The only way to find out is to look outside every time it rains, and wait for the sunshine…it may beam you up higher than wherever you have been before…

It’s taken me so long to write this piece because I am dry and uninspired from a few events that transpired after New Year. I’ve poured out my heart to God in prayer but He gave me visions instead of answers to my persistent queries, not even coming close to what I can make out of. I decided then, I was not praying in line with His will & began to ask for revelation. Setting my heart & my soul aside, I asked Him what it was that He wanted me to do. I realised that if I wasn’t filled with the Spirit, something else would take that place. I went on trips that couldn’t reach that deep longing in me for contentment, I pursued things that I was made to do but found no joy in doing them. Something in me died but I’m not sure what. It’s like I’ve almost reached that point of emptiness where nothing made sense at all. I didn’t want to party, I wasn’t making an effort to meet people, I was settling into a routine that I myself couldn’t understand what has become of the adventure-loving soul that I once was. Surely this temporary predicament is a phase in everyone’s life?

God began to reveal things in the realm to me. The rights of the indigenous people had been robbed of them. He showed me the situation of things to come. He told me to be prepared. I wish I could understand prophecies! Given in parts, it hardly made sense at all but in preparation for things to come, I will heed all that He has said & will lay my plans down to do His will. There will be trips but to the interiors of Borneo soon. I am not sure what He wants me to do but the least I can do is to be available. Just then, I received assignments of all sorts, some good, some totally ridiculous, masking as a kamikaze mission with a one-way ticket to heaven. Imagine being asked to locate a Russian warship that sank during World War, together with a German submarine that sent the torpedo out to sink the Russians. Due to a fluke, the submarine sank too. A bit of research told me that this Russian wreck sits on 90m of water right in the middle of the busiest shipping lane in Penang with bad visibility and currents so strong, that I would resurface in Phuket. Err…..did they forget that I’m an underwater photographer who love the thrill of putting a skill to work using scuba and not a Remotely Operated Vehicle??? I may have the experience of putting the project together but there is no fun for me if I don’t take the pictures myself. I took on simpler assignments instead as it was more challenging without running the risk of contracting diseases in a polluted ocean….

I went to West Sumatra recently to explore much of the highlights not listed on any websites. We possibly charted many waypoints along the way while seeing what the town of Padang has to offer on the way to Cubadak Island. Wait for my article then. I need to get this out of my system before embarking on that….

One of the first few blogs I had written was about cupids and the role they played in my life. What has changed 5 years on, is the people whom I was set up to meet, are all married now and different friends have taken on the cupid role. I would like to think I’m not off the shelf neither am I desperate to get hitched but every time friends want me to meet so and so, I do it for the friendship and camaraderie of having fun.

Few years ago, on a trip to Sipadan, I blogged about how total strangers have advised me the things that I already knew in my mind from the experience that I had gone through having worked in the dive industry. In this post, I was reflecting upon how God had been providing for my every need even as I led a world renown biologist to dive and he had a major fit. Just because I had been proposed, it doesn’t mean I will accept. In my entry detailing the man of my dreams, I had listed out the kind that would turn me on, and the kind that would turn me away. Even my favourite hawker reminded me how I need to open my life to having someone again!

I’m not sure if I’ll ever find myself anyone I had envisioned that way but the journey in search of this guy is just hilarious. I hope you would enjoy my pieces which have brought me much fulfillment and to be there to journey with me as I live the drama that enfolds daily in my walk that is never short of excitement.

On 6 March 2010, this event was launched at the National Art Gallery by the Deputy Minister of Natural Resource & Environment with an exhibit ion of 42 participants’ work, one of each selected from the portfolio submitted for this program. We were given a certificate of appreciation for our work as each one was called to the stage to receive it from the Minister. Even the participants themselves couldn’t believe that such opportunities existed in a simple submission of their photos. It was to be displayed for a month but the Minister announced that it be made a permanent exhibit as Stephen presented all 42 pieces, bound & framed, to the National Art Gallery. I was told a month prior to this launch to be present and being the first of its kind in Malaysia and for the dive industry, I told Stephen that I would not miss it for the world. I even told a dear friend who is no longer here, that it would mean so much to me if I could share the moment but who am I to warrant the time of bigwigs with their heroic deeds? I am just a small fry in the ocean looking out for other small fries not wanting to be eaten before our time.

Well, my little moment of recognition came with the presence of my dear friends who made it in their finest attire to grace and celebrate the event with me since my family could not. Thank you, Heanna, Er-Win, Jia Li, Wong & friend. Your support had been tremendously uplifting.

Picture courtesy of Bahaman Hashim.

I can finally say I’m exhibited in the National Art Gallery!!!