There’s a moment when this seems like the most graceless activity imaginable. Spitting onto someone else’s property and clamping your teeth onto oversized rubber. Then there’s the waddle with the flippers (sorry fins) before a tumble over the edge of the boat into the water…
Into the place where it all makes sense.
Redang Island in Malaysia has some of the best diving spots in the world – apparently. For a laundry list of reasons that I won’t bore you with, I arrived there without a diving certificate.
I didn’t mind in the slightest as soon as I got my head into the water and adjusted to the world of trance-like calm beneath the waves.
With views like this, how could I possibly complain?
Sigh…
Absolutely gorgeous, I have never gone scuba diving but snorkeling is just fine for me.
Ah, try it at least once! The sense of weightlessness and the glimpse of just how much lives beneath the waves is absolutely incredible…
What a beautiful place. When there I chose to go to the Perhentians, which are great for snorkeling and diving too (some say even better!), but the beaches (at least in Kecil) where not as nice.
We tried to go to the Perhentians, actually, as everyone we met raved about them. Twas not to be – accommodation fully booked up. So we went to Redang…never has a disappointment turned out so sweet!
Amazing photos, and the most spot-on description of the on-boat diver I’ve ever read.
Why, thank you! It’s always a relief to learn I’m not the only one who feels that way…
Scuba diving involves too much work. And work is the last thing I want when I am in a place that beautiful.
Yesss…Many times, I’ve thought I should sort out my diving paperwork in a pool somewhere in Britain so that I can make the most of my time away…Yet foggy skies, damp wetsuits and classrooms haven’t yet won me over…
This make me want to go home …. and visit this island.
Sorry. Sort of!
I have never been diving … and these photos make me want to learn!!
This would make a great place to learn. The water is so clear and it is heart-achingly beautiful. On the other hand…Learning to dive means you need to spend quite a while in a classroom and then in a swimming pool. Perhaps do that at home so that when you arrive somewhere as special as this, you’re good to go!
My gills are drying out! I need to get into the water ASAP!.
Me too. I feel landlocked right now!
Beautiful photos! Kali recently got his diving certification in Thailand, but I’m not a strong enough swimmer to pass the swim test (pshaw), so I just stuck to snorkeling. I really didn’t mind, though – I still got to see a ton of incredible fish, and we even saw a shark! Okay, it was a smallish shark, but still pretty much the length of me. :)
Well, I haven’t met you but a person-sized shark sounds pretty big to me! Yelp!
I’m a diver, and we went to Malaysian Borneo on our honeymoon to dive, but this looks even prettier than the places we visited!
Wow. I didn’t get to cross over to Malaysian Borneo to perform a thorough comparison. With luck, I may be able to in October ;)
Amazing photos. Thank you for this. We were just diving up in Ko Phi Phi, brings back memories, loved it.