Fulfilling a Dream: How We Learnt to Dive in Tioman with Eko Divers

Learning to dive has been a lifelong dream of mine. But for some reason, my plans to learn have been thwarted year after year by superstitious parents (“this year is not good for Dragons to be in the water”?!) and hectic schedules, until I realised ENOUGH. IS. ENOUGH. So I dragged ET to the Asia Diving Expo, and we signed up for a really affordable package to get PADI-certified with Eko Divers!

For $425, our package included:

1. Theory lessons and test (covered over 2 evening lessons from 7-10pm)

2. Pool session (covered in one afternoon at the Outram Sec pool)

3. Practical lessons and test in Tioman (Bintan was the other, slightly cheaper, option)

4. Full room and board at Tioman

5. Rental of all dive equipment including wetsuit, mask, fins, oxygen tank, BCD

The caveat of this package is that once your training schedule is fixed, the dates cannot be changed without you paying a rather hefty penalty.

I thought it might be useful to write a thorough account of our dive trip to Tioman, because it seems like most diving schools do follow a certain standard itinerary and schedule. Hopefully, this will be useful to everyone who’s interested in getting their PADI Certification from Singapore (:

The theory and pool sessions are pretty straightforward so I shan’t elaborate on them. Basically they are extremely hard to fail unless you

1. play candy crush throughout the training videos,
2. have no friends to seek clarifications from,
3. refuse to put on your gear and enter the water

Journey to Tioman

We gathered at the Eko Diver office at 6pm and went through a series of equipment checks to ensure that we were allocated the right sizes. As there were quite a lot of people going for different types of dives (Open Water Dive, Advance PADI Certification, Leisure Dives), this process took a while and we only boarded the buses 45 mins later. We were divided into groups before boarding the bus so it was nice that we all has specific dive masters and instructors to look for if we had any questions.

Once everyone was loaded up, we took approximately half an hour to get to the Tuas checkpoint and subsequently another hour to clear the Malaysian checkpoint. We were fortunate that Eko Divers paid the Malaysian checkpoint a “friendly fee” which allowed us to breeze through customs with only our personal belongings, thus relieving us of having to lug the heavy dive equipment from one country to another. Overall, it was a simple and fuss-free process.

On the way to Mersing Jetty, we were given a 20 minute stop at a petrol station where everyone loaded up on snacks and water. Judging from the way we shopped, no one would be surprised if they thought that we would be deprived of food for the next few days!

Tip: It’s not really necessary to because there’s actually a convenience store near the resort that should cover your snacking needs.

Our journey to Mersing Jetty was an adventure in itself as our bus driver tried to give us an inkling of what sea-sickness would feel like by jamming on the brakes every 10 metres. After what seemed to be forever (actually, it was about two hours) and an additional 40 minute wait at the jetty, we got onto a speedboat which transported us to the dive boat. This was really exciting because it felt like we were illegal immigrants or refugees fleeing in pitch darkness. However, the fun ended once we got onto the dive boat because it was stuffy and there were frankly too little seats to accommodate people trying to sleep. But we slept, or tried to, in a tangled web of leg and bag straps, contorting ourselves into all sorts of possible bodily permutations. And for the first time in my life, I grew to be very envious of my open-mouthed neighbors who were too passed out to care.

Tip: Bring a neck pillow. It will work wonders for the boat ride.

We finally arrived at Genting Village, Tioman at 3am in the morning.

Accommodation – Island Reef Resort 

Our accommodation was the Island Reef Resort, which we expected to be super no-frills but were pleasantly surprised to find that there was aircon (yay!) and hot water (double yay!). There are also designated “wifi-zones” at the resort but it was extremely patchy. The beds were a godsend and together with a 3am bedtime, I would be surprised if anyone had trouble sleeping that night.

The next morning, we were woken up at 8am and had an hour to finish our breakfast and assemble on the dive boat. I was pleasantly surprised by the breakfast – beehoon soto and nasi lemak – and thought it was pretty tasty! We were also provided with tasty local fare for lunch and dinner.

Dives

The journey to the dive site, Tumok, was pretty short and uneventful. We were so busy gearing up that by the time we were ready, we had already arrived.

Dive 1: 67 mins

Tip: Try to schedule your pool session close to your actual dive trip. Ours was a month apart and we definitely had some trouble remembering all the skills we learnt!

The first dive reviews the basic skills learnt- partial and full clearing of mask, mask removal, neutral buoyancy, hovering, regulatory recovery and the alternate air source ascent drill. (Click on the each drill to watch a YouTube video of each of these skills.) When it was my turn to descend using a rope which guided my way down to a sandy bank, I was greeted by a scene where the other divers were lined up like prisoners who were going to be executed. I wonder how amusing this must have looked to the fish! As we took turns performing the drills to our instructors, I was surprised by how much marine activity there was – a school of adorable baby barracuda kept parading in front of us, while the butterfly fish would attempt to nibble on our extremities. It was serene and surreal! After ascending to the surface, we practiced cramp removal, BCD and weight belt removal, as well as the tired diver tow, which couldn’t have been more apt.

We then went back to the resort for a very quick lunch.

Dive 2: 64 mins

Tip: Forget everything you’ve learnt in swimming lessons. To avoid damaging marine life, try to go into a horizontal ‘flare’ position. Keep your hands crossed in front of you as much as possible.

Before our second dive, we learnt how to navigate with a compass while swimming. Then, using the 5-point descent, we descended without holding on to the rope as we were instructed to use it only as a visual reference. Once again, we were directed to kneel at a sandy area as we took turns to do our compass swim underwater, practice hovering and do the CESA drill. This was a particularly difficult dive for me because I struggled to achieve neutral buoyancy, couldn’t control my flailing limbs and kept rolling backwards onto my tank! I literally felt like a wrecking ball, and I’m sure the corals must have felt that way too. While waiting, we poked a sea cucumber, saw transparent shrimps and a colorful fish that sported lips similar to one Angelina Jolie.

Dive 3: 22 mins

Tip: Always stick with your buddy! Don’t get distracted by the fish and drift away from the group.

We waited on the boat for about 90 minutes before starting on our third dive, which was more leisurely since we had already covered the required skills in the previous dives. We began our dive after performing a back roll off the side of the boat. This time the group descended simultaneously and were allowed to move around with our buddies. We hovered at a depth of about six meters and glided above the coral that was admittedly earthy in color but teeming with a lot of marine life. ET and I enjoyed this tremendously as we held hands on this particular dive date, admiring the incredible scene before us: schools of fish darting playfully around the the sea anemone that danced and waved gracefully. To top it off, we surfaced to a beautiful sunset stretched out in the horizon.

We were back at the resort by about 7:30pm and the rest of the time was spent on dinner, supper (Ramly Burger!) and trying to shake off the feeling that I was still in the floating in the sea. (I was assured by my friends that this is normal).

Dive 4: 21 mins

The next morning, we were told to assemble before the crack of dawn, at 6:30am. This would cater enough time for the instructor to bring us to a dive site with a sunken playground and more marine life for our fourth dive. Unfortunately, our boat ended up being an hour late, and we went back to Tumok again. This time the currents were very strong and kept sweeping us towards the rocks. We saw even lesser than we did on the third dive, but it was honestly fine as most of us were still focused on achieving neutral buoyancy. I was happy that we became less hazardous to the corals with each dive as we grew increasingly confident of managing ourselves underwater.

We arrived back at the resort by 10am and were given approximately an hour to eat, shower and pack our belongings before boarding the boat back to Mersing and to Singapore. It was honestly quite a mad rush but we had to do so in order to avoid the low tide. Ultimately, I was grateful that we left early because we arrived back in Singapore at 4pm. 

Will diving guarantee that you will get views like that all the time? Honestly, no. You’d have better luck in an aquarium. But it’s the little things like realising you can control your buoyancy by inhaling and exhaling, knowing you can’t take breathing through your nose for granted and the unpredictability of what you will see and experience that truly makes it a spectacular experience.

And finally, would we recommend Eko Divers? Yes, because the pros outweigh the cons. We found them to be professional, friendly and helpful. The ratio of instructors to divers was about 1:5 which was a comfortable number and we never felt alone. Our instructor was also patient, firm and even strict when it came to practicing the drills, which I appreciated because safety underwater is not something you would want to take lightly. So even though there is room for improvement in terms of administration and coordination with the boatmen (e.g. making sure that our boats arrive on time for our dives), it was still a pleasant experience and we would be happy to dive with them again.

We’re blessed to be in Singapore because of our close proximity to so many amazing dive sites in the region. Now to start exploring them all! (: Do you have interesting diving stories and experiences? Share them with us in the comments section!

This article originally appeared in ETSY Explores.