Oulin White

27 August 2010

Summer Chapter

Posted by oulin under: O Space .

I realized I have stopped writing for eight months. What have happened in these eight months is hard for me to put in one piece of article but I will try my best.

Since last May I set off for my big trip, I have had quite a few life changing experience. However, nothing has changed my life as much as diving (lol, I’m not doing PADI advert, don’t worry). I can’t imagine myself living away from the ocean and not able to dive on a daily basis. It’s no longer about sitting in front of in front of a computer in an office on a grey gloomy day. The ocean is my office everyday. The incredible corals are decorations on my desk. The fishes are my play mates. At the end of the day, a lovely dive boat is my taxi home while the late afternoon sun light reflects on the deep blue water shining all the way. My skin is tanned, my muscles are lean, my smiles are genuine.

I tried to get involved in the Eco projects and teaching in the school in Trawangan in the beginning. But it didn’t go the way as I wished. The divemaster course helped me to make up my mind to become a diving instructor because I felt so happy and rewarded seeing the big smiles of the students after their first open water dive. It’s like opening a door to a new world for people. I want to make it possible to swim with turtles for those who might have been even scared of water. I want to show the amazing marine lives to those who are so curious and excited about new experience. I want to maybe change some people’s lives by laying out the possibility of a different lifestyle in front of them. I met some wonderful people during my instructor course in Bali, who I am sure will be life long friends. My course director Minni is one of the most incredible women I’ve met in life, who’s affectionate, smart, influential and lots of fun. Learning from her definitely helped me to gain the confidence to be a good instructor. A very nice surprise also came along during my time in Bali. I met Casper, who’s now sharing the adventurous life with me. We fell in love. We feel happy. We want to be together. Life feels more complete to both of us.

Gili Trawangan has offered me a lot in the past seven months. It was home and it was my life. Most of my diving experience is from there. It was there I saw the school of twenty devil rays. They were “flying” above me in the water and my heart almost stopped beating. The absolute beauty of the nature is definitely overwhelming. Not only diving that Trawangan offered me, it also brought me lots of joy to become close friends with some amazing people especially Britta the most heart warming girl I’ve met. I am missing them while I am writing at this very moment. I miss the yummy home made icecream, too!

Life moves on though. Casper and I were eager to teach and pass on the passion of diving. When this high season turned to be a “low season” for us the freelancers, we decided to seek work opportunity else where. It happened very quickly that we both got a job from Scuba Junkie, based in Semporna, Borneo Malaysia. Diving around south east Borneo is amazing. One of the best diving areas in the world Sipadan is also here. They wanted us to be here ASAP. We didn’t have much time to let the idea to sink in. We packed up and left Trawangan in one week. By the time I arrived in K.L. airport last thursday, I was still feeling a bit strange like I wasn’t totally prepared of the change. It’s like every time when I made a move to unknown, I feel a bit intimidated although I know it’s the right decision to move on. We were welcome by many friendly smiling faces. Scuba Junkie has a very nice team. We felt accepted right away and we have been working a lot since day one. So I don’t have much time to be “intimidated” at all.

Semporna is a very small harbour city. Not much to do. It’s not as dirty or ugly as some people described it to us though. I find it quite okay to live in. We were offered a very basic room above the dive shop’s restaurant. It’s with fresh hot water shower and air condition. For me it’s already luxury as I didn’t really have fresh water shower for over six months, let alone hot water shower. There is a big supermarket and food market down the end of the road where I can go wander around everyday. A nice western pharmacy is around the corner of the dive shop. A few Chinese and Indian restaurants are in walking distance. Life is very basic but I don’t have much to complain. We don’t have much free time to actually do a lot either. Our typical day starts at 7am from breakfast at the dive shop restaurant, and ends at around 5pm after 3 dives. Dinner is at 730pm in the same restaurant. The menu changes everyday and food is quite good. All meals and soft drinks are free for the staff. Now comes the best bit, as instructors we get 4 crates of free beers per person per month  Therefore we are taken care of in all ways. We pretty much don’t need to spend any money. It’s not a bad trade although we only get paid a small monthly salary instead of by commission of courses. We hang out with our team at dinner time normally. Not much of a social life around here to be honest. We chat about our days and maybe have a few drinks together. There are no parties except a local band plays on every Tuesday and Friday from 8 – 11pm. On a day off, we can either hop on a boat for some fun diving or stay in for a dry day to get online or read a book. At least internet is free here and the connection is working quite okay most of the time.

It’s been only one week since we arrived. I don’t want to make the judgement about life here, yet. It’s not as fun or as tempting as the island life we had before. It’s another kind of life. We belong to something, a shop and a team. We don’t have to worry if there will be any work the next day. We share the responsibility equally with the rest of the team. In a way, I like it.

I am grateful that Casper is here to turn this new page of life together with me. It makes everything more possible when you have a great partner next to you, non? I would like to stay in the diving industry at least for the next couple of years to see what more I can gain from it. Working as a diver might seem like just a holiday job to many people. But other than the flexibility for travelling, it’s actually like any other “real” jobs with rules and standards to follow, with work schedules and even bigger responsibilities for the others. There are different goals people can set for themselves as a diver. To travel the world, to go to the higher professional levels, to open their own dive centers, to own a liveaboard boat to do diving tours, etc. Some divers dedicate themselves in marine life protection programs and actions, such as those people from The Cove and Sharkwater. We carry some very important messages about marine life, ocean eco system and conservation to people we teach diving to so that they can also pass these messages to their friends and families. So, although we are a different bunch and look silly sometimes with our equipment, trust me, we are working seriously 

Tropical breeze to all of you that are not near an ocean at the moment! I will keep swimming, keep swimming, swimming swimming…

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