First Dive: Lembu Rocks
I dove Lembu Rocks on 5 November and the visibility has significantly degraded since then. There are thousands of what appear to be something in the jellyfish family in the water. They are about 6-12 cm in length and look something like worms and have translucent pearls, about 5-6 pearls per “jelly worm”. They don’t affect visibility but the fact they are there shows a current change and that means murky water.
As we headed deeper, circling the rocks and the visibility worsened so our divemaster took us to shallower parts at the base of the boulders. The visibility got better, about 5 meters or so and we saw a couple of moray eels. Near the end of the dive we saw something in the nudibranch family. It was about 10 cm long and brownish in colour. First time I had seen whatever critter it was. Just after that we were doing our “safety stop” by exploring the shallow areas of the rocks when we happened upon a turtle. I am not sure whether it was a green turtle or a hawksbill turtle but it was a juvenile, not full grown and the first I have seen a turtle in Payar waters. How do you tell the two species apart?
Second Dive: Coral Garden
This was an excellent dive. The visibility was about 8-10 meters the entire dive and it seemed like miles of vis compared to the murkiness we had experienced in the deeper waters around Lembu Rocks. It started out great as we saw a boxfish just after descending. That was followed by a nice hermit crab. As we headed up a slope, we could see a Napoleon or humpheaded wrasse in the shallower waters above us. It was almost 2 meters in length but never came down for a perfect viewing but close enough to enjoy it for 30 seconds or so.
We saw a several other interesting things during the dive, razor fish, puffer fish, a fish that camouflaged itself against the rock and a moray eel. Our divemaster petted the eel under the chin, something I disagree with and think that most things like that wind up “biting” someone in the end.
So, the visibility has degraded at Payar but I would rate both dives above average. Also, my divemaster said the jellyfish worms bring in whale sharks during the month of December so it might be a good time to try a dive at Segantang. I also met a guy named “Jack Dolphin” on the ferry who is a tour guide in Langkawi who said he could guarantee snorkeling with whale sharks and knew of several dolphins but couldn’t guarantee sightings of the dolphins. Rates were around RM220 for 6 hours. Email me if you are interested in his contact information. I want to try going up there and seeing whale sharks sometime in early 2007, maybe over Thaipusam holidays.
