Weekend diving at Pulau Aur, organised by Kg Glam Community Centre's BSAC Club's expedition leader Lee Suat Choo. Four of us -- Suat Choo, David, Li Chien and myself -- signed up with a tour operator that runs the resort in Aur in the South China Sea.
On Friday evening we boarded the coach at Newton Circus car park and arrived groggy at midnight in Mersing port where we transferred to a ferry for the four-hour trip to Aur. As usual, the airconditioning in the cabin was freezing and I spent most of the time on the open deck. We arrived before dawn, slept for three hours and had our first dive. We met Rose who was with another group that came separately to the island.
The water was clear to about 10 metres, the corals were unspectacular and marine life scanty, although we saw a school of frowning Napoleons. The sunset, though, was magnificent as it spread across the wine-dark sea, and I wished I had taken my full-featured SLR camera instead of the red point-and-shoot compact Canon. This model, a gift from Canon Singapore, was waterproof but only to 5m down. So, I could use it only for snorkelling around the resort. The undersea pictures were shot with Suat Choo's dive camera.
The resort was built on timber beams rising from the rocks at the water's edge, and we had to clamber like monkeys when we moved around. The two days on the island were hot, and in between the dive trips, there was little to do but hide in the airconditioned dining hall.
This was my third trip to Aur, and I swore during the freezing boat ride to the island that it would be my last. But now in the comfort of home, as I drooled over the pictures, I wished I were back on the island. -- April 21-23, 2000
All pictures byFrancis Chin, except the two undersea ones by Suat Choo (picture above, folded arms).
