Travelogue: Penang Day 2

Date: 25th September 2010

The day of the International Cleanup Day

6.00am : I woke up early that morning to have a hot shower and packed all my things before checking out at 6.45am to catch a bus to Swettenham Pier to meet the rest of the divers for the International Cleanup Day in Payar Island. I left one of my luggage in the hotel.

7.00am : Walked out to the main road and caught bus No. 302 and asked the kind driver to stop at the Pier, and so he did. It was a bit confusing especially on the gate to enter to the pier. I waited and waited for a glimpse of other divers and only at about 7.45am, I met a guy named Jafri who helped me to meet up with the other divers.

8.00am : We gathered at the pier and gotten our seats in the ferry. We were then called out to have photo-taking sessions before departure.

8.15am : The ferry leaves Swettenham Pier for Payar Island

10.00am : Arrived at Langkawi Coral, Payar Island. We were then briefed of the dives and were allocated our buddies. I buddied with Cheah from Ipoh. We were each given 2 plastic bags, a pair of gloves, strings and pen knife. We geared up and took a group photo.

10.45am : Dive No.1. Cheah and I went to the right side of Langkawi Coral. It was clear visibility that morning and not only we saw fishes and corals, we saw lots of rubbish too.

12.00pm : Completed dive No.1. We surfaced, took a rest before I went down snorkeling. We then waited for lunch to be served and had a good meal while having chit chats with the other divers.

1.30pm : We geared up and were brought to the Marine Park jetty to meet up with the officials and were told to clear the tires sitting at the sea bed. We then had a short boat ride to the side of the jetty where we did our 2nd Dive. There were not many rubbish as most were tires and fishing strings.

2.30pm : Cheah and I surfaced as we were not sure where we are heading to. It was pretty hard to surface as we had to look out for boat traffics above us. We were then brought back to Langkawi Coral where we waited for other divers. We filled up a form and were given certificate by Project Aware and had our last photo taking session.

3.30pm : The ferry departed from Payar Island back to Penang.

5.30pm : Arrived at Swettenham Pier, Penang. We bid each other farewell. I met up with Lynn, Angie and Peng outside the jetty and headed back to my hotel to pick up my luggage. We went around Penang looking for a hotel to stay for the night.

7.00pm : We arrived at Hydro Hotel, Batu Feringgi. Checked in. Refreshed ourselved.

8.30pm : Dinner at Hai Nam Restaurant. We made reservation for 4 people and had a good meal that night. We sat there and chatted the whole night through.

10.30pm : We headed back to Batu Feringgi to look for DVDs before heading back to the hotel to sleep.

It was a tiring day but it was worth it to participate in my 1st International Cleanup Day. Will be volunteering for more of these events in the future.