This was probably the dive where we saw the most nudibranch. Singles, doubles mating. Colorful looking slugs.

Caught this pair doing the deed. Nudibranchs are apparently hermaphroditic, and thus have a set of reproductive organs for both sexes. They also typically deposit their eggs within a gelatinous spiral.

Another nudibranch but not as colorful, still pretty good camouflage and would be hard to notice it.

This shot was cropped from my blind photo taking as the ghost shrimp was so small that I could hardly see it and was aiming at the wrong location. Luckily, it managed to make the frame in the top left corner.

Another parting shot of the awesome turtles in the area. Kinda nice how we kept bumping into them.

A goby guarding it’s home. Was hard to take this shot since it scares easily and kept popping in and out. Fascinating to watch.

Another species of crab which I thought looked cool dangling on the coral.

School of slimline barracudas who didn’t seem fazed at all by the current while we struggled to stay at the bottom.

This crocodile fish was so well hidden and we would have missed it if not for the our eagle-eye dive master Ramil.

Also caught sight of a giant grouper but unfortunately they tend to be further out and the bad vis meant I caught a mere shadow of it. Managed to get a parting shot of yet another slug as we were about the surface.

Heading back, we enjoyed the sunset and another great dinner at the restaurant.

This time, a pair of turtles even graced us with their presence even though they were extremely camera shy.

Our first 2 dives for the day was going to be muck dives at Samil Island and unfortunately not many photos came out well. Dive #7 was about 50min with max depth of 20m. Dive #8 was about 35min with max depth of 20m. Visibility was pretty bad at about 2-3m for both dives. Our dive master was Ramil.

There was this nice blue ribbon eel that posed for me and more or less that was the highlight.

Caught sight of the children playing during lunch as they raced each other in the low tide.

A school of jackfish was near our descend point again and this time a rather curious reflection made this fish stand out from the whole school.

Another shot of a white tip shark that was a bit further than the first sighting.

This turtle happened to swim towards our group and luckily my off shoulder shot as it swam up for air was quite nice.

The priceless shot of this school of barracuda has a rather interesting story since I got lost trying to take it.

After Niger’s instruction to stay on the bottom while we enjoyed the view, Zh n myself lagged behind during our photo taking and with the strong current, lost sight of the group. Luckily Niger’s quick action and amazing direction found me floundering away quite some distance away. I was quite prepared to surface already since being lost in the blue wasn’t my idea of fun. We managed to hook up with the boat and waiting for everyone else to surface. Was kinda scary and exhilarating at the same time chasing the school of barracudas.

After the excitement for the day wore off, we headed back to the resort for some r&r. Found this crab resting below our room.

Shot of the pipefish at night.

The surrounding water was crystal clear with the bright sun and the pipefish which were a brilliant incandescent blue at night could be seen swimming about in the day.

The local children seem to be enjoying themselves during the low tide. What a great way to spend childhood out in the sea versus in tuition centers?

Another school of fish in the crystal clear water. It’s almost surreal seeing them this way, as if they were floating in air.

Our next dive would be at Barracuda Point which not surprisingly meant that there would be barracudas! Visibility throughout was pretty good with max depth of ~20m and total dive time of about 40minutes.

After the descend into the clear water with about 20m visbility, we were treated to a school of jackfish right below us. It’s pretty amazing to have them swim up close to you.

Caught sight of this trio of fish swimming idling by, their facial expressions look like total slackers *grin*.

Zh’s eagle eye also caught sight of this turtle taking a break on the corals.

Another reef shark but this time a lot further away and with the strong current, it was quite difficult to get in for a closer shot.

This white-tip shark swam about 2m away from me and I was holding my breath (first time up close to a shark does that to you) when I took a few quick snaps. Luckily this shot came out quite well.

The puffer fish below probably surprised me the most since i always thought it would be a diminutive creature and not the giant that you see below.

Zh enjoying the suspension in mid-water.

Pipefish above is almost invisible and cuttlefish below also doing a good join blending in. So far I’m pretty happy with the G11 since it’s able to react fast enough for my needs.

Good end to the first day, the moon was full and lit up the night sky.

The sea water was ultra-clear with the sun illuminating the sea bed for perfect photo taking opportunities.

Dive #2 was also quite low on vis (5m) which was unfortunate since there was a great many sea creatures to spot. This beautiful orange plate (Thanks Julian for identifying) really stood out from it’s surrounding. If Niger hadn’t pointed out the incredibly well camouflaged frog fish, I would definitely have missed it!

What a great way to start 2010, it was finally time to dive! Our first dive would be at Paradise, Mabul to get familiar with the basics for some of us who haven’t dived in awhile. After such a long absence, I actually had to get used to descending and took a couple of attempts before I managed to hit bottom. It’s definitely beneficial to dive regularly!

While the dive master, Niger, gave everyone the usual practice rounds of clearing masks, I decided to take the opportunity to test out the new Canon Powershot G11 with it’s underwater case which I just purchased specially for the trip (the Canon A90 was getting real old and a new upgraded was in order).

Caught sight of this curious sight where the fishes? hung around in a circle and just floated with the current.

Rather uneventful dive with murky visibility (approx 5m) even though the weather was perfect. The water was comfortable (would apply throughout the trip) and I had no issues in a 5mm full skinsuit.