A Taste of Darwinism

Pulau Tioman. Island off the east coast of Malaysia. Better yet - the next casting spot for the prime-time show Survivor - or at least that's how it feels.

I'm talking no civilization, 104 degree weather, beautiful crystal clear water, the most elaborate jungle I've seen yet, bugs upon bugs and searching for food and clean water is like finding Waldo in New York City...on New Year's Eve. A true test of survival of the fittest for Joelle and I.

Okay, it's not that bad. Thanks to my mad research skills I found us the best bungalows on the island all for about $12 a night. That's $6 a person. Not to shabby for a tropical island.


We plan on spending our time here doing some dives. I need to finish my PADI certification before the end of the year, and instead of doing my open water dives in some mucky coral in central Illinois, I decided to wait until I got out here. (Of course I won't have Margot to hold dance parties underwater with me, but maybe that's good thing so I can actually pay attention this time around :) )

Joelle and I were a little nervous that this dive instructor of ours might be one of the toothless locals who can't speak any english and was going to toss us over board in some shark-infested water and say, "Good luck! It's man vs. nature! Hope you can survive!"

Whoa.

Okay, it wasn't that intense, but let me share a couple of survivor incidents.

Mariam, my german dive instructor, took me on my four open water dives. Her english was decent, so I was in good shape so far. I was, however, unaware that there is in fact a "new diver" initiation done by everyone on the boat.

On my first dive, we jetty over to coral island, gear up, and who is in fact the first one they push overboard....the dumbass new girl. To my luck, no sharks. Whew. I survived the first obstacle.

I situate my octupi and sink under. It is here were I am staring at about 55 jellyfish head on. No, not head on, but completely surrounding me.

They are actually quite angelic looking but I was still unsure if I would survive my second obstacle. I only had half a wet suit on. Surely all 55 were bound to attack the lone star and start zapping me right and left. I tried to swim away but I got nowhere because they are literally everywhere I turn. In fact, when I swim using my arms I end up swooping them up in my hands...sick.

Okay, I have to forget about the jellyfish and start concentrating on obstacle number three. If I don't start depressurizing my ears and get my buoyancy in check I am going to be in trouble. And even worse, feisty Mariam is going to start bitching at me underwater with her damn hand signals that I don't understand.

We sink down about 22 meters and...aaaahhh the underworld.

No more jellyfish, I decompress fine, I have a full tank of O2, I am perfectly buoyant in the water and I start to feel like the little mermaid. (Okay, I don't feel as pretty as her, but no joke I start singing that song in my head. What is it with that song?!?! If you go up to any 23 or 24 year old woman guarantee (!!) she can sing you the whole song, word for word. Just try it.)

Finally, the last day I get to do a fun dive with Joelle. Lucky for us, it was the most beautiful day the whole time we were there. We take a small boat out to Pirate's Reef and get to do almost a full hour of bottom time. Joelle and I saw a huge sea turtle, blue-spotted sting ray (dad :) ) and tons of fantastic fish. Not to mention some pretty impressive coral.

The dive consisted of three grown men and Joelle and I. When we got back to land my tank had 60 watt of pressure left, the three grown men had between 80-90 left in their tanks, and rockstar Joelle ( I don't know if this is rockstar status or brut status) had a whooping 110 of O2 left in her tank! Ha-ha!


This is clearly something my father (aka dopey) taught her. I can just hear him say it, "Joelle, just don't breathe underwater, then you can stay down for longer."

Oh well, she did survive and made it back to surface, flesh-colored face and all, just fine.

So Charles Darwin, I survived Pulau Tioman, Joelle survived Pulau Tioman, and we just dominated your theory on life... what else you got for us? :)
( Joelle and I monkeying around on Monkey Beach. Dub the name because of all the monkeys that come on the beach. Let me tell you, don't be fooled by curious George. They are not cute! They are fierce!)