Assorted Ravings of the Slightly-Weird

Of Flatworms and Nudibranches...

Hola folks!

Over the weekend, I went diving in the Riau Islands. Yes, there are actually dive sites in the Riau Islands, some of which are actually fairly good. I saw lots of nudibranches, a couple of sea slugs, 2 miniature crabs, flatworms, lots of clownfishes in their anemone homes, batfish, damselfish and angelfish. Conditions at this time of year can be fairly challenging; the best time of year to go would be in May or June.

One of the best things about going to the Riau Islands is that it's hassle-free. If you've ever gone on a dive trip to Malaysia (especially to Aur/Dayang/Tioman), you'll have experienced the horror of getting through 2 immigration checkpoints where you have to alight with all your gear, squeeze through the crowds to get your documents looked at and then endure a 3 hour bus ride and a 4 hour bumboat ride. Going to Batam is exactly the opposite. Everything's so convenient; even the immigration forms are printed out so you don't have to fill in a thing. And the whole journey takes under an hour.

Thanks to the dive trip, I am now salmon-pink, which is about 40% cooked in my book. Somehow I always forget that even if it's a cloudy day you can still get burnt.

Now I'm back at work (BOO!) and hating every minute. As I told CTG last Friday: "Work sucks. Work is for losers."

Welcome to loser-dom.

Posted by scrabbyfoo at October 25, 2005 05:09 PM