21 April

This is the earliest we've been up - 5h45, we have to be at the dive shop at 07h15 to prepare for the dive at Redang. Redang Island is a Turtle and marine sanctuary/national park, divers rarely get the opportunity to visit the sights as the costs for the dive are very expensive. We were lucky in that we arranged to go to Redang Island to do our deep dive and pay for an additional fun dive there. We head down to long beach only to find all the shops still closed. A very sleepy Brie directs us to a restaurant on the beach which should be open. We sit down only to be greeted by a very grumpy adolescent who brings us menu's. (Guess island life really should not start early….)

While we wait the 30 minutes for our omelets, some of the party animals wander back to their accommodation carrying what's left of the previous evenings provisions, maybe enough Vodka for one more drink. 07h20 we arrive at the dive shop where we kit up and sit down with Brie to discuss the theory for the deep dive. The biggest concern is DCI - Decompression illness (not doing your safety stop or ascending to fast) and Nitrogen Narcosis (effecting people differently at depths). All ready we head out to Redang, not our most enjoyable boat ride as we bounce round like sardines in an empty tin over the swells with its 2x 200hp engines. Luckily the trip is only 1 ½ hours ride one way. We are by far the least experienced on the boat except for the driver. We have 4 instructors and 2 rescue divers accompanying us on the dive, we couldn't be in a much safer crowd.

We kit up at Batu Tong, we head down to 27m were Brie performs tests where we have to add and subtract under water and indicate with either left or right hands to see whether the deep water affects us. Above water I was actually slower than below water, Leanne reduced her reaction time a little but not much. Having performed the requirements for the deep dive we continue with the air we have left on a fun dive. The fish we saw included angel, long fined banner, unicorn, trigger, potato fish as well as giant moray eels.

One of the other divers lost his camera underwater and unfortunately everyone's air is finished and no search and recovery exercise is possible. We head to Redang Island where we rest on the beach for 1 ½ hours enjoying food and drink before we head to the next dive site, Pulau Lima (Five islands). Here we see much the same as the previous dive. The advance course completed we head home - another 1 ½ hour drive and wash our gear. Although the course cost more than we would have wanted to spend both Leanne and I agree that the advance course added immense value and ability to our skills and made it so much more enjoyable.

We arrive back at 13h30 and I head to the other side of the island to take the laptop to the Dell technician who had previously scratched the cover of the laptop and promised to replace it. At first I don't find him so I head to Senja and leave the laptop with the receptionist, calling Sharool and informing him that he can collect it from her. I head back to the dive shop where we still need to fill in the diving details into our logbooks and complete the admin to get our certification. We head over to Amelia's for another BBQ special of King fish fillet. Afterwards we head to Senja were we collect the Laptop and wait for Babylon AD to start showing, while we wait I turn on the laptop to work on the internet only to find the same problem as before. I head back to where the technician is and I show him first hand what the problem was, for once Murphy was for me not against me! Flustered he tries for an hour to fix the problem. In the end he explains he will bring me the laptop the following day fixed. I get him to take photos of the laptop showing that its on but no screen display and, using a translator, obtain his employer's number and request that he contact Dell informing them of the continued problem and that I don't want them to fix the problem but rather to replace the laptop.

In the end I head back to Senja to watch what remains of the movie I so much wanted to watch! We head back to our accommodation, aware of our environment considering I had seen 2 snakes less than 50cm from me and we had multitudes of monitor lizards lying next to the walkway while strolling past them.