Dan's Adventure

A selection of my favourite photos that I have taken whilst diving this year.

A turtle eating coral. Egypt, October 2011.

Long nosed hawkfish hiding in coral. Egypt, October 2011.

Batfish. Egypt, October 2011.

Blue spotted stingray. Egypt, October 2011.

Nudibranch. Borneo, April 2011.

Lionfish. Mabul, April 2011.

White tip reef shark. Sipadan, April 2011.

Starfish. Egypt, January 2011.

Cuttlefish. Gran Canaria, March 2011
The photos from Egypt in October were taken with a Canon S95 in a FIX housing with a FIX UWL-04 Fisheye lens and a INON S2000 strobe. The rest were taken with a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 …

I think its fair to say that scuba diving really has taken over this year. Every holiday I’ve been on has been focussed on diving and almost every weekend during the summer was spent diving somewhere on the South coast of England. Its been a very varied year. From the first dive of the year in January whilst on a liveaboard in Egypt to the last – a cold December day diving in Plymouth.

The turning point was joining two London based dive clubs, Big Squid and Clidive, both of which …

Twentyish years ago, Jacques Cousteau, described Sipadan as an untouched piece of art. Since then it has played home to several resorts, been the subject of a territorial dispute between Malaysia and Indonesia, and the location of a kidnapping of tourists by a Fillipino terrorist group. Now though, Sipadan is a protected marine reserve, an attempt by the Malaysian government to retain its reputation as a world class dive location.

Sipadan is the only oceanic island in Malaysia. The remains of an old volcano, it rises 600m from the seabed, offering …

In November I returned to Thailand with the sole purpose of diving some of the best dive sites that the country has to offer. The Similan and Surin islands are located on the Andaman coast, north of Phuket and can be reached either by speedboat or by liveaboard from Phuket or Khao Lak. I opted for the liveaboard option with Similan Dive Safaris who are based in Khao Lak.

The liveaboards in Thailand are no where near as luxurious as the liveaboards you will find anywhere else in the world where …

I spent a day in Melaka before I left Malaysia to break up the journey between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Melaka is a world heritage listed town due to its importance as a port and because of the well preserved colonial buildings. Melaka has influences from India, China and Europe due to the origins of the people that once lived there. It is certainly a very nice town to wander around.

I have spent the last five months in Asia, travelling around India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and now the time has come to Australia. I have had some amazing experiences whilst in Asia and there are so many places that I definitely want to go back to sometime in the future. India, Laos and Thailand currently top my list of favourite countries. Although I have loved my time in Asia, there are so many things that I will be very happy to leave behind, so today …

At 6pm twelve of us rolled out of the Inn Crowd hostel and set out on a free tour of Singapore. Over the next five hours, the tour covered a lot of distance. Starting in Little India, we went as far east as China town and as south as the Merlion – a half fish, half lion water fountain. We hit all of Singapore’s main sights, at least all of the ones that the tour buses visit, but without the need for a bus. We were travelling by kick scooter.

I …

The beat of a drum was approaching me, getting ever closer. Then from around a corner appeared a Chinese dragon dancing its way along the street. Whilst in Singapore I came across dragons a number of times, the Chinese new year celebrations were still in full swing.