Snorkeling in between the turtles and sharks

Snorkeling in between the turtles and sharks, whaaaa! 10-08-06

On Thursday we went snorkeling with a couple from Canada, who we met on our boat trip before, (real nice people by the way, those Canadians). We had our own boat and guide to show us all the beauty of the sea life, and what a beauty it was!
First we went to a place, near the other beach: Pulau Besar, were you could see turtles (when you are lucky); we staid in the boat and had to look for a big black spot in the water. I was already amazed by how beautiful and clear the water was, you could look strait true it. Our guide went into the water to search for the turtle and almost immediately he found one and we had to jump into the water.
When I jumped into the water the first time I had some trouble breathing true my snorkel, all the water came in my mouth (not so nice with all the salt in the water) and I didn’t had my flippers on so I had some trouble keeping up with the rest of them, because they moved really fast.
But then I looked under me and I couldn’t move, I was just stunned, there it was; a big beautiful turtle was swimming under me. His movements were so slow and relaxed, he looked so peaceful, as if he didn’t notice or mind that I was there swimming above him. You could even go down and touch (when I tried my heath felt like exploding so I didn’t try again)
We got lucky because later we saw an other one, even a more beautiful and bigger one, his shield was so colorful.
Than we went of to see the sharks, oh no I was so scared; I didn’t want to go swim with the sharks!!!! HELP!!!! But our guide said they weren’t dangerous, so I had to believe him.
We stopped at several places because the sharks weren’t there and I saw the other beaches again and the beauty of the sea, so I didn’t mind that they weren’t there. I was and still am so amazed by the beauty and life going on in the sea. When you go in the water you don’t expect that there is so much under you, you just swim and enjoy the cool water, but when you go snorkeling or diving you see all these amazing colorful coral and fishes. I just floated in the water and looked under me, for me it felt like a lifetime long, and I could go on like that forever, there was just so much going on under me and so many things to see and to fall in love with. There were so many fishes and all so different from one and an other, I liked the one with the very bright colors and the clown fishes, also the sea anemones and the coral were just beautiful. It felt like I was the only one there and life just passing by as I was still floating in the water hearing only my own breath and seeing only life as it is under water.
At our last snorkeling view (He had taken us to many different ones) we saw a shark, the first one moved so fast that I didn’t got the change to see him, the one I saw was a baby shark, so I wasn’t really frightened (so that was alright for me).
Later we could feed the fishes with the bread our guide toke for us, all the fishes just jumped up and tried to get the bread. We got a good look at all the fishes and when you take the bread in your hand and than close it they come and try to get it; it just tickles a lot.
Than at the end, when I thought we would go back to our island, we went to a private island (where you normally wouldn’t come), where the big turtles would come at night to lay their eggs and there they had small baby turtles (so I did see them!). I could hold them, they were just adorable, so small and sweet! We could see were they had the eggs, and we even saw a turtle come out of the egg, that was really special. Later more tourists came and they had a turtle race; they could take them and put them on the beach to let them go as fast s they could to the beach, it was funny to see (how those turtles move forward) , but I was glad they toke them back to the bin they staid in, otherwise I think they would have died (but now they also do, because there are just a few surviving, so sad to say).