When we did our first night dive, well, we didn’t like it. There were a lot of sea urchins around and the site was not so good, at least I didn’t feel like exploring. It was under the pier, we literally went down near this gigantic gargantuan boat that travel the ocean for long distance, island to island that can take up days, can fit in car, truck etc etc (so it’s bloody huge). It was very shallow, we probably didn’t go beyond eight meter, and mostly we hung around 3-5 meter, it was okay because there were not really boat traffic above, but there were rubbishes, I even found male’s underwear, blue color , I think at least L size, interested??
We were told to limit the bottom time to 45 minutes for night dive. We found octopus, short fin lionfish, hunting moray eels, nudibranches, some shrimps and crabs while I was thinking that we might find dead body. There were a lot of sailors on that ship, how if they got into fight? It would be a perfect place to throw them down there. I’m not serious, but the thought came to my mind. And who the hell that underwear belong to? Ha..
Thomas showed us the picture of a face of a doll, found at night dive there sometime ago. I think Titanic movie showed some in their underwater footage. You know those older type of dolls that are actually creepy? Then it was broken, no eye, no scalp, no hair, just half the face with hollow socket where the eyes used to be, and it was half buried in the sand, on night dive. Alamak. I think it would at least give me adrenalin rush or probably make me spit my regulator if I accidentally found it. Hiiy..
Anyway, first night dive was not creepy, it’s just not as fun as other night dive because visibility was not that great also. Somehow we got separated with the group, we got used to being separated anyway but the visibility really contribute to that. It was normally quite easy to find each other at night dive by following the torch, but one or two shots, that’s it, they were out of visibility range and gone for the night. 45 minute into the dive, as agreed, we ascended and found that we were ended in bizarre spot, secluded between the gigantic gargantuan ship, the island and the jetty. It was probably only 5 meter width or so. We couldn’t see the sky, we couldn’t see anyone on the ship because it was very high up there. Pondering where to go, I saw a mere one meter opening in the surface that led to the open ocean and there we were heading. Relieved to escape from that claustrophobic place, we whistled to the boat that was quite far away. When it came to our direction, the rest of the group surfaced not far off after the jetty.
Since it was not good and expensive, we didn’t want to do another night dive until Andreas asked whether we were up to it as they wanted to do it on their last night diving. Being the same macro enthusiast, we decided to give it another try.
The night dive proved to be the spookiest night dive I have been. It’s just the feeling, I can’t explain. But do you know when you have that eerie wiry feeling when you are in certain place and you can’t explain? There you go.
I had two previous night dives that I can categorize as uncomfortable. First night dive, first time I entered ‘dark water’. Dark water spooked me in the past. Tile pattern in swimming pool spooked me, day or night. Cruising on the boat, I never had the idea of going inside dark water at night because I was basically scared of water back then! First night dive, I built up my own expectation that it was going to be scary, I’m not going to like it and I felt nervous first fifteen minutes of the dive. Then slowly I found it quite nice and enjoyable and as the highlight, we saw mother and kiddy leopard shark, first encounter with shark ever, in Tengku Abdul Rahman, on first night dive. There goes my fear. Dark water is totally fine.
Second time I felt uncomfortable was in Derawan. We enjoyed Derawan night dive, it can be challenging, with strong currents and deadly venomous creatures but the mandarinfish and blue ring octopus always captivating, beside other creatures. It’s just that one fine day, the whole village was shocked with appearance of a certain type of ghost (pocong, google yourself if you want to find out what it looks like). Two very reliable witnesses had seen it on different occasions. The kampong was so small, the nights was very dark without a sound, we were staying in isolated area where no one was around us in close perimeter, although we were on the stilt, near the shore. I was okay when I first heard that rumour, until the locals started to describe the red eyes etc, honestly it crept me out for at least two days. So that night we went out for night dive, good as usual. We saw two gigantic octopuses that slowly crawled on the reef very near to our noses. When hubby and the dive master were following them, I found a huge stargazer. (google stargazer fish). Stargazer is probably the ugliest and most horrible looking fish you can found at night half buried in the sand after you heard a real ghost story. It has pooping eye, skeleton looked like figure that could look like human skeleton and row of intimidating teeth, caught staring at you when you absentmindedly shine your torch light. On any other day, I would like to see stargazer as I don’t see it often. In fact, that night, I was also keen and took a picture until looking at it plunged me back to the story and crept me out. I quickly left the fish. Hiyy…
If these two unnecessary flaskbacks proved that the spooks were based on my imagination, the second night dive in Alor, for the whole dive, I felt spooky without imagining anything. If normally I liked to shine my torch far and away to catch any movement of critters, this time I didn’t feel like I wanted to shine it outside my arm length. I kind of didn’t want to know what was beyond me, or maybe afraid to know. There were many branching coral formations with many big dark and hidden space beyond it. Upon descending, I also saw many jellyfish, those transparent ones and those chained jellyfish that could stretch to two meters or form completed circle like those we met a lot in San Miquel. It would sting if we accidentally brushed against them. Anyway, the visibility was not good, and we were separated from the rest again. Five minutes before the agreed bottom time, hubby asked if I wanted to surface and I happily agreed. Apparently, which was very weird because he hardly ever had this kind of feeling or imagination, he had the same spooky and uneasy feeling.
When we were on the boat Sukono and Thomas told us that we were not far from crocodile community center, although it might be not too near too that it’s quite unlikely that they would lurk around us.
For that particular night dive, if I really saw crocodile, especially before I made out the shape and didn’t know what it was, it would definitely fe-ri-king me out.
Anyway, some day after, Sukono told us, the night dive spot we went on this dive was actually feared by locals. It’s some sort of sacred and the locals didn’t even dared to bathe there (I think that is his way of saying playing in the water surface or swimming). The term is angker in Indo (angker I think is best explained as certain spot when it’s believed to have scary spiritual encounter or residents). For me, probably as Indonesian, specifically as Pontinak-ian, I’ve known better than to ever disregard the existence of other world. However, I believe that as long as we are not being disrespect it should be fine, but I would not ever want to intrude and provoke with bad intention.
Anyway, we were fine, the spooky feeling actually gone when we already out of the water. One thing to be sure, these two night dives left nothing to desire. There are a lot of potential night dive site though, I guess it’ a bit too far for land base. To mention a few, I think Comet Bay and Mutiara would make a very good night dive spot.
