I have always wanted to do this!

Jumping off a jetty and swimming in the sea! And I finally got to do it! Sunday at the tail end of the Sipadan trip!

So I was in Sipadan last week for diving. Five days 4 nights, 3-4 dives each day until I got sick of looking at sharks and turtles hehe.

Got to see the school of barracudas at Barracuda Point. On our second attempt. They're huge-ass man, like 2m long each. And there were hundreds of them. I had never seen so many barracudas in my life.

I got very close to them, almost at arm's length. Dunno if that was a good idea. They're predators.

But I did get attacked by a trigger fish during another dive. That was a first. But I did not panic. I was blissfully unaware of everything. My instructor Cyrena told me later. She was behind me and saw the thing going after my fins.

Sipadan was also the first time I tried drift diving. There were mild currents at some of the sites we went.

Because of the currents, it was also the first time I puked after surfacing from a dive.

But interesting tho the dives were, the thing that I took home from this trip was the last day, when we were sitting around at the jetty doing nothing (since you can't dive 24 hours prior to flying).

Suddenly our friend Alyssa said, "Hey let's go swimming!"

The sea was calm.

I thought hey, splendid idea!

So me, Alyssa and her brother Hannan along with Pua and Fauzy, jumped into the water from the jetty.

We did all kinds of styles. Awkward ones too -- Bruce Lee kicks, backflips, somersault. It really was a Sea Games event. Yeah it's called un-synchronised diving haha.

I loved how the water felt. The sun was bright but the water was cool.

Then Alyssa said perhaps we should jump from the top of the jetty -- the deck. That's like 3m above the sea. I thought, whoa.

Earlier this year, I was in Perhentian and I remember one evening standing alone at the jetty looking out to the sea below, wondering if I would ever have the courage to jump.

I was afraid then. Because I didn't know how to tread water.

But for this Sipadan trip, things were different. I was a new person. I had overcome my fear of water.

Alyssa, Hannan and I decided we must do this. We really were like tiga budak kampung. So we took a few steps back, ran towards the sea and leapt high in the air while screaming at the top of our lungs. There was a good few seconds of 'air time' before we hit the water with a huge splash. And then emerged with a big smile.

I had never had so much fun in my life! :D