My friend TripkotoX has a blow-by-blow account of the pre-whaling expedition (10 hours of puke-your-guts-out midnight bus ride -- even for us who are not prone to motion sickness). And though I don't remember a lot about that part of the trip (this is what I get for procrastinating this for years!)... I remember clearly the very first dive to get a glimpse of these giants.
It was an exciting moment! Our first encounter with these giants! Our spotter directed us to a whale shark that was swimming right below us. I didn't know from which direction he was coming from, nor what he looked like... ok ok I know they had this prototype there by the boat rental area, and we have seen pictures of them, but still...
The first encounter was quite nerve-racking. Even as I was waiting for the whale shark... I was completely surprised when the polka dots broke the monotonous dull color of the shallow water. Seeing this HUGE fish's HUGE mouth swimming right below me was not what I expected. For a split second I actually thought it was like a vacuum -- sucking everything in its way... and oh no! I was right in its way too! I thought I saw myself being pulled down towards the belly darkness of this giant (ala Jonah).
In my brain, I saw that the gentle giant really did brush my feet. And it got angry. As it was swimming away, it was grumbling "Stupid human. I'm the king of the sea here. I'll show you what happens when you don't make way." And as it leaves a stunned me behind, it takes a whack at me with its tail... sending me flying out of the water and towards a nest of other whale sharks in wait. (Shudder!)
Ok, I got carried away... they are gentle giants after all. Heehee.
You see, they do not swim very deep. You only have to snorkel, and you're face-to-face with these polka-dotted giants.
Well, make that face-to-tail. I couldn't swim fast enough to catch up with the whale sharks. Who was it who told me I didn't need to rent flippers because the whale sharks swam slow? Yeah, well, maybe he meant slow by fish standards... not human.
And since I was primarily in the water to take pictures, I wasn't in the mindset to race my friends to race the gentle giants. So, I was left pretty much with a trail of bubbles and not a lot of good pictures. I was hoping another giant would decide to swim right below me and let me take a good picture of him. However, as they say... opportunity knocks only once.
After spending the whole morning jumping in the water, swimming like crazy (literally), and then climbing back up the boat (not an easy feat)... my body has decided it has had enough. Even when there seemed to be one uber-slow whale shark that swam right under our boat, I couldn't make myself jump into the water again. Besides, my images of me being whacked by the tail re-surfaced, so I decided to take the coward's way out.
And then it was over. This is one experience I can proudly cross off my list as an achievement. It's not everyday that you actually get the chance to do this, and come across an abundance of whale sharks (especially as they are now considered vulnerable species). Plus, I shared this with great friends who I knew would keep me from being fish food.
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