Click to Enlarge.

A Myriad of fluorescent colored fish swam around us. A submarine shaped purple, blue and green Moon Wrasse flapped it's small pink fins to come check me out. At only 20 cm, it was quite daring for its size. A meter long (3 foot) Marbled Grouper with fat lips like a pouty old man, hovered near the opening of a cave. A bunch of smaller brilliant-blue spotted red coral groupers buzzed around more sociably. Lemon yellow, white and black Moorish Idols with an elegant white banner flowing from the top of their body swam in pairs. I peaked in a giant muted purple barrel sponge. Inside hid a Lionfish. With it's toxic brown, black and white feather-like exaggerated-fins displayed peacock style, it resembled a bird more than a fish.

Click to Enlarge.

We followed Ian as he led us up along the wall. There was so much to see. It was hard to choose what level to focus on - micro or macro, corals or fish. But then we heard a metallic rapping, our cue to look towards Ian. Gliding effortlessly ahead was a spotted Leopard Shark. About 2 meters (6.5 feet) long, It was swimming back and forth swaying its long thin tail. Its body was a beautiful pale brown with darker brown leopard spots. A less pronounced fin and a slightly rounded head gave the shark an uncommonly friendly appearance. We hovered motionless in the water as it came to see us and then moved away. Further ahead we spied a one-meter-long (3.2 feet) female Hawksbill Turtle. She cocked her head towards us and continued on.

Click to Enlarge.

As we made our way slowly towards the surface, the foreign landscape and what inhabited it, constantly changed. Bubble coral, which looks like clear bulbous egg sacks, seemed ready to hatch. Nearby a Mappa Pufferfish, easily mistaken for an alien ship, shyly glided by. Black lines drew patterns around it's onyx black eyes and mottled brown squarish body.

Click to Enlarge.

Beige colored soft coral was covered in minute luminescent yellow flowers. Laying like lace, tiny fish darted in an out of the coral to feed on the organisms collected in the flowers. Then the reef patrol sauntered by. A half-meter (1.5 foot) yellow green Queen Angel Fish with electric blue markings and a bright white tail made sure we were on the up and up.

Click to Enlarge.

10:00am
Our time in the land of Jacques Cousteau was coming to an end. At greater depths, your air supply runs out and the nitrogen in your body builds up faster. 30 minutes was all we had. At five meters we made our requisite three-minute safety stop. Floating almost weightlessly, I somersaulted and hung upside down like an astronaut.

Click to Enlarge.

10:05am
We surfaced and inflated our vests. Excalibur began to move towards us for pick up and debrief. With air still in our tanks and by surfacing within time limits, we had passed the Deep Diving Module of our Advanced Scuba training. Mission accomplished. Even more importantly, we had all observed some amazing and beautiful creatures. As we hovered above, I longed to return back to what seemed like an alien planet. In thirty minutes, I had only scratched the surface of the silent brilliant magical realm.

Click to Enlarge.

Epilogue
In order to populate this dispatch with photos, Will rented a camera during a dive we made in the Perehentians, islands just off the northeast coast of peninsular Malaysia.

While photographing a jellyfish hovering in the blue, Will strayed from the divemaster and myself. I swam over to join him. Then, as luck had it, we both happened to look up.

Click to Enlarge.

Frozen with shock in midwater, we gazed in wonder. A Whale Shark glided elegantly above us. Like the midnight sky, it's tail was a deep dark blue dotted with bright white stars. Surrounded by King Fish guardians, it took no notice of the strange creatures blowing bubbles from below it. The largest species of shark, but only a plankton eater, ours was a mere baby at 3.5 meters (11.5 feet). Dumbfounded, I let out a garbled scream at our divemaster to look our way. The three us kicked our fins vigorously to keep pace. But we were no match. After two minutes, it had disappeared forever into the blue.

Click to Enlarge.

Giddy with excitement, Will and I clasped each other's hands and let out the biggest smile we could muster through our breathing regulator. Like finding the Holy Grail of Southeast Asian diving, being in the presence of the Whale Shark was an incredibly spiritual and humbling experience.