SCUBA DIVING ON THE SHORES OF THE
COLOURFUL AND
EXOTIC ISLAND OF PULAU TIGA OFF THE COAST OF MALAYSIA
This is a Diving project
that includes learning to dive and assisting with the running of a dive
centre on the paradise island of Pulau Tiga,
the location of TV's "Survivor"
Game Show.
Survivor Island Diving Experience
Just off
the coast of northern Borneo lies the tiny island of Pulau Tiga, one of
three islands that make up the Pulau Tiga National Park
in
the South China Sea. Originally formed after a volcanic eruption, Pulau Tiga
is a haven for wildlife and ringed by a 7km shallow, healthy coral reef with
crystal clear water.
You'll have
the opportunity to take the following courses during your project (depending on
previous experiences and length of project):
Open Water
Course and Advanced Open Water Course,
Emergency
First Aid Response Course,
Rescue Diver
Course,
Dive Master
Course (optional and subject to certain criteria)
Once
qualified, you will practise your diving in Malaysia's tropical waters!
Around the island of Pulau Tiga, visibility ranges from 6 to 20 metres and schools of tropical fish can be seen from the surface, even
without snorkel equipment.
The
island's landscape is dramatic, set in the midst of lush rainforest,
including mangroves, swamps and lowland forests for a total of eight square
miles.
Within
this enticing habitat are more than fifty different species of trees,
countless plant species and an array of fauna such as macaque monkeys,
monitor lizards, sea turtles and many other colourful species and birds.
A rich variety
of marine life can be seen including barracuda, bamboo sharks, cuttlefish
and marbled stingray. There are around 132 species of fish representing 62
genera in 32 families.
The
Dive Centre that we work with developed a resort on the island in 1998 to accommodate
tourists in a variety of wooden cottages. Scuba diving in
the marine park is heavenly, but this peaceful destination is
also a great place for outdoor activities
and other water sports.
If you are not
already qualified you will take a PADI Open Water Diver Certification course
on your arrival with the resorts water sports centre. Novices can explore the
many dive sites once completing the basic PADI qualification.
Seasoned divers will find the reefs wonderful
and a number of unexplored diving locations are available for day
trips.
Although the island doesn’t generally
attract many international tourists, it has recently become famous for the
American TV production of Survivor, a reality TV show where contestants
battled it out to be the ultimate survivor, living on a tropical island and
competing against each other for a prize of $1 Million US dollars. On
average, the dive school receives 4 to 5 students weekly and there are
currently 5 staff working at the dive centre.
Travellers and
the Pulau Tiga Resort have partnered together to provide our volunteers the
opportunity to do a placement at the Resort’s
Water Sports Centre- to give diving enthusiasts the chance to gain experience in a
beautiful setting!
Pulau Tiga is
located about 35 nautical miles southwest of Kota Kinabalu. It is reached by
first driving 140 kms to Kuala Penyu, a small settlement on the tip of the
Klias Peninsula. From here it is 18 kms and a 30 minute boat ride to the
island.
A lazy afternoon!
A chalet in the grounds of the Cebtre
WORK
RESPONSIBILITIES AND OBJECTIVES
Your daily
tasks could vary but the main objectives of this placement are for you to:
Have experience of running a water sports centre and, if you are
able to stay for a period of three months, have the opportunity to do a
total of 60 dives as a prerequisite to the Dive Master Course (you'll need
to start the programme with a PADI open water qualification to be considered
for this course).
Assist the Dive Master in the daily running of the centre.
Responsibilities include: taking care of the dive centre, guiding and
assisting new learners, handling customers enquiries, customer service and reporting to the
Dive Instructor
Develop your diving skills by taking several courses – i.e.
PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Emergency First Aid Response, Rescue
Diver etc.
Dry
Activities: Job
responsibilities include looking after the water sports centre, for example; general
cleaning (of the centre and the beach), handling customers inquiries,
manning the centre, filling up oxygen tanks, cleaning diving equipment,
assisting the movements of the boats or
assignments set by the Resort Manager (guiding trail walks, assisting water
department, assisting other departments), conducting English Classes.
Wet
activities:
The main activity you will take part in is assisting the Diving Instructor,
for example; helping the instructor while conducting diving lessons,
supporting and guiding learners, preparing diving gear for lessons,
interacting with new learners. You will also be responsible for cleaning and maintaining
the diving equipment, and getting the boats and Jet Ski's ready for guests.
This is NOT a
conservation project but you may have the opportunity to participate in the
following other activities:
Monitoring
and Surveying Artificial Reef (snorkelling) - replacing and/or repairing
damaged coral, continuing the development of the reef, conducting an inventory
of the marine life encountered (specifically fish), cleaning underwater
rubbish, collecting and replanting coral fragments.
Due to the location of Pulau Tiga, heavy winds are common resulting in
beach debris.
Monitoring and Surveying House Reef (snorkelling) - this will involve
conducting an inventory of the marine life (fish, coral, giant clams, etc)
encountered at the designated area, clearing underwater rubbish, feeding
fish, reporting the quality of water (i.e. visibility, under water current,
seaweeds, jellyfish, red-tide, etc), reporting any damaged corals
Developing an Artificial Reef – to form the foundation for planting corals,
setting up coral nursery units etc (some of this work will be undertaken as
a dry activity)
These activities are not guided by a marine biologist, so your input will
not have any academic value. Instead, these activities provide you with the
opportunity to be involved in useful work for the centre whilst practising
your diving skills. Some of the activities are quite routine and in some
respects similar to underwater gardening (for example, clearing underwater
rubbish, collecting and replanting coral fragments, etc.) During each of the
above activities you will dive with other volunteers who are on the
placement at the same time as you and will not be supervised by a member of
staff from the dive centre.
During your stay you might encounter days when the weather is not suitable
for water activities and therefore dry activities will take place. Once you have
gained your PADI Open Water certification you can also proceed with the following
courses
during your placement:
FIRST MONTH:
*Open Water
Course, Advanced Open Water Course
Please note,
if you already have a PADI open water qualification then you do not need to
take this course but you must take with you your log book and PADI
certificate. If you have another type of qualification that is not a
recognised PADI then you may have to take a refresher course after your
arrival.
SECOND MONTH:
Emergency
First Aid Response Course, Rescue Diver
THIRD MONTH:
Dive Master
Course. This is optional but you need to let us know before commencing your
placement whether you intend to do the Dive Master Course.
In order to do the dive master course you must
have completed at least 60 dives and reached a high level of fitness and a
slow level of air consumption. During this course you will also learn,
amongst other things, about customer service, fish and coral identification,
reef structure and underwater current movement. If you intend to take the
Dive Master Course within a 3 month period then we recommend that you do not
start as a complete beginner – it is advisable for you to have at least the
Open Water PADI qualification when starting the project.
WORK SCHEDULE
During the
first week of your placement you will have most of the afternoons off.
This is to enable you to acclimatise to the
tropical weather and to be familiar with the surrounding environment – i.e.
the resort and its facilities. During the rest of the placement you
will be required to work 6 days per week. Your day off will not usually be
over the weekend as this is when the dive centre is at its busiest. If there
are several volunteers doing this placement at the same time then you may be
able to arrange some of your days off together.
Of your 6 working days you will
be expected to spend 3 days doing dry activities and 3 days doing wet
activities. You must take your own fins, mask and wet suit (which can be
bought locally, if needed) but diving equipment is provided (this includes BCD, regulator and Scuba tanks).
This is not
a conservation project but there are some elements of conservation based
activities that you can become involved with during your stay (see above)
There will be a minimum of 2 volunteers on this placement at
any one time and each volunteer must spend a minimum of 2 months on this
placement.
Diving is possible all year round although the weather tends
to be stormy between June, July and August. All diving is weather dependant.
he resort can accommodate a maximum of 120 people at any
one time – it’s peak occupancy period tends to be from April/May to
Sept/October when usually it will be at least 70% full. At other times of
the year, occupancy can drop to around 20%. During the Low season, you’ll
find that the staff have more free time to give 1 to 1 instruction, where as
during the high season, you’ll have more exposure to customers but more
diving will take place in a group.
In order to dive you should take
out specialised
diving insurance (e.g. Divers
Alert Network www.daneurope.org).
Travellers' Malaysia Manager Albert
and friends!
ACCOMMODATION
Pulau Tiga Resort is privately run and has chalets for guests set in a
beautiful and quite exotic environment, befitting this beautiful country! There are lovely walkways that run between the accommodation and the various
facilities at the resort, surrounded by colourful local flora.
The Resorts' range of facilities is good (see below), but focuses mainly
on diving and water-sports, including a jetty set into the tropical beach.
Traditional
Longhouse: While on your project, you'll stay
in a Malaysian longhouse, where you'll get to experience a taste of living in
a traditional style. The Longhouse is traditional in style only - it is a
modern facility with a lovely wooden verandah giving beautiful views and
is nestled under trees.
The facilities
are comfortable, clean and very tropical. You will share your accommodation
with other Travellers volunteers with a maximum of three volunteers per
room.
Food:
Your meals will consist of local cuisine and are provided in the
Resort's Restaurant.
Meals are
taken in the form of a buffet, served daily and usually including two main courses
(these are usually a choice or combination of chicken, meat or fish),
with local vegetables
and salads, followed by fruit. In the very quiet
part of Low Season, there may occasionally be no guests at the Resort. At
such times you'll take your meals in the staff canteen.
Tea, Coffee
and Juice is available all day.
Facilities:
Pulau Tiga
Resort is fairly well equipped in terms of other facilities and these
currently include:
A bar and
restaurant area,
A small shop
at reception,
A volleyball
court,
A
football field
A
games room
(with pool table) and
A
TV room
During your placement you will have free access to non-motorised water sports
equipment, such as Kayaks - a great way to explore some of the island! Jet
Ski's are also available for hire. Local staff are friendly and live on
the island - they will often get together for a game of volleyball or
football in the evenings. Many of the
staff speak good English.
There
are also many trails through the undergrowth that you can explore easily
and are well worth the effort.
One of the
features of the island are the several active
mud volcanoes can be found around the island, especially at the
summit. Here you can cover yourself in
volcanic mud for a natural skin cleansing treatment!
These are well worth visiting for the view as well as the
volcanoes.
There is a
30 minute boat service from Kuala Penyu to Pulau Tiga which runs twice
daily, so you can get on and off the island if needed. In Kuala Penyu there
is a hospital, police station, coffee shop, post office, internet connection
and some other small shops. There is no nightlife but this can be found in
Kota Kinabalu, around 3 hours away by car.
This is a remote island - you can stay in touch with
home via Satellite phone or local Sim card, however, there is no
internet connection on the island and access to internet off the island
can be intermittent. We suggest that you prepare yourself for a remote
experience.
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+44 01903 502595
