As the trip to Lembeh draws closer, the urge of getting a housing for my new D200 grows stronger. So many options, at different prices, getting a housing is mind boggling.
Unlike OEM housings from brands like Canon, Olympus, Sony etc, third parties housing markers such as Ikelite, Nexus, Zillion, Sea and Sea, Aquatica, Seacam, Subal and many others all have their own unique selling points.
So how do you decide which housing to get?
This is a question we get alot. Divers asking us what is the best bag used for dive travel. From backpacks to messenger bags to plastic bags (ask Wen Seang), we have seen it all. And we notice, the more season the diver, the more bag problems or rather weird bags they have. For instant, a business person who travels alot and dive too, who have one of those sleaky leather cases for toiletries. And a sporty well traveled person who have one of those Deuter toiletries bag that you can hang it up during a shower. And what do a Dive Instructor like Wen Seang use? (more…)
Okay, as right now, we have the following participants who are ready to rock and roll at Raja Ampat.
1) Lester
2) Janice
3) Calvin
4) Andy
5) Karla
6) Pei Min
7) Wai Yin
Julynn
9) Lionel
10) Jason
11) Lawrence
12) Lloyd
13) Wei Qun
So only 3 more spaces to come. Now the next nightmare is gonna start, co-ordinating the air ticket and who is going on which trip.
I did not expect so many people to be keen with Raja Ampat. Looks like it I will be running two trips, back to back now.
The first trip consist of Wai Yin, Lawrence, Calvin, Janice, Andy, Karla, Jason, Pei Min, Geof, myself. And the second trip will probably consist of myself, Jason again, Lloyd and wife.. ..
Well, my little brother Ben is SO gonna be angry when he finds out we are heading to Raja Ampat without him 
Before becoming a scuba diving instructor, I used to love the idea of IT. Now that I am running a dive centre, IT seems to become my worst enemy.
DOT Matrix, Quickbooks Saga
Calvin and me spent the good half morning battling with a dot matrix, trying to get it working with our one and only Windows system in the centre.
Firstly, we had no clue when the error light kept blinking. Paper was in, ink cartridge was present. Thank God, Calvin is a strong believer in the DOT matrix printer. From his past experience with his own company, he had a couple of such antiques.
Why waste time on such ancient technology when the centre has a high end 3 in 1 ink jet MFC and also a laser printer? With Orpheus Dive maturing, I thought it is time for us to invest in a proper accounting management system, hence the purchase of Quickbooks. And since we are computerizing the accounting system, why not get a dot matrix and use it for invoices too Smart right? No, dumb move. More things to take care of. By the time we finished setting up the dot matrix, the next problem came up. How do we align the paper and how are we going to design the invoices on computer paper?
I spent the entire night trying to figure that out and designing a template that can be used. Well, let’s hope this is not gonna be a waste of money
Buffalo, Dlink and Linksys
We just got a lovely iMac DV for Calvin for a steal. Only S$250, complete with Mac OS X. Next thing I need to do is to “wireless” the damn thing as Airport was not available on the system. Bought this niffy device from Dlink. “Just plug it in and it will work with any router” the damn sales person said. Thinking that if I can set up the entire wireless network for Orpheus, this should not be a problem. Man, was I wrong.
Getting into the admin panel was easy, I have done this many times. The first strange thing started to happen. Everytime the Dlink access point started to “connect” to the Buffalo wireless router, the entire wireless network goes missing. Neither the Pee Cee nor my powerbook can find any wireless network. And I mean NOTHING. The Dlink seem to block out the entire wireless range. I tried all possible configurations but to no avail. Then the iMac hung. And this time, after it hung, the OS got corrupted. Well, no worries since it is a Mac right. The only problem is that when we bought the iMac, no installer Disc came with it.
We had to sent it back to Mac, get a new hard disk and had to bribe them to reinstall the OS for us. Well, we are going to pick it up this Friday. Hope everything would be fine and Calvin can finally work on his own terminal
Yes, our expedition to Raja Ampat is confirmed! 7th November, Raja Ampat meets Orpheus Dive Crew. I am totally excited about this. However, the logistic is going to be one MAJOR nightmare. Firstly, we have to co-ordinate the flights from Singapore to Jakarta for 12 person, then from Jarkata, taking Merapati Air (not something that anyone knows) to Sorong.
Fares to Jakarta is affordable, however, the fares from Jakarta to Sorong is HORRIBLE. It cost as much as SGD$600 just to fly there on some airline that is virtually unheard of. And after paying more than SGD$900 for air-tickets, I am thinking to ask the crew to extend the number of days for the RA expedition. Not quite worth it to pay $900 for a 6 days diving expedition. Maybe we can extend it to 9 days of diving if everyone can take time off.
As expected, this trip is overwhelming. We might end up running two trips for our crew, back to back.
Now that this trip is confirmed, I am thinking.. .. WHO IS GOING TO CONTRIBUTE TO MY DSLR UNDERWATER SETUP FUNDS!Â
My long dream of diving Raja Ampat is finally coming true again After losing my deposit for my intended trip over Chinese New Year, I recently came across someone who is kind enough to invite us and our crew to Raja Ampat!!!!!
So in the next few days, this is what I am going to work out. Researching on different operators of Raja Ampat and how to get them.
So far, looks like the only way is to fly from Jakarta to Sorong, and guess what, it is using Lion Air.
Was having a discussion with Ivan, I think all the crew should wear red, buy lottsa insurance. This might be our first trip to Raja Ampat and it might very well be our last trip to anywhere if anything happens on Lion Air
At the back of my mind, I’m thinking, I should be bring all my lucky stars with me on this trip, people like Jason, who is so lucky that Manta Rays can be spotted in Hantu if he was diving there!!!