Sharks, Rays & Gracie the Sea Cow.

The time to overcome my fear of SCUBA and just get on with things had arrived. When I learnt you can "Dive with the Sharks" at Underwater World here in Singapore, I thought this presented the perfect opportunity. The aquarium is home to the largest collection of sand-tiger sharks in the world. Though they are pretty harmless to humans, they look very fierce with their many dagger-like teeth on display. As we wandered around Underwater World, I began to wonder what I'd let myself in for. Not only had my last diving experience caused me to become terrified of breathing underwater using SCUBA gear, but here I was, about to climb into an oversized fishtank with more sharks per metre that you're likely to encounter in the Deep Blue! It didn't help that on observing the shark tank, we were watching them from the magnified glass section...they looked enormous!

I was poorly prepared for the days exertions, having being awake since 4:30am. I told myself this was not connected to fear, but deep-down I understood otherwise. Grabbing a bite to eat before the dive, some dark force had me ordering a smoked salmon sandwich before I realised what was happening. As I nibbled away, I thought about how a shark can detect a drop of blood or fish oil from hundreds of metres away. Andy wouldn't swap sandwiches, so I reasoned that the sharks were bound to be well-fed and used to humans entering their domain. And surely the other fish would smell more than my post-sandwich self?

Going backstage at the aquarium was an adventure in itself. It looked a bit like the film-set from Minority Report and there were lots of shallow tanks fed by sprinkler-systems showering the specimens beneath. In one tank were loads of little black-tipped reef sharks and another full of turtles. More scarily though, housed in one corner tank were two bull sharks! Following numerous incidents of massacre in the aquarium, they had been quarantined. One such occurrance involved the staff arriving one morning to find just the head of a massive grouper remaining...weighing 22kg alone! They are going to build a bigger tank to give these sharks a proper environment soon (or sell them to the Chinese opposite?) Just peering over the edge at them was terrifying enough as they were very active. Inquisitively they swam very quickly to the edge of the tank, turning at the last second to face us and raise it's head out of the water! Bull sharks are well-known from their aggressive nature as they clearly demostrated to us by their tail-thrashing. They are also notorious for eating almost anything and, along with Great Whites, are responsible for the most attacks on humans.

I was almost thankful that it was time to get in the aquarium. I soon remembered that you can actually breathe underwater with your SCUBA gear, but it felt a little disconcerting being without fins. I also had more weight than usual on my belt, to ensure you stay down (and no air in my BCD). The idea was that we walked around the bottom of the tank...something which you never do as a sea diver, in case you damage coral or stand on anything dangerous. But I didn't have long to worry about these minor details, for within seconds, the bloke handed me a massive leopard shark to hold!!! You hold them sort of like a baby or as you might an oversized baguette and they just let you get on with it. Sadly, despite taking some amazing underwater shots, we've just discovered that it was a dud camera and none of them have come out, so you'll just have to believe me. It was seriously as big as me and I held it for ages because I didn't know what to do with it afterwards. Eventually I sort of "threw" it into the water, which wasn't met with much emotion, it just waggled its tail a bit and disappeared. Photos seen here are taken from dry side of the tank!

The sand tiger sharks must have been in a separate tank as we didn't encounter any of those, but there were plenty of black-tipped and white-tipped reef sharks and we took some great photos of each other lying down next to one. They felt quite nice - not rough and sandy like the leopard sharks. Enough sharking about! We then swam over the acrylic viewing tunnel to feed the sting rays. It was so surreal having strangers taking photos of you and being a part in their home-movies!! The bloke had a bag of snails with which to feed the rays. There were all sorts in there including cow rays and huge eagle rays, but to be honest I only really saw the underside of them. They seemed to be loving the snails but it wasn't very enjoyable as they sort of snatched them from you with their jaws and you could hear them crunching the shells. When they'd finished, they sort of swam over your head and I was concerned that they'd knock my regulator out of my mouth or that they'd get me with their enormous 2 metre wingspan. Even worse, I envisaged being attacked with one of their fierce barbs. I was then made to stroke this gigantic moral eel which was quite disgusting. They just look plain evil with their gaping jaws and this was much bigger than any I'd ever seen in the sea. Finally, it was time for something a little more relaxing...

We swam through an underwater "door"made of stones and came face-to-face with Gracie the Dugong. A dugong is a type of seacow and they are now endangered. Fortunately for Gracie, she was rescued 8 years ago off Pulau Ubin. Her mother had been caught in a fishing net and as a calf, Gracie wouldn't have survived alone. In ancient times, sailors often mistook the calls of seacows for those of mermaids (or sirens). As they lived around underwater rocks, the sailors were often lured to their deaths. The name is derived from the Malay word duyung, which translates as mermaid. Gracie weighs about 160kg and is still growing. By the amount of sea grass we fed her, this is no wonder. She was gorgeous anyway and seemed to genuinely enjoy our company.

Underwater World is just a fraction of the activities to be had on Sentosa, the man-made island just off the shores of Singapore. Bizarrely created because Singapore was running out of space, they even imported a load of sand to make a beach which is actually very nice! After a quick ride down the Luge on a go-cart, we went off to the Lagoon, to see the pink dolphins. These beautiful creatures displayed their party tricks and provided a perfect finale to our day of aquatic adventures.

Another "must-do" for anyone coming to Singapore, has long been a visit to the famous Raffles Hotel. It was here that the Singapore Sling was created in the hotel's Long Bar 1915. Recipe especially for Joe G! Actually, it's such a tourist trap that they have jugs of it pre-mixed and it's a bit too sweet for my liking. It seemed to be full of middle-aged women filming their cocktails and at nearly 7 quid a go, we could've given it a miss. Unable to persuade Andy to book us in for the night, we shuffled back to Little India for the last time...tomorrow, Borneo!!!