Day 2 of diving

It rained just now for the 2nd dive. Nothing much to see. I only found a nudi, the smallest pygmy seahorses, and lionfish. There was a snowflake morray which was swimming around. I wanted to take a photo but WK suddenly appeared beneath me and block. I tapped him and pointed to the morray I wanted to take. Haha.

Lunch was superb. Old cucumber soup, lamb, fusilli pasta.

And lots more.

Now I’m waiting to have dinner. Skipped the tea just now to go wash up. So now I’M VERY HUNGRY.

Update again tmrw.

Hammerheads

Saw a school of hammerheads this morning. Hehe. It was lucky, coz any earlier we might not have seen it. Apparently someone went down to 50m to chase it, so they had swam up to chance upon us. But that guy was banned fm next dive.

Time to go soon for next dive soon. Tata!

Tiring journey to Layang Layang

Flight by Air Asia left early yesterday. We arrived in KK about 11pm, and being adventurously no lodging for the nite coz the time to be at airport again was 5am.

We asked the info counter lady abt our options, and finally decided on Airport View Hotel due to the proximity to T1, where we had to take a plane to LYLY.

It was a first time experience for us to take this propeller plane. And we had fun taking pix. Although plane was small, I managed to get forty winks, though it gave me a blocked right ear coz I was lying on that side.

Went thru briefing and formalities, then brekkie. Food was really good. Met Yingkai, who came back from his last dive of his trip.

Then with a lazy and fatigued body, went for the 1st and 2nd dive of the day. Nothing spectacular, just schools of jacks, barracudas, white tipped sharks and a pair of lionfishes. I am still having the problem of sinking while the BCD is floating (coz too big and it was loaned fm YX).

More to come soon. Now I just wanna have dinner then go sleep.

And I think my nose is slightly burnt. Can see slight bikini tan lines already actually, despite wearing a long sleeved jacket and pants.

Nice.

Fraser’s Hill 14 – 15 Feb 09 (Part 2)

We really appreciate what Jos did for everyone of us. She did a lot of work to bring things up from Singapore to Fraser’s Hill, and also a lot of preparation works a week before.

Finally for dinner – but it wasn’t very nice. We had 2 tables, and a chef to cook the meats of the nite.

Oh well, mistakes are inevitable

How high and low the temperature can get at Frasers Hill

It was 21 deg C that nite, which wasn’t that cold actually.

I didn’t take photos of the dinner – I didn’t bring my camera along.

Then we had after dinner event, and a room was borrowed where all of us gathered together. Nicely done up.

A flower for every lady. Lined up against the wall

Nicely lit up for the whole place, with chocolates, candles and sweets and booze. Romantic

Here’s why it was so glittery even in the dark

Very nice.

Oh ya, haven’t shown you around the apartment that 4 of us shared.

We’ve got the highest floor

With a nice fantastic view – this was taken early in the morning

Our balcony

It looked like it might rain, but it didn’t.

The room with the ensuite bathroom. No need aircon, just open the windows

Before we went off the next morning, we went to the arcade. Nothing spectacular, but still there were game machines.

And then we saw this cute sight.

Monkey! He (I assume it’s a he) found something!

He saw me taking a photo of him

Bo chup!

Hahhahaha…

And here’s some random shot. Coz it landed on my super dusty car. 

All the bikers helmets, at where we stopped for lunch before we went downhill and off home

Click here for Fraser’s Hill 14-15 Feb 09 (Part 1)

Fraser’s Hill 14-15 Feb 09 (Part 1)

All right. This post is long long overdue. Since I’ve got time now I thought I’ll just blog about it. 

We set off early in the morning, 4.30am from Gelang Pateh and about 3am from my place to pick WK and FT up. I was supposed to be the main driver, WK the backup driver and FT to rest. It ended up FT being stuck to the GPS.

We got lost, coz the traffic was heavy at KL. So we had to turn back and thank god for the GPS which guided us safely back to the last petrol station meeting point before we touched the base of Frasers Hill.

It was daybreak, and nearly reaching KL

Stopping for breakfast and at the foot of the hill

Like a part of our body. Look how curvy it was.

Following the marker

Halfway there! We stopped by the side to actually take the photo.

Almost there!

    

And here we are, at the top of the world.

Our block

With our own parking lot

Tired, but cooling. We just had a little rest, then went down the slope (in the car of coz) to have a nice lunch at this quaint looking restuarant. No photos, coz we were famished and forgot about snapping. But I can tell you, the hokkien mee was superb. Those Malaysian style Hokkien mee, black sauce type.

Then we really went to have a deep sleep before a V-day dinner ahead…and which wasn’t too fantastic actually. The best one was the after dinner programme.

Fraser’s Hill 14-15 Feb (Part 2)

Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Scenery)

Here’s some photos I took from the hotel room and outside.

The view of the Eye on Malaysia from the top of St Paul’s Church

A look outside from the hotel balcony

It was low tide so you could see the sandy bottom

This is how it looks in the day

And this…at nite. I like reflection photos.

Remember this?

Familiar?

Click here for Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Food section Part 1)

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Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Shopping & chilling out)

Coz it was supposed to be a leisure trip, we did plenty of chilling out. 

On the first nite, we stayed out (though near to hotel) till about 3am. It was cold, yet I ordered something ice blended. Was shivering after I nearly finished the drink. Like the lime jelly bits.

The place we went was on the other side of the hotel, overlooking the coast. With the Eye on Malaysia in the background. We had to take a buggy ride to the innermost part of the building. We hopped onto the buggy without asking if it was free coz we see people just going on it. 

The rest had some really sweet red wine. The waiters there are evidently not well trained coz of the way they opened a wine bottle. Took quite some time to get the cork out and I think it (nearly) broke halfway too.

The next nite (Sat) we went to this place called Geographer Cafe after the Coconut House dinner, along Jonker Walk. THAT is what I call a happening place. It looks like a pub from outside, but they allow kids in there. And the main crowd is actually those from mid-30s to early-40s.

But dun expect the band there to be fantastic though. It’s made up of people who are regulars there, and mostly out-of-tune. Haha. And they are really friendly to neighbours. The place opposite to Geographer also has a band playing, but they take turns to play each section. So it does not create a ruckus or each needed to shout to get heard amongst the noise. 

We sat there for an hour or so drinking Kilkenny, and thought maybe we should take a look at the revelry adjacent to Geographer.

And how can we do without shopping?

Jonker Walk has a nite bazaar on Saturdays, so the whole street was quite crowded. I saw a few stalls selling clogs beautifully decorated, but to fork out nearly RM70 minimum per pair is not really a good deal. So I decided to forego buying a pair. Or so I thought. Until I passed by this shop.

When I first got in, I thought RM50 for a pair is much cheaper than what I saw earlier on. Though less colourful, but still looked exquisite enough.

The lady was grouchy when I started asking price and design and size. Then while we browsed a little while more and started to choose a few pairs, she totally changed to be a super friendly person. Ha. Think she could have gotten quite a few customers asking but without buying, and that we popped by when she was about to close at 10pm.

In the end, I bought 4 pairs. 2 for me, 1 for my mum and another for G’s auntie. Got slight discount la, though not significant but better than nothing.

There was even some beaded sandals more expensive than Aldo shoes. For RM650 per pair. Whoot!

On the opposite road of our hotel Mahkota, there were 2 malls, one of them also called Megamall. We became good frens with F.O.S, coz that was the place that most of us bought the most number of clothes, all together. Half of the shop was having the promotion of 1-for-1, like shorts going for RM40 for 2, jeans going for RM50 for 2, blah blah.

And here’s what I bought from F.O.S.:

My shoes and clogs.

My favouritest one on the bottom right corner. Coz of the unique shape and Jappy look.

Click here for Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Food section Part 1)

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Melaka road trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Sightseeing)

We didn’t do much sightseeing in Melaka, but we did visit 2 places of interest (3 if you consider Jonker Walk to be one).

Speaking of which, I lost the summon tix I got at Jonker Walk. I have absolutely no idea how it have gotten lost, except maybe during the time I showed WK and then I really can’t remember if he had returned it to me or not. If he did, then I can’t remember where I placed it.

So it’s not I didn’t try to pay for it, it’s just that maybe I’m not meant to pay for it. I just hope it’s issued by the town council and not the police, coz I bought the touch ‘n go card and that means we still have plans to step into Malaysia in my car!

We started snapping pictures the moment we stepped into the touristy area.

We went to the St Paul’s Church for some relic sightseeing and it was pretty hot day for trekking up the stairs to the top. Pretty interesting to know that they actually have this cage thing which people actually throw money in, like the Chinese when they want to wish for something. Is it a similar concept, or just ‘people see people do’ thing? That remains a mystery.

The church is actually a good place for some nice artistic shots. As mine is just P&S, it’s not really up to the mark to what I wanted to achieve. So it’s just some snap snap snap.

There was this Dutch cemetery which we saw, but didn’t really try to go in. Anyway, I do not know whether it is out of bounds or not, coz no one was inside, except for a few guys which were sitting at the door entrance. Might not be a good idea to take photos in there too.

Just next to the church there was a mosque. It would have been a good shot to take a photo with both buildings in it, but it was a bit not possible from where I am.

And what I initially thought was an entrance of a stadium, turned out to be one of the entrances to the Megamall.

Before we got into the mall to enjoy the aircon and some food, we stepped into a museum (Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum). Very interesting place to be at to know some culture of the people living in Malaysia. Need to pay though to enter. 

Here they practice taking off the shoes too before stepping into the place. No wonder for the plastic bag at the entrance.

Most of the stuff are related to the traditional costumes and traders who comes to Melaka in the past. There was also a replica of the Sultan’s chambers and a setting of their meeting of the officials and guests in the office.

Went for food after that of coz. At the food court in the Megamall.

And tried this too. Hehe.

Click here for Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Food section Part 1)

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Melaka road trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Food section, part 2)

Dinner on the first nite was nearby. In fact, just opposite Mahkota at Holiday Inn. There was a disco pub there called Arena, and it was pretty happening. Nope, we did not go clubbing though. Went to try this satay celup upstairs.

Food was not bad, I can’t remember how much though. Basically satay celup is like steamboat, only that the ’soup base’ is satay sauce, and you are required to occassionally stir it before it sticks to the bottom and get burnt.

The fridge that keeps all the stuff separated, the satay sauce, and our various foods until we finished the last bits of food we took

The food variety was not too bad, but after you put those foods in the satay sauce, and then see others having steamboat putting the same foods in chicken soup base (btw, they sell both satay celup and steamboat, as well as fruit rojak), it just feels so strange. Or maybe it’s just me.

We had one stick which tasted funny, so we told them. They apologised for it and took away that stick, and was so anxious to go and check the whole tray of it in the fridge coz they thought we said that the whole tray was bad. Then they didn’t charge us for that, without us even saying anything else. Which I thought was good.

Those foods were segregated into 3 different types and charged differently, ranging from RM0.60 – RM1.00 per stick.

Oh ya, the herbal tea was good. Totally different from the one which we had at Hoe Kee earlier in the morning.

We went to chill out at the outlets further down the building after dinner, and had some drinks, before we went to sleep at 3am.

The next nite, we had this fantastic woodfire pizza at this quaint house called Coconut House, which was a total contrast to the food they sell. I was really amazed by the pictures they had as decorations, and this particular picture reminds me of Caramel, because of the way he’s lying down.

Here are the foods we had, sharing amongst the 5 of us:

Lamb chop, smoked salmon fettuccine, baked mushroom with parmesan cheese topping, and the atmosphere of the quaint looking Coconut House. How could I forget the wood fire pizza? Btw, I missed out taking one of the pizzas coz we were too hungry and wanted to try it out. FAST.

I liked the smoked salmon pasta the best. All along I thought the salmon was just normal salmon, cooked. But I never expected it to taste the same like raw smoked salmon. So I kinda had a surprise.

Food service was slow, but there was only 1 lady on the floor while the others worked round the kitchen. So when the whole house was full of people, we had to really wait a while.

We ended up being the last table of people to leave.

With a full full stomach.

Click here for Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Food section Part 1)

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Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (food section, part 1)

Am back from Malaysia, a bit reluctantly though (sounds familiar).

It was overall a good trip. Most of the time I was feeling full coz it was always eating, shopping, walking and chilling. Even got a summon ticket which was super unhelpful coz the whole piece was in Bahasa Melayu and nowhere states where and how to pay. Diao.

We started off at 5am+ from Gelang Patah, then head down to Pagoh before reaching Melaka. The problem with Melaka was that the traffic lights stay red for like more than a minute (countdown from 99 seconds) but it kept green only for like 10 seconds. No wonder there was a jam.

We reached there, managed to change to a 2 bedroom apartment, then went off for the first meal before we checked in at 11am.

Drove to Jonker Walk, to taste the infamous chicken rice balls.

There were a few, but the best one was thought to be this Hoe Kee.

Clockwise from top left: (1&2) Entrance to Hoe Kee; (3) Signboard; (4) GPS where the place was marked on; (5) Chicken Rice balls; (5&6) the chicken meat

 

The herbal tea was superb too. It’s just not like the herbal tea made in Singapore. Something rather refreshing and citrusy, and definitely homemade.

And the meat, veggie plus rice balls. Really yummy.

And that was the only chicken rice balls stall that was with people at 10am+ in the morning. Other 2? No one.

We went on to eat chendol, and walked down the streets and looked at stuff of those shops opened at that time. I was thinking of buying clogs, but didn’t find anything at all. Or so I thought.

Came to this dessert shop to satisfy our chendol cravings.

From top: (1-7) Decorations made up of old styled stuff on display; (8-9) Signs / Entrance of Jonker Dessert; (10-12) The chendol dessert which tasted superb. Plus super fattening of coz.

Headed back to hotel to try our luck to check in, after the heavy brunch.

…to be continued

Click here for Melaka Road Trip 10 – 12 April 09 (Food section Part 2)

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Road trip

Am driving up to Fraser’s Hill tomorrow early morning. Feeling excited and slightly worried at the same time.

It’s my first time driving by myself (not literally coz my frens are with me in the car plus about 10 bikers and 2 more other cars) but all of us in the car do not know the roads in Malaysia at all. So I’m a bit worried that if I drive like a turtle will I miss them out?

The biker group had several experiences riding up, and they have a leader and sweeper who will switch positions front back along the way. I have a feeling that I might be swept on the whole journey there (coz I’m the slowest ma).

All are big bikes, so they can travel faster then me.

On the other hand, it should be quite exciting to drive up till so far to Malaysia (the furthest I’ve been is only to JB) and go to some place which is of aircon climate (or even lower like I’ve experienced in Johannesburg).

And got V-day dinner included somemore. Haha!

Will be back with photos. Till then!

Diving in Tioman

Back from Tioman…

I am so stoned today.

Didn’t have an enjoyable dive coz I was having a headache practically every time I jumped in. Like someone squeezing my head with a great force.

I think it was because of my just-recovered cold.

I bled a lot lor. My flam is bloodied even the next day I woke up. Even now, still tasting a bit of blood in my mouth. Must be clearing the sinuses. Thank god I didn’t have problem clearing my ears in water, otherwise I’ll really feel shit.

After the 2nd dive, I practically konked out. It was so tiring to try to focus in the water, so I ended up very much tired than usual. Had to nap a while during the surface interval.

It felt better after the nap and so I went for the 3rd dive. It was better except when it’s time to ascend, the stupid head squeeze came by again.

The visibility was not so good, and nothing really much to see actually.

The journey to and fro was thankfully faster than normal. Reached there about 4am (and I got to sleep on the boat) and managed to sleep 3 hours before the first dive. But I woke up before that coz it started to rain in the morning and the flimsy blanket didn’t quite manage to do its job. I was shivering but can’t be bothered to go get my windbreaker to wear since it was nearly dawn and time to wake up soon. So I just curled up like a ball.

Water was cold (27-28 deg C) and it reminded me of Lembeh. And all I wore was a short sleeved rashie and shorts. Hah~ Actually I brought my long pants but was too lazy to wear that.

It did rain on Sunday too, for a while. But not too bad, coz I managed to get a slight tan. But I did get a couple of sea bugs bites *scratch scratch* and a scratch from the corals.

Oh yes, for the first time ever, I tasted Ramly burger. Sua ku, but I didn’t think it was fantastic after all. Maybe because it wasn’t the original one.

The milo dinosaur was fantastic though. Milo powder with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yummy concoction when mixed. The cheese prata wasn’t so fantastic though. The banana one was better.

Oh ya, we stayed at Island Reef resort this time. Near Genting village. They had a nice bed and pillows got enough fluff. But it was a pain to climb up the stairs all the way.

Got hot shower en-suite too! But moskies were also plentiful too. I got bitten the moment I stepped into the room on Saturday morning. So the bites on me now I can’t differentiate whether it is the work of the moskies or sea bugs.

The return journey was good too, there was no one at the Singapore customs when we reached! Surprise surprise~ Of coz we ran la, before more people started coming…

During dinner we went to this place at Kota Tinggi. At the entrance, I saw this little gal (about 4 yrs ba) standing beside a bicycle, wearing heeled sandals and stepping on an empty can. She looked quite fierce and as if she was going to kick anyone of us in the shin too.

She showed her prowess in the restaurant.

It was a pity that no one told her that what she did was wrong, but she had a kitten put in the box. And to our horror, she started putting her foot into the box! Stepping on the kitty actually.

Some of us told her not to do it, but she continued. Said she was trying to get the kitty to stand up in the box. And she was real fierce and stubborn too.

And her mother didn’t stop her act. Nor did any of the adults nor brother did.

Thank god the kitty was still alive after we finished the meal. But it was so sad…we are not in the position to reprimand her and she gets angry when we tell her not to do it.

And I think the kitty actually belonged to her.

Anyway…

I’m itching real bad…like a monkey now.

Urrgghh.

Day at Tawau & Semporna

Well, this is long overdue, but better late than never…

We were received at Tawau by J’s frens, I & JF at the airport. The main town of Tawau, or 斗湖 in Mandarin, is about 20 mins from their international airport.

First we went to Sabindo, one of their towns there, before going off to Fajar town. Because J needed to send something out by email, we had to go to somewhere where they’ve got WiFi.

And guess what? They’ve got WiFi at COFFEESHOPS. For free somemore. Though of coz it is a bit slow. Since J needed some time to upload his big file, I went to the shops 2 doors away with his friends to take a look at the clothes and bags they have there.

Most of the fashion stuff in Tawau, according to I, are ‘imported’ from KL and so the new fashion pieces often come slower than what you can get in KL. And because of this fact, they are also more expensive.

I didn’t really feel like buying anything because I have baggages with me and it meant that it will be a bit difficult to bring extra things around.

Many things they sell are quite the ‘bling bling’ type, especially the bags.

Because Tawau is so small, people there know each other either by person or by face. So it meant that if tourists (like us) goes to Tawau, the locals there will know it.

And because of this, whatever the locals do will be known to others very fast. Who you go out with, what you do, can easily be the topic of discussion for that day.

There is only a theatre in the whole of Tawau, plus a lot of cafes only open till about 6pm during the weekends. What the locals usually do during the weekends is to drive around, hang around at coffeeshops or cafes to talk and talk about anything under the sun. So the roads are very busy (to the extend of having jams) at various junctions and the most significant thing about Tawau is they have alot of roundabouts everywhere! Instead of just turning junctions, vehicles have to go around these roundabouts to get to the other road. And the roundabouts come in various sizes too, the smallest being one where only a single person can stand on that roundabout coz it’s only a piece of rock. Yeah, it’s that small.

We went around eating their mee soto, where pieces of lime were squeezed into the soup to give the sour taste, when we usually eat it salty in Singapore. I also had ice, because it was such a hot day then. Then we went around to places and supermarkets and private housing areas (where the upper class stays) to try and while the time away while waiting for the dive centre to call us to pick us to Semporna.

Also went to the navy club area, where it’s a very quiet place to chat a bit. Here the 2 ladies (frens of J) finally agreed to take pictures. They were apprehensive about taking pictures in town because they didn’t want the locals to see and end up gossiping about them.

Then we went to this cafe with I (JF had to go off a while) to relax and chat, until JF finished her stuff and came around to pick us up again.

Before we got the call from the dive resort, we went to the supermarket (the biggest there) to look for red wine and shop around, because there was nowhere else to go. We went for something to eat and drink (again) before the driver finally came to pick us up.

An hour later, we finally got reunited with the rest of the gang at Semporna.

The rooms at Seafest were quite big and we 4 gals actually managed to stay in one room while the 3 guys in another.

Went for a seafood dinner nearby, before getting back to the hotel to prepare some of our dive stuff, check out if we got all the things we wanted, chatted and watched VCDs, before we retired for the nite.

Off to diving soon!

Halfway thru Sipadan

Hello from the oil rig Seaventures!

Halfway thru Sipadan. Lots of dives, currents, fishes, sharks and other sea creatures. Turtles are abundant and we see it at every dives. Too many that it kinda does not seem so exciting anymore.

Wireless is not stable so not much updates. Will do it when I get back home. Ciao!