Redang, Kuala Terengganu, Dungun Day 3

Ok, back in Redang...the third day we didn't do much. Brian and I decided to go take photographs and just walk around after breakfast. Laguna Beach Resort is really a nice place, I bet the price is nice too. =P

Laguna Beach Resort...nice.

Here is the famous MoMoCha Cafe. I never did finish watching the movie because I dislike Sammi Cheng's acting (although the movies that she was in all have rather nice plot).

A couple of jumping photos before we left:

We left Redang Island at around 9:30 a.m. in a speedboat which took us only half an hour to reach the mainland. Compare that to an almost 2 hour journey to reach Redang Island on the ferry! Brian's GPS showed that the speedboat was only going at 60km/hour. It was a rather bumpy ride but I enjoyed every moment of it. MeiJu didn't know that sitting at the front of the boat meant that it would be a bumpier ride and happily sat across from Brian and I. Haha...she was "faint boat" for a while (haha..classic translation from YiLoon to mean sea sick).

Meiju feeling "faint boat"

What is a journey to Redang without souvenirs? We went on a shopping spree at the jetty. Advice: Never buy things on the island itself because it would cost more. MeiJu and I bought a cuddly turtle each.

On the way to Woon's house in Dungun, we stopped by in Kuala Terengganu for lunch. We had steamed lekors (which didn't taste too good).

On the way to Dungun from Kuala Terengganu, we stopped by one of the many stalls by the roadside to buy satar. It tastes a little like otak-otak but it has some glutinous rice and very spicy chilli padi in it. We also bought corns. At the stalls, I wanted to try air nira kelapa which I've not heard of and bought a bottle. MeiJu warned me that its taste needs some getting used to. The moment I opened the bottle, I regretted my purchase. It smelled like the ammonia stuff hairstylists put on your head when you go for a perm. Drinking the air nira wasn't too bad. It just leaves a weird after taste. I gave the bottle to SinYuan who seemed to enjoy it when we stopped at Rantau Abang beach.

Satar

Corn, satar and air nira at Rantau Abang

After that it was an hour journey to Woon's house. We settled in and took a rest before going out for dinner with Woon's family at a Chinese restaurant. You would think that we would have stopped eating after dinner, but no, we went on to eat lekor and drink fruit juice for supper. Oohh..and nangka juice is not as bad as it sounds. It is actually very good. Do try it if you find a stall which sells it. It was only after that that we said enough and went to Woon's house for a good night's rest. Talk about eating non-stop!

D'uh...slow reaction

Ok, need to move away from the Redang topic for a while to let me digest a "sudden" realization... I am graduating and my friends are going to be everywhere after this week.

The reality FINALLY hit me. No wonder my friends were crying their eyes out on the day of our final paper! I just realised that I won't be able to meet my friends whenever I like after this week when I went to SiawHui's house to get some photos from her, MeiJu and SinYuan. No, I didn't feel it when I went in the house and saw that they have already packed their stuff. I still didn't feel it when I went into their almost empty room to get the photographs. I only felt the loss as I was leaving. Slow right?

As we were driving away, I tearily told Brian that I would no longer be able to just send them a message to ask them to go for karaoke or a drink after this. Of which Brian retorted by asking "do you ever?". It doesn't really matter if I did or didn't...it's just that the thought of being able to do that in the past was comforting enough. Now, whenever we think of each other, we would be too far away to meet up.

And as Vilo and Melwin kept writing about, 6 years is not a short time. I didn't cry in my primary years because most of my closer friends went to the same secondary school as I did. I didn't cry at the end of the secondary school years because I only had a few friends and I still keep in touch with them when we are back in Rawang. I promised myself to not to cry this time around, but it is just too much. Too many bitter and sweet and funny and sad and angry and countless indescribable emotions were shared with these bunch of crazy maniacs throughout the 6 years.

SIGH~~ many of my friends have already returned to their hometowns by the time this realization hit me. Another week or two and we will be posted to God-knows-where. For those who are still in KL, please, do give me a ring or send me a message and we WILL meet up.

Missing some of you badly already... =(

Redang Day 2

The 2nd day in Redang cannot be just narrated with words. You have to look at the photos, which of course has not been uploaded yet. Hehe...I will, I will...

So anyway, the snorkelling session for the 2nd day started at 9 a.m. We headed off to the marine park for this session. I was a little disappointed with the marine park condition as there are not many live corals there anymore. Too many tourists shh shhing there perhaps? Hehe...but Brian and I had fun looking at swordfish swimming among snorkellers who did not notice that the fish was around them because they kept looking down instead of near the surface where this fish is normally found.

After about an hour, we headed back to Redang Beach Resort for lunch. Brian left the lifevest that we rented on a bench at the beach while we went snorkelling (Oh, I didn't mention that Brian can float?). When we came to take it, someone had mistakenly taken the lifevest and left his own, which is boldly marked BRBR for Berjaya Redang Beach Resort. Grrr...talk about being blur! So, after asking the resort people for advice of what to do next, we took the much smaller vest and headed back. On the way back to the hotel, the "captain" of the boat suddenly stopped his engine in the middle of nowhere. We thought that there was something wrong with the boat when one person pointed into the sea and said "turtle"! Everyone rushed to one side of the boat to take a look that the boat was not balanced for a while. Haha...great luck that we could see turtle in the clear waters though.

About Brian floating, I believe his father has done a great job at training his children to be good swimmers since they were young. Brian and his sister can float in deep waters without the need of a life jacket. FuSeng, who is a capable swimmer himself tried to imitate Brian's "floating style" insead of treading water (because it is very tiring treading water for a long time), nearly drowned. Hahaha...Brian just has to kick occasionally to stay afloat. I tried that too but in a faster pace and I too nearly drowned (all the swimming lessons gone to waste as I did not think of treading when I was panicking).

After a good lunch, Brian and I went snorkelling in the areas that he missed out the day before. We saw three baby sharks and many many other beautiful fishes. After that, we went snorkelling in another spot in the deep sea. The spot on the second day is more beautiful than the place where we snorkelled on the first day. There were many corals but not too many fishes. Brian dove a couple of times to collect rubbish from the seabed. He attached them to the back of my life jacket which fell off during my attempt to do "stunts" and take underwater photographs. Haha...

A full day out in the sun. We headed back to Redang Beach Resort and went to the baby-shark-infested area. Hehe...we took a couple of photos and went back to clean up. Dinner that night was not good. SiawHui's skin has begun to react to the sunblock that she is allergic to. The girls had to take her to see a doctor. Brian dragged me to the beach for a moon-tan and I insisted on buying a can of beer. While happily sipping on the beer, Brian came up with a box and voila! a diamond ring for the full second year anniversary of our real date. Awww...is the diamond ring real? Well, that's for me to know and for you to wonder! ;)

Sunburnt but happy.

Diamond ring. Real McCoy or fake?

Love you sweetheart!

Redang Day 1

So, right after our final paper, when everyone (almost everyone) cried their eyes out, 6 chinese girls were gleefully laughing away at the excitement of going to Redang some time very soon. Yup, the 6 girls were myself, Woon, HwaCheat, Meiju, SinYuan and Siaw Hui. As our peers bid tearful goodbyes, we were smiling and saying "see you on Wednesday!!". Haha...

Brian, FuSeng, Woon and I started our journey from Cheras at 11 p.m. Tuesday night, the others were taking a flight straight to Kuala Terengganu the next morning. So anyway, we left Cheras at 11 p.m. and reached FuSeng's house in Dungun at 4 a.m. That was Brian driving after a full day's work. So, we took a nap at FuSeng's house and left for Kuala Terengganu at 6 a.m. because we didn't know the way to the Merang Jetty. I valiantly fought sleepiness from KL to Dungun because I know how drowsy it would make the driver feel if all the passengers in the car were asleep but I could fight it off no longer and left Brian to fight fatigue on his own from Dungun to Kuala Terengganu (of which I got an earful of complaint after that). The bus was crawling and we only reached the jetty at 9a.m., the same time as SiawHui and the gang arrived.

I napped again on the ferry and got another earful of complaint from Brian because having been knocked out meant that he had to stay awake to watch over our belongings. Hmmm...

OOh...the fun part about Redang jetty is that it is a mobile one! And it stops halfway so you would have to step into water to get to the hotel! Fun right? Good thing Woon told us or we would be all wet in our jeans!

We stayed at Redang Beach Resort which is a very nice place at a very reasonable price of RM 300 per person. The way the cafeteria is runned reminds me of a camp site. You know, bread available all day, Meal time from what time to what time, self-service and clean up after your own mess kind of thing. But the food was superb. So, after munching on a bit of bread and attending a short briefing, we checked in into our rooms and prepared to go for our first snorkelling session.

Having an energy-giving ice-cream before going for a snorkel.

Snorkelling was fun. Hmm..the photos of the snorkelling session are not in the computer yet. I'll upload them in a post later. After about an hour of snorkelling, we went back, took a rest and had BBQ dinner. Yum yum...Brian threw a tantrum because of lack of sleep that day. Haha...but all is well during dinner after he had a nap after the snorkelling session while I went snorkelling at the beach with FuSeng, Woon, MeiJu and YiLoon. Hehe... I may sound like a horrible girlfriend but you spend the amount of money to have fun, right? After all, he was cranky because of lack of sleep ma, so let him sleep la while I have fun for the both of us. :P Love you, sweetheart!

Before getting a sun tan, on our way to the deep-sea snorkelling spot.

The location for our snorkelling activity that day. Beautiful place. Too bad my camera couldn't capture the different shades of blue and green of the water.

More in the next post!

Graduation dinner 2008

Dear Ashley, this is an update for you. Hehe...

I just came back from Terengganu with a stomachache that lasted for 1 week. So this is an update of something that happened way before...even before the trip to Terengganu. Yup, it is the night of our graduation dinner. The night which many have spent hundreds to dress up and to attend. The night which caused so much heartaches and arguments between the "committee".

Actually, it was a rather successful night considering that many did not turn up and that there were so many dramas involved prior to the night. Whatever happened, everyone breathed a breath of relief once it was over. It was not a night of crying or sadness for most of us because we still had to sit for an exam on the following Monday, and anyway who wants to have mascara run down in two black streams? Haha...

It was lucky that DD and Esun managed to scrape up with something that looks like a door gift with the limited funds that they have. But the magazine looks fabulous. No doubt about that. And I got an award : Einstein Award. Haha...that's for being the one of the more notable "brains" in the cohort. Nah...they practically gave awards to everyone, so nothing to be too proud of.

The door gift that is the magazine and some ja-jans.

The highlight of the night must be that we hadto stand for almost ten minutes singing the national song, the UM song, the IPIK song, and Kami Guru Malaysia! Haha...I thought it was awkward but fun because we would not have much chance to sing these songs after graduation. But then it was Awkward with a capital A.

Having to sing patriotic songs before the dinner. Weird.

The food was all right considering it is hotel food. I had a taste of heaven with the payassam...Yum yum...There were actually two bands performing while we pigged out. Friday's was actually quite good compared to the band that jarrod was in. Unfortunately, not many paid attention to either of the bands because we were famished. The dinner was scheduled to start at 8 but Malaysian timing meant that we could only start eating at almost 9:15p.m.

The buffet food that I took before wolfing it down.

After eating, most people were busy taking photographs with each other rather than to pay attention to the bands or to the games that or award-giving ceremony at the front of the ball room. Haha..tough luck la that our cohort isn't too into these kinds of things. Leave us be in a room with soft music playing and lots of cameras and we are happy. The initial plan was to have soft music and maybe a band playing at the end, which would have saved us a lot of money but...

Well, cool and dampening responses or not, here are some of the many photographs I took that night...

Almost everyone important in my Uni life in the photo. Meiju, HwaCheat and Woon are missing.

Sempat lagi smile in this random photo.

Look at the butterflies syuck to the eyelashes. Classic. :)

With the Bollywood beauties. :)