a happening island

Just within a month from the Sipadan trip, I was heading to another island for a long weekend breakaway. It's not a diving trip, I went there with a bunch of colleagues which also looking to take a break from the routine work life. The destination, Redang Island.

The trip is somehow different from what I had previously on Perhentian or Sipadan. It's not free and easy anymore, as travel to Redang Island often goes by package, which means, within the package, you will have your accommodation, meals, activities, transport inlcuded. Hence, this time, we would need to take a 10hrs bus ride to Kuala Terrenganu (KT), departing from Putra Bus Station. The bus always schedules to start at late night, about 10pm; so that when it reaches it destination it will be early morning, and passengers can take a good rest over the long journey.

We reached Kuala Terrenganu at about 6am, and first thing, we headed to the washroom to clean ourselves up. After that we headed to some local food stall to have some light snack while waiting for the land transport to fetch us to the Jetty, the land transport is part of the arrangement from the package that we took. The journey from KT bus station to jetty took us about 40mins. Unlike Sipadan and Perhentian, the boat that we took was larger and more comfortable.

Once we reached Redang, we checked in to the resort and immediately we were briefed on the activities that we were going to have on the island, which include 3 snorkeling trips starting on that afternoon itself. Since we reached there at 10am and there's still time before we could have our lunch. We decided to have a swim and tried out the snorkeling gears that provided by the resort. Though Redang is already a well-developed island with all kind of facilities, but they do a good job in keeping their beach and water clean. We swam for about and hour or so, and we headed to took our lunch. After the lunch, we were arranged to our first snorkeling trip. I was shocked when I saw there were 3 boats heading to the same site from our resort alone. I couldn't imagine how crowded the place will be when all the resorts send 3 boats of people for snorkeling.

As expected, by the time we reached there, we already saw another few boats from other resorts approaching. Before we went into water, there's a simple briefing on what we need to do, what we can't do, bla bla bla. After all the talking was done, we all jumped into the water and started to look for fishes. A few of my colleagues were first timer on this activities and they found quite excited. For me, it was just a normal underwater sight seeing activities and not much things could attract me; until I reached a spot that I found a few real big fishes - a triggerfish, a moray eel and a grouper. I couldn't help myself to follow the triggerfish around although we are often advised not to go near them as they have real sharp teeth and will be very aggressive if someone approaches them. After I swam along with the triggerfish for about 5mins, all of the sudden, the crowd started to move towards this spot. Apparently, the guide lead them to the spot so that they could have a look at these big fishes. The place became so packed that I merely got kicked from some strangers, so I decided to left the spot. The trip lasted for about an hour and that finished off the first day activity.

Good thing about taking package is that meals are all arranged so we don't have to run around to look for food. Since there's no activity after dinner, we decided to went for karaoke. The resort itself has some facilities, eg. karaoke, pool, swimming pool, even a pub by the beach side. And that night, we were haunted by the song that Mikegas so obsessed in, we named it the 'lala' song. And he even put it as his ring-tone when he's back from the island. After the K-session, we called the day off and prepared for the 2nd day activities.

2nd day activities included 2 snorkeling trip, 1 after breakfast, the other 1 after lunch. The first trip was rather exciting, because we were arranged to snorkel on the marine park; a lot of fishes, and they are expecting tourists like us to feed them with bread. And yes, I saw a lot of tourists already prepared some bread, not to feed them, but to attract the fishes to them. Ok, then headed out to the site, again crowded. Well, it is a place with a lot of fishes, but it's rather disappointing that those were just small fishes. After the that, we headed back to the island to have our lunch and waited for the last snorkeling trip. However, due to the tiredness, CC, MD, and Angelynn decided to skip the activity and relax on the beach. So, me, Kev, Mikegas and Nic headed for the last trip and had a boring snorkeling and came back to the beach. We had some light food (tea time arranged) and hang out on the beach. Near evening, Mikegas once again asked me to go snorkel with him on our own, since I had nothing much to do, so I just tagged along. This trip is really so unexpected that we could spot some jellyfish and also a small white-tip shark.

On that night itself, we had a very special event, to help Mikegas propose to Nic. It was a chaos preparation as the wind kept blowing off the candle that we tried to light on. Anyhow, it was a successful event; and after that we headed to have some drinks by the beach. There are plenty of pubs and lounges attached to each of the resort. To be honest, it is quite happening along the beach; but I feel it lacks of the peacefulness of the nature.

There was pretty nothing much left in the last day, we just packed and took the boat back to KT as our bus is scheduled on noon time and of cause, another long bus ride back to KL. Redang is rather a happening island as compared to the other islands in east coast. It is a good place for family trip or a bunch of friends for holiday. If you are looking for a peaceful break, I will not suggest Redang, Perhentian will be a better place for you.

bottomless

When you tell people you're diver, people will eventually ask you the same question: Have you dive in Sipadan before? Yes, Sipadan, one of the most famous dive site in the world. For me, it's just a waste if I'm not going to pay a visit there.

Together with the gang (RF, Hiu and Bill), we decided to head to Sipadan on August 2008. Also, I met another 2 new divers in this trip, Yew and Tong, both of them are divers from northern region and they got to know RF and Bill through diving.

So how did we get there? First, flight to Tawau, then land transfer to Semporna. We had chosen Scuba Junkie as our dive shop after researching through internet. They have some rooms for backpackers and rate is cheap, around RM40 per room. And they can also arrange some longhouse stay in Mabul Island if you do not want to travel from Semporna to the dive site. We did not do any diving on the first day, just took some good rest and walked around in the town. Oh, it was the night where the Olympic open ceremony happening in Beijing. We sat at the coffee shop and watched it through a very small TV.

On the 2nd day, we departed from Semporna and headed to Sipadan to commence our dive. But before we could start, we will need to register at the Sipadan military base for some safely purpose I believe. The funniest thing is that we were asked to use a foreigner's name regardless of gender! Ok, done with the paperwork, and off we were into the water. It was somehow a bit scary to dive in Sipadan, 200m depth to the bottom, is definitely not easy for a beginner like me. However, it did turn up to be a very good experience for me. A lots of turtles, sharks, barracudas, were spotted during our dives there, a good place for you if you like macro; especially when you dive in Barracuda Point, you'll be surrounded by a big school of barracudas.

After the dives, we were sent to the Arung Hayat Longhouse located on Mabul. Took a walk during evening, it was a small island, you can round the island in about an hour time. Along the way, you'll find some passionate natives running around and asking you to take their photo if you're holding camera. They are real nice people and they like visitors.

3rd day dive was on the dive sites nearby Mabul, this time, we spotted something much smaller than what we saw in Sipadan. Lots of lionfish, nudis, croc fish, also some rays, squids and octopus. 4th day we did our dive on a nearby island named Kapalai, not much different from what we had in Mabul, but the memorable one was during our safety stop on 2nd dive. Hiu spotted a 1.5m long barracuda resting beside the rock alone. As we are struggling to swim towards it and try to have a clear sight on it; it slowly moving away. However, I still managed to catch a glimpse on it. It was believed the strong current had brought it to that depth level.

On the last day, we spent sometime for photo shooting and souvenir shopping on Mabul and headed back to KL through the same route where we began. It was a totally different experience when diving in Sipadan, I would not mind to dive at the same spots again and again in the future.

Some side notes:
1. Do sign up earlier for diving in Sipadan, they somehow have limited divers allowed each day.
2. Sipadan is no longer available for stay, it's a military base now. However, you're allow to rest on the beach during lunch time.
3. Diving in Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai is all year long. No monsoon season.
4. More info about Sipadan, checkout: http://www.sipadan.com

a very first experience of scuba diving

I always want to get myself into scuba diving, ever since I left my high school. However, due to time and money limitation and also lack of self-motivation; I'd been holding back my thought.

Perhentian Island and asked me if I want to tag along. Without much hesitation, I booked my flight and waiting for the day to come.

It was a 7am flight, and we need to get there by 6am for check-in. Hence, woke up at 430am, rushed to Sentral Station, took the bus to LCCT and finally me and RF reached LCCT on time. Met Bill, Hiu and Bong; Bill and Hiu is RF's friend, while Bong is just like me, tag along person.

We arrived in Kota Bharu at about 8am and headed out to look for taxi. It took us about 45mins to reach the Kuala Besut from the airport. While we were at the jetty, we were asking around for boat transfer to Perhentian Island, Long Beach @ Perhentian Kecil to be exact. We somehow got to tag along on Bubu Resort boat transfer and departed at 10am.

Once we reached there, the first thing was to ask for accomodation. Yes, we were doing free and easy, so no advance booking in all the stuff except for air ticket. So we finally settled down at Moonlight Chalet and while we are waiting for check-in, we headed to the dive shop next to the chalet, Quiver dive center. While I was checking out the dive course with Mr. Kin (the boss), the rest of the buddies were asking about fun dives. Due to the short duration that I stayed in the island (we went there on Friday morning and me leave on Monday afternoon), I was told to take an extensive class where I will be start watching video immediately and will proceed to confined water diving after that. I was totally unprepared for such a rush and was super nervous; however, since I'd gone there, there's nothing stopping me from getting the license. Ok, there I followed 1 of the divemaster working there to the other side of the island, where my instructor, a local young guy, is waiting for my arrival.

The first thing I did, was to watch video, read books and answered questions; then came the practical part, he briefed me on setting up the gear, and the activities that we were going to do under the water. First few dives were confined water diving, with max depth of 6m; I was told to perform some compulsory activities for the course; such as clear mask, regulator recovery, BCD removal, and etc. It was damn tiring but it was fun, I'd been always a people for water. Now that I'm underwater, I felt like having the greatest happiness of my life. I did the same thing for the 2nd day; when came to 3rd day, I'd switched my instructor to Kate, an English lawyer that decided to stop her career and pursuit with diving. She's a nice and easy person, with very good patience; looking at I always get nervous when I was asked to perform the required activities during open water diving. So finally on Sunday afternoon, I get myself qualified as PADI Open Water diver.

Well, I would say there's not much things to be done at Perhentian Kecil. It's a very relaxing island, not much of tourists, not much of place to visit. But it's a place where people comes here to get away from their work, from the crowd, from the traffic jam. Day time activities are mostly water activities, eg. diving, snorkeling, swimming. Oh, there's a path for jungle trekking as well. While at night, there'll be some beach side pubs and you can just hang out there or sitting on the beach. We did not manage to hang out on those pubs as we were so damn tired after the whole day of diving activities. Well, I would say diving itself is quite tiring, especially when you want to move yourself out from the water.

The gang left the island on Sunday afternoon and I was left alone to wait to go home on Monday afternoon (we need to wait for about 24hrs after diving to board a plane). Anyway, since I was being tight up with the course earlier days, I decided to spend my day relaxing on the beach - sitting at the balcony, listening to the sound of waves, looking at the sea. On Monday, I took the the 11am boat ride and headed back to KL. This is one of the memorable trip that I have had so far, there's a lot of details that I'd decided not to put in and it will make this article too long. In short, I will definitely go back to this island, yes I am, I'm already signed up to a trip that will be going back to Perhentian Kecil on March 2010.

A little note:
1. To travel from KB airport to jetty, try to get the taxi outside the airport, is cheaper.
2. Some resorts in Perhentian Kecil do not have power supply all day long. Normally from 6pm to 9am.
3. No ATM on the island, so do prepare some extra cash.
4. Dive shops take credit card, but with 3% surcharge.
5. More info about Perhentian, checkout: http://www.perhentian.com.my

walking around

Basically, I'm trying to setup a blog for travel purpose. It's been a while since I last traveled before my diving trip on April 2008. Starting from there, I will start to drop down every single bit of my travel experience, especially on diving. Now, it's all begin from April 2008.