first one was from my dear howie who sent a hand made preeeetty pouch to my home and i received it exactly on the day i got back from UK, even b4 stepping into the house! hehe
and the next most awesome gift is Mr Tan Boon Keng brought yours truly to Pulau Redang. the pictures does not do enough justice for how AWESOME the place is! if you think the pics are great, multiply by 10, plus all the snorkelling that aren't even in the pics.
just outside check-in desk:
view from restaurant!
pretend emo pics =D
beeeeeeeeuuuuutiful beach! and it's never crowded. =)
bumming around in between snorkelling trips =)
that's the more more tea inn! that one that was re-built after the movie i tink sometime in 1994? =)
my bleached and sun-damaged hair that is no more red or pink haha
tourist picture no.1
tourist picture no.2 with ice cream =)
love :D
kaixiang and kaili! kaixiang is boon's OCS fran we bumped into at laguna!
boon was very friendly to them, i think it made him less awkward then we eventually hung out for a bit and had dinner together. they've been together since JC! like OMG!and kaili is DAMN FIERCE! her ambition is to travel whole of SEA before she turns 26, and she only has like 3 more countries to go!PLUS she backpacked whole of North India in 2 weeks, with another girl! that's 2 girls with their bags and a lonely-planet travel guide exploring India with no guides. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. hahaha
haha bliss! =D
and the sand was fine like flourrrrrr
couple taking wedding photos on a mini cliff thingy next to the lagoon:
boonie mentioned that the ramp for jumping off when the tide was high. he jumped off it 2 months back, but the water was too shallow it was a hard bump on his bum. haha.
and some kite flying at the back if u can see that white spot above the ramp.
after dinner and boon and kaili exchanging travel adventures, we went for some drinks at the bar area cuz apparently the filipino band was good. well they were good, except they kept singing songs from like BEFORE our parents age and we had no idea to laugh or cry.
finish drinks and then zao liao. we split up and it was nice meeting them! =)boon doing his (in)famous SMU jump in front of more more tea inn =D
and some pics the photographers took of us underwater!
this is like some shipwreck area la. and i FREAKED OUT the 1st time he pushed me in. somehow it was damn scary considering i'm a pretty lousy swimmer and (i tink) the pressure pushed my stupid new snorkel up and the water went in and i had to force myself to smileeeeeee.but we saw so much more than that! 1st trip to pulau kalong saw so many colorful corals and some fishes and my not very sharp eyes managed to spot a resting sting ray on the sea bed.
2nd trip saw like whole lot of beautiful marine life at the marine park. like super a lot of fishes that's just swimming right in front of my eyes! and then a couple of eels (morray eels, spelling rite?) it's like uber long, half of its body prolly as long as my arms stretched out. and giant garoupa and giant parrot fish that's as big as my arms stretched out too, maybe bigger? hehe. the divers would take some bread and tempt the fishes out of the hiding spot in the rocks and boy u should see the ladies react when the fishes swam out! it was *screams* ahhhhhhhhh everybody swimming backwards. i was one of those who screamed SOFTLY hor. and then boon was one of those who LAUGHED loudly at me.
so i was just hanging ard a distance away from the giant fishes, when another one of the diver dudes pointed for me to turn around to look. then, seeing how slow i am, he pulled my life jacket, turned me around, and pushed me forward. the next thing i knew, another morray eel was right below me like 2metres away. i was like WAT THE FUCK GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!! but of course kept my cool and little reputation left and tried flipping my hands to swim backwards but i didn't seem to be moving -_- i tink i spotted boon and grabbed him b4 i lost any more face.
3rd trip to pulau lima was disappointing and extremely tiring. the current was against us. the coral reefs were like half dead. and we weren't allowed to go on the shore (sounds like primary school tsk) cuz it was too rocky. boon swam around pulau lima 2 months back, and the view was supposed to be spectacular if we had actually made it to the other end.
i must say Pulau Redang is like the bestest most awesomest place i can't get enough of! (i only snorkelled once in tioman la haha so nothing much to compare with)
but even king A snorkelled at 5 other places and still tot Redang was the bestest!
just one day into the trip and i was already planning the next time i'm going back. and that will be a 5 days one, simply snorkelling and bumming around, totally enjoying life.
but b4 that, maybe i'll conquer koh phangan for it's full moon beach party first, then save up for redang again =)