Redang. the real post. lol. part 1
7:04 am
ok, here goes:
Supposed to write about the marathon first but I've to wait for pictures from my dear friend hui xian who is in.... dunno where. MIA.
anyway, we finally went to redang! Gosh.... I've been wanting to head to redang since 3 years ago. Plan but tak jadi each time. Finally.... the long wait is over. It all started from a status update of mine in FB. hahahahaha. after that it progressed to a discussion over lunch in Sri Emas, IMU.
After much research (while everyone was busy studying anatomy of the arm, i was studying the geography of redang, where all the resorts are located. ahahahhaa), deposit paid and bus tickets bought and ALL OF US PASSING OUR EOS 5, we're off to kuala terengganu at 10pm on the 28th of June.
Before that, me, sam, ee wei and angeline took the ktm to the putra station from subang. Sam surprised all by coming early and ee wei surprised all by coming late (hahaa. she had to alter her sister's pants before coming, hence the lateness) We very very nearly missed the train (lol. i was walking in front when i saw a malay lady in a blue baju kurung started running. turned back- lo and behold... the train was coming towards the platform already. so i'm like "omgggg.. the train is here!!" and ran like a mad woman. i still remember angeline saying she can't run. hahahahaha. but we made it anyway. thank you to the train conductor for holding the train back for us)
In the bus ride, sam surprised us with how ready he was- he brought insect repellent and plenty of snacks. morgan... didn't really surprise us with his hair therapy. he didn't bring towel, shampoo and soap.
the journey was 7 hours long. not many of us slept for more than 3 hours though. Curiously, there was another bunch of chinese people in the bus heading to redang too (the whole bus was full)
At 5am the next morning, we arrived at MBKT bus station
After a bit of confusion with where to meet our driver, we settled down at the Pelangi Resort office just across the street. There, we met a French tourist who was wondering if they could follow our group to redang too. We didn't see her after that so I guess the resort was fully booked then.
We had to wait 2 hours because another giant group of chinese people were late. i think this group has 17 people in total. When they arrived, we hopped on the Pelangi bus to Merang jetty. Everyone fell asleep during this bus ride (only morgan and sam were competing not to fall asleep. and dumb morgan managed to snap a picture of me and ee wei sleeping instead (gahhhhhhhhh).)
The jetty was really small. It was more of a wooden platform and a shed to cover us from the sun. too bad for us, we had to wait for the 2nd boat (since all the kiasu kl folks jumped on the first one already). We really should have looked around the souvenir stalls there as their pricing is really cheap!
Just beside our shed was the laguna's platform. theirs had fans!!! but i guess you get what you pay for.
Boat ride was extremely fun. redang was only 30 mins away from the jetty. we were on a speedboat so it kind of felt like a mild roller coaster. our butts would fly up each time the boat crash through a wave. I'm proud my camera managed to take clear shots eventhough the ride was so bumpy.
Redang.... was instantly breathtaking. The sand was super soft and white, and the waters so blue... i think i mentioned "i love the sea color" to parisha a million times.
I had to settle some stuff at the reception area (omg... i conversed in my broken mandarin. hahahahahaha) and then we had to attend some briefing (in mandarin again. i'm proud i was able to translate some stuff to parisha (who was appropriately mad at them for talking in mandarin when their english is perfectly fine))
Then we got our snorkel gear, dumped our stuff in our room, got changed, and ran to the sea :D
Snorkelling was a bit difficult for me. Had to get used to the very salty seawater (you are bound to swallow some of that icky stuff no matter how good a swimmer you are). I nearly chocked a few times cause when sea water enters your nose or throat, it really irritates the mucosa. blehhh
the trick is to always remember to breath with your mouth and forget about breathing through the nose. lol.... and it may seem like common sense, but i always put my head in too deep.... causing water to go through the tube and into my mouth... bluek.
We just had lunch and played some cards to pass time before our first snorkelling trip.
I really didn't know our first trip out was to deep sea. Horribly terrified when i saw the boat stopping in the middle of the sea and then the guide told us to snorkel here. Me, parisha and angeline had panic written all over our faces. Ee wei and the 2 other crazy dudes just jumped off the boat. Noooo... they didn't use the staircase like normal people would... they JUMPED.
Me, angeline and parisha took the normal people's way- the stairs. even then, it was quite terrifying for me cause when i stepped off... i think i sort of jumped off it expecting to land on something. instead... i was submerged in water and some water went into my nose. lucky the lifejacket brought me right up to the surface otherwise i would've just panicked and drowned. lol.
gosh... the corals at this place was the best. THE BEST. out of the 3 snorkel areas, this was the best place as it was the deepest too . too bad for us, we didn't rent any camera :(
Saw a lot of different corals and fishes. Ee wei was luckier as a guide noticed her and showed her a starfish he picked up. then proceeded to show her the nemo fish, sea cucumbers, etc
my other friends told me that guides have a preference towards girls... hahahaha. they were much more lucky as they saw stingrays and baby sharks i think.
after snorkelling, i was super hungry and tired. maybe it was due to my incorrect swimming technique (i only could flap my legs... wat the heck. my brain couldn't coordinate my hands and legs) or maybe it was the marathon.
Then we had afternoon tea
and then a camwhore session :D
We ended the day with dinner and a walk towards laguna's side of the beach. Actually the stretch of beach in front of us was better than theirs- the other beach had quite a bit of dead coral bits... so quite painful to walk barefooted there. Ours was really silky smooth...
we played heartattack later and laughed like crazy people. Morgan was the source of our entertainment. His reaction time is so slow.... he got hit most of the time. My luck also was quite bad... hardly could "heartattack" first :(
finally slept at 11pm (early by kl standards. hahahahhaa) and woke up at 5.30am the next day to catch the first glimpse of the sun....
Supposed to write about the marathon first but I've to wait for pictures from my dear friend hui xian who is in.... dunno where. MIA.
anyway, we finally went to redang! Gosh.... I've been wanting to head to redang since 3 years ago. Plan but tak jadi each time. Finally.... the long wait is over. It all started from a status update of mine in FB. hahahahaha. after that it progressed to a discussion over lunch in Sri Emas, IMU.
After much research (while everyone was busy studying anatomy of the arm, i was studying the geography of redang, where all the resorts are located. ahahahhaa), deposit paid and bus tickets bought and ALL OF US PASSING OUR EOS 5, we're off to kuala terengganu at 10pm on the 28th of June.
Before that, me, sam, ee wei and angeline took the ktm to the putra station from subang. Sam surprised all by coming early and ee wei surprised all by coming late (hahaa. she had to alter her sister's pants before coming, hence the lateness) We very very nearly missed the train (lol. i was walking in front when i saw a malay lady in a blue baju kurung started running. turned back- lo and behold... the train was coming towards the platform already. so i'm like "omgggg.. the train is here!!" and ran like a mad woman. i still remember angeline saying she can't run. hahahahaha. but we made it anyway. thank you to the train conductor for holding the train back for us)
In the bus ride, sam surprised us with how ready he was- he brought insect repellent and plenty of snacks. morgan... didn't really surprise us with his hair therapy. he didn't bring towel, shampoo and soap.
the journey was 7 hours long. not many of us slept for more than 3 hours though. Curiously, there was another bunch of chinese people in the bus heading to redang too (the whole bus was full)
At 5am the next morning, we arrived at MBKT bus station
After a bit of confusion with where to meet our driver, we settled down at the Pelangi Resort office just across the street. There, we met a French tourist who was wondering if they could follow our group to redang too. We didn't see her after that so I guess the resort was fully booked then.
We had to wait 2 hours because another giant group of chinese people were late. i think this group has 17 people in total. When they arrived, we hopped on the Pelangi bus to Merang jetty. Everyone fell asleep during this bus ride (only morgan and sam were competing not to fall asleep. and dumb morgan managed to snap a picture of me and ee wei sleeping instead (gahhhhhhhhh).)
The jetty was really small. It was more of a wooden platform and a shed to cover us from the sun. too bad for us, we had to wait for the 2nd boat (since all the kiasu kl folks jumped on the first one already). We really should have looked around the souvenir stalls there as their pricing is really cheap!
Just beside our shed was the laguna's platform. theirs had fans!!! but i guess you get what you pay for.
Boat ride was extremely fun. redang was only 30 mins away from the jetty. we were on a speedboat so it kind of felt like a mild roller coaster. our butts would fly up each time the boat crash through a wave. I'm proud my camera managed to take clear shots eventhough the ride was so bumpy.
Redang.... was instantly breathtaking. The sand was super soft and white, and the waters so blue... i think i mentioned "i love the sea color" to parisha a million times.
I had to settle some stuff at the reception area (omg... i conversed in my broken mandarin. hahahahahaha) and then we had to attend some briefing (in mandarin again. i'm proud i was able to translate some stuff to parisha (who was appropriately mad at them for talking in mandarin when their english is perfectly fine))
Then we got our snorkel gear, dumped our stuff in our room, got changed, and ran to the sea :D
Snorkelling was a bit difficult for me. Had to get used to the very salty seawater (you are bound to swallow some of that icky stuff no matter how good a swimmer you are). I nearly chocked a few times cause when sea water enters your nose or throat, it really irritates the mucosa. blehhh
the trick is to always remember to breath with your mouth and forget about breathing through the nose. lol.... and it may seem like common sense, but i always put my head in too deep.... causing water to go through the tube and into my mouth... bluek.
We just had lunch and played some cards to pass time before our first snorkelling trip.
I really didn't know our first trip out was to deep sea. Horribly terrified when i saw the boat stopping in the middle of the sea and then the guide told us to snorkel here. Me, parisha and angeline had panic written all over our faces. Ee wei and the 2 other crazy dudes just jumped off the boat. Noooo... they didn't use the staircase like normal people would... they JUMPED.
Me, angeline and parisha took the normal people's way- the stairs. even then, it was quite terrifying for me cause when i stepped off... i think i sort of jumped off it expecting to land on something. instead... i was submerged in water and some water went into my nose. lucky the lifejacket brought me right up to the surface otherwise i would've just panicked and drowned. lol.
gosh... the corals at this place was the best. THE BEST. out of the 3 snorkel areas, this was the best place as it was the deepest too . too bad for us, we didn't rent any camera :(
Saw a lot of different corals and fishes. Ee wei was luckier as a guide noticed her and showed her a starfish he picked up. then proceeded to show her the nemo fish, sea cucumbers, etc
my other friends told me that guides have a preference towards girls... hahahaha. they were much more lucky as they saw stingrays and baby sharks i think.
after snorkelling, i was super hungry and tired. maybe it was due to my incorrect swimming technique (i only could flap my legs... wat the heck. my brain couldn't coordinate my hands and legs) or maybe it was the marathon.
Then we had afternoon tea
and then a camwhore session :D
We ended the day with dinner and a walk towards laguna's side of the beach. Actually the stretch of beach in front of us was better than theirs- the other beach had quite a bit of dead coral bits... so quite painful to walk barefooted there. Ours was really silky smooth...
we played heartattack later and laughed like crazy people. Morgan was the source of our entertainment. His reaction time is so slow.... he got hit most of the time. My luck also was quite bad... hardly could "heartattack" first :(
finally slept at 11pm (early by kl standards. hahahahhaa) and woke up at 5.30am the next day to catch the first glimpse of the sun....
