Skyline - Marina Bay

Had a short weekend trip to Singapore. The last time I visited Singapore it was at least 5 years ago. Singapore is so much more efficient than Malaysia, everything just seems to be just works. Buses and MRTs are on the dots.  Shopping malls everywhere. “Organize” is the word that I can think of for the city state. Probably a bit too organized for me though.

Love the Night Safari (but no photos to share since I didn’t bring the camera). Geylang is interesting. Marina Bay skyline is magnificent. Little India and Chinatown are lively.

Would love to see Clarke Quay, Sentosa and Bird Park next time. Oh or maybe I will just put up a night at Marina Bay Sands just like my friend Bryan did. Maybe.

More photos at this link: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Singapore_July2011/

Teluk Dalam, Perhentian Besar

It’s been 3 years since I last dived at Perhentian Island; fond memory of Sugar Wreck is still vivid but fading. So when there are a couple of friends interested to go for a short dive trip to Perhentian over a weekend, I am in. Eventually we amass 5 persons for the trip.

We booked a dive resort – Bayu Dive Resort – at Teluk Dalam, Perhentian Besar. The online booking system is a bliss to use; I booked 2 rooms which go by fish names in just a few minutes – Moray Eel (RM90/night) is a fan room that can fit 2-3 persons just next to the generator; Pipefish (RM160/night) is one of the many air-conditioned cottages for 2 persons. Paid 25% thru credit cards and the room booking is secured.

The road trip started on the night of 21th July – 11pm we reached the Gombak toll, and off we sped via Bentong, Gua Musang and eventually Kuala Besut, arriving 5 in the morning. It is a tiring journey even if I was not the one that drives – winding roads, many buses and lorries, narrow lanes, inadequate lightings signature this major east-west highway. We arrived safely anyway to Kuala Besut and bought our speedboat tickets at MD Travel (they actually open for business at 5am with some zombie-looking guys there), one of the travel agencies near the jetty. Oh we get the roundtrip ticket at RM65, a RM5 discount from the standard price of RM70. I noticed that Kuala Besut is having many swiftlet shophouses already and more being constructed – I didn’t notice this 3 years ago.

Paid the marine park fee of RM5/person, we boarded the speedboat at 7am. It fits about 15 people. The boatman distributed the life vests to everyone but somehow I didn’t get one, which is fine for me. It takes 40mins to arrive at Teluk Dalam beach after the boat stops at Tunabay beach and Long Beach. It was a really pleasant morning to be by the sea and beautiful beaches.

This is the first time that I come to this southern bay of Perhentian Besar, and was pleasantly surprised. It has a semi-circular beautiful beach with fine sands, and it is quiet and secluded. One thing that I immediately noticed is how shallow the beach is – for at least 30m the water is less than knee high, definitely not a good swimming hole. The boats need to painstakingly steered slowly among the shallow coral rocks to get close to the beach.

Bayu Dive Lodge is at the left side of the small jetty here just 3 minutes walk away. The dive shop attached to Bayu is Alu Alu Divers, operated and run by a group of Mat Sallehs. The restaurant of the resort is just by the beach and in front of the dive shop so it is pretty convenient. Food here is not cheap (breakfast set RM10 and up) but it comes in big portion, and it is not terribly cooked. The next door restaurant B First Cafe offers cheaper alternative, and tasted not bad either.

Alu Alu Divers offer assorted courses at reasonable price; fun dive starts at RM90/dive for 3 dives or less, RM85/dive for 4~6 dives including full sets of equipment rental. For those that have their own equipment (like me!), it will be RM70/dive. Returning customers that have taken courses here previous will get special RM60/dive deal, which is great!

The dive shop is well stocked with gears new and old ones, similar brands like most other Malaysian dive shops. The gear-up area is an alley that painted blue and yellow (like!), but nevertheless too narrow for 20 people with gears. There are 3 tanks labelled for different equipment cleaning/soaking. It will be great if the gearing up area is made wider and more spaces for people to do their stuff more comfortably.

Alu Alu Diver - gearing up area

Dive crew are generally nice; a couple of them looked reserved though. Our DM for the trip is Flo, a 19-year old from UK that just completed her DMT and had made ~600 dives. Coincidently she is making her last 2 days as DM here in Alu Alu and heading back to UK. Friendly and chatty, pretty and skinny, we have a nice time with Flo. The dive trip here at Alu Alu runs at fixed schedule: 9am and 2pm departure, 2 dives each. 4 of us are arranged to have one of the boats for ourselves – nice! They also brought enough drinking water on board, another good point. Oh and for the afternoon dives, banana cake is offered during the surface interval!

We did 2 dives that afternoon, and 2 more dives the next day morning.

Dive Sites:

• T3/Terumbu Tiga/Tiger Rock: reputed as one of the best dive sites, there are some swim throughs but nothing much interesting. Saw 3 bumphead parratfish over a meter long, and that’s about it. Viz is average. Max 19m, 46min.
• Tukas Laut. Flo swam so fast as if she wanted to conclude the dive as soon as possible. Max 17m, 59min.
• Tokong Laut: the good thing for the dive is that it is not that crowded relatively; I recalled 3 years ago the same dive site, there are easily more than 50 divers, can’t see anything but fins and human. Descended with the buoy line, I waited a few minutes before Hiu able to get down – he forgot to wear the weight belt and have to pull himself down from the line. Saw a number of ugly-looking bamboo sharks, 2 of them mating with one biting another on the gill area (they actually shiver when climax, really!), school of blue & yellow fusiliers. I’ve seen better Tokong Laut, I have to say. Max 21m, 48min.
• Sugar Wreck
• max 18m, 48min.
• My favorite dive site here at Perhentian by far. I could skip all others and just dive this site again and again.
• Didn’t see the school of long-jawed mackerels like 3 years ago, but there are huge schools of juvenile barracudas as well as sweetlips finding cover inside the wreck.
• Looking up from the bottom, the titled wreck is quite large extending all the way up to ~6m.
• 2 giant barracudas over a meter long lurking in the huge cargo hold area
• Big trapped air area at the top of the cargo hold area
• Hundreds of sea urchins, tens of lion fish and porcuppine fish. One of the porcuppines is having a remora under its chin, sharing some meat.
• Spotted 2 squids hovering near the huge propeller at ~6m.
• Mild current on the top side of the wreck, calm otherwise. Viz is average, about 10m.
• Oh we almost have the whole wreck for ourselves; I did see another group but it is definitely nowhere close to the pasar malam feel of Tokong Laut.

After we get done our dives on the Saturday morning, some bickering happened between the dive shop part-owner Johan and the DMs, and eventually all the DMs call it quit, packed up and left in the same afternoon. There was some gore scene as well but I will just skip that part. The dramatic turn of event happened in front of our very eyes. this alone will make the trip worthwhile!

When we got back to KL, we got to know that most of the DMs are back to Alu Alu; Johan is kicked out from the dive shop – for now.

All in, the trip costs about RM550. Bang for the bucks, I’d say. The only regret is the diving is just average, except my holy grail dive site at Perhentian – the Sugar Wreck.

Alu Alu DMs

Links:

Alu Alu Diver: http://www.alualudivers.com/

Bayu Dive Lodge: http://www.bayudivelodge.com/

Palawan Map

This is where Palawan is – at south-western Philippines. Provincial capital is Puerto Princesa (公主港), where most of the commercial flights touch down here. Roxas, Taytay are relatively big towns, but the real germ of Palawan is definitely El Nido at the north, a small laid-back town about 5~6 hours away by van through some rough roads.

Palawan is often called the “last frontier” of Philippines, to me indeed it is but not for much too long – tourists are starting to flocking in. Go visit now before El Nido is transformed into another Boracay. This is my first time visiting Palawan (Puerto Princesa & El Nido) – but it already makes me feel real good.

1st day – What’s new? Zest Airways’ flight to Puerto Princesa delayed

Partas Bus Schedule - Manila to Clark v.v.

Arriving Clark airport from Kuala Lumpur by Airasia (4 hours), it is another 2 hours (P350) bus ride (Partas) to Manila metropolitan/Pasay City. I kinda know the drill – this is the 3rd time I am arriving at this deserted airport in as many years. It sucks to take that long on the road, and to worry about the traffic at EDSA that might have prevented us to catch the connecting flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa.

Traffic turns out to be alright, and we reached Manila Domestic Airport at 2pm – our Zest flight ETD is at 3:30pm. The queue at the check-in counter snaked for at least 50m for this flight, for the reason that I found out a bit later, that this period (late March to early May) is the Summer Break for Filipinos, and the super peak season for air travel. Therefore,it took us one hour to check in, partly due to the inefficiency of the counter personnel as well.

There is no individual gates at the boarding area for this small Manila Domestic Airport (used only by Zest Air & SE Air). It has some lousy food stalls selling exorbitant priced badly-cooked food, but at least it has enough chairs for all the travelers. A flight destined to Cebu, which supposed to be departed 30mins before our flight, was delayed. So it is no surprise that it was announced a bit later that our flight is delayed, too, initially for one hour. It just got bad after that – the departure time was eventually set at 7pm. That’s 3.5 hours delay.

No more Zest Air for me – not that Cebu Pacific is brilliant, but at least it flies from a much bigger airport terminal. I used Zest just because it is a few peso cheaper than the Cebu Pacific flights, and the ETD is fitting to my schedule. Oh well. Fellow Filipino travelers that I met later part in the trip also recommended me not to use Zest – “they are the worst!”.

Free curry chicken rice & H2O, courtesy of Zest Airways.

Food & water is given to us free at about 6pm at the terminal. Somehow the not-spicy curry chicken rice tastes good. Luckily I’ve brought a novel to kill time. Travel serves the purpose to finish off books that I’ve started ages ago that pause after the first few pages.

1Q84 Book#3. At Manila Domestic Airport. 痴等。

On board, the pilot apologized for the delay – it sounds so touching, as if he is holding back emotion to prevent his tears streaming out of eye sockets. Soon, he regrouped himself, and sped the A320 to arrive at 8pm at Puerto Princesa, 15 mins ahead of revised ETA.

Dori from Raq Pensionne picked us up at the airport exit – I’ve made a room reservation via phone 2 days ago. I appreciate the fact that she came a few times to airport to check the flight status, being situated not far from the airport helps, of course. Raq Pensionne is just 10mins drive from here.

Oh and we arrived at Puerto at the Earth Hour, so most of the shops switched off their lights from 830pm ~ 930pm, even the restaurant that we went to later (Kinabuchs) switched to use candle lights. Nice!

Candle-lighting Kinabuchs- celebrating Earth Hour in Puerto Princesa.

All the staff at the Raq Pensionne are really polite and considerate, makes me to have the family feel. The room is alright – 2 double beds, hot/cold shower, with air-conditioner, stand fan & TV, breakfast included. Free Wifi is available each floor outside the room (signal too weak inside), and hot and cold drinking water is provided at the corridor. P1350 (double bed deluxe).

We signed up for tomorrow’s Sabang Underground River tour, selected the breakfast choice and serving time (6am!) and off we went to Kinabuchs, a restaurant that received good review in tripadvisor.com. “Sizzling Pork Ribs” is tasty and tender – just superb. Among the best porks that I’ve ever had. “Mixed Seafood” is sub-par, though. P490 for 2, plus some drinks.

We did come back a few days later and tried “Sizzling Baby Ribs”, it is not as good as the Pork Ribs. The food menu is extensive, it will probably take one a month to try them all.

Sizzling Pork Rib & over-exposed Mixed Seafood. Definitely it is the camera's fault! :-p

Oh, the tricycles rule the whole Palawan, it seems. They are everywhere, in Puerto, in El Nido, and everywhere in between, normally charged P10/tourist to any town area destinations. They can be charted too at a mutually agreed upon price. They look like bugs to me. So bugs infested Palawan.

Looking down from Raq Pensionne

Related Useful Links:

• Raq Pensionne – Malvar Street, Puerto Princesa, http://www.raqpalawan.com/
• Kinabuchs – Rizal Ave., Puerto Princesa, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kinabuchs-Palawan/128793830486080?sk=wall
• Zest Airways – use only as last resort! http://www.zestair.com.ph/
• Cebu Pacific – probably the best budget airlines in Philippines (some say south-east Asia too). http://www.cebupacificair.com/
• Filipino Travel Center FAQ – useful information regarding Manila airport terminals and fees etc. http://www.filipinotravel.com.ph/information/faqs.php
• http://www.tripadvisor.com/ – this one no need further introduction.

To be continued.

燒蟹

最近去左係Hulu Langat嘅“Fish Farm Thai Restaurant”，推介下俾大家。

點樣去：

• 至簡單梗係跟GPS啦，就揾“Fish Farm Thai Restaurant”, Malfreemaps.com 嘅map入面就有。
• GPS Coordinate: E 101.805160, N 3.129660
• 去過 Ampang Lookout Point 嘅朋友就更加易 － 由Ampang方向來，上Jalan Hulu Langat 山路過咗Lookout Point嘅入門口係右手邊，再駛多唔夠幾分鐘 （約莫3km)，就可看到右手邊有個招牌。大路轉入去之後仲要駛5分鐘嘅凹凸不平又漆黑一片嘅爛路，就到。

地址：

Fish Farm Thai Restaurant,
KM 4, Jalan Ampang, Hulu Langat.

Tel: 017 2515235 / 019 2606493

係估你以為咁嘅山卡拉冇雷公咁遠嘅地方冇乜人來，就大錯特錯。我地八點幾到時，carpark 已經滿咁滯。攞命嘅係parking仲要一律俾2蚊，話係私人地云云。

餐館中間有個大水塘。

間店正中係個勁大的水塘養著的非洲魚或甚麼的，四圍就係的餐枱。仲又個獨立的karaoke平台係水塘遠處，要撐艇仔至過到去 －相當奇怪的鋪排。店的大門入口處有賣芒果黐飯，好似都有泰國香椰。連做工嘅都係泰仔泰妹嘅款，難道真的一如店名，是間暹店？我沒去考究，因為醫肚重要！

個泰妹掟做咗張簡陋的餐牌過來。我地2人都唔知有乜係招牌，就求其叫咗三樣：

• 燒蟹2只 －勁好吃，蟹大肉厚，啖啖肉冇誇張。上桌時冇俾醬料，亦無需要。新鮮嘅蟹原來係唔駛醬料去陪襯嘅！價錢相當嚇人，RM55／kg.
• 椰奶辣蝦 （小份，共4只）－RM12。都係讚！蝦新鮮不在話下，辣辣地來又俾係盤上的椰奶中和番地味覺，1人得個2只係肯定過唔足癮啦！
• 咸蛋sotong （小份）－RM15。賣相幾好，堆到好似座山仔，上高係的黃澄澄嘅咸蛋黃，跟著係的sotong片，下面係的野菜。都幾得意，咸咸地幾好送飯。

埋單盛惠RM88。燒蟹係貴咗的但認真好吃，我都覺得值得啦。未來過的朋友千祈米走雞！推介！

Sungai Sendat Waterfalls all of sudden become infamous in the last few days, after a family outing turned tragic where 3 youngsters were drown there on 30th Dec 2010. Incidentally, my first (and only) visit to this waterfall was just a few days before that, on the Boxing Day (26th Dec). The memory is still fresh and vivid. I am more shocked than saddened to learn about the tragic, as it reminds me again, that there is always danger lies behind waterfalls, however serene and peaceful the place presents itself.

My trip to the Sendat Waterfalls is not pre-planned – in fact, the Sunday started with “Let’s go to some waterfalls near Ulu Yam!” and soon after we started our car journey from Kuala Lumpur. We have heard about the waterfalls near this area before, but we don’t really know the names nor the exact locations of any of them. Upon setting the often-reliable Papago to go “Ulu Yam Lama”, I found out that there is a POI nearby called “Ulu Yam Recreational Park”, and decided to go check it out.

Batu Dam (it is so damn huge that GPS coordinate is unnecessary!)

We passed through Batu Caves area before got onto Jalan Sungai Tua, which is a very long winding trunk road leading to Ulu Yam as well as Batang Kali (from which there is an alternative road to reach Genting Highlands). Not long after we got on this road, we were greeted by a huge Batu Dam at the left side of the road. We stopped by at a parking area, took some photos while many others are gathered here trying to make fish as one of the dishes on their dinner table – we saw a Malay guy caught a foot-and-a-half long catfish. Most, if not all, of the anglers are Malays.

Sungai Tua Selangor State Park (GPS: E 101.698060, N 3.312240)

The “Ulu Yam Recreational Park” in the Papago map turns out to be the “Selangor State Park”, aka “Hutan Lipur Sungai Tua”. It is on the right side of the road. We parked our car in the already-packed parking area, paid RM1 each at the entrance, and walk in to have a look-see. There is a shallow rocky river runs through the place, with some huts built along it for picnic and resting purpose. The place is already crowded – again, mostly Malays – by the time we reached at noon. Kids amd adults alike are having great time in the shallow river while the elderly are preparing food – some groups are even doing camping and BBQ-ing! It is a perfect family outing destination as the river is a bit wild but shallow enough to make it a safe water hole for children.

We walked around the park on the walking paths, enjoying the rainforest and nature, but deep down, we know this is not it. We want waterfalls! After checking out the place for a while, we decided to explore somewhere else. The park itself is really nice and has a lot to offer – the lush rainforest, a suspending canopy bridge, a wide and shallow river for getting wet and chill out, but there is one main setback – the toilet does not have water supply, and I don’t even want to describe further. Come on State Park, the RM1 entrance fee you collected from each of us is more than enough to get the toilet fixed. Do something, please?

In the quest to find a real waterfall around here, we went back out and ask at the entrance. The guy told us that just a few minutes further up the road, there is a waterfall at the left side of the road. We are elated and drove up. We passed by another entrance to the same park just less than a couple of minutes at the right side. And not long after that, we arrived at the so-called “waterfall”. It turns out to be a very small waterfall and pool just beside the road, accessible through steep decent (stairs/rocks?), with a small parking space at the other side of the road. We didn’t stop by here because this is not what we come for – we want at least a decent waterfall after driving all the way here from KL.

Ulu Yam Lama Lor Mee @ Hock Choon Kee 福春记 (GPS: E 101.640734, N 3.454876)

A search in Papago showed that there is a nearby waterfall called Sendat Waterfall, which is 5km from Ulu Yam Baru. We decided to go Ulu Yam Lama for the famous “Lor Mee” (卤面) before heading to the waterfall. Ulu Yam Lama is just a few kilometer from Baru, both being very small town. Ulu Yam Lama is like literally having a main street only, and that’s it. Along the main street, there are easily more than 5 restaurants selling Lor Mee. Not knowing which one is the best, we headed to “Hock Choon Kee” (福春记). It is of course customary to order the Ulu-Yam-famous Lor Mee for 2 persons, and to go with that, a plate of fish cake too.

The restaurant is full house at 1:30pm that day, giving us the impression that it must be good, which we later found out it is not the case. We waited for quite a while before the fish cake came. It was just fine, chewy enough but the chilli sauce is too watery. The Lor Mee came much later probably due to the crowd, but it is a real disappointment. It came in a pretty dark soup which is not as thick as the Lor Mee that I get used to in KL. The mee looks like it was home-made here, to me it tastes just OK – nothing special compared to other Lor Mee that I’ve used to. The biggest complaint is that the whole bowl of Lor Mee for 2 persons, there is only 2 small shrimps, 4 small pieces of pork, and some vege. So it is just Mee. and more Mee. It is just boring. The bill comes to RM20 for 2 persons, not particularly cheap considering the rural-ness of the place. My advice? Try another shop!

Sungai Sendat Waterfall (GPS: E 101.685380, N 3.403280)

We finally arrived here after a short drive from Ulu Yam Baru. There is a sign board at Ulu Yam Baru so just follow it if you don’t have GPS. Take note that the last stretch of the road of a few kilometers is un-tarred narrow jungle trails, need to drive extra cautious. Entrance fee is again RM1/person. There is a big parking area on the greens and – pleasantly surprised – a functioning toilet facility! I don’t expect so many people here in this waterfall – I’d say over a hundred people here at that time.

The cascaded waterfall forms a good size of pool at the lower level. The deepest at this lower level pool is about 8-10 feet, while mostly at 3-5 feet depth further away from the waterfall. The water is chilling especially at the time that we went in after 3pm. The rocky surface of the waterfall forms a natural slider as we saw quite a few of youngsters sliding down from top. I am just too chicken to try it out.

Apparently on the top level, there is a pool too but we didn’t explore up there at that time. We had some fun time playing in the pool, until it is just too cold to swim anymore in the water that we say adios. All in all a very pleasant trip other than some minor bickering (which I am not ready to disclose here :-p).

Yet another visit to Sekinchan just few days ago (24 Dec 2010), this time with Ben. Came to take some photos of the paddy field and the fishing village at dusk, as well as to try out the seafood in this area.

Most of the paddy fields have been harvested – end of December is definitely not the best timing to come for nice paddy shots. There were some controlled burning of the leftovers. I had an incident where my feet were sucked into the mud between the 2 rows of paddy, and have to clean myself up in the small river nearby.

We moved on to the fishing village here to witness unloading of a fishing boat that just got back from sea. Baskets full of squids were unloaded with the help of manual control pulley system. And there was one unlucky Marlin too. We walked around to snap some photos, but regrettably the sky did not turn into immense orange hue that evening unlike few years ago when I were here at the exact location.

Somehow all the restaurants at the Sekinchan fishing village were closed for business at Christmas Eve. We thus went to Suang Le River Restaurant (爽乐乐) at Bagan Pasir, Tanjung Karang, just about 20 minutes drive from Sekinchan towards Kuala Selangor’s direction. It took us a while before we can locate the restaurant, and we were the only customers for the evening. The restaurant is built in stilts with 2 small dining halls. Crows – lots and lots of them – are adding liveliness to the evening.

2 persons the dinner cost us RM62 total, for:

• 1kg of steam biggie clam (RM12) – superbly fresh and not overly cooked, the soup is as good too.
• Teochew steam Red Snapper (RM18) – just great. Ben was like “WOW!!” literally on his first bite of the fish.
• 10 salted mantis shrimps (RM25, RM2.50/each) – crunchy and really sweet taste of the meat. I chewed down most of these together with the shell.
• Rice, drinks.

It is well worth the money for me, since Ben spent me the dinner. :-p [thanks again Ben!!]

More photos below:

Sekinchan Dec2010

I went to Melaka for a day trip with my buddies Ben and Bill at the Saturday of Raya weekend. The day was very hot (typical Melaka) and all the tourist attractions are swamped by visitors. Jonker street is especially bad with motorists and pedestrians blocking each other. We had chicken rice ball at one of the restaurants at Jonker, and I will just say that I have much nicer chicken rice somewhere else sans the queue. The queue in front of the chicken rice ball restaurants is a view by itself.

It is a totally different type of environment at another similar World Heritage Site – Hoi An in central Vietnam. It is infested by visitors/foreigners too but I never felt like suffocating, and there are more than enough nice little eateries there and thus no sighting of “me-too-want-to-queue-for-chicken-rice” crowd under the hot sun. Melaka sure can learn a thing or 2 from Hoi An. Probably can get started by blocking all motorized vehicles from getting into Jonker Street for all day long.

Time for me to get the Hoi An photos done – it’s been more than 2 months I was back from there!! :-p

Click below for photos.

Melaka Sept2010

Some photos from a recent day trip to Melaka during the Raya break with Ben and Bill. Super hot and overly crowded. Our world heritage site needs to revamp to cater for the ever-increasing visitors.

50 Photos

Some more diving photos, taken at northeastern Bali area – Tulamben, Amed and Kubu.

A short write up to be followed soon, when I am back from Tioman.

I just come back from a diving trip to Bali a couple of weeks ago. I have to admit I have a blast, even if I didn’t see any Mola Mola and Manta Rays at Nusa Penida. Yeah it is right, I see none of them, which is probably harder to achieve at this time of the year (end of August) than seeing one or a few of them. Luck is just not at my side at times. It is a perfect excuse to come Nusa Penida again though!

We dived 2 days at Nusa Penida, followed by 1 day each at Tulamben, Amed and Kubu.

For Nusa Penida dives, we pre-book online with Bali Scuba at Sanur. 3 dives/day cost USD130. The price includes hotel transfer, tank & weight & guide, onbaoard soft drinks & mineral water, and a nice little lunch onboard (steam rice with beef & chicken, egg and sambal). Gear rental is not included – expect USD5/item/day. Our dive master for the 2 dive days are Knut and Henry. Knut is a tall Caucasian and likes to joke around. Henry is an over-sized fatty with over 30 years of diving experience. Both are really nice guys and helpful. Read more below.

Swastika Bungalow, the place where we stayed for 2 nights for USD40/night, is not far from Bali Scuba dive shop. It is not really a bungalow, just the normal resort type double-storey rooms. Room is spacious enough for 2, and equipped with air-conditional, TV and hot shower. There are a couple of swimming pools too among the lush greenery of hotel compound. The whole place shouts BALI. Oh and an continental breakfast is included too in the cafe overlooking one of the swimming pools.

There is a Swastika Restaurant just a stone-throw away from the Bungalow under the same corporation. You will get 10% discount off (or is it 5%?) the food price if you tell them you are staying in Swastika Bungalow. I didn’t recall the waitress request for the show-of-proof. Food is OK here. Go try the fresh coconut juice – the fruit came with decorations!

Water temperature is cold at this time of the year at Nusa Penida, so I didn’t use my 3mm wetsuit but instead renting a 5mm M-size long-sleeve wetsuit made by Nemo from the dive shop. It is full black with custom “Bali Scuba” branding logo across the chest area, and heavily padded at the elbow and ankle areas. This is the first time I am using 5mm, but it didn’t feel much harder to don than my own 3mm wetsuit.

Dive day started early – at 730am, the pickup already arrived at hotel. There were some waitings here and there. It is about 10mins to reach the dive boat at the Sanur beach. It will be another 45mins or more to reach the dive sites (depending on which one). Good thing about diving in Indonesia compared to Malaysia is that we don’t need to setup the gears ourselves. The boat crew and the dive masters will get them ready while we endure the long boat journey to the dive sites on the choppy water. Soft drinks  and mineral water is free flow on the boat. There is a small toilet too but it is a challenge to get every drop into the toilet bowl while the boat zips through the Badung Strait. The top deck of the dive boat can be used as sun deck while the boat is anchored.

We met with currents in all the dives here, the strongest one in 3rd dive at Crystal Point after the turn back. I held on to some coral rocks just to make sure that I don’t get swept away into the Indian Ocean. Still – no Mola Mola. I saw a bunch of Bannerfish cleaning stations but the big fish just don’t show up. Thermocline encountered at almost every dive – it is the layer of water column where the temperature changed dramatically, and due to this exchange of heat, objects appeared as if you are looking through a wrinkled glass. Going down the thermocline layer, even colder water is waiting to wake you up. The coldest that we’ve had in these 2 days is 22C – cold but still bearable with the 5mm wetsuit for me. Dive duration is mostly short due to the higher air consumption in all these dives to fight with the currents. Henry the dive master is using his 2.5mm wetsuit, guess he has more than enough of fat reserve in his body to shield from the cold :-p.

While no Manta and Mola Mola showing up, most of the time were spent looking at corals and divers. We did see a clown frogfish and a very nice looking nudibranch (Nembrotha purpureolineata), which was swept away by current after I’ve taken a few snaps. Poor nudi. Soft and hard corals are good and of many different kinds, especially at Toya Pakeh.

Dive Logs (1st 3 dives: 27 Aug 2010, 2nd 3 dives: 28 Aug 2010)

Photos

Click below for some photos taken here. I haven’t been taking any underwater photos since Aug 2009 Manado trip but it is nice to be able to get started again.

Nusa Penida, Bali - Diving Photos, Aug 2010

Diving photos taken at Nusa Penida, Bali at end of August 2010. Major disappointment is no Mola mola and manta ray sightings. Nevertheless a really good experience with the strong currents and cold water! Sure will be back next Mola Mola season!

47 Photos

Truong Tien Bridge, Hue, central Vietnam. Majestic at night when the ever-changing lights give a new lease of life to the cold metal structure.

Then we meet. Us and the Truong Tien Bridge. It is a 2-lane, 6-span metal bridge with narrow pedestrian walkway at both side, over the Huong River (a.k.a. Perfume River). It is painted colorfully by the ever-changing lights, from white to red, green, blue, yellow, all in different hue (no pun intended). The bridge is grand by its own, but with the lights giving it a different color & personality every few seconds, it is just majestic. We were busy taking photos while crossing it and before we reached the other side (< 500m I’d say), Ben’s camera battery ran flat. While he was running back to the hotel to have the battery charged for a short-while and then come back for more, I have the whole bridge for myself. (Well, not really. Like with few hundreds of the locals).

This was the only night that we overnight in Hue. If we didn’t happen to be here now, we are going to miss it like forever.

In life, some great things just come to you without you asking for it. You are so ecstatically happy that you wish the time can freeze at this moment eternally for you to to own it forever. But it is not to be. You let go reluctantly. And look forward for the next serendipity.

More photos after the fold – my futile effort trying to capture the moment as present, but then, it has been past.

Pedestrian walkway at the side of Truong Tien bridge.

Crossing the bridge.

It is blue now!

Locals gather on Huong River bank to enjoy the Truong Tien bridge.

Truong Tien bridge stands over the Huong River colorfully.

First off, dinner at Tong Juan Restaurant, the shop that made ‘stuffed crab’ famous in Kamaman – many shops have since opened up to sell the same thing.

• Restaurant Name: Tong Juan Restaurant (东源酿蟹)
• Location: K117, Jalan Sulaimani, Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia.
• GPS: 4.231271, 103.428479

Tong Juan Restaurant - full house all the time!

Arriving just before 7pm, the small restaurant is already filled with hungry customers. It didn’t take long for us to get a table, though. First time dine here, the safest bet is to follow the crowd – so we ordered stuffed crabs x2, BBQ prawn x2, and a vege. It took like 20mins before the food came – understood coz it is full house. A lazy all-in-one shot:

Stuffed crabs, BBQ tiger prawns, vege.

Well the stuffed crab tasted great with the chilli sauce, which is more sour than spicy. The stuffed crab basically is having crab meat and some vege (and maybe egg?) stuffed back into the crab shell and have it deep-fried. At RM8 each, it is expensive!

BBQ tiger prawn is really so so. It costs us RM12.50 for each prawn, definitely not worth it. The BBQ tiger prawn reminds me of the one (well, more like 3) that I had in D’Talipapa, Boracay. That was way way better. The vege is fine.

Worth the price? To me, No!Worth checking out for first-timer? Yes – just don’t order the BBQ tiger prawn, try something else.

The second day we went to the famed kopitiam – Hai Peng for breakfast. It is on the same street, Jalan Sulaimani, but different end than Tong Juan restaurant.

• Shop Name: Kedai Kopi Hai Peng
• Location: 3753 Jalan Sulaimani, Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia.
• GPS: 4.233486,103.426087

Hai Peng Kopitiam - famous for its Coffee, and yummy Nasi Dagang. My lens gives me terrible distortion at 18mm

The coffee shop is lively in the morning with customers from all walks of life. There is a big table in the middle that serves some of the food choices, including nasi lemak, nasi dagang in banana leaves and the fish curry (served separately in a small pot), fried meehoon, and some local kuihs. Since this is in Terengganu, it is almost a crime to not have nasi dagang for breakfast. Opening up the banana leave, there is only rice inside. Pouring the fish curry, which is kept in a separate pot, all over the rice will make a really nice nasi dagang. The fish curry here is not spicy but more on sweet, and really delicious. It is so nice that I had 2 nasi dagang after I have had a nasi lemak, which is having a slice of fish inside too plus cucumber slices and peanuts. The food on this table is self-service nature: just take the food and enjoy it, the waiter will come and calculate the total price when you are ready to pay up and leave.

Nasi Dagang in banana leave. The fish curry is served separately to preserve freshness.

Coffee here is thick and done well, but still nowhere near to dethrone the best on my list – the one served in a specific kopitiam in OUG, Kuala Lumpur. I will write about it next time, if I remember.  Nevertheless, the coffee tastes great, much better than all those franchised kopitiams found in every other corners throughout Malaysia.

I love this place. It is crowded, noisy, serves great food and coffee, and has a touch of nostalgic feel. Price is alright – breakfast for 2 of us costs RM12 (3 nasi dagang, 2 coffees, 1 nasi lemak, a few assorted local kuihs, a set of Roti Bakar). Oh, and do not forget to try the roti bakar in bun – it was sold out that day so we have the slice bread roti bakar. Both are great.

Coffee and Roti Bakar... this combo always brings back memories. My late grandfather used to pour the coffee onto the plate to cool it off for me to drink when I was small. Like many many years ago.

Last but not least, we arrived at Tin Kam Leng kopitiam. It is not far away from Dong Juan restaurant but might take a bit of searching (or asking around). It is near the bus station and a furniture shop. We dropped by here based on the recommendation of a local friend, not that we are still hungry after ate in Hai Peng.

• Shop Name: Tin Kam Leng
• Location: 3753 Jalan Sulaimani, Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia.
• GPS: 4.230939,103.424531

Curry Mee served with whole Ikan Kembung plus sambal. Fish is poached just right. A special dish only found here.

This shop is known for its curry mee served with a whole poached ikan kembung, both come with a splash of sambal, for RM5. The curry mee is not too spicy, and goes well with the fish. The mee is not a big portion, though. This shop worths a visit – if not for the great tasting fish & curry mee at the right price, then the way it serves a whole fish with curry mee. Not common, as far as I know.

This town has now become the pitstop for me, to stop by for 30mins just to have my cuppa and nasi dagang or roti bakar, when en route to one of those tropical islands off Terengganu and Kelantan coast to get my diving dose. You should, too – no need to rush through it. Just take it easy, give it a chance, and like me, you will start to liking it.

GSM Roaming in Airasia flight via OnAir service. It is total coincidence that the song I was listening to at that time was "Fly me to the moon". I was flying back to KL.

Tried sent a couple of sms’es and able to deliver, and able to receive incoming sms’es too. Did not have any noticeable lag. Did not try to call out though – pretty sure it will work, and more sure that it will cost me a bomb. No idea how much the outgoing sms will cost me, but there will be no charges for the incoming sms. No related mobile roaming information is found in the seat pocket.

Googling the OnAir service brings me to their homepage FAQ: http://www.onair.aero/faqs, which is an interesting read. Airasia is listed as one of its customers using the Mobile OnAir GSM roaming technology, where there is a picocell installed onboard for mobile phones’ radio interfacing, and then signals are routed to ground servers via satellite. There is also an onboard channel selector to prevent the mobile phones from connecting to the ground mobile networks directly. The Mobile OnAir supports only GSM/GPRS but not 3G – good enough for calls and sms’es, as well as basic internet browsing.

Cabin crew reminds that the mobile phones need to be turned off during take off and landing, so other than these periods, the mobile phones can be switched on and connected – as long as your mobile service operator has roaming deal with OnAir. Mine, Maxis, does.

The problem that might arise from this is the ignorant phone users that always speak loudly when on mobile phone, think China passengers, for example. That will be really irritating.

The OnAir has another service too: Internet OnAir – that works via RJ45 connection or Wifi. I didn’t try out the Wifi connectivity (because I didn’t even think about it at all then) but this just-posted Bernama article confirms that Airasia signs up only the Mobile OnAir service from OnAir. So probably no high speed internet browsing for now onboard Airasia, but I will find out soon enough during my next trip in August!

It was July 17th 2010, a Saturday. Far away from home.

• Restaurant Name: Y Thao Garden
• Location: 3 Thach Han, the Citadel, Hue, Vietnam
• GPS: 16.468009,107.567117 (click for Google Map location)

It is just a 10-minute cab ride from the hotel. The restaurant is set in a mansion surrounded by tropical garden with lush of green, which is welcoming. Walking straight in, no one was there at the reception to greet us. We walked around and took some photos of the tropical garden, and after like forever (well, 2 minutes but felt like forever) the waitress showed up and lead us to one of the 2 main dining halls, which were both without any diners at that time (~6pm).

The restaurant runs set menu, and there is only one lone set – take it or leave it – that costs USD10 (not inclusive of beverages). No À la carte whatsoever. Ordered 2 sets and a couple of local bottled Huda Beer, we set off to take more photos of the beautiful garden. More after the fold.

Fried Spring Rolls on peacock!

It didn’t take long for the first dish to come – it is fried spring rolls on toothpick poking on the back of a peacock with its head carved from carrot, and body from a pineapple. Nice presentation but the spring rolls are far from the best that we have had in Vietnam – they are not bad, really. Genuis about serving this dish first is actually the toothpicks which I can use throughout the meal. Of course we didn’t eat the peacock head (carrot) – the whole peacock probably will be recycled for the next table…

And here goes the subsequent dishes:

Vegetable ABC soup with carrot and potatoes - I expect a better soup to be served (herbal chicken soup at least?) in an "imperial cuisine" experience. Hard to imagine the Hue Emperor sipping away ABC soup during dinner 200 years ago in the nearby Citadel just a stone-throw away from this restaurant. (Photo taken at ISO5000!)

Steamed Shrimps go well with the provided dipping sauce but the shrimp is overcooked and felt rubbery and hard - but again, good presentation. The only thing in Ben's mind at this moment is probably why I am taking such a long time to take photos before he can start peeling the shrimps!

Now this is delicious - Hue pancake with meat and vege inside. 1 piece is never enough but can't order another one!

Menu says this is "mix fig salad with pork and shrimp", to put on top of the provided prawn crackers. This is another great tasting dish, but can we have more??

To me this is the best - steam rice wrapped in lotus leaf served with grill beef. Open up the lotus leaf cover, the aromatic lotus smell of the steam rice fills the air where there are some lotus seeds dotting the rice. Beef is done just right, juicy and tender. Keeping up in the food presentation front, there is a lotus flower bud that comes along and brings some pink.

The strawberry-lookalike is actually made of green bean paste covered in thin jelly, not bad in taste and presentation.

The meal is closed out with pineapples and tea.

Verdict?

The food is actually not bad but portion is small – note that both of us shared the 4 shrimps, the small plate of lotus steam rice & grill beef and “mix fig salad with pork and shrimp”. It is more like a food tasting than a full fledged fill-your-stomach meal. It is also by far the most expensive meal that we have had in Vietnam. That said, if you are visiting Hue City, I’d still recommend this restaurant – just lower your expectation, and you will have a wonderful evening here. Forget about “imperial cuisine”, I wouldn’t want to become the Emperor if these are the best food on plate.

Happy dining!

记得要影番张大合照先，咪迟啲点upload上Facebook啊！

间“荣达海鲜餐室”相当不起眼，为一列数间铺头的首间角头，地段昏暗。间餐馆有冷气，约莫可以摆十零二十围。但係冇俾佢嘅外表蒙骗咗，呢间嘢真係禾秆盖珍珠，食材极新鲜，煮工冇得顶，再加上价钱合理，值得帮衬！虽然此店远不及附近的椰花园出名，但是各位如果要吃好嘢，不作他想肯定要试一试哩度啦！

一于等我写番个blog entry，upload啲相片同大家分享吓！

• 店名：荣达海鲜餐室（Kedai Makanan Laut Yong Tat)
• Lot 9185, Kampung Telok Gong,
  42000, Perlabuhan Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
• 电话：03－31341167
• GPS： N 02° 56.897′  E 101° 22.860′

鱼虾蟹大餐，埋单盛惠RM40蚊一位，平到笑啦！

1.

仲有几日就过年，边道可以少得例牌嘅”捞生“噃。祝大家捞得盘满钵满，风生水起！

2.

猪油啦啦炒米一上桌就俾班饿鬼扫晒咁滞。哩碟都係值得推荐！

3.

豆腐羹同帝王苗不过不失。兄弟，分羹至紧要分得匀！

4.

清蒸草虾依然保持一贯的靓仔卖相，味够虾甜，兼且份量十足。

5.

我都係第一次吃“顺风”鱼，一个字，正！

6.

上汤大啦啦，卖相不错但肉质有啲韧。

7.

甘香膏蟹，蟹肉细腻只只有膏，1kg约莫RM27，都算平嘅啦。

8.

成尺长的濑尿虾我都係第一次吃，肉质鲜甜弹口连龙虾都要靠边站！毫无保留五星推荐。一条RM25蚊。

9.

濑尿虾尾，睇番都食指大动。

10.

打完牙祭后，一片狼藉的桌面。。。

11.

条正到无伦嘅清蒸“顺风”鱼俾我哋狂风扫落叶般吃剩条骨。再扮吓摄影专家搞吓景深，死未？

12.

哩度连黄梨都与众不同，色水偏浅但劲甜兼且冇渣，记得要试。

13.

成20条友埋单，两围大餐竟然RM720蚊仲有得找！

有舍才有得。

退后原来是向前。

放开双手，得到的是整个世界。

与天下受挫失意人共勉之。