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/

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

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!

Well I have had some really bad dives that I wish I am back in the office...

Taking advantage of season-opening Early Bird Promotion (see another post here), I visited Redang Island again from 28~30 March 2009. No diving this time, only signing up for the standard 3D2N snorkeling package, but nevertheless as tired if not more.

Redang Island, a beautiful tropical island retreat, is located 45km off the coast of Terengganu state, about 400km from Kuala Lumpur. It can be reached either by air (http://www.airasia.com, http://www.malaysiaairlines.com) or by road. Either way, you will en route Kuala Terengganu, the state capital of Terengganu. Besides that. Berjaya Air operates Dash 7 flights directly touching down on the island from Subang Airport, Kuala Lumpur.

Sharing some of the transportation details from my March 2009 Redang 3D2N trip:

Getting There & Around

Kuala Lumpur (Putra Bus Terminal ) -> Kuala Terengganu Bus Terminal:

• The bus departed on-the-dot at 10.00pm from the Putra Bus Terminal near PWTC, streaked through the night with its air-conditional at full power as usual. I was shivering under a thin jacket. The bus stopped at a rest area at around 1:30am, for 30 minutes or so. We reached Kuala Terengganu Bus Terminal at 4:30am.
• Whole journey: 6.5 hours.
• Bus operator: I used Trans National. There are many other operators plying the same route, some have better repo than the other. But do expect the bus, regardless of which operators, to be heavy on the right foot at night trips. Just sleep it through or you will start to have weird thoughts.
• Cost: RM 38.00 one-way
• On the final day of the trip, we took the 1pm bus from KT back to KL. It was boring. Too early or bright to really sleep.
• Notes:
  • warm clothing is required to survive the bus trip for normal human beings
  • long distance bus runs on schedule. Be on time or see your bus leaves without you on board. 11pm bus might be better for this route so that you will be reaching at 5:30am. The Redang resorts operator normally arranged ground transport to reach Kuala Terengganu Bus Terminal at 6:30am, so the wait tme is shorter. Do check with resort operators before booking.
  • There is a McDonald’s just beside the KT Bus Terminal, and now it starts to serve breakfast at 4am – what a godsend! Just order some food and take a nap there waiting for the ground transport to arrive.

KT Bus Terminal -> Merang Jetty (ground transport):

• the resort can arrange this, but this normally is not included in the published package cost.
• The journey from KT to Merang takes about 45mins.
• Cost: depends on the resort, as the resort helps to arrange this. Redang Holiday Beach Villa charged RM20/person for two-way transport.
• Note:
  • Some resorts are not using Merang Jetty. Best is to leave this to be arranged by the resort.

Merang Jetty -> Redang Island (boat transport):

• resort package includes this.
• Boat journey: around 1 hour.
• some resorts are using better boats than others. The resort that I was staying with overloaded both ways to and fro. Worse yet, no life jackets were distributed! People have started to forget about the Oct 2007 Bluewater ferry incident where it caught fire and sank near Pulau Tioman killing 4. Government has vowed to enforce strict regulations, but WHERE???

Snorkeling Trips (fishing boat transport):

Snorkellers swam to embark the boat

• Redang Holiday Beach Villa uses probably the worst type of boat for the snorkeling trips – it looks like one of those fishing boats. Due to its size, it can’t be moored to the beach, not to mention it travels so damn slow. All other boats zoom pass it.
• To embark an disembark, we have to swim to it, about 20m from the beach.
• Standard 3D2N package includes 3 snorkeling trips where 1 of them is scheduled at the Marine Park (Park Fee: RM5/person)
• I envy those resorts that use catamaran…

On the Long Beach (Pasir Panjang):

• Stroll. Enjoy the beach. And anything on it.
• From one end (Redang Holiday Beach Villa) to the other (Laguna Redang, Redang Reef Resort), it takes less than 20mins.

Long Beach - white sand, pristine water

Redang Holiday Beach Villa - Seaview Semi-D Bungalow

Visited Redang again last weekend, 28~30 March 2009 to be exact. No diving this time, just 3D2N snorkeling pacakge. This write up is not really about the trip as a whole, but just about the resort we were staying during the trip – Redang Holiday Beach Villa.

This resort is the at one of the extreme ends of the Pasir Panjang, while another grand resort, Laguna Resort, is at the other end. The Redang Holiday side of the beach is more laid back while at the Laguna side, there are stage set up for live bands at Laguna Resort and Redang Beach Resort. The music runs late into the nights especially during weekends.

We chose the Seaview Semi-D Bungalow, which offers arguably the best view among all Redang resorts.The bungalows are built at the side of the hill slopes. The view up here is superb – half of the Pasir Panjang Beach and the unlimited sea view just outside the doorstep literally. On top of that, the semi-D bungalow units are built among the woods, making one feels really close to the nature. Can’t say the same to the grand Laguna Resort – it is huge, contemporary, classy and happening, but I just don’t see it fit into the Redang settings. Maybe it is just me, or sour grapes – I can’t (and won’t) afford the Laguna pricing for seaview rooms.

The Seaview bungalows are built in woods, providing a nature setting.

The Redang Holiday Beach Villa, like most of other Redang resorts, offers Early Bird Promotion annually. From mid February to end of March (some resorts even runs into mid of April), the package price is 20~30% cheaper. This is to attract more business as the island is just opening up to tourists after the monsoon close-down period (November ~ mid February), and the sea is still relatively choppy during this period.

The buffer-style is OK, not excellent but adequate. One of the 2 dinners is BBQ buffet dinner, and I love the BBQ lamb chop!

Service from the staff is great, they wear the smiles more often than not. There are a couple of India-national workers too in the restaurant. However, the snorkeling trip is a bit messy – the resort uses a big fishing boat for snorkeling trips. Due to the size of the boat, it can only anchor about 20m from the shore. This makes getting on and off the boat a havoc, especially some of the tourists are not good in swimming. Luckily no big incidents happen, but this can certainly be improved by using catamaran or smaller boats.

At the surface, Redang is still great. But down under, corals are bleaching and damaged...

On top of the package price, here are the extra costs

• RM20 for 2-way Kuala Terengganu Jetty -> Bus Terminal van transport
• RM5 for Marine Park entry (applicable if joining snorkelling or diving trip to Marine Park)
• RM10 for life jacket rental (for the duration of the stay)

Redang Holiday Beach Villa - Early Bird Promotion Package Price

To me, a really nice resort is those that can blend well with the local settings, but in the same time contains the ‘nature’ factor, as well as make it simple. Rhetoric is unnessary.

3 words for Redang Holiday Beach Villa: Keep it up!

4 words for Laguna Redang: KISS! (Keep it simple, Stupid!)

But… it is not all that rosy for Redang Holiday Beach Villa as a whole…

The boat transfer to and fro the island is overloaded, and making matter worse, it doesn’t have enough life jackets. The boatmen don’t even make an effort to distribute them anyway. This is really bad. Tioman Bluewater ferry case in Oct 2007 came into mind.

Another shortfall is that they are using fishing boat for snorkeling trips – see my other post here with further details.

So, make your own informed decision whether to select this resort. I love the place but hate the attitude to not go fix the boat/life jacket issue even after the Tioman tragedy.

First Ray of Light on St. John's Peak, Mt. Kinabalu

Date: Mid Oct 2005, 5:57am

Location: Summit of Mt. Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

The Story: 2nd time is much easier. I was not the first ones to reach the Summit of Mt. Kinabalu that day, but at least I have enough time to capture the moment of the ray of light hits the mountain. A few climbers already sitting down, chilling out (literally). The sun gets out from the thick clouds, paints the left side of St. John’s Peak with orange color. The magic moment is short-lived, though – the sky turns bright soon and before long, the orange color is gone, replaced by blinding glare.

Sipadan Island - Tiny but Famed

It’s been a while – 6 months to be exact – since I came back from my Sipadan trip, but it is just like yesterday, that I can still remember details of the trip. I had my best dives, not saying a lot as I have just over 50 in total, but the memories of this trip will not go away for a very long time. Because the trip is very special to me.

So, I am obligated to write down some notes about this trip, on one hand to record down my memories, but on the other hand promote our own little Malaysian islands – Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai – to the rest of the travelers and divers. Not that these famed islands still need any more promotion, though.

Some trip information for my 5D4N Sipadan trip last August (8/82008 ~ 12/8/2008):

Getting There, Around and Away

• Airasia has daily flights plying between Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Tawau (TWU). The 3-hour fight cost me RM225. Budget airlines’ ticket fare varies greatly depending on the timing of booking – either book well ahead, or wait for one of those frequent promotions.

• Tawau -> Semporna: Van transport was pre-arranged with dive shop of our choice, Scuba Junkie. The 1-hour undulating journey costs RM20 per person one-way.

• Semporna -> Mabul Island: The dive boat dropped us at Arung Hayat Longhouse @ Mabul Island after the 1st dive day, and this island was where I stayed for the next few days. Sipadan has no more resorts since a few years back where the State Government decided to do the right thing. Mabul Island is the prefect spot to stay in order to dive Sipadan. However, the return trip from Mabul Island to Semporna is not included, and it costs RM50/person for a speedboat trip arranged by the Longhouse.

• On Mabul: well, use legs, i.e walk. It takes less than an hour to walk to whole island one round. There are some villages scattered on the island with LOTS of kids running around. Some souvenir shops can be found among the villages too. For us that stay in the budget longhouse, the dive boat will be waiting for us at the other site of the island. We will need to walk for about 10mins across the island to reach the jetty, no big deal.

Accommodation

Village on Mabul Island

1st night: Stayed at Scube Junkie’s Backpackers at Semporna Seafront. Budget accommodation, standard room costs RM40/night if dive with Scuba Junkie, with air-conditional but share toilets. There are only limited number of rooms so do book ahead of time. The rooms are not numbered, but by marine life like turtle, barracuda, clownfish etc. A simple breakfast is included.

2nd ~ 4th nights: Stayed on Mabul Island, and more specifically, the Arung Hayat Longhouse that Scuba Junkie has affiliation with. The longhouse, situated at the southwest of the isand, extends out from the stony beach to swallow sea on top of wooden stilts. There are probably less than 15 rooms so advance booking is recommended. Sipadan Island can be seen from the longhouse.

Arung Hayat Longhouse’s air-conditional room with attached bathroom costs RM80/person/night for twin sharing room. Rooms without attached bath room costs RM60/person/night. All meals are included, and free flow of coffee plain water and breads. Dinner is nice with local food, and having dinner under the gusting sea wind is definitely icing on the cake with Sipadan in sight.

There are a few other longhouses in Mabul that provide budget accommodation too, as well as some luxurious ones (list not in any particular order):

Mabul Island's Resort Locations

• Sipadan Water Village (SWV), an up-market dive resort built over shallow sea – expect to pay upwards of RM2500/person for 5D4N trip. A friend of mine just got back and really enjoyed it. Basically you get what you paid for. The resort’s house reef is the so called “Artificial Reef” dive site. And unlimited house reef diving! 2 URLs:
  • http://www.sipadanwatervillage.com
  • http://www.swvresort.com

• Borneo Divers

• Sipadan Mabul Resort (SMART)

• Mabul Water Bulnglows, same owner as SMART, has the chalet built above the sea

• Uncle Chang’s Sipadan Mabul Dive Lodge, longhouse lodge similar like the Arung Hayat. Heard some good reviews from friend that went snorkelling with them, and I met Uncle’s Chang’s nephew (as a dive master) when go diving in Tioman last year.

• Seaventures Dive Resort (converted from oil rig), 1km away from the beach near Borneo Divers. Offers unlimited house reef dives too! This platform/resort sounds interesting and unique, but I would prefer to stay on Mabul to see the villages.

• Arung Hayat Longhouse (Scuba Junkie): This is the one that I stayed, with view of the Sipadan Island some distance away. Sipadan Island is located at the south of Mabul Island.

Kapalai Island, or should I say, sand bank, has a very nice resort/water chalet – Sipadan Kapalai Dive Resort - built on it too. Have a glimpse of the resort when I was having my 2 dives near Kapalai. The latest copy of Sport Diving magazine (issue 132) has an article about this nice resort. Unsure about the rate but definitely upmarket stuff. (I just found out that the article is free to view: http://www.divetheblue.net/pdf/132_Kapalai.pdf)

Alternatively, it is possible to stay at Semporna, and having daily diving trip to Sipadan, Mabul or Kapalaim but you will have to endure a longer boat trip, of ~45mins to 1 hour, in order to reach your first dive site, and as long when you have done for the day, heading back to Semporna. There are plenty of budget accommodation choices in Semporna, but I’d strongly recommend to stay in Mabul Island. It is much closer to the actions – dive sites are literally on the door step if you stay in Seaventures or SWV, and the tiny island with its villages is really fun to explore.

Expenses

Sipadan Expenses

• Fun dives pricing (Scuba Junkie), as of August 2008:
• 3 dives, Mabul/Kapalai: RM250
• 3 dives, Sipadan: RM300
• Equipment Rental: RM50/day
• Sipadan National Park Fee: RM40
• I lost one of the fins and was made to pay RM150…

Dive Sites

Many great dive sites around these 3 islands, but here are the ones that I dived:

Sipadan:

1. South Point
2. Barracuda Point
3. Hanging Garden

Mabul:

1. Artificial Reef
2. Froggie
3. Seaventures

Kapalai: 2 unknown dive sites.

Marine Life

Devil Scorpionfish flapping its colorful 'wings' when disturbed

Lots of stuff, but my first ever sightings are:

• Great Barracuda
• Ribbon Eels, both adult and juvenile
• Crocodilefish
• Devil Scorpionfish
• Juvenile Many-Spotted Sweetlips – the little dancing queen!
• Leaf Fish

I love Mabul and Kapalai for the muck dives, but Sipadan is unforgettable, with the many sharks and turtle sightings, the schools of Barracuda, and of course, the trill of unlimited deep blue below me.

Tips

1. Mabul/Semporna gets dark early, at about 6:30pm
2. Bring enough cash. No ATM facilities on Mabul AFAIK. Semporna has a few banks and ATMs.
3. Electricity on Mabul is not a problem. 220~240V, 50~60Hz.
4. Book advance with your choice dive operators if you want to dive Sipadan, because there is a daily quota. No such problem for diving in Mabul and Kapalai.
5. Stay longer – I did 3 dive days, and it is far from enough once we start tasting. Stay as long as you can (or your money allows)
6. Diving is all year long.
7. Walk the island if you stay in Mabul – villages, local childrens, serene Sipadan Water Village, view of Seaventures, and also enjoy the gentle sea gull at the end of jetty in the evening while admiring those having night dives just beneath you.

Great Barracuda, length of 1.5m or so

Date: 11th August, 2008; ~1pm

Location: one of Kapalai’s dive sites

Equipment: Canon Powershot A620 in Canon WP-DC90 waterproof housing, Inon Z240 single strobe

It was almost 50 minutes into our 2nd dive of the day, at Kapalai (near Sipadan, Sabah, Malaysia). 6 of us together with our dive master ascended to ~7m, getting ready to do the safety stop and call it an end to another great dive. Thus far, the dive is excellent – among other sightings, I saw my first ribbon eels – 2 adults in blue and yellow colors, and one pitch black juvenile. I spent quite some time with one of the adult ribbon eels, trying to get a good shot of it but not really successful. My buddy Bill was not helping at all in that regard, but that is another story.

I had my first sighting of the juvenile Many-Spotted Sweetlips too, in orange with white dots. It is so much different than the adult version, and one will not forget it once you see it – it is an ultra active-whole body shaking non-stop kind of fish. I took loads of photos but none is in focus, but I did have a short video of this dancing queen. Amazing little fish!

Mild current throughout the dive, but when we ascended to ~7m preparing for safety stop over a huge rock outcrop, current gets really strong, so strong that some of us were finning frenziedly in order to stay position and not being swept away to open sea. My buddy Bill and myself were the last to reach the rock outcrop, while others were already holding onto the hard corals on the outcrop to stay in position. With camera and the strobe in one hand, I swam around to the right side of the rock outcrop, and look forward to the open sea. I thought I saw see a shark’s head. The rock was blocking the rest of the fish’s body. I swam up a bit in order to have a better view of the fish.

Wholly cow! it was a huge Great Barracuda, approximately 1.5m long, holding steadily just 3m away from me. I turned my head to the left, trying to alert others, and noticed that everyone is already looking at this huge thing. I turned back and look at the fish. It is still there, like a statue, not even moving an inch. I turned on my camera and the strobe, which I have off while ascending, wanting to capture a photo of this great fish. I realized that time is not on my side, so I snapped a photo of it with one hand – I have my left hand holding onto the hard corals to fight the strong current.

When I am ready to get another shot, the Great Barracuda thinks otherwise. The fish started to swing its tail, within seconds, it shoots to the open sea and vanished. I managed to capture another photo of it but only of its tail.

The first photo, above, turned out to be very bad quality due to out-of-focus, strong current, strobe position, reflections from suspended particles in the sea, and arbitrary camera settings – I just turned it on and shoot, with no time to check the settings beforehand.

But at least something is better than nothing. And it is the biggest Barracuda that I have seen, by miles! And what a way to end an already great dive!

You just don’t know what you will see when doing safety stop. Keep your eyes open to surroudings rather than fixing them at the near-zero-bar SPG gauge readings.

Some photos from the trip:

1. Above Water – http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Tioman2007_Above/

2. Under Water – http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Tioman2007_Under/

Getting There
We drove from KL-> Senawang, then follow Kuala Pilah, Bahau, Mudzham Shah (this town is in Pahang State), Kuala Rompin, and finally arrived in Tanjung Gemuk, whihc totals to ~300km. After passing through Mudzham Shah the Tanjung Gemuk Jeti sign boards start to appear along the road. There are ~4km of winding roads before reaching Kuala Pilah, and after Bahau, we went thru a stretch of interstate way #11 which is really straight for a few kilometers and we were doing 140km/h, which was fun. Oil palm trees are literally everywhere in this area. The whole drive from KL to Tanjung Gemuk took us 4 hours.

Tanjung Gemuk is a relatively new town – we couldn’t find this town in the map that we bought in the petrol station – and same like Mersing, having ferry service to Tioman Island.  Boarding ferries at Tanjung Gemuk Jeti is an obvious choice for those come from North (Kuantan) or for those like us that used the above route, as this saves ~60km road trip to reach Mersing, which used to be the only port that has ferry service to Tioman.

Reaching the Jeti just before 1pm, we bought return tickets for RM70/person from Fast Ferry Venture (http://langkawi-ferry.com/, tel: +609 4131997/998). The originally listed boat schedule was 4pm but it was somehow changed to 2pm for that day, which saves us some waiting time. FFV has 3 schedule boat trips each way but the time might be changed without prior notice. In fact we waited until 2:45pm before the ferry arrives due to heavy rain.

On Tioman Island

It takes about 1.5 hours for the ferry to arrive at Tekek, which is a big town in Tioman. We followed the crowd to go down here but later only found out that this Tekek town is not actually suited for tourists. There are constructions going on here and the beach is having more rocks than sand. As it turned out, those who came here are mostly state or government officials. We were offered a ride to ABC beach – which has better beaches and quieter – by a van driver by the jetty for RM20 for each person but we declined. We decided to walk the distance. Read another related blog entry on the development of Tioman Island here.

Well, after hauling our baggage and camera bags for 1.5 hours under the 35C hot sun, we finally arrived at the ABC beach. It was only about 3.5km but the heavy luggage coupled with the hot and humid weather made us spend that long time on the road. We’re exhausted and lucky to get a room at Mokhtar’s Place Chalet by the ABC beach. The room, which has one queen and one single bed, equipped with fan and attached bathroom with hot shower, cost us RM35/room/nite.

The good thing about staying here is that there is a dive shop, Dive Asia, within 100m. After settling down and a bit of resting, we walked over to Dive Asia and chatted with the DiveMaster, Glen, who is skinny, dark skin and with dyed bronze hair. He was playing guitar by the beach just infront of the diveshop. He has all those pencil sketches of the dive sites around Tioman Island, which are done pretty nice, with some of them even in colors. His plan is to have this dive site sketches printed on t-shirts for sale.

The Dives

We did a 3-dive day with Glen Hapirulla, the DM from DiveAsia dive shop at ABC beach. Glen, a Sabahan Bajau, is a nice guy but albeit a little unorthodox. It costs us RM225 for 3 dives including equipment rental (equipment is a little bit worn out, I have to say). The price at another nearby diveshop, Eco Divers, is a bit higher at RM100/dive or RM170 for 2, and it offers foreigner DMs.

Dive Logs
1st Dive – Kind of Nice
Location: Sea Fan Garden, Tulai Island
Max Depth: 31.1m
Duration: 45min
Start/End Air Pressure (bar): 230/100

My dive buddy Hiu loves it here. It might be due to the fact that this is his first time diving down to over 30m (he was OW certified which recommends a max depth of 18m). Like its name suggests, we saw loads of sea fans ranging from <1m to over 3m.

The visibility at 30m is much better than what I experienced in Redang Island at the same depth, and it was much warmer here too. Spotted a scorpion fish very well camouflarged, a few crown of thorns, a blue dotted stingray resting at the sand bottom, and of course, lots and lots of hard and soft corals.

My memory to all those hard and soft corals are always not that good, it is really time to pick up an in depth book about corals. Hiu used up the air pretty fast, understandably, and we’re not able to reach the 50min target.

I took some time to capture photos of the Anemone Clown fish but they are just too active trying to protect their own home. I probably would have to set a faster shutter speed, something like 1/200s, for a still Nemo photo — I will try harder next time!

2nd Dive – Love this place! Nudis and More Nudis
Location: Malang Rock, Tulai Island
Max Depth: 21.0m
Duration: 59min – personal best!
Start/End Air Pressure (bar): 220/60
Surface Interval:  > 1hr

This is my favorite site among the 3. We straight descend down to ~18m where we spent some time examining the sand bottom, which turn out to be a disappointment – we didn’t see anything particularly interesting there. We then made a right turn to check out the usual coral reefs.

Abundant of different hard and soft corals that I can’t name, and some sea fans and sea whips. as well as potato-shape hard corals. There are 3 swim-throughs here too formed by the rocks above the sandy bottom – all of them can be easily access without having to worry about tangled-up, but the visibility here are not that good, of about 3m.

After the 3rd swim-through we were met with a huge wall covered with corals. We spotted quite a few nudis here, including a relatively big one of ~7cm, which seems like a Jorunna funebris.

3rd Dive – Boring Fishing Wrecks

Location: Marine Park

Max Depth: 21.1m

Duration: 50min

Start/End Air Pressure (bar): 200/60
Surface Interval: 2hrs

What can I say? The visibility is bad and murky of around 3-5m, which is kind of expected to a ship wreck site. Glen said there are total of 12 ship wrecks down there and he told us afterwards that we’ve gone thru all of them – but who is counting? All these fishing boats (confiscated by the Marine Park officials for unknown reasons, and were sunk purposely) just look the same to me. We went on from boat to boat, nothing really spectacular actually – these were no warships, mind you, just some simple fishing boats. Some big Batfish are not shy at all swimming along us, which is something that I welcome – the wrecks are just too boring for me that I’d rather take some photos of the curious fish.

After like 20+mins I noticed that we were swimming at the sand bottom of ~18m but there was nothing insight. OK, I thought, we might need swim a bit to reach the next wreck. I was the first one following Glen with Bill closely behind me at the right side, and the young Canadian couple is at the back. I followed Glen to change directios a few time, and saw him checking his wrist-fitted compass – I knew that he was lost.

We continue to fin with a fast pace for seemingly eternity, and finally, after over 7 minutes of finning over nothing-to-see sandy bottom, Glen led us back to the ship wreck area and closer to the Marine Park snorkelling area. Glen later told me that he was confused down there and lost direction. I was amazed – Glen has 4000+ dives and he knows this area better than anything other thing that he would have known, and yet he still will lost his direction once in a while. Ain’t us lucky or what?

We exlored  a bit near  the Marine Park jetty’s long pillars and gradually ascend as the Canadian guy is LOA (low on air). We did safety stop at a sandy slope where I saw a few small juvinile puffer fish, not to mention loads of the usual coral fishes. Overall a boring dive but any dive is a good dive for me!

The State Govt. is having so many projects at Kampung Tekek and surrouding areas, like widening the river bed just beside the beach, the marina project etc. that have put off tourists – who wants to see tractors going about the front of their chalet while having vacation?

It is also having littering everywhere near Kampung Tekek, not to mention the pocket of dirty and smelly water patches along the construction areas. More importantly the marine ecosystem will be damaged or out right destroyed by all these projects at the beach front.

In fact we've seen so many of the chalets being discarded along the road from Tekek leading the ABC, it is just an eye sore. Even the Marine Park's Headquater – a elegent white & blue painted big buliding blocks, but really out-of-place here – near ABC beach, is having its drainage directly flow to the marine reservation park beach just in front of it! The waste water can be seen forming while bubbles at the marine park beach shallow water near the rocky area . What are you thinking, the Marine Park Officer?

The locals are unhappy with the constructions that have been going on but there is little that they can do. At least they managed to stop the State Govt. to widening the existing cement road – at least for now.

The Tioman beaches are already inheritedly not as good as those in Redang Island or Perhentian Island which are renowned for their fine white long pristine beach and crystal clear water. The least the State Govt. can do is to not further destroying the island. The tourists are not here to see a modern township or the construction work-in-progress, it is the rich variety of coral reefs and fishes (and of course, some really cool wrecks) that attracted the tourists and divers around the world to Tioman Island. WWF ran 2 articles on concern on Tioman Island's projects on 2004:
1. Controversial marina project threatens Malaysia's Pulau Tioman Marine Park
2. WWF-Malaysia Position Statement on Proposed Airport And Marina Projects In
Pulau Tioman

and so did CDNN Eco News:

Government-backed marina project will destroy Malaysia's Tioman marine park

It is useless trying to attract tourists by making the island a tax-free heaven if the constructions are still going on and the marine life are being threaten or destroyed. Tioman needs help! And it needs it fast!

It was May, and it is almost a crime to not visit the one of islands of East Coast Malaysia. This is the best time of the year to enjoy the sunny beach and calm South China Sea.

We’ve been talking about this trip since Feb and I really can’t wait anymore. Arriving the island on 25th May (Friday), I was put off by the throng of tourists (and almost all are Malaysian Chinese, go figure) on the Pasir Panjang but hey, I couldn’t care less as long as I can get my diving doses.

I’ve visited Redang Island once 1.5 years ago and was staying at Berjaya Beach Resort, which is very nice but secluded in its own lagoon. This time around, we will be staying at the ever popular and crowded Pasir Panjng (pic) for a change…

See mome photos (mostly underwater) here: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/redang_2007/

We had a pretty relax Friday afternoon, did some snorkelling at the Tanjung Tengah house reef at Pasir Panjang and sighted a nursery black-tip shark among others curious fishes, and I fiddled with the underwater camera casing to be more familiar with it. It was at least 6 months ago that I last used it!! The house reef is under threat by the sheer amount of snorkellers here and I saw some of them stepping directly on the hard corals! It is only a matter of time that the house reef to be badly damaged and the dead corals are already all over the the seabed right now.

Blossoming tourism, like in so many other places in the world, is a double-sided sword. Sad sad sad. We also went out to a snorkelling site by boat with others from the same resort. It was nice too with crystal clear water and bright sunlight – we saw a cuttlefish running away from us among other usual suspects. I was trying hard to capture a photo of my buddy Bill with his head and torso above the water and the rest of the body under, along with some coral reef in sight. This is my best effort. The wave made it super hard to have one half of the small lens above the water line and another half below.

The next day we had 3 dives with Redang Pelangi, led by divemaster Jan Shir, a pretty nice, balding Chinese. 3 of us were the only divers that day so we were pretty much going with our own pace, which was what I prefer. We did an unconventional (and not recommended) dive sequence, from easy to hard:

- first dive is an easy 12-18m Mak Cantik not far from Pasir Panjang (5-min boat), kind of like the checkout dive for the dive master to judge our diving skills etc. We should have done the checkout dive the day earlier but we were just too lazy then. We did around 50mins here. I wish I have long memory for the fishes and corals that I’ve seen but I didn’t (underwater camera helps, but it is time for me to read up some coral and fish identification books!). I had my favorite photo of the trip taken here: 2 commensal shrimps (Periclemenes Brevicarpalis?)!

The always photogenic clown anemonefish (below) was also captured here. 40bar left in tank when the dive was concluded.

- 2nd dive is just GREAT. It is so great that it deserved an entry all for itself. One of the best dives I have had so far, in my limited diving experiences of less than 25 dives to-date. It was an 18m straight down Sandy Bottom dive in the middle of the sea, and there isn’t any buoy or mooring line. It was around 50mins too. 40bar left.

- 3rd dive is at Black Coral Garden near Pulau Lima. This one is a bit further out and about 15min on boat. We went down to 31.5m and stayed around that depth for about 10-15mins before ascend gradually. I wasn’t aware by then what a ‘Black Coral’ (Antipathes sp.) is, but I will have long memory of the eerie, cold and bad visibility of the 30m depth, and the encounter of a huge triggerfish there. It charges from ~5m away towards me face-to-face and decided to swim away just about ~2m from me. Lucky me!

This was my personal deepest (for my AOW certification we did only 26m at Deep Dive), nothing to brag about but nevertheless a personal record. We stayed for a reputable 46mins and I left 30bar. The camera, mystically, was jammed on the lens cover and couldn’t take any photos of this dive. We had a fun encounter with a group of Jacks that swimmed with us a bit at ~15m.

I was having problem to equalize on all the 3 dives and I guess my technic is not correct. Got to google some site and read more on equalizing. I was also the ‘air hog’ among 3 of us and always using ~30-50bar more than the rest. Using underwater camera probably is one of the reasons, but I would have to go the gym more often to improve my cardio. Now, I am serving my ‘surface time’ while waiting for my next dive trip, and hopefully it won’t be a long one .

More photos here: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/redang_2007/