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。

Location: Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi
Date/Time: 1st Sept 2009, 15:30

This orange brownish juvenile frogfish, measuring less than 5cm in length, has been eyeballing the pity little seahorse for quite some time. It probably ponders whether to go for something prettier for a quick snack – it is teatime now anyway – or just take the black seahorse for a quick chow since it is easy – the seahorse didn’t intend to move out from the frogfish’s stare at all. My dive buddy Bill and myself swam around these 2 little creatures for a while but nothing happened. They kept staring at each other, like stone statues, not moving a muscle, and only few centimeters apart.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the frogfish opens its huge mouth and had the whole of the seahorse’s head and some of its body swallowed. It is kinda bizarre to witness such a killing, though I’d prefer real horse meat over seahorse’s meat anyday.

For the next 3 minutes or so, the below pose maintained:

Frogfish tries to swallow a seahorse

But then, probably feeling remorse to kill a seahorse, or maybe the seahorse is just too hard to swallow, the frogfish releases it out from his mouth, and slowly retreated. The seahorse is alive – for now.

erm.. the frogfish didn't really like the horse meat...

Sand Castle @ Boracay Long Beach

Finally uploaded some photos from my recent short trip to Boracay, the Philippines:

http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Boracay_May2009/

More trip details to follow.

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.

7th Apr – Arriving Denpasar airport ~7pm. Too late for Tanah Lot. Eat etc. Drive to Gilimanuk (110km, ~3hours). Stay @ Gilimanuk. The car better be prepared there!

8th Apr – Dive Secret Bay at Gilimanuk. Departs afternoon, heading to Labuhan Lalang (jetty to Manjangan). It is quite near Gilimanuk from the map, maybe 45mins or so. Stay.

9th Apr – Dive Menjangan. This should be one of the highlights of the trip. Top dive sites are:

• the Anker Wreck (40+ meters),

• Eel Garden

• Pos II.

Depends on how it goes, maybe stay extra night here, or heads to Tulamben after the dives. The road is straight forward, moving across the north of Bali, maybe 2-3 hours. Stay at Tulamben.

10th Apr – Dive Tulamben + Amed. Maybe not enought time for Amed.

• Liberty Wreack
• Drop Off
• Batu Kelebit

Heads back to Kuta afternoon. Stay at Kuta. If time allows, go straight to Uluwatu before dask.

11th ~ 12th Apr: standard thingy. Short trip to Ubud? Pantai Kuta, Uluwatu or Tanah Lot, souvenir.

Hot Air Balloons Flying Over Putrajaya

Never heard about this event until some hot air balloon photos showed up in the newspaper on Friday morning. Maybe there are more ‘interesting’ news in the Malaysian political front as well as on the world economic crisis that overshadowed it.

Anyway, I was there on the evening of the last day of the event (22nd March 2009). Reaching Putrajaya Percint 2 at 5:30pm, the traffic is already in really bad jam – I thought I am the only one that haven’t seen a hot air balloon, but apparently not. Took me like 15 minutes to get a parking. The preparation for flying the hot air balloons, of a total about 20 of them, was already underway.

While shooting away with my Canon 400D, I used my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to capture some photos too – not to prove that the camera feature on it really sucked, but to try on the geotagging. It turns out to be working great, all the photos taken with the phone have registered the correct GPS location, as show here in iPhoto:

Geotagging photo (with Nokia 5800)

Most of the balloons are standard ones, but a few of them are in special shapes like elephant, peacock and clowns. The balloons look great in the clear blue sky. One after another the balloons ascend and fly towards the mosque’s direction, and by 7pm the crowd disappeared as fast – if not faster – as they conjugated a couple of hours ago.

And Putrajaya reverted back to its original form by 8pm – grand, expensive, quiet, deserted, and probably unnecessary. At least the hot air balloon fiesta stirs some liveliness into the city built on oil, even if it is a short-lived one.

More photos from Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in the Photo Album page, or direct link here: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/HotAirBalloonFiesta2009/

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in Red

It’s been a while since I am thinking to replace my good old Sony Ericsson W810, which has certainly served me well for the last 2.5 years. It was a brick – literally. I have dropped it to ground unintentionally gazillion of times, and submerged it fully into a small pool of water once (also unintentionally), the phone just refused to stop working.

3 weeks ago I met out with a friend (you know who you are!). He showed me his wife’s new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (nickname “Tube”) in black with red linings. It is a 3G touch screen phone (Nokia’s 1st?), no physical keypad, and the screen resolution is really good. I played around with it, but really just checking the menu system and figure out how to navigate it – I haven’t used a Nokia phone before! I was told there is GPS too but I wasn’t impressed by then as I haven’t tried out any previously (yea yea I know I am outdated).

Did some online research when i was back home. The phone has everything that I need, and more. Price is not really cheap but not prohibitively expensive. I went to Digital Mall @ SS14, Petaling Jaya after a few days of consideration, and purchased the phone within 15 minutes.

The Good

• the screen is superb, 3.2″ @ 640×360 resolution
• It runs on Symbian S60 and not Windows Mobile. I hate Windows Mobile. The Symbian OS is responsive enough, and very easy to get used to. The only thing I missed from Windows Mobile is the game Bubble Breaker.
• WLAN, Bluetooth, 3.5G HSDPA – all these connectivities become necessity once I start using this phone. The only drawback is my phone bill will be more expensive due to higher data usage via packet data network. In places where WLAN hotspot is available, most of the applications will be able to use WLAN connect to the Internet rather than using packet data network.
• It comes with 8GB of micro-SD. Big enough for me. At least for now.
• supports Java, Flash, and have “copy & paste” function – the latest iPhone firmware is catching up on this regard!
• GPS. Once I get the hang of it, it is really fun using it. Forget about Nokia Maps and Google Maps. Garmin Mobile XT is the way to go. GPS is my least-care-about feature before I got the phone, but it become indispensable now.

The Not-So-Good

• The phone is thick.
• The screen looks oily 99% of the time on mine. Not sure about yours.
• 3.2M pixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens? The photos taken by the phone turned out to be just so-so, nothing to shout about. The night shots are so noisy that I am thinking to throw away the phone immediately. On top of that, the lens is not wide enough, maybe at 38mm equivalent or so. The only consolation is that the latest firmware supports native geotagging, which needs to turn on under “Camera – > Settings -> Show GPS info “On”.
• can’t SMS while driving due no physical keypad, and thus need to have an eye or 2 on the touch screen in order to type correctly.
• Most of the applications did not take advantage of a long-press to show context-sensitive menu.

The Ugly

• OS hangup after some software installation, that require reboots, and at one time, needs a hard reset (see below). Symbian S60 5th edition still needs some polishing, so expectantly the first few phone model users, like myself, are guinea pigs.

My Top 10 Applications on the Nokia 5800

Nokia 5800 Application menu screenshot (with iPhone theme)

• Garmin Mobile XT, with free and very good Malaysian maps from http://malfreemaps.com/
• Phone Torch: turn the phone into a super-bright torch!
  
• Gmail
• Screen Snap: Capture screenshots, but doesn’t work well in landscape mode though
  
• Y Browser: good replacement for the built-in file manager
  
• Sudoku
• Talking Dictionary (English to Chinese or vise verse, pronunciation at both languages): 80MB!
• World Mate: Have resources like weather, maps and currency rates at your fingertips. Handy while travel.
  
• Fring : talk and chat on the go to most of the social networks like Yahoo!, MSN Messenger, Skype, Facebook, Google Talk etc
• Opera Mini: Good alternative web browser for the built-in one
• Converter, Calendar, Calculator (built-in)

Mac and the Tube

• iSync works after installing a plug-in that can be downloaded here at Nokia website. However there is no option to select the sync direction for both contacts and calendar items.
• BluePhoneElite 2 works after installing ‘BPEnabler’ into the Tube. This is done automatically once the software detected the phone is connected thru bluetooth. Works flawlessly. My previous Sony Ericsson W810 sent SMS’s lose their timestamp once transfered into BluePhone Elite2. No such problem for the Tube.
• Nokia Multimedia Transfer is kind of like PC Suite but not nearly as much features. It allows automatic media transfers from iTunes (songs and movies), iPhotos and Safari Bookmarks. Useful for me to download playlists from iTunes. Works with either Bluetooth or the USB data cable.
• Nokia Map Loader for Mac: Found this in Nokia Beta Labs, but it didn’t work with the Tube! Luckily I am not using Nokia Maps.

A-GPS, Garmin Mobile XT, Nokia Maps, Google Maps

I will leave this to another blog post – this post is long enough to bore everybody! Screen shot of my home location in Garmin Mobile XT with maps from http://malfreemaps.com/

My Home! Garmin Mobile XT screenshot

Hard Reset

I have had one encounter, that after upgrading Gamin Mobile XT from 5.00.30 to 5.00.40, the home screen’s 4 shortcut button icons gone missing. Clicking on the now-empty area will not launch the applications anymore. On top of that, the DIaler and Contacts button icons at the bottom of the home screen are not working anymore. Even the Green button won’t work now. After rebooting the phone multiple times, removing the battery for extended hours, it remains the same.

I tried to reset to Factory Settings (Settings -> Phone -> Phone mgmt, or type *#7780#) but lock codes found online (12345, 0000) didn’t work. Typing *#7370# for hard reset will also require the same lock code that I don’t have. After some Googles, I finally found a way:

• Turn off the phone.
• Press on Green, Red and Camera buttons simultaneously.
• Turn on the phone, with the 3 buttons still depressed until the Nokia touching hands appear. It takes a while, maybe 10s or so.

After this process, the lock code screen will still come out, but I just need to click Cancel. I was asked to select my Region, after that the phone boots up but with everything wiped out in the C: drive, including all the contacts, calendar items, user files etc. So make sure you have backed up all the important items before doing this! The phone works like a charm now!

Last But Not Least…

I love the Tube – it can’t make coffee or do laundry for me, but other than that, it fits my daily needs perfectly:

• Sync: I sync the contacts, bookmarks and calendar items from my home iMac to the Tube, and to the company Dell laptop. Everything in sync. Yea I know Google Calendar can sync with iMac and the Dell, but I have since ceased to use it once I have the Tube.
• Calendar: I had it show up on the phone’s home screen – I will be on time to go to the boring meetings.
• Gmail, Fring, Web connectivity on the go. Very handy when I need it, like in those boring meetings…
• Weather forecast – AccuWeather.com widget: great for local destinations as well as the places that I plan to go – 7-day forecast
• GPS Navigation: Garmin Mobile XT is great, coupled with free maps from http://www.malfreemaps.com, getting lost in town is never again easy! With Assisted GPS turned on, time-to-first-fix (TTFF) is as short as 10~20s. Of course it will incur some packet data cost, normally <5kB, which is equivalent to RM0.05 for Maxis network. A very small price to pay, indeed.
  
• Music on the go: the Tube becomes my iPod in my car. I am connecting the Tube to the Aux input of my car to listen to songs I transferred from my iMac via Nokia Multimedia Transfer software. No need to burn the MP3s into CDs.
  

As much as I love the Tube, the timing of my purchase is really bad. The Apple iPhone is officially launched in Malaysia (with Maxis mobile service package) just 2 weeks after I got my Tube. Tube is great but it ain’t iPhone killer, and the iPhone will work so much better with my iMac. But then iPhone is not perfect, yet.

Maybe the next time I blog about handphones, it is about iPhone.

This is my first time listening live to Kitaro after start following his music many years ago, and it sure did not disappoint. Our seats are at Price Scale 3 (PS3), in the middle of the hall but 3rd row from the last, so it was about 25-30m to the stage. I’d prefer front seats but it was not a big issue – the music is just as sweet over here.

Kitaro Live @ Genting 2009 - my best effort using 100mm F2.8 from way back

Kitaro @ Genting2009 - Official Poster

The 2 1/2-hour show has some new musics that Kitaro said hasn’t been recorded yet, coupled with total light-out with just 2 screens showing sun, moon, nature and planetary objects. This is Kitaro’s message to us on Save The Earth. The music is good but it is a bit too long for me, it probably runs about 45mins or more.

The classic ones received the most applause from the audience, like Silk Road, Oasis, Heaven and Earth, and of course, one of my very favorites, Matsuri.

Kitaro also displays his well-verse in musical instrument through the show, where he not only creates magical tunes by finger-dancing on the keyboard, but also jams bass guitar with the guitarist, plays the big horn, flute, harmonica, 太鼓 (the big drum), and a few other that I can’t name. He is really an amazing musician!

There are total 6 of them: 2 keyboards, 1 electrical guitarist, 1 violinist, a drummer, and Kitaro, but the music that they play sounds like from an orchestra. Seats are about 90% full, indicates Kitaro’s popularity among Malaysians.

The last 2 songs, “The Light of the Spirit” and “Free Flight” ended the live performance. I particularly like the former one. What a way to end the show.

Kitaro looked aged for 56, but the performance is marvelous. The bass from the his big drum hits the bottom chord of the heart every time. Let’s hope Kitaro will continue to create great music that intrigues us as well as convey the message of Love and Peace to the world for a long long time to come!

Romance

Date: Late Dec 2008

Location: Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Bangkok

My third time visiting Bangkok’s famous floating market. Was walking alone having lost both of my travel buddies in this busy place. The hoards of wooden boats were causing a really bad traffic jam on the canal.

I was just going to capture a few more boat photos at the sidewalk while a pair of Caucasian couple strolled in front of me and slowed down. Holding hands, he turned around, whispered to her, and touched his nose to her face, like forever. Right here at the busy floating market.

Love is in the air.

Leading To Angkor Wat

Date: 24th Feb, 2005, 7:45am

Location: Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Finally! After 3 weeks’ tiring travel linking us from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, to Chiang Mai, to Huai Xuey, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Pakse, Veun Kham, Phnom Penh, we reached the climax of the trip – at Angkor Wat.

This is my favorite photo of the Angkor trip. Not one of those must-have-sunrise-over-Angkor Wat photos – I have those too, but to me, the photo above has something special that I can’t describe. At least it is not one of those.

We made it, finally. Save the best for last.

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.

Dusk at Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir.

Date: Oct 2005

Location: From the boat house, the view of Dal Lake at Srinagar.

The sun has just set. Late autumn evening is getting colder by the minute. Dal Lake is as calm as it can be, but can’t say the same to Srinagar, the Summer Capital of Kashmir – the disputed state that has multiple blasts that killed and injured many, before and after my visit. Srinagar is so beautiful at this time, it must be amazing during the Spring time when the flowers blossom. I wish I would have chance to revisit the place again, in Spring. I hope.

Arriving at Srinagar was spontaneous, totally unplanned. We’re checking out day tours in one of the many travel agents in New Delhi, and were persuaded to come visit Srinagar after hours of bombardment by the agent. The photos shown to us were heavenly – Srinagar IS beautiful. We paid USD160 for a one-way ticket to reach Srinagar, and were subsequently forced to fork out few hundred US Dollars each for the accommodation (boat house) and tours in Srinagar.

Sound familiar? Yea, this is exactly what Lonely Planet India specifically advices travelers not to get conned and sign up for this type of Srinagar arrangement in New Delhi. Basically, as foreigners, we can’t walk around the city by ourselves – it is just too dangerous, and the gun-holding army personnel can be seen every 50meter along the roads. There is no way we can get out of the boat house and go anywhere if we don’t sign up for the bloated super expensive “Srinagar Tour”, arranged by the boat house operator.

Of course, my Srinagar visit gets more interesting when a lone Korean lady checks into the boat house the second day when we were there. It was not romance, but personal safety is on the stake. I would not elaborate more, but the whole trip makes me grow as a person, and to see the evil part of some rich and powerful people in Srinagar.

Srinagar is really beautiful. The photo above alone cannot do the justice. We went to see the glacier and the snow capped mountains, tour the majestic Dal Lake, walk the city, and eventually go from Srinagar to Jammu in a minivan – the scenery of the winding journey is breathtaking – and take the train back to New Delhi.

We wouldn’t have seen Srinagar if we read the Lonely Planet – I love Lonely Planet, but it is not my Bible of travel. Dal Lake looked so peaceful, but not Srinagar. Things are not what they seem to be in Srinagar. And this apply to a handful of evil and greedy people there too. Don’t get me wrong, we met a lot of great and nice people in Kashmir, too, but in our case, the one evil out shined the rest of the good people, unfortunately.

May peace arrives in Kashmir.

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.