Redang Trip

Ahhh, the comfort of my home. After having a week filled with so much activities, home is what I'm looking for, especially my bed. I'm in a serious sleep deprived condition. The week started with the trip to Redang and the followed by Bro Paul's retirement events and a short hiking trip to Pantai Kerachut. See how productive I am. Haha. But this post is mostly about the Redang trip. So, it's going to be uber longgggg post. Feel free to close the window if by any point you feel tired of reading.

+Departure Day +

Night. Mobil Station, opposite the Sg Nibong bus terminal.

This was where we waited for our bus. The bus was supposed to take us to somewhere in Bukit Mertajam so that we can change to another bus that takes us straight to the Redang jetty. But when the bus had crossed the Penang Bridge, the shitty driver suddenly realized that he had left out another couple at the waiting venue. So, no choice, we had to go back again and fetch the couple. Damn BOBO, they really can't do anything right. There's bound to be mistake in whatever they do.

Multiple images of Penang Bridge lights~~

That is all I've got to say about the first driver. Then, we switched to the bus that takes us directly to Redang. The first few hours was ok until a point when he stopped in front of a mamak restaurant, "Kari Kepala Ikan Salim" , telling us to go pee while we can. But in fact, when everyone was back from their toilet breaks, the driver wasn't around. HE WAS EFF-ING EATING HIS SUPPER. We were waiting damn patiently, without aircond, in the bus. We were there for like 1 hour. Shit man. If you think that was all from the bus driver's part, you are so damn wrong!!! Just when we felt comfortable and was ready to sleep, the driver turned on his radio, listening to INDIAN SONGS!!! There were countless times where the volume suddenly shoots up and scare the hell out of you with those Tamil language. It was like a momentary alarm clock, wakes you up to make sure you are still alive. The journey was damn long, and I had difficulties sleeping.

+ Day 1 +

We arrived at Merang Jetty at 7 something in the morning but our boat was scheduled to be at 9.30am. On top of all the waiting, the bus driver dropped us at the wrong jetty station. We were waiting stupidly over there until we realized that there were different stations for different resorts in Redang. And of all the stations located there, ours was the last one in the whole stretch of stations. It was very secluded and blocked by a lorry which was filled with tanks of diesel for the boat. I thought 9.30am was the earliest boat but when we found our station, people had already board the earlier 8am boat. We missed the earlier boat by a foot step. Had we notice about the jetty's system earlier, we would arrive Redang earlier and rest. We saw a session of "jual-beli" between the fishermen and the fish mongers while waiting for the boat. That wasn't something you can see everyday in your life.

Vroooommm~~

Rebut rebut~

Arm kong pic!!! WOOO

Kw seemed reluctant.

Doesn't that woman behind kw look like Pn Ang??

.......

We arrived in Redang, and we were AMAZED by the clarity of the sea water. We can even see what's beneath the sea where the water level is at knee high. Being compared to Penang, I don't think we can see what's beneath the water at the level of ankle. I'm not exaggerating. If you don't believe it, spend your next holiday in Redang and I bet you'll never ever want to swim in Penang sea anymore. Redang is actually a place of many many islands. I supposed the big island is where all the resorts are located. Ours is Redang Bay Resort. When we checked in, the things we got were a key with a huge wooden keychain to indicate your room number and AN AIRCOND REMOTE CONTROL. LOL! When we saw our room, some of us were quite shocked and maybe a little disappointed. To be honest, I was kind of hoping to get a suite like the one in Gurney Hotel. WOOHOO....how naive~~ But now I feel that the room was luxurious after a certain "monkey balm" experience!! keke!!! Ok now about the food. I'm a little disappointed. My definition of buffet is like the one in Co-curriculum Night at the very least. But instead, we got a mini buffet like the one in LTC where you only have few choices of lauk-pauk you could include with your rice. But oh well, when you're hungry, everything tastes good! haha.

Hammock spamming 1.

The water is imba!

The first activity on the itenery was snorkeling and most of us had completely zero knowledge on using the snorkeling mask. So we practised in the sea near our beach. Even in such shallow place; probably at knee level, we could see a lot of fishes swimming around. The corals further up were nice too. The experience of looking at the corals at such close distance where you could step on it was and STILL IS abit scary, expecially when you don't even know what lurks around beneath the corals. Our first snorkeling trip was fun, of course but the corals weren't very nice. Most of them are dead. But we got the opportunity to play with sea cucumber. I bet Choya will love it, since it's almost in the shape of a cucumber. Plus, it is slippery and it splurts water out when squeezed. JUST THE RIGHT THING FOR CHOYA!!! LOL!!!! In just a short period of time in Redang, Joshua had already experienced his worst sunburn.

Cooked!


Redang Bay Resort


cool people + cool scenery = COOL!

2 emo shitz~

Chillin'

At night, we didn't do much but chilled at the bar in our resort. To my surprise, the drinks were quite cheap and affordable and DELICIOUS of course. Then we played Happy Family, it's a card game if you are not exposed to it before; in the room and everyone was like damn high over such a simple game. LOL!

+ Day 2 +

Ahhh, the great outdoors. The second day was about the same. We had two snorkeling trips but we exchanged one for jungle trekking. The morning snorkeling trip was in the Redang Marine Park. We were the first batch of tourists to had arrived. So when we went into the sea, our movements weren't restricted. I was hoping to see some small sharks but too bad, there wasn't any. The popular fish there were the giant grouper, about 50kg and the giant mockerel eel which is about 12ft long. But I only saw two giant groupers. The eel was hiding and refused to come out. The wave wasn't strong that day, so the water was quite clear and we could see snorkel in peace. The corals were pretty but I expected more. We tried to rent the underwater camera for this snorkeling trip but all of the cameras were booked beforehand. Lucky for us, we had another day to have our underwater pictures taken.

When we came back from the snorkeling, some of us were drained off of their energy and we decided after that to postpone the jungle trekking. We traded the jungle trekking with an afternoon of walking along the beach, enjoying the scenery which will be gone someday soon. LOL. About every 200 - 500m you might be able to find an empty cigarette pack or cigarette on the beach. Sometimes if you're lucky you might find plastic bags floating near the shore. But that's rare, fortunately. We walked til' the end of the beach and we found More More Tea Inn, the place where the movie starring Richie Ren and Sammi Cheng was filmed. Quite a nice place. I still remember the Redang in the movie wasn't that developed. It was very nice and calm. So, please go Redang for a vacation when you have the chance before it's too late.

I'm so damn yeng with those 6 packs~~

More More Tea Inn...FEEL TEH LOVE~!!!

Random!

Random too.

Eff-ing nice clarity!!!

I SEE NICE VIEW!

In the evening, it was time for banana boat! I'd always wanted to try that sport. Speed + Water = FUNVEE!!! The first few minutes were boring, so we decided to rock the banana abit. WRONG DECISION! The second the boat turns, we toppled and DOWN WE WENT! LOL! When we went into the water, some noob behind me was finding something to grab and my legs became her victim. Not only that, when I was floating, I heard her voice from behind and I knew I was in deep shit. She was holding on to my life jacket while she was literally floating herself. I was like "Don't...*blurp blurp*....pull me..*drink sea water, blurp blurp* ...LET GO...*blurp blurp*". Damn it was dangerous! After that fall, we were able to balance ourselves and nothing can make us fall anymore. But I really wish I could do it all over again and fall more this time. hehe!!

Getting ready to sit on the banana!

Here we go!


And down we go~

See the people on the right? That's where I almost drowned by the noob! LOL!


1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

Last

When the moon is out and the sky is dark, we had nothing else better to do. Then this Joshua came out with an idea to play ping pong when I was spamming the hammock. It's clear that playing ping pong at night after which you just bathed was not such a brilliant idea. Chilling in the room with drinks from the bar was the right way to end the day in Redang.

Hammock spamming 2

Dumb idea!!

+ Day 3 +


Ohh yeah~~ We got ourselves an underwater camera for this day. Time to spam!!! It was the last day and we want every bit of our underwater adventure to be immortalised. hehe~~ Being the odd group which stayed there for 4 days and 3 nights, we were given the privilege to choose where to snorkel on that day. We wanted to go Turtle Bay but too bad we weren.t allowed to. So, the only nice corals place left is Marine Park. The ocean was rocky that day, causing low visibility due to the movement of sand. It was very tiring for us to even swim at a close distance. But I'm glad we chose that coz we saw a WILD TURTLE!!! WOOT!!!! We were talking with a Guangzhou couple that time when I felt bored and put my head into the water. AND TA-DA!!! The turtle loves me! LOL! I spotted it and Lawrence spammed the camera on it like nobody's business. Haha!! BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!!! It's damn rare to find a turtle near the shore with so many human legs floating on the surface. When I first saw it, everything bad about this trip had just gone away! Every penny I spent was worth it.

Hammock spamming 3

The people there were very nice. To my surprise, they can understand Hokkien, as in Penang hokkien. Then most of them could speak in Mandarin, even the briefing was given in Mandarin as the majority was Chinese. But I can never understand their Malay accent. They're not just boatman, but some of them are DJs at night at the bar. What an interesting job.

We were supposed to have a jungle trekking later in the afternoon, but the damn rocky ocean drained off our energy again. Plus, it was the last day, everyone was tired. So, we called it off again. But, since we were having a vacation on an island, might as well do some water sports instead of land activities. So, in the afternoon, we spent most of our time in the sea, camwhoring with the fishes. We want to make full use of the underwater camera as it only lasted until 7pm.

One thing bad that we shared about being on boat most of the time was that we felt dizziness even when we were in the room or in the canteen eating. Joshua even experienced it while having a shower. LOL! Serious! Most of us had this. It was just a slight dizziness and imbalance but it won't cause seasick. Unlike the nights before, the last night was crazy. We brought back souvenirs for ourselves through body tatoo-ing. It was airbrush anyway, so it will fade in 5-7 days. But mine has already faded in most parts. Our way to end the vacation was to have supper, a delicious one with everyone closing in together and getting their fingers dirty. Lekor, french fries and nuggets were the victims! Lekor was the best!!!!! YUMZZZZ~~~ then when the lights went off, we spent the night...well... GOSSIPING. Gossiping and interrogation seem to be the essentials in every outing I've had. LOL!

Mying

Moi

Joshua

Brendon - arm

Brendon - neck

Kw

Phaik Ean

Lawrence

It rained that night, but I was so far in my dreamland to even noticed it. LOL!

+ Day 4 +

Cold morning due to the rain on the night before. We woke up at 6am but it took us JUST enough time to get ready to check off at 8am. This was the result of 7 people sharing a single bathroom. 8am, and we're off, greeting goodbyes to Redang. 8 hours ++ journey back to Penang. Nothing much to talk about but I'm just glad I'm back safely.

+ Bonus event : Bro Paul's Retirement +

Just a day after we came back from Redang, it's Bro Paul's last assembly. Last brother in Malaysia, marks the end of the La Sallian Brothers' era. He is a very nice man. I still remember when I was in Form 2, I cut my hand with a penknife and I went to the office to get some plaster. At first I was afraid that when I see him, he'll scold me for taking penknife to school. Instead, he tended to my wound with care. So, he had this grand retirement assembly and a very fancy send-off. I don't even know how to describe the send-off. It's better to let the pictures do the talking. HAHAHAHA!!!

Overall Outings : UBER NICE!!!