Friday, July 14, 2006

Back on Wednesday from Kuching! Spent 3 nights in the city of cats and 2 nights at the Holiday Inn Damai Lagoon hotel while visiting the Sarawak Cultural Village in Damai.

Rainforest Festival ROCKS!!!

I'm brown like a monkey nut.

Hahaha got lots of pics n stories to tell, but I haven't even posted up the Fraser's Hill photos n I'm still quite busy revising for resits, practicing n editing LiYing's mini novella as well as other editing projects n my own bits of writing. So... patience ah. They'll be up soon.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Pulau Lang Tengah

Ok honeys here's another one of my mass updates! This time it's not so much a return from hibernation but rather a return from sheer laziness and procrastination hahaha... Dunno why, but I tend to cut myself off from contact with the outside world once in a while when I'm back home.

Anyways update and some pics from a little gem off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia - Pulau Lang Tengah. It is nestled in the waters of the South China Sea between the larger islands of Redang and Perhentian, and features warm clean white beaches interspersed with rugged weather-worn rocks and breathtakingly clear aquamarine lagoons with the requisite parrot fish and baby black-tipped sharks darting amongst fantastical coral formations. (Hey, one's gotta do one's bit in promoting tourism Malaysia... Truly Asia.... right?)

Having first met up with Ming and her Taylo
r's lawyers at Subang Parade, I found myself comfortably installed at the back of the Redang Lang Resort's coach at 12am. There were just over 20 of us on the trip, and thankfully I wasn't the only "stranger" there, so to say. The night-long journey was pretty smooth, with some of the usual guitar-strumming, spookily entertaining ghost stories and pirated dvd watching that usually accompany these post-exam trips.

Stopped by a little town at about 7am for a breakfast of nasi dagang or nasi lemak, and then it was off to the jetty and onboard for Pulau Lang Tengah. The 40minute boat ride was another nice chance to snooze, and pretty soon we were greeted by beautiful waters lapping gently at the soft white shore. Just a little slice of heaven on earth. The only other place I've visited that surpassed the quiet beauty of Lang Tengah was, of course, the Maldives.


Shared a room with Ming and Eeva. The resort was reasonably well furnished with two queen beds in each room and en suite bathrooms. Meals were inclusive of the price and quite edible (despite the gripes of Miss PickyKan =P) Also included on site: dining area mahjong tables, snooker, foosball, souvenir shop, karaoke room, tv room, tv bar, snorkelling hut, scuba hut, 24/7 make-your-own non-alcoholic drinks. Nice rite?


Plenty of snorkelling around the island and also at Redang's fish-filled Marine Park made a very happy and tanned me. If there's one thing that I could say about the side of me more inclined to nature, is that I love the sea. The sea, the sea. We're ole buddies I suppose, what with my parents being frequent divers during those courtship and early marriage years before I popped along, and the numerous beach and deep-sea fishing trips we've made over the years. Returning to the sea is like finding a resting place after years of travel and searching.


Other highlights of the trip include: burying Ming and Eeva in the warm white sand while they shrieked for all they were worth, Ming totally falling for Shah's "dog in his past life" prank on the coach, arriving at the island, sinking my toes into the clean sand, Ming & I falling asleep on a warm flat rock, sharing by the shore, listening to Diana Krall from Alex's speakers on the beach and watching the blinking lights of fishing boats at 3am, and of course the wonderfully humorous and down to earth company. Thanks dear for bringing me along.


Again, do click on the photos to see the better, larger images. Please note that these photos are taken with my trusty ole compact Sony P10, and that most of the "funny" ones are on everyone else's cameras! Constructive criticism very much welcome. =D


Beach, Sea & Sky




























































Boats













































People


















































































Macro stuff
















































Rocks




















































And to cap off my brief adventure on the island - a lovely
moment of dusk descending on the deserted jetty, and the overnight fishing boats drifting out on the irresistable pull of the ocean.