Congratulations, Diver Number 0910AV5266!

I finally did it: I collected my PADI Open Water Diver card. 10 months after I passed the certification. Take a close look, folks.

 

It may look like a card, feel like a card, and taste like a card but it is Not Just Any Old Card.

It is a symbol of my having faced my fears (“Me? Dive?? In the water??? Wah lau, I don’t know if I can really do this.”) …

It is a sign of my having overcome my doubts (“Crud, I major failed in all my pool sessions, and now I’m going to go do this in the LAUT??”) …

It is the evidence of my decision to quit the mental wanking (“I’ve already come this far – okay la, Redang isn’t all that far but still – so stop worrying, shut the heck up and just bloody effing do it!!”) …

This is my dive instructor. Her name is Sharon. She will kick your butt and make you laugh at the same time. This was taken the week after we returned from Redang. We wanted to show her that the time she’d spent with us in the pool hadn’t been in vain. Not only were we well and alive and in one piece, we could now dive!

She was ecstatic. You can clearly tell from the picture.

It’s now 10 months later and the closest I’ve been to the sea is looking at a postcard with a picture of the sea on it. Throw a BCD at me right now and I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

I need to go read my book again.

(Yup, it’s one thick S.O.B.)

But it’s worth it. Because …

Well, I don’t know if I totally agree with that but it’s a nice thought.

I Have A Question …

Why am I not here?

… wearing this?

… sipping this?

… and doing this?

Oh yes, I forget. I have a job.

And it’s only Tuesday.

Kicking Back In Krabi (3/3)

DAY FOUR

Our fourth day was spent hopping from island to island, baking under the sun and snorkelling. Aahh … now that’s what I call a beach holiday!!

Hanging around, no responsibilities, no pesky calls from the office, no deadlines, no internet connection … I could seriously get used to this!

Later that afternoon, we decided to go snorkelling. We hopped into one of the many water taxis lined up along the shore and off we went to a few recommended snorkelling spots.

The water was warm, wonderfully clear and all but there were way too many corals at this spot. You look down and all you see is an explosion of corals and gigantic ones at that! Huge bulbous globs of corals in every shape and colour imaginable … they were really beautiful and yet, kinda freaked me out a little. They were so huge that you had to swim very carefully so that you don’t crash into them. So yeah, it wasn’t all that fun. At one point, Andrew’s eyes bulged out of his sockets when he saw that I was about to whack into a sea urchin butt-first. Holy cow!

We went to several sites … after a whole afternoon of boating around and snorkelling, we were spent.

The ride back to shore was so picturesque: the sun was turning a brilliant orange, its rays warming our skin and casting a glow on everything it touched. Aahhhh …

That was when I realised my leg was starting to hurt. I looked at it and it was red and swollen. The first thought that came to my mind was JELLYFISH! Oh god, was I doomed??!! Turned out, it was some itsy bitsy little jellyfish that bit me – at least that was what the guide told me. I didn’t feel like going to the hospital, so I believed him. And he was right (many days later, I would realise that I was still alive).

Later that night, we were lucky enough to witness a street parade during dinner. Apparently, it was the Loi Krathong festival, a festival in worship of the goddess of water and one of Thailand’s biggest annual events. There was a marching band, a stream of floats and of course, hundreds of tourists running alongside the parade with cameras swinging from their necks.

There were also performances on the street …

… I especially loved it when the fireworks started going off!

Ao Nang beach had officially turned into Party Central!

Local customers at the restaurant where we were dining were lighting large paper lanterns and letting them loose into the dark night sky. You’re supposed to make a wish before letting go. Soon, the sky was filled with floating lanterns. What a sight!

It was late by the time we got back to our hotel. It was our last night in Buri Tara and in Krabi … sigh … I so didn’t want to go home!!!

The two pics above are (1) the entrance of Buri Tara resort and (2) a view of the rooms and their reflection in the swimming pool. So nice hor? It had been such a great four days in Krabi and I really missed it after we left. I don’t usually say this about places I’ve visited, but with Krabi, I must say that I’d definitely want to come back again!

Kicking Back In Krabi (2/3)

DAY THREE

Woke up again at 7am to get ready for our white-water rafting trip. It was a long 1.5hr drive deep into the jungle to the rafting site.

Once there, I was pretty impressed by the lodge that seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere in the middle of the jungle. It was huge and very well-maintained.

We went for a quick tutorial (which basically consisted of three points: get in, stay in and try not to fall out of the raft – and if you do, for heaven’s sake, don’t panic!!). Apparently, if we fell out of the raft, we were supposed to just float and go with the water current and stay calm. Don’t worry. One of the guys will paddle over to you and grab you by your lifesaver and pull you back into the raft. Oh, I see. Just go with the flow ah? Then no need to worry lor – are you people crazy??!!

So there we were: dragging our raft down to the River of Death. The damn raft was heavy ok.

And there we were: pushing ourselves away from the bank of the River of Death.

And there we were: RAFTING! I paddled really hard and it took me about two minutes to realise that it didn’t matter whether I paddled or not because the raft was being expertly manoeuvred by the two guides who were positioned at the front and back of the um, mode of transportation. Those guys were remarkably strong and handled the raft really well as we sped through the rapids, which left me plenty of time to scream my head off and freak out like some crazy person.

The good news – I never fell out of the raft into the raging rapids even when the guides were playing the fool and steering our raft right into the rocks to topple us over ($#@%!@#$!@#). All in all, it was lots of fun … and I would never ever do it again. Once was enough thank-you-very-much.

We had lunch after our leisurely cruise down the River of Death, then departed to trek up a hill to a waterfall and end our day with a visit to the Monkey Temple.

The trek up to the waterfall was easy enough but man, it was crowded up there!! Plus, the water was soooo cold … too cold to do any swimming. We trekked back down after a while.

As for the temple, I confess I’m not exactly a big fan of temples and even less so of banana-chugging monkeys. So this particular stop held little fascination for me. I realise that this makes me sound like an Ignorant Tourist, but all I saw were monkeys, monkeys and more monkeys. And why not? There were 1,400 of them all over the place!!!

Of course there weren’t only monkeys, there was a big statue of Buddha and a cave. There were quite a few dogs roaming around freely too, and they’d sometimes chase the monkeys. The dogs scared me, so we went back to the hotel.

For Day Four, click here.

Kicking Back In Krabi (1/3)

DAY ONE

It was a Saturday when we landed in Krabi International Airport. Was impressed – newly refurbished and swankier than I’d expected. Got out of the airport (it was absolutely scorching; so hot it wasn’t funny) and checked into Buri Tara, this compact boutique resort on Ao Nang beach. The room was not very big but it was well-furnished; I particularly liked the ‘his’ and ‘hers’ bathroom sinks. Every hotel should have these.

We stepped out of Buri Tara and ventured out to Ao Nang beach, which is essentially a street lined on one side by scores of little shops (think tourist with capital ‘T’) and restaurants specialising in all sorts of cuisines from every corner of the globe. It was packed with tourists, mostly angmohs and a handful of Asians. The strip had a very sanitised, family feel to it … even at night. Of course there were bars (tucked discreetly inside little lanes) where you’ll see the typical angmoh canoodling with a Thai girl who comes up to his belly button but there really weren’t that many. Having said that, Krabi is relatively up-and-coming (when compared to say, Phuket), so I guess we’ll have to give it a few years!

We decided to have lunch and plan our itinerary for the next three days … we had good Thai noodle soup and um, pizza. What a combo huh?

… looking at the load of brochures we’d taken from the numerous tour operators lining the strip, I was a little overwhelmed. There were so many things I wanted to do!! Elephant rides … cooking classes … trekking … national parks … rock-climbing … hot springs … Unfortunately, time wasn’t on our side. For one thing, most trips are full-day excursions, so you can comfortably do only one thing a day. With only three full days before our departure, we had to be selective. So in the end, it was kayaking, white-water rafting and some serious island-hopping.

It rained that evening, which sucked. We ducked into Gecko, this Thai massage spa centre, where Andrew got himself a massage. One of those where the masseuse elbow, knee and step all over you until your bones crack. Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of massage. But Andrew was thrilled – he paid only 200B for a whole hour. How can you beat that la??

That night, we ventured into this little lorong which – to our surprise – wasn’t a lorong at all. It was kinda like an indoor makan strip with plenty of restaurants inside. I loved it! There were so many choices and this being our first night, obviously we wanted to stuff ourselves silly with cheap seafood …

… and we did. As you can see from the pic, we ordered about 73 dishes … and ate them all.

DAY TWO

Woke up at 7am, had breakfast and got ready to go kayaking at Ko Hong (considered to be among the most beautiful islands in the Krabi province- and rightly so!). I was excited! We went on a longtail boat ride to the island. It took 45 minutes, most of which was spent on the top deck being roasted by the sun.

The service was real good on board – we were constantly being served coffee, tea, fresh fruit and pineapple cookies. I had about a dozen of them, I swear, but the heat of the sun burns calories, you know, so it was fine.

The moment Hong Island came into view, you could hear the oohs and aahs … I mean, look at those pics. Are they gorgeous or are they gorgeous? Crystal clear water glinting in the sunlight … the smooth sandy strip of beach … you just want to jump right into the water and never come out. Wait. That’s drowning. I meant, jump in and swim around for hours and not have to go home when the tour operator tells you to.

We were quickly briefed and off we went into our kayaks. The plan was to kayak around the island and we’d get to kayak into the famous Hong Lagoon too!

And there we were, at the entrance of Hong Lagoon. We were flanked by two massive, forbidding walls of limestone … entering a sacred room in the middle of the sea. Once inside, it’s a round room of clear blue (surprisingly shallow!) water surrounded by a circular stone wall rising from the sea. It was so peaceful in there.

There were lots of sea stars in there too. Which obviously meant that everybody was plucking them out from the water and putting the stars on their arms and taking pictures. Like this one.

After a few hours, we finally returned from paddling around Ko Hong. Ah, now was the perfect time to do some swimming and snorkelling. We had lunch after that … then I saw this sign. It was not a comforting thought. We quickly swallowed the last bits of pineapple, hopped back onto the boat and continued baking under the sun all the way back to the hotel.

Later that night, we went back to that little seafood strip for dinner. This time, we tried another restaurant. As you can see from this pic, we ordered 74 dishes and ate them all. Yum!

For Day Three, click here.

Perhentian Island (2/2)

It was Day Two at Perhentian and we crossed over to the other side of the island again for breakfast.

There aren’t many things in life that can beat having breakfast by the beach. It just makes me feel happy to be alive – there’s nothing like it. The sound of the waves, the cheerful rays of sunlight, cool breeze … everyone in T-shirts, shorts and slippers … a hot cup of coffee and the knowledge that you have the whole day stretched out ahead of you. No schedule, no emails, no nothing.

After a leisurely breakfast, we took a water taxi over to Perhentian Kecil, the small island. As far as the big island’s concerned, it’s very family-oriented, nice and quiet … but the small island is completely different. It’s backpacker heaven. It’s crowded, noisy, bright loud and colourful, packed with beach bums and budget accommodations. This is probably where you wanna be if you plan to hang around on Perhentian for like a month or two …

I loved the character of the place … there’s so much more energy here compared to the more sedated Perhentian Besar. But I guess it depends on the kind of holiday you want and what kind of budget you have. But I must say this, I wasn’t impressed by the beach. It was way too narrow and not particularly clean – aiyo, don’t throw plastic bottles on the beach, people!!!

We headed out for a spot of snorkelling. First stop: Shark Point. I don’t know why they named it Shark Point – there were no sharks (thank god) but there were plenty of fish!!

There was so much coral and some of the most brilliant fish I’d ever seen. It was like being in a huge aquarium! We were probably in the water for over an hour … it was great! The good thing was, it was deep enough so there wasn’t any risk of accidentally bumping into a coral with your butt.

We made another stop at Teluk Keke (whatever that means) – not much fish here but damn, there were some monstrous coral. They looked eerily like a flesh-coloured brain matter erupting out from a seabed of smaller coral. I actually felt a little intimidated and honestly, kinda scared. Couldn’t swim anywhere without coming close to bumping into them.
All in all, we spent about four days at Perhentian and all in all, we really enjoyed it. When the last day lolled around, I was a little bummed out about leaving. So here I’m posting a pic of the last dinner we had there … god, I so need another holiday …

Perhentian Island (1/2)

We flew from KLIA and landed in Kota Bharu airport in Kelantan early in the morning. It was like stepping back in time – reminded me a lot of the old Subang airport. It was tiny and had only one small restaurant as far as I could see. We hopped into a waiting van and were driven to the jetty. A one-hour drive … my stomach was growling. Hadn’t eaten since I woke up at 5am that morning!

Once at the jetty, we got into a speedboat and sped off to our intended destination: Perhentian Island Resort (PIR) on Perhentian Besar! Just a side note: Perhentian Islands are made up of Besar (read: Big) and Kecil (read: Small) … a vast difference between the two, as you will see. Neways, we were booked into PIR on the bigger island …

After a while of dropping passengers off at various points, we were finally there at PIR! First impressions: gorgeous clear blue water,narrow strip of beach, ah … so welcoming.

We lugged our bags (actually, Andrew lugged our bags while I pranced around bag-free) from the jetty and walked along the path, past all the quaint little chalets, to get to the ‘lobby’ to check in. After checking in, a bit of exploration was in order …

One thing we quickly discovered was that there’s nothing to eat at PIR. And I mean nothing – apart from the resort’s in-house restaurant, that is. But one look at it and I decided no way was I going to pay crazy amount of money to eat food that resembled the kind of stuff we could get back in KL. Everything was buffet-style and the spread, honestly, didn’t look all that great la. So to get to where the food is, we had to walk down to the jetty and make a left turn …

… and walk up this rickety old staircase that would bring us to the other side of the island. Wait, I wouldn’t even call it a staircase. It was more like a few pieces of wood loosely nailed to other pieces of wood in a “design” that kinda sorta looked like a staircase. Wah lau. Later that night when we wanted some food, we’d realise that this staircase got no lights! I’m not kidding. You’d be groping around this dilapidated “staircase” in PITCH DARKNESS, hoping to high heavens that you wouldn’t slip and fall through the huge cracks to an untimely death.

Some more, I tell you, the ‘stairs’ were steep and sparse … the steps were very far from one another and some planks were shaky too. Very dangerous especially for old people like us!!

We survived the first journey across the staircase … there would be more to come – several times for the next few days that we were here. It’s either the rickety old stairs or the PIR buffet. I’d rather risk it and take the stairs.

On the other side were budget chalets that were going for less than RM100 per night … way cheaper than PIR. There were also a number of restaurants along the short strip. That was about it. Oh yes, and some tour operators, of course. There wasn’t a 7-11 or anything like that but some of the restaurants did sell stuff like bottled water and ciggies and torchlights (which we bought the next morning!).

Well, there was one bookshop selling second-hand books in case you got like bored of the beach or something. We pretty much spent the first day bumming around, swimming and trying to get a tan. In the evening, we went back to PIR to change and get ready tor dinner.

When dinner time lolled around, we decided to cross back over to the other side for makan. Cheap seafood ma … We had such a hard time using the old stairs because we simply couldn’t see anything! And feeling about wasn’t pleasant cos you could get splinters in your fingers or worse. But luckily, we made it across! Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great. We expected better … but oh well.

See la! These people should install lights la … ouch!!!

For Day Two, click here.