Back to Traditional Chinese Medicine
02
Jan
Jan
Been having hives for about half a year and had been surviving on the ‘Western’ Anti-Histamine which worked perfectly well. However, Anti-Histamine is only a temporary solution, it 治标不治本. The hives goes away everytime I take it, but it keeps coming back and so I need to ingest the medication regularly. I needed a permanent solution, so I went to the TCM to get my body ‘tuned’ back. The doctor gave me a couple of days of medicine to brew.
Ingredients : Errrm…. unknown…. nothing which I recognise…
Brewing Procedure (to use only ceramic, clay or high-grade stainless steel pot, no aluminium pot) :
- Soak Packet I in water for 30 minutes with water covering an inch higher than the solids
- Start boiling the soaked contents (including water) and bring it to a vigorous boil
- Bring fire down to gentle boiling level and brew for 30 minutes
- Throw in Packet II and continue to brew for another 15 minutes before turning fire off, water should be reduced to only half to a full bowl.
This is the first time I brew medicine on my own. Wah… the house really stinks after for about 20 minutes!!!! Terrible to smell and lagi terrible to drink!!! I take almost 20 minutes to finish off the bowl of horrid stuff everytime!!! And the thing makes me lao sai!!!! Because doctor says it’s meant for 排毒….. The effect of the medicine took out all the anti-histamine from my body as well, so by the 3rd day, my body was again plagued with hives, which is in an even more serious form this time. My head, neck, body, limbs, all thickly covered and swollen with hives. When one batch subsides, it’ll be replaced by a new batch at other areas…. I managed to tahan for another 24 hours before I could take it no longer because my tongue started to swell too…. I popped down 2 Anti-Histamine. All swells went down within an hour and a half. I’m not giving up on Chinese Medicine just because of this. I understand that the doctor needs more time and trials to investigate on the cause. What took the western medicine doctors one and half year (I had this more than 10 years ago for about a year before it mysteriously went away on its own) to find out and never succeeded, I dun expect the TCM doctor to know the answer in two visits. I shall continue to brew and take the medicine everyday until my next visit to him this coming Friday evening. Hopefully, the hives will be less next time round. =)
Brewing in Progress….
The end product…. Looks kinda more appetizing from this photo somehow….
Washing Slippers with TOOTHBRUSH…
31
Dec
Dec
Krabi (20~24 Dec ‘07)
26
Dec
Dec
There were 2 public holidays on Hari Raya Haji (20th Dec, Thurs) and Christmas (25th Dec, Tues) which were 4 days apart and given the 2 days of weekend, the Meh and I decided to take another 2 days leave so that we could spend 6 days of holidays somewhere out of Singapore!!
We decided on Krabi as we wanted this to be more of a relaxed and nua trip and not a solely diving trip and air tickets there were pretty cheap. In the end, BAD CHOICE, because other than the nice local Thai food around, the enjoyable day of diving and reasonable accomodation to let us nua at our best, Krabi was HOT HOT HOT and we didn’t really enjoy the trips to the beaches, which are a disappointment. The Meh claimed that the beaches there was fine white sand a year and a half ago, but now, they were all covered with broken corals and shells, it was difficult to walk barefooted, which makes me miss the really fine white sand on P. Dayang!!! And one last thing, dun know whether we were suay or what, all the non-local food there (which is also more expensive) which we had tried, were all not nice. I guess we must be very jian4, only fated to eat cheap local food….
Our nice suite accomodation is at the Guest House, Baan Taveesri. It has a nice hard bed, TV, Sofa and a huge bathroom great for drying our dive gears and clothes… hehehe…. The guesthouse was located at the Leela Valley (the locals pronounced it as ‘Leela Va-Lay’), Eastern side of Ao Nang, with a nice view facing a cliff. There were lots of strays and resident dogs staying there and there were 10 newly born puppies outside the area office with their mothers. Very cute, lively and greedy!! Then there was a grey dirty color little doggie who lives at the restaurant next door, he looks like half a poodle with mixed with a coconut husk brush???!!!! =)) LOL… and he has a patch of bald dry skin covered with some green powder on his back…. Yecks!!!!
We went diving on the 2nd day. Vis was good. There was a current which we had to fight against, but the first 2 dives were great!!!
1st Dive :
Saw turtle, scorpionfish, lionfish, Octopus
2nd Dive : Went into a limestone cave with air pockets at the top, it was quite bright inside, from the reflection of the sunlight outside by the water. Saw Trumpet fish, Lionfish, Huge Puffers, Mantis Shrimp
3rd Dive : A dive site which even our DM had never been before. We just wanted to be adventurous and try out somewhere not knowing what to expect. It was dirty and we even found a dead fish, bottom parked with urchins and rubbish. Saw lionfish, Puffers and Boxfish.
Went to the different beaches and kayaking around the Hong Islands on the 3rd day. Kayaking was too fast and tiring for us. There was not enough time to appreciate the scenery around. But I must say the cliff and limestone structures around Krabi is quite nice. Too bad the beaches were horrid and the reefs around meant for snorkelling seemed quite lifeless, except for a school of rainbow runners at one of the sites.
Went to Railey Beach on the 4th day. Again, we were dissappointed by the condition of the beach, although it was much better than the ones on the previous day. The sun was scotching hot and the beach overcrowded with people. We were rolling ourselves on the sand but was forced out of our place once because we were parking ourselves too near the volleyball net and people wanted to play. The Meh sensed my discomfort of the heat and sun and suggested to leave earlier than expected, much to my relief.
Got back to Ao Nang and was walking along the beach front row of shop when we notice this black doggie belonging to one of the shop… He never fail to turn himself onto his back every few minutes and stays in that position for another few minutes before turning back his belly facedown position…. So cute!!! Had dinner at a Thai Restuarant along the main street of Ao Nang that night. The comforting light from the sunset felt relaxing. We had an early dinner there before heading off to a backstreet pub to watch the Barclays Premier League, Man-U against Everton. I ordered Ice coffee and the Meh ordered Mai Tai. I dun know how the Mai Tai tasted, but my Ice coffee was quite good. BIG somemore… hehe… lasted me my whole 2 hours there….
The last day was a day where we had to find things to do within Ao Nang itself because we had already checked out of the guesthouse and thus, we couldn’t bath so we couldn’t do anything adventurous that day (not that we did anything adventurous). In the end, we walked around eating from local Thai roadside stall for lunch, then went into Swensons to escape the afternoon heat. Swensons there only serves icecreams, no solid food. I have to say although the icecream there is a bit cheaper than in Singapore and has basically the same ‘dish names’, the Singapore ones are definitely more substantial in terms of ingredients and toppings and have more satisfying factor.
We were unable to locate a satisfactory place for dinner after that, so went back to the restaurant next to our guesthouse for dinner. The taxi which we had booked for the airport and on time. Reached airport at 7pm, waiting for more than 2.5 hrs for the flight, reached Singapore half an hours past mid-night, went for supper at Burger King and managed to get home at 2 plus, with the cab fare amounting to S$35.40, giving airport charge, midnight charge, holiday charge…..
Zoo (24 Nov 07)
26
Nov
Nov
The Meh had her company’s Family Day at the zoo that morning. I tagged along and brought a DSLR borrowed from John so that I can finally try my hands at using a DSLR. I managed to cover only 1/3 of the zoo because the Meh was already exhausted from her duties as part of her company’s Recreational Club Committee. I discovered that I really like the feel of the DSLR and the usage of the zoom lens for the animals since I couldn’t go very near….
The photographer wannabe…
The stone wall…
Errmmm… the dustbin???… Hmmmm…
The bus-stop….
BoLiaoz….
Where’s my teabreak??
I think there’s some left over teabreak on my fur…
More teabreak!!!
Grooming is more important than teabreak!!!
Yummmzzz…..
Where’s my teabreak???
Banana for teabreak…
Teabreak? No thanks…. Mating?? YES!!!!
Where’s everybody??? Teabreak over liaoz arh??
Even the water feels lazy during teabreak…
Time to take a nap after teabreak…
Need to burn off my fats after teabreak!!!
Teabreak over, time to take about dinner….
Post-teabreak, Sugar Cane for the whole family!!!
Now I’ve energy to swing around after teabreak!!!
Should I take a nap first until dinner??
How come I’m not served teabreak today???!!!!
Humph!!! Angwee!!!
Looking Left, Looking Right…
Looking Up, Looking Down… Still no teabreak in sight….
Play time!!!
Sleepy!!!! Nap time!! Find some shade first…
Sleepy, dun disturb!!! I don’t let you see my backside very good liaoz!!!
My left face looks nicer…
Take what take!!! Go away lah!!!
Extended teabreak time…
Stretching before nap…
Find a spot to lay down first…
Yawnz…..
Take me, TAKE ME FIRST!!!!
Hmmm… Rhino riding seems kind of fun!!!
Let’s party!!!
Hey!!! This is MY bowl!!!! / Where got bowl in the first place??
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who is the nicest groomed bird of all??
Yawnzzz….
Hmmmm….
ZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZ….
ZZZZZzzzssssshhhhh…..
CHEEEZZZZZ!!!!
Hogs playing
Huh?? You wanna massage?? Long time, short time??
$10 per hour!!!
Take what take???!!! I had cameras flashing at me for the past 8 hours!!! Blind liaoz!!!
Well, At least the wooden sculptures dun complain that you take their photos….
Glutton Weekend in KL (9~11 Nov 07)
12
Nov
Nov
The Meh and I had been planning this trip since 2 months ago. There were 2 agenda. 1st one being there for Won Feo’s Birthday and the 2nd one to meet up with Rita, Meiling’s sister-in-law. A month ago, we had already booked our hotel and coach for this trip.
We took the Aeroline coach from Harbour Front at 8pm on Friday, after a light dinner of Mee Siam. The coach was very new, clean and the seats were comfortable with smooth inclines. There was even a powerpoint at every seat or every 2 seats. Had another round of chicken rice dinner served on the coach after we had cleared the JB customs. Food was not really delicious, but it was quite reasonable. We slept most of the way and reached our destination, Corus Hotel KL, at 12:45, a little ahead of schedule. As we were quite groggy after our sleep, we looked rather expressionless (in fact, according to Won Feo, we looked really gloomy…) as we alighted the bus and didn’t even see Won Feo approach us. She was shocked when she saw our expressions and thought that we had just quarrelled… hehehe…..
We proceeded to Corus Hotel to settle some reservation issues first (I shall not blog about it here, just a link here to the Meh’s blog to bitch about it http://mehmeh2406.livejournal.com/44632.html) before heading for supper at Jalan Alor. We had nice Ipoh Chao Guo Tiao, Black Sauce Hokkien Mee and Beansprout Chicken. The noodles are sinful but super delicious because they were fried with lots of Lard!!!! Yummy!!!!! We spent the night at Won Feo’s apartment. Security there seems good. She had 3 bedrooms, all furnished with beds and her living room was spacious. We watched TV and chatted until 3am before heading off to bed!!! It was nice getting updates from her about what’s happening in her life and how she’s adapting to her new life in KL, especially copping with the cultural differences.
We were really pig and only woke up at 11am, and that’s after Won Feo knocked on our door. Had Dim Sum at a coffeeshop for brunch. The Da Bao was HUGE…. Ended up I had to forgo the skin and ate only the meat inside….
Won Feo brought us to her shop, Molecule, which had just opened at the Pavilion a couple of weeks ago, another new major shopping mall which had just sprouted out in KL. It was like a Singapore shopping center, with all the high end branded goods & fashions, food courts like Food Republic. We had a thorough guide tour by Won Feo at her shop. The sofa beds and dinning tables were amazing. There were more mechanism designs used on these furniture ideas than one could possibility imagine!!! I was totally amused… but… of course the prices were pretty spectacular too!!!! HOHOHOHOHO…. Realised that the popularity of donut eating in KL is catching up to that in singapore. People are queuing for half an hour just to buy packets of dozens of donuts. We went to this J. Co Donut for teabreak. The donut was really very soft and tasted fantastic. Some of them even had fillings on the inside. Same as those in Singapore but half the price!!
After doing a few hours of window Shopping, we checked into the Corus Hotel, all thanks to Won Feo for sending us, making the travelling time insignicant!!! Was quite tired and lazed on the bed, watching TV and sleeping until Rita came to pick up us for dinner at 8pm. We had dinner with Meiling’s Mum and Rita’s Family (her hubby and her 6 year old hyperactive son). We were entertained by Rita’s many stories and encounters throughout dinner. Had a rest after dinner at Meiling’s Mum’s place, flipping through old photos of Meiling and her brother, and also playing with Coco, the family dog. After that, Rita brought us to this Bah Ku Teh Shop opposite Tan Chong Motors, along Jalan Ipoh, Restaurant name was Sem Kim. The Bah Ku Teh was sweet, quite different from the peppery ones which we are used to.
Coco, the sweet, gentle, fat and playful dog.
We got back to the hotel after midnight and after washing up, slept all the way until 10:30am the next morning. Talking about pigs, we had been eating and sleeping almost non-stop for the past 40 hrs!!! We checkout around 11am and left our things under the care of the hotel. We walked over to the KLCC Tower, which was only a stone’s throw away.
KLCC
Again, it felt like we had reached another Singapore shopping mall, with all the shops, restaurants and brand names that we are so familiar with. Went to Madam Kuan’s for brunch. Madam Kuan’s is one of the famous peranakan restaurant in KL. The one at KLCC is one of the three in KL. We had Cold Tofu, Rendang Beef and Belaccan Kang Kong with White Rice. Food was quite delicious, but the Meh found the Rendang Beef too oily. In the end, we left the place rolling, but errmm… isn’t that normal for us???
What shall we order???
Our delicious food at Madam Kuan’s.
The Oily Rendang Beef.
Our Satisfied Smiles…
The rose decoration at every table…
Did another round a window shopping and then sat down to have some icecream before moving back to the hotel.
Greedy Sheep with Yummy Icecream!!!!
Waiting for coach… Bored….
Caught our 3:30 coach home, got back to Harbour Front at 9pm, had another heavy dinner at Kim Gary Hong Kong Cafe and home sweet home around 10:30. The travel was tiring, but I think the trip is relaxing on the whole… HOWEVER, I think I’ve put on another 2kg over the weekend of overfeeding…. SOBZ!!!
The yummy Sweetened Condensed Milk and Peanut Butter Toast at the Hong Kong Cafe and errrmmm… their Yuen Yang Milk Tea was also quite nice!!!! Slurpz!!!!
Wonderful Weekend in Dayang end of Season 2007!!
05
Nov
Nov
Back from a wonderful weekend in Dayang.
I had 2 really wonderful students this weekend. Made my job really easy and enjoyable!! And I saw an Eagle Ray at the House Reef, but too bad, no photos….
Everybody reached the shop early on Friday. We managed to leave by 6:45pm and clear the Singapore customs by 8:10pm. Cleared the
We arrived in good timing at 11pm at Mersing Jetty. I was happily thinking that since the boat would only take 12 passengers this time, Vynx would allocate the whole boat to us given we had 10 people already. Alas!!! He had allocated another 2 persons from another group and this group came much later!!! So, we were stuck at the Jetty until 12:30 before we were allowed to move off… Sigh…. Wasted effort…..
Boat regulations were very strict this time, after the Tioman Ferry Fire incident. The officer came to make sure there’s only 12 passengers per boat and that no one was allowed to stay on the top deck while the boat was travelling. The sea was quite calm throughout the trip, except for an occasional big wave hitting it and causing it to rock a bit. My seat was really uncomfortable and my butt got totally numb and painful after 2 hours… It was a real torture to tahan the next 2.5 hrs to Dayang…
Reached Dayang at 5am and quickly retired to bed. 1st dive was to be at 10am so I managed to get sufficient sleep. Tried to get our dive boat to come to the jetty, we waited for 15 minutes and it didn’t move an inch. After that, found out that the boat’s battery had died and another boat was sent over to help rescue that battery. In the end, we only left the jetty close to 11 and had our 1st dive around 11:15.
Had wanted to go to Lang for the 1st dive, but we saw a storm brewing up at the West, so we headed towards Kadur which was at the Eastern side. There was quite a current at the surface, I had to attach one more line from the boat to the buoy line. Then got my students to pull themselves using the line down. There was only a slight current below. There wasn’t much to see, but my students were pretty contented to just get themselves orientated in the water. Michael had slight problems equalising, but Tommy was just great!! He had no problems with buoyancy and is very observant with his surroundings (he pointed out a huge jellyfish which was near us while we were descending as a warning, and observed a small moray eel sticking its head out from one of the rocks in another dive). Both of them took and followed instructions extremely well!!!
After lunch, we went to Lang. The waters were a bit choppy, but it was manageable. The skills evaluation was a breeze to both my Open Water students so we had lots of spare time to swim around. We went to Lang backside for our 3rd dive. Saw a huge school of fishes continuously leaping out of the water in waves for a full few minutes!!! It was a really magnificent sight!!! According to the boat crew, that is the front of the currents….
Got back to the resort in time to bathe first then had dinner while the Meh went for a night dive with Max at the jetty. Vynx caught some groupers that afternoon and steamed them for the instructors on the island as a token of appreciation for the year’s support. It was really sweet of him. Then the Meh came back, bathed, had dinner, logged dive with her divers, then we went to watch the 2nd half of the soccer match between Man U and Arsenal. They tied at 2-2 with Arsenal scoring the last goal during the 3 minutes injury time. Both the Meh and Vynx were pretty agitated by the tie… Hehehehe…. =P
Set off from Jetty a bit after 7 the next morning to go dive at Rayner’s Rock. (I was hoping to dive Rayner’s Rock during the 1st dive and Captain’s Point for the 2nd dive, in the hope to see Manta Rays or WhaleSharks if we were lucky) When we reached there, the sea was extremely choppy and there were white caps. We detoured to Jawa only to the find it in a slightly better condition. Given the fact that we had 4 Open Water Students, we made our way back to
We did our last dive at the Jetty/HouseReef since we knew that Captain’s Point would be quite impossible to dive that day and guess what we saw?? Eagle Rays!!!! The Meh saw 2. My group saw 1. This is the 1st time I saw Eagle Ray at Dayang!! And Tommy spotted a large flounder as well!! I guess this is the dive of the trip for me!!!
Overall, I would rate this trip as a good one. Smooth logistics, great students, saw new things, relaxing dives….
7-Skies (26~28 Oct 07)
29
Oct
Oct
Went for a very comfortable LOB diving trip last weekend with MV White Manta to 7-Skies. This was a leisure trip for 8 Orpheus Crew (myself, the Meh, Min, YiKai, Lionel, Geoff, Karla & Ivan). Our purpose was to catch a glimpse of the Whale Shark at 7-Skies, if we were lucky enough.
Set off from Tahan Merah Ferry Terminal at around 7pm.Immediately after boarding, there was a very detailed and informative boat briefing, after which all of us were allocated our rooms. The Meh, Min and I were to share a room with an attached bathroom. They had recently renovated the whole boat such that more than half of their rooms came with attached bathrooms and more spacious, which is a welcome for most of the guests, although the price went up as well. I was waiting in anticipation for dinner to be served that night, as White Manta is famous for being the LOB around this region which provides the best food. Indeed we were not disappointed. I had a yummy dinner, after which my Orpheus friends gave me and the meh a cake and sang us birthday songs, and then they gave me a new pair of crocs!! After that, the Meh and I retired to our cabin early to zzzzz….. Quite tired out…
Happy Birthday to Me, to Me, to MEEEEEEE…. See Crocs with my name and icon!!!!
Our messy bed…
Woke up at 7 plus on Saturday morning only to find out that the 1st dive had been postponed to 9 plus because we had not reached the dive site yet due to current against our travel direction and also given the fact that we had set out late the previous evening. We did 3 dives at 7-Skies Wreck that day.
Yummy Breakfast!!! Dive 1 : There was a moderate current. Went down to the wreck using the line which Vincent had tied. Visibility was a good 20 meters at least. The coral growth on the wreck was amazing. It was so thickly covered with soft corals like a normal reef. Saw 2 Mantas at the beginning of the 1st dive. Managed to take some photos of them. Hid behind the funnel most of time to stay out of the current. Whaleshark appeared and disappeared before we managed to get down to the wreck and didn’t appear again for the rest of the dive, so I didn’t catch a glimpse of the whaleshark at all. After our ascent, I found out that Yikai, the only person in our group who saw the whaleshark, actually had his camera flood when he was descending. Tough luck!!!
Manta 1
Manta 2 (Courtesy of Lionel)
Emergency Breathing Equipment at Safety Stop
Safety Stop
Dive 2 : Neckbreaking strong current. Nobody bothered to let go of the line and almost everybody was in a horizontal position like a flag. Didn’t see anything interesting at all during this dive, except lots of bubbles flowing at 45 degrees…. Saw a large school of
Fishie & the Meh… Fin Fin Fin… See the angle of the bubbles….
After we surfaced, we started to put all the blame of not seeing any whaleshark on Wen Seang, who had cursed us of to not see any whaleshark on Thursday night. We came to an agreement that we should not bring our cameras down for the next dive so that we could break the curse because there is always this saying that when you bring your camera, the things will hide and when you leave it on the boat, the things will come out to play. So rather than taking our camera and not see the whaleshark, we may as well try our luck to catch a glimpse of it even if we don’t manage to take any pictures….
Dive 3 : We left 2 DSLR and a Canon A640 on the boat. Karla and Lionel decided to still bring their cameras along. The current had died down. We managed to descend without really holding on to the line. Managed to swim around the wreck and explore a bit. No whaleshark, see more of the wreck also shiok, right? The wreck was really very nice and it was a very nice, calm, relaxing dive. However, still no whaleshark although we occasionally looked up, down, left, right… Started to ascend when we were almost hitting NDL; giving up hope of seeing the whaleshark. Just when we were doing our safety stop at 15m, from the depths, we saw a very large shadow moving, and as it came shallower, we made out the shape of a whaleshark!!! Finally, it had decided to come up and play as all the divers had left the top of the wreck and were all already at 15m and above!!! A few of us immediately descended back down to almost 30m to catch a better glimpse. The giant was slowly swimming and making its way back to the deep again… Then we went back up again to 15m… A while later, the whaleshark appeared again, and then disappeared. This happened a couple of times and every time it appeared, it came up higher and higher. There was a time when it flipped backwards graciously while heading downwards, exposing its white belly, I gave a silent WOW. After that, it disappeared for a whole 5 minutes and most of us decided to surface and get back to the boat.
Whale Shark (Courtesy of Lionel)
It was after the dive while we were discussing and digesting our information that I realised there were actually 2 whalesharks. A bigger one of about 6~7m and a smaller one of 4m. As we were about to leave the dive site, the smaller whaleshark actually came all the way up to the surface just beside the boat to greet us!! There was a 10 seconds commotion at the eating area as people rushed to the side to see it. Just as fast as it came up, it was gone… OK… Satisfied, at least got see the whaleshark until shiok shiok liaoz…. HOWEVER, we decided that we still wanna put dive bag over Wen Seang’s head and bash him up because most of us didn’t bring camera down to break his curse. So, got see whaleshark also beat, dun see whaleshark also beat… hohohoho……
Decided to skip night dive, hearing that we would reach the dive site only at 10 plus!!! So went to bathe and then shiok shiok lay around the boat and nap and wait for dinner…Had a really sumptuous dinner, then look at all the excitement going on as the rest of the people went for their night dive at Aur. Went to bed just as the people ended their night dive.
This is but half the spread of the dinner!! Look at the GREEDY MEH eyeing on the food!!!
Sunday Dive 4 : Had a very early morning dive at Maritime Fidelity, another wreck which is on the way back to Singapore. There was a slight current and
Dive 5 : Vincent went down with us. We swam to the bow of the wreck this time.
Managed to wash our equipment and dry them partially as we were heading back to
Linen in the Wind!!!
Bored!!! Let’s compare who’s legs more chao da!!!
This has got to be one of the most relaxing trips this year!!! And a fruitful one too!!!! And we were blessed with great weather and flat sea!! Think I shall go for one more White Manta trip next year if budget allows…… =P Maybe Burma in March????
Langkawi (4~7 Oct 07)
19
Oct
Oct
OK…. Time to update my blog again with my latest getaway to Langkawi.
The Meh came to pick me up from work at 3:30 on Thursday, went home to settle some stuff, then went to her place to pick up our luggage and off we went to the airport in a cab.
Arrived in Langkawi around 8 plus on a SilkAir flight and by the time we hopped onto a cab to the resort, checked in and rolled down to the 24-hrs restaurant in the resort, it was already 9 plus. Dinner was at an above average price but below average food. I had a Giant Hot Dog while the Meh had Grilled Fish. The food neither looked or tasted appetising. I didn’t even bother to take photo…. After that, we directly headed back to our room for a quick shower and an early sleep as we had to wake up early the next morning.
We dragged ourselves out of bed at 7:15 on Friday morning, had a super quick and bad breakfast before moving off to wait for the transport that picked us up to go snorkeling at Pulau Payar. Was transferred from small van to big bus to ferry. The ferry ride took about an hour and when we were about to reach the island, it started raining heavily!!! We had to run for shelter at the beach. Both of us were pretty reluctant to snorkel in the heavy rain, although the rest of the people was quite enthusiastic and started moving forward to try their gears, all ready to move off into the water. After a 15 minutes of waiting and watching all the excitement around us, we decided that the rain was small enough for our snorkelling ‘likings’….
The site was surprisingly rich with marine life. Other than the over-crowded population of damsel fish around, there were also lots of giant groupers, schools of batfish, schools of butterfly fish, cornet fish, black tips reef sharks (there was a 1.5m one and a few baby ones which only appeared at noon everyday when it’s feeding time), lots of big barracuda and an extra fat and humongous resident which stays under the jetty all the time…. It didn’t even move, it just continuously opened and half closed its mouth, like a moray eel…. Oh yeah… and we saw lots of sea cucumbers at the shallow parts where water was waist-high and surprisingly, a flat worm too!!!! I’m really surprised that it managed to survive all the way to this shallow water, given the huge number of snorkellers daily.
I would say the day of snorkelling was rather interesting, but… nothing beats this thing which i witnessed while I was there, it was the highlight of the day!!!
Some woman with a life vest PLUS a float around her!!!! I was very surprised her feet managed to touch the water while she was so buoyant!!!! Hyak!!!!
We got out of the water 1 hr before leaving the island to AIRDRY ourselves, while the rest of the people changed into their dry clothes. So we ended up freezing our sorry asses on the ferry trip back to the main island because we were still quite damp. Got back to the resort around 5, washed up, dilly dally a bit, then walked out of the resort in search of a nice dinner.
We walked for about 10 minutes before we saw this Matahari place consisting of 3 restaurants side by side (there’s a lot of Matahari-related restuarants around, and apparently, all belong to the same owner). We were attracted by the menu which said Nasi Campur Set for 2 persons - RM69. Price looked reasonable and the dishes included seemed to promise delicious food too. So we decided to have that for our dinner…. Food took a while… The mosquitoes were having a party around us. The Meh managed to slap one of them dead while it was enjoying its last feast on her. The long wait was worth it and we were not disappointed. The food looked good and it tasted great!!! It was indeed a satisfying dinner. The Meh had Long Island Tea and she was really red and a bit high by the time we left the restuarant…
Walkway of the Matahari Restaurant
Hmmm… What other things should I order???
Huuuwwwwgggg…. Ho Li Si!!!!
The Meh’s Best Friend, the DEAD Mozzie…
Our Drinks
Our Nasi Campur (As usual, we had finished about half of it before I remembered to take a picture..)
The Meh after her drink…
Saturday was a super nua-ing day. We woke up super late only to be in time for lunch. Again, we walked out in search of food and a bit further down from where we went for dinner the previous night, we saw this Sun Mall, which has a Sun Cafe. The waitress who served us was the same one who served us dinner the previous night. Again, I think this whole mall belongs to the same owner as the Matahari Restaurant. The meh had a huge sandwich and I had a Cordon Bleu Chicken. The food was good. This time, I only remembered to take a picture of our nice food which was already licked clean off the plates and partially digested in our stomachs…. And the toilet of the restaurant is impressive leh!!!! The restaurant is not very ex, but the toilet is very nice!!!
Open Air Zen Toilet… Maybe this is a better place to meditate and get my bowels working…
Open air kitchen
Took a short stroll to the Main Road, then back to the resort to zzzz for the rest of the afternoon because it was too humid to do anything on the beach…
Went to sit at the beach around 4 plus. The view wasn’t fantastic, but it was quite pleasant as there was a gentle breeze.
Lazy Meh relaxing on the beach chair
View of the Resort from the Beach
Parasailer Against the Sun
Naughty Bird Bird!!!
Dinner at the Unkaizan Japanese Restuarant, within 200m from our resort, was great!!! We knew about it while passing by one of the sign boards which says the restaurant voted as the best restaurant for 2005/2006 the previous day. The road outside was without street lights and the surroundings was also very dim, but once inside, it was a cozy orange bright. The setting indoors and outdoors was quite nice and all the tables and chairs were made of heavy wood.
We had black cod, Tuna belly Sashimi, Zaru Soba, Nabeyaki Udon, Green Tea Ice-cream and Rice Flour Balls with Red Bean Paste. Everything tasted just fabulous!!! Again, this time, we had almost finished all our food before I realised I wanna take photo… Managed to save only half of the Black Cod and the desserts…. We literally rolled ourselves back to the resort….
My Table Setup
The Meh waiting patiently for her food although her stomach was growling
1/2 of the Grilled Black Cod with Teriyaki Sauce, Yummmzzz….
Hungry… Fast Fast Eat, Hands also must fast fast…
Ahhh…. Licked up my dishes liaoz…. Satisfied….
Green Tea Ice-cream and Rice Flour Balls with Red Bean Paste
Unkaizan Shop Front Decoration
Sunday was super boring. We checked out early and left our bags with the reception. Tried to walk to the Underwater World but it rained halfway and we had to hop into a cab. Had lunch at a Thai Restaurant there. We had Tom Yam Soup with Rice. It was simple and cheap and nice. This time, I managed to remember to take photos with 1/4 of the food reminding….
The Underwater World Langkawi was a big let down!! The marine tunnel and hexagon tank were closed for maintenance. Their 3D theatre was screening in 2D cos it was also under maintenance. Marine fishes looked pale. There’s not a lot of things to see….. and it was the LARGEST AQUARIUM IN MALAYSIA, awarded by the MALAYSIA BOOK OF RECORDS!!!….
??? How come the rain getting heavier and heavier???
Errmmm… Only 1/4 of the rice left leh….
Dun know what ancient fresh water fish…
Moray Eel at the Underwater World
There was nothing to do since it was still drizzling as we were leaving the place, so decided to go back to the resort and nua and wait until 6pm before we took a cab to the airport. Had Kenny Rogers for dinner. Kenny Rogers is cheaper there compared to Singapore, but Singapore serves bigger portion and nicer side dishes (the dishes are the same, but they tasted different, even the muffin tasted different) and the chicken in Singapore tasted juicier (maybe Malaysia use Kampung chicken, and Singapore use big fat oily tasty unhealty chicken…) as well as the sauce also tasted different.
Got onto the plane only to be terrorised by this boy (he and his family were also sitting at the row just in front of us on the flight to Langkawi) with his persistent sharp screaming (he did it for both occasions!!!). The Meh was almost losing her sanity over that and she even noticed that he was screaming HAPPILY (he looked happy). Luckily the flight was just a little more than an hour and we were spared from further tortures the moment we landed.