Hear my side of Story

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Bintan Trip 2007

Sidenote: Realise I was emphasizing on the NTUC bag? It's Lag's fault, she kept haunting me throughout the trip that the loaf of bread in the plastic bag is MY responsibility -.-

Bintan Lagoon Resort
Introducing Angsoka 13:

Check out our personal pool! And the duper spacious balcony =)

1st night was spent on...

Cleaning up the whole villa playing Building Tower playing my-ultimate-dislike Bluff and Calling Names
then off to dreamyland. 3 ladies below shared a double-supersingle room
two other big rooms were left vacant.
winni+lag took the master room
we just love to sleep with one another=)

Next morning is off to...BEACH

(Left to right): Lag, Joanne, Winni, Shuff, * We looked so so colourful that morning *.*

We banana-boated, kayaked, frisbeed, volleyballed and soccered. And the conclusion we made was, our water sports are way better than beach sports. Of course, yours truly is Jack of no sports. I was complaining the whole time about SUN, HEAT, SEAWATER, TIRING ARMS from kayaking and other what-nots.

After beaching, Lag+Shuff+* went to leisure pools. Ho. Shuff and me transformed into pre-school kids and had fun using the pool slides. And boy, how heavy we are! The water currents on the slides were way too weak that we had to shift our bodies to get us down the slides -_-

Then after much persuasion, I found a buggy instructor! I know I almost killed her on my training sessions. But she was lucky enough, because Shuff+Joanne who later sat at the back were having hard times holding on their butts to the seats ^.^ Winni + Lag are so alike! They were screaming at me simultaneously when I was making my turns and overcoming the-so-many-skinny-humps!

Winni prepared lunch while the three of us were fooling around like little kids.
our good food!
After the norm - BBQing, we laser-quested. It was a memorable experience, because I came in FIRST!
While Joanne+Shuff went for luxurious spa+massage, the spastic three went around the resort and took random photos.
That was the period when most buggy practicals were done =)
We had a lil well-belated birthday celebration for Jo @ SilkBar
to end off the night.

I must say that night was an interesting one. Two angmohs picked up Shuff+ Jo when Lag+Winni left the table. Then, Lag picked me up! She took pity on me 'cos no one was interested in me. Also, the night's drinks were on Jason! Though he was not phyically present, his supplementary card was. His reason for treat: "Thanks for taking Jo away from me for a few days."

I left the next morning ALONE. And Lag woke up early in the morning to send me off! Ahem, the rest of the SCgang? They were still snuggling in beds! Again, hate to say this, but you're a real good friend! Never mind if you are saying that you took pity on me again that's why you buggied me to the departing area, I know you HEART me! =D

To conclude the trip...

Labels: bintan, travel

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Tioman Trip

Introduction

Sunset of Tioman

The island jetty

The beach

Day 1:

We set off in the late evening on malaysian vans and reached the Mersing jetty at 11.30pm. The night ride on the hands of the Malaysian driver was truly an eyeopener. (more elaboration below) Then we were suay-ed that the boat that's bringing us to Tioman STALLED for two hours. As blur as ever, I didn't realise the boat was not operating until we reached the destination two hours behind time. Booo. That night on the boat was like what many had described - 雾说南洋。8 of us squeezed onto a 3-persons mattress in the lower deck with highly no-ventilation except for a small deck opening. I was sweating like a horse, so must be all the guys.

* 13 students on training course-> 2 girls -_-

Kie and I were utterly shocked to see our room. It's a quad-room. Having odd number in the group, Jason by the middle name of "Efficient" bunked with us. He's nice, but a crappy guy when he drinks.

The exterior is somewhat misleading.

Stretch of path to our kampong room. (Upslope)

(Downslope)

We slept at 5am, and reported for breakfast at 8am.

Day 2:

We went out to the sea at 9am. Did two open water training dives. I was almost killed on the first. I couldn't manually inflate my BC (buoyancy compensator) and was on the regulator the WHOLE time when I was supposed to be on snorkel. :'( I drank gallons of super duper salty seawater in the process of attempting to use the snorkel. Goodness. Second dive was slightly better but we were tested on the skill I hate the most - air sharing.

We are expected to share air with our 'buddy' and do TONS of hand signals to each other. AND we have to manually inflate to stay afloat while waiting for the victim to be completely buoyant. I played the rescuer which was much easier and my buddy was changed to a little 21-yr old kid called Hoi.

The instructors had deliberately said in front of me that they'll change our buddies so that we won't rely too much on one person. Bet they were aiming me because the whole time they have the impression that I'm incompetent and super dependent on Kie. Boooo...

In any case, I survived the two test dives. And was paranoid the rest of the day of not passing the test. Afterall, I cheated in inflating my BC using the oxygen from the tank. Muahahahaha.

Before we head for bed... This other guy told me that on my dive in the morning, I swam towards a pile of shit and my head touched it. @?%#!&

Anything great about the sea? NO. We were all too absorbed in doing the life skills on the sea bottom that we had no leisure time nor heart to admire the ocean. Maybe the guys did. But definitely not me.

Day 3:

We reported at 6.30am and headed straight to the boat. We did two dives. Luckily both were leisure, for we were paranoid that those meanie instructors will tekan us by testing us a few more times. They are mean people.

This time around, I enjoyed myself. Saw interesting fishes hiding within the barnacles on the remains of the shipwreck in the Marine Park dive site. Er, the truth is, there weren't much things to expect, ironically, despite the name given. The second one at Renggis was goody. Because it's well-known for loads of corals and different types, WE SAW FINDING NEMO!! Haha. The clown fishes are real cutie. They'll swim in and out of the reefs. The rest of the colourful fishes too. And we spotted an electric eel. EEEWW. It looks super grumpy and grouchy with that sleeping face of his.

Being clumsy in the sea and all, I kept bumping and hitting tanks to tanks with the guys. Slapping my fins at Kie's face too. And I even 'sat' on my instructor's head! @#$%&^! *PAISEH*

Oh yarh, before we dived in, there was a sea turtle greeting us! He was so handsome!

I was so relieved that I survived the dives. Seriously.

But the journey back made me feel more insecure of coming home alive. The 150 min boat ride was hideous due to the choppy sea and rain. Then the van ride was WORSE. He was practically speeding more that 110km/h and cutting to the opposite lane as if he was on an emergency duty. We missed the a few vehicles on the opposite side by a couple of seconds each time. So, I chose to shut my eyes the whole time and remind myself that he is a okay driver. Still, I caught him answering his phone twice without decreasing the speed a lil at all (-.-) I guess, his confidence is toppled with not only his experience and skills, but the Benz.

The departure with the whole gang was weird and sudden. Everyone just zoomed straight home after announcing that everyone passed the test.

So, to leave back some memories, we managed to take pictures with the diving team:

Left to right: Travis (Photographer), Dominic (Instructor 1), Me+Mr.K, Kiat (Instructor 2), Dunno-name, Dunno-name.

Ha. He looks so friendly here. But in fact, he's the meanie mean who keeps belittling me! BOOO! Still thankful to him for being so stern and all. Pushing me to focus and learn. Well, I'm still very glad that I ended up at Dominic's team for the test instead of his. HEH.