My guest blogger (daughter) on Redang Island

My daughter went to Redang with her friends and she had an interesting blog on it so I guested it here:

Redang!
by baybeetea.blogspot.com

After enduring the bumpy sleepless 7 hour bus ride from KL to Kuala Terengganu, the constant yawning till dawn, the cheap cheap breakfast and an hour long boat ride, we finally got to our destination:

  Redang!!

 

Oh my god, it was worth the journey, the water is soooooo sooo clear. Didn't really take in the view, was staring at the water. I love water.

Walked along the beach to our hotel and checked in. The receptionist read out our programme for our trip, everything she said is actually pasted on the walls of all the rooms, it is even in our brochure:
 

 
 
We realized we lost our bag of snacks. What a waste RM50 of snacks. =( Oh well. Never mind, went to our rooms and then headed to snap pictures before lunch!

Looks damn fun right? Why am i not in this pic? =( Oh yeah, i took the picture =P Look at the water, look at it!!!! Ohhhh... i love the water

 

D and i were crazy over taking group pictures, so we made the group pose for us, set up our cameras on timer, placed it on the table and voila! =)
  
Too bad, we didn't have those blue skies with specs of clouds. Rather cloudy when we went, but who cares! Duller pictures but i'm spared the sunburn! Hehehe.

J asked me to check out More More Tea In in one of my posts, had no freaking idea what she was talking about. Upon arrival, i smsed my mom and she too asked me to check out the tea inn in the movie Summer Holiday starring Sammi Cheng and Richi Ren and i was like, what????

We just walking right to the end of our resort's stretch of beach, past 5 Star Laguna and there it was!

More More Tea Inn!!!

Checked out the inside and i saw this white knitted top i liked but put off trying it cuz it was merely the first day. Damn, forgot all about it till i got home =(

Another group picture! All 12 of us at More More Tea Inn! =) One of the biggest groups around.

Saw my cheerleading captain in Redang! Also my ex-roommate! And a group of juniors was there too according to E!!! Wow, everyone from Monash and VU are making full use of their holidays!

Had lunch and then prepared for the first snorkeling trip. Was so surprised that only 4 of us wanted to snorkel? That's like 1/3 of the group. WHAT?! Aiyoh.

Who cares, we're going. D, LY, E and I. J joined us too. There was a short briefing on what to do since most of us are first timers. Apparently u had to spit in your goggles/face mask to avoid fogging and to get a better view. Or apply toothpaste

Not many people wanted to do it but once we got to the snorkeling site, and into the water, people started spitting like mad. U had to or u wouldn't be able to see.

The first time i looked into the water i was in awe. Its so deep! 12 feet? 4 meters, 5 meters? Had no idea cuz we were wearing life jackets. And on the surface, its so boring and plain but once u look in, it's like WOW! A whole new world! It's like, someone turned on the tv!

                                                                      Shit beautiful!

The five of us just started getting the hang of things... i was snorkeling, admiring the ocean life when suddenly, i saw human arms! That's not part of the ocean?! Hahahahahaha. I laughed. And water went into my mask!

Surfaced. E and J were on my left and right. They surfaced too and i told them and the 2 girls what happen. Everyone laughed. Hehe

One of the guides came by and showed us around. It was sooo sooo cool. He was great! He looked for things and called us to see. There was this "christmas tree"-- some sort of coral... where many smaller sea plants grew on. Blues, yellows, red.

(this picture is from the internet, for illustration purposes only!!)

The guide dived down and touched a few of them. They reacted! Closed up quickly! Just like those ugly Forget-Me-Not weeds, but these are a hundred times more pretty!

Closer to land, was a depressing sight. Dead corals. Lifeless. Sand couloured, like the broken bits washed up on the seashore, only more of them. The whole seabed covered with them. Nooo!

I asked the guide why. He said that it was cuz of the weather: too hot at times and too cold at other times. Oh well, cant fight nature, only can try to preserve it.

ugly dead coral

Then the guide signaled for us to look at something. Shit!!! It's a majestic giant turtle!!!! Swam closer to it, swam as fast as i could, until i was swimming directly above it, i was swimming with it!!!! OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDD, the feeling was incredible!

Decided leave the creature alone, besides, dun wanna go too far out into the ocean. The turtle surfaced for air. E saw it, my view was blocked. And then it swam away =(

The guide also showed us clown fishes! I'm sure u've seen them in aquariums, these little 'Nemo's. But the difference is, u only see 3 of them at most in the tank. In thier natural habitat, the coral hosts at least a dozen of them. Big parent ones, little Nemos... sooooo cute!

They hid in the coral as our guide dived down. He caught one little fellow. Showed it to us. Damn it why dun i have a water proof camera??? Some of us didn't see it, so he filled up his face mask with water and actually put the baby clown fish into the mask!!!

So damned cute ok!? Seeing the little Nemo swim across his eyes.

Then he cupped the fisheeee in his hands and dived down yet again. Only releasing the lil guy near its coral home. I asked why and he said that if he were to let it go at the surface, it would never make it home. Way too many predators out there. Yikes.

Ever seen sea cucumbers?? They're this big black blob on the seabed. So many of them. Some smooth, some rough. Guide brought a couple up. They're slimey, i touched it of course! Haha. It hardly moved.

 Towards the end of this snorkeling trip, most of my friends already went up to the boat. But i was still swimming around. Hehe. Guide dived and surfaced with this big orange thing. Cushion star fish. It was really like a cushion man, so cool! I held it. =)

He let it go and i watched it sink down. I didn't wanna leave. Guide kept on sprinkling water on my head... ! There was an even bigger of a different colour deep down on the seabed. But couldn't look at it long. Had to leave, i was the last up on the boat. =)

We were at a marine park. Hehe, they brought us there cuz the water at their regular snorkeling site was rough. Yeah man!!! =)

Lost my voice by the end of that adventure. But what the heck, after tea, we were all playing in the sea again! Hehehe. The blue blue water! Love it. Big rough waves that eats me up. Hehe. Fun!

Dinner, karaoke, and we sang Happy Birthday to J. Presented him with an ice cream cake and no candles! Haha

The next day, we went to snorkel at the Marine Park. Nothing much. There was a small shipwreck, full of corals grown on it. More sea cucumbers and lots n lots of fishes!!! We fed them bread and one of them bit me!!!

There were baby sharks but i didn't seee any =( The guide caught an octopus for us. Funny lar the way the thing sticks to my hand...

Saw many baby turtles swimming in the exhibition centre at the marine park. Soooooo cute. Just like pet tortoises but these lil guys are gonna grow bigger than me! Buried them in sand and watched them crawl out. Put them on their back n watched them struggle, Aww, poor thing. Cute! Hehe

Lunch, relaxed (E and i shared a hammock =) and more snorkeling. Barbeque dinner, then there was a heated argument between the other couple and tension loomed over the whole group. A few games of chor tai tee and then we headed to the beach disco at 10pm.

Niceeeeeee. But too damn bad my camera sucks. No pictures. They were playing Chinese songs, no idea what songs since i don't speak Chinese but i danced anyway. Just listened to the beat and moved along. Not a good dancer i am though but who cares!?

Drank Jolly Shandy, i heard M was the one who belanja. Thanks! =)

Sat out a few songs and then they played the Macarena! And taught us how to dance. It's more of like, aerobics lar, like one of the Group X classes in Fitness First rather than clubbing. Fun! Sweat like mad.

E said i should go clubbing more then. Dowan la, i said, cuz the girl i'd go with flirts a lot and leaves me to be surrounded by guys. I'd feel alone, i said. And guess what he said!? "U also go flirt lar". I was like, "HUH???". Hahaha

Loved dancing barefoot on the beach. The sand in between my toes was spectacular, so soft and fine.

One by one, the group left the beach disco. Until it was just LY, D and i. LY is this really friendly girl, so she made friends with a few of the guides while snorkeling. One of them brought the three of us to see glowing blue sand.

11 years ago with my brother at turtle sanctuary

My mother holding the glowing plankthon on her hand. It glowed with a blue light.

This i've seen before, 11 years ago when my father brought us to K Terengganu to see turtles lay eggs.

 A sight i'd never forget. Back then, i was told it was lanterns but how do u expect me to believe it? So in geography Form1 / 7th Grade, when we learnt of what fishes eat : planktons (BM spelling), i just concluded that the blue stuff i saw was plankton.

Tagged along nevertheless. =) There were very little blue sand left, apparently they're dying, almost out of season. D held some on her hand, it was fading. Guide rubbed the sand and it glowed more.

Being girls we gasped, and pitied the little creature, assuming it had life. But the guide shone a torch light on it and it was merely SAND!!!

So it really was just sand! Wow!

Walked through Laguna, it was shit classy, worth of all of its 5 stars. But it seemed a bit too elegent, so business and deserted... Redang Beach Resort was more lively at night, more of a hang out place for teens, i mean youths since i'm no more a teen.

Not far from where i took this picture was a couple on a hammock.......

Initially intended to stay up to catch a bit of the much-anticipated Italy vs Germany match with them but it was only 1am when we headed back to the rooms. So forget it, i'm gonna go to bed. I guess i should have stayed up... make my Redang trip longer. Plus, the whole World Cup is almost over and i didn't even watch a match with any of my friends.

Never been a fan...

Awoke and it was already bright outside, shit what time is it? 7.05? Our boat leaves at 7.15! Hurriedly packed... thank god for Malaysian time. Boat left at 7.40

Taken from the jetty using E's Sony Erricson. Gonna miss walking in between those rocks after each snorkeling trip...