I am finally back!

Well let me say that i am very excited to see what 2009  have installed for me. In slightly more than a week from now, i will be off to Cambodia for 6 days with 6 friends of mine and that is definitely gonna  have me missing  from my blog yet again.

The idea of Cambodia was first conceived when i was strolling about on the sandy beach of Redang Island after a crazy day at Nipple Island. Initially, in the morning, i received a call from my mum saying i had cheques from Nuffnang and that she had already banked it in. Knowing i had extra cash in hand, i jokingly asked William and Angeline, …

“Come let’s go Cambodia ….”

William was fast to say he was in. I can’t even be sure if he even took time to think

Angeline on the hand took probably a few seconds longer before agreeing to join the bandwagon …

… and that’s how things got rolling. One by one the rest joined in, Lee May, Aaron, Ai Ling and Emily. I am excited, everyone is excited cause no one knows what is gonna happen as our plans are kinda sketchy. Keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes as planned

Personally i am definitely happy with how Nuffnang has changed the blogosphere especially in Malaysia (… and also in the other countries that they are invading). Thanks to them, i have the extra moolah which enabled me to get my flight tickets to Cambodia.

On the side note, also related to Nuffnang, this coming Saturday would be the auditions of Malaysian Dream Girls in Kuala Lumpur which is also the final audition for this season.

Date 10 Jan 09 (Saturday)
Time 10am – 5pm
Venue Impiana KLCC Hotel & Spa

I’ll be there … in fact Andrew will also be there and we will both be covering the event on behalf of Malaysian Dream Girls. My counterparts, Simon Seow and Intan or better known as Malaysian Super Mummy will also be there but earlier.

So if you have what it takes to be a model, then don’t forget the details above. Drag your friends along

See you all there

Merry New Year everyone !

P/S: I just realized my last entry was written last year >.<! LOL

Two more days to the dateline and here i am trying out ‘A moment with your Kakiis’. I should have done it quite some time back but because i have been away from my notebook most of the time, i finally have the chance to browse through the pictures that would be suitable for this entry.

I definitely had to post this picture up.

Full House

The expression on Mr Leong’s face is definitely the reason why this picture is on top of the pile This outing with my Kakiis was significant. Why ? Cause we were all out to celebrate Mr Leong’s birthday as well as Miss Tan’s farewell but their food never arrived. In fact Aaron had 2 rounds and yet their food was no where to be seen. It was more than 2 hours until the waiter brought it over. Talk about service -_-! LOL

The picture above was taken while waiting. We found these black frame specs for sale and decided to take a couple of photos with it just to buy time

I could carry on posting tonnes of pictures but i decided to put a handful so ease my beloved bandwidth, LOL.

Now if you are wondering why these pictures appeared out of the blue, well because i was browsing thru nuffnang’s blog and realized that there’s a competition going on whereby you post up a picture of your kakiis. So what is Kakiis all about ? It’s a local social networking site whereby you can stay connected to your friends via the net as well as mobile phone.

Kakiis.com

Besides that you can even share photos and video thru PC and phone. Nowadays sites like this are definitely making it easier for all of us to communicate with one another anytime any where.

I took this opportunity to actually dig out and post all my old and recent outings with my Kakiis LOL.

Sushi King outing

For the rest of the Kakiis pictures, click ‘read more’

Chillis

Changing tyre

Shout Out Birthday Bash

Nipple Island

Annual Dinner @ E&O

Thankfully when i was in Redang the only time it rained was at night and probably drizzled a couple of times in the day. So none of our activities were jeopardized by the weather. One of the snorkeling spots that i liked was the marine park. Though some may say it’s overrated but i think for individuals like me who hardly snorkel let alone swim, this place is definitely a must-swim-location

With the white sandy beach stretching as far as your eyes could see and not forgetting the different shapes of fishes swimming in that area, no wonder this is one of the main hot spots for any tourist.

The guards had set up a perimeter around the beach and that’s as far anyone is allowed to swim cause any further than that, you could be easily drift off no thanks to the strong current. And let me stress that if ever any of you were to drop by at Redang, just get yourself a lifejacket. Regardless whether you are good swimmer or not, the jacket definitely helps a lot especially when you are swimming against the current. You wouldn’t want to look like a dog yelping for help …. lol

If you are lucky enough the people in charge of ferrying you over would bring loaves of bread. Obviously there’s a reason for doing so which is to attract fishes. During our stay in Redang, the resort brought us to Marine Park twice -_-” So the second time around, instead of swimming i walked around snapping pictures … and also threw pieces of bread to scare the daylights out of anyone

William too decided not to swim and brought his alpha as well. At one point he actually fell into the water -_-” and if wasn’t for his quick thinking, his DSLR would be fully submerged had he not lift up his hand with his camera as high as possible. Clumsy pot

Before leaving Marine Park, the rest did a few LOA pose (LOA – Lack Of Attention). hahaha and William was showing them the pictures for approval.

Besides swimming and canoeing, we also played a couple of in-house games like dart, pingpong, jenga … The next two pictures are courtesy of William

One of the most ‘potong stim’ moment was when Dolphin insisted we play scrabble. I mean who in the world goes on a holiday and crack their head over a word-making game ? Obviously the answer is those gila people in the picture above. Best part was the board wasn’t even scrabble, so the point system was different. Nevertheless, Dolphin who initiated the game got thrashed to the point where i just stopped the game instead of continuing. hahaha. You wouldn’t want a emo-dolphin during a holiday trip, it’s a big NO-NO.

Then i was humiliated in a game of Congkak #@$%#$^#. Revenge revenge …. -_-”

OH and did i say there was a Karoake room in our little resort? It wasn’t too fancy but it had all the equipments which could even put some Karoake outlets to shame ….LOL that was exaggerating -_-” The collection of songs were kinda old but it was better than nothing.

The karoake room had a battle languages. One group sang all Chinese songs and we sang all English songs, mainly Westlife. Yes yes very the sad case but what to do, the list didn’t have Flo Rida or Kanye West …. not even Cold Play, LOL. I didn’t last long in the Karoake Room, so i went back and slept off

I have been asked sooooooooooooo many times where are the chicks in bikinis and to answer that, i am gonna post one miserable picture -_-” LOL turned out that most pictures weren’t clear so i rather not post it up

Codename: Dark Horse, i am pretty sure those who were in Redang had no clue why was that name given, LOL. So it’s story telling time: Aaron, William and I realized there’s always guys surrounding her wherever she goes and thus making an assumption that they were all after her. So i teased Aaron, saying, ” Eh you could try and you can be the dark horse” Hahaha and from there on we just referred her as Dark Horse.

So with three of us all equipped with tele lens, the dark-horse-club was formed. Real sad case man three of us. So to those who would want to join the club, feel free to do so, LOL. You will be known as a Dark Horse Hunter once you are in -_-”

That’s Redang and i hope i didn’t miss out anything cause i am doubt i am gonna write another entry about Redang

Wonder when’s the next time i am ever gonna set foot on Redang

Yes it’s Redang themed entry yet again …. and this time around, some of us journeyed to the otherside of the island to get to Laguna Beach. Since i was zombie-fied when i was there during the first night, this time around i made sure i was all charged up to see what Laguna Beach was all about.

Only four of us went over as the rest were pre-occupied with shark-sighting and canoe-ing. So Dolphin, LeeMay, WIlliam and I left right after returning from snorkeling.

Midway through, we came across this rocky-pebbley area which is usually covered with water during the night. We walked over it and it wasn’t easy balancing around. The rocks reminded me of Nipple Island. The only difference was this time i had my slippers on

Lee May posing for William and Dolphin. I just stood from afar and snapped candidly This place is really ideal for any photoshooting but then again having the right coloured clothes would be an additional bonus So after burning ourselves under the scotching sun for a good fifteen minutes, we carried on walking thru the jungle towards Laguna Beach.

The first thing you would notice about Laguna Beach is ….

… tonnes of girls in bikinis the soft soft sand.

It’s so soft that it feels like the sand was ice blended before being layed all over the beach. Comparing to the sand over at our resort, Kalong Beach has very rough sand. I immediately walked around barefooted and it felt so good, especially after a hellish hike at Nipple Island.

Dolphin and Lee May helped themselves with all the fixed props in front of the famous More More Tea Inn which was made famous by Ritchie Ren and Sammy Cheng in Summer Holidays. It’s like a must photographed area of the the Laguna beach. People have to line up at times just to snap with the heart shaped thingy on the building which unfortunately isn’t in any of the pictures here.

To take good pictures here on Laguna Beach, i have prepared a few pointers for those who are gonna go there in the near future.

A tripod would be a plus point to get good shots especially for landscape

But not everyone owns a tripod and that’s where this pose comes in. Engineered by the almighty dolphin, standing as such gives you maximum stability, LOL.

We tried to find a place to sit down and put all our bags in one place before William and i walk around to ‘wash eyes’ and Dolphin returns to the sea with Lee May. While doing so, i was randomly snapping around and came across this …

William in action … huhu

ROLF, spotted ! William realized that he was being photographed

Aiseh, change location already. LOL

We then walked towards the other end of Laguna Beach since there were too many people at the beginning of the beach and leaving our bags unintended doesn’t sound safe at all.

Dolphin and her trademark pose. She was familarizing with Daniel’s Nikon for a ‘certain reason’ lol. Ahem the S200 pass to me ya Dolphin.

We finally left our things on this huge boulder at the end of Laguna Beach. Dolphin and Lee May changed in a flash and they were off to the beach.

William then went towards the beach to snap Dolphin and Lee May in the water when i was back at the boulders guarding the bags -_-” At least my lens was able to zoom to a considerably good distance for sniping. So much so that i even caught Dolphin and Lee May giving me the tongue -_-”

After a good one and half hours, we decided to call it a day and head back. We waited for the other two to return from the sea. In the mean time we played around with a few sillihoute shots and one of it appeared to be nice and you can check it out on William’s blog.

While changing, Dolphin got excited finding out that the sky was actually blue in colour. Lee May just didn’t know what to say, hahahaa.

We reached back in time for dinner and before retiring for the day, we played a few games and the whole cycle restarts again the next day.

After riding on the boat for about half an hour, we finally reached the resort that we were gonna stay for the next four days and three night. Redang Kalong was the name, RK for short. Not to be mistaken for RK House – No Pork, lol.

We were then given a short briefing by the owner of the place in terms of timing of the meals and time for check-in/check-out. Then the keys were given out and for the next four days i will be staying with William, Aaron and Hugo.

What i liked about this resort was that the rooms were all wood based, giving you that you-are-now-on-island-and-everything-is-better-in-wood feel. Surprisingly the rooms were all fitted with airconds. Water heater was also installed in the bathroom but only a lucky few would experience it. During my four days there, i never got to bathe in hot water …. not even once -_-”

So after unpacking our things, we rushed down for the first snorkeling session. So we waited for the rest and turned out that the girls took an extra ten minutes. We later found out that they were busy applying mascara and foundation. Not like anyone is gonna recognise them once they are in the water, lol.

So since we missed the first snorkeling session, we did the next best thing; snap pictures. I took this opportunity to learn more about my polarizer and William was kind enough to show how to use it. The girls appeared not too long after and everyone just lazed on the beach chairs and hammock.

The next snorkeling session was at 2.15pm, so some of us took a short nap and some just hung around till lunch time.

Each time there’s session for snorkeling, diving or meals, an old skool bell is rung around the resort to alert everyone about what is happening. It’s something you don’t experience often.

The girls werent’t late this time and we manage to get into the boat in time. I entered the water without any life jacket thinking how hard could it be swimming in the sea …. but i was wrong @_@ With the strong current around, i spent most of the time trying to maintain my spot rather than swimming around. That wore me down and in the end i retired and got back to the boat.

We returned to the resort after two hours and since some of us still had some energy left in us, we decided to canoe.

About two kilometers from the shore was an island which had nipple shaped stones all round it and that’s where we decided to canoe, lol. So imagine this, canoe-ing at 4.30pm under the hot sun in the open sea @_@

Please take note, pictures from here on were shamelessly hijacked from William, LOL. I edited the pictures a bit so that it won’t look as nice as how William had posted in his blog

It took us about twenty minutes to reach the shore of Nipple Island and from there on we decided to hike up the breasted hills, hahaha.

Now here’s the best bit of the whole canoe-ing expedition, see the picture above ? check out the person on the far left and far right …. noticed anything missing from these two macho fellas ? they were both slipper-LESS >_<”

Now why is that the best bit of the expedition ? You see from afar, the island looked like it had a beach with white smooth sand and …… Aaron and I decided to leave out slippers behind. But that was a wrong move, i mean a WRONG MOVE. When we got there, the blardy beach was covered with blardy dead corals and it was blardy pain walking barefooted on that island. I was literally screaming like a small boy in me cause it really hurt badly. So much so that my feet did bleed at one point -_-”

After hiking for a short distance, we finally reached the place where it resembled erected nipples and boy oh boy were we surrounded by so many of them, lol. Notice how macho the front two fellas are ? That was the few seconds that i smiled before moaning in pain again. And if the pebbles weren’t bad enough, the ants just made matters worst.

We carried on climbing to the top …. yes barefooted some more. Real stim ler. The view from the top was really breath-taking. We sat down for a while to enjoy the cool breeze blowing from all directions. Then we slowly hiked back down.

About two hundred meters from Nipple Island was a patch of white sand shaped like a crescent and we decided to canoe there and run around on that patch of sand.

… and that turned out to be a bad idea for me and aaron @_@

It wasn’t just white sand but it’s AGAIN covered with dead corals @_@

Check out the two fellas on the far left ler, macho-ness on its highest level. Hahaha.

We didn’t spend much time on this crescent looking patch of sand cause first it was covered with dead corals and second it was getting dark. So after snapping a few pictures, we canoed back Canoe-ing back was another issue.

Upon reaching the beach, Aaron and i canoed into a super low area and scrapped corals along the way. It came to a point where our canoe actually got stuck and had to force our way out with our oars -_-” And that was another experience that i will never forget.

After dinner, we walked to Lagune beach. This was probably the maddest part of the day for me. I was literaly a walking zombie and was dying to go back to the resort. When i finally got back to my room, i dozed off within seconds upon lying on the bed

Exactly a week ago, i was sitting in that very chair staring into the sea which surrounds Redang Island and i tell you, it’s one of the few islands that you won’t regret visiting. Pangkor didn’t make that big an impact to me but Redang definitely did. Oh btw, thanks for this picture William

The journey to Kuala Terengganu itself was an experience to me

There were 2 groups that went to Redang and from the KL side, there’s William, Daniel, Aaron, David, Lisa and of course me. Penang side consisted of Dolphin, Lee May, Lasker, Elise, Hugo and Wendy.

William and i met with Aaron at KL Sentral before heading to PWTC via KTM Komuter. Then we had our dinner before the remaining three arrived. The bus stop was walking distance from PWTC. The bus departed at 10.30pm and i was told it will take easily 7-8hours to reach Kuala Terengganu.

Half way thru the journey we had a stop for half an hour before moving on. Pictures are all taken with my handy Nokia 5610 music express I was just too lazy to whip out my DSLR, after all it’s only a short stop.

I never got much sleep throughout the journey and i ended up entertaining myself with a couple of movies and games from my ipod. Then out of the blue, William woke up and saw me playing this particular game called the Tap Tap Revenge …

… and he decided to give it a go. The game is similar to O2Jam, whereby you tap on the colour beats as they scroll down according to your music from the itunes library. After a few rounds, William dozed off and i was back again with my movie watching session and this time it was Jumper.

The view outside of the bus was barely limited to a couple of hundreds of meters as it was foggy. This was described in detail by Dolphin when she sms-ed saying the surroundings looked mysterious … like in the forest of Lord of the Rings. ROFL. OK the last part i made it up but it was definitely mysterious looking.

The best bit of the long winding journey was when the bus drove thru a town called Kemaman which i believed to be the place where Petronas refines or probably stock up petroleum and gas after retrieving it from the shores of Terengganu. The whole place was filled with fire blowing chimneys and i tell you, the sight of it was simply breath-taking. By the time i finally decided to take out my DSLR, the bus was already far from that place and i really regretted for not snapping at least one shot.

When we finally reached the bus station at Kuala Terengganu, we all had more than an hour to spare before the shuttle van ferries us to the jetty point. So after meeting up with the rest from Penang, we headed to a nearby 7-11 to get some light breakfast. While standing outside of 7-11 eating our maggi in cup, we all talked and got to know each other, especially to those who were meeting for the very first time. It was more like a short ice breaking session which turned out well, lol.

At about 7.30am, two vans appeared in front of the bus station and we were off to the jetty. The journey took about thirty minutes and that’s the only time where i actually dozed off -_-” Then upon reaching the jetty point, we all got into a boat and about 9am we were already on our way to Redang. The boat wasn’t particularly fast, probably because of the heavy load it had.

Everyone was excited. We just kept looking out of the window though there was nothing to see except sky and sea, even i couldn’t help but to look out. Then there’s some who were already telling what they intend to do once they got on the island, some decided to stay silence and enjoy the breeze which was blowing thru the side openings of the boat. You can just feel that everyone in that boat was excited and they can’t wait to let loose once they get onto that island

Daniel said recently that he hardly sees any shots with him in it. So here you go

The boat ride took about half an hour as well and we got off to a resort called the Redang Kalong, in short RK This resort is probably one of the best resorts for divers and also to those who would want old style kinda accomodation. More on that in future upcoming entries.

Until then, i shall recuperate as i am down with terrible headache, fever and flu. How convenient is that …? -_-”