Koh Lipe - The Bachelorette Photos

As promised here are the photos from my not-so-recent trip to Koh Lipe. Enjoy!

Ok fine, this was taken at Telaga Terminal at Langkawi

Sunset at... d'uh Sunset Beach

Longtail boats

The only two crazy makciks taking photos on Sunset Beach.
Excuse the black borders. Photo was taken using GoPro and I couldn't be bothered to edit it out. Heheh

Now the two makciks doing jump pose

Now streeetchhhh..... my so called yoga pose

Makcik kalah judi nak makan breakfast. Hahaha

Ini breakfast nya... Banana-Nutella Pancake aka Roti Pisang sapu dgn nutella. Yumss!

My 180 THB lunch. Pad Thai and Coconut

The gorgeous view of Sunrise Beach from a resort that I fail to remember... but it's not far from Adang!

The famous post-box
(remember I said I traveled light... this is how... bring one shirt and a packet of detergent!)

The Elephant Cafe/Bookstore

Our romantic sunset dinner... Hahaha

Goofing about while waiting for our food

For more photos check out my Instagram : rayacahaya (the IT illiterate me has not been able to fix an IG widget onto my blog...gah!)

Koh Lipe - The Bachelorette Trip

When I booked a trip to Koh Lipe, everyone was like..."ARE-YOU-MAD-YOU-SHOULD-BE-STAYING-AT-HOME-NOT-DOING-CRAZY-STUFF-BEFORE-YOUR-WEDDING!" Of course, knowing me, still went through with it. Hey I came back safe. Ok fine, a little tanned and bruised. Heheh.

I only went with Sufia, we called this my little bachelorette trip. We flew in to Langkawi (partly the reason I wanted to go Lipe was because I wanted to shop for chocolates for my wedding favors in Langkawi) and took a boat to Koh Lipe. This was probably my first time ever travelling light. Seriously light, else how could I come back with 20 kilos worth of chocs??

Koh Lipe is a beautiful island, like many other islands in Thailand (ok fine, the only other island I've been to is Phi Phi) with white sandy beaches and crystal clear sea. It was also pretty busy and filled with mat sallehs and dogs, although since we were there for our diving courses we didn't really bother to bask in the sun and all. Halal food is easily available, but we underestimated the prices of food on the island and ran out of cash quite quickly with all our shopping and all. Luckily, there's an ATM along Walking Street and some places accepted credit card (Tip: remember to activate your ATM card before going overseas! or really bring lots of cash), and there were money changers too. We stayed on Sunrise Beach, in Adang Sea Divers Lodge since we were on a budget plus we spent most of our times outdoor so there wasn't really a need for a fancy place.

On Rescue Diver Course
Rescue Diver was a more serious course unlike OW and AOW, but it was really fun. It definitely helped build up more confidence in diving (although not necessarily confidence in rescuing people!) and also increased my understanding on skills learnt earlier. My instructor was Clare and she was lovely as Keira had told me. The boat exercises, which was rescuing an unconscious diver from the surface and getting him/her onto the boat, were difficult - I thought Clare was telling me to swim to an imaginary boat which was just a few meters away from 'the scene', then I realised she actually meant the boat we came in with. IT WAS TIRING. Having to give two rescue breaths and swim with the extra weight - I was lucky my victim was Toni, a skinny guy. And when it came to getting into the boat to lift the Toni, I was in a hurry (coz you've only got 30 secs!) and banged my shin against the ladder. That's how I got my bruise.

Ok fine, I actually got the bruise from one of the earlier exercises when I fell over the boat trying to throw the buoy to a drowning victim (Toni flapping his hands pretending he can't swim). Whaaat... the buoy was heavy, I didn't let go of it in time and so I followed the buoy off the boat.... knocking my shin at the edge of the boat... *sob*sob* it was embarrassing, but for some reason I found it super hilarious and couldn't stop laughing (I still did bang my shin against the ladder when I was getting into the boat during the later rescue exercise).

On Shopping
The main shopping area here is along Walking Street, starts from Sunset Beach to somewhere before Sunrise Beach. From what I remember items sold here are mainly beachwear and souvenirs, i.e. pareos ranging from 150 THB for the cheap ones and 450 THB for the higher quality ones, boardshorts, bikinis, those bright neon colored tank tops and t-shirts, they also have a few dive shops which sell dive gears (duh!), pharmacies, 7E, one or two bakeries/quaint cafes, and several restaurants (halal/non-halal). Haggling is permitted (well at least for the ones that I went to) and credit cards are accepted in most shops however they do charge a service charge of 2-3%. As mentioned earlier, it's best to bring lotsa cash (in THB or your own currency) or have an ATM card in hand.

On Food
It could be me who's just naive but you would think that an island surrounded by marine life would be the place where you could get cheap seafood. Think again! Prawns and squids which I can get at the local market for half the price were sold at a few hundreds to 1000 baht. Fish were also by the 400s-500s per kilo, not a price I'm willing to pay. As we only ate at Halal restaurants, I can only tell the prices for these places. A plate of stir-fried vege (read kangkung belacan) would cost around 100-150 THB, a plate of Pad Thai 80-100 THB, a bowl of Green Curry Chicken also around 100-150 THB and a big bowl of Tom Yam around 200-300 THB, actually generally everything costs about that price. The bright side is they are generous with their portions so you can share one lauk dish between 2-3 pax. There were several other kedai makans available around the island but we were too lazy to explore 'em.
p/s: When I say restaurants, I don't mean fancy air-conditioned, uniformly-dressed waiters. They are prolly one grade up your typical warong.

On Adang Sea Lodge
If you're looking for a romantic getaway on the island, you should definitely book a room at Mali Resort, Bhundaya, Serendipity or Idyllic Concept or well...  something along the likes. Adang Sea Eco Lodge is a no-frills resort catered for visitors on a budget like us, who don't need fancy decorated, air-conditioned rooms. It is not right in front of the beach but a mere 50m walk maybe? Though not luxurious, it is clean and comfortable and definitely not dodgy looking.

I hope I have shared enough info to help you plan for your trip to Koh Lipe or tempt you into planning for one. Will share photos in my next post. Drop me an email if you need more info!

Redang and Tenggol

Today I finally dragged myself out of bed, switched on the laptop, not get distracted with other websites and copied some photos of my diving trips from my phone. So here's a short summary of (whatever I can remember) my trip to Redang and Tenggol last October.

Since I worked the whole month of September and didn't go back to KL, I managed to squeeze an additional day off from the bosses. So obviously I went diving, almost back to back. Sufia and I booked a trip to Pulau Redang early Oct and to Pulau Tenggol the week after. It's great to have a friend who, even though is super thrifty, has a lot of money and time and will easily say yes to any diving trips. We booked our trips with Seamonkey, as we had a good experience diving with them at Pulau Bidong. Thankfully I had some money set aside as Seamonkey ain't exactly the cheapest dive centers in the market.

We booked a room/chalet in Redang Mutiara Beach Resort and after reading the numerous negative reviews on TripAdvisor, I was really worried that we'd get a crappy room. Much to our surprise, they had renovated their rooms and while it isn't exactly 5 stars, it was decent and convenient. I mean how could you say no to a room that when you open the door, the beach is at your doorstep?

White sand at your doorstep

Fancy waking up to this view every morning?

Only remembered to take a photo of the room when we were about to leave, hence the messy bed

Small, but clean bathroom

Unfortunately the visibility wasn't too good so there weren't many photos taken underwater, plus whatever I had was in my laptop which was stolen. I did manage to upload some to my FB and the only photo that I thought was good enough to be shared is this:

Blue spotted stingray from a night dive in Redang

Here are some other photos of Redang Island for you to enjoy:

View from the jetty #1

View from the jetty #2

View from the jetty #3

View from the doorstep

View while having lunch

Sunrise from just outside my room

All in all we enjoyed our short trip here, my first time to Redang. This side of the island is slightly more private and quiet if you are looking for a simple place to sleep and shower and just bask in the sun all day. As usual in most of my dive trips we end up making new friends, this time it was Jose and two German guys.

Moving on to Tenggol....

I'm not sure if I've ever told the tale about my miserable day trip to Tenggol Island before. This was back in April 2013 when I first moved to Kemaman. As I worked 6 days a week and only had Fridays off, it was difficult for me to arrange for a 'short diving trip' even though it's easily accessible. So Sufia and I booked a day trip with one of the dive shops (or shack), and it was probably one of the worst trips we've ever been to. There was one DM to 10 pax, although probably 7 of them were so called 'experienced divers'. Thing is, we got ditched by the DM, vis was bad and I ended up having to take care of my buddy who at that time was still trying to get the hang of diving. We were also annoyed with that bunch who were boasting and bragging everytime they came up to the boat. Anyway, we kinda swore not to go with them again and luck was on our side that I met Macha from Seamonkey (from the earlier mentioned Pulau Bidong trip). He got us a package with Tenggol Coral Beach Resort and although it was a splurge, it was definitely worth it.

The resort was newly opened at that time, it was previously known as Tenggol Aqua Beach Resort which was closed for sometime and the new management took over they refurbished it a bit. We were lucky to be the only ones (with another couple also booked under Seamonkey) at the resort at that time. The weather was gorgeous and visibility was awesome.

A gorgeous view from the restaurant

MashaAllah beautiful weather

Just relaxing on the verandah of our little chalet

Ok a little messy, but still the sea and sky....amazing!

The double bed in the room

And there's another two single beds... 

As you can see the room is really big, even the bathroom is huge! The sea was super calm, well except for one of the sites that was super choppy at the surface - but the visibility was still marvelous. It was a bit surprising since October is usually the beginning of the monsoon season.

Can't beat the school of barracudas in Sipadan, but this was still a great sight

Not happy with the fin photobomb.... pfffttt!

Never been so up close with a batfish before! And there was a school of it that I could see from 10m away clearly!!

Alhamdulillah for the two trips, despite not being able to see the whale shark. I would love to be able to dive again in Tenggol sometime soon, that is if I have time and money. Do check out Redang and Tenggol, drop me an email if you need some contacts!

Cold Feet: 25 days and counting...!

No, not time to get married yet.. that's not like till another 77 days! (Doesn't mean I'm not just as nervous though)

But for now I have something else to be nervous at - my Rescue Diver course! So I decided to do something crazy just 2-months before my wedding, which is to do my Rescue Diver license. I'll be doing it in Koh Lipe with Keira, or well actually her friend Charlotte, but at Keira's diveshop, Adang Sea Divers. It sounds fun, thing is...

a) I'm a lazy diver. I really am. I like to be pampered - tanks carried for me, equipment and gears all fixed up for me, after dives I get tugged to the boat - no swimming required... during dives with strong current I just hook myself onto the divemaster and let him/her bring me around. Hehehe. I know, I know, such a bad habit. But I blame it on my 'trauma' I went through while doing my OW license.

b) I'm a lazy person. I don't workout, no running, no jogging, no whatever. Heck if I could park right in front of my bedroom/office doorstep I would. I do occasionally (read: once a month) practice yoga. But that usually lasts for 5 mins and I hardly ever wanna push myself to do further. So not exactly the fittest person or nowhere near fit. My stamina is similar to a snail's. In fact, the snail probably has better stamina, like it would last longer...just maybe it's kinda slow in movement.

It's funny with those attributes above I'm actually keen on getting my Rescue Diver's license. Maybe like Lisa (a Chinese diver I met during my Sipadan trip) said "We're Chinese. We like to get certificates." Hahaha. So here the date is getting closer, I keep telling myself to get out of bed and start working out but I'd always have some excuse... knee pain, period pain, tired after long working hours, it's raining, etc etc etc... so here's a (lunar) new year's resolution - to increase my stamina (at least for me to get through my Rescue Course)! 

Here are a list of activities that I would have to force myself to do, one way or another:

• yoga
• swim
• play badminton
• dance
• use that Nike app I downloaded a year ago

but here's what I'll  probably do

• yoga - coz I can do that in the comfort of my home. I just need to kinda make sure I do it more than 5 mins. Hahaha
• clean my apartment - I heard it's as good as working out
• sleep - I heard it burns calories

Do you have tips for me to survive my Rescue Diver course? Would you like to be my virtual workout buddy/personal trainer?

Mauritius : A Long Overdue Post!

Then again, a lot more other posts are overdue too. Teehee.

So where do I begin? My sis n hubs are (very soon were) living in MRU so I decided to pop by and visit them. Ok fine, so I was also dying to go diving too.

When I landed, I wished I was 80 yrs old so that I could skip the super-long queue at the immigration post. That aside, I managed to pass through immigration with my half-past six French! Felt so proud and thankful that the thousands of ringgit spent on French classes didn't go to waste.

Note : Be sure you print your return ticket as you need to show it to the immigration staff. Thank God they had wifi at the airport and I was able to show them my return ticket.

When I arrived it was already almost 9PM and shops were all closed. So I had dinner and went to bed. MRU is 4 hrs behind KL time so I was also pretty much in la-la land.

My 6D/5N trip kicked off with a trip to one of the 5 star resorts (Gosh, it's been 6 months since my trip I can hardly remember details!) for a 'Family Day' with my BIL's company. Nothing much besides eating, lazying around  and getting a massage. Here are some photos:

Looking like a bibik. Hahah

Gorgeous white sand

Simply breathtaking

A selfie. Bahahah.

If there's one thing you gotta love about Mauritius is the clear blue sky. So peaceful and serene! The next three days were spent diving. I have to admit that diving in Mauritius isn't all that spectacular. It was however a new experience as it was my first time diving with a steel tank.



Steel tanks are super heavy. I can hardly carry my own aluminium tank, let alone this steel tank. Of course being a girl, just smile and the next thing you know the tank is on the boat waiting for you. Hahah. As I didn't have any underwater camera at that time and I didn't feel like renting one, there are unfortunately no underwater photos. There are however more photos of the beautiful sky to make you jealous!

 

Moi and my dive guide Jean-Francois

Diving is Fun!

Me and the rest of the dive shop crew

Oops.. gotta go buy some kaftans, will continue my MRU trip soon!

The Final Episode : Phuket and Phi Phi

Day 4

 

We didn't do much in the morning except for breakfast, getting onto the ferry and back to the hotel. We took a tuktuk to Ibis Patong to find halal restaurants (which we saw from reviews were 'right in front of Ibis' or '5 mins away from Ibis'). Needless to say, we were walking and walking and walking till we finally found Masjid Nurul Islam and two restaurants just across the street. We chose the other that had less people, the workers were prolly from Patani or Kelantan since they could kecek Kelate.

 

Lunch! Tomyam, Kailan Ikan Masin, Spicy Glass Noodle Salad, Chicken with Cashewnuts

Masjid Nurul Islam

 

Once we had our tummies filled, we walked down to look for a cab to Jim Thompson outlet (which was of course the highlight of my day). We managed to find one, a decent Toyota Vios for 1000baht return trip.

 

The outlet is in Laguna Resort, in Chengthelay (or something like that) about 1/2 hr away from Patong.

 

 

Spent almost two hours and pretty much 20k baht (yes, 20k...OMG!) on cushion covers, thai silk fabric, thai silk shawls and scarves, a shirt for dad, a bag for mom and sis, and myself and some souvenirs.

 

I was of course tired.........

 

After all the shopping, I just had to have another massage which was at Sweet Lemongrass - as recommended from TripAdvisor! And it is as good as the reviews. Cheap and the pressure was strong enough. Of course the masseuse was nervous when I suddenly started to giggle uncontrollably as I was ticklish. She knew not to massage my thighs after that.

 

Look what we found at the massage parlour.

 

Check out the powder....Hahaha

 

We took a tuktuk to Patong (again!) and walked around as Sha wanted to look for Muay Thai stuff for her family. We came across a few stalls selling food, and one was a kakak selling Pad Thai and Fried Rice. We bought one each and ate at another stall that sold grilled seafood...

 

Yummy Seafood!

 

The stalls are across the road from the Bangla Muay Thai Stadium.

 



Muay Thai Stadium

 

Well that pretty much concludes our trip (I wouldn't wanna bore you with the petty details of us sleeping, repacking our bags, and the trip to the airport...). Hope you enjoyed reading, as much as I enjoyed sharing. For those who have been Phuket, how was it for you? and for those who haven't and are planning to go soon... hope it helps you plan your trip to Phuket and Phi Phi!