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!

Ile de Maurice: Finale

Have you ever felt so frustrated when you Googled for travel posts, hoping to get more info from bloggers but instead come across blogposts that had little information on the place you're visiting?

Well here's another one. Hahaha.

Well I've finally gathered enough energy to write another post on my trip to Mauritius. Ok fine, it's gonna be another photo-filled post. Hehe. To wrap up, my sister and I had lunch at Le Chamarel Restaurant. Situated on a hill, this simple restaurant has an amazing view. See for yourself!

Photobombed by some random mat salleh

This was at the lookout point on the way to the restaurant

At the entrance of the restaurant

  

MashaAllah an amazing view

No, I didn't take this off from the website

Simply breathtaking

If I recall correctly, Charamel has a museum/store that sells the 7-colored earth. (I just got mine from one of the markets. Haha). Even if you don't feel like eating, do pay a visit to this place and enjoy the view.

La Route Du Sel (couldn't find their website so this would have to do!)

It's nothing extraordinary really, just a salt pan across the road from my sister's house. How convenient right? Nevertheless I've never been to a salt pan before, so if you've never been to one either, here's what a salt pan looks like.

This is how a salt pan looks like, senget

Wearing a shirt from Out of Africa and a necklace from one of the stalls,

both in Mauritius

Isn't the blue sky amazing? Yes, I purchased a few packets of salt of course.

And an apron.

I'm pretty sure I had more photos of the seasalt and salt pan without me in it.......... Oh, here they are!

Well that actually pretty much sums up my short trip to Mauritius. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos as much as I have posting them. It would be lovely to be able to visit Mauritius again sometime.

To end on a nonsensical note, here's a photo of me at my sister's fav fishmonger shop with a super big yellowfin tuna!

Mauritius : Part Deux

I really admire how some fashion/any other bloggers can have the energy to blog almost everyday. Especially those who have day jobs. Then again, not everyone is as lazy as I am. Heheh.

So here I am after another month of hiatus, to continue my story on my Mauritius trip. Which was about 7 months ago. Haha. I'm just relating all my stories based on the photos I took (as I obviously have forgotten details), but as they say a picture paints a thousand words...... (or in this case a photo tells....?)

L'aventure du Sucre

Welcome to the Sugarcane Factory

Finally got to wear my Sacoor Brothers skirt.

Enter

At a sugar factory, naturally you'd walk through a path lined with sugarcane!

This is some machine/equipment thingamajig they used to use back in the days...

Four of the many different types of sugar

Posing maut with the sugarcanes

My delicious lunch at La Fangourin

Shoppinnnngg~~~!

 Moi et ma soeur after shopping. Heheh.

Technically I didn't really visit the sugar factory. We just went there for a yummy lunch at La Fangourin and shopping! Purchased several types of sugar as souvenirs and for myself, and also an apron that I have not touched till now. Teeheehee. It was too nice to be used lah!

Next up, we went for a little historical tour.

Chateau Labourdonnais

So this is what a chateau looks like! An absolutely beautiful mansion, which I believe has been restored. Apparently they kept the furniture that was part of the original building. Each piece was luxurious, of intricate designs, carefully preserved. They unfortunately do not allow photos to be taken inside the house. So I only have photos of me camwhoring outside. Enjoy!

A big mansion with a big lawn

Another posing maut

Le Chateau. Gorgeous ain't it?

I don't mind having a house like this in the future.

Where I can keep all my kids and grandkids under one roof. Teeheehee

"Oh... It's such a beautiful weather isn't it darling~!"

A nice fountain to complement the chateau

Just a spot for me to camwhore

Staring longingly at the clear blue sky... Longing for I don't know what. Hahah

"Come join me for a cup of tea darling!"

A massive corridor

Frankly, I can't really recall what's the background on Chateau Labourdonnais. That's why I provided you the link, so you could do your own reading. Meheheheh. I hope my photos are enough to convince you to visit the place though. :D

Well that's all for now. Time to go to bed. Another loooong day at work tomorrow!