Diver-sity @ Perhentian Island

For the Labor Day long weekend i went on  a dive trip to Perhentian Island with muazah, ikin and ain.

April 30th,2015
Ain, muazah and i drove from shah alam on 30/4 around 9pm.

May 1st,2015
Picked up ikin in kuantan around 1.45 am and met up cik wan, his wife and 3 kids at kuala terengganu around 6 am. At the kuala besut jetty, we met up another 3 guys. The 12 of us took a boat to perhentian island.
There's a lot of ppl since it was a long weekend which was very unfortunate for us as we planned to walk in at backpackers hostels in long beach which were all fully booked. We went straight to the dive shop while looking for any vacancy at nearby area. The dive shop resort finally allowed us to rent at their employees room at rm100/nite. As only one room available, we decided that the ladies will stay in the room while the guys will camp by the beach.
We started our first dive at d'lagoon in the evening. It's more like a check out dive.
At night, went for a dinner at nearby restaurant called Mama's Place. The food was nice, and the employees were polite.

May 2nd, 2015
We did 3 dives at tokong laut, terumbu tiga and police wreck. It was my first wreck dive and it was amazing.
Went for a dinner at long beach and met up with my collegue balqis and her friends. Hv dinner at a place called Meeting Point. The food was boleh laa...but the service was super lousy. Ain didnt get her food at all and we did wait for 2 hours. I went to the kitchen to pick up my air suam after requesting/reminding the waiter/ess for several time. With the price they charge us...it just not worth the money.

May 3rd, 2015
On the last day we managed to do 2 dives at batu layar and sugar wreck. My 2nd wreck dive at sugar wreck was really awesome.
Took 4pm boat off the island. On the way back to kuala terengganu stopped by the restaurant by the beach for seafood. It was really great and worth it.
What a surprise that while eating, saw kak su who also stopped by to eat.
Around 8pm we arrived at KT bus station. Took 9.30pm Sani bus express to Shah Alam.

2013 - 12 : Koh Lipe Trip - Day 3 & 4

Day 3 - Koh Lipe (Snorkeling Trip)

Woke up early in the morning and walked to the Pattaya Beach for the snorkeling trip. At 9.00 am we took a speed boat from Koh Lipe to the snorkeling spots which was about 45 min journey. We went to three snorkeling spots where we were being served with a very beautiful underwater  view. The water was quite clear so we can see all the colorful fish and other sea creatures clearly. I miss diving. I really hope that i will have an opportunity to complete my diving course so that i can take a closer look at them. Hopefully soon.
Then, we stopped at Koh Turato beach where we took picture and a quick swim around.
We had our lunch of seafood fried rice with watermelon around 12pm by the secluded beach area. It felt like having a private beach. The water around the beach area was very shallow (around knee depth) and clear. Not very suitable to swim but i just enjoyed the water.
Then we went for another snorkeling. I felt like i can spend time forever staring at the all beautiful, colorful fish. After that, we stopped at another beach where there's a lot of monkeys at the beach area. The tourists were sort of feeding and admiring them. Spent about half an hour swimming and just enjoying the sea water. We got back around 4.00pm.
At night, we had dinner at BungRoon again. Mas,Su,Ain and B went for a massage afterward while Muazah and i took a walk around the beach area and along the Walking Street. Stopped by few shops and had a window shopping for souvenirs and other stuffs.

Day 4 - Koh Lipe - Hatyai
We took 9 am speed boat ride to Pak Bara Pier and taxi van to Hatyai town area. Arriving around 12 pm at Hatyai, there's still a lot of time for last minutes shopping. We leave our baggage at the travel agency office and did the last minutes shopping, spending the left-over THB.
Got on the Senandung Langkawi KTM train at 4.00 pm. It was my first time taking train on a long distance journey on KTMB sleeper berth. I took the upper berth which was quiet convenient as it gave me some privacy to spend time with my travel companion Eat,Pray,Love. I always bring Eat,Pray,Love during travelling as it inspired travelling.
Around 11.00pm, most of people has already slept but i just cant slept so i took a walk with Eat,Pray,Love to the cafe at the end coach. Bought a can of milo and sat at empty table with my Eat,Pray,Love. A cafe staff came to me asking whether i wanted to order something to eat but i said no and a few minutes later he came again for a small talk and offered to buy me something to eat and i just resisted politely. I wasnt interested to socialize. I just wanted to sit, drank my milo and read my novel.After almost 1 hour, i started to fall asleep and went back to my berth and had a nice sleep and sweet dream on a moving train heading to Kuala Lumpur.

2013 - 11 : Koh Lipe Trip - Day 2

Day 2 : Hatyai-Pak Bara,Satun-Koh Lipe

Woke up early in the morning, packed the bag and checked-out from The Color Hotel. A taxi van picked us up  from the hotel heading to Pak Bara Pier at about 9.00 am. Then the driver made a few stops picking up other customers. We bought the return ticket of 550 THB/person with the same travel agent.
The journey from Hatyai town to Pak Bara Pier was about one and half hour.  Arriving at almost 11.00 am. hang around outside Pak Bara Pier area. Our bags were tagged with yellow ribbon and a guy came to picked up all our bags to the boat.
We walked to the boat and were charged 20THB at the pier entrance area for..i wasnt really sure for what..it could be the jetty management thingy or...i just paid...i'm pretty sure the money will go for a good cause preserving the area.
We took the speed boat to Koh Lipe. The journey was actually about one and half hour but it was longer since they did stop at two islands where we can get off the boat and hang around for a few minutes. I stayed inside as i was surprisingly too sleepy to get off the boat.
Finally we arrived at Koh Lipe but the boat stopped about 300 meter from the Koh Lipe shore where there was a floating platform that transferring people from the speed boat to a smaller boat. And again we were charge 20THB for Koh Lipe management fee and 50THB for the smaller boat to Koh Lipe shore. The smaller boat could fit 6-8 people comfortable but apparently they just put as many people as possible. We ended up with about 12 people and some of us sit at the edge of the boat. Thanks God, we arrived safely.
Koh Lipe is a small island where all the main restaurants, shops, travel agency, massage spa, bar, etc available along the Walking Street. Walking along Walking Street is like walking along pasar malam, but instead of rows of stall, it was rows of shops. There's a motorcycle 'taxi' available if we dont want to walk.
We checked in at the Harmony Resort, which is about 50m from the Walking Street, got settled down and went out for lunch. The halal food restaurant are widely available in the island along the Walking Street.Just looked out for the 'moon and star' sign or halal sign. Generally, the food was okey. The price was about the same range. Expected you meal above 140THB per meal depending on what you have.
After lunch, we took a walk to the Sunset Beach. The Sunset Beach was quite far from our resort and deserted from all the happening stuff along Walking Street and Pattaya Beach.
At night, we went to survey for snorkeling package. In general, most of the snorkeling packages are about the same rate (550THB -650THB per person). Since there's six of us, we managed to get a better rate with a private boat. We got 573THB/person for 650THB/person package. The package included snorkeling trip to 4-5 main snorkeling spots, snorkeling equipment (snorkel, mask,fin), boat and lunch.
Went dinner at BungRoon restaurant. The restaurant was located along Pattaya Beach. The staffs were very friendly and some of them can speak Malay. The food was good. We just hang out listening to the life-band till almost 10.30pm when most of the shops were about to close.

2013 - 10 : Koh Lipe Trip - Day 1

Day 1  -  Hadyai

My sister dropped me off at KTM Port Klang station at 8.30 am on her way to work. It was my first komuter train ride since "coach for ladies" was introduced back in 2010. Pretty convenient and i just love it.  

COACH for ladies *wink*

Arrived at KL Central at about 9.45am and took KLIA transit to LCCT which cost RM12.50 (including shuttle bus from Salak Tinggi station to LCCT). Met Muazah, B, Mas, Ain and Su at LCCT around 11.00am and boarded plane at 12.10pm.

Flying with Air Asia

Arriving Hadyai airport at 12.30pm local time (GMT +7). Took 11-seater taxi van from Hadyai Airport to The Color Hotel in Hadyai town area which we were charged 100THB/person. 

Sawadikap

The Color Hotel, Hatyai

Generally, Muslim/Halal food are widely available  in Hadyai town. We  had our lunch at the first Muslim restaurant that we saw while wondering for food at Hadyai town area.  The service was slow, the food was so-so but the price was slightly higher for that kind of restaurant (if it was in Malaysia, it might get C-rated restaurant or lower). I was too hungry to bother. 

Then we walked around surveying for the travel package to Koh Lipe. There's a lot of travel agency offered service to Koh Lipe but the rate offered were varies.  The one that we got was 550 THB for the taxi van ride from Hadyai to Pak Bara Pier and boat ride from Pak Bara Pier to Koh Lipe. It was a pretty good deal.

Wondering around an overcrowded Pekan Rabu-style market where all the Thailand's typical food & clothes were sold. Then we took tuk-tuk, local public transportation around town (sort of taxi in Malaysia), to another nearby market which fortunately has better selection and varieties of food. Actually, riding in tuk-tuk was quite fun although the safety features was almost  unavailable.

Tuk-tuk

Then, we hang-out at Lee Garden Plaza. It's a medium size shopping complex attached to a hotel (Lee Garden Plaza Hotel) . At the entrance, they had airport like security check...yeah, the one with metal detector and bag check. Muazah told me that it might have been due to the bombing accident last year at Lee Garden Plaza. I heard about the crisis at the southern Thailand a few years back but looking around everything looked pretty normal. Who knows, the tension is still there. 

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by a Halal stall in front of Lee Garden Plaza to buy mango sticky rice. I wasnt the fan of eating fruit with sticky rice but it was surprisingly good. My new favourite food =P.

My newly found favorite food - Mango Sticky Rice..yumm

At night, i had my blonde moment when i was trying to directly charge my phone using the newly bought charger at LCCT without power adapter. The charger blew and my room blacked-out. Sat quietly in the dark remorsing over my stupid mistake for over half an hour till the power back on.

The phone charger blew at the power outlet.

Lesson Learnt

• Taking public transportation to LCCT is pretty convenient 
• Muslim/Halal food is widely available in Hadyai area.
• In general, food in Hadyai is about the same price as in Malaysia. It's not cheaper. 
• People in Hadyai are not very friendly to typical Malaysian tourists. 
• Malay language (Kelantanese accent or Northern accent) is widely spoken in Hadyai area by local.
• Mango sticky rice is actually good.
• Bring your power adapter while travelling.

  

2012 - 27 : A day Trip to KB, Kelantan

Irwan's wedding : 25/8/2012

My college friend, Irwan got married last August. Atim,Ikin, Sureen and me went to the wedding which was in KB,Kelantan. We took AA morning flight. Atim arrived a little bit late and we almost missed flight. we gave our "kesian" look at the boarding gate guy and he let us in...yeahhh...

We arrived around 8 am.

Arriving KB, Kelantan

Apis picked us up with his dad's car. He brought us breakfast nasik campur at a restaurant named Hover. Then, he brought us at random location where we took picture like typical tourist.

Random Parking Lot Area

In front of Istana Jahar

Just like the cannon at Stevens =)

Pantai Cahaya Bulan

I loved reading signboard when travelling. Among things that startled me were a sign Kg Demit, (but i pronounced as Kg "Damn It") and MaxOil advertisement in Kelantanese.

Can you read this?

Then we dropped by at the famous Pasar Siti Khadijah and did a random window shopping. Ended up buy some tudung...haha..typical...

It almost noon, Apis dropped us at a hostel nearby to get some rest, and ended up gossiping while dressing up to the kenduri...hehe...

Apis picked up with his car around 2.00pm. He said it was smaller than his dad's so it would be easier to get parking at kenduri but we think it was about the same size as his father's car. We stuck in a traffic jam and he's AC didnt work . Apparently the AC didnt work during idle. It was very HOT..our make-up were melting....arhhhhh....
Finally we arrived at the wedding. Having our lunch and taking pictures....

The groom and bride

Bride, groom and us =)

Then, we went to Apis' house for Raya visit. We were served with kuih kelantan (cant remember the name). After that, we went to KB Mall for another window shopping in our baju kurung and it's not weird at all. It's a mall but the parking is free...weeeee....

After that, we dropped by at Kg Serunding and bought some serunding home.

Serunding Serunding

We went back to hostel and packed our stuff. After solat Maghrib, checked out. Apis brought us dinner at Yati Ikan bakar. It was good...ruin my diet...*guilty pleasure*

At Yati Ikan Bakar

My diet was ruined by Nasi Kerabu and Ayam Percik

After dinner, we went straight to the airport. We stopped by at the airport souvenir shop and i accidentally met my colleague Izzy. What a nice surprise!!

With Izzy and Nuqman

...caught the flight home....What a short and lovely trip =)

2012 - 26 : A day Roadtrip to Kuantan

Faizi's wedding : 8/9/2012

It was another roadtrip to my college friend's wedding, Faizi with my travel partners in crime atim and sureen. su and latifah were also joining the roadtrip this time around. We convoyed in 2 separated cars as Su and Latifah had to leave early. We departed from Subang around 9.30 am and picked up Atim  at Lembah Keramat.

Arrived at ikin's around 12.00 pm. Resting and chatting a little bit and dress-up to the wedding...

the ladies were ready for kenduri

At kenduri, we met with joe, apis, arif, bo, irwan and his wife. Joe left early due to some family business. Like usual, after food, we took pictures with the bride and groom...

With the bride and groom =)

While the ladies were getting ready for the picture with the bride and groom, somebody was saying something funny ( i cant remember what) and everybody was laughing spontaneously. The moment was captured. How sweet...love this picture very much...

Frozen happy moment..*love it*

Su and Latifah  were leaving after kenduri =(.......the others were planning to have dinner together. While waiting for dinner time, we were hanging out at Ikin's house. In the evening. timb and her fiance joined us. 

Then we had dinner at Crocodile Rocks (a sort of western restaurant).

Group picture at Crocodile Rocks

We stopped by at ikin's for solat before heading back home.

What a nice short roadtrip =P

2012 - 07 : Journey to the South

Thanks god, finally i got the courage to write this entry on my trip to the South last February 2012. Yeah...it has been one and half month.....

4/2/2012

Woke-up early in the morning and update my facebook status "Weekend getaways...roadtrip...weeee". All of us were looking forward for this trip and has been planning this trip since the Dec 2011 when Ellie was announcing her wedding.
Met up with Ikin, Atim and Kak Ila and had breakfast at Ikin's house and drove to JB around 9.30am in Atim's car. It was supposed to be a 3 cars convoy but apperantly some of us departed a little bit late. However, all of us were consistantly connected and updated via WhatsApp.
By 1.30pm, we arrived at Citrus Hotel JB (Ikin's review on Citrus Hotel JB). After everyone arrived, we went to have lunch at City Square which was right across the road from the hotel.
The rest of the everning we just hangout and getting ready for the wedding.

Our little reunion @ City Square,JB

We went to Ellie's wedding at night. She looked gorgeous in her songket wedding attire. At the end of the event, they had a session call "tabur-taburan". Basically the during "tabur-taburan", the coins will be throw out to the guests (it was a weird description) I was not very familar with it, but somehow it was fun. Afterwards, we hang-out at one of nearby cafe called Singgah Selalu where Chiem came to join us all over from Singapore.

5/2/2012

We took a bus directly to Universal Studio Singapore (USS) aound 10.00 am. It was my first time to Singapore and after almost 1 hour line-up for custom clearance, here we go...Singapore

At Woodland check-point

And about half an hour bus ride later.....here we are.....USS....

Universal Studio Singapore

6/2/2012

It's time to go home. Departure from JB around 11.30 am. On our way home we stop by Johor Premium Outlet.

The tower look just like Woodbury's

2012 - 04 : CNY Trip to Kuantan

It was a long Chinese New Year weekend. Kak Milah, Abg Eiman, little Qayra and me were having our mini trip to Kuantan.

22/1/2012

Departed from Shah Alam around 10 am and arrived Kak Not's house around 2.30 pm. Kak Not prepared nasi kerabu for lunch. In the evening Abg Man brought us to have tea-time at Keropok Lekor Oh Fatimah. and no..i didnt get any special discount!

Keropok Lekor Oh Fatimah

We were having satar and keropok lekor which was a very common tea-time dishes in east coast area. At night we went to Ana Ikan Bakar to have seafood dinner but apparently there were too many people. We were heading to Cherating and fortunately we were able to get seat in a restaurant and had our nice seafood dinner.

23/12/2012

Early in the morning, we were heading to Gambang Resort City, a new water theme park in Kuantan. The kids (esp Haziqah) were very excited. Unfortunately, there were too many people and the queue at the ticket counter was very long. Considering the situation, we decided that it was not suitable for the kids to be there since most of them we just recovered from cold. Exposing them to such crowd might drive them vulnerable to infection.
Then we moved to Cherating Beach and where we had a nice sea bathing till almost 3.00 pm.
At night we were just hangout at home. Everyone was very exhausted.

Nona & Qayra were having a rest after a long day

24/1/2012

The last day of our mini trip. Before heading home, we stopped by Pantai Batu Hitam to take a last glance of beach before heading to the hectic city.

Pantai Batu Hitam (Black Stone Beach)

Enjoying the view - Syafiqah

Enjoying the view - Haziqah

Moving closer

Cant keep her foot of of water

After lunch, we were driving home.

Underage Drivers Alert

Thank you Kak Not, Abg Man and the girls (Syafiqah, Haziqah & Nona) for your hospitality.

And Happy Chinese New Year!

2012 - 2 : Dubai Trip

My short notes during Dubai Trip (25/12/2010 - 1/1/2011) for future reference or comparison;

25/12/2010
Breakfast @ Ravi's
Taking pictures @ Burj Al-Arab
Dinner - Al-Tawasol Restaurant - Arabic food mandi rice
Jalan2 @ Mall of Dubai (watching fountain - similar to Bellagio Fountain, Las Vegas / Burj Khalifa)

26/12/2010
Visiting Oman - Watching dolphin and snockeling.

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Expenses Highlight:

• Imigresen : AED 35
• Visa (Oman) : AED 200
• Watching dolphin & Snockeling package : AED150

27/12/2010

Day : Shopping at Mall of Emirates
Lunch - Jonny Rockets =)
Night : Went to Global Village

Expenses Highlight

• Global Village Entry Fee : AED 10
  

28/12/2010
Visiting Abu Dhabi - World of Ferrari
Highlight : Formula Rossa -the fastest roller coaster in the world

Expenses Highlight

• Entry Fee World of Ferrari : AED 195
  

29/12/2010
Day : Shopping at Dubai Mall
Evening & Night : Shopping @ Old Dubai and had dinner @ heritage village

30/12/2010
Sightseeing Dubai - Jumeira Beach, The Palm (Atlantis) and Bastakiya

31/12/2010
Morning : More shopping at Burjaman Mall.
Evening : Desert Safari

Expenses Highlight

• Desert Safari : AED 175
  

1/1/2011
Shopping @ Mall of Emirates