The resort we stayed at was called Lang Sari, and they served good food .... now, I'm quite particular when it comes to food, but I'd just have to say that the nasi lemak we had for breakfast was one of the best I've ever had, apart from my mother's ...... It waas damn hot, but I loved it ...... The sambal was exactly how sambal nasi lemak is supposed to be - hot (as in pedas) which burns your tongue, but not sweet .... I even went for second helping ..... If there is one thing which tells me I'm a Malaysian, is that I can be a masochist when it comes to food ..... some food has just got to be hot and spicy, no less than that .......
The Redang Marine Park was one of the spots we went snorkelling ..... I'm not loaded enough to get one of those expensive casings for either my camera or digicamcorder that would allow the user to take images underwater ..... 'coz it was a sight to behold, looking at all those all colourful fishes .... I could almost hear the opening soundtrack of The Little Mermaid playing in the background..... I was exhilarated when they were just within reach, but of course the fishes were too quick for my slow, clumsy hand ..... I just wanted to touch them, not strangle them to death, mind you ..... but being clumsy, that might just be the case ..... Then most probably I get banned from ever entering any marine parks for mass murder ...... Anywayz, there was this huge Moray eel that our guide, Abg Mat, coaxed out of its hiding under the coral ....... There was one time when I panicked when it looked as if it was coming my way ...... no doubt I swallowed sea water because of that ........
One of the four baby turtles they keep in this large container until they are big enough to be let go into their ocean dwelling ..... About a month old, they could only be let go once they reach three months ...... Well, there you go, a bit of a lesson in nature conservation ...... To think that these buggers could reach up to a hundred years old, or even more .......
Ah, the elusive Lopez De Squirral ...... actually, that's what my friend called the little critters who could be seen coming down the trees around the resort, scavenging for food ...... I did have a good chance of taking a full photo of one of these cute buggers, but guess where I left my bloody frickin' camera? In my bloody frickin' room ..... When you go on a trip like this, or any trip for that mattter, naturally you would take your camera along everywhere you go, right? ..... But, no, not me ...... and I imagine myself to be an aspiring filmmaker .... Filmmaker, my foot! .... More like filmf**kmaker ....... Well, actually I imagine myself more of a screenwriter ...... or the person holding the boom ......
The boat that carried us around on our snorkelling trips ..... My friend even had the chance to navigate it on a couple of those trips ...... It's slow, and if you sit yourself on the aft deck, you could hardly hear yourself above the roaring din of the engine ...... and some more pictures of the surrounding areas of our resort ...... A lot of dead coral were washed up on the beach ...... Going barefoot on them was painful, not just on the sole of our feet..... I thought my friend was being a little over dramatic when she said "We are walking among the dead," when we were, ahem, stepping on the washed-up, dried coral which clinked like glass when one stepped on them ....... I had to ask, "Why so much dead coral?" ..... My friend said in a word, "Pollution" .......
This is Bang Mat (picture below) captain of the fishing boat we take our snorkelling trips on, snorkeller/diver extraordinaire, canoe expert, jack-of-all-trades resort guide ....... I wanted to take some footage of the island, and thought I could do that on the boat while the rest go snorkelling, but to cut a long story short, that chance was lost on me .... so Bang Mat suggested a canoe ride ......
It was about six, the sun was about to set, I thought, "Great! I could also take some footage of the setting sun ....... Well, there we were, on the canoe, me at the front, with my brand new digicamcorder ...... Almost halfway around the island, the waters started to get choppy ....... And there I was, worried sick that my camera, the camera which I saved up my measly wage trying to get, was going to get thrown off from my clumsy hand as wave after wave hit the underside of the canoe .....
But for some unknown reason, I wasn't terribly worried that we would capsize ..... With Bang Mat at the helm, I had this unshakeable faith, strange that it was so, that we would reach ashore, safe and in one piece ..... The waves were not that high, but if it had been just my friend and I, we would certainly have capsized, and despite the fact we had our life-jackets on, there was this possibility that we could have panicked had we got ourselves in the water, and there was nobody at all on that side of the island ....
Anywayz, when we were about to reach the side of the island where one could see fully the setting sun, the waters were still choppy ..... I did not want to miss this opportunity at all, so without care, I held one side of the canoe tightly, whipped out my camera, and started taping ...... It's all on that miniDV, waiting to be edited and posted on YouTube ....... Did I say the operative word here is "waiting"?
This is Jonne and Siri, from the Netherlands ...... I bet they just got out of school and this is one of those trips most young Westerners like to take before they go off to university, or work, or whatever ...... Siri shared with us her fear of large tropical insects, and to think they're going off to Taman Negara after this .... shucks, I hate those buggers as well .... Well, my friend and I got along well enough with them ..... and there was this time we went to another resort on another side of the island, so here are the photos of us heading there and the deck chairs at the front of the resort ......
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