543. Ahh, Redang once again.

Back in the island paradise. This time to complete my advanced diving course. Good thing I had a very nice instructor. Got a lotta free dives courtesy of him & Kak Hasni & of course also must record my thanks to Aunt Sally for managing to get special discounts for my course. What was really exciting abt this trip (among other things) was going on my virgin night dive. I had the opportunity to catch a cuttlefish on video and film, saw my first lion fish & Moray Eel. I also encountered lotsa nudybranches. Managed to catch a few shots that I'm proud of. Also managed to catch a few shots of a passing lightning storm & 2 very friendly squirrels. The 7 days just flew by. This be a very memorable trip.

Da gang; The Lau family's confined water session

It's not all fun & games, it's lotsa hard work too; My instructor K.B.Lok

The deepest I've been so far - 32.1M; Mermaids do exist

The 4 of us underwater; My "graduation"

542. Movies

After being sick for the whole week (wonder if it's something I ate @ Koh Samui), Finally felt better this morning. Went out and got the watch I've been eyeing, also bought the underwater flashlight and cleared up some last minute work before I take off to Redang on tomorrow for a whole week.

My new watch & underwater torch

Watched Transformers & Die Hard 4.0 just before I left for Redang.

Transformers was really good (despite some corny lines) & Die Hard 4.0 was really entertaining. Like Transformers, many time I ask myself why don't they just get to the point and kill em', but the action (though unbelieveable) was good enough to keep me entertained. I'd watch Transformers a 2nd time, but not Die Hard 4.0. But i gotta say, dat Maggie Q.........yummy.

541. Koh Samui

I had too much work to catch up on, so the following entries will be in point form. To save me some time :P

- Left friday morn, had a very long nite before, as we celebrated Lecka Lecka's pre grand opening (since I can't be there on Sat for the actual grand opening). Got wasted. Also celebrated Kah Lai's b'day

- Went earlier to airport since Aze arriving just before I'm scheduled to leave.

- First time flying Fireflyz, loved the fact that they have assigned seating unlike Air Asia where one has to jostle for seats.

- Arrived at Koh Samui after a smooth flight.

- Food was good, massage was cheap and bought quite a few things. One of which was a pair of swimming "pants". My swimming trunk was rated as obscene after it's introduction @ Subha's poolside party. Raine offered to buy me the pants to cover up my trunks. For the sake of decency, I bought the pants. In fact, I bought 2 just in case. Also bought some "been there, done that" T-Shirt & a back pack.

- Trips with my bro always has its moments & this is no exception. We took a speedboat over to Koh Panghan as planned. Everything went smoothly. The trip back, however, was a little bit more interesting. We had to fight our way thru a mob to get to the speedboats. Wade waist deep in sea water @ 3:30am and realising we have no clue which boat to take. Our return ticket was not accepted by the operators. We finally gave in and just took one of the water taxi, but @ 500baht per person, it was a rip-off, damn monopoly. We weren't given life jackets & the boat's nav lights were off. Makes me wonder if they're operating legally. :P Anyway, just glad we got back to our hotels in 1 piece. The stay @ Koh Phangan itself was very very memorable.

- Overall, one heck of an adventure this trip turned out to be

- Saw a watch at the Airport's Duty Free shop which I liked.

- 1st July, back in the kandang...........

Come to think of it, this isn't really point form :P

The guys @ Samui; Selecting our food

Waiting for our ride to Koh Phangan

Enjoying Koh Phangan

Refugees; On da plane home

Back in Penang; My loot

540. Weekend Once Again!

Jeff flew into town again on Friday, so the whole gang went out for dinner @ the Taiwanese restaurant on Burmah Road. After that it's off to Haagen Daaz & then over to Lecka Lecka to celebrate their soft opening and also Ann's birthday!

Lecka Lecka Gelato Bar; Their pet

Chris & Darren; Presenting the cake to Ann

The guys (& girl); Jack & Ann "cutting" the cake

Watched Ocean's Thirteen on Sat @ GSC Gurney Plaza. It was quite a good show, not as good as the Ocean's Eleven & Twelve, but good nonetheless. Good enough to watch again even. After the show, when Yippie was dropping me off @ E-Gate to collect my car, we realised that the roads leading to E-Gate was closed for the Penang Bridge run. I had to walk from Recsam to E-Gate and then waited until abt 4am before I could leave.

Sunday was DVD shopping day @ One Stop. Got myself a bunch of DVDs; Hot Fuzz, Codename: The Cleaner , Stomp The Yard, The Last King of Scotland & Dreamgirls.

I have since watched Hot Fuzz (I thot it was really funny, u'll be surprised that Timothy Dalton is in this movie) & Codename: The Cleaner (Watch this show with low expectations and u'll be entertained).

Went and bought myself a new pen. Been looking for a pen after the one that Chuwy got for me broke. After looking around, decided that this Sheaffer was cheap & good. Also bought a plastic container for my camera stuff.

539. CANON IXUS 850IS - GALLERY 1

538. Pulau Redang Trip with the Lau Family

Had a blast there with the Lau Family. It was drama from the beginning as I left my camera behind. We had to turn around eventhough we were already on the mainland. Sigh, so damn paiseh. Driving there with only an hour sleep is a very very bad idea though :P Uncle Yat Por drove the first half and I struggled the rest of the journey.

Nothing much happened the first day, just lazing around and exploring the place.

On the ferry; Aunt Sally's bro (Don) with his kids (Auden, Nicholas & Sean)

Berjaya Redang Beach Resort

Nite time @ the resort

The 2nd day was island hopping and snorkelling day. It rained the nite before but was sunny in the afternoon. It's also the first time I get to try out my new camera & its underwater case. It worked well. Managed to get a few goofy shots. It's also my first time snorkelling around a wreck near the Marine Park. It was a cargo ship which ran aground during a storm back in the 70s.

On the way to snorkelling; Adriel

Curious fish; Me

Underwater Kung Fu; Sea Cucumber

The shipwreck off the Marine Park, a big ship it was

Finally, on the 3rd day, I get to go diving. Visibility was really good @ 20M. The best I've seen so far. Saw the usual clown fishes, rays, turtles, anemonies, sea sponges, but then there's the rare pipe fish, blue spotted ribbon tail ray, black tip shark & also the spiny devilfish. The 3rd & final dive there was bad. Visibility wasn't as good as the morning dives & the current was strong. Made a few new friends from the diving trip. Timo, Ivar, Vanessa, Charmaine & Kumiko.

Me; The elusive Pipe fish

Turtle; Guineafowl Puffer

Clown fishes; Blue Spotted Ribbon Tail Ray

Black Tip Shark; Spiny Devilfish

Day 4, it's time to leave, managed to squeeze in one last snorkelling session before we pack up & leave. On the way back, stopped by some fruit stalls near the Thai border. Bought mangoes, langsat & a wierd looking fruit called the salak. It tastes & smells funny too :P

At the jetty; Sigh, leaving paradise

The spiny Salak fruit; Freaky wheather on the way back

Alas, it's back to my kandang. Speaking of which, good thing we didn't hit any cows, dears & elephants. I kid u not, there were road signs that says, cow crossing ahead, dear crossing ahead & YES! Even elephant crossing ahead.