Lost

When you are not in your fittest condition,
even a tiny bit of critics can make you depress.

What should I do?
I'm lost.

Felt love in Perhentian Kecil

After completing my open water diving course in Sept last year (2011),

me and my friend decided to breath 20m underwater again.

Since we had our course in Pulau Tioman, this time we headed to Pulau Perhentian Kecil.

Upon arrival, you'll be greeted by many boat transfer companies.

They will try their best to arrange car park for you if you're driving.

The boat transfer fees is quite fixed.

RM70 for a return ticket.

But if you had booked some snorkeling package/ diving package,

the transfer fees may be a bit cheaper at the rate of RM60.

Before going to Perhentian Kecil, we had done a little research on which dive center to go.

So far, Turtle Bay Diver (TBD) has the most good reviews from tripadvisor.

Some of the plus points are:

- credit card at no additional charges

- powered lens available with no additional charges

- RM70 for each dive, RM80 for Pinnacles & sugar wreck, discount of RM10 from the 5th dive on wards. 

We did not have booking for accommodation because we did not want to sign up any snorkeling/diving package prior to arrival.

TBD was very nice. 

They allowed us to put our luggage there so that we can go to look for our accommodation. 

Please do not be surprise about it. It is their way of doing things there.

Most of the hotels there do not take room booking unless you sign up packages from them.

There are a few nice hotels around but it would all depends on your budget and what you are looking for.

Fan room? Air-cond room? Hot water shower? 24hour electricity supply? willing to hike a bit?

These are the things that you need to consider before making your payment.

After walking under the scotching hot sun for almost an hour,

we decided to grab the rooms from the Shari-La resort, Coral Bay.

It is a 15mins jungle hiking from the Long Beach (where TBD was located)

but they got the best deal.

RM240/room for triple, 24hour electricity with breakfast provided.

We started our fun dives on the second day, 

time was scheduled at 9am but we did not know we need to be there by 830am.

So yeah, we were late!

But TBD again, they stressed that we are to enjoy and relax here, 

so they immediately rescheduled us to the next session which is on 11am with an on-call dive master, 

Emel from Denmark. 

my gear =D

Joe & Emel walking back to TBD

Emel & us after our last dive

Cheerful Fizzy & us

Gus & Wei

*Gus is Wei's open water course instructor*

Some random pictures took when we were waiting for our next dive

We did 4 dives altogether. 

Batu Layar:

suitable for beginners like us, very easy dive site,

enable you to get comfortable again with your gears and buoyancy.

Saw the first black tip reef shark there,

it was very very close to me as i was at the most right.

It swam around us for 2 rounds and left. It was very very nice!!

Shark Point:

Yes, it's called the Shark Point, expected to have a lot of sharks around but lady luck wasn't on our side.

The visibility was kinda bad, no shark found.

*Frown*

Pinnacles:

Oh, this is a very beautiful dive site. I strongly recommend this! 

and yes, even if you are still a beginner like me. 

You will be amazed by the schools of fishes.

Barracuda, Angel fish, Banners, Bumpheads, Bamboo Shark, sea snake, morays, eels, groupers, and etc.

T3:

If you like to swim through rocks and tunnels, this is one of the dive site that you will enjoy.

T3 is very rocky.

The visibility was very bad, strong currents, 

and it was cold down there unlike other dive sites which were warmer.

But they have the most beautiful nudybranches, and we finally got to see the turtles!

Gosh, turtles are beautiful.

This trip was really a rejuvenating one.

Breathing underwater enable me to temporarily clear my tangled thoughts

and it is addictive.

I am already planning my next diving trip already.

Rasa sayang, 

felt love at Pulau Perhentian by the sea & the sun.

happy 2012

cheers, for a better future, greater opportunities.

Happy 2012.

end of PRP service

ending service as a houseman and stepping into compulsory service is never easy.

it means, more responsibilities, more stressful and more mentally exhausted.

you will no longer be the follower of the team but the leader that need to make decision.

and for a not so smart people like me, it's hard.

following rounds by yourselves can be scary at times,

especially when it comes to antibiotic,

and when you have some scary specialists.

yes, i'm covering two wards now,

a geriatric ward and a chemo ward.

one is usually very caution with the dose while one always use the high end antibiotics.

thus, don't try to test my knowledge on normal dosing,

i had partially kept them aside because my RAM is too small.

alright, enough of ranting.

i'll share some pictures with you guys.

went to Kuala Terengganu in October

because Pinky had won a 3 days 2 nights stay in Ri-Yaz Heritage Resort.

grabbed this picture online.

trust me, it really looks like that in real.

it is a nice place to 100% chill and relax.

beautiful sky and nice weather.

total relaxation and am perfectly roasted.

so reluctant to leave such a nice place!

it's mid of November already.

life is getting less and less interesting.

any suggestion on what to do?

am getting very poor too.

haih.

have a nice day friends.

xoxo!

my 2011 birthday present, by myself.

i had been wanted to pick up something new long time ago,

wanted to get myself a diving licence but nobody wanted to go with me.

after a year of working,

and meeting someone who is as passionate as me,

i decided to pamper myself a little,

treating it as my 2011 birthday present as well as my first anniversary working present.

transport to Tioman was kinda easy,

either by road or by air.

since the departure time of the bus don't favor us,

we decided to go for air.

Berjaya Air.

my first time seeing our luggage unloaded manually.

first beautiful view that greeted us upon our arrival at Tekeh.

our dive center is situated at Salang,

thus we need to board on a ferry to get there.

the ferry fare was kinda expensive,

RM20 for a 30minutes ride.

finally we're at Salang beach,

registered at the dive center - Dive Asia,

got our materials and started our diving path.

here are some of the scenery pictures i took either using my phone or LX3.

view from my dive center

after our first confine water diving experience,

our energy was drained.

so we basically spent our first night resting and reading up the materials.

on the second day,

the routine was fixed.

more classes and more diving exposure.

and a friend joined us!

it was unexpected but i'm really glad that he treated us as friends,

that he came to us when he's at his weakest moment.

after dinner,

we ended our second night with some beer.

RM4 for each. dirt cheap.

on the third day,

it would be our first time for boat dive.

it's kinda exciting.

but believe me,

putting on full coverage wet suit is such a pain in the ass.

and i only have the one and only picture with me in the wet suit.

haha!

this is my gear. =)

the underwater experience was merely indescribable.

we saw turtle, bumphead fish, barracuda, and etc.

i'm happy!

finally, here comes the end of the whole course.

with 2 confine water dives at shore

and

4 open water dives.

i just LOVE it!!

call me a Diver =D

we had ordered a half roasted chicken for our dinner.

heard it was good,

and it is good.

haha..

since we had beer last night,

we decided to go for liquor tonight.

choices for miniature was none other than just JD.

and we concluded that JD + coke is not a good combination.

....................................................................................................

initially we wanted to do an extra dive on the saturday,

but guess we're kinda tired,

had too many dives for the past few days.

so we just chill around on the last night in Tioman,

enjoy the sun, sea, and beer.

we had been asking around where to find good BBQ,

at last, our dive instructor, Shah told us,

we should try this, MINI WHITE HOUSE restaurant.

this restaurant is just beside our dive centre

but the outlook was too doggy,

thus we never thought of trying until Shah told us to.

part of the menu

the recommended Trevally fish.

and we opt for the BBQ style with home made sauce.

dinner for three.

and to blend into the Malay culture,

we ditched the fork and spoon,

used our hands to eat =)

the fish was BIG!!

3 happy faces.

time was good

last night of dirt cheap beer.

and that's the end of my diving trip.

time was good.

those were the days, full of hopes and dreams. (AT, 2011)

bye Tioman, till we meet again.

and

happy birthday to me!

AUGUST 2011

it was a year ago,

when all of us joined the working life,

one by one,

as Pharmacists in GHM.

we went through highs and downs together.

we smile through the smelliest shit,

having second, third, forth rounds of dinner and hang outs,

and still reluctant to go back home.

damage our livers on the so call Friday night.

remember the BBQ session at my brother's place?

remember the amount of salad they made? hee..

our never ending chit chat sessions,

lame jokes, loud acts, all the makan adventures.

not to forget the cameron trip.

the night where we all stood at the Hotel's lobby,

no place to sleep.

eating strawberry popsicles like little kids.

......................................................

goodbye seems to be the hardest word to say.

this is gonna be an emotional month.

i just wanna say:

take care friends.

you all are more than just colleagues to me.

i heart you guys.

will definitely miss you.

hugs.

KA-ME-RON july 2011

Cameron Highland is a place i wanted to go badly for quite some time already.

since the group of us (the PRPs) have not got a chance to go travel together,

we decided to make this trip come true

before ending our PRP.

we headed to KL right after work.

since Mr. Liang had some gathering with friends at the Curve,

so we went there for dinner.

we actually booked a hotel in KL area,

the Wira Hotel.

but when the 11 of us reached there,

the person in charge told us that there's no booking from us.

we were all speechless, because we printed out the confirmation letter too.

luckily we have a backpacker in our group.

after making few callings to the nearby hostels,

finally we're able to find one which was able to fit all 11 of us.

the overall hostel condition was good.

unexpectedly good.

i'll definitely suggest to go back there if we are to have another trip that require a stay in KL.

the open air breakfast area.

nice, i like =)

after breakfast, we departed to Cameron Highland.

we stopped by Tapah R&R to change driver,

and to buy some famous Jambu.

**************************************************

after some winding road and some motion sickness,

we had finally reach the top of the hill!

we're very hungry,

stopped by Restoran Tringkap to have our lunch.

after some vegetables shopping for our steamboat dinner,

we stopped by at a place to have some afternoon tea.

but the food there was really just edible.

strawberry butter cake

but we think it should be call

strawberry AND butter cake.

strawberry sundae

strawberry shake and strawberry ice blended

ya, they are my crazy girlfriendS!

*heart them*

****************************************************

how can we not have steamboat when we're in Cameron??

so we decided to have our own steamboat dinner at the apartment.

the apartment was quite well equipped.

completed with all the utensils.

and we bought all the fresh vegetables from Kee Farm.

it looked delicious right?

after the steamboat session,

we went to the pasar malam.

ultimate mission of JJ was to get her strawberry Popsicle!

and glad that we found it.

then we continued with Starbucks.

Cheers~~!

*************************************************

on Sunday,

we woke up early in the morning to avoid jam going up to BOH tea garden.

BOH tea garden cafe open at 8.30am.

we reached there at about 9am,

and the crowd was already coming.

the balcony site tables were all occupied,

so we had to take the indoor seats.

these are some of the pastries that we ordered.

blueberry scones with cream

strawberry cake

strawberry pie

carrot cake

after the light breakfast,

we went to walk around, took some group pics before heading to the next station.

Alvin said this flower contain cochicine,

it'll cause diarrhea if it's not cook properly.

tea plantation

the road up the hill was really narrow.

so there were moments when we held our breath until the process was over.

next destination was Rose Valley.

the weather was kinda hot.

and i found dandelion at the road side.

wanted to do some great dandelion shots,

but too bad,

my shutter speed was not fast enough to capture the moment.

some beautiful daisies in the valley

after Rose Valley,

we went to the Butterfly Farm.

although the trip was tiring,

some hiccups here and there,

it's still a memorable trip!

hopefully next year round,

we still have the chance to go to some other places together,

despite our posting.

good luck my friends,

continue to stay fun and wild.

love you guys lots.

xoxo