the sky is the limit - part 2

Rafiz decided to join us on our second last day there. So that morning, we just hung out by the beach reading, swimming and taking photos while we waited for him to arrive so we can go for another snorkelling session.

My faithful

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Anyways, we were playing in the water and Edreen was pushing me around on the float when she suddenly yelped and froze. Apparently she had stepped on some ghastly sea urchins and her foot had turned numb from the poison.

Sea urchins look like giant rambutans with sharp needle-like thorns. They can easily be mistaken for corals when seen from above so always watch out where you step in the waters.

You cannot pull the thorns out as they are very fragile and will break upon contact. You can only pound the affected area with something hard to get them crushed then put lime to kill off the bacteria. Yes, those bloody pieces stay in your kaki until they rot and become part of your flesh.

Rafiz arrived amidst the commotion

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Snorkeling time!

Going in for a little dive

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Seashells - Apparently underwater cameras don't focus like SLRs

Edreen had a hard time climbing into the boat

This is her cubaan ke-3
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Cubaan ke-5

Cubaan ke-8 ( I think)

Dan kami hanya mampu menggelakkan dari tepi. Muahahahaha....

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After snorkelling, we headed to Gem Island to check out their turtle sanctuary. Then Shukri took us to this deserted cove where we had the whole beach to ourselves! It was awesome! The beach was beautiful and the water was filled with the most friendly fishes! They weren't afraid of us at all and came flocking around us while we were swimming. I felt like Little Mermaid dikelilingi sahabat2 ikan kesayangannya. Heh.

Baby penyu at Gem Island



Our own private cove


The best place to be in the water
Tried and tested


The friendly fishes

Definitely the highlight of my trip!

They caught a Nemo while snorkling
They later let it go, of course
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Gamat/Coral

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Later in the evening we lepak-ed with the guys at KBC for a while before heading back to Qimi for dinner. Yeap, Qimi was our oficial food supplier. They had a bonfire set up and we had some rounds of cards. Rafiz showed this really awesome card trick which left me rather impressed actually.

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Until the time he tried to do it again and messed everything up. Hahaa..

It was hilarious.
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Learning the trade from the master himself
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Rafiz showing off his can-work-one-time-only card trick
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We had breakfast at Qimi's before leaving the next day

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Time to go home

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Hap-pee

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Hepi

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Happy

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Mission accomplished

the sky is the limit - part 1

The plan was to become backpackers and head to an island. Any island. We didn't book any rooms, we didn't buy any bus tickets, we didn't make any sort of reservations at all. It was supposed to be an adventure. We would go wherever our journey will take us. The sky was our limit.
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In the beginning, we were thinking of heading to either Phuket, Redang or Perhentian. But we had to eliminate Phuket in the last minute because of the time constraint. So we thought we'd just go to Perhentian then hop to Redang or Lang Tengah or anywhere from there if we feel like it later.

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We started our journey to Terengganu at 4 o'clock in the morning. Yeah. 4 am. Edreen's crazy idea. Her shift ends at 1 am so she was like, 'dhillah, let's just leave early after I'm done with my shift. I'll go back home, grab my stuff and meet you at sentral k'.

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Wokey beb!

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The highway was so deserted we actually could stop over and take pictures - which was something that I've always wanted to do!

. Sunrise

We stopped by in Kuantan to change cars. The we continued our journey to Kuala Besut through Jerangau, which was supposed to be the shortcut to Kota Bharu. Man, it was the loooonnggest drive ever! We saw dead baby leopards, a car actually overturned in front of us, then sesat2 seme. And after driving for like 9 hours, we discovered that we almost reached Kuala Terengganu - and Kuala Besut is on the opposite way. Deym alrite. We wasted another hour turning back.
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On our return journey, however, we saw the sign leading to Redang jetty. Kuala Besut was another 2 hours away. So we figured, what the heck, let's just go to Redang.
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Switching drivers

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We went through a lot of small isolated kampung roads that didn't get any radio frequencies. We had to sing to keep ourselves entertained. And hell yeah we were entertained. Haha..

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Merang Jetty

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When we got to Merang jetty, we were told that there were no more rooms or boats left in Redang. We can charter a boat and go check if they have walk-in rooms available on the island but it'll cost like 400 bucks just for the boat. A guy suggested we go to Kapas instead. He's a travel agent and he was heading to KT to send off a bunch of mat salleh tourists to the airport. He offered to bring us to the jetty and help us find accommodations and stuff. So we followed him to KT.
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We thought he was gonna arrange everything for us straight away, but apparently the group's flight was at night and he had to bring them around KT first. He kept us following him around, telling us that his agency was still trying to get us rooms and that we may have to stay on mainland the night as the rooms are full. Yeap, he was trying to trick us into buying a package and staying at their hotel in mainland. We didn't have time for all that. In the end, we decided to ditch him and go to Marang jetty ourselves.
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At the jetty, a guy (Iza) there helped us get a boat and found us a room for 80 bucks a night. Uh-huh.. they DO have rooms available for walk-ins cause some of the chalets have a policy of not being fully-booked. So you CAN just go there and get yourself a room. It's better to go early in the morning though.
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bitch sisters

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So glad to finally be on a boat!
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To be honest, we were quite disappointed when we got there. The chalet wasn't at all like what we expected and the water wasn't as blue as we wanted it to be. But we have booked for a snorkelling session the next day so we decided to just stay and leave for Redang after snorkelling.

. Bilik 80 ringgit semalam
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We arrived just in time for a dip in sunset

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That night we went mencandat sotong. It was a really funny story actually. We were asking Iza about what we can do on the island and he told us that we can go mencandat sotong but it would be expensive as we would have to charter a boat for ourselves and it will cost around 300 bucks. So we thought ok, no mencandat sotong then. However, on the boat to the island, we met this group of pakciks who were going mencandat sotong that night and they actually invited us to join them! How much luckier can we get? Muahaha...

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We left the jetty at 8pm and came back at 4am. Lama nih.. But to be honest, I actually slept through the latter half of the journey. Tired after a long day on the road and partly due to seasickness. But I did get to try fresh sotong fried on board and it was ummmmm-mm!

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The kind pakciks

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Kes mabuk laut
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First catch of the night!

This pakcik is really terrer btw. He contributed to half of the catch that night

.Note: fresh sotongs are see-through
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Goreng trus atas bot
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Sodaaappppp.....!
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The next day, the pakciks invited us to join them for volleyball. But we played only for a while before going off for our snorkelling trip. We got ourselves a couple of underwater cameras by the way so check out the cool pics.
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Playing with the fishies
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Another case of mabuk laut

Shouldn't have snorkeled with the life jacket on

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So after snorkelling, we went back to our room to pack our stuffs and leave. We stopped by at the chalet next door to ours and had lunch there and you know what? We actually fell in love with the place! It was exactly the kind of chalet that we were looking for! It's run by a Dutch guy and most of the occupants are backpackers like us (Yes!). So we booked ourselves a room for 40 bucks a night (half the price nih!) and decided to stay

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Room numero deux

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That night we decided to look for BBQ. Iza told us before that if rasa nak makan BBQ, pegi ke Qimi Chalet. So to Qimi Chalet we went.

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Qimi Chalet is situated on another cove and is a little isolated from the other chalets. We walked over and discovered a marvelous little place filled with wonderful people.

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And they have nice food too

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Shukri
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Had a round of cards

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..and some meaningful discussions.

This is Nollie, the owner of Qimi Chalet

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Then Shukri and Nollie asked if we wanted to go look for penyu bertelur. It was penyu season. They took us for a walk along the coast of the island that night.
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We went all the way to the edge of the island but didn't find any penyus. It was a rather adventurous trip crossing through water and climbing through half-constructed stairs in the dark. But it was fun nonetheless.

We were so glad we stayed.

To be continued...

My sushi making days are over...

because Sushi King has opened in Kuantan!!! Woohoooo!!!!!

I am sooooo hap-peeeeee!!!!
*beam*

Sari's belated birthday - 090508

Surprise tak jadi sebab Sari rajin sangat nak pegi order kat kaunter instead of duduk diam2 kat meja and tunggu waiter datang. Heh.

It was a beautiful night nonetheless.

One of those moments that make you feel like you must've done something right.

Blurkan siket lagi n it's like seeing without glasses on

The 202 wackos

Sari n her presents

Messages of love

Serious discussion

- not!!!

Sheila trying her hands at tarian lilin

You so need practice, Sheila. Truskan usaha k

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Muaxxxxx!

Out of the studio and into the k/ok room - 050408

Banyak giler makanan malam tuh!

Screaming cowboy
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Makan.. makan....

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..then menyanyi k

This girl can sing btw. Her voice is really powerful
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We can pass as adik-beradik, don't we?
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Epi belting it out sepenuh perasaan

Mak

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are grey...

I got tagged!

So here are 8 random facts about me:

1) I can never understand why Garfield and Hello Kitty are so popular. They're not cute and they don't do anything. I think it's incredible how the Hello Kitty Corporation can become that huge just through branding. Like, seriously, John Galliano designing clothes for Hello Kitty to model? What's that about? What on earth has the cat done to earn such reputation?

2) I have a softspot for 'cacat' things like teddy bears with missing eyes and extra-long hands, Bucky Katz (Get Fuzzy), Spongebob Squarepants, Stitch, ugly-looking blobs with toothy grins, yada yada yada... They're ridiculously wacky they tickle my heart and make me laugh my head off. Unfortunately, my list of 'cacat' things also includes people. So if I'm not in love with you, you can thank God that you're normal.

3) One of the things on my secret to-do-in-life list is to become a professional horseback jumper.
Ok, maybe it's not so secret anymore.

4) I think Ralph Fiennes is super hot in The English Patient.

5) My first crush happened when I was in Standard 5. He was a handsome black-belt karate dude who came to our school in a black chauffer-driven Perdana everyday to pick up his sister. In high school I took up karate so I can see him every Tuesday and Thursday during practice. He turned out to be a jerk. Not cool at all. I fell in love and had a relationship with karate instead.

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6) I always wonder how it feels like to have a twin.

7) My favorite fruit is the mangosteen. Put a bakul of it in front of me and it'll be gone before the commercial break is over.

8) I LOVE Jun Matsumoto. I think it's mainly cause he always play 'cacat' characters.
Domyuji Tsukasa's definitely 'cacat'.

Mannnn.... I LOVE Hana Yori Dango!!!! *sighhhhh*

Once Upon a Rayyan...