Lu Tahu Tak?

Crystalline water in different shades of blue, almost white
colored sand that feels like flour on your skin, breathtaking views unmistakably
real right in front of your eyes and yep, not forgetting friendly fishes that
are not afraid of eating food out of your hands. Paradise..

As you can see from the photo, I’m definitely not lying.. Alright, maybe these photos are not so convincing but worry not. I shall upload more captivating photos soon on my photo website soon =

To some of you who may have been to Redang Island before, I’m sure that you’ve experienced the descriptions above. But to some of
you who have yet to step your foot in Redang, you better do because you just
don’t want to miss what Mother Nature can offer between the land and ocean..

After much planning and last minute joiners, Calvin, Tung Jern, Kai Jie, Hui Tat, Tristin, Chong Yih, Kenny and I were hyped up for our first Island trip (except for me and Kenny =P).

[From L-R : Tung Jern, Chong Yih, Tristin, Me, Calvin, Hui Tat, Kai Jie] @ Puduraya Station

It was 10.30 pm, 16th August 2006. Ready as we were at Pudu Raya Station, expectations of a comfy (bumpy) 8 hours ride to Kuala Terengganu, all of us were excited about the trip. Evidently, I was the only girl, however, I had a blasting great time with all the gir.. I mean boys =P This trip was also the first trip I’ve ever been with Calvin. Glad to say, it was indeed a memorable vacation =)

Down we went to the platform to wait for our bus. When we saw the bus, it was actually a dissapointment for me because the one I took before was better shape than this one. It was Konsortium VIP bus but it definitely did not live up to it’s name. For RM 30.40, we had to make ourself comfortable in flea, ant and small insects infested seats for 8 hours.. You must be wondering how we endured the trip but nonetheless, we made it to Kuala Terengganu at 6.30am. Once we stepped down my the bus, few taxi drivers attacked us. They were so eager to send us to somewhere…
Anyway, Kenny was already at the bus station because the BUS he took was faster and more comfortable! FYI, he took MaraLiner so to those of you who are planning to travel by bus, MaraLiner would be a good choice to take. Say NO! to Konsortium!

Our driver who was already there with Kenny drove us to the resort’s office. It was all of our first time in Kuala Terengganu besides Kenny. MInd you, all around us were modern buildings. Chong Yih was in a mid confusion because he assumed that K.T was a undeveloped Kampung area =P Anyway, when we reached the office.. I saw the most horrific sight in my life.. Right in front of us, 3 butcher shops! And the butchers were slaughtering the pigs. As soon as I stepped out of the van, I couldn’t help barfing because the smell of the blood was too overwhelming for me.. Somehow the dead pigs reminded me of dead humans because of the color of the skin.. eurgh! Enough of dead, bloody pigs!

About 7 am, the driver drove us to Merang Jetty where we will take the boat to Redang Island. On the way there, we had breakfast at some small Malay store by the roadside. Frankly, it’s my first time eating in this kinda food store. It was a kampung style hut and all the food was just displayed on the table. Of course, the food were all local delicacies. We had different variety of pulut rice, namely, Nasi Dagang, Nasi Lemak, and Nasi Kuning. Amazingly, the food were quite tasty, provided if you can take coconut milk. Besides that, all that different type of Nasi were served with fish (even the Nasi Lemak) so if you’re a big fan of fish, be sure to drop by Kuala Terengganu to try their local food. Due to limited space, I won’t upload the food pictures here but you can refer to this website to see it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mqsmomentos/page4/

After our scrumptious meal, we head over to Merang Jetty to wait for our boat.

We got into the boat at about 8 sumthin a.m. It was not a very comfortable ride because the sea was quite rough. So yeah, it was bumpy all the way and some of US were close to nauseas. However, we were all too hyped up to care for anything else!

After 45 minutes of butt bumping ride, finally we reached Paradise.. We were welcomed by the clear blue sea, Kuai Po and Kuai Lo’s sunning their butts on the beach and Friendly staffs from Redang Reef Resort! We were the only group that arrived that day and I daresay, we were the only group there besides another family staying in that resort.

After the briefing about the resort activities by Steven (quite cute resort manager and still single =P), we went to our rooms to freshen up and changed into our beach wear.

From the photos above, that was pretty much what we did at Redang Island. (More photos at Flikr) We snorkeled in 3 different islands. We saw different species of fishes and corals but honestly, I’m not a fan of fishes so to me, all fishes looked the same =P There were of course interesting looking sea creatures such as the Morey Eels, big Garupa fish, and etc. The eels looked like miniature dragons and they have very very sharp teeths! You wouldn’t want your legs dangling anywhere near them. According to the snorkeling guide, a tourist got bitten by the eel before and he received 40 stiches! We also took lotsa underwater photos with a underwater camera. The camera was rented by the way but thanks to Kenny, we got it for freE! In the evening, we played beach volley and beach soccer (not me of coz). We had very fun games with the rest of the people on the beach. I had encouragements from one of the uncle that joined us because I sucked really bad in beach volley =P Whenever I get to hit the ball across the net, it was like a miracle..I had to suffer the consequences after the hits tho because it was damn PAINFUL! However, the pain was soon forgotten after Tristin aka Christine coudn’t take my ball! Hehe =P Speaking of Tristin, he was the only one who got the worst sunburnt ever! Some of US weren’t even burnt.. namely Kenny, Me, and Tung Jern. I enjoyed rubbing sand against sunburnt skin.. Call me evil but I enjoyed rubbing sand against Tristin’s. His reaction was so funny, but the pain was eurgh.. I know how you feel Tristin.
.*sorry* Anyway, we also had some water wrestling, jumping over waves, lazing and fooling around in the water. We also drank lotsa sea water and by the end of the day, we were almost half dehydrated =P
On the 2nd day, the boys went for the morning snorkeling trip to Turtle Bay. I didn’t follow because I went there before on the previous trip. Based on my experience, the place there was infested with sea bugs so once you step into the water, you’ll instantly get bitten. Trust me, the bites are not pleasant at all. When they came back, I couldn’t help laughing when all of them complained about the bugs =P According to Rina, our snorkeling guide, she said the boys were shouting like sissies in the water =P I can imagine that.. haha

On our first night, we played pool at Laguna Recreation Center, then we headed back to our Resort for some off keyed karaoke session and also not forgetting some lil drinking session. Tung Jern brought a bottle of gin. So we had it with Sprite and ice. It tasted not bad. I had a few shots and I got lil (alright.. Alot) tipsy. I had throbbing headache and I was red all over.. I know I know, I’m a lousy drinker.. but hey, no harm trying rite? Only drink when you’re with ppl whom you can trust. That’s my policy =) We went to bed quite early coz most of us were quite tipsy. Thanks to me who poured the Gin like water in everyone’s glasses =P hehe
On our 2nd night, we did a lil boogying at Redang Beach Resort. Before that, we were playing UNO at Laguna lobby. Just to kill time =P At about 1030 pm, we headed for the beach disco which was playing HORRIBLE music! It was trance? Techno? Whatever, it was hard to dance but nevertheless, we had fun! We even went up to the stage and did that "Cabaret" thingy (the one you kick ur legs up to the left and then to the right ) to J.Lo’s Let’s Get Loud. Yeah, ridiculous, I know but who cares.. No one knows us =P hehe. After our lil rendezvous at the beach, we went back to our resort. I told the boys that they can see blue sand at our beach if they keep stamping the sand there. And so, I saw a bunch of Red Indian wannabes stamping away to see the blue sand. The blue sand is actually some form of microorganisms in the sand. When you step on it, it glows in blue. Pretty interesting uh.. you can only see it at the Redang Reef Resort beach entrance =P  After that, we played cards and did a lil drinking. Tristin brought Jack Daniels. It didn’t taste quite nice cause it was quite spicy. I prefered the gin over JD though.. even though Tung Jern thinks that Gin taste very horrible =P
After that drinking session (this time I wasn’t tipsy!), we climbed on to a small hill behind the resort where we lied down looking up into the sky for shooting stars. I saw 2! The previous trip, I saw 8 tho =P but because this time I was too tired, I dozed off after a while.. yah, on hard rocks =P It was so cold up there because the wind was quite strong that night. Alas, I couldn’t stand it, and we headed back to our rooms for a proper bedtime =)

At about 930 am, we packed up and had breakfast. Chong Yih and Tristin missed breakfast because they woke up late! I didn’t exactly wake up early tho.. but I had breakfast! Cause Calvin brought it to my room =) At about 10 am, we left the island with a heavy heart.. It was my 2nd time there but I’m still not bored of it.. We touch mainland at about 11 am and we had an early lunch on the way to the bus station. Fyi, it was Nasi Kerabu this time. Don’t worry, it wasn’t pulut rice. But it was pretty tasty too. Main ingredients was herbs, some greens, and fish or ayam percik. All for only RM 2 per plate.. Cheap uh.. NO chance in hell you can get this kinda price in KL.

Reached K.Terengganu bus station about 12.30pm. Went up to our bus about 1 pm. This time, the bus was much worse than the one we came with. The air conditioning sucked, we stopped numerous time for I don’t know why, driver smoking and it was freaking HOT in the bus. However, we were too tired so most of the time in the bus, we were sleeping.
Especially Tristin.
We endured 8 hours of bumpy ride before reaching KL. Once we touch ground.. it was ahhh.. but I could still feel that I was still in that bus. Thump thump thump.. lil wooziness but I felt much better afterwards. Sad to say, our trip was over.. we went back home.. got our rest, and start a new day.

I had a great time with everybody there! Thanks for making this trip a good one. Kai Jie and Hui Tat, aren’t you glad that you came in last minute? Tristin, ermm.. don’t think you got any darker from the trip =P Calvin  and Chong Yih, this was our last trip and I had a blast with you boys!Sadly, Chang was not there. If not, we can do the Cameron Highland poses again =P Thank you Kenny for being such a nice host and companion there.. Thanks to you, we got lotsa nice privilages =) Last but not least, infinite thanks to my dear, Calvin for making the trip such a memorable one. Without you, everything wouldn’t be that beautiful..

By the way, to those of you who want to go Redang in the near future, I can give you a very cheap price. RM 250 for 3 days 2 night. The best time to go would be April - July. So if you’re planning a trip there next year, drop me an email and I’ll arrange the trip for you. Don’t waste this opportunity!

I wonder, how  would you feel if your job was stolen by someone you introduced to the company? This kinda thing maybe common to freelancers (it kinda happened to me =P). Trust me, it’s all about fish eat fish world out there. Money, no doubt one of the most important drive in life (unless if you’re still studying). But for people like me, there’s nothing much that I can do while waiting to go to university besides working and earning more money. As a freelancer, which ever job (legal of course!) that I can grab on to, I’ll do it if the pay is reasonable. There is one job though which pays RM 130 per day for about 5 hours. Pretty good I would say. I was suppose to work for that job for some certain days. However, I could not make it for some days and so I had to find someone to replace me. I was assuming, that if there was a continuation of that job, I will continue to do it. BUT, that someone, stole the job right under my nose. She may have done it INDIRECTLY or UNDELIBERATELY, but she should have informed me if the job was still going on. Nonetheless, she did not and she continued to worked for it without my knowledge. I was fuming when I found out about it but I hid my emotions. After all, I can’t blame her. The job pays well and if I come back to work, she won’t be able to work for it anymore.

This incident teach me something new though. Choose people whom you can trust to replace you for anything. It can be a job, representation or whatever because you might never know who will stab your back. That’s the way of life nowadays. It’s all about Competition and Success. Survival of the fittest.. I just lost this time..

As the title suggest, I went for my first tarot card reading at Sunway Pyramid yesterday. It all started when Li Peng and I were just walking aimlessly in Sunway Pyramid. We were at the Ice Skating Rink floor, looking around and just killing time when we saw an ad on a Magic Shop. Just out of curiousity, we decided to visit that store. As expected, the shop sold magic trick products.  We also got  a free demonstration from the staffs there. I would say, the tricks were quite impressive. I was amazed with one card trick. The cards are called special cards but they look like ordinary cards to me. IMagine this, the guy changed the WHOLE Deck of cards into King Cards. He merely just shaked the cards and it turned into K’s. Amazing but of course, it was still merely a trick.

After that "wonderful" demonstration, we prepared to leave because we were not gonna buy any items. When we stepped out of the shop, suddenly one of the man in the shop called us back in. He asked me and Li Peng, whether am I a Pisces, and was Li Peng an Aries. Pretty freaky huh, by just looking at us, he knows our star sign. Apparently, he was a tarot reader and also an Education Psychologist. Talk about clichè eh. He asked us some bunch of pscyhological questions and it pretty much described our characters. Then, he asked us whether are we interested in tarot cards or not because he can do our tarot readings. At first, we were quite skeptical about it but after much persuasion, I decided to try it out, since it’s something I’ve never tried before. In my opinion, it was just an experience anyway. The original price is RM 70 for Tarot Reading, Palm Reading and Face Reading. But I only wanted Tarot reading, and he offered me RM 30 for it. I still think it’s quite expensive! And I suspect it’s just some marketing strategy to convince me to do it but hell, I did it anyway =P

Li Peng didn’t want to do it because she said it was an "invasion" of privacy .. haha.. I was quite reluctant to do it because 3/4 of me is afraid of foreseeing my future but well, the other 1/4 was bloody curious to try it out. Anyway, that 1/4 won and I went into the office with another guy who was gonna do my reading. Firstly, he explained the history of Tarot Cards to me. One interesting fact that I found out about Tarot cards was about Napoleon Bonaparte. Apparently, his wife, Josephine predicted using Tarot cards that Napolean will lose a battle. He was not happy with the prediction and so, he killed her. Not long after, he truly lost the battle, as what his wife predicted. After explaining about the history, he took out the tarot cards and asked me to slowly shuffle the cards.  After shuffling the cards, I was suppose to pick out 9 cards randomly. Then he opened my cards and arranged it in a manner where he can interpret the cards. And then he asked me, what kind of questions I would like to ask. I told him that I would like to know about my Past, Present and Future. And… He looked at the cards and then he looked at me … then.. he went out! He had to ask the Sifu how to read my cards. Alas, the sifu came in and he interpreted my cards. Of course, I would not reveal anythng over here as it is pretty private. =)
He also did some reading from my face and palm and I must say, about 70% from what he told me was quite true!One example.. just by looking on my face, he knows that I have a mark on my back which is true. And my back was fully covered. Spooky uH. At the end of session, I got my palm, face and tarot reading =P For RM 30.

I’m quite amazed that what he can tell by just looking at me. But if you think logically, can your face, palm, tarot cards, crystal balls tell you about your future?
If you don’t believe in this kinda superstitious thing, I’m sure you can find a logical explaination behind the predictions. For example, the Sifu knows that I was going to study abroad. Therefore, there will be a very high financial issue there as studying abroad requires alot of money. So he predicted that I will have financial problems. Example two. He asked me whether I have a boyfriend now. I said yes. Then he said, I will face relationship problems. My logical reasoning would be, I am still young. Of course I’m bound to have relationship problems. Of course I am not sure who I will marry and how many relationships I have to go through before I settle down. I’m sure, most of us would feel the same way too.

Despite that what he told me about my future and present are quite true. But definitely, one should not believe 100% is this kinda things. Especially regarding your own future. It’s no harm knowing what you can or should not do but one should only use it as guidance. Never let these predictions lead you but instead, let is just be a guidance for you to look forward in the future. You yourself is in control of your own future.