.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

Yeah, so finally the Redang trip came...sadly now it's gone

Ah well, it was a great break and we did some nature loving activities too in the name of Project Aware.

We left home at some ungodly hour (5am) in a couple of taxis heading to KLIA, where we had a McD style Big Breakfast (They should call it the small breakfast though, as I could eat 3..)

We arrived at Kuala Terengganu after a smooth enough flight..

A coach trip to the jetty, then we jammed ourselves into a boat for the hour or so across to the Island.

We were greeted by the beautiful white sands of Redangs long beach, clear blue water and the crazy beach boys.

Then a nice sleep...we stayed at Redang Beach Resort

And first dive of the trip..

I stupidly didn't take enough weights (not accounting for the bulky, new and therefore buoyant BCD they gave me), and had real problems descending...

Must have been swimming like a zig-zag, after that I got passed a few weights and was ok...

I noticed myself getting nauseous towards the end of the dive (around 45 mins..) and thought uh-oh...I've had this before..

Sure enough when I got out, everything was spinning and I was dizzy as hell, oh well no more diving for me! Inner ear problems from the changing pressure of swimming in a zig-zag, I proceeded to sleep for 15 hours..and got up the next day

The dive was ok, nothing amazing, the dive master we had was a bit noob, so he took us to not so great locations, partially the reason why I sat out the rest of the dives.

And what a beautiful day it was.

After that all us naturalists got ready to clean up the beach for project Aware (Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility and Education).

It was a stunning day, although a little hot for picking up rubbish on the beach..

And I was still a little dizzy 0_0

We got given the worst area too, the other groups had 1 bin-bag per group, we finished 1/2 bags per PERSON in our group, we got the corner of the beach and it seemed to be some kind of dumping ground, oh well, at least we sorted it out

I got myself a cert anyway and a free t-shirt for helping the beach clean-up..

This is my favourite shot of the lot.

The whole gang just before we left, so sad

Of course we munched loads of Keropok Lekor, as it's awesome there!

And we played Baccarat for cans of Coke while we waited for the plane, God pau'ed us all!

Of course we headed to Misai when we got back to stuff ourselves with our favourites foods, which we did..

The end! It was a great trip, really enjoyed it, even though I was dizzy haha, at least I didn't get burnt, neh neh

Full Gallery here: Redang Sept 2005

The objective of this project is to instill social and environmental responsibility on behalf of the local dive community. This in turn will be recognized in the international diving community as the Malaysian contribution in our effort to preserve our marine environment. Participants will be educated on ‘coral planting’ techniques which are currently practiced worldwide to promote the growth and preservation of new coral reefs. Besides this, there will also be an underwater clean-up to support this project.

It's Malaysian Marine Day this week and Project AWARE is coming up later in the year.

Malaysia has some of the most beautiful and varied coral and marine life in the world, it should be preserved, and people need to start respecting it.

It's this weekend in Mabul.

Past Marine Days:

Marine Day to promote coral conservation
Mabul Marine Day

I don't think I will be able to make it this year, but I'm hoping to get to Project Aware later in the year in Redang!

Will post more about that later.

*IMAGE HEAVY POST*

As I mentioned in my last post, my friends were heading to Tioman on Friday night after work, so I tagged along..

I dutifully went to work on Friday, finished a bit early to beat the jam, came home and prepared my stuff..

Knocked out a couple of games of DOTA, then headed off to Pudu around 10pm to catch the 11pm bus to Mersing.

Cost of bus = RM23 each way

I arrived there around 5.30am and bumped into some old diving friends and my previous instructor, so I caught up with them, sadly they were staying in a different part of the island (Panuba).

Got to the Jetty just as the sun was rising.

Cost of speed boat = 35RM each way

Saw the actual sun rise as we started out our journey to the island..

We reached there an hour or so later, (Salang is furthest along the way), and checked into to our little home on the island..

Amazingly cheap at RM30 per night for a double room, so RM15 each if you share, ensuite bathroom, decent condition, fan (No air-con or hot water though). But when diving you hardly spend any time in the room anyway, if you want to nap in the day you lie in a hammock on the beach or something cool!

A nicely laid out place, very relaxing.

The resort is called Salang Indah, you can find out more information at http://www.salangindah.com/

This was the view from the balcony on our chalet:

The first day diving was a disaster, as we rested in the morning after the overnight journey and headed out in the afternoon, right into the heart of a raging rain storm, thus visibility was around 2metres...I didn't dare take any pictures in case my camera got more fucked.

The sky was beautiful after the storm cleared tho..

Yes, yes I know I'm a prosu photographer

The next day was clear blue skies and clear blue water, so we kitted up and headed out early..

Super hot weather, hence my pink tan..

I'll try and get hold of the underwater pics we took later in the week and post them up.

We dived with Dive Asia at Marine Park (first day) and Chebeh and Batu Malang (second day).

Worked out at about RM80 per dive (including rental of BCD and Regulator as I have everything else).

After that took it easy in the afternoon and lazed around in a hammock..

..and strolled around taking some pics...was a beautiful day.

I managed some real nice shots this trip.

I had some other really awesome ones too, but anything with white in it (including the sky) came out pink, so they looked horrible (like the hammock pic above, but that's not toooo bad). If anyone knows what causes this please LET ME KNOW.

I think this is probably my favourite, really could be a SCUBA diving advert!

They have however built one completely hideous monstrosity in Salang...the 'Salang Complex'

It was beautiful the day we left too, headed off the island around 3pm after lazing around eating ice cream in the sun..

After that it was back on the sweaty speed boat and off we went..

Full picture gallery HERE.

So total cost around...

Bus: RM46
Speed Boat: RM70
Accomodation: RM30
Dives: RM240
Food etc: RM200

TOTAL = RM586

Reached back KL around 11.30pm, grabbed a burger, headed home, whacked some DOTA, next thing I know it's 5am and it's time to leave home (after I'd uploaded and messed with all the pics trying to fix the pink problem).

Left KL at 7.25am and reached JB around 8:15am, did my work then slept in the meeting room till 1.30pm, had lunch at a Penang resturant (some not so great Prawn Mee)...and caught the 3.50pm flight back..got home around 7.30pm due to the horrible jams and rain in KL..

And here I am (after running to the laundry as I had zero underwear for tommorow...)

Enjoy!