Praise the Lord for His never failing love for us!

Ooh..redang island. The white powerdy sand beneath our feet complemented by windswept palms and sapphire blue/turqois warm water made us go ....... WOW! Being there we can't help but admire and be struck with awe by the wonderful creations of God.

We planned this trip for sometime now, ever since i was in form 1. haha. serious =) But for the past 4 years, this trip has been postponed time and time again. Finally, this year we're actually going there...the four of us plus my aunt. =)

Rushed to Jusco to do some last minute shopping which includes extra snorkels and masks. We were looking for fins but we couldn't find any good ones. Oh well..forget the fins. =) Called up Midvalley to check whether they sold the items. Of course they did...but we couldn't make it there coz we were out of time. We had to leave for KL.

My dad decided to drive there instead of taking the coach. What an experience that was. 5 adults in one car...3 of us cramped in the back seat. Ouch. We left at on saturday night at 11.30pm from my aunt's place in KL...and it took us almost 9 hours to reach Merang Jetty (in Kuala Terengganu). Couldn't sleep at all in the car throughout the entire night..it was just too cramp and cold. haha.

On the way there, we made countless stops at ..... Petronas stations. They were everywhere! OHh...thank God for Petronas stations. There was one station which is so huge, it looked like a supermarket. haha. Good for us. We kept stopping to use the restrooms, buy snacks, and of course, to stretch ourselves. =) Poor dad didn't sleep the whole night.

The first hickup of the entire trip....

We arrived at Merang Jetty at 9.30am, precisely when we were supposed to arrive. When we got there, we phoned a guy as he was supposed to meet up with us. HOWEVER, we got to know that we were in the WRONG jetty!! What?! At that time I felt like killing the travel agent who asked us to come here. We were supposed to go to Shahbandar Jetty, another jetty in KT.

We couldn't get to Redang. Unless of course we rented our own boat for RM400. =/ Thank God, there was this great guy, Fauzi, who offered to take us to Redang Island with another group of island goers. After making some calls and arrangements, we were off to Redang. Phew...everyone was relieved. Thank you Fauzi!! =)

bye bye malaysia and hello redang! oh wait, redang is in malaysia...haha

on the way there. long way more to go.

reaching the resort. the boat was stopping at several places before our resort. some passengers  disembarked at this resort in the background (Wisana Resort)

white sand meets the turqois sea

need i say anything more? haha. can clearly see the white sea bed. and no, the picture wasn't edited at all..natural turqois colour =D

yay...finally our resort! the one on the left.

Our speed boat took 40 minutes to get to this island 40km from the mainland. The weather was great...to everyone's relief. When we arrived on the island........ we couldn't believe our eyes. The water was stellar! You could see the bottom and all the fishes when we were on the boat. =)

The speed boat took us directly infront of our resort....but it was a water landing; it was slightly above knee deep. Fortunately, the hotel staff were kind enough to help us get our luggage from the boat. =)

Our resort! We didn't stay in chalet though. This is the suite unit. haha

Family pic! =) Overlooking Tanjung Tengah and Shark's Bay

View of pasir panjang beech. Volleyball anyone?

View from our resort restaurant. Wonder what will happen in event of a tsunami....hmm

So later that day we headed off for the marine park south of the island for a snorkeling session. I had never seen so many fishes in my life. haha. There were schools of fishes swimming all around you...damsel fish, needlefish, batfish, and ikan billlis to name a few. The corals there were beautiful. This is my first time seeing the multicoloured corals. I can't really describe it...one got to see it to comprehend its beauty. =) We snorkeled there around 1 hour or so before boarding the boat back to the resort.

fishy fishes - a group of damsel fish

The marine park was packed with people

On the way back, everyone was tired exhausted...but then suddenly, someone shouted...TURTLE! Everyone rushed to the left side of the boat ( the boat really tilted on its side) to catch a glimps of the green turtle. It was virtually gliding on the water surface. Its such a graceful creature. =) Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a pic of it. =(

Sis and i after snorkeling..wet, salty, tired and happy =)

Later that evening, we went on a fishing trip! Since the night was free and easy in our schedule, we decided to rent a fishing boat and join a group of fishermen for night sotong fishing. cool. =D  We left at 6.30 pm and the boat took us to a location quite far from the island. There they set up the fishing lines. The sea then was very very choppy. The boat would roll from left to right and right to left and left....you get the idea. =/ It was really bad till we could hardly stand up coz we couldn't balance ourselves. haha.

1 hour on...we still couldn't get any sotongs...haiz. According to the fisherman, the strong sea currents were the cause of our disappointment. Mom couldn't take it anymore and she vomitted into the sea. My aunt followed her soon. That's when we decided to call it a day and headed back for shore, without any sotongs. Had we caught some, the hotel would have bbq-ed them for us. haha.

Next day, nothing much happened..we were snorkeling the whole day. During the last snorkeling trip of the day, they took us to a deep location. That's not all. The currents there were very strong. We were happily snorkelling and when we lifted up our heads, we noticed that we were far far away from the boat. Swimming back to the boat against the current was a real chore. Many of them paddled and paddled, but ended up going the opposite way. haha. Fortunately for the non-swimmers, there was a long rope extended from the boat. Most of us grapped on to it. After that, many stayed on the boat, refusing to even enter the water. haha

We slept early that night as we wanted to wake up early at 6am for sunrise the next morning......

...........and sunrise was worth every second of our deprived sleep. =)

Sis waddling her feet before sunrise

gentle, soothing azure

its coming...its coming!

the great ball of fire! - peaking out between the clouds

magnificent sunrise - an event not to be missed if you're visiting redang ;)

We left Redang Island that afternoon with a very heart. Before we checked out of the resort, we had another opportunity to snorkel at the house reef nearby the resort. We saw a lot of bawal putih, groupers, sea anemones, parrot fish and clown fish.

On the boat back to the mainland, we were fortunate enough to spot another green turtle! =)

We're hoping to come back to redang one day. The sooner the better because the corals there are deteriorating fast, thanks to some irresponsible visitors; stepping on the corals and polluting the sea.

Got to see as much as possible before they are all gone. haha. Hoping to get a Scuba licence the during the next trip. =)

p.s. - if you're going to Redang Island anytime soon, be sure to bring SUNBLOCKS. A poor japanese guy who snorkeled without tshirt and sunblock sustained severe sunburns...till he can't put his shirt on coz its painful. Its that bad. Fortunately we brought ours.... =D

Ok, I've finally decided to start a blog of my own. Supprised? Well, honestly speaking, I had to ponder days on end regarding this issue (not till the extend of sleepless nights). =) I guess it's good to keep an account of my daily life somewhere....before it fades with my memory as age catches up =P Nonetheless, its my last year in school, and it will be good if i can jott down the last few months of my bitter sweet (more of sweet, i think) schooling life. The thing that bothers me the most is how to maintain my blog, especially in these last critical months before my SPM examinations. Starting a blog is one thing, maintaining one is another challenge altogether. Oh well, i guess i have to manage my time well...and perhaps that will ease the blogging challenge, I hope. Of course, saying that is easy, but when faced with the ever demanding time management of a form 5 student, I'm not too sure whether i'm up for it.  That's just me. I don't speak for all the form 5 students. But hey, in form 5, there isn't exactly much time to manage, agree??