Stuff I gobbled up

Yet more pics from the Terengganu trip! These are some of the food i captured on camera before gobbling it up!! Quite conspicuous lugging the big cam everywhere so i only bring it out occasionally.



Frankly i don't really know what this is. It's not lobster but probably a branch of lobster/prawn family. So freaking yummy!!!



Look like ebiko



Sotong bakar (grilled squids)... *drool*


That's the Garbage Bin drink on the right.. A layer of dragonfruit juice and a layer of mango juice with watermelon and laici on top for the complete rubbish effect.. haha.. On the left is lemon + apple juice with asam.


The purple drink is called the Amber Chia drink. If i remember correctly, it's blackcurrent and dragonfruit mix topped with laici and blackcurrent. On the right is a mix of kiwi and erm... gosh, i forgot.. that's what i get for procrastinating and posting this a MONTH after i've been back. :P

Anyway, we went the shop (it's a shop with no signboard opposite The Store in Chinatown) almost every night to try a new drink. The guy also made a few not-in-the-menu drinks in for us guinea pigs to try and made us guess the fruits in the mixture. Good thing that our stomach could handle all those fruit mixture.. :)



Nasi Dagang with ikan tongkol! yeah, i try to eat all the 'nasi' whenever i'm in Terengganu. Stuff like Nasi Dagang, Nasi Minyak, Nasi Kuning.. haha.. don't get those much in KL.



Fried ice-cream... Not a specialty there but something i came across and ordered. Not that good. I've tasted better ones.



Food aside, i have to post this.. haha.. took this shot from a moving car. Wow, they decorated the bus like a tradisional malay house!



Wood on the outside. Batik decoration on the roof inside... hehh



I was told that it's for tourists to hop in for a small tour around town for free. Nice :)

At the swamp river

Ibai's swamp river


More pics from my Terengganu trip. Went to the driving range in Ibai's Tuanku Mizan Golf & Country Club with both my sis and brother-in-law who came back for a hometown visit from Shanghai.

Golf is SO not my thing!!! Got bored after a dozen pitches.. blerghh.

Lucky for me, there's a swamp river beside the driving range. Spent half the time shooting there instead... hehh



No adventure, no thrill. Not my kind of sport - for now :P



... decided to take a walk and checkout the swamp river beside the driving range.



Ooo.. got fish around the riverbank



Crab hole.. hmm.. got crab?



oh yeah, lotsa tiny crabs.. what fun!



Here's another coming out from the hole






And it went back in when i put the cam closer.. ishh



It's so tiny i had to push the camera almost to the ground for these shots! No plans for telephoto lens though. Definitely too heavy for me. :P



Come out and play!



There are 6 fishes in this pic. Can you spot them all? :)



That's the plank i perched on while taking the pics above. Not that easy okay! Those fish and crabs didn't come out and just pose for the cam! The waiting game was quite fun though.. very calm and peaceful there and i had the entire place to myself! :)

Birds' Nest House Visit

Visited the swiflets' house to harvest a few nests when i was back in my hometown at Kuala Terengganu. okay that was like.. 3 weeks ago! In case you're wondering, swiflet is a species of bird which produces the edible bird's nest - a Chinese delicacy. Pretty good stuff if you don't think of the fact that the nests are made from the bird's saliva!! kekeke



This is the actual nest from the birdhouse - complete with feathers!! Swiflet's nest from the birdhouse are said to be much cleaner than the ones from cave



A fallen swiflet - this bird was slumped on the floor when we were going up to the birdhouse. Took it in my hand for pics and put the poor bird back where it's safe :)



Like a cave, the bird's natural habitat, it's pitch dark inside with a lot of bird's dropping! Euw, so smelly! We had to wear face mask and use this makeshift lamp whenever we go in to harvest the nests.



Gotta bring torchlights too! The swiftlets normally fly out and get back to their nests late in the evening, but there were quite a few hanging around when we went up during the midday



yeah, those white thingies are the nests!



Check if there's any egg or babies inside before harvesting the nest.



okay, time to harvest if it's clear



A baby swiftlet in the nest... probably newly hatched... geli lah.. haha



One of us accidentally harvested a nest with eggs inside! yikes!! We then put the eggs back in some other nest... hehehe



One of the many speakers that projects bird-like sound to attract swiflets into the birdhouse.



The nests we collected that day



Let's clean them and make some bird nest's soup!! Soak in water and pick out the feathers with this surgery-like tool... a freaking tedious process for sure!!



Especially those tiny, fine feathers!!! gosh, I have no patience nor the eyes (yeah, need good eyes for those tiny specs of feathers) for these!! My sis and the maid did it... nice and clean. Ready to be dumped into soup and eat! yumyum! :)



Still have a bunch of hometown pics. Will be posting more soon. They're all over my harddrive! :D

Pulau Perhentian Trip for PIC 2007

Fishing village in Perhentian Kecil



The wave-less Teluk Keke, Pulau Perhentian Besar - where our campsite was located... oops, right side seem to have been cut off here. Maximize your window and see the pic HERE


okay, here are the belated pics from Perhentian Island Challenge (PIC)! Had soOooo much fun snorkelling and running around taking pics! Didn't have an underwater case for my cam so no underwater pics!

Anyway, i saw a mid-size shark and a HUGEEEEEE turtle!! As big as ME!!! And that's HUGEEEEE!!! err.. the turtle that is.. not me.. hahahha

Okaydoks, let's start the photo journey here. Brace your fingers!! Lotsa scrolling ahead!! :)


Taken at 3am.. the convoy of 8 coaches started off from KL at 12am.. only to reach KT at 10am!! Too many stops in between and the drivers did not speed since there were many JPJ checks after the Bukit Gantang tragic incident.



Breakfast at Kuala Terengganu. The one after the fried beehun is the famous Terengganu's Nasi Dagang, wrapped in banana leaf!! yumyum!



I was so happily eating that i finished mine and forgot to take a snapshot until E asked, "eh, you don't wanna take picture ah??".. haha. So this is E's half-eaten Nasi Dagang.



Our gift bag with a T-shirt and a few other small stuff (pen, keychain, sticker, etc.) from the Terengganu State Tourism.



The convoy of 8 coaches got police escort (complete with sirens and all!) from KT alllllllll the way to Kuala Besut jetty!! My bus was leading the pack. The 1.5 hour journey became 2 hours cause the police drove so damn slow.. as if we were on a parade or something!! And they drove in the middle like they own the road!! haha



And they waved (told you it's like a parade!) and made cars stop for us... even when the cars were at the OTHER side of the road! Felt like royalty.. hahaha



And we could drive on even when the traffic light was RED! All the cars had to move during red light too, just to make way for us.



Got our racekit at Bubu Resort's office in Kuala Besut.



Dumped all our baggage while waiting. yeah, we reused most of the BUM doorgifts! The BUM sling bags and shoe bag can be seen here.. hehh



Our speedboat moving out from the jetty to Perhentian Island... woohoo!



One of 2 different beaches near the campsite. The other beach can be seen on top of this post - 2nd pic from top.



Or like this :) See our campsite banner on the right.... oops, pic got cut off on the right again. Maximize your window and see pic HERE



Main 'entrance' to our campsite at Teluk Keke, Perhentian Besar!!



Quick shot of the toilet facilities at our campsite.. not bad for a camping trip eh... hehe



104 - my camp :)



Messy camp pic taken on the last day. The blue mat, tent and sleeping bags were supplied by PIC organisers. We used the sleeping bag as pillows since it was not that cold at night.



Teluk Keke, view from the campsite






My Speedo mask and snorkel.. ready for cool sightings in the ocean!



Only to discover that the water was sooOOoo shallow!! huh?!! how to snorkel???!! Just walk around, look down and you can see them all!!



Corals in shallow water at our beachfront



Definitely nowhere near as nice as the snorkelling sites we went by boat but it was cool to be able to walk a few steps from our camp and see this! :)



Swaying soft coral



Squirting sea cucumber... what were you thinking?!?!? LOL



Tug of war in the evening?



Nah, they were helping the organiser to set up the rope course which will be used by the Elite category racers.



Big crab hiding under the coconut, seen during our nightwalk to Abdul Chalet beach



Morning shot before boarding a boat which will bring us to the race's starting point in Perhentian Kecil



Perhentian Kecil



woahh... lotsa small fishes under the Perhentian Kecil jetty!!



And got a shot of this sword fish from there too. Swam with a lot of them during our snorkelling trips! No worries, they won't poke you with the sharp thingy in front :)



PIC banner at the stage where the VIPs gave speeches and cut the ribbons to mark the opening ceremony of PIC 2007.



And revealed the race course map!! This for Novice category. Round the small island!



Race course for Elite category. Gotta kayak across to Perhentian Besar and round BOTH islands!! *faint dead*



The Novice racers warming up



Readyyyy... set.... GO!! Flag off for Novice racers!



Elite racers.. all very fit lah.. They were flagged off half an hour after the Novice racers.

okay so how come i was still at the starting point half an hour later eh?? Coz when we left our campsite at Perhentian Besar to Perhentian Kecil, i decided to take pics and brought my camera along. There was nowhere to put the camera when the race started, with our campsite across the ocean, and it was too freaking huge and heavy to lug along the entire small island in which we had to go into the water at certain place too.. hmm... soooo...



... I roamed around with the cam and chilled out at the village with a glass of lime juice... hehehe



Local kids were tugging my shirt and asking me to photograph them. There were 3 kids and the fourth rushed in with his plastic fan when i clicked on the shutter.. oops... If only my kit lens can do f2.8. Btw, this was taken at the fisherman village (they have shops and school there too!). Just next to the main Perhentian Kecil jetty.



Swing tied to a tree beside the beach for locals to chill out with their babies



... like this!! haha.. Enjoy the sea breeze! :D



Beach next to the fishing village. Lotsa small boats around.



The sand in Perhentian Kecil beaches are finer as compared to Perhentian Besar but i didn't see any corals here.



Another half an hour later, a few Novice Male racers started to arrive at the finishing line. They took only ONE HOUR to round the entire island!! Holy smokes!! And my buddies took 4 hours!!! kekeke



The last 'Swim with Tube' water obstacle course for Novice before running along the beach to the finishing line.



The winners of Novice Male category post for my camera. No. 181 was the 1st place winner, allll the way from Ghana, finishing the course in 1 hour 6 mins!!!



21 Novice Male racers arrived and still no sign of the girls... until this lady from Pacemaker. She was the first to arrive the finishing line for Novice Woman category in 1 hour 41 mins!



The 1st Elite team arrived in 3 hours 1 minute (woah, you've seen their race course map and that's hardcore!) and still no sign of my buddies who were doing the Novice course.. hehehhee



Finally arrived! Woohoo, time to take a boat out for snorkelling!!



Took 30 mins boat ride to Pulau Rawa! RM40 per person. Covered 3 snorkelling sites. Two sites around Pulau Rawa and one near the Lighthouse. Nice corals and swam with the fishes on a hot sunny afternoon! Very nice!!!



All decked up in PIC T-shirt for closing ceremony at night. Look closely and see the snorkel mask print on our faces! keke



Cultural dance at night. More VIPs came for the prize giving and closing ceremony.



PIC 2007 ended with a 15 mins (i think!) firework display! Crappy handshot at a bad location. By the time i got to a better location, it was too smoky for pics. Anyway, i normally watch fireworks from far and this time it was right on top of our heads!! Felt like raining fireworks... haha.. a nice touch to the closing ceremony :)


No pics for the next morning excursion cause we took a boat out without my camera... felt so light!! haha... Went to Long Beach in Perhentian Kecil - a different side of the island where Bubu Island Resort is located. I bought a hammock there! Then went to a few more snorkelling sites:


@ Shark Point - Nice corals and rock formation here. Quite a few small rock cave underwater that you can peek into and be greeted with sea creatures inside. And this was where i saw shark and tried to follow it around!! But damn, the shark was fast!! Surfaced and hollered for KJ but he was nowhere in sight. Went down again and the shark was already so far!! Tried to catch up but lost it pretty soon. KJ was so stumped that he didn't see it!! haha

@ Can't-Remember-Name-Site - Went to this other site to hunt for more sharks but didn't see any there. Nice corals and colorful fish tho! :)

@ Turtle Point - This is where we saw the HUGEEE turtle!! Right after our boat stopped at that location, one of the local snorkeller shouted, "Ade penyu!! (Got turtle!)". So we quickly put on our fins and jumped in. Woohoo, the turtle was indeed crawling slowly at the sea bottom. If there's no turtle then there's really nothing much to see at Turtle Point as it's a sandy ocean bottom (no corals to see!) for the turtles to crawl around. So, lucky us! :)



Speeding off the island. Time to go home!


goshh, this is LONGGGGGGG!! Did it took you forever to load all those pics?!?! haha... Time to rest those scrolling fingers!! ;)