Korean Restaurant
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Missing the Beach
Same day, same time last week, I was at the beachside listening to the guys chit chat among themselves and listening to the wave splashing onto shore.
Now, I'm stuck in the office... need to be careful and watch my ass everyday.
We've all moved into our new office. On the bright side, I have my own permanent desk, and I can put as much stuff as I wish on top of it. On the downside, I have to be constantly at the edge of my seat fearing for the worst, and bracing myself as anytime work will flow to me and will also get scolding unexpectedly.
So nice if can sit on the beach everynight to chill out.
Food is getting more and more expensive to eat around office, and I guess I'm getting more and more kiasu with $$ too. In a way, my new seating arrangement gives me more peace, nobody kacau me that much there and so I can really concentrate on my work without getting distracted. But then, it get's boring at times also...
Counting how many more months I need to save 1st, before I can afford to go on another holiday. hehe See Saw Yokey invited me to go over Aust for her convo this December... Financially, it's not a good time to travel yet.
Now, I'm stuck in the office... need to be careful and watch my ass everyday.
We've all moved into our new office. On the bright side, I have my own permanent desk, and I can put as much stuff as I wish on top of it. On the downside, I have to be constantly at the edge of my seat fearing for the worst, and bracing myself as anytime work will flow to me and will also get scolding unexpectedly.
So nice if can sit on the beach everynight to chill out.
Food is getting more and more expensive to eat around office, and I guess I'm getting more and more kiasu with $$ too. In a way, my new seating arrangement gives me more peace, nobody kacau me that much there and so I can really concentrate on my work without getting distracted. But then, it get's boring at times also...
Counting how many more months I need to save 1st, before I can afford to go on another holiday. hehe See Saw Yokey invited me to go over Aust for her convo this December... Financially, it's not a good time to travel yet.
Monday, July 17, 2006
My adventure to Tioman…
Me & Hypo departed from KL about 10.30pm on Wednesday nite, 12th July 2006. Dad fetched us to Pudu and we took the 11.30pm bus to Mersing.
It was definitely an exciting feeling, my 2nd trip away from home with Hypo and also the thoughts of going diving in the sea, is exhilarating plus scary at the same time. I kept telling myself… if I can survive White river rafting, getting trapped under the boat and yet still come up alive and not even hurt or drank any river water, I should be able to survive this diving.
Throughout the whole nite, I’ve been drifting in and out of sleep in the bus. For sure, I slept more then I was awake, I was already tired from a day’s work. We arrived at Mersing jetty very very early in the morning. It was only about 5am, and nothing is opened. There’s a few others sitting around in the jetty, and most of them are sleeping, so we joined in the crowd too. Lazed around awhile, until 6++ when the shops opened, we went to grab some breakfast. The nasi lemak tasted bad…tasted as though it was yesterday’s left over food.
Anyway, to took the 7.30am speed boat, and headed to Kampung Paya in Tioman. Once arrival in Kampung Paya, I met my instructor CM. A nice friendly chap who told us to go check into our chalet’s and settle down first. So we checked in into the simple chalet… it’s just a very small and simple chalet. The door opens to 3 beds in a row, there’s a simply small bathroom, and a small dressing table. That’s all… not even a cupboard! Anyway, we just dumped our stuff down, got changed and headed out back to the dive center. It is about 5-10 minutes walk from the Dive center to the chalet, and along the way we need to walk through this forest like area, using the wooden planks which forms a long long bridge. It’s surrounded by swamp below, and trees…very very eerie if u were to walk alone at night.
Everything happened very very quickly. The minute we got back out to the dive center, we packed our gear and started loading things into the boat. Our 1st dive is to go Marine Park. Andrew followed Chris and another diver who were going to dive around the ship wrek there. I followed CM to go do my confine water skill exams.
First, he told me to hold the rope, and slowly descend into the ocean. Man… it was darn scary. The rope is filled with funny things. There’s sharp pokey things, and there’s also soft jelly feeling looking things. Not only that, I look up, I see nothing. I look down, I see nothing. The rope seems to be heading to no where. I just went down and down and down, after a very very long time… finally we reached a sandy bottom.
Ah..i survived… I was actually very amazed that I still haven’t freak out. Finally at the bottom, we ran through some skills. Very quickly I did my mask clearing, mask removal, fin pivot. After that we went and swim around. First time in the ocean, I could not get used to the fact that fishes will swim very very near to u. There’s a cute little fish which somehow seemed attracted to my face. Kept swimming around my forehead that CM had to keep waving his hand around my face and head to shoo the fish away. Then even more geli, I felt something wrapping around my leg. It’s those sticky longish fish which usually is found hanging along to the shark or turtles for free rides. Somehow it thought my leg is some form of transportation that it wanted to stick itself to me. I kinda got scared, that I started tapping CM’s shoulder and pointing to my leg… hero CM came and started shooing the fish away.
First dive, we mostly dive along sandy beach, at least there’s no corals for me to bang myself into, and we did also see many fishes. After that, we surfaced, and next dive after lunch, we went to Rengis. Here I saw my 1st nemo swimming among the corals. CM spotted a turtle also, and we chased it for a while. Here there’s a little bit more corals at the bottom, so there’s quite a lot things to see.
After 2nd dive, we headed back to Kampung Paya. Lazed around and took a short nap before dinner. After dinner at our kampong, we walked back out to the beach to join the rest of the divers. Here we met another 2 divers, Basil and Loh. Hyppo went chit chatting with them, and I also went to chit chat on the phone with my buddies. Went back to the chalet rather late also, just went back and fell straight to sleep.
The next day, my 2nd day in Tioman on a Friday. Hyppo woke up early to join Basil, Loh and other divers on an expedition to collect Crown of Thorns (COT), it’s a project awareness thing. Very very early he already went for the briefing before 7am. I continued to sleep till 8am, had a quick breakfast myself, and went to join CM at the dive center at 8.30am. Along the beach, I did my compass navigation, and my Cesa. By the time I finished, it was about 10am which by then Kay, another instructor already arrived at Tioman. Together with Hyppo and the other divers, we headed out to sea again..this time headed to Malang Rocks.
My descent was ok…I managed to go right down and it wasn’t that bad. CM told me to hover around on top of the divers and watch them pick the COT. He told me that it’s dangerous, if the spikes get to me, I might get paralysed. I was under the impression that this COT, if u touch it, it will get provoked, that it’ll start shooting it’s spikes or it’ll move and attack u. So me & CM swim swim swim, he spotted a COT and started hitting his tank to alert the other divers to come pick it up. As I wasn’t good at hovering, no confidence, I definitely do not want to hover anywhere on TOP or near the COT… just in case somehow I lose my balance and fall flat on top of it. So I swim swim swim away to make way for the other divers to pick it up. I was hovering rather far away to watch them. After the dive, CM and Hyppo had a good time laughing at me, said I was terrified of it.
Anyway, by this 3rd dive, I’ve already completed all my exam skills, that my 3rd and 4th dive is supposed to be a leisure one, which I can just swim around to look see.
After the 3rd dive, we had our lunch on the boat and after some time, dived back down into the sea for our 4th dive at a different spot, but also in Malang Rocks. This time, I encountered Thermoclien. Oh man…the water suddenly turned freezing cold and I was shivering. My feets can’t swim fast, and CM is far far in front of me. Almost lost sight of him, and almost died kicking so fast. Anyhow, the dive here was considered ok’ler.. this time, I spotted another turtle. I just happened to look up and saw a shadow floating above…. Turned and saw a turtle.
Night time, it’s the same thing again.. dinner. After dinner, at the dive center, I went to complete up my theory exam. I just passed the paper on the dot. 1 more mistake, then I would have failed. Then after that Hyppo went to gossip gossip, I went to sit at the beach. I really enjoy moments like this where I’ll just sit on the beach, listen to the wave splashing, looking up to a sky full of stars. It’s not always u get to see a sky full of stars in KL.. but over there in Tioman, it was FULL of stars..all dotting the horizon. However, Hyppo doesn’t have this kind of interest to sit on the beach to listen to waves and look at the sky, so I went on myself and still enjoyed myself.
Hyppo stayed up late at the dive center to do his work (kononnya), and I believe he ended up chatting more then work. So I went back 1st to sleep and rest.
By the 3rd day in Tioman, I’m already considered a certified Open Water Diver. CM already heading back to KL today, so he didn’t join the dive. Today, Hyppo will be my buddy. First we headed to Labas for my 5th dive. Of cos I was terrified. I was used to having CM around me, as he would know me best when it comes to diving. But I trust Hyppo will take care of me too. So poof, down we descend into the ocean.
It was different diving with Hyppo and diving with CM. with CM, I like it when he swims in front of me. He leads the way, and I follow him behind. It gives me a sence of security as he is always in my vision. Of cos, occasionally he will turn around to check if I’m following. But with Hyppo, he insist on swimming behind me, or on TOP of me. In places where I cannot see him, and I feel insecure. Ah..of cos, on and off he will come and push my tank, or pull my tank. Hyppo also likes to swim close close to the corals, and I’m so terrified of ramming straight into it. But overall, it was ok.
My 6th dive, we went to Kadoh Bay. I guess this was my best dive. It’s also the most shallow place. This time, Hypo held my hands during the dive. First we followed along with the group, then later somehow we got lost, so we were on our own. It was fun.. by holding hands, I know he’s beside me, I don’t have to keep lookin at him, he don’t have to keep searching for me. We just hold hands and swim around to look at corals. There’s many many corals and fishes here. My 1st encounter with corals also was here. I see hypo slumber only take his hands to touch the corals. So I also clever, thought I can do the same. I use my hands and touch, and oh man does it hurt! It has spikes… Gosh.. I forgot the fact that Hypo had on gloves to touch, and I was using my bare naked hands.
After the 6th dive, by the time we got back to Kampung Paya it was still early. So just lepak around while I went back to bath and laze around on the bed. Don’t know if it’s cos I was hungry, or the sun, or because this morning’s 5th dive we didn’t do a safety dive… but when I got back, I went out to walk around the kampong, I almost fainted there. Felt no energy and dizzy. Quickly I went back to the room to lie on the bed and drank more water. Then later they came to call me to go to the Rock falls…
The evening went on as usual. This night, we joined the rest for dinner. Also I stayed back on to listen to the guys chit chat about their diving experience until 3am when we finally walked back to the chalet and drop dead.
Next day, a Sunday, we had our breakfast then started heading back to KL.
I’ve definitely had an enjoyable time in Tioman… and now, I have to face back reality life.
Reality life which means working in my new job environment, new people sitting around me, new job scope. Not only that, my master’s class is about to begin again.. My life is full of excitement.
Past few days in Tioman, so used to having Hyppo around me almost all the time. Now come back to KL I have to be apart from him… feels so weird. Really miss him alot and don’t wanna part with him.
It was definitely an exciting feeling, my 2nd trip away from home with Hypo and also the thoughts of going diving in the sea, is exhilarating plus scary at the same time. I kept telling myself… if I can survive White river rafting, getting trapped under the boat and yet still come up alive and not even hurt or drank any river water, I should be able to survive this diving.
Throughout the whole nite, I’ve been drifting in and out of sleep in the bus. For sure, I slept more then I was awake, I was already tired from a day’s work. We arrived at Mersing jetty very very early in the morning. It was only about 5am, and nothing is opened. There’s a few others sitting around in the jetty, and most of them are sleeping, so we joined in the crowd too. Lazed around awhile, until 6++ when the shops opened, we went to grab some breakfast. The nasi lemak tasted bad…tasted as though it was yesterday’s left over food.
Anyway, to took the 7.30am speed boat, and headed to Kampung Paya in Tioman. Once arrival in Kampung Paya, I met my instructor CM. A nice friendly chap who told us to go check into our chalet’s and settle down first. So we checked in into the simple chalet… it’s just a very small and simple chalet. The door opens to 3 beds in a row, there’s a simply small bathroom, and a small dressing table. That’s all… not even a cupboard! Anyway, we just dumped our stuff down, got changed and headed out back to the dive center. It is about 5-10 minutes walk from the Dive center to the chalet, and along the way we need to walk through this forest like area, using the wooden planks which forms a long long bridge. It’s surrounded by swamp below, and trees…very very eerie if u were to walk alone at night.
Everything happened very very quickly. The minute we got back out to the dive center, we packed our gear and started loading things into the boat. Our 1st dive is to go Marine Park. Andrew followed Chris and another diver who were going to dive around the ship wrek there. I followed CM to go do my confine water skill exams.
First, he told me to hold the rope, and slowly descend into the ocean. Man… it was darn scary. The rope is filled with funny things. There’s sharp pokey things, and there’s also soft jelly feeling looking things. Not only that, I look up, I see nothing. I look down, I see nothing. The rope seems to be heading to no where. I just went down and down and down, after a very very long time… finally we reached a sandy bottom.
Ah..i survived… I was actually very amazed that I still haven’t freak out. Finally at the bottom, we ran through some skills. Very quickly I did my mask clearing, mask removal, fin pivot. After that we went and swim around. First time in the ocean, I could not get used to the fact that fishes will swim very very near to u. There’s a cute little fish which somehow seemed attracted to my face. Kept swimming around my forehead that CM had to keep waving his hand around my face and head to shoo the fish away. Then even more geli, I felt something wrapping around my leg. It’s those sticky longish fish which usually is found hanging along to the shark or turtles for free rides. Somehow it thought my leg is some form of transportation that it wanted to stick itself to me. I kinda got scared, that I started tapping CM’s shoulder and pointing to my leg… hero CM came and started shooing the fish away.
First dive, we mostly dive along sandy beach, at least there’s no corals for me to bang myself into, and we did also see many fishes. After that, we surfaced, and next dive after lunch, we went to Rengis. Here I saw my 1st nemo swimming among the corals. CM spotted a turtle also, and we chased it for a while. Here there’s a little bit more corals at the bottom, so there’s quite a lot things to see.
After 2nd dive, we headed back to Kampung Paya. Lazed around and took a short nap before dinner. After dinner at our kampong, we walked back out to the beach to join the rest of the divers. Here we met another 2 divers, Basil and Loh. Hyppo went chit chatting with them, and I also went to chit chat on the phone with my buddies. Went back to the chalet rather late also, just went back and fell straight to sleep.
The next day, my 2nd day in Tioman on a Friday. Hyppo woke up early to join Basil, Loh and other divers on an expedition to collect Crown of Thorns (COT), it’s a project awareness thing. Very very early he already went for the briefing before 7am. I continued to sleep till 8am, had a quick breakfast myself, and went to join CM at the dive center at 8.30am. Along the beach, I did my compass navigation, and my Cesa. By the time I finished, it was about 10am which by then Kay, another instructor already arrived at Tioman. Together with Hyppo and the other divers, we headed out to sea again..this time headed to Malang Rocks.
My descent was ok…I managed to go right down and it wasn’t that bad. CM told me to hover around on top of the divers and watch them pick the COT. He told me that it’s dangerous, if the spikes get to me, I might get paralysed. I was under the impression that this COT, if u touch it, it will get provoked, that it’ll start shooting it’s spikes or it’ll move and attack u. So me & CM swim swim swim, he spotted a COT and started hitting his tank to alert the other divers to come pick it up. As I wasn’t good at hovering, no confidence, I definitely do not want to hover anywhere on TOP or near the COT… just in case somehow I lose my balance and fall flat on top of it. So I swim swim swim away to make way for the other divers to pick it up. I was hovering rather far away to watch them. After the dive, CM and Hyppo had a good time laughing at me, said I was terrified of it.
Anyway, by this 3rd dive, I’ve already completed all my exam skills, that my 3rd and 4th dive is supposed to be a leisure one, which I can just swim around to look see.
After the 3rd dive, we had our lunch on the boat and after some time, dived back down into the sea for our 4th dive at a different spot, but also in Malang Rocks. This time, I encountered Thermoclien. Oh man…the water suddenly turned freezing cold and I was shivering. My feets can’t swim fast, and CM is far far in front of me. Almost lost sight of him, and almost died kicking so fast. Anyhow, the dive here was considered ok’ler.. this time, I spotted another turtle. I just happened to look up and saw a shadow floating above…. Turned and saw a turtle.
Night time, it’s the same thing again.. dinner. After dinner, at the dive center, I went to complete up my theory exam. I just passed the paper on the dot. 1 more mistake, then I would have failed. Then after that Hyppo went to gossip gossip, I went to sit at the beach. I really enjoy moments like this where I’ll just sit on the beach, listen to the wave splashing, looking up to a sky full of stars. It’s not always u get to see a sky full of stars in KL.. but over there in Tioman, it was FULL of stars..all dotting the horizon. However, Hyppo doesn’t have this kind of interest to sit on the beach to listen to waves and look at the sky, so I went on myself and still enjoyed myself.
Hyppo stayed up late at the dive center to do his work (kononnya), and I believe he ended up chatting more then work. So I went back 1st to sleep and rest.
By the 3rd day in Tioman, I’m already considered a certified Open Water Diver. CM already heading back to KL today, so he didn’t join the dive. Today, Hyppo will be my buddy. First we headed to Labas for my 5th dive. Of cos I was terrified. I was used to having CM around me, as he would know me best when it comes to diving. But I trust Hyppo will take care of me too. So poof, down we descend into the ocean.
It was different diving with Hyppo and diving with CM. with CM, I like it when he swims in front of me. He leads the way, and I follow him behind. It gives me a sence of security as he is always in my vision. Of cos, occasionally he will turn around to check if I’m following. But with Hyppo, he insist on swimming behind me, or on TOP of me. In places where I cannot see him, and I feel insecure. Ah..of cos, on and off he will come and push my tank, or pull my tank. Hyppo also likes to swim close close to the corals, and I’m so terrified of ramming straight into it. But overall, it was ok.
My 6th dive, we went to Kadoh Bay. I guess this was my best dive. It’s also the most shallow place. This time, Hypo held my hands during the dive. First we followed along with the group, then later somehow we got lost, so we were on our own. It was fun.. by holding hands, I know he’s beside me, I don’t have to keep lookin at him, he don’t have to keep searching for me. We just hold hands and swim around to look at corals. There’s many many corals and fishes here. My 1st encounter with corals also was here. I see hypo slumber only take his hands to touch the corals. So I also clever, thought I can do the same. I use my hands and touch, and oh man does it hurt! It has spikes… Gosh.. I forgot the fact that Hypo had on gloves to touch, and I was using my bare naked hands.
After the 6th dive, by the time we got back to Kampung Paya it was still early. So just lepak around while I went back to bath and laze around on the bed. Don’t know if it’s cos I was hungry, or the sun, or because this morning’s 5th dive we didn’t do a safety dive… but when I got back, I went out to walk around the kampong, I almost fainted there. Felt no energy and dizzy. Quickly I went back to the room to lie on the bed and drank more water. Then later they came to call me to go to the Rock falls…
The evening went on as usual. This night, we joined the rest for dinner. Also I stayed back on to listen to the guys chit chat about their diving experience until 3am when we finally walked back to the chalet and drop dead.
Next day, a Sunday, we had our breakfast then started heading back to KL.
I’ve definitely had an enjoyable time in Tioman… and now, I have to face back reality life.
Reality life which means working in my new job environment, new people sitting around me, new job scope. Not only that, my master’s class is about to begin again.. My life is full of excitement.
Past few days in Tioman, so used to having Hyppo around me almost all the time. Now come back to KL I have to be apart from him… feels so weird. Really miss him alot and don’t wanna part with him.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
