Lanta! (Part 3)

Been so busy at work, had to delay this post till now. But I had uploaded many pictures to my Facebook account. Will post some of them here with commentaries :)

Beachfront bungalow at Ancient Realm's. One of the few resorts that operates all year round, even during green season

The bed in our room with some fine decorations to welcome our arrival

Why can't everyday be as relaxing as this? Lying and swinging lazily with a good book on a hammock in a peaceful garden with the sound of gentle ocean waves in the background

The Spa! I loved the Thai and aroma oil massages there. One of the best ways to unwind and to release stored up tensions in the body and mind

The two pics above were taken at I-Yarade Residence. It's amazing how we ended up there. We were riding on the motorbike when it started raining. We stopped at this place because it was the nearest shelter. Soaking wet and looking pitiful, I requested to the reception girl for permission to stand outside the place until the rain stopped and for us to dry off a little bit. They gave us the warmest smile of the day and invited us in. One of them even took us on a tour of their 4 or 5 stars suite. Wow, such kind hospitality even to strangers like us!

My darling hasn't cease to surprise me. Discovered that she's quite good on the bike!

One of the few restaurants in Lanta that many were raving about. Since it was green season, we didn't see any customer beside us. We enjoyed the ambience of the rainforest-concept restaurant and the lovely beach, all to ourselves!

Really yummy fried fish


After having so much fun with wife at the strong waves, it was so relaxing to just lie down on the bed of soft sands and let the waves washed me over and over


We rode to the top of a hill to the Viewpoint Restaurant. Had a nice pancake with thirst-quenching fruit juices while enjoying the view of the distant islands. After quite a while, we realised there was a telescope beside our table!

View from the Viewpoint

Lanta Old Town. Where the gypsies reside. They were the original people that inhabited the island. The old buildings made the place looked like Malacca to me!

At a pier just after Old Town

Overlooking the fishing village of the sea gypsies

We actually went diving again! Diving wasn't essential to our holiday plan this round but it was good to have that option. First time diving without Ps John, I told Sherene that we had to be independent, decide on our own where to dive and which dive company to engage. We initially wanted to dive at Hin Muang and Hin Daeng (famous for whale sharks and manta rays especially) but the weather conditions during the low season meant they were not easily accessible, at least beyond our affordability level. So we went to Koh Haa instead which was very near Lanta. Visibility down there was great. Made good use of the dive "stick" given by Ps John.

The lady on the right Bianca, was our operator and personal dive guide from Holland. She's really good in what she does. Gave us wonderful personal service and attention since there weren't many divers that week. Normally there'll be many boats around the island but for that day (and thank God the weather was great), our boat was the only one. We had the deep blue sea all for ourselves!

This was our first time diving in this sorta small speedboat. New experience. There were other new divers in the same boat doing their open water. Sherene and I were considered the experienced ones. Haha. But we barely had time to assemble our gears (had to do it ourselves this trip) because we had to jump first before the new divers. Surprisingly I remembered how to do it easily even though our last dive was a year ago in Manado, and we didn't have to assemble our stuffs then!

My next (final?) post on Lanta will be on the sunset pictures (loads of them!) which I haven't upload to Facebook. I think the process of choosing which ones to omit is longer than the time to upload the pictures!

Reflecting on my Manado Diving Experiences

So, we've came back from our trip almost a week ago. Besides getting a tanned look, I can honestly say I'm a more confident diver now. Couldn't say the same thing after my previous (first) dive trip.

Let's see, I logged 13 dives in this trip alone. Including wreck dive, night dive, with semi-muck, multi-level and drift dive as well. And not forgetting one cavern experience too!

For me, the highlight was the night dive. When I backflipped into the water I found myself breathing hard, desperate to check my torch was still on. Then I quickly questioned "what is this unnamed fear?" My equipments were working fine, my buddy was by my side, the divemasters and Ps John were nearby. There was no strong wave or current. If I couldn't give that fear a name, it doesn't exist! I calmed my breathing down, deflated my BCD, put my right hand on my nose and down we went, into the black waters.

It was an unforgettable experience. We were told to stay close to each other, but we were definitely too close! My buddy, Sherene locked her elbow to mine within a few seconds of descent. Above me were a crowd of people, half of them within touching distance. I couldn't see the bottom, it was pitch darkness down there. Soon I couldn't see the surface nor the bottom. My only orientation of where's top and where's bottom were the bubbles, and I directed my torch at the depth gauge to ensure I'm not falling too fast. In between, there were some body contacts here and there, but my eyes were on my buddy and my depth gauge. That was all that mattered. Soon I saw the bottom and we stopped descending. It seemed like we were a long way down but the depth gauge gave the most objective answer...it was only 18 meters. There, the thrill of night dive was all over!

But the fun continued. We were all directing our beams to the coral walls looking for interesting creatures. There was this huge lobster, its eyes reflected a certain glow. There were some huge red crabs....must be juicy! What appeared odd to me was the color of the coral walls. They were much redder than during daytime, it's like somebody had thrown buckets of red paints all over them.

As we were floating around, my sensation was as if I was flying in my dream. After all, it was nighttime. I asked myself a few times "Am I dreaming?" That surreal sensation alone made it the most unique dive experience I've ever had so far.

To be honest, I expected to see more brilliant colours of beautiful fishes but not too many were around. We all probably should have switched off our torchlights to see if there was anything glowing. Next time.

When we ascended from our dive, we were greeted by hosts of stars in the open night sky. And Benny's torchlight from the boat. Hehe. On our trip back, we lay down on the boat to admire the starry sky. Talked about the universe, existence and infinity. What a night it was.

In the other dives, we also saw barracudas, bumpheads, turtles, stingrays, small sharks, eels, sea snakes, stone fish etc. The drift dive was also quite exciting. Like flying out of control kinda feeling.

During the last day of diving, we even got a strong lecture (about safety stop) from Ferdi, one of the divemasters as well. I've to comment that the divemasters there are excellent, very friendly and helpful, always ensure our safety in the midst of all the fun.

Next dive trip? I'm not thinking about it yet. Still lingering on my experiences from this trip.

Could these be the last shots from my D60?

When I was jumping off our boat at Bunaken shore on the fourth day, I landed on hard sharp rocks. Pain shot through my right foot and I lost balance. My camera bag took a dive and drank some saltwater! My right foot had a few "holes" but my D60's dead! It's now in the "hospital"... not sure if it can be revived.

Anyway, enjoy the pics shot in Manado, mostly shot in and around the Bunaken Island.

Jeff's shade was so cool..cos we could see ourselves on it! :p

The only time we got to sit on this lil boat was on our arrival to the resort. The rest of the time we walk in the water.

View from the resort's restaurant.

Cool divers getting ready for the day's dive.

The guys posing with sunset in the background.

More sunset pose.

It was only 5.23pm and the sun was retiring...

Sunset at Bunaken Island.

This was the kampung-styled family bungalow where most of us slept.

Early morning view of the sea.

Another day's dive with our divemasters Ferdi and Son.

The jetty at Bunaken Island.

Oh look! Is that a sea snake Ps John caught??

Siladen Island. Said to be the spot containing the most number of coral species in a single place, in the world. The clear blue waters was enough to make me drool!

More pictures with our divemasters Dedi, Son & Ferdi.

By this last day, my DSLR was dead. Still I wanted to see the sunrise. Got up as early as 5am. I soon realized "Hang on, my phone can take pictures too!" So, these sunrise shots were captured with my 3.2 megapixel camera phone. This shot was captured at 5.15am.

5.28am. If only my D60 could wake up :(

5.42am.

5.46am. By this time Ps John & Jessica were awake. I took more pics using his Canon G9 from that time onwards.

More pics were uploaded to my Facebook and Fotki sites. I'll get the underwater shots from Ps John soon.

More Adventures!

Ahh...really looking forward to next weekend. Ya, it's the Raya holidays. No, I'm not balik-ing kampung. My kampung's in Klang anyway. But I'm going somewhere, for more adventures...again!

Few weeks ago, I was contemplating where to go for vacation during Raya. Last year at this time, my wife and I had some interesting adventures at Krabi (real, magnificent limestone rock climbing, kayaking into caves and mangrove forests, snorkelling at Phi Phi etc). This Raya we'll be going to Manado for scuba diving! Yeah, diving again. Beginning this year, I honestly didn't think we'll plunge (pardon the pun) into diving this year, let alone twice!

FYI, Manado is not in Philippines (like what some thought haha!). It's at North Sulawesi at Indonesia. Will be our first time in Indonesia. Manado is Air Asia's new destination, famous for diving as the sea there is very rich in biodiversity. Look at all the pictures on the Internet...wow!

We were torn between Hanoi and Manado initially. We've talked abit since last year about visiting Hanoi. Heard wonderful things about the place. And we were looking forward to go Sapa (North West of Hanoi), to climb mountains, see ethnic villages, to scale the heights of Fan Si Pan, view the incredible panorama of China's border, take lots of landscape photos and enjoy the cold weather. And pig out on cheap Vietnamese food! Maybe next year.

Looking forward to a wonderful time with Ps John and wife, and the gang (Jeff, TJ, Benny and maybe Zlwin too)!

Looking forward to more fun adventures with my wife. She's my dive buddy for this trip and for this lifetime. You know, I'm so blessed to have a wife to share wonderful memories with. I mean we'll do fun and exciting things together. How many partners/wifes will climb mountains, dive, do crazy and dangerous stuffs with their men? This is something money cannot buy. I've travelled alot and seen so much especially during my student years overseas, but I would gladly do everything all over again, with my wife. The old photo albums can remain buried. I'm accumulating new albums (digital of course!)....with her face with mine. :)

Hanoi will have to wait. Manado, here we come! Countdown to 11 days....

Last of Phuket Pics

I've loads more pics but it's too tedious to upload and arrange them all. So I've to pick and choose. This is the dilemma of shooting too many pics especially if they're nice. This is my last post on Phuket pics (finally!). I'll upload the rest on my Fotki site soon.

.This was Sherene doing last minute study for diving theory test at the airport, departing for Phuket

.Andrew

.I like this shot of Janielle against the moving background. Found out in this trip that she can be such a poser for shots. Hehe!

.Ps John in action. He can not only hike, climb & dive, but make crepe also! ;)

.This was the spiral staircase at Lawan Residence, where we stayed. I was commenting on how this was a disable-unfriendly place. They had no lift, only spiral stairs after stairs. But no problem for young and active people like us. Btw, we stayed on the 3rd and 4th floor

.The condiments for our fav beef noodle soup. We loved the fish sauce. I think Ps John bought a bottle back. I hope Janielle didn't mistakenly think I was capturing her for the shot. Haha!

.This was when we threw a surprise b'day thingy for Ps John. An early celebration

.I think he was actually surprised. Nice to see his reaction

.All of us at our divers' graduation dinner. We had dinner buffet there at a very affordable price

.The PADI certified open water divers with our cool instructor

.Posing with a metal sculpture of Alien

.The guard always gave us the salute when we walked pass the mall entrance. I just had to have a shot of him

.Nately and Sherene

.To our surprise, they had an indoor shooting cafe at Junceylon. Didn't have to go far away to shoot with real guns

.This was me loading ammo into my gun. I was using Para Ordinance, a 9mm handgun. Chose this because it was the heaviest of the lot, and I liked the silver finishing

.The varied ammunitions

.The guns

.The targets 10 yard away. This pic made them look nearer than they actually were

.Close view of my Para Ordinance

.Posing with our targets. You probably can't see I've more shots in the black zone and less on the white zone. I outscored them. Ngek ngek!

.Samurai wannabe?

.So the question is: did we enter Christin Massage?? WE DID! For Jacky's sake (as you can see hehe!). Too bad I was prohibited to capture any shot in there. Basically, there were many 'gorgeous' (my foot!) masseuses sitting at a see-through room waiting to be picked by customers. We didn't engage their services (of course!)

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You know who was this guy on the left? He's Glen Gilmore, ex-mayor of Hamilton at New Jersey. If you google his name, you can read about his many accomplishments, including during an anthrax crisis! He stayed at the same place and dived with us on our 1st dive day. Totally friendly and down-to-earth guy. He said we can go look for him in New Jersey anytime. Really nice bloke

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This was Phuket taken from the clouds on the way back

That's it for my Phuket photos. Didn't want to overwhelm this blog with too many pics (although it's quite a lot already!). I'll post most of them at my Fotki site soon.

I think Phuket tourism should pay me a bit for these promo! Cos I kinda noticed my blog is being googled almost everyday for pics of some places I took...
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