I want to dedicate this post to C, who tragically passed away from a car accident while on the way back home from this trip. Although it was only very briefly, I’m glad that our paths crossed and that we had so much fun in those 3 days. I will always remember you – chatty, animated, funny and carefree. Rest in peace.
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We took a slow, leisurely drive to Kuala Terengganu (KT) a day earlier. On the way, we stopped by Kuantan and met up with an old friend, Damien for dinner. He took us to this chinese restaurant called Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant and had very a yummy dinner.
# – Noms.
# – Me and Damien. On an unrelated note, my eyebags remind me of sausages.
After dinner, we continued our journey to KT. We found this budget hotel called Hotel Indah going for RM70 per room per night. Well, in spite of its name, there’s nothing “indah” about it.
The bed was basically a plastic mattress covered in really thin, well-worn sheet. Actually, I won’t even call it a sheet. Blanket was just a thin beach towel…for my 6’5″ bf and myself? Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for. Next time, we’d have no qualms putting down RM50 more for a real bed and blanket!
# – God and Moobs sharing a room with see-through bathroom.
Anyway, before bedtime, we walked out to find some beers. We went to a 7-11 but surprise, surprise, 7-11s in KT don’t carry alcoholic beverages.
Then God proceeded to ask the first person he met outside 7-11 where to find beer, a middle-aged lady in traditional headscarf, “Kak, you tahu mana ada jual arak??” (Sis, do you know anywhere selling booze?). I was ready to run, to be honest.
Instead of scolding us though, the lady led us to a dingy coffee shop behind our hotel. A man was helping a very inebriated man out from the shop and we knew immediately, that we’re at the right place. We thanked the lady in headscarf, went into the semi-closed coffee shop and was met with about a dozen Thai people getting drunk and singing to cowboy country music. We bought 2 bottles of beer and a bag of ice.
At our hotel, we cut an empty mineral water bottle into half cause we didn’t have glasses. And no, Hotel Indah did not have glasses for its guests.
# – Moobs with his half.
# – And me with the other half.
The next morning, we headed to the jetty!
# – Moobs and the BF fighting before departing from the jetty.
We reached Redang Bay Resort and was relieved at our accommodation, which was very, very comfortable :D
# – OMG our room even had a mirror!
Despite being at the very end of the season, the weather held up beautifully for us.
# – Sunny sky, blue sea and white sands.
We had a total of 5 dives, including one night dive which was incredibly awesome. Ed, my dive instructor led all our dives.
# – Ed and the BF.
# – God. He took all the underwater pictures on this blog. Check out his awesome blog at www.seapixels.com
# – Meeee!
# – The BF getting friendly with nemos.
# – Me again!!!!
I saw a live turtle for the first time and it was humongous. It was amazing! Also saw a black tip reef shark and a lone barracuda and of course a lot of colourful, weird fish. I finally learnt that nudibranch is really very tiny, I didn’t realise all those pictures of nudibranches were really macro shots :P
It’s a bit hard to stomach that it will be about 6 more months before we get to dive in local waters again. The only option is to dive overseas but we feel like it’s only right to explore all of Malaysia’s diving spots first before crossing borders.
That said, I’m not sure if my willpower could withstand the temptations, already fantastic diving deals in Thailand and Philippines are being thrown at my face T_T
Truly, I’m missing it so much already :(
