Another one of those blog posts that is image-friendly... Took a whole week off from work for a dive trip, followed by (insert any sort of activity here) - well, any reason is good enough to take some time off!
Coffee before the long drive.
I targeted to depart Penang by 2pm but as fate would have it, we ended up waiting for this and that, doing last minute shopping and finally only got to leave at 5pm -.-
Beautiful view along the way...
The first of many more burgers in our vacation... After some 6 hours of driving (including an hour in between for dinner), we reached Kota Bharu at 11pm - a most inefficient town. To pass through a single traffic light took us almost 15-20mins, it's ridiculous.
By the way, we stayed at Tune Hotels, not bad leh. Book the rooms early, so prices are very affordable. Place is clean and functional. Not bad, not bad. Took off early the next day again to catch the 7am ferry from Kuala Besut jetty!!
A group shot so we can later have a before-after comparison lol. 7 guys, 7 girls, 14 vacationers!
Oh, we had to transfer to another smaller boat when we were almost close to the island.... As we were transferring our things, my camera plonked into the clear water -.- Had to leave it to dry before using it... so for the whole day left the camera alone T_T
Fast forward (cos couldn't take photos), had our dinner at Panorama Cafe... We felt like foreigners on the island - the whole island is filled with angmohs, even the waiter/waitresses/bakers/bartenders are all angmohs -.- But we were there so close to Raya, so I suppose most of the locals have gone off.
2nd night meal... burgers again LOL! With extremely salty tater wedges.
Pesto pasta and pasta in chilli oil.
Breakfast & briefing. Food is crazy expensive here. Just a pack of fried beehoon is RM4.
One of the best dive sites (felt like I've been repeating this over, and over again - it is that good). There's a lot of maneuvering, squeezing into corners and between boulders... it's amazingly cool... I felt like I was in a NatGeo documentary!
Dinner at our chalet common area. Buffet dinner consisting of spaghetti, burgers (again!!!), rice with eggs, fish etc for RM25. Oh, one gripe I had about our whole stay is the miserable conditions of the chalets. The place is so sad! When we first checked in, one of the toilets was leaking and we had a semi-flooded toilet, the other toilet flush couldn't work -.-
Ah well, apparently that's how it's like at the small island. The better accommodations are on the big island - but the big island is not as happening as the small island.
We were really fortunate to have such a great weather as well! Not even a single drop of rain! And guess what? The Milky Way is so clear it's jaw dropping. Check out this photo I looted from TY's cam.
A bit edited... but you get the general idea :D
Raya morning! No one was working in the cafe.... TY got things in his own hands... turned on the stove to boil water and made us all cups of coffee lol.
Tortilla lunch with icy cold Diet coke.
RM18 nasi goreng tea time complete with prawn and satay
Some dive shots from the cam! (Seriously need to think of getting a strobe cos photos very bluish).
Beautiful, beautiful shot taken by TY.
Trigger fish that TY got dangerously close to lol.
A poser puffer fish
One of the better dive sites - Pinnacle. Scores of schools of fishes. Beautiful place.
A lonesome nudi.
A group shot with the leisure dive group along with our adorable dive masters Joost & Chris.
Turtle Bay Divers - highly recommended to arrange your dives or advance through your diving qualifications with.
Saying bye-bye to Pulau Perhentian Kecil...
And an after photo back at the jetty....
And after shot!
On the way back, drove through Kuala Terengganu to pay Chin Teng a visit.
Lekorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
And finally, attacking Chin Teng's house in KT, clearing his house of all food hehehehe. His parents are awesome! Fried lekor for us to taste with three different types of dips. Chili, original sauce and sauce with chili.
Eat, sleep, dive 2012 :)
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