Hot Air Balloon

2nd of August was the day where I rode the hot air balloon for the first time. The chance appeared to me when I bought the Kaspersky Internet Security solution during the last PC Fair. It's one exciting experienced for my friend Jian Shun and I who went together in the morning on that day.

Some of you might thought that the hot air balloon went up high in the sky which you guys will say "damn you are such a lucky guy Luffy!!". But the truth is it isn't. The hot air balloon were only allowed to ascend up to 3 stories high. (Quite disappointed haha...). I just only found out that hot air balloon can only be controlled to ascend and descend, but not in left or right. There is no device to control the direction of the hot air balloon (unless you install one) which mean directing the balloon where to go is hard and will be near impossible if there is wind blowing. But nevertheless it's still a nice experience for me as I was able to ride it for the first time in my life. ^^

The other visitors waiting for their turn.


A pic with the balloon.


Jian Shun (white t-shirt) went up first.


The combustion device.


Really wish to cut of that rope haha.

A present from her...

Thanks for the special gift sweetheart, I really love it very much ^^

Today is 25th of July 2009..

And on the same date last year...

You accepted me and you made me the luckiest guy in the world...

Since then you filled my life with joy and laughter...

Since then every moment that pass by is full of love and happiness...

Since then you were always there supporting me and cheering me up when I'm almost falling apart...

You made my life even more meaningful that I can ever dream for...

And you are the the only one for me...

Happy 1st Anniversary Sweetheart...

I Love You Always No Matter What Happens ^^

Another surprised!! Well it's not like what I wish for (Pentax DSLR, Sony laptop etc...) But our family has another newborn tortoise. Well this time we decided to name him Jacko (because the tortoise was born on the day Michael Jackson was buried). Well the tortoise is the most active one that we ever see. Since it hatch out from the egg, it never stop moving around even when we place inside a container. I think this tortise like to explore alot.

"My former little home"

Well let's talk something about this tortoise. It's species is unknown to me for now as I can't find any information regarding to that tortoise. But back in my hometown which is Kelantan, we usually call it "Kura Katuk". Reason? Because when the tortoise hide it self, it will cover up completly with it's moveable shell underneeth and there is not even a gap for you to peek inside.. Its like an armoured housing the tortoise has. And when the tortoise hide itself from the outside world it will be like that even for days. And the old folks said that even when we knock the tortoise several times it still will not come out, that's why the village people call it "kura katuk".

"Big brother and small brother"

My dad said that it's his first time able to hold and see such a small "kura katuk". He said this kind of tortoise is very rare and very hard to find. He said that during his exploration days in the Gua Musang junlgle (now known as National Park) with grandpa since young, he only able to sight empty shells which left by the dead tortoise. Even my grandfather who is a full time explorer also only seen two living "kura katuk" till today. So you can imagine how hard to find this tortise in wildlife.

Well here are some of the photos of the modern "kura katuk" that I took. Do enjoy ^^

"Don't worry my little brother I will protect you!"


"I have a longer neck"


*pose no.1*


*pose no.2*


*pose no.3*

A new member in the family...

Well my mom just told me that we have a new member in our house, I thought it's a new car, or maybe a new HD TV set, or a laptop (My mom says I think too much ^^) But the truth is it's a cute little tortise. My another tortise somehow laid eggs few months ago and my dad tried to incubate the eggs by just using earth and sun power and it really works. One of the few eggs manage to hatch and here is Kukee (my sis gave her that name probably because the tortise likes cookie?)

"You are going to hurt me..."

" You dont?"

"Really?"

"Yay then I'm free to wonder around..."

Cervical Cancer Campaign by UTAR
Well today me and my friends (consisting of my seniors from different courses) represented Setapak campus in providing voluntary help in becoming helpers for this event that were held in PJ. It's consider one of the massive event that UTAR ever organize as many VVIP appeared today in UTAR's PJ campus. Well it's kinda a tedious day for us but it's a fun experience to enjoy.

Well as stated, it's actually about, well vervical cancer. Most of the visitors today came to have their health screening done or to take cervical cancer vaccine injection. But there are still some guys who came just to do some simple blood test and BMI test. Well next I will just let the photos do the story telling. ^^

The Sungai Long's campus bus that going to take us to PJ






(L-R) Peat Ming, Kelvin, Esther, Mei Sze, and Amelia


A very interesting information that I found in the hall..


Fiddling around with the instruments...


Getting briefing from the person incharge...


Learning how to use the blood sugar level tester...








The crowd...


The president of UTAR giving a visit around...

My friend Chrystal Goh getting her vaccination...


My lunch , first time trying Wendy's (still prefer McDonald)


A group photo before going back to Setapak...


And finally, having a rest in Setapak's DSA office. (because have air-cond haha...)

Things ain't going well this time. I can't explain why it happened. I worked hard enough, did my best and scored the best in class. But in the end I failed to achieve anything. From other people's view the result showed that I'm lazy, useless and did not worked hard enough. But the truth is I did my best but it seems that the faith and luck is not with me all this while. It really make me feel down and lost.. Well at least my parents understand my situation and asking me not to give up, and my girl friend still being there always for me giving me her full support.. I just feel really sorry for disappointing you all, but thanks for everything that you all gave me. For now I will leave everything to God and wait patiently for miracle to happen. I really hope that everything will be back to normal, and I really hope so...

Feeling lost...

Redang Island

Well my girl friend , her sister, her brother, my friend Bao Hung and I went to Redang Island for vacation last week (from 16th to the 18th of May). We booked a 3 days 2 nights snorkeling package stay at Redang Pelangi Resort. Its kinda exciting for me because its my first time visiting an island. I shall let the photos tell the stories then ^^

We took the Transnasional express bus from Perhentian Putra Bus Station to Kuala Terengganu. From there will will need to travel futher up north to the Merang Jetty to depart the speed boat which will bring us directly to the island.

Our express bus...


A group photo inside the bus...

The journey was suppose to be a 7-hour long trip. But we reached in just less than 6 hours, thanks to our wonderful bus driver haha.. All I can say that we really felt the speed throughout the trip plus the ride is quite bumpy thanks to the not-so-good-condition East-West Highway. We reached at the Kuala Terengganu Bus Station at about 4 in the morning. But we have to wait until 6 for the land transfer to Merang Jetty that our resort provided. In other words we were almost bored to death for two hours there haha...

The bus station...




We are still blur actually because its just 4 in the morning...

We were really tired during that morning. But when the time approaching 6 am, we began to feel the excitment waiting for us ahead. We went to the guess house of our resort where we prepare ourself for the trip to the jetty.

At 7.30 sharp, we took the coach provided by the resort and headed to the Merang Jetty which will be another 45 mins journey for us.

The bus...


The friendly bus driver...


The scenery throughout the journey...


Reached at the Merang Jetty...

We were quite surprised as there were also many people who actually going to Redang on the same day and same time with us. Thus we have to wait for quite some time for our turn to depart the speed boat. After a 35 mins wait, its our turn at last..

We were required to place heavy object at the front of the boat to balance the weight as when the boat is at high speed, it will tend to tilt upwards.


Bao Hung and I




After 15 mins, we leaved the mainland and entering the deep sea area...

After 20 mins of journey on the water, we was able to spot the island from far. But at the same time the sky started to turn dark and strong wind started to blow. The navigator informed us that there will be a heavy rain up ahead us and asked us to prepare. We have to stuff our luggage into plastic bag to prevent it from getting wet.

As predicted, the rain came and its really scary. We can't see a thing during that time. We lost the view of the island and our sense of direction seems to be lost (thats us only but not the navigator haha). As the rain pour we continue to travel at high speed towards our destination and we were all wet. Its kinda painful when the rain hit us because it felt like thousand of pins poking us. But after 15 mins of struggle with mother nature, we at last escaped the storm and reached the island. The only thing I can say that time was it's so beautiful. The water is also amazingly crystal clear which we can also see directly to the bottom of the sea.

The clear blue water...


The resort's small jetty...

After about 45 mins travel on the sea, we reached the beach where our resort is located. Its our first time to see such a white sand. And the beach area is so clean. Wow Redang is really a heaven for us haha...

Glad that we reached on the island safely...

It's a new experience for us to encounter a storm when traveling to the island. But we are glad that we reached safely. We head straight to our resort. After check-in, a very friendly resort staff, Ms Irene gave us a short briefing about our vacation. The resort has a very simple surrounding which has the kind of relaxing atmosphere. We stayed at a triple room as that is the only room we was able to get. After than we head to our room to have a short rest.

Short briefing by Ms. Irene


Our small and simple room...


The view from our room's balcony

After that we head for our first meal on the island, lunch!! The food at the resort was served in buffet style. Overall the food was not bad and we quite enjoyed the meal. There is also a 24-hours free-flow of beverage like tea and coffee, which mean that they will provide the drink all the time and we can drink as much as we like.

The buffet style lunch

After lunch we head to the beach to rest. Actually all of us can't wait to put ourselves in the crystal clear water. But we have to wait as we were still full hehe.

So relax haha...

After a short rest, the first thing that we did is...

Canon ball!!!!

After a short "warm up" in the water, we head to the snorkeling center to get our snorkeling equipment. After that we had a briefing from the friendly staff about the way to use the thing. Then we were ready to go to our first snorkeling trip.

That's our boat, no.6!!


We have to wade into the water in order to get onto the boat. The purpose was actually to get us wet first haha...


Still stuck down there...


The other snorkelers...


Our first snorkeling location.

We reached at the location and we saw many just jump straight into the water from the boat. But since its the first time for us, we were a little scared. And after we get into the water and look down, we just only realize that the water was actually about 5 meters deep! We tend to get panic sometime but we stick together and after awhile we kinda enjoy it. As soon as we look down, we saw the beautiful view of the coral. Its just so amazing to look at such secenery.

Some of you might wonder why am I able to take photos on the sea and not afraid of getting my camera wet. The reason is that I bought a underwater casing for my faithful Canon A550 compact camera. The casing was known as DiCaPac and I bought it online for 99 ringgit. The casing allow me to do some simple underwater photography (which is my first time) for up to 5 meters deep! Amazing!! Here are some of the photos that I took.

The coral






The marine life






Cheese!!!




Both of us...

We snorkeled for about 2 hours then they as us to get on the boat as its time to go home. We were quite exhausted actually as we were kept swept away by the strong current and have to use all our energy just to swim back to the boat. But it's one amazing experience for us ^^

Heading back to the resort


Have a walk along the beach

Then we head to the famous More More Tea Inn to snap some photo.

After that we head back to our room to have a short rest. All of us was really tired as first, we didnt get enough sleep and second, the snorkeling is really exhausting haha. But we can't wait for the socond snorkeling trip on the next day. At 7pm the dinner was served. Its also a buffet style and all I can say is that the food was really nice.

A game after dinner


Night view at the beach


In front of the 5-star Laguna Resort

We actually heard someone said before that at Redang there is actually some blue color sand which can only be seen at night. We at first dont really believe that until we actually saw it with our very own eyes. The sand is really glowing blue when we swipe the sand. Its actually a microorganism that emit blue light when exposed to the atmosphere. Its very amazing for us to see this!

The "blue sand"




The bridge to Redang Reef Resort


Another photo session at the More More Tea Inn




Visiting Laguna Resort

At around 2 in the morning we head back to our resort for our sleep. On the next day we woke up at 7 in the morning as we have to get ready before 9 for our second snorkeling trip. This time nasi lemak was served for our breakfast.

For our second trip we went to the marine park. We bought some bread crumbs to feed the fish as we we told that there are many marine life here. Luckily for this time its not 5 meters deep anymore so we can snorkel with much more ease in mind.

Look at the number of the fish






The coral and the fish










Can spot the sea cucumber??




Before heading back to resort

At 12 we reached back at our resort. We got ourselve cleaned and had our lunch. We really enjoyed snorkeling at the marine park as we feel we were one with the nature. We kept talking about it during our lunch ^^

At 2pm sharp we hop on the boat and head to our last snorkeling trip. We were suppose to go the an area which we can actually touch baby shark. But unfortunetly the area was closed for some reason thus we head to another area. But this time we were in the middle of deep sea. There were waves and the current was strong. And this time I think the water is more than 5 meters deep. But we were still able to view the nice coral formation there.

The panorama view of the snorkeling location


The coral

For this place there were not much to see except for the coral on the bottom on the sea. Thus we decided to keep taking photos of ourselves.

At around 5 we head back to our resort and that was our last snorkeling trip. We were still not statified thus we head to the beach and get wild!! Haha...

Our dinner


The food

On the next day, (which is the day we have to leave the island already sob) we woke up earlier to watch the sunrise and its very amazing to see it here. Here are some of the photos that were taken by my friend, Bao Hung.

After breakfast, we head around the resort to take photos before we leave. We check out at 7.15 in the morning and the boat will be leaving the island at 8.

Taking photo with the friendly Ms. Irene


Its time to say goodbye...


Leaving the island

At around 10 we reached the mainland safely. The journey back from the island is really smooth unlike out first journey haha. Then we head to the stall nearby to buy some sorveniour and then we hop onto the bus to head back to the Kuala Terengganu Bus Station.

A very unique bus that we spotted at KT


Our express bus to KL

We reached back the the bus station at around 11. In the meantime we bought McD as our lunch.It was a memorable holiday at Redang for us as its was a totally new experience. We will be looking forward to go there again but for now, Goodbye Redang!!! :(

AT LAST!!!!My final examination was finally over. muahaha...

After 3 weeks of struggling and hard work, finally I can start to sit back myself and spend some time to update my blog. Well for now its just a brief update on what I am going to do for my next two weeks holiday:

• A visit to Redang Island
• Sushi Japanese buffet (again haha..can't wait for that!)
• Melaka trip (maybe only and still not confirmed)

Well will be updating more soon. For all utarians, HAPPY HOLIDAY!!