Wednesday, April 2, 2008

diving in tioman..

Over the Easter weekend, we planned a short getaway to go diving in Tioman, Malaysia! me and qian did our beginner's diving course couple of years ago in uni with hall friends and had so much fun. We're planning to do it again soon but figured we probably need a quick refresher and dust off our mouldy old diving log! and since some other people seem to have a penchant for hunkadory dive instructors, the boyfriends decided to tag along and 'feed the fishies'..

was initially quite hesitant to visit tioman because everyone was rather critical about the visibility underwater and all but it was in fact quite alright! :) but grew to appreciate the little off-shore island and its own unique charm as well! in the first place, im not that discerning a diver. as long as i see fishes, im pleased!!


pretty tioman in the morning..


shadey people waiting to board the ferry! This is after waking at at 4:30am to take public transportation over the causeway to catch a local malaysian cab!! turns out that it was the right decision because the causeway was backed up for hours so taking the bus over was much faster. we even managed to squeeze in a quick breakfast of oddly colored curry vege and oily noodles at the bus terminal- larkin!

the cab ride was more than 1.5 hours and i yakked with qian for 7/8 of the journey, then we got a little car sick and she took a nap. i turned around, woke daniel up and chatted to him for the other 1/8. *sigh* how chatty.. seriously, when you travel with me, there is not one silent moment. cept maybe when im taking a nap! :)



the boy and his blackberry.. *tsk* its a vacation dude!

the first evening was pretty relaxed because of the late afternoon drizzle which made everything lazy and sleepy!! we woke up in the creaky bed of our kumpung hut and took a walk on the beach barefoot, snapping pictures of the sunset like tourists! it was perfect..


embarrassing but true, this is where and nearly fell to my muddy death..

we spent the rest of the evening chomping on local bbq food and playing taboo. (which was a pre-trip gift from daniel.. woohoo!) p.s. we won. it was really neat playing in couples. you end up finding out the weirdest things about each other.

the classic joke of the evening:
D: babe, what i not wear to the office!!! *almost jumping on his seat*
Z: UNDERWEAR!?!
D: -_-

just for the records, the right answer is a tie. (NOT underwear)

oh! can i just add that our kumpung huts were paper thin and right next to each other. so when we woke up in the morning all we had to do was reach out of bed and knock on the walls to yell "hey! what you doing?" haha.. if only it were this convenient back home.. who needs cellphones!?!

next morning, we woke up bright and early and went diving! super cheap to dive there. each dive is only RM$89 ;) but i made a huge joke out of myself during the briefing cos obviously i forgot EVERYTHING about diving. the boy just stood at the side, laughing and taking sillly (and unflattering pictures) of us gearing up and getting tangled in our BCG/ BCD.. not like they are super pro themselves..


the snorklers..


the 'avid' divers..

we did two dives consequtively.. the boys swam a little, daniel duck dived into the water to say hi (right.. goes to show how shallow the water was..) and we got all distracted and surfaced without doing safety checks! our dive instructor woudl have been so disappointed! and rented chak-chak bicycles for the rest of the afternoon and rode around the island to the city to buy booze.. we made at least 4 food/icecream/snack/burger stops along the way! horrible!


yums! ramly burger..

wined and dined the evening away in a different restaurant on the second evening before diving into bed.. only to be awoken by mozzies for the entire night cos we left our bathroom door open and they were swarming in feeding on delicious foreign blood!! Easter morning was spend on the beach reading and tanning and chilling to daniel's strumming & singing. awww.. our tioman vacation was way too short!

p.s. our chakchak-kumpung accomodation only costed us RM$100 per night!!


posing with our childhood snacks!! tho no one else agrees, the pink ones are the tastiest!


me & daniel all rested and happy heading home for another wonderful week before we go to KL! yippeerooos..

we had heaps of fun! hoping that we can do that again soon!! daniel is motivated to dive now and his friend manages a dive resort in the phillippines! woohoo!! ;) also, i think its a fine idea to travel in groups where everyone is comfy with each other. that way you don't have to spend half the time babysitting someone wondering if they are awkward or bored or being bullied! the dynamics of the group was just fabulous! suman was like a daddy making all the plans, qian and i did silly things to make each other laugh and daniel was just daniel.. and that made me super happy..

6 comments:

  1. So fun.. I think the last time I dived was 1995. Sure drown if I go now.. haha.... must go for refresher course.

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  2. hey babe! what a coincidence!! I was eating ramly burger for lunch as im reading your post!! :D
    all of you sure looked like you guys had loads of fun! I'm envious! heehee. and you and daniel really compliment each other! :D
    PS: the last photo.. the healthy tan, the collarbone, the slim arms.. well done babe!

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  3. you definately won't! initially i was rather worried but it was all good! ;)
    now to venture into deeper waters!!

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  4. ramly burger in singapore? where?
    hehe.. thanks, hon! ;)

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  5. Ohh, besides finding ramly at the pasar malam, now at funan, there's like makeshift stall selling ramly. so i got to at funan. :)

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  6. wow.. needless to say funan is not quite my regular hangout spot.. but now i have to.
    haha is it authentic or not though? (like occasional egg shell in omelette!) ;)

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