Monday, December 18, 2006

hi blog

welcome back , me. Great taking a break from blogging and least to say, the exams. Not complaining about my grades since my GPA went up by 0.1. Came back frm the manado holiday weeks back and it was a blast. Since I am too lazy to log in my dives, I shall write about the experience here and maybe someday I revisit it.

Touch down: 7:15pm or so, the sky was already pitch black like 10pm in Singapore. At the airport baggage belt, there was no sight of trolleys. Soon after, a few orange-top men came with trolley in hand dispersing towards each tourist. We didn't ask for their service but they came anyway knowing that they were looking at the tips they were gonna receive. One trolley was not enough for us so we asked the porter to get another trolley but he was so reluctant about it because if he was to leave and get another trolley, he wont be able to push 2 trolleys and if we call another man, the tips would have to be split. So we just called another of his fren over so that all our 8 baggages and dive bags could be towed away towards the van bringing us to the resort. Their job= help to lay the baggage on the trolley and push the trolley for about 50 meters. SIMPLE. So my dad handed them 500,000 Ringits, 10 singpore dollars.
In ducktours sense, for 1 hour of taining, a tip of 10 sing dollars would make me smile the entire day. But no... the porter demanded that it was too little and wanted double the amount. It was then I realised the bad side of tip giving. Makes ppl greedy and utterly gross.

Our resort: Kima Bajo, the Ritz Carlton of resorts. The price is really high and it was stylised in a romantic getaway fashion, a place where many would wanna visit for honeymoon. Because of its price, the place is very quiet; only 2 other families were there at the resort. (SIDENOTE: mom wrote into straits times to drhols asking where to find cheap accomodation in manado and we only got the reply when we got back from the trip. ha x3)

First day: 3 dives: saw some amazing corals decked out in the blue waters, almost like dream. Sea urchins were a rarity and we thought we saw a family of dolphins from afar but as it turns out, its just a school of gigantic fish we didn't quite recognise. Saw a number of giant clams lined up in a row, and we did some feeding there as well with bananas. Fish there were rather shy and not so used to hand feeding like in tioman and saw a couple of gobies hiding in their holes. Dive master used their metal pointers to tickle the sand holes and the angry looking gobies came out to find out whose knocking at their doors. It was funny coz the gobies wanted to bite the metal pointer after getting awakened.

Second day: went to lembok island, and realised that I had diarrhoea. Fancy getting diarrhoea and realising that the boat doesnt have a toilet so I had to get primal. I mean c'on where else could i have done it??? Had to wait for everybody to board the boat after the dive while i paddle quickly to a distance away to poo. First time being half naked amidst nature. Almost felt at-one with the sea. Saw many strange marine life like scorpion fish, bird fish, frog fish,mantis shrimp, lion fish and families of this unknown species of fish which is unique to Manado. Cant be found anywhere else. And I also puffed up my first pufferfish. Because they are quite slow swimmers..(I dunno but the ones at Manado were slower swimmers than those in Phuket) .. they were easy to catch and so they managed to get puffed . Hope these puffers dont die of a heart attack after that. :X Went to a shipwreck and saw many sharks hiding under it. The wreck was a Japanese Cargo ship which got bombed by the US forces in WW2. An interesting historical site home to many fishes now. Also saw many giant turtles on the 2nd dive of the day and dad happily rode on one of them. Each of them are as big as a big boulder. ok, thats not very helpful is it. Its height is about 1.7 or more. Taller than me n a lot of us. I love these turtles. They are always so graceful until my dad tries to ride on them.

On the 3rd day I cant quite remember wat we did or where we went but the last dive was the most beautiful of them all. It was a wall dive and the corals were just amazing. A wall of corals full of colour just awaits us from below the boat and each metre down was a different nook and crannie where different animals lived. We managed to see a huge blue lobster and a small octopus hiding in their own coral homes. Absolutely Magnificent. Haven seen anything like it in my life.

At night for 2 of the nites, we played with fireworks, my dad being the main master of fireworks, lighting them up and running away when they malfunctioned...i.e. they failed to launch themselves into the sky and popped on the ground. I feared for my dads life but he was okay. I really enjoyed this holiday that I think I wont be able to study when I get back to school.

Getting tired trying to recall... so ill just post up some more pictures.

As for the Phuket trip, the highlight was getting to pet the leopard shark at Shark Point. Thats about it...after manado, phuket is sorta boring but Aileens company made it fun. Ate Pad Thai and fried rice almost everyday there. I like their version of Pad Thai though. Very authentic and moist..almost like hokkien mee here in singapore. Loved the coconuts there too and Mango Shake. Sadly there werent any nice thai desserts where we had dinner. :( WIll remember the tuktuks there and aileen bargaining like a pro at the tuktuk drivers and the stall aunties there. I love love love the prawn mee and beef noodles at the road side stall. Did I also mention that I had diarrhoea this trip too caused by soya bean milk and fried dough fritters sold outside the thai oriental inn. I've got a weak stomach. More pics up soon.

Monday, December 18, 2006

hi blog

1:45 AM

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