Big & Nasty in Redang.. (15-17 May 2010)

it's been months.. mm make it years since i last dived in Redang. So when my business partners told me to do a survey at Redang on our latest project, I happily obliged. Despite the fact that I just returned from Mabul not two weeks ago. I then advertised on Facebook so I could cut the cost. Plus.. going to an island is no fun without any girlfriends kan? those beach boys... mm... ;)

Jas was the first to reply. I was actually calling out to my dive buddy to join me to Redang. Jas was my schoolmate back when. hehe.. Haven't seen her in 15 years when she told me she wanted to go. She really wanted to take up diving. after a DSD back in Bintulu, she thought she had the license to dive. while I thought she's a diver. haha.. anyway, after we fixed the miscommunication, we agreed to get her to do DSD again as time was not permitting.

It only took 5 days to plan everything. We will drive there. Hop on the ferry to the kampung. And Stopar will meet us up and take us all to the homestay that will house us for the next 3days. upon arrival we'll go to the Marine Park, where i'll take photos of the area while jas will hang out and snorkel. i'll go diving with Kamal and/or stopar on day 2, day 3 we'll go home.  i only wished it was that simple. haha.. jas invited her best friends to tag along - Rose and Azra. Turned out azra was only going to be there for one night! and we paid for 2 nights. did i mention the homestay provides meals as well? so we had all this extra food on our second night too.. luckily we knew so many hungry beach boys in redang.. pheww...

anyway, drove in Jas's car. I left my car near Jon's place so she can take a peek of it whenever she drops by sri kota. usually i'd be driving. but Jas prefers to drive. understandable since it's her car. so i happily took the back seat and sleep soundly. hehehe... Jas already picked up Azra, and we all went to Rose's place to pick her up and we left KL after we stopped for BK burgers. :)

The drive was long. Since this time we didn't book any ferry tickets, I had to make sure we arrive early. At about 7 am we safely arrived at the ferry terminal. The ferry leaves at about 10 am. So plenty of time for my usual nasi dagang and tapau nasi kerabu for the boys. The makcik who sells nasi kerabu at pasar payang recognized me immediately .. smiled as i ordered the nasi kerabu. I already bought dunkin' donuts for Stopar, and got an extra BK burger so i didn't tapau much of nasi kerabu...

We arrived at Redang Island. Lo and behold no one was there! uwaaa.. I was so scared. I didn't even know which homestay that Stopar booked for us. I don't know how many missed calls I left him.. Sabar je tau! but they came for us... 20 minutes later a taxi came to get us and our things to go to the homestay.. hehe :) only to run out of gas about 50 meters from the jetty.. kah kah kah.. bodo... so we had to wait for another 10 minutes for another car to get us.

we freshened up, had some lunch and left for snorkeling with Sembilu II. Stopar's boat. Such a classic name for such a young man. hahaha.. sembilu. :p so 90s.

snorkeling...

The reason I went to Redang was for work. the plan was to take photos of the Marine Park on the second day and then a dive or two and leave on the third day. But things took a different turn when we found out some friends were at Marine Park for the underwater photography competition. so after a good time with the boys, we headed to marine park and hung out.

marine park redang.

we left the marine park really late. when we arrived at the homestay it was already night time. we showered. and had dinner. everyone was knackered. but then abg JD was at redang beach. so we had to go and meet him up la kan? hehehe ;) the girls were tired but they obliged. thank you ladies. :) we lepak-lepak there till really late.

so naturally, we all woke up at 10 am the next morning.. the homestay is not well maintained. but it is air-conditioned. awesome! haha.. i don't mind staying there again. but perhaps next time i'll take the twin-sharing room. it costs about the same :P less cramping. less people using the bathroom hahahaha

stopar and G (the new cute young thing) picked us up. we have more snorkeling to do. hahaha.. azra had to go home so she stayed. then stopar told me, we could do holy sand in the afternoon. yeay! i've missed holy sand! brought back so many fond memories of redang.. :) i had problems descending. i guess my ears have not fully recovered. i had the flu 3 weeks prior and had some problems with the ears. doctor told me not to dive or board the plane. but i already did that a week before my trip to redang. the dive was nice. but the water was warm! it's 31degC underwater. i have to admit, i got so used to the cool water in mabul, that when i dived redang i was like.. what? a few weeks later, the marine park closed down a few dive sites in redang due to coral bleaching. i knew the warm water was bad news :(

video of a melibe when i dived at holy sand. awesome!

while i dive, rose and jas stayed with G on the rocking boat. Rose got seasick. so before we headed to another snorkeling site, we left rose with 50 ringgit at the long beach.

seasick

Jas and I went snorkeling and I got to drive the boat (is that even right?) hehe.. i didn't hit anything. noone was harmed.

we went back to long beach and met up with rose. had ABC and nice chinese style kuey teow goreng. even writing this makes my mouth waters. huhu i miss redang :(

it was getting dark when we left for kampung redang. we showered, and prayed. and then after dinner we hung out at the restaurant. dinner was fantastic. i think they made 7 lauks for the three of us. gile la... tau la kitorang montel but we don't eat that much! lucky for us, kamal and stopar joined us for dinner. even then we couldn't finish the meal. only in redang kan?

we lepak2 with stopar til late.. talked.. recapped. jas was already back to work. hehe.. :P rose and i went through the photos. :)

the next morning, we were served breakfast. nasi. go figure! hahaha i know i can't live in redang. they keep feeding me food. i felt like those farmed chicken. fatten me up and send to slaughterhouse. all cheeky and pink .. hahaha

we packed our stuff.. paid the homestay. stopar, and kamal came to see us off.. we went to the jetty. i felt sad. i know it'll be long before i come back ..

Jas drove us back to kl. we had lunch before we hit the road. delicious nasi campur with budu and all.. arghhh sedap gilak! when we got to genting sempah we were hungry again. i think redang has trained our stomach to be hungry all the time hahahhaha :p  and that's when this trip got its name. Rose actually ordered Big N Nasty at McD. hahahahaha... i know rose.. it's been a while hahaha *wink*

we reached home safely. thanks ladies for coming with me. i know this is an overdue entry. but at least i managed to finish it. maybe we can do it again soon ;) jom mabul hehehe i bet rose will order more than big n nasty after mabul.

i have photos from the trip here: flickr: inayusoff 

and this is a slideshow of the photos i compiled from the trip. thanks Jas, Rose & Azra for a hell of a good time. Thanks Stopar, Kamal & G for the hospitality :) *hugs*