Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Padang Dive & Surf Trip

15th - 18th December 2011

Never planned for 3 dive trips a year. But this was a great deal. Buy 3 FOC 1. And this is in a foreign country (ok, it's just an hour flight, something like flying to Penang). Sounded cool so we signed up. Never expected to dive international water so soon!

It was a pretty early flight for all of us - Tee Hui, Sam, Scott, Soo and myself. Arrived in Padang and it was raining! Was a little concern of the visibility. We met Bob, our friendly guide for our trip. He owns and runs Star Ocean Scuba & Surf with his "boss" wife Dewi.

We checked in to Nature's Inn early and unpacked! Ready to dive! We were welcome by Brown and Goldie! Brown was afraid of us till the day we left. But Goldie was just big and playful. The bunk beds were probably the most comfortable I ever had on a dive trip so far (I'm the budget kind).


First thing first… FOOD! OMG, so much to try and everything just looked delicious.

 It was about an hour boat ride to the nearest dive site. This place is rather new for divers. As far as I could see, we were the only divers around. So Bob had the liberty to name the site himself. The water was pretty choppy… OK, worse than I thought. A little puking made me feel better. But once in the water, I feel better than ever. Visibility was great and every site was beautiful, untouched - quite different from Malaysia. The only thing that looked the same was the moray eel. Most of the sites we went were wall dives. My highlight for the trip was probably the coral fans and sighting the nurse shark… 2 meter long and 2 of them together. Think they were residents there. Pretty much ignored us until the cameras came. Yea, and I didn't have a camera.Got the photo below from Soo. Our packed lunch was delicious too, but my seasick was just untimely.


The food was just excellent. Bob took us to different places and have to say, the winning dish MUST be Satay Babi. Best pork satay I every had. And the cucumber pickel was perfect. The Ikan Bakar was excellent too. For drinks, the must try are Alpokat (Avacado juice with chocolate) and Terung Pirus (some kind of pink fruit) Can you see how thick the juice was? No water added!


We extended our stay to go on a day trip to the catch a view of the active volcanic mountain. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy. But we did visited some tourist area in Bukit Tinggi like Japanese Tunnel and the Zoo (?).


Our last activity day was our discover surfing session. With only 1 layer of sun block, we braved the waves and sun for more than 3 hours. Didn't feel a thing. We surf and surf and try to stand on the surf board as long as we can. We didn't want to stop! But stomach was getting a little hungry. When we returned to rest, I was shocked when I looked into the mirror. I have never seen myself so burned in my entire life. It was BAD. And the silly thing was we forgot to put sun block behind our legs. All of us were burned terribly and sitting down was a challenge (for a good few weeks as our skin started to peel). Another silly thing was we booked massage that night. It was supposed to be relaxing but with all the burns, it was a painful one. Great memorable trip.

Must go Padang again! Thanks Bob and Dewi for your hospitality.


All the dated photographs were shot by Soo and Scott and occasionally Bob.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Getaway to Awanmulan

24th - 26th November 2011

A group of colleagues wanted to take little retreat. So off we went to this place called Awanmulan (Mulan's Clouds) within the Pantai Hills Orchard Resort in Jelebu. Followed someone's GPS and we lost our way. Google map worked a little better. By the time we arrived, it was getting dark (and we were the 1st group!). After a call clarifying if we were still on the correct road, we reached. There weren't any signboard because, well, it is an orchard and the houses were all private property and they just came up with the name not too long ago.


The Teng family built their own home and another part as a guesthouse house for family friends. We booked most of the rooms that 2 night, so we very much had the whole place to ourselves. We entered Teratak Bonda and was just in awed. The beautiful structure was made of wood and had a very tree house (a big one) feel to it. The kitchen faces the lush greenery and as the clouds surrounds the place, it felt really serene. The huge deck with hammocks was just prefect. We had a welcome party - Daniel and friends. They were really friendly, and they knew their boundaries.


We had a quick tour before deciding on room assignments. The girls got the larger, newer units below the deck. :) Every unit was spacious and beautifully designed and some were equipped with kitchenette. Some of the bathroom walls were adorned with colored glass bottle and some, you get a very outdoor feel.


Oh, and check out the swimming pool! Awesome! Don't worry about 3G, the family has got wifi for us. Nice for those who can't stand not being connected on fb and twitter. Some of the girls and I took up the Sunrise room. And I had my bed pushed right up to the edge to get a real feel of sleeping "next" to nature. And the name didn't fail. Check out the sunrise photo below. That was the sight that greeted me in the morning.


Had a little chat with Uncle Teng. Told us a little about his background and about building Awanmulan. Most of the window panes and doors were bought over from old traditional homes that was going to be demolished. And part of the pool deck was made of old telephone post. He decided to leave the wood as it is instead of filling up the holes and chopping them to the exact length. As original as it can be!


Zee helped planned a trekking for our group - which some within the group just couldn't cope with. We turned back instead of finishing the trail. Guide said we were just too slow. Most of our food were catered and Zee helped us with BBQ. Of course we did a little cooking - instant noodles! Haha. We ate so much, we finished most of the snacks we bought - which was A LOT.

It was a refreshing trip. Will be back again. Simply a great place to chill. Just pray I don't bump into a group like mine, we were pretty loud till wee hours in the morning. :-p

Sunday, November 06, 2011

Short Cameron Trip

5th - 6th November 2011

Seriously, it was great to go away with a few cool colleagues. A rather short trip but a little fresh air in the mountain is great. We stayed at the Crown Imperial Court right near the night market. It was a 3 bedroom apartment that can accomodate 9. A little to big but nice to have lots of space! Haha.


We splurge a little with tea at the Smokehouse. Oh my, don't think I'll go there again. But the place was really nice and cozy.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Tioman Island @ East Divers Tioman

8th - 11th July 2011

My 1st trip to Tioman Island. We started our journey pretty late with all of us coming from work and different directions. It seemed like a pretty long drive to Hotel Seri Malaysia. Lots of dark winding road towards our accommodation for the night. Soo, Sam, Theng Theng and myself was to meet Adam nearby our Seri Malaysia. It was then that we realized our car trunk was broken into during our dinner near my house. It was definitely heart breaking to find out 2 bags were taken. We went to 2 different police station and stayed up to 4am to make the reports.

Day 1
2 dives
The next morning, we went back to the station to collect the report and thank God we managed to get Sam's contact lenses. We took our ferry from Tanjung Gemuk. The ride wasn't the most enjoyable thing. It was 2 hours and the ferry was packed full. Plus, the ferry stopped at multiple jetty on the island! We reached Tekek Jetty and our "taxi" took us on a 5mins ride to East Divers Tioman. There, we met our divemaster for the next few days - Keat. Considering the amount of sleep we had, we managed 2 dives on the 1st day. Glad that the incident didn't spoil it all.

Photo by Sly & Soo

Day 2
3 dives + 1 night dive
I had my 1st photo with a green turtle! I also buddied with Chris, a swiss guy who usually dives in lakes. One of the things we didn't do during my 1st night dive was experiencing the glowing plankton. Glad we saw it this time.

Photo by Sly

Day 3
2 dives
We did the right thing to extend our trip by another day. It was just another 2 more dives but a lot more relaxing and less rush. We took the challenge at a more demanding, less visited site where the surface waves were stronger but the sight was just beeaaautiful.

Day 4
As usual, the packing and saying goodbye is hard. Don't know when is the next time I'll see the underwater world. We went for a predinner then dinner then suddenly something adventurous came to mind - supper Beef Bah Kut Teh in Malacca. The supposingly 30mins drive ended up more than 3 hours. :-p Yup, we were adventurous.


It was a great trip where we met new friends like Hendrix, Sly, Claris, May, Steve and Cindy. Tioman is a huge island. Probably many more sites to explore next time. :)


Thursday, June 09, 2011

CG Retreat cum Missions Project

3rd – 7th June 2011

It was a great rush to the airport! In the end, Michelle, Albert, Aaron, Jamie and myself made it to KLIA rather early. We met Alex & Grace for supper in Kuching. Peter & Sharon, our wonderful host not only opened their house to 8 us but drove us around in 2 cars throughout our stay.

The next day, we took a ride to Anah Rais Longhouse to take some shots of their lifestyle. We also went to Semengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Reserve to see Orang Utan feeding. We were very blessed that 8 of them came for feeding. The last one that came was a huge one called Ritchie. The others seemed to run away when he came. Guess he is the boss! Marilyn finally joined us after that - after working on her road show event. We went to the "pasar" to check out the local stuff.

On Sunday and we separated into 2 groups to do some recording. I went to Christ Baptist Church’s Iban Service. Knowing out little understanding of the language, Pastor threw in quite a bit of English to help us. Oh, and somewhere in the middle of the sermon, I became a “prop” for an illustration. His advice was never go to sleep with a barrier between husband & wife after an argument. It was an emotional time for the church after the sermon when pastor told them to go around and seek reconciliation.

We proceed to Convenent Fellowship Centre after to join the other group for a few more testimony recording. It was rather tiring especially more for Grace as it was after a full day wedding shoot the day before. So we watched Xmen that night!


The next day, we went to a village to record more testimonies. By the last day we were pretty tired out. A number of us went for a nice good massage before heading back home! In between all that, glad I managed to squeeze some time to meet up with Andrea. We haven't catch up since we both left our previous job.

My highlight of the trip is definitely the faith testimony of these people.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dew Crew Retreat 2011

15th – 17th May 2011
Morib

After our recent trip to Morib for a getaway, we proposed the same place for retreat. It was a nice eating trip and enjoying each other's company. A good time of sharing, playing monopoly deal, silly ice breaker games & making silly videos of ourselves. We laugh so hard till we tear. We swam at night and the pool water was surprisingly warm!


Since our retreat should always include a team building activity, we got a group from Laser Tag Malaysia to bring the game to us! The game was conducted within Impiana Morib Hotel compound. It was really fun for all of us as we like paintball but some really can’t take the pain. With Laser Tag, we really enjoyed the game - hiding, shooting and conquering. My only problem was that it was really difficult to aim as you don’t know where your shot reaches. It is probably more fun in their iCity facility where you can see where your laser line is. We ran a lot and was already tired out by the 3rd game.

We will so definitely do this again!

Photo below was taken at the Jugra hill lighthouse.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hat Yai

23rd – 25th April 2011
This is one random trip that my friends and I booked spontaneously. Since I’ve never been there, and most of us are a little stressed up, I thought let’s just go! We stayed at Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel. The elevator stinks, the room stinks and the lobby stinks. Will never stay there again, there are plenty more pleasant hotels nearby. But it is very convenient with shopping complexes just next door.

Shopping for stuff like mangoes, dried mangoes, cashew nuts are much more reasonable than back home. But a challenge to carry them back. Oh Swensen’s ice cream is MUCH cheaper there too. Yes, yes, how can I forget the beers.


The city is dusty but the food was great - definitely need to get a little further from the hotels as those too near ALWAYS overcharge tourist. We got around a lot with the “tuk-tuk” local taxis. It is challenging for me as other than Thai, the locals only speak hokkien. I can understand the dialect but totally can’t speak it. Wished my family spoke more dialects.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Dive Trip 2

15th – 18th April 2011
Advanced Certification!

Can’t believe it’s been almost 9 months since my 1st dive. I was very determined to do a second dive last year but I changed job and being so new in the role, there was never a suitable time to take leave.

This trip, I gathered people and ensure it was a slightly longer trip than last year. It’s Tenggol Island again but there is just so much to explore there! Together with my buddy Tee Hui, I got Sam, Mark, Karen and Sakti on this trip. We also met Douglas and Chee Wai who were doing their advanced certification with us.

We were delayed on our journey there so we reached pretty late at Mayang Sari, Dungun.

Photo by Soo
Day 1
2 Dives
When we reached the island, we were separated by leisure divers and those taking the advanced certification. And the comedy begins. Funny story 1: Douglas descended with his snorkel! Yea, guess he thought he didn’t need air until he started to drink some water. Funny story 2: Chee Wai fell asleep drinking milk! That was a classic sight, would have been a great photo to post but we didn’t manage to take in time.

Day 2
3 Dives + 1 Night Dive
Sam was suppose to perform out of air with any one of us and she chose Chee Wai under water. To everyone’s surprise, she tapped him on the shoulder and he took a slight look and swam away! Ever since that, he is dubbed the runaway-buddy. Apparently he didn't see anyone. Haha. Guess the only thing he saw were these beautiful "Christmas trees".

Photo by Soo

After a few dives I feel I have so much better control of movements underwater. Happiness. Diving with current was interesting. You practically get pushed pretty far even with minimum movement. When we did night dive, it wasn’t as scary as I thought. Torch lights very much lighted up the whole place. But we MUST have another funny story so... Chee Wai was out of air within a few minutes after descending. He showed his pressure level going up and down as he inhale and exhale. Of course with our instructor Soo’s expertise, he found Chee Wai’s tank not fully opened. During this dive, we saw a very rarely spotted flat worm! It’s beautiful!

Photo by Chee Wai

It was a tiring day! So we slept pretty early. Half way through the night, someone started speaking in teochew! I thought it was a one off and soon it became almost conversational. :-p I found my buddy sleep talking.

Day 3
3 Dives
It was our 1st deep dive to a ship wreck! Before I know it, Soo was pointing to my right and there was it, a ship wreck. It’s really cool as many type of fish just swims around it. Did any of us experienced nitrogen narcosis? Nope. We were even emotional and heart broken when Soo said we failed. As we ascend to do our safety stop, we took some photos. Chee Wai passed his camera to Soo and somehow he didn’t loop the holder on his hand. We watched as the camera floated up and Soo not realizing it told Chee Wai to stay when he attempt to swim up to get it. It was only after Soo tried to use his camera that he realised it was missing! Thank God we found the camera floating nearby.

On our 2nd dive, we were all a little down as we wanted to attempt another deep dive the next morning to pass our certification but Soo said there wasn’t sufficient time. He had to rub it in by telling us he has never failed so many candidates at one trip before. Sigh. We saw a lot of fish on this dive – huge batfish and angel fish and was chasing after them to take photos.

Before our 3rd dive, he finally broke the news. It was another one of his con joke and we ALL fell for it. Sigh, that’s our instructor. I get to launch the sausage for our safety stop. Haha. Yes I am excited about every little thing I learned.

That night, my buddy spoke in her sleep again, this time in English... and coincidently Chee Wai got up to use the washroom. I'm sure he was pretty shocked!

Day 4
Saying goodbye to the staff and Tenggol island is hard. On our boat ride back to mainland, we were stopped by marine police. How embarrassing! Most of us naughty folks were not wearing life jackets. We got away with a warning. :-p

Monday, March 21, 2011

Charge Up! Conference 2011

17th – 20th March 2011

It’s our annual church geek gathering! :-p
No no no, it’s the cool bunch gathering! We had great sharing by Choon Ean, Grace, Alex, Louis, Kee Sitt and lots of other industry experts. This year, I had small part. I get to share on how we use our digital mixer M7CL for stage monitoring. ;-)

Still amazed at how much sweat and tears put in by the team. It is incredible how you all function well even after all the sleepless nights. Salute!

2012 is our Sabbath year, so we won’t be having a Charge Up! Conference. Instead, the Livewire! team will take a break for Sabbath Summit. There will be Bolt Youth Media Camp though. Dates TBC.


Monday, February 21, 2011

Sales Conference 2011

Team Building at Hard Rock Penang
18th – 20th February 2011

Almost the whole company as well as our contract staff get to go for this trip. Glad everyone get to enjoy the place. It’s a pretty hotel. The ground floor rooms opens to the pool. We had a number of team building games and that was fun. We were a noisy large group. Hope we didn’t spoil it for the other guests.

Love all details of music on door handles, room names, posters photos all over the hotel. Hey, it’s Hard Rock Hotel!


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Getaway at Morib

13th – 15th February 2011
This was a last minute planned get away since Sam and Chin Yee booked the accommodation but Fui Ping had some urgent things to get done. Thought that a break would be great since I haven’t had much rest lately, well, ever since I started this new job, it’s been a little crazy.


We stayed at the chalets in Impian Morib Hotel. The place was surprisingly well maintained. The place was clean and very quiet indeed considering it was a long weekend. It was great caused we practically had the whole place to ourselves. We didn’t do much but watch movie and ate lots of seafood.



But do take note, although it is beach front, I personally won’t advice anyone swimming there. The water is really filthy.

It is still one relaxing-lazy trip!