Seeing a Whale Shark.

So, I ended my last dive for 2014 in Redang during it's closing season and coincidentally, I'm there again for it's opening season, just last weekend. Consider it a break from my work before GST's happening. 

The island was no doubt, packed like sardine on the first day of our arrival, due to school holidays. But it gets better on second day onward as people starts to leave the island and head back to the reality.

Arriving!

As a diver, I usually do not mind about the stay I'm getting as long as it's clean (not easy), and providing hot water and CLEAN, again. 

We stayed at Redang Bay, same resort as our last visit and surprisingly, they had the whole resort renovated! They now have more vendors surrounding the resort including a chill out bar, mini market, dessert shop and even a Taiwanese chicken chop stall, great stuff to kill time.

I personally think they provides kinda good packages including accommodation, food and dive packages (if you're a diver) at reasonable prices.

So, keep calm and gear up. Did I mention that I've got a beautiful birthday gift from T? A new BCD in my favorite red. Perfect timing for me to test it out before our Anilao trip in April.

My new set of gears. 

Anyway, I can mention many unforgettable and beautiful moments under water. But there's one dive that mark my most significant dive till date -- I saw a whale shark ! 

I was getting bored throughout the entire dive as there were nothing much to see, and my ass were freezing was all I can remember. While the few of us were doing safety stop at 5m before surface, i saw it swam gracefully passed us! I swear to god I thought I was dreaming for the first 2 sec before I alert the rest!

Not that hard to spot me under the water, really. 

In case you don't know,
The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a slow-moving filter feeding shark and the largest known extant fish species. - Wiki
It is NOT a whale.  They are harmless to people and usually indifferent to divers.

Image taken from Google. 

Well, it was a juvenile whale shark but it still counts! WHALE SHARK, geddit ?! 

Many were surprise that we saw it in Redang as it is definitely not a hot spot for it. We did not manage to capture any picture as it happened too random to our surprise. But boy, it definitely set a new milestone for my dive journey.


The sea, 
once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. 
- Jacques Cousteau



To summarize the trip, view video below:

 

Till my next dive in two weeks time,
L

9 Things To Do in Bali.

Gosh! The weather that burns lately is driving me nuts! 

Don't forget to drink more water and have a lot a lot a lot a lot of ice cream okie lovelies? :x

I couldn't help but recall our trip to Bali back in December 2012. Eventhou the rainy days didn't treat us well but what the hell, I could really use some love from rain God right now! 

So, if you're going on a trip to Bali. Here are the tips. 

1. Swim with Dolphins

One of the most ridiculous yet hell of an unique experience in life was the day R and I decided to swim with Ricky, our new best friend! It is not unusual to swim with dolphins in Bali as there are many agencies that offer you packages and etc. But why did I mention the word r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s? Because we jumped into the usually-friendly deep sea in it's unusual-cold temperature under the rain. :( 

We were brought to a floating sea pen in the ocean in a long tail boat that takes approximately 15 minutes. 

I was of course cursing like F because of the weather! But the moment we got introduced to Ricky, the cutest baby on earth! I almost forgot about the cold and shiver and cheated on R right in front of him! 

We hugged, kissed, played, and so much moreeeee. 

I never imagined I'll have such close contact with a dolphin in my life. The entire tour took us approximately 3 hours including shuttle for 79 Dollars/person. Like I said, it was a hell of a lifetime experience! 

I miss you dearly, Ricky!

2. See Uluwatu

There is a small temple on the cliff. You can google the story of the temple.
It is fine if you don't want to go visit the interior of the temple (crowded like no one's business), but you simply can't skip the magnificent cliff view that lays in front of you!

Be careful with the monkeys, they do steal!

3. Visit the shopping district in Seminyak

The street that gathered most of the high end spas & boutique lots from both sides of the road. You'll fall in love with the creative designs of each store; chic and trendy. 

Shopping or window shopping its up to you. But spending an afternoon there or more will never do you wrong. 

Fluffy pillows oh so love!

How do you like my new flip flops?

SO CUTE OMG I'M GONNA DIE.

There are tons of restaurants, pubs or cafes door to door. 

Comfy atmosphere is always my pick. 

We walked into a neighbourhood-style coffee shop that reminded me of Artisans Coffee after spending hours exploring the street. 

Anomali Coffee @ Seminyak, Bali.

Latte latte @ Rp 25,000.00 

Beautiful Salmon sandwich, fresh ingredients unfortunately the taste was off  probably because of the sauce. 

Random pic that I thought it looks quite cool.

4. Visit Potato Head & Ku De Ta

Because it is a MUST. 

Yes, you must see the windows, you must hear the sea waves hitting on shore, you must have dinner or at least a drink in either or both of them! Why? - Because you need to #takepicha! 

Simply for - show off purposes. *runsss*

Skip the shit. 

I think it's great to spoil yourself once or twice during vacation. Yes, the prices at both places were a little high for Bali standards but what the hell, where else could you spend the night with delectable drinks on sunbeds by a huge pool facing the sea? Go at sunset hour, you'll have no regrets. 

Our dinner at Lilin's, Potato Head.

5.  Street Food
Street food often captures the character of the country.
The daily supply and fuel for life for the locals. It usually comes under a tent anywhere on the street, or as a motorbike with carriage with an attached light bulb; selling you the real taste of the country. If you take a second to doubt about it, you have no idea what you're missing.

My fav - Bakso

6. Balinese Massage
I don't know what you will be doing in Bali if you missed this.
Take one or two hours break and visit the massage centre. It is SO MUCH BETTER and cheaper compared to goddamn KL, price as low as RM 20 or slightly above depending on places and services you pick.
Tell me its expensive and I will __________ you.

7. Visit Tanah Lot
Although highly commercialized, it definitely deserves this ranking.
So beautiful it almost took my breath away.
[Read More]












8. Visit Ubud, the city that features art and culture.
Browse through the local markets and have some fun bargaining for your best deal. Spend some time at the boutiques too, there are tons of beautiful steals waiting for you just around the corner.



Stargate; an unordinary gold & silver shop that customize unique pieces of jewellery.
Met some people who came all the way from Europe or others just to customize their favourite design of jewellery; lovely.








9. Go to the beach.
Although not as beautiful as some other gorgeous islands that you've visited before, Bali reserves some less crowded secluded beaches that are worth the dip. :P
I love staring at the black sand beach during sunset, it perfectly reflects everything in it's own way.



No I'm not narcissist, I wasn't looking at my own reflection. :P

Looks familiar?

They usually say 'last but not least' or 'keep the best to the end'.
In my case, I couldn't decide which attraction would deserve the last/best spot.
Kopi Luwak or Barong and Kris Dance? For this, please read my previous post. [Read]




Bon Voyage,
LouiseXin

WithLouise @ Phuket, Thailand

Three months of flight tickets booked in advance and we finally made it to our nearly ten days trip to Phuket, Krabi and Phi Phi in Thailand.
It was definitely not a pleasant wake up call to catch the first flight of the day on 7a.m. after a party night out at the finale party of MIGF; but we still manage to gather everything at 4 in the morning and off we go to the beautiful lands!

It takes only approximately one hour to arrive and what the hell, I'm lovin' what's in front of my eyes already!



It took us almost 3 hours to go to the hotel from air port because of the bus transportation and stopping at information centre by the tourist company (that probably trying to squeeze the money out of your pocket).
But all the grumpiness and heat was taken off the moment we stepped into our villa; we rented The Village Resort & Spa at Karon Beach from Agoda at a reasonable price for a villa with one bedroom, living room, shower room, and a walk-in closet + cosmetic room for the next three days!

Get everything settled and we took a 5 minutes walk to Kata beach which is located just in front of our hotel.



Colleagues was telling me how inappropriate season that I chose to go (early November) due to the rainy season. They were well, kinda right but we managed to spend a few hours by the beach for the first sunshine. :)

Karon Beach

My sunshine boy enjoying his tanning session. 

Couple of hours later we decided to go around the island. Not to my surprise, the cab/tuk tuk fare in Thailand is ridiculous expensive! So we took a bike from the hotel for only 350 batt a day.

At Kata Beach.

Heard and read many posts on the internet that mentioned the pancakes in Phuket is a "must" try items and so we did. Wonder if it's because we were both starving after the beach session, I'm usually not a big fan of sweet items but man, it was delicious!

Banana Pancake.

Drove further down the street and we were trying to locate one of the view point around. Without proper guidance, we actually took a lot of wrong routes and finally decided to land our legs at Reggae to catch the sunset.

Reggae Bar 

No regrets, the view was breathe-taking. Eyeing the sunset with one end (Phromthep) to the other (Kata) was simply blissful.









Then we took a slow ride to Patong which is famous for the night life, well probably only to the guys if you get what I mean. :P





We randomly found a restaurant that's hidden from the main street - Sabai Beach! :D

First simple Thai dinner by the beach but it was lack of the kick of the spiciness; only to find out later that most of the restaurant tuned down the spice level in the food to cater the tourist taste bud.
You might need to emphasize that you like your food with local taste to the waiter/waitress, then only they will serve the authentic ones to you.

Clear soup seafood Tom Yum. 

Pad Thai.

Of course, pineapple fried rice. 

The food was nothing impressive but with seafood, fishes and a lot more that cost lesser than RM 100, you couldn't ask for anything more. It was a really, really long day when you woke up at 4 a.m and yea, we went back at 9 p.m. (8pm in KL) like grands.


So, ciao for now and stay tuned for our islands hoping trip yay?


Loves,
LouiseXin