Langkawi Trip - 6th to 9th January 2009

This is a belated blog entry. A very belated one indeed. Trying to get this up before the year ends, haha...

Anyway, at the beginning of this year, I went to Langkawi with my best friend, Gary. Back then, there was still no direct flight from Singapore to Langkawi, so we took Tiger Airlines to KL, and changed to Airasia to Langkawi. Lo and Behold, after our trip, Airasia announced that they are flying to Singapore... #^%#%$%@!^

Oh well, it was an excuse for us to go to KL and visit KLCC and the Petronas towers.

Let's see, we flew this plane to KL, had to take an early flight, so we did what we always do, stayed overnight at the airport, then took the early flight. This photo was taken at KL LCCT at about 6.30am. Sun was rising soon.

Then we transferred to Airasia after we had our breakfast and reached Langkawi Airport at about 11am. Sure beats taking a coach and ferry.

Can you see how excited we are to be here?

Darn tourists, haha...

This was outside the airport. We decided to save a little money and walked over to Langkasuka Beach Resort, which was about 15 mins walk away.

Langkasuka Beach Resort had a private beach, but it's advisable not to swim here as the water here isn't very clean. But nice place to chill out at night though.

The first thing we did was to crash and sleep once we got there. Loads of mosquitoes in the room, we killed about 50+ within 15 mins, and there were still lots to go around. Had to call room service to get some baygon to solve the problem.

After we woke up, we went out to Cenang Beach. A much more lively place as compared to our side. Should have stayed here, as the good food was all here.

Yes, Langkawi is as beautiful as what you see here in the photos.

Banana Boat rides into the sunset.

We had a recommendation to eat at Orchid Ria Seafood Restaurant, which is at Cenang Beach. And it is indeed good food at great prices. We had a feast, and kept coming back for more over the next few days.

Fried Calamari

Humongous King Tiger Prawns, fried with butter and garlic. There's just 2 prawns here, and it took up the whole plate. We wanted to get 4 at first, glad we didn't, cos couldn't finish if we did.

The next day we went on a package tour to see different parts of Langkawi. Our first stop was Langkawi Underwater World.

Joe Penguin is back...

An anane... annennnn... aneaeaeaeannn... anemone...

Some big fishes swimming towards Gary.
Reminds me of this McDonald's Advertisement.

Sea-Horsie...

This is a fish that I would only like to see in an aquarium, and not in the open waters.
A Picasso Triggerfish, nightmare of divers.

A hairy crab defending its territory.

And we saw a huge pufferfish!!! It was as big as Gary's head, as you can see in this picture.

And some prehistoric shellfish too.

The next destination was the Langkawi Cable Car, taking us to the peak where we can see almost the entire island.

This was the first point, where we could see our resort from up here. 652.5m above sea level, whoo hoo... It really is breezy up here.

We had to get to the other side by cable car too, and get onto that suspension bridge.
And with my fear of heights, I declare this as a victory, haha...

The view from the other side, it's really damn nice man. I would like to go back up there, the cool breeze, the horizon, and can even see mountains out there. They say the sunset is right in the middle of this picture, just imagine that.
Best place to ask someone the "ASM" or "AKYM" question, if you know what I mean.

Then we had a special detour thanks to our chauffeur, he told us that some places are kinda boring, so brought us to see this waterfall instead. Looks small in the photo, but it ain't man.

Then to another bird park or something.
Flamingos up close, haha...

Langkawi's famous statue.
Langkawi means "Eagle Rock" in Malay, and thus the eagle-on-the-rock statue.

When we went back after the day's tour, snow flakes formed in our fridge.

The next day, we went Island Hopping.

First stop was the Pregnant Maiden Lake. As you can see in the photo below, the mountain has a shape of a pregnant lady lying down.

This place was rumored to make women fertile when you drink of the lake's water.

And nah, we are not gonna get anyone pregnant anytime soon.

We took a swim in the lake though, just to cool off.

Gary flying into the lake.

We got out earlier, cos we don't want to get pregnant, or anyone pregnant. So we went to sit by the pier to wait for the speedboats.
Saw some crabs along the mangrove.

Taken with my pair of shades in front of the lens. The pier that we were waiting at.

Next stop was Eagle Feeding. Best time to go is in the morning, where the eagles are still hungry. And within minutes of the captain throwing fishes into the water, loads of eagles came flying down.

Then we went to one of the nice islands where the water was clear and the beach was beautiful.

They have para-sailing here, but that's not me.

After all that, we went back to Cenang Beach for dinner, and walked around to see some scenery. There was this padi resort, and there were some buffalos and birds.

Well, all things had to come to an end. Goodbye Langkawi, until next time.

And yea, we stopped by the famous twin towers of Malaysia.

Now I can say that I was there.
(Darn lamp post sticking out of my head.)

Amazing Skies and Lightning

These are taken recently, mostly out of my bedroom window (except for 2 shots).
As usual, all photos look bigger when you click on them.

I woke up to this sunrise, and i took this half awake.
February 24, 2009, 6.35am

This was close to sunset, when the horizon cast a shadow on the lower part of the cloud while the sun still shines on the higher part of it, at about 5.15pm.

This is another sunrise on the April 20,2009 at 6.42am.

This was out at the busstop. Blue skies are too tempting, so i pulled out my camera and started to shoot.

For those who haven't seen a rainbow in their lives, this is an artificial rainbow in the National Library.

And these were taken a few minutes before I posted this blog.

My best lightning photo yet.

I like the way the sky lights up in some of these shots.

Looks like some alien reaching out it's lightning arms.

I like how these clouds were lit up.

Before The Year Ends...

Thought I should update my blog before the year ends. It's been really busy with a lot of things going on, especially my studies. However, thanks be to God, my results came back with all As with only a B+ for one subject.

I sure am gonna miss the GKids children. Next year I'm not serving in the children ministry already. Too many things on hand, can't handle.

Lunch at Miss Clarity Cafe near school.

They have wonderful cheese fries to die for.

And this potato skin thing.

Chicken Chop, i think.

This is where my school is located, inside National Library, on the 10th and 11th Floor.

Some of my classmates, taking our formal photos on that day, so we were in formal clothes.

Chilling out with Daniel, Lennel and Chi Wern at Jazz@Southbridge. Nice place to hang out.

Dinner gathering with my ex-colleagues from Swee Lee at one of the Bugis Steamboat places.

The table behind us took a mountain of beef, crazy....

Wine Appreciation workshop in school.

GKids special performance for children's day. Had all of us leaders dance for the kids.

Our school had a trip to Four Seasons Hotel.

Four Season Hotel Founder, Mr. Isadore Sharp

Group Photo with Professor Vic Santiago

Lunch at Manhattan Fish Market.

Malaysia Getaway
My sister and I

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant near Holiday Plaza.

Dinner was back at City Square, at this HK Cafe. I had Wasabi Chicken Cutlet with Fried Rice

On the way back, on a Malaysian bus.

The Symmetrical Life.

Wakeboarding at Batam with my schoolmates.

Pro owner shamed us all.

Then started to pour in the afternoon.

Back in Singapore.

While studying in school til late and watching Gaming class videos, a car caught fire outside school.

So much excitement for the day.

Celebrating my Ah Ma's Birthday.

My family.

Chi Wern and Chin Ling's Wedding

Marrying Pastor was Pastor William, of course.

My Hope Singapore Event at Mandarin Gardens.

Then on the 100th day after my grandma passed away, I got into a car accident. Crashed into taxi outside Kovan Heartland Mall. Wasn't too serious though.

Shangri-La Hotel visit by our school.

The kitchen.

Presidential Suite Bed, sure is luxurious.

And a living room in the suite. Just part of the whole suite, big enough to play hide and seek.

Wine Tasting Class with Professor Nick Oxborrow

Leader's Retreat with Dennis and Dellia's side at RELC International Hotel. Nice place.

Spent most of our time playing though, haha...

Then was Zhou Qi and Abrie's wedding at TC.

Anticipation

Zhou Qi thanking his mum.

And his dad too.

Father and Son.
Dennis and Emmanuel.

Poly-mates Gathering at Settler's Cafe.

Christmas Dinner at Aileen's place.

Christmas Party at Home.

Our star of the day, Rachel.

And on a lighter note, we had fun with Stef's Canon camera which had this color function.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you...