16.08.2010 – It was dawn and there were no sun rays glimmered into our room but I did noticed the rest were still sleeping soundly, I fumbled my phone next to me only get to know that it was already 7AM in the morning. Our tour transfers will be arriving in an hour time. I quickly gushed out of my bed and head towards the shower to perk up after an enfeeble yesterday. Probably I didn't sleep well the night before. Right. The queues were on and we had a short breakfast before heading the bay and out to the sea.

Phi phi island is beautiful and I can say that 9 out of 10 who had been there were blown away with it's intrinsic archipelago and underwater life. The sad thing was most of the reef next to these islands died off, that left a few remnants behind – dead corals, faded colors and into oblivion. I am not a marine ecologist but the snorkeling site that I was in had dull underwater life that corals were spotted dead or lifeless and these will have a huge impact on marine biology which is linked to global warming. What makes me upset was the RUBBISH DUMPED INTO THE SEA. These people had not consent of what environmental concerns are, blemishing not only tourist attractions but to the ecology cycle as well. Fortunately, swarms colorful fish can still be spotted at the open sea but not much within the archipelago. Same goes to Bali if I recalled correctly back in 2008.

At about 8am, we were then transferred to Ao Nang speed boat center where all departures to the open sea were, off the route 4203. It looks like we will be place on entourage in a group of 20+ with a speed boat. Interesting. There seemed to have a few nationalities from the Europe continent and a number of Spanish. There's a Spanish chap whom I recalled to have humor along the ride and made our day. LOLs. The ride too approximately half an hour before we reach our first site, The Viking Cave. cont.

Day Tour cost : 750 Baht

Do enjoy those wonderful subjects captured along my journey. Hope it gives you some inspiration.

Okay, this is our breakfast, nothing new but The famous-O American Breakfast. Fancied with the starry fried egg actually and bottom is ham, with sausage, and omelette. Corn flakes, bread & orange juices were among the common served as well (but not shown above).

Look at those sleepy faces. Couldn't help much with. Shirley, Jeannette & Darren.

Same goes to Soon Hong & Moon

But the fun has just begun. We alighted at the beach 500m away from the river basin.

Looking around, enjoying sceneries.

Captured some plants grew on the trunk

Fishing boat on the move to start their daily activities

A few tourists had some shots with locals before departing.

Okay… let's rock n' roll!

And everyone hopped into the boat.

Our tour guide of the day gave some instructions before we leave.

We dropped by this island (not too sure where and the name of the hotel) but it happened to be a 5 star resort in a private island. The price is about 5,000-10,000 baht per night. We got to meet some local Indian-Thai family with amazing stories told onboard.

some rocky cliffs

From this image, it looks like the tourist were having fun on the water, which in fact not that they were on the sandy shores.

This is the kind of sail that's rare around the vicinity.

Soon Hong with his D90 Gear

This… looks like a camel island LOL!

Ahoy! Set Sail & Away!

This guy is trying to be ego

There, we reached The Viking Cave.

We didn't get to explore the Viking Cave since it's governed by local authorities. This had reminded me of the risk of ascending those cranky rock surface to pick birds nest. No safety helmet, webbing, ropes, carabiners – noting but just bamboo sticks. Impressive skills. But one slip on the fall is deadly. Probably these skills were adapted since young. Salute.

We reached Lohsamah Bay, a place where we had our first snorkeling for the day. This is where rubbish spotted and dead corals were present.

Bikini girls were enjoying, obviously.

Too bad, I can't dive into this area with my camera…… longing for a waterproof case that is. We'll not much fish here but there's jelly fish that you should be aware of. A stung can swell your skin and the venom can be fatal especially the pink jellyfish.

Later, we reached Maya Beach, this is where Leonardo Dicarprio filmed 'The Beach'.

Enjoy the rest of the photo @ Maya Beach..

Everyone alight the boat and enjoyed sun basking.

 

And we had a group photo here. Should have brought my gorilla pod along but oh well. Nevermind with that. Hope soon hong don't mind. 

We, then move on to Pileh Bay for sigh seeing – The Lagoon.

This place is beautifully untouched, serene and green.

Also a snorkeling site too but I ain't see any fish swimming around.

The water is turquoise in color and pretty shallow at certain point.

Nice Nice? Feels like coming here again. seriously.

Alright, moving to Phi Phi Don for lunch. The time we walked in, it almost looks like you're walking into a restaurant offering free food. There were no sequence, no queues, no records of any kind – you just walk in and eat. These were pretty standard buffet served, Thai Seafood Soup, plain rice, vegetables, fish fillet, fried chicken, spaghetti, and that's all. However, you are able to order some other foods but you have to pay for that else, eat all you can.

Along Phi Phi Don haven.

This small town are full of souvenirs and sea activities to look for, diving were among the popular ones operated by caucasians.

Later, we head to Hin Klarng for open sea snorkeling. This is where those sheer underwater sea life were spotted. Watch out for my video coming soon. After half an hour later, we head to Bamboo Island (above).

Bikini girls were present again. Oh yeah, feels like I am in Bondi Beach at certain times except for the landscape.

There goes another!

Nice place to hang out but I don't quite like the sand there. There were lots of coral remnants on the beach and doesn't feel comfortable walking along the beach, really.

There goes the last one. At about 4PM+, we head back to Ao Nang beach and took some rest in the hotel before having a stroll down Ao Nang town, and for dinner!

We dropped by Bernie's Place by taking tuk tuk.. It cost about 20 Baht per person from our place. From the above, it's all you can eat buffet @ only 250 Baht. affordable yet perfecto but most of it were fried / bbq which is not really healthy.

Spaghetti not up to expectation but still fine with it. There's the mash potatoes on the right.

Grilled chicken. Surprisingly it tasted tender and juicy but other claimed that it was too hard and dry. Well, lucky me! There's this BBQ potatoes & satay stick @ rear.

Pork chop & Weisswurst (german hotdog). Taste awesome. Just lack of something.. ah.. mushroom sauce.

Fries & toast

My fav. Pasta & Veggies

Thai Tom Yam Kung. The meat used here was fish but not chicken.

Last but not least, Ice-Cream (self-service)
This, I bloated and couldn't really move around.
I almost threw out due to those heavy food consumed but SATISFIED!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed Day 2. Do Stay tune with my video coming your way. Won't disappoint you!

A day before the trip, I got to know that EJ & Jamie will be arriving Kuala Lumpur from their honeymoon in Bali. It was unexpected meet up since the two will be staying in Tunes Hotel @ downtown KL. We had a little social in the hotel along with fellow Mike which I'll be staying over the night as well, how coincidental the occasion has been. An early breakfast (Roti Bawang) nearby local indian stalls was something new to me. It was 2am in the morning and that was my 3rd supper but before that, I had Roti Kertas & Taiwan Chicken Chop with fellow Mike, and as well a beef burger on my first munch. Literally I almost puke and lost my gustation.

15.08.2010 - Feeble mind and lack of sleep, 3 hours of rest is never enough. I still remembered Darren were sleeping soundly that no matter how hard I knocked or called, he was not aware of. I have no choice but to inform the counter about my situation. Luckily I was able to grab a key in from them. Tunes Hotel. Oh dear! Imagine a hotel without additional door cards, cable phones or even cleansing agent for a comfy bath; that's a hostel more like it. Everything amenities in the hotel is about $, but of course you pay what you get.

We took a cab to LCC Terminal @ RM80 for 4 and departed at 1PM in the afternoon. I thought the flight took approximately 2 hours but unfortunately it's the timezone that I have to be aware of. 

Arrived Krabi @ 1.35pm(+7GMT). Simple airport and noticed only an officer working on the b-scan which took us quite some times on the queue. We saw a man holding an A4 paper with the word 'Ms. Shirley' on it and followed him blindly without any further questions asked. I don't think the driver understands us and so, we departed off to our hotel, Royal Nakara @ Ao Nang. Half way on the road, the hotel staff buzz us and questioned if we're really on our way to the hotel and therefore, we passed the phone to the driver. To our surprise, all of us had made a huge mistake! We're on the wrong vehicle heading to the wrong hotel, however, after some negotiation between the 2 parties (on the phone), we managed to reach our own hotel safely. The driver himself had a little chagrin and occasionally chuckled. As for the 6 of us, we were utterly guffawed. We then realized a grey section  printed on the A4 paper referring to some other resort. Neither any of us nor the driver noticed it. LOL!

致团友留念:

嘻嘻嘻~第一次摆那么大的乌龙让大家觉得有点尴尬,尤其是司机,没有确定客人身份在开车,真让人耐人寻味. 最终司机也得跟有关酒店谈判才把我们送到酒店大门(而不是门口). 下次记得把眼睛瞪大点哦! 以免超级乌龙篇在上演,免的无辜被抛. 我在想哦..那位'Shirley'会不气馁到拿司机来当沙包来打叻. 哈!

~~~

We checked in our hotel and hopped on a Jeepsy to Krabi Town for leisure walk, exploring their night markets and most importantly, their local food & delicacies. Cheap, creative and affordable that's all I could say. After the night market stroll, we took the jeepsy ride back to our hotel @ 60 Baht per pax. There goes our Day 1.

On the van, on the way to Royal Nakara when we realized something is not right. Moon & Hong

Shirley, Jeannette & Law

We checked-in soon after we alight. Per night is 3,500 Baht with 2 queen size bed and a single bed. Not too bad as we checked. Staff was friendly and approachable but too bad only a room key was given.

Random hotel shoot. A quiet place but there were some constructions going on around. It seemed like there were a few resorts / hotels erected within the vicinity.

Our hotel room with 2 queen size bed + a single bed where I took this photo.

There's a kitchen too for us to cook (with a microwave), a mini bar station as well

Another angle near the sliding door.

These 2 girls were really tired that they had siesta after this shot. lol

We had a short stroll along Ao Nang stretch with souvenir shops, restaurants & cafe, tailors etc., similar to Bali I would say.

The group is ready for Jeepsy ride to Krabi Town!

In the Jeepsy ride, you're able to observe wonderful sceneries around, tagged along with a few tourists @ just 50 Baht (morning/  afternoon price).

Incidental shot of local life. There's much to tell of.

30 minutes later, we're @ Krabi Town. Looks very much alike our Serian (Sarawak Region) town yeah.

Dropped by 7-Eleven to buy some drinks to quench our thirst. This soya bean milk is really lovely.

Krabi Street Snacks / 甲米街边小吃

FYI, this market is only available on weekends. We're lucky enough to drop by and wriggle through those foods offered by locals. I bet you won't wanna miss this. This is Weekend Walking Street!

Fresh flowers on sale.

Fresh milk blend according to your choice. Good to see but not too sure if it's good to consume. Kinda odd but creative.

This aunty is preparing hot spring roll for us on the spot, skin made of flour and ingredients were shredded turnip, carrots & mushroom.

There you go, Thai Spring Roll (Popiah) with sweet chili sauce. Not bad, not too oily I reckon.

There, another stall selling BBQ Sticks but the meat was too salty. Still cooking from the above.

Didn't get to try the barbeque fish but there's more!

Thai Satay, juicy and tender!

Do you have any idea what this is? It's Fried Chicken Skin! Weeeeeeee! Ya I had a few. It's really crispy! You should try it chicken lovers! But… not too much of it. 

This is another type of flat fishball, served with chili sauce. Man… it's spicy & hot!

We came across this Scooby Doo van selling Pan Cakes and gawd, there's a variety of it that we don't know what to eat!

It's kinda unique actually. We love the settings and food from this stall!

The stall owner preparing our orders.  This is similar to our very own Roti Canai but literally it's cooked in the Thai way.

There, Banana Pancake is awesome!

This market reminds me of our very own Satok Sunday Market (Kuching, Sarawak Region).

Up next, we had cheese pancake! WOOT! Taste really good but the melted cheese made the dough flab. Still, acceptable.

Sit in a line and enjoy pancakes. Oh, that's what I called ENJOY! Sabai Dee Mai!

Barbeque Squid on the go.

It taste kinda odd going down in a full piece. I think it's the marinated sauce which was uneven. 

Many many more satay-like sticks

Thai Fried Rice with egg. Take a look at the yolk, it's orange color. Sometimes, I was kinda worried if it's an artificial egg. There were cases in China reported. I give it a pass on this. Next….

Steamed Thai Chicken Rice. Okay.. that looks kinda new to me. Didn't get to try cause we had a little bit of this and that along. Pass.

So I did managed to try out this yolk yam delicacies. It taste really floury. One is enough.

Ah, the famous miniature Thai pineapple is a must try. Sweet and juicy!

Tubes of colorful drinks

Thai hotdog / Weisswurst! Not too salty and similar to Taiwan hotdog. Usually served with raw cabbage and small chilies.

Thai coconut is the bomb especially for one hot day like this!!

The famous Mango Glutinous Rice. The condiment is a bit too sweet but it's a good combination for 3 different types of sticky rice.

I think it's coloring for the 2.

Thai style Char Kueh Teow. Sweet but not salty. Another weird combination.

Little busker rendering their instruments. They are really talented. I have a video on this, I'll try to post up @ my facebook.

Oh yeah, this is coconut Ice-Cream. My first try told me that it taste mediocre. The scoops was a bit too sweet though.

Drawing was (and still is) my compassionate hobby and every time I looked at these people, I felt like joining with a brush and paper.

Little souvenirs on your pick. The varieties are eye opening really.

These little puppet is perfect for lovers I supposed.

She rides!

Sunset @ Krabi Town. Noticed that interesting traffic light with a man carrying bulks. haha!

There's another market in Krabi Town. It's the fruit market but along you can check out some food and cloths, not far from walking street.

On our way back, I came across this flamboyant lanterns. Not quite! It's foldable and easy to attach. I bought it for 300 Baht for the medium size.

SUPPER TIME!

Yeah, we bought some cup noodle @ 7-Eleven with dumpling and cocktail hotdogs. Unhealthy presence but oh well, it's our college mates reunion. WTH

Of course, accompanied with a few beverages. You see, we have black soya milk, Singha, Heineken, & Asahi. Beer is really that cheap @ Thailand.

There you go! More cocktails and Dumpling… We bloated after.

And Whalla! Khot Kun Khab. We did the same back in 2008 here.
Nikon CLS were used above.

 

Stay tune for Day 2. Hope you enjoyed.

21.07.2010 – A stranger that I knew online for more than a year had visited Singapore for leisure. His name is LG, carried NOKIA & SAMSUNG phone, but didn't see his SONY ERICSSON along, utterly not a fan of APPLE. LOL!

Okay, the meowgite had a short visit to Singapore and his schedule was pretty tight and gotta rush back to Sentosa to catch his last bus back to JB @ 10.30pm so this dinner was meant for him and surprisingly, to my amazement, a lot of netizens from Multiply social network turned out; 19 of us including me, separated into 2 tables.

Woot! What a huge gathering with strangers I say and only knew a few of them in the group before this, the rest are just sheer new faces first time seen on the spot and again, I had problem remembering those names. Forgive my rusty RAM! Definitely need a hot swap! This time we're heading to a Heng Hua Restaurant named Pu Tian (莆田兴化菜馆). First try on the dishes and concluded it doesn't pleased my stomach (too much Teochew dishes I supposed!) much but some dish are still acceptable as appetizer.

Ah, didn't really chat much with LG bro but glad 3 Kuchingites were present though which includes Gomus. Whilst, enjoy all photos below.

Click photo to zoom

Stir fried kailan with bean curd skin.
They should blend some enokitake in it.

 

Pu Tian Sweet & Sour Pork with Lychee.
Probably I ate this often and didn't impress me much. lol.

Deep fried duck with yam.
Okay, this yam taste alright but I couldn't gnaw on any duck chunks?

Deep fried chicken with garlic.
Taste like any other chicken. It's kinda unique to chew with the leaf I say.

Steamed prawn with minced garlic.
Tasteless but garlic with prawn is fine for me.

Fruit platter.

Tony ↑

Albert ↑

YT ↑

Gomus ↑

Phang ↑

Alger ↑

Harnes ↑

Vinci ↑

LOL! He loves that camera!

Table 2 with the girls. Didn't get a close up shot for each and every of them. Dunno who is who.

Group photo

OCKL – Operation Chiong Kuala Lumpur~

25.06.10 – right here, right now! This would be my second holiday (which was planned further back in february) after OCPG2 which was commenced about a week ago. Lol. All this while, the gangs (who's gonna participate in OCKL) keep in touch with one another through facebook and skype. I just can't believe this had been going on since February and the day finally came.

The traffic on the road was slow but luckily I got to check-in an hour before boarding. I was kinda worried that I might miss the flight for good and forfeited the ticket. Unlike airasia, Jetstar does not have any online check-in system so there goes the inconveniency.

Reached KL @ 9pm and head straight downtown via ERL, bought an instant cheese burger from MacD to fill up my stomach a bit before taking another train to Mid Valley (Cititel) and meet up with the gangs. Adrian & SGab was still stuck @ penang due to aircraft delays (Fireflyz) so I had another supper, which was KFC to double fill my stomach. Man, chicken rice had never taste that good with Colonel's recipe. lol… Malaysia's KFC are way better than Singapore's, i was self-indulged, really.

Mike was still working and was a bit late to come and meet with the gangs. It was 11pm, all of us were on the chirit chirit bang bang wheels to go and pick up Ad & Gab, now this time the 2 had landed to complete all 8 of us. I suggested that we have an early breakfast somewhere and Mike brought us to paparich, which would be our first gathering of the trip. An hour of chit chat were confabulated, which was kinda fun and everyone enjoyed. We dismissed at 1am and what everyone needs was a good sleep!

[ Click image to zoom! ]

That drink taste really good.. Soya bean  + red bean + chendol!

( Bryan's Ice-Cream Bun )

( EJ purposely did that on his plate )

 

I didn't sleep much, 2 hours that was. Bryan was worse, he was awaken the entire night maybe It was my snort after all but I couldn't be sure as he explained that it was the cool air from outside. The next morning, I was awaken by melodic tunes and it seemed preety hard to drag yourself off the bed, the head's hefty. Same goes to the rest. I think Mike's worse, he hardly had enough sleep for the entire week as he was our volunteered driver for the entire trip since he is already half KL-gites and knew the roads well :p Appreciate that pal!

26.06.2010 – A beautiful saturday indeed. First thing was heading gombak MRT to check out the bus ticket to Genting. Unfortunately all morning bus ticket was sold out and what's left was afternoon depart. We were in a dilemma but here comes a few touts offering private escort service to genting. instead of paying RM8, wepaid RM70 for 4. There were 8 of us, so it's RM140. I was rather exacerbated with their attitudes and wheedle continuously. I found it offending but also understand they were making a living. We had no choice but to accept their offer since everyone was so keen to go up there, oh well. The irresponsible driver drove like a speed racer which almost got us into cardiac arrest. But he's fast, we reached the cable car platform within 15 mins which usually took 30 mins of average driving.

First things first – buying descent bus ticket @ RM4 each. That's cheap! We had our maggie mee breakfast that costed RM4 abd no meat? Over priced food up there! Well, whatsoever things sold up there are either double or tripled the price of the ordinary. I wonder how ordinary people gotta afford what they couldn't afford. You need to spend at least RM100 min. up there, and for me – I think I roughly spent about RM150 inc. theme park rides. Yeah I did gambled in the casino but won RM25 overall… Lol…. i did won RM200 but I was greedy… You know that, greed is good but greeder could ripped u off no matter how, unless you have some talisman with you to counter those evil precense around; you know what am saying…

( Inside the Cable Car )

We also had those fun rides, from flying coaster, and some other coaster rides, still alright with the thrill. There's a go Kart queue tat we wasted an hour there just for the queues and gave up eventually. Ya, an hour of queue just to acquire a shower cap. Crap! I simply think it's a waste of time, I rather pay extras for express instead.

( Rides in forward angle )

( Rides in other angle )

( Hello Gabby )

( Hello Jamie )

( Hello SW & Mike )
( We have more whacko shots @ EJ's camera. Tune in to Facebook for tags )

( Now this is one heck of the crazy rides that we had @ RM10 – it's flying coaster! The thrills are just fine with me… )

( Ya you have to lie flat and Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee )

Yes, we also tried out puriku. I had never tried thus maniac and gay-like machine and that was my first time with the gangs. So much to do with your desire pose, whichever you like. It costed me RM35 for a 4R photo, as for the fun….. Priceless. We had taken a total of 6 photos from this booth with a lime green background to create fancy visual images behind us. See below…

We need to catch up our bus @ 4.45pm and reached the cable car station just in time, it took us 15 mins or so to descent, lucky enough we're able to catch up with that bus. Phew! Eceryone was exhausted and slept soundly in the bus and we head back home for showers before continue on with the night session.

Dinner @ mid valley, Pasta Zanmai and we had a surprise for Adrian, yeap… It's his belated birthday. He didn't expect that I think. The moose cake taste really good though, everyone likes it. There gies Day 2!

( Dinner @ Pasta Zanmai )

( The SFWs, now with couples LOL!! 10 years later with kids…. )

Sifudo Ramen

Unagi Rice Set

Hotate pizza (behind), and Shifudo pizza!

Here's my Teriyaki Carbonara 

Sponge + Moose Cake with bread crumbs

27.06.2010 – Day 3! Time for mass! Now everyone had a good sleep I recalled as they seemed vigor! We were very late for mass and ended sitting on the second floor facing the wall while listening to the preach. Lol… aduh. The mass ended at 10am and Mike brought everyone for brunch and that would be Seremban's char sew (pork) delight! The honey roasted char sew taste heavenly and feels like having more of it. Later, we had a stroll around Jaya One and Times Square (had Subway for lunch) before departing off Singapore. Flight was delayed half an hour till 7pm, again I was lucky to reach the airport on time to be the last to check-in! Why it has to be like that every time -.-;

The best in Seremban! Honey Roasted Pork!

The sweetness and firmness of the meat will blow you away!

Ordered a bowl of hand made noodle that taste so similar like Sarawak's Kolo mee.. Superb!!! Heard the owner is a master degree holder. Salute his recipe!

Stay tune for our video session @ next post!