Buah Salak

Buah Salak a.k.a. snake fruit (originally from Indonesia) is not a fruit I get to taste often.
It has a sweet and very mild bitter taste but a very unique taste. Love it!

Pulasan

A spiky rambutan ? A hybrid plant between rambutan (Rambutan means hairy fruit in Malay) and lychee?
Pulasan is a tropical fruit that looks like a rambutan. To me is a wild rambutan (which is not true) because of its look. It tastes much sweeter than the normal rambutan. It also has a thicker shell/skin... spiky but not hairy. Very interesting looking fruit.

The name pulasan comes from the Malay word pulas (twist). The fruit is opened through the act of twisting the fruit with both hands, thus the name pulasan.

Plasticine evening

While spending our holiday in Awana Kijal, my little cousins, niece and nephews requested us to join them for a plasticine evening. We started by creating our own creations (within 2 minutes) and let everyone in the group guessed. After a few rounds of guessing, we got bored, mostly because these little ones were really good at creating stuffs with plasticine. Impressive!

To make this more exciting, we've created our own angry birds and have a angry bird war instead.
It was really fun!

Starfish? No... snowflake... Ahhhh!

Snorkeling in Phi-Phi Island

Our plan was first to snorkel around Phi-Phi island, followed by scuba diving at the same place later.
Unfortunately the snorkeling trip was a total disappointment for us since there weren't much snorkeling or swimming going on, but lots of "sight-seeing" and "we gotta leave soon due to high tide" all kind of bull shit.

There were many tourists every place we went to. To begin with, it was almost impossible to find a place to park/dock on the shore. What my boat captain did was... "Incoming boat, excuse us!" and slotted the boat in between two boats that parked very closely to each other.

Although the beaches and the caves were so beautiful, lovely crystal clear and warm water as well, somehow, with just 15 minutes (instead of 40 minutes) time we got to spend in the water at Maya Bay, sight seeing at Loh Samah Bay, Viking cave, watching 50 over people trying to feed a few overweight/overfed monkeys from the boat, that was really not fun.

The worst part was, at 3pm, they left us at Khai Island, an open island in the middle of no where, for about 1½ hours. If you need water or beer, you have to pay... if you need a chair and a parasol, its going to cost you a lot of money. *Faint* We have decided NOT to pay for anything but to swim around the island. After one hour, we were totally sunburnt!

The story gets better... Before we reached the marina quay, our tour guide even went around with his "tip box", hoping everyone would tip him some money. Helllooooo... I want my money back instead... can I?

To comfort ourselves after this disappointed trip, we went to Sea Hag restaurant for a fantastic grilled fish dinner. Awesome! Highly recommended! A happy ending after all... :)
BTW, our scuba diving trip was fantastic! Much much nicer than this snorkeling trip!

Towards Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh

Departing from Asia Marina

You must have a fin... watch out for sea urchins.
Glad that we brought our own fins

Which boat are we taking? So many of them at the quay

Gorgeous Maya Bay... with lots of tourists of course

Where to park?

Beautiful Loh Samah Bay

Is getting high-tide... might be strong wind... we have to leave now... Really?!?!

Sightseeing just outside Viking Cave... are you kidding me?

Approaching the famous Monkey Beach

Do you think they even need food? They need to go on a diet instead!

I really do not enjoy snorkeling trip like this! :(

Geoduck

We have tasted geoduck... woo hoo!
The sashimi version was fresh and tasted like clams, except it was much bigger and slightly more chewy.
Another way of eating it was by dipping it into a warm bowl of soup. That's really nice!

Lata Cemerong

Cemerong/Chemerong waterfall - a beautiful waterfall in Pasir Raja, Dungun.
Too bad we were not in good shape to hike up to the top (10km - 3 days hike/camping), otherwise we would have been able to enjoy the magnificent view.
Well! For me, the lower/down stream is beautiful enough. :)

Beautiful hang bridge

View from the hang bridge

down stream

Ooo... a frog

Orchid

This is a very tall tree

Fisherman village and river front in Kemaman

This fish market (on the left) is my mom's favorite.
Every time when we were here, dad and kids would go straight to the sea and mom would shop till she dropped for seafood. She and my aunts did the same during this visit. :)
Sadly, this place does not look the same as it used to be.
Over the years, flooding and big waves have destroyed the beach and the nearby area/village.
To solve this problem, the easiest solution is to pile up lots of rocks infront of the beach to "try to" block the water. SAD! Is it working? I don't know...  SAD!

Something still remains the same - there are always goats and sometimes monkeys.

Flying kite is also one of our favorite beach activities.
This kite belongs to my nephew.

Kemaman river front

Kemaman river

One-eye cat.  Poor thing!

Kemasik Beach

Kemasik Beach (Pantai Kemasik in Malay) is one of the many beautiful beaches in Trengganu, Malaysia. It is  a serene place whereby there is no mud sediments in this beach due to the structure and formation of natural stones that stand out from the South China Sea.

This is my dad's childhood place where he spent a lot of time swimming and fishing when he was young... or even when I was young. I've also swum and fished here together with my dad, siblings and cousins every time we came to visit our grandparents.

"Careful now! On the right side of the rock, the water is very deep!"
"Come take a look! This corner here... lot's of parrot fishes!"
"Around the other end, you can find oysters, but do not jump in and swim ok!"
"Now let's start the sand digging composition... then see who can be the 1st one who reaches that rock at the end of the beach."
All my wonderful childhood memories started to appear infront of me. What a delightful feelings!

The beach looks a little different nowadays compared to what I used to remember. It was more beautiful then. Somehow, it was really nice just to be able to come back here... enjoy the sea, the sun, the breeze... and a whole lot of memories!
These are the only few pictures I managed to take due to my camera stopped working after my first 5 shots. Too humid here!
Took about about an hour before it worked again. Well! At least I get to enjoy the nature a little more this way.

Soft sandy beach... warm water... beautiful view... what can I ask for more?

Glad that I have my Powershot S95 with me too... :)