We got up and trekked back across the chasm. It was a deep chasm on the side of the mountain, the yellow spotlights hanging on handles along the bridge, only barely illuminating the sides down to a few meters below. The ground was shrouded in darkness and I shivered at the thought of any accident that would surely kill whoever fell over into the blackness below.
However, we quickly reached the main beach again, and the dangerous air was dispelled by the dazzling multicolored lights decorating the resort. Heading towards the disco, I nudged Cherlyn, “Shall we go and pick up Paul and the guys?”
“I don’t know whether they’d mind.” Cherlyn hesitated, referring to our guides.
“I don’t think so, let me ask them.” I turned to Eddie and told him that we’d made arrangements to go to the beach disco with some new friends.
The guides assented and we headed back to the More More Tea hut, leaving Eddie and Mi on a bench beside the beach disco.
Reaching the bistro, we were slightly disappointed to find out that only the middle-aged man was left inside, still singing. The groups of young men, whom we made friends with, have gone. We stopped by the bar to ask for tap water to drink and once refreshed, we left the building to head back to the disco.
As we approached the disco however, Cherlyn made off in a beeline for a bench within the enclosure made on the beach to represent the dance floor. I was momentarily confused but was presently informed that Paul and the guys were right there, waiting for us to join them already.
I waved to the guys, and turned to Eddie to explain to him that those were our new friends. I invited the guides to join us, but they politely refused and remained sitting on the beach, content to watch us youngsters dance and jump merrily about, as they probably do so, every other night.
It was my first time at a beach disco. The disco was an enclosure of a small portion of the beach. The dance floor was delineated by wooden benches arranged in a square. Many more young people were already on the dance floor when we arrived, but we soon joined them in jumping about without a care in the world, assured that we would only land in soft fine sand if we were to fall.
We all let loose our cares and concerns and thoroughly enjoyed the music, as if we had known each other since forever before, even though before the day began, none of us knew each other existed even.
As all merry times slip away at lightning speed, all of a sudden, it was midnight and the deejay announced that the end of the party was near. We all groaned unanimously and a few shouted for more.
Unfortunately, the deejay firmly repeated, “We’re closing soon, but first, let us all enjoy this moment. Everybody come together, whether you know one another or not, hold hands and make a big circle. The bigger the better, come on everybody join in!” Not caring who our partners might end up to be, we obediently joined hands and made a circle that spread out onto the entire dance floor.
The lights were dimmed, and soft music started to play. We quickly recognized the all too familiar song “Waves blossom” again, but we could never tire of the touching lyrics, close to all our young buoyant hearts. We sang in unison:
I want you right here with me,
Watching turtles swimming in the sea
Lying on the sandy beach,
Counting the waves as they blossom each
Do not be afraid, for you won’t be lonely
I’ll always be by your side, making you happy
As the days go by, we will gradually grow up
But I don’t care whether you understand what I’m singing now
I know that one day; you will fall in love with me
Because I’m really not that bad at all
Time is hurriedly slipping away
Never coming back again
Beauties will become old women
But by then, I too will only be an old man
Let us hold each others’ hands
And only care to count the waves
As they bloom again and again
The joyful song carried a hint of sadness at the realization that our youth will disappear into old age one day, but aptly carrying a tune spiced with the optimism which all youngsters view life with. It was true that nothing lasts, but as long as they lasted, each wave while they bloom, is enough to bring us joy, again and again.
And being the buoyant children that we were, we were not content to just stand and sing calmly. Instead, some amongst us broke out into a run around the circle, pulling along the rest of us tighly, sometimes closing in on opposite sides so that we would all run into and bash into one another enthusiastically. Needless to say, by the time the song ended, no one had any breath left to continue singing.
We were too engrossed in the mood, and not wanting it to end, just kept standing holding each others hands until more music started again. This time, it was the song, “At Least I Still Have You,” by Sandy Lam. Once more, it was really emotive for us to continue holding hands, enjoying each others presence, knowing that we are not alone. I heartily agree that no man is an island. Perhaps being the only extreme sentimental, I started singing again, and only stopped when the rush of the game took my breath away.
Only concerned that time is not enough
I want to hug and hold you tight
Until I can feel your wrinkles’ trough
Being tracked by the passing time
Until I am sure that you’re true
Until I lose all my strength and energy
For you, I am willing
Even when I can’t move anymore
I must watch you still
Until I see that your head of hair
Have been shaded by the snowy white
Until my vision has become blurred
Until I can no longer breathe
But for us, our hearts and souls will never part
Even if I can let go of all the world,
At least there must still be you
For whom my appreciation is worthwhile
And now the fact that you’re here
Is life’s miracle.
Even if I can forget the whole world,
I will not allow myself to lose hold of you
That mole on your palm,
I have and will always know where it is
We live a hard life, bound and not free
I fear that time is too swift, that I can’t see you clearly
I fear that time is too slow, worrying everyday that I would lose you
If only we could age all in one moment,
Then we’d not have to part forever
This time, when the song ended, all of us were tired and willingly let go of each other in order to rest a while. The deejay still continued to play some slow songs, but now encouraging us to pair up and enjoy the romantic midnight by the sea.
Another young man in his twenties, Ah Hong, had, by now, become our friend too. He was cheekier than the others and decided to pair me up with Terence. So he devised a scheme for all six of us, Terence and I, Cherlyn and Paul, himself with his girlfriend, Xiao Ting, to dance to a slow song in a circle.
Soon he broke up the small circle and began dancing with his girlfriend, embracing her and at the same time, making winks at Terence to prompt him to take the cue to dance with me, which he did. Fortunately, Terence was more polite than I had imagined him to be, and he was very appropriately distanced from me, both of us only holding our palms lightly and waltzing to the slow tune.
At the end of the last song, it was deeply regrettable that we would all have to separate, maybe never to see each other again. We took the opportunity to take a grand group photo and then said our goodbyes reluctantly, but we managed to exchange email addresses in order to keep in touch.
“Let’s promise to come back again, same time next year!” Paul shouted to us as we walk away from the beach disco, disheartened but still filled with too much euphoria from the partying before.
“Sure!” Cherlyn and I shouted back, questioning in our hearts, how much each of us meant it to be anyway, but yet, hoping that we all would carry out the promise, because it seemed so much more romantic that way.
That night, Cherlyn and I stayed up until 2am even though the party ended slightly past midnight and everyone had dispersed to their respective rooms. We found 2 deck chairs and sat down with Eddie and Mi and had a long and casual chat, touching on this and that topic, while watching the clouds pass over the velvety black sky, illuminated ghostly silver by the half moon hanging high up in the middle of the sky. We had hoped to see some shooting stars, which are in fact, supernovae, occurring very frequently in the space beyond our universe. Unfortunately, the sky was too cloudy, and it only got worse, as stormy clouds blew across the night sky so that at 2am, we gave up.
It was lucky that we left when we did, saying our goodbyes and thank yous. For when we reached our room, it started pouring and we were only too glad to lay our heads in our clean and dry beds, and close our sleepy eyelids to rest our exhausted bodies.
Although it was only a two day trip, we had thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. To me, it seemed much more than 48hours had passed, for every minute was stretched by its content of bliss into infinity. Even though I was to leave this happy land tomorrow morning at 8am, as I closed my eyes to sleep, my mind, which was still caught up in the waves of joyful celebration, continued to dream deep into the night of all the happy times that young people are blessed with.
THE END
Friday, June 4, 2010
Blue Sand
Truly exhausted and walking back towards our room, I asked Cherlyn, “So how did you end up on that cliff? It cut my soles more than any corals did.”
“Mi told me that it was a piece of cake and halfway through I realized that he must have been joking. But having nothing else to do, I decided to carry on anyway. At least the scenery was really fantastic, I have never seen a more beautiful sunset.” She replied, without a trace of regret.
“Wow! That must have been some amazing sunset, too bad I only caught glimpses of it as I stuck my head out only towards the end,” I lamented, however quickly brightening up at my own wonderful memories, “but you’d never guess that the marine world was actually as interesting as what I saw. What we’ve been seeing the past two days paled remarkably in comparison!”
Unable to contain myself, I continued babbling nonstop about the three turtles that I saw up close, as well as the corals, fishes and I even told her about the frightening bit when we went too far out. As I described my encounters, Cherlyn’s pretty face changed into one full of regrets, “If I’d known, I would have gone! Especially since now I have as many more cuts on my feet too.”
I could understand perfectly her lamentations; in fact, I understood it even better considering I knew how much she had missed, but I said, “Don’t worry, we’re only 21, this is our first trip, I can’t wait till we next go on a trip again, just you and me!”
We both grinned at the suggestion and our tired spirits were rejuvenated again, so speedily as only possible in young, hopeful hearts.
Quietly then, we reached the recreation shack to return our snorkeling set, a little reluctantly. Quickly though, another object attracted my attention. My underwater photographs were ready for printing! As another man was already at the computer terminal selecting his own digital image, I informed the young man to look out for my photograph, which he could recognize easily as I was still wearing my striking blue bikini, and went back to the room with Cherlyn.
We were so tired that we immediately flopped onto the bed to rest our exhausted limbs. We agreed that I’d bathe first, and then leave the room to collect my photograph whilst she could take her shower, and then we’d both be ready to go for dinner.
Having paid 15 Ringgit for 3 digital photographs in a CD, I went back to the room, dressed in a black tank and floral wrap-around skirt, while, Cherlyn, likewise got ready to party. She had borrowed my bare-back shirt and wore her own blue mini skirt, looking absolutely gorgeous, accentuated by her new tan.
We went for a quick dinner, which tasted considerably better than the previous night’s burnt BBQ meats. After we ate, we strolled along the beach set against the darkening sky and gently lolling waves until we reached the More More Tea shop. We had promised Mi and Eddie that we’d meet them at 930pm to see blue sand, that was famously found on dark nights in Pulau Redang.
We arrived an hour early for the appointment and decided to check out the bistro above as we’d not visited it yet. It was lucky that we did, for we met Paul and his friends singing out their hearts upstairs!
“Hi! What a pleasant surprise to see you guys again!” Cherlyn called out to Paul, and walked over to their table at the far right corner of the bistro.
“I told you we were fated to be friends, we can’t escape even if we wanted to!” Paul joked while Ah Soon and Terence, who were seated at the outside of the round table, got up to furnish chairs for Cherlyn and I respectively. We laughed and all sat down to enjoy the Chinese song that was being sung by a middle-aged man a few tables away.
“Wow, this uncle is really first-rate, I salute him.” Paul commented with respect, and it was true that the man sang very well, with a perfectly melodious yet, deep baritone voice. We were all so impressed that we remain silently enthralled by his song, until the end whereby everyone in the bistro clapped heartily, complimenting the performance.
“So what are you two doing here?” Paul turned to Cherlyn.
“We are supposed to meet the guides downstairs to look for blue sand later, but we’re an hour early, so we just decided to come up here and take a look.” Cherlyn replied.
“Blue sand?” Paul remarked, and then sulkily continued, “How come no one decided to show us that? How unfair!”
We laughed, and I informed him cheekily, “That’s because Cherlyn and I are VVIP, and you’re not!”
“Where does it say that you guys are VVIP?” Ah Soon enviously enquired.
“Right here on our faces!” I chuckled and touched my cheeks playfully, adding, “Even the turtles I saw must have seen it, for I’m the only one who saw them!”
When our jovial jesting cooled off a little, Ah Soon turned to me and formally introduced himself, “Well, we did not really spend time to get to know each other this afternoon, so let me begin. I am Ah Soon, and I am a distributor of branded clothing to shops in KL.”
“So now you know that being our friends are advantageous! You can call Ah Soon any time and he’ll provide you stylish clothes at cheaper prices.” Terence exclaimed with a twinkle in his eye.
Cherlyn nodded and introduced herself in turn, “I am Cherlyn and I’m still studying in KL, at University Putra Malaysia.”
Paul nodded and turned to look at me so I took the cue and said, “I am Elaine and I’m also studying, in the National University of Singapore.”
They were astonished and Ah Soon excitedly asked me, “So you’re smart! What are you studying?”
Being not too brainy and yet somehow managing to get into the medicine course at NUS, I always felt slightly embarrassed to admit to this, so I shrugged my shoulders teasingly and said, “That’s my secret, and it’s nothing to do with any of you. Cherlyn’s an engineer!” I quickly shifted the attention back to her.
“Wow! We’ve got an engineer here. I am a mechanic.” Terence, seated to my right, shyly informed us, “So what about you? Come on, don’t be so mysterious.”
“Yeah, and you can quietly whisper the answer into my ear. I’ll be discreet, I promise.” Paul said in turn.
I laughed and continued to smile without giving it away.
The tune of “Waves Blossom” by Richie Ren came on the karaoke screen and Paul picked up the microphone and handed the other one to Thomas, and they started singing the song with childlike joy.
It was a familiar tune to all of us, being written for the show “Summer More More Tea” which was filmed in this very hut where we were at. The music is vibrant and the lyrics speak of youthful days at the beach, being carefree and fun. Yet, one day when all the young become old and wrinkled, it would just be enough to be at each other’s side, reliving the days when the end seemed infinitely far away.
I thought it very apt to select this song, and yet, the barmaid must have heard this a million times, for I’m sure every young person who came here will likewise have chosen this song.
“I bet the barmaid must know how to sing this song by now, even though she’s Malay.” I pointed out to Cherlyn.
“I’m sure. People must be singing this a few times a day everyday.” Cherlyn agreed, shaking her head, pitying the poor barmaid.
Too soon, it was time to leave them again. We stepped down the wooden staircase and saw that Mi and Eddie were already waiting for us at the benches outside the hut. Waving, we greeted them warmly.
“Are you both ready to search for blue sand?” Mi asked, getting up from his seat.
They brought us across a bridge made of planks connected by bamboo, about 100metres above a chasm in the mountain on the right of the beach, to a small plateau which housed another series of chalets belonging to a different hotel. The hostels here were simpler and less luxurious compared to the Laguna Resort, but the Sports House offered a comprehensive range of diving courses. I guessed that this is the choice hotel to stay in for diving packages to Redang Island.
On reaching the other side of the plateau, the land sloped down to a small white sandy beach, surrounded on both sides by orange rocks that rose gently at first, and then abruptly vertical to enclose the small bay in a secret ravine on the other side of the mountain.Squatting down at the edge of the water, Eddie reached down beside a small orange boulder and swept the surface sand with his hand. I immediately spotted a blue glow, as big as a grain of rice, but beautifully luminescent in the shadow of the rock. He picked up the blue sand and placed it upon my receiving hand. I examined the blue grain curiously; amazed at the fiery blue light that was given off by this tiny organism.
What is this thing actually? Is it a weed or an animal?” I asked.
Mi explained, “It is actually some sort of sea insect that is washed up on the shore. We are not lucky enough today, because the moon is shining brightly. When the nights are dark, one sweep of the hand will uncover millions of these bugs, and you will see a mirror image of the night sky, except that the blue stars are more brilliant, much bigger and truly spectacular.” He added with an admiring tone.
I watched the blue light grow dimmer as I held the translucent insect in the palm of my hand carefully, but no matter how careful I was, the beautiful animal slowly extinguished in the air. All that is left is a dull gray grain, soft and easily compressible. It had died within a minute of being dug up, unprotected by the wet sand below.
An unexpected sadness overcame me suddenly as I thought about all those lights that were extinguished whenever the sand were swept away to show tourists the blue animals, and the countless more that would continue to be killed in future, relentlessly. The fact that humans were selfish to the point of killing for entertainment struck me as I recalled the extermination of all the species that Mother nature originally affords, that had already occurred up to this point. This was painfully obvious on this day especially for I had only just begun discovering the magnificent bounty of nature, and yet knowing that one day, these too might one day be only graveyards.
All things will pass. I sighed. However, not wanting to miss a single moment, I perked up immediately, for even now is a passing moment anyway.
“Let’s stop digging, I’ve seen enough.” I suggested to Cherlyn and Mi who had found another three such grains. I pulled at Eddie’s sleeve and stood up, “It’s too bad that we can’t see them in their full glory today, so let’s do something else.”
“Mi told me that it was a piece of cake and halfway through I realized that he must have been joking. But having nothing else to do, I decided to carry on anyway. At least the scenery was really fantastic, I have never seen a more beautiful sunset.” She replied, without a trace of regret.
“Wow! That must have been some amazing sunset, too bad I only caught glimpses of it as I stuck my head out only towards the end,” I lamented, however quickly brightening up at my own wonderful memories, “but you’d never guess that the marine world was actually as interesting as what I saw. What we’ve been seeing the past two days paled remarkably in comparison!”
Unable to contain myself, I continued babbling nonstop about the three turtles that I saw up close, as well as the corals, fishes and I even told her about the frightening bit when we went too far out. As I described my encounters, Cherlyn’s pretty face changed into one full of regrets, “If I’d known, I would have gone! Especially since now I have as many more cuts on my feet too.”
I could understand perfectly her lamentations; in fact, I understood it even better considering I knew how much she had missed, but I said, “Don’t worry, we’re only 21, this is our first trip, I can’t wait till we next go on a trip again, just you and me!”
We both grinned at the suggestion and our tired spirits were rejuvenated again, so speedily as only possible in young, hopeful hearts.
Quietly then, we reached the recreation shack to return our snorkeling set, a little reluctantly. Quickly though, another object attracted my attention. My underwater photographs were ready for printing! As another man was already at the computer terminal selecting his own digital image, I informed the young man to look out for my photograph, which he could recognize easily as I was still wearing my striking blue bikini, and went back to the room with Cherlyn.
We were so tired that we immediately flopped onto the bed to rest our exhausted limbs. We agreed that I’d bathe first, and then leave the room to collect my photograph whilst she could take her shower, and then we’d both be ready to go for dinner.
Having paid 15 Ringgit for 3 digital photographs in a CD, I went back to the room, dressed in a black tank and floral wrap-around skirt, while, Cherlyn, likewise got ready to party. She had borrowed my bare-back shirt and wore her own blue mini skirt, looking absolutely gorgeous, accentuated by her new tan.
We went for a quick dinner, which tasted considerably better than the previous night’s burnt BBQ meats. After we ate, we strolled along the beach set against the darkening sky and gently lolling waves until we reached the More More Tea shop. We had promised Mi and Eddie that we’d meet them at 930pm to see blue sand, that was famously found on dark nights in Pulau Redang.
We arrived an hour early for the appointment and decided to check out the bistro above as we’d not visited it yet. It was lucky that we did, for we met Paul and his friends singing out their hearts upstairs!
“Hi! What a pleasant surprise to see you guys again!” Cherlyn called out to Paul, and walked over to their table at the far right corner of the bistro.
“I told you we were fated to be friends, we can’t escape even if we wanted to!” Paul joked while Ah Soon and Terence, who were seated at the outside of the round table, got up to furnish chairs for Cherlyn and I respectively. We laughed and all sat down to enjoy the Chinese song that was being sung by a middle-aged man a few tables away.
“Wow, this uncle is really first-rate, I salute him.” Paul commented with respect, and it was true that the man sang very well, with a perfectly melodious yet, deep baritone voice. We were all so impressed that we remain silently enthralled by his song, until the end whereby everyone in the bistro clapped heartily, complimenting the performance.
“So what are you two doing here?” Paul turned to Cherlyn.
“We are supposed to meet the guides downstairs to look for blue sand later, but we’re an hour early, so we just decided to come up here and take a look.” Cherlyn replied.
“Blue sand?” Paul remarked, and then sulkily continued, “How come no one decided to show us that? How unfair!”
We laughed, and I informed him cheekily, “That’s because Cherlyn and I are VVIP, and you’re not!”
“Where does it say that you guys are VVIP?” Ah Soon enviously enquired.
“Right here on our faces!” I chuckled and touched my cheeks playfully, adding, “Even the turtles I saw must have seen it, for I’m the only one who saw them!”
When our jovial jesting cooled off a little, Ah Soon turned to me and formally introduced himself, “Well, we did not really spend time to get to know each other this afternoon, so let me begin. I am Ah Soon, and I am a distributor of branded clothing to shops in KL.”
“So now you know that being our friends are advantageous! You can call Ah Soon any time and he’ll provide you stylish clothes at cheaper prices.” Terence exclaimed with a twinkle in his eye.
Cherlyn nodded and introduced herself in turn, “I am Cherlyn and I’m still studying in KL, at University Putra Malaysia.”
Paul nodded and turned to look at me so I took the cue and said, “I am Elaine and I’m also studying, in the National University of Singapore.”
They were astonished and Ah Soon excitedly asked me, “So you’re smart! What are you studying?”
Being not too brainy and yet somehow managing to get into the medicine course at NUS, I always felt slightly embarrassed to admit to this, so I shrugged my shoulders teasingly and said, “That’s my secret, and it’s nothing to do with any of you. Cherlyn’s an engineer!” I quickly shifted the attention back to her.
“Wow! We’ve got an engineer here. I am a mechanic.” Terence, seated to my right, shyly informed us, “So what about you? Come on, don’t be so mysterious.”
“Yeah, and you can quietly whisper the answer into my ear. I’ll be discreet, I promise.” Paul said in turn.
I laughed and continued to smile without giving it away.
The tune of “Waves Blossom” by Richie Ren came on the karaoke screen and Paul picked up the microphone and handed the other one to Thomas, and they started singing the song with childlike joy.
It was a familiar tune to all of us, being written for the show “Summer More More Tea” which was filmed in this very hut where we were at. The music is vibrant and the lyrics speak of youthful days at the beach, being carefree and fun. Yet, one day when all the young become old and wrinkled, it would just be enough to be at each other’s side, reliving the days when the end seemed infinitely far away.
I thought it very apt to select this song, and yet, the barmaid must have heard this a million times, for I’m sure every young person who came here will likewise have chosen this song.
“I bet the barmaid must know how to sing this song by now, even though she’s Malay.” I pointed out to Cherlyn.
“I’m sure. People must be singing this a few times a day everyday.” Cherlyn agreed, shaking her head, pitying the poor barmaid.
Too soon, it was time to leave them again. We stepped down the wooden staircase and saw that Mi and Eddie were already waiting for us at the benches outside the hut. Waving, we greeted them warmly.
“Are you both ready to search for blue sand?” Mi asked, getting up from his seat.
They brought us across a bridge made of planks connected by bamboo, about 100metres above a chasm in the mountain on the right of the beach, to a small plateau which housed another series of chalets belonging to a different hotel. The hostels here were simpler and less luxurious compared to the Laguna Resort, but the Sports House offered a comprehensive range of diving courses. I guessed that this is the choice hotel to stay in for diving packages to Redang Island.
On reaching the other side of the plateau, the land sloped down to a small white sandy beach, surrounded on both sides by orange rocks that rose gently at first, and then abruptly vertical to enclose the small bay in a secret ravine on the other side of the mountain.Squatting down at the edge of the water, Eddie reached down beside a small orange boulder and swept the surface sand with his hand. I immediately spotted a blue glow, as big as a grain of rice, but beautifully luminescent in the shadow of the rock. He picked up the blue sand and placed it upon my receiving hand. I examined the blue grain curiously; amazed at the fiery blue light that was given off by this tiny organism.
What is this thing actually? Is it a weed or an animal?” I asked.
Mi explained, “It is actually some sort of sea insect that is washed up on the shore. We are not lucky enough today, because the moon is shining brightly. When the nights are dark, one sweep of the hand will uncover millions of these bugs, and you will see a mirror image of the night sky, except that the blue stars are more brilliant, much bigger and truly spectacular.” He added with an admiring tone.
I watched the blue light grow dimmer as I held the translucent insect in the palm of my hand carefully, but no matter how careful I was, the beautiful animal slowly extinguished in the air. All that is left is a dull gray grain, soft and easily compressible. It had died within a minute of being dug up, unprotected by the wet sand below.
An unexpected sadness overcame me suddenly as I thought about all those lights that were extinguished whenever the sand were swept away to show tourists the blue animals, and the countless more that would continue to be killed in future, relentlessly. The fact that humans were selfish to the point of killing for entertainment struck me as I recalled the extermination of all the species that Mother nature originally affords, that had already occurred up to this point. This was painfully obvious on this day especially for I had only just begun discovering the magnificent bounty of nature, and yet knowing that one day, these too might one day be only graveyards.
All things will pass. I sighed. However, not wanting to miss a single moment, I perked up immediately, for even now is a passing moment anyway.
“Let’s stop digging, I’ve seen enough.” I suggested to Cherlyn and Mi who had found another three such grains. I pulled at Eddie’s sleeve and stood up, “It’s too bad that we can’t see them in their full glory today, so let’s do something else.”
Nature’s masterpiece, finally!
This part of the sea was flanked by reddish brown cliffs on the left side of the lagoon, which rose magnificently from the sea in a steep, almost vertical, ascent. Underwater however, the rocks had been battered by the powerful waves that crashed amongst them for centuries perhaps, until it had smoothed out in a gentle slope that stretched more than 30 metres and were colonized by an array of corals indescribably plentiful. We swam close to the cliff, steering carefully clear of the rock boulders strewn here and there in the water, some with their peaks just slightly above water and some just below, being extremely dangerous were it not for the water becoming crystal clear again here.
Below, I saw the most amazing marine Eden of my entire trip. The seabed was apple green with large purple fungi-like corals jutting out perpendicular to the huge boulders plentiful near the cliffs and spacing out further away. Everywhere, algae known as sea grapes grew. These were balls of tiny apple green grapes, filling up every exposed surface of rock between the corals. The corals were the most colorful and brilliantly bright over here.
Even the brown and white fire-branching corals were contrasting vividly against the white sands below. Even more vibrant are the pink hard corals that blossomed like sakura petals, sprinkled over the brown and green background in bouquets. There were also pure white bouquets, ostentatious yellows, intense blues, flamboyant reds, garish purples; sweeping palettes of the most imaginative artist could not compare with nature’s own masterpiece. Moreover the entire scene was tinted with lacy sunlight refracted by the constantly shifting waves; it was like a fantasy land.
I was truly impressed and from then on, perhaps for all of my life, I have the deepest respect for the underwater world. I vowed to take up diving. It was too much to miss for a color-lover, and aspiring painter like me. I was addicted straight away.I finally understood then, why the fishes were dressed in such flamboyant dresses like the parrotfish, for the corals truly matched them over here. And I supposed that this underwater condition existed everywhere that hadn’t been swarmed over by the human race.
Apart from the small hard corals that were the flowers of the sea, and the sea-grapes which substituted the grass, I also saw incredibly huge brain corals that spanned my entire height, as we swam further off-shore. At first, looking at one of the huge circular animal that was pink with red undulating patterns, stuck to the vertical surface of the rocks, I signaled to Eddie to swim nearer as I wanted to know what type of big fish that was. I approached apprehensively and was quite shocked when Eddie just swam nonchalantly towards the monster extremely fast, but found out why as I neared. It was just a benign coral.
Eddie also pointed out a huge sea-bass that was as large as my entire upper torso were it turned vertically and placed next to me. We had actually swum right next to it, but it was deadly still and passed off as a non-living large rock, if it was not for its comparably tiny pectoral fins rolling gently to keep it afloat. Fortunately, I’m very familiar with the sea-bass in seafood restaurants; were it any other fish, I might have developed a heart attack right there and then, as I was inches away from a huge fish.
All the fishes that I’d previously seen collected in these rarely visited areas in their naturally large schools, much more than seen at the tourist spots elsewhere. Whole hordes of silver pomfrets, a school perhaps with as many as 150 fishes, split ways and swam away as we approached. These fishes were already near the drop-off of the reefs and cold water brushed my legs as I swam near. As the large school of pomfrets suddenly scattered, I had a brief animal instinct of extreme fear, seeing some large fish shadows in the dark blue of the deeps not that far away. I urged Eddie to return to shallower areas by pointing desperately inwards.
He assented and both of us kicked our flippers powerfully so that we were soon once again safely in shallower seas. At this time, we had come to a basin as large as an entire stadium, of a rectangular shape with gentle side-slopes. Here, I collected my eggs.
A large turtle were lying on the sides of the basin, and as we approached slowly and gently, it stirred and gently turned its body to swim away. I clearly saw that it had a dark olive-brown shell with deep green radiating patches, its flesh were pattern like the refracted rays of the sun underwater being yellow upon a deep blue-green, the color of some people’s eyes. The Green turtle was amazingly beautiful!
I was deeply contented even as I watched it swim far away, beyond the scope of my sight. I was not prepared for more but I was about to spot another turtle! This one was quite puzzling initially, as it had 2 angel-like wings on its shell. I eventually made out that the ‘wings’ were actually bright yellow and silver shark-suckers that had the job of cleaning the turtle’s very dirty mossy shell. The turtle was probably a hawk-bill as it had sharp beaks but I wasn’t too sure as I was focusing more on its ‘wings’ which puzzled me so much. Moreover, this species are so rare that I had perhaps imagined the beak. It had swum in an arc from the far side of the stadium towards me and then below me in the opposite direction towards the obscurity beyond.
I was more than contented now, but yet another turtle, this one directly below me and was the largest of them all, was spotted resting quietly. I stopped swimming and stared at the great beast, sleeping below. It had a dirty olive-brown shell much like the Green turtle earlier, except that it was huge, easily spanning 12 meters across. I was stunned and almost forgot to breathe. Slowly it roused and swam away, leisurely as though I was not much of a threat, which I wasn’t, considering that it was that much wider than me.
There weren’t anymore turtles although I combed the entire basin carefully, but even so, I was more than happy to head home. By the time we surfaced, we had reached the very edge of the outcrop of the cliff and any further, there would be dangerous undercurrents especially at dusk. The waves were beginning to rise and crash ominously against the large rocks, causing me to wobble precariously in unpredictable directions.
Luckily, we both had flippers and swimming powerfully back, we discovered that Cherlyn and Mi had climbed onto another outcrop of the cliff nearer the jetty. They were watching sunset and even from the water, it was a truly marvelous sunset. The setting sun had colored the reddish cliff with a golden sheen, and the dark blue waters above the coral reefs reflected the gold in a brilliant contrast.
We swam close to our friends and posed for them to take photographs of us. Soon afterwards, we emerged from the seas and joined our friends atop the cliffs. It was a precarious drop into the sea below and many a times, my legs turned weak as I looked down. We had to climb bare feet on the slippery smooth slopes that slanted about 60 degrees downwards at places where we could wedge our feet in. In other places, the cliff-face was just, vertical
Fortunately, as I was thinking about giving up halfway, Cherlyn and Mi had turned around and all of us headed back. I was only too happy to turn back, but disappointed to find out that the way back was as steep and I hadn’t noticed only because I had swum out. By the time we reached the jetty, the sun had set almost completely and the sky was gray again.
My feet were suffering from deep gashes, cut by the rocks and dried corals that were found in some more horizontal ledges of the cliffs, indicating that once the water level was perhaps higher. I could imagine the agony that Cherlyn was suffering now, as I myself couldn’t help echoing her yelps the whole time when we climbed back.
Below, I saw the most amazing marine Eden of my entire trip. The seabed was apple green with large purple fungi-like corals jutting out perpendicular to the huge boulders plentiful near the cliffs and spacing out further away. Everywhere, algae known as sea grapes grew. These were balls of tiny apple green grapes, filling up every exposed surface of rock between the corals. The corals were the most colorful and brilliantly bright over here.
Even the brown and white fire-branching corals were contrasting vividly against the white sands below. Even more vibrant are the pink hard corals that blossomed like sakura petals, sprinkled over the brown and green background in bouquets. There were also pure white bouquets, ostentatious yellows, intense blues, flamboyant reds, garish purples; sweeping palettes of the most imaginative artist could not compare with nature’s own masterpiece. Moreover the entire scene was tinted with lacy sunlight refracted by the constantly shifting waves; it was like a fantasy land.
I was truly impressed and from then on, perhaps for all of my life, I have the deepest respect for the underwater world. I vowed to take up diving. It was too much to miss for a color-lover, and aspiring painter like me. I was addicted straight away.I finally understood then, why the fishes were dressed in such flamboyant dresses like the parrotfish, for the corals truly matched them over here. And I supposed that this underwater condition existed everywhere that hadn’t been swarmed over by the human race.
Apart from the small hard corals that were the flowers of the sea, and the sea-grapes which substituted the grass, I also saw incredibly huge brain corals that spanned my entire height, as we swam further off-shore. At first, looking at one of the huge circular animal that was pink with red undulating patterns, stuck to the vertical surface of the rocks, I signaled to Eddie to swim nearer as I wanted to know what type of big fish that was. I approached apprehensively and was quite shocked when Eddie just swam nonchalantly towards the monster extremely fast, but found out why as I neared. It was just a benign coral.
Eddie also pointed out a huge sea-bass that was as large as my entire upper torso were it turned vertically and placed next to me. We had actually swum right next to it, but it was deadly still and passed off as a non-living large rock, if it was not for its comparably tiny pectoral fins rolling gently to keep it afloat. Fortunately, I’m very familiar with the sea-bass in seafood restaurants; were it any other fish, I might have developed a heart attack right there and then, as I was inches away from a huge fish.
All the fishes that I’d previously seen collected in these rarely visited areas in their naturally large schools, much more than seen at the tourist spots elsewhere. Whole hordes of silver pomfrets, a school perhaps with as many as 150 fishes, split ways and swam away as we approached. These fishes were already near the drop-off of the reefs and cold water brushed my legs as I swam near. As the large school of pomfrets suddenly scattered, I had a brief animal instinct of extreme fear, seeing some large fish shadows in the dark blue of the deeps not that far away. I urged Eddie to return to shallower areas by pointing desperately inwards.
He assented and both of us kicked our flippers powerfully so that we were soon once again safely in shallower seas. At this time, we had come to a basin as large as an entire stadium, of a rectangular shape with gentle side-slopes. Here, I collected my eggs.
A large turtle were lying on the sides of the basin, and as we approached slowly and gently, it stirred and gently turned its body to swim away. I clearly saw that it had a dark olive-brown shell with deep green radiating patches, its flesh were pattern like the refracted rays of the sun underwater being yellow upon a deep blue-green, the color of some people’s eyes. The Green turtle was amazingly beautiful!
I was deeply contented even as I watched it swim far away, beyond the scope of my sight. I was not prepared for more but I was about to spot another turtle! This one was quite puzzling initially, as it had 2 angel-like wings on its shell. I eventually made out that the ‘wings’ were actually bright yellow and silver shark-suckers that had the job of cleaning the turtle’s very dirty mossy shell. The turtle was probably a hawk-bill as it had sharp beaks but I wasn’t too sure as I was focusing more on its ‘wings’ which puzzled me so much. Moreover, this species are so rare that I had perhaps imagined the beak. It had swum in an arc from the far side of the stadium towards me and then below me in the opposite direction towards the obscurity beyond.
I was more than contented now, but yet another turtle, this one directly below me and was the largest of them all, was spotted resting quietly. I stopped swimming and stared at the great beast, sleeping below. It had a dirty olive-brown shell much like the Green turtle earlier, except that it was huge, easily spanning 12 meters across. I was stunned and almost forgot to breathe. Slowly it roused and swam away, leisurely as though I was not much of a threat, which I wasn’t, considering that it was that much wider than me.
There weren’t anymore turtles although I combed the entire basin carefully, but even so, I was more than happy to head home. By the time we surfaced, we had reached the very edge of the outcrop of the cliff and any further, there would be dangerous undercurrents especially at dusk. The waves were beginning to rise and crash ominously against the large rocks, causing me to wobble precariously in unpredictable directions.
Luckily, we both had flippers and swimming powerfully back, we discovered that Cherlyn and Mi had climbed onto another outcrop of the cliff nearer the jetty. They were watching sunset and even from the water, it was a truly marvelous sunset. The setting sun had colored the reddish cliff with a golden sheen, and the dark blue waters above the coral reefs reflected the gold in a brilliant contrast.
We swam close to our friends and posed for them to take photographs of us. Soon afterwards, we emerged from the seas and joined our friends atop the cliffs. It was a precarious drop into the sea below and many a times, my legs turned weak as I looked down. We had to climb bare feet on the slippery smooth slopes that slanted about 60 degrees downwards at places where we could wedge our feet in. In other places, the cliff-face was just, vertical
Fortunately, as I was thinking about giving up halfway, Cherlyn and Mi had turned around and all of us headed back. I was only too happy to turn back, but disappointed to find out that the way back was as steep and I hadn’t noticed only because I had swum out. By the time we reached the jetty, the sun had set almost completely and the sky was gray again.
My feet were suffering from deep gashes, cut by the rocks and dried corals that were found in some more horizontal ledges of the cliffs, indicating that once the water level was perhaps higher. I could imagine the agony that Cherlyn was suffering now, as I myself couldn’t help echoing her yelps the whole time when we climbed back.
Last snorkeling trip
At 530pm I dragged my dizzy cousin from the room to the jetty. She had insisted that she was too tired and seasick to go snorkeling again, and had changed into a tank top and shorts. I, on the other hand, could not wait to jump right in and see more turtles, hopefully up close and personal this time.
Mi was sitting at the bench facing the jetty as we approached him from behind. He was chatting with another Malay man and smoking a cigarette. The jetty was now dimly lit by the descending sun which was disappearing unto the other side of the island.
The jetty was composed of a stretch of platform that was only 200metres long and extended from the small beach into the shallow waters of the bay. Small boats were parked in the little space between the left side of this pier and the other side of the mountain which jutted out suddenly on the beach, creating a tiny lagoon just enough for a landing spot for Laguna’s boats.
I asked Mi excitedly, “Where’s Eddie? Cherlyn is feeling dizzy and doesn’t feel like snorkeling, can I still go?”
Mi turned to Cherlyn and inspected Cherlyn concernedly, “Are you feeling alright?”
“Yes I am fine. I just feel like I’m still bobbing up and down, as though I’m floating in the sea, so I don’t want to snorkel.” Cherlyn reassured him. She had earlier told me that actually, she was more afraid that we’d have to stop and stand on more corals and she had had enough coral cuts, gaping wounds were all over her delicate soles.
Mi turned to me and pointed at one of the boats moored to the jetty, “Eddie is still tidying up his job. He’d be done soon.”
I turned to see Eddie’s head bobbing up and down from behind the boats and waved to him. He spotted me on one of his up-bobs and waved back. Shortly, he called to me to go over to him.
“Hi, are you done?” I asked him keenly.
“Yes, just a moment. Let me get your snorkeling equipment from my boat.” Eddie turned to get my life jacket and goggles, which Cherlyn and I had earlier entrusted to him for safe-keeping so that we wouldn’t need to lug it back and forth.
“Cherlyn is not coming!” I shouted to Eddie as he disappeared under the roof of the boat.
He stuck his head back out, “Why not?”
“She is dizzy from bobbing up and down in the water.” I yelled back, “Is it okay if only two of us went to see the turtles?”
“Sure.”
“Can you also lend me Mi’s flippers? I think I can swim faster in those.” I yelled to Eddie again.
“Sure.” He replied and briefly returned with a pair of blue flippers that were his own, a pair of bright yellow fins that were Mi’s and our snorkeling sets.
I put on my life jacket and sat down on the stern of one of the boats. Eddie had already put on his flippers by then.
I turned to him incredulously, “Do you think I can fit into these?” as I held up Mi’s flippers. The rubber shoe attached looked incredibly small, about woman-size 5.
“Of course.” He took one look at my size 7and half feet and nodded confidently.
I was baffled. Nonetheless I squeezed my foot into the rubber shoes with a toe hole, with all my might, and with Eddie’s help, and amazingly the rubber stretched until it couldn’t stretch anymore and, Lo! And behold! It was a perfect fit!
I held up the flippered foot, looking absolutely stunned, with my mouth hanging half-open in a bemused grin and looked at Eddie. He looked nonchalant and told me to put on the other one.
I frowned slightly and struggled with the other foot now, with as much confidence as Eddie had had. Easily, now both feet flippered, I held them up and admired them. I had never worn flippers before and was quite delighted at something so simple, yet it was still my first experience.
“Now, you have to show me whether you know how to use them.” Eddie was more concerned with my ability to swim in these cumbersome shoes to an uninitiated. I later found out from Cherlyn that the reason why everybody else did not wear flippers was because they cause cramps in beginners who struggled too hard to flap against the increased water resistant. The bigger surface area of the flipper meant that more power needed to be exerted by the calves to push the fins down against the water. No doubt people can swim faster with bigger fins, but they needed training, otherwise, they would just flounder about and get muscle cramps.
“No problem.” I asserted confidently, not knowing anything about flippers at all. I inserted both my legs into the water, still sitting on the low stern of the boat, and flapped.
“Good.” Eddie watched for a moment and instantly approved. He put on his goggle and mask and gestured for me to do the same.
While I was still struggling to put on my goggles, and wondering how he did it so quickly, Eddie had already jumped into the water with a small ‘plop’ and floated about waiting for me. I followed suit as soon as I was ready.
For the first 15 minutes, we swam through milky white opaque waters, with our heads up in order to see where we were going. The boats must have polluted this place until it was impossible to see anything underwater. Fortunately we got out of the murk after only 100 metres away from the coast.
Mi was sitting at the bench facing the jetty as we approached him from behind. He was chatting with another Malay man and smoking a cigarette. The jetty was now dimly lit by the descending sun which was disappearing unto the other side of the island.
The jetty was composed of a stretch of platform that was only 200metres long and extended from the small beach into the shallow waters of the bay. Small boats were parked in the little space between the left side of this pier and the other side of the mountain which jutted out suddenly on the beach, creating a tiny lagoon just enough for a landing spot for Laguna’s boats.
I asked Mi excitedly, “Where’s Eddie? Cherlyn is feeling dizzy and doesn’t feel like snorkeling, can I still go?”
Mi turned to Cherlyn and inspected Cherlyn concernedly, “Are you feeling alright?”
“Yes I am fine. I just feel like I’m still bobbing up and down, as though I’m floating in the sea, so I don’t want to snorkel.” Cherlyn reassured him. She had earlier told me that actually, she was more afraid that we’d have to stop and stand on more corals and she had had enough coral cuts, gaping wounds were all over her delicate soles.
Mi turned to me and pointed at one of the boats moored to the jetty, “Eddie is still tidying up his job. He’d be done soon.”
I turned to see Eddie’s head bobbing up and down from behind the boats and waved to him. He spotted me on one of his up-bobs and waved back. Shortly, he called to me to go over to him.
“Hi, are you done?” I asked him keenly.
“Yes, just a moment. Let me get your snorkeling equipment from my boat.” Eddie turned to get my life jacket and goggles, which Cherlyn and I had earlier entrusted to him for safe-keeping so that we wouldn’t need to lug it back and forth.
“Cherlyn is not coming!” I shouted to Eddie as he disappeared under the roof of the boat.
He stuck his head back out, “Why not?”
“She is dizzy from bobbing up and down in the water.” I yelled back, “Is it okay if only two of us went to see the turtles?”
“Sure.”
“Can you also lend me Mi’s flippers? I think I can swim faster in those.” I yelled to Eddie again.
“Sure.” He replied and briefly returned with a pair of blue flippers that were his own, a pair of bright yellow fins that were Mi’s and our snorkeling sets.
I put on my life jacket and sat down on the stern of one of the boats. Eddie had already put on his flippers by then.
I turned to him incredulously, “Do you think I can fit into these?” as I held up Mi’s flippers. The rubber shoe attached looked incredibly small, about woman-size 5.
“Of course.” He took one look at my size 7and half feet and nodded confidently.
I was baffled. Nonetheless I squeezed my foot into the rubber shoes with a toe hole, with all my might, and with Eddie’s help, and amazingly the rubber stretched until it couldn’t stretch anymore and, Lo! And behold! It was a perfect fit!
I held up the flippered foot, looking absolutely stunned, with my mouth hanging half-open in a bemused grin and looked at Eddie. He looked nonchalant and told me to put on the other one.
I frowned slightly and struggled with the other foot now, with as much confidence as Eddie had had. Easily, now both feet flippered, I held them up and admired them. I had never worn flippers before and was quite delighted at something so simple, yet it was still my first experience.
“Now, you have to show me whether you know how to use them.” Eddie was more concerned with my ability to swim in these cumbersome shoes to an uninitiated. I later found out from Cherlyn that the reason why everybody else did not wear flippers was because they cause cramps in beginners who struggled too hard to flap against the increased water resistant. The bigger surface area of the flipper meant that more power needed to be exerted by the calves to push the fins down against the water. No doubt people can swim faster with bigger fins, but they needed training, otherwise, they would just flounder about and get muscle cramps.
“No problem.” I asserted confidently, not knowing anything about flippers at all. I inserted both my legs into the water, still sitting on the low stern of the boat, and flapped.
“Good.” Eddie watched for a moment and instantly approved. He put on his goggle and mask and gestured for me to do the same.
While I was still struggling to put on my goggles, and wondering how he did it so quickly, Eddie had already jumped into the water with a small ‘plop’ and floated about waiting for me. I followed suit as soon as I was ready.
For the first 15 minutes, we swam through milky white opaque waters, with our heads up in order to see where we were going. The boats must have polluted this place until it was impossible to see anything underwater. Fortunately we got out of the murk after only 100 metres away from the coast.
Rattan Bay
That afternoon we headed out to Rattan Bay, a deep snorkeling site reaching down to 15 to 25 feet. Harry had told me in the morning that there would be sea turtles at that site and I looked forward to being brought to see the sea turtles eagerly.
Sea turtles had once been a famous annual spectacle on the coasts of Terengganu, whereby hundreds of them climbed ashore to lay eggs from May to September. Their numbers have dwindled greatly in the past 30 years and at least one species, the giant Leatherback, the largest turtle in the world, are sadly reported to be heading towards extinction since the year 2000. Being the only turtle without a hard shell, they were easy targets and were poached relentlessly for their well-known superior leather back, black in colour with white, grey or pink patches. By now their total nesting population has been reduced to only 1% of the original number.
The other sea turtles did not fare much better, the Green Turtles that previously were plentiful on the eastern coasts of Malaysia has declined by more than 65% of its population, their eggs being a favorite delicacy of the locals and also enjoyed tremendously as an exotic flavor overseas even up to today.
Knowing that these magnificent sea creatures were on the verge of extinction, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see them in their homeland once I was in Terengganu. I was asked by the guide what I would like to see most, and without hesitation I had replied, “Turtles!” or ‘Penyu’ as they are known in Malay, most firmly. I didn’t want to be a Malaysian who didn’t know our very own exotic species. If I was lucky enough, perhaps I could even see the now extremely rare Leatherback turtles.
As I mused over my heart-break, rolling with the gentle sway of the boats, I was roused out of my reverie by a familiar voice from outside the boat. It was Eddie calling out to me. I was surprised to see him unexpectedly.
“Come out here, join Mi and I.” He shouted to Cherlyn and I against the loud roaring of the motorboat.
We stood up and carefully picked our way to the front of the boat where Mi had just jumped over from a speedboat as it sped near and our boats slowed down to receive it. Another Malay man named Sham, jumped into the speedboat to replace Mi, revved up the engine and sped away as quickly as it had appeared.
Our boat picked up speed again and continued on its way to Rattan bay, another 15 minutes away. As the day was extremely hot, being now seared by the naked sun for more than half a day since its ascent, we were all only glad to sit in the shade of the extended roof quietly, looking forward to jumping into the cooler waters of the ocean.
The four boats that set out anchored in the shade of a larger islet, entirely rocky with only a tiny beach that was itself strewn with huge boulders of orange rock. Instead of descending the ladder in a queue like everybody else, Eddie urged Cherlyn and I to jump right into the ocean.
A European lady who was more impatient than any of us overheard and without any hesitation plunged into the sea, creating a huge fountain that wet all of us and uplifting the mood immediately. Cherlyn and I followed suit, albeit more cautiously and avoiding a large plume of water from being displaced.
Eddie and Mi jumped silently into the water after us and Eddie immediately swam over to guide me while Mi swam over to Cherlyn.
“Harry said there are sea turtles here and he promised to bring me to see them.” I informed Eddie, wondering whether I should stick around and wait for Harry.
“Turtles?” Eddie asked, puzzled. “There are no turtles here, I have never seen any.”
I was thwarted, but was still very hopeful, since Harry came to these areas more often and if he promised to show me, I was sure I’d see them. I had hoped for too long to see sea turtles to be discouraged so easily.
Following Eddie further and further away from the crowd, the four of us were left alone once again. The corals over this side were not as attractive as those that we saw the day before. According to Eddie, the sunblock lotion that we put on, multiplied by hundreds of tourists a day, eventually turned the corals into a monotonous pale yellow brown color.
As we ventured out further, the seabed also lingered further and further away. I estimated that it must be more than 30feet deep. Here, large stones with flat platforms of fungi-like purple corals were sparsely scattered and the sea-bed only had fire-branching corals and mossy rocks. As we were floating very far above, I only managed to sneak glances at the various types of marine fishes that I could not identify from so far away, as they picked on the algae growing on the coral branches.
As we swam away from the coasts to deeper seas, the temperature began to drop as the deeper body of water heated much more slowly out in the ocean. The ocean currents had started to sweep upon the remaining shelf of corals that we swam above. I could see that not far off, the reefs suddenly dropped away into deep and bare sand, and further away, even the sun’s blaze could not reach its depth casting the large fishes lurking there into murky shadows. I shivered, not only from the cold but also from the frightful images that suddenly appeared in my mind’s eye.
I turned to Eddie and signaled for him to turn back.
We then swam back a little to less cold waters and followed the drop-off in parallel. My passing fear was suppressed as I was once again absorbed in searching for those sea turtles.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my left eye, a smaller rock separated from a large black rock and floated away. I turned and watched in fascination as I had found a sea turtle. It was about 35metres away from me, and I pulled Eddie to follow it. It swam right to the edge of the reef which was only another rock’s distance away and turned back inwards, further ahead.
Eddie surfaced and stopped me, shouting to Cherlyn and Mi that we had found a sea turtle. I was too excited to wait and urged Eddie to make a move and chase the turtle, which had undoubtedly detected our movements and were picking up speed with every graceful flap of its two powerful front paws.
By the time Cherlyn and Mi swam over to us, the turtle had disappeared, almost certainly camouflaging itself against the multitude of rocks that was scattered on the sea bed. I was frustrated and was even slightly angry for not being allowed to swim nearer the magnificent creature. I felt sure that I had missed my last chance to see it, since this was to be my last snorkeling trip of the vacation.
From that distance I could not even see the color of the turtle as the water was too deep and colored everything a bluish shade, hence everything far away was Prussian. Apart from being able to describe it as a flat rock with five smaller pebbles at graded intervals in the unmistakable shape of a childhood drawing of terrapin with no tail, I felt stranded.
Consoling myself, I thought, ‘At least I have seen the glory of its flight. It swims like a bird flies in the sky; weightless, powerful, swift and graceful.’ It was beautiful even from so far away.
The four of us headed back towards the boat, for by now, we’ve rounded a ledge off the edge of the islet and had lost sight of everyone else. Eddie and Mi kicked their flippers and swiftly brought us back to the boats. Along the way, I took a last look at the multicolor marine garden, the even more colorful fishes, being multicolor each, and enjoyed for the last time, swimming in such clear aquamarine waters.
We climbed up on the boats and were invited upon the roofs once again as it sped off towards Laguna.
As we arranged ourselves to sit in a row facing the portside of the boat, Eddie turned to me and seeing my miserable expression, said, “Don’t worry. I can bring you to see turtles later in the evening.”
I immediately lighted up with glee and said unbelievingly, “Really? Where? Do we have to go very far from the resort?”
“No. There are families of them right at the back of the resort, where the jetty is.” Eddie explained.
“Gosh! You mean all this time I was looking for turtles, that they were less than 500 meters from where I slept?” I exclaimed, disgusted at my own lack of knowledge, eyes wide with even more incredulity.
“I won’t bluff you. But you’d have to wait until I’ve finished my duties. That would be 530pm, shall I meet you at the jetty?”
“Definitely! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” I exclaimed happily. Once again, my spirits were light and joyful. I was delighted. I had just been given another chance!
Sea turtles had once been a famous annual spectacle on the coasts of Terengganu, whereby hundreds of them climbed ashore to lay eggs from May to September. Their numbers have dwindled greatly in the past 30 years and at least one species, the giant Leatherback, the largest turtle in the world, are sadly reported to be heading towards extinction since the year 2000. Being the only turtle without a hard shell, they were easy targets and were poached relentlessly for their well-known superior leather back, black in colour with white, grey or pink patches. By now their total nesting population has been reduced to only 1% of the original number.
The other sea turtles did not fare much better, the Green Turtles that previously were plentiful on the eastern coasts of Malaysia has declined by more than 65% of its population, their eggs being a favorite delicacy of the locals and also enjoyed tremendously as an exotic flavor overseas even up to today.
Knowing that these magnificent sea creatures were on the verge of extinction, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see them in their homeland once I was in Terengganu. I was asked by the guide what I would like to see most, and without hesitation I had replied, “Turtles!” or ‘Penyu’ as they are known in Malay, most firmly. I didn’t want to be a Malaysian who didn’t know our very own exotic species. If I was lucky enough, perhaps I could even see the now extremely rare Leatherback turtles.
As I mused over my heart-break, rolling with the gentle sway of the boats, I was roused out of my reverie by a familiar voice from outside the boat. It was Eddie calling out to me. I was surprised to see him unexpectedly.
“Come out here, join Mi and I.” He shouted to Cherlyn and I against the loud roaring of the motorboat.
We stood up and carefully picked our way to the front of the boat where Mi had just jumped over from a speedboat as it sped near and our boats slowed down to receive it. Another Malay man named Sham, jumped into the speedboat to replace Mi, revved up the engine and sped away as quickly as it had appeared.
Our boat picked up speed again and continued on its way to Rattan bay, another 15 minutes away. As the day was extremely hot, being now seared by the naked sun for more than half a day since its ascent, we were all only glad to sit in the shade of the extended roof quietly, looking forward to jumping into the cooler waters of the ocean.
The four boats that set out anchored in the shade of a larger islet, entirely rocky with only a tiny beach that was itself strewn with huge boulders of orange rock. Instead of descending the ladder in a queue like everybody else, Eddie urged Cherlyn and I to jump right into the ocean.
A European lady who was more impatient than any of us overheard and without any hesitation plunged into the sea, creating a huge fountain that wet all of us and uplifting the mood immediately. Cherlyn and I followed suit, albeit more cautiously and avoiding a large plume of water from being displaced.
Eddie and Mi jumped silently into the water after us and Eddie immediately swam over to guide me while Mi swam over to Cherlyn.
“Harry said there are sea turtles here and he promised to bring me to see them.” I informed Eddie, wondering whether I should stick around and wait for Harry.
“Turtles?” Eddie asked, puzzled. “There are no turtles here, I have never seen any.”
I was thwarted, but was still very hopeful, since Harry came to these areas more often and if he promised to show me, I was sure I’d see them. I had hoped for too long to see sea turtles to be discouraged so easily.
Following Eddie further and further away from the crowd, the four of us were left alone once again. The corals over this side were not as attractive as those that we saw the day before. According to Eddie, the sunblock lotion that we put on, multiplied by hundreds of tourists a day, eventually turned the corals into a monotonous pale yellow brown color.
As we ventured out further, the seabed also lingered further and further away. I estimated that it must be more than 30feet deep. Here, large stones with flat platforms of fungi-like purple corals were sparsely scattered and the sea-bed only had fire-branching corals and mossy rocks. As we were floating very far above, I only managed to sneak glances at the various types of marine fishes that I could not identify from so far away, as they picked on the algae growing on the coral branches.
As we swam away from the coasts to deeper seas, the temperature began to drop as the deeper body of water heated much more slowly out in the ocean. The ocean currents had started to sweep upon the remaining shelf of corals that we swam above. I could see that not far off, the reefs suddenly dropped away into deep and bare sand, and further away, even the sun’s blaze could not reach its depth casting the large fishes lurking there into murky shadows. I shivered, not only from the cold but also from the frightful images that suddenly appeared in my mind’s eye.
I turned to Eddie and signaled for him to turn back.
We then swam back a little to less cold waters and followed the drop-off in parallel. My passing fear was suppressed as I was once again absorbed in searching for those sea turtles.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my left eye, a smaller rock separated from a large black rock and floated away. I turned and watched in fascination as I had found a sea turtle. It was about 35metres away from me, and I pulled Eddie to follow it. It swam right to the edge of the reef which was only another rock’s distance away and turned back inwards, further ahead.
Eddie surfaced and stopped me, shouting to Cherlyn and Mi that we had found a sea turtle. I was too excited to wait and urged Eddie to make a move and chase the turtle, which had undoubtedly detected our movements and were picking up speed with every graceful flap of its two powerful front paws.
By the time Cherlyn and Mi swam over to us, the turtle had disappeared, almost certainly camouflaging itself against the multitude of rocks that was scattered on the sea bed. I was frustrated and was even slightly angry for not being allowed to swim nearer the magnificent creature. I felt sure that I had missed my last chance to see it, since this was to be my last snorkeling trip of the vacation.
From that distance I could not even see the color of the turtle as the water was too deep and colored everything a bluish shade, hence everything far away was Prussian. Apart from being able to describe it as a flat rock with five smaller pebbles at graded intervals in the unmistakable shape of a childhood drawing of terrapin with no tail, I felt stranded.
Consoling myself, I thought, ‘At least I have seen the glory of its flight. It swims like a bird flies in the sky; weightless, powerful, swift and graceful.’ It was beautiful even from so far away.
The four of us headed back towards the boat, for by now, we’ve rounded a ledge off the edge of the islet and had lost sight of everyone else. Eddie and Mi kicked their flippers and swiftly brought us back to the boats. Along the way, I took a last look at the multicolor marine garden, the even more colorful fishes, being multicolor each, and enjoyed for the last time, swimming in such clear aquamarine waters.
We climbed up on the boats and were invited upon the roofs once again as it sped off towards Laguna.
As we arranged ourselves to sit in a row facing the portside of the boat, Eddie turned to me and seeing my miserable expression, said, “Don’t worry. I can bring you to see turtles later in the evening.”
I immediately lighted up with glee and said unbelievingly, “Really? Where? Do we have to go very far from the resort?”
“No. There are families of them right at the back of the resort, where the jetty is.” Eddie explained.
“Gosh! You mean all this time I was looking for turtles, that they were less than 500 meters from where I slept?” I exclaimed, disgusted at my own lack of knowledge, eyes wide with even more incredulity.
“I won’t bluff you. But you’d have to wait until I’ve finished my duties. That would be 530pm, shall I meet you at the jetty?”
“Definitely! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” I exclaimed happily. Once again, my spirits were light and joyful. I was delighted. I had just been given another chance!
The guys
Back at the resort we headed towards our room using a shortcut through the swimming pool, which consisted of an adult pool on the left side, and a smaller child pool on the right. These were separated by stylishly designed platforms that emulated rocks in a river. The rocks had smoothed tops to allow for children to stand and sit on, and even had streamlets running in between them from the child pool to the adult pool. Huge vases carried at an angle atop large marble bases flanked the sides of the pool, periodically shooting jets of cool water over the platforms.
We decided to walk upon these platforms to the other side of the pool upon which lay the staircase leading up to our room on the second floor, to save ourselves the trouble of going around the pool. It was also the case that the vases were silent at that moment. However, as we crossed it, the vases suddenly opened fire and shot continuous jets of cold water unto our wind-dried bodies.
“Argh!” I exclaimed at the shock of being hit by cold water, “I was already dry!” frowning down at my once again, wet bikinis.
Cherlyn laughed and we continued our path, somewhat only I being slightly dejected.
Back in our rooms, and before we changed out into dry tanks and shorts, we decided to bring our camera out and take a few shots of ourselves in our full glory of wearing only a bikini. Since it was 12 noon, we were intimidated by the extremely hot sun basking down from the cloudless sky, and hence only took a few shots from beneath the roofs of the chalet stair-landing
Having had lunch shortly afterwards, we decided to take more photographs of the beach and the More More Tea shop. The village house or ‘Rumah Atap’ as is known locally, was made entirely of wood but had been recently painted a brilliant cascade of a sweet pink and apple green color, exuding vibrancy and youth. It had been featured as the main object of a romance film entitled “Summer More More Tea” that starred Sammi Cheng and Ricky Ren in the year 2002.
We later found out that it was this same house that Sammi and Ricky were fighting over in the movie and that it had only been moved from its original position in the centre of the Laguna Beach to the side of the resort. Before the movie was launched, Pulau Redang was unheard of even to Malaysian locals, and even now, the island was only known to the Chinese, who probably got to know the beach as the romantic venue of summer love from the movie.
As we walked over from the lobby to the Shop which was nestled at the foothills of the mountain that rose steeply and formed an outcrop off the right side of the beach, I accidentally dropped Cherlyn’s camera onto the sandy beach.
“Oh no! The camera’s not working anymore. Look, it says ‘LENS ERROR’ on the LCD display.” I lamented as I picked up the camera and inspected it.
I handed the camera back to Cherlyn who shook it in order to try and get the sand out of the lens aperture, in turn blowing at the aperture and sucking air out of it. Finally, the error message disappeared and we got the camera to work again, although the screen was still a bit blur due to the remaining sand in the aperture.
“I’ll have to send it to repair once we get back to KL.” Cherlyn moaned.
“Well, at least now we can still use it.” I tried to redeem myself unsuccessfully.
As we arrived at the shop and looked for a suitable spot to photograph ourselves, a young man in his mid-twenties called out to us, “Hi! May I help you take a photo?”
“That would be nice, thanks!” Cherlyn replied, grabbing the opportunity for a chance to have both of us featured in the same picture.
As she handed the camera to the slightly plump but cute man, however, he exclaimed, “Hey? No, I mean that we should all be in the same picture!” He informed us cheekily, and handed the camera over to his buddy, another young man, this one tall and skinny.
We all laughed and agreed to let him into the photo. As we posed and waited for the click to sound, his friend, shouted out, “Hey your camera is not working. It says ‘LENS ERROR’.”
“Oh no!” I mumbled, afraid that I’d destroyed Cherlyn’s digital Nikon which cost her more than 400 Ringgit.
“Why don’t we use my camera and then I’d send it over to you via email?” He offered.
We hesitated for a second, and deciding that we would need help if we didn’t want to walk back to the room and grab my camera, we conceded and posed with the plump young man again. We took a few photographs, some alone, some with just the two of us, and met two more of that guy’s friends.
The plump young man was Paul, and the skinny one, Ah Soon. Thomas was a shy big guy with tattoos on both deltoids and Terence was a less shy big guy also with tattoos on both deltoids. As I took a photo posing with Terence by my side, I noticed that his tattoo somewhat resembled a Nazi swastika, curved into a thorny bush. He gives me the shivers and I only smiled politely to have my photo taken and done with.
By then, it was time for us to head out for the afternoon snorkeling trip. As we waved goodbye to our new friends, who insisted that we met up again that evening to go to the beach disco, Paul asked me, “So how do we contact you?”
“Just recognize our faces!” I shouted back impertinently and disappeared round the corner with my cousin.
We decided to walk upon these platforms to the other side of the pool upon which lay the staircase leading up to our room on the second floor, to save ourselves the trouble of going around the pool. It was also the case that the vases were silent at that moment. However, as we crossed it, the vases suddenly opened fire and shot continuous jets of cold water unto our wind-dried bodies.
“Argh!” I exclaimed at the shock of being hit by cold water, “I was already dry!” frowning down at my once again, wet bikinis.
Cherlyn laughed and we continued our path, somewhat only I being slightly dejected.
Back in our rooms, and before we changed out into dry tanks and shorts, we decided to bring our camera out and take a few shots of ourselves in our full glory of wearing only a bikini. Since it was 12 noon, we were intimidated by the extremely hot sun basking down from the cloudless sky, and hence only took a few shots from beneath the roofs of the chalet stair-landing
Having had lunch shortly afterwards, we decided to take more photographs of the beach and the More More Tea shop. The village house or ‘Rumah Atap’ as is known locally, was made entirely of wood but had been recently painted a brilliant cascade of a sweet pink and apple green color, exuding vibrancy and youth. It had been featured as the main object of a romance film entitled “Summer More More Tea” that starred Sammi Cheng and Ricky Ren in the year 2002.
We later found out that it was this same house that Sammi and Ricky were fighting over in the movie and that it had only been moved from its original position in the centre of the Laguna Beach to the side of the resort. Before the movie was launched, Pulau Redang was unheard of even to Malaysian locals, and even now, the island was only known to the Chinese, who probably got to know the beach as the romantic venue of summer love from the movie.
As we walked over from the lobby to the Shop which was nestled at the foothills of the mountain that rose steeply and formed an outcrop off the right side of the beach, I accidentally dropped Cherlyn’s camera onto the sandy beach.
“Oh no! The camera’s not working anymore. Look, it says ‘LENS ERROR’ on the LCD display.” I lamented as I picked up the camera and inspected it.
I handed the camera back to Cherlyn who shook it in order to try and get the sand out of the lens aperture, in turn blowing at the aperture and sucking air out of it. Finally, the error message disappeared and we got the camera to work again, although the screen was still a bit blur due to the remaining sand in the aperture.
“I’ll have to send it to repair once we get back to KL.” Cherlyn moaned.
“Well, at least now we can still use it.” I tried to redeem myself unsuccessfully.
As we arrived at the shop and looked for a suitable spot to photograph ourselves, a young man in his mid-twenties called out to us, “Hi! May I help you take a photo?”
“That would be nice, thanks!” Cherlyn replied, grabbing the opportunity for a chance to have both of us featured in the same picture.
As she handed the camera to the slightly plump but cute man, however, he exclaimed, “Hey? No, I mean that we should all be in the same picture!” He informed us cheekily, and handed the camera over to his buddy, another young man, this one tall and skinny.
We all laughed and agreed to let him into the photo. As we posed and waited for the click to sound, his friend, shouted out, “Hey your camera is not working. It says ‘LENS ERROR’.”
“Oh no!” I mumbled, afraid that I’d destroyed Cherlyn’s digital Nikon which cost her more than 400 Ringgit.
“Why don’t we use my camera and then I’d send it over to you via email?” He offered.
We hesitated for a second, and deciding that we would need help if we didn’t want to walk back to the room and grab my camera, we conceded and posed with the plump young man again. We took a few photographs, some alone, some with just the two of us, and met two more of that guy’s friends.
The plump young man was Paul, and the skinny one, Ah Soon. Thomas was a shy big guy with tattoos on both deltoids and Terence was a less shy big guy also with tattoos on both deltoids. As I took a photo posing with Terence by my side, I noticed that his tattoo somewhat resembled a Nazi swastika, curved into a thorny bush. He gives me the shivers and I only smiled politely to have my photo taken and done with.
By then, it was time for us to head out for the afternoon snorkeling trip. As we waved goodbye to our new friends, who insisted that we met up again that evening to go to the beach disco, Paul asked me, “So how do we contact you?”
“Just recognize our faces!” I shouted back impertinently and disappeared round the corner with my cousin.
Marine Conservation Park
By this time the dazzling fireball of a sun had evaporated all the remaining clouds that hadn’t fallen in the storm last night and the sky was a brilliant blue without any cover. At 10am we finally reached the jetty and as the six boats queued up to drop us off at the jetty, we patiently amused ourselves watching the many schools of yellow and black fishes that swam close to the boat under those crystal green waters that defined all the shallower areas of the sea.
After roaming about the tiny conservation park located on the shore of the small island, -if it could be called a park, being composed of less than ten wooden huts, of which one is a marine lab, one is an education centre with no doors and the rest are changing areas, toilets, cafes and rest pavilions- we decided to head right out into the waters in order not to waste any of the one and a half hour given to us to explore this conservation centre which was truly all underwater.
Harry spotted us again as we neared the beach and came over.
“You guys want to follow me again?” He offered, holding up a big float as the day before.
“Sure!!” We both agreed gaily, in unison. It was only with a guide that we’d dare venture beyond the crowded areas where the rest of the tourists were disturbing the waters too much for even the fish to swim properly, much less us.
Unfortunately today, the moment we hit waters waist-high, a middle-aged woman with her 3 children picked up on the secret and sought out the guide like a hit-man, and assassinated our plans.
“Mr. Guide, can you bring us along as well?” She insisted and immediately helped herself to a prime spot of the float while arranging her children around her before waiting for an answer.
After all, Harry was an employed snorkeling guide and could not do other than to comply with hotel guests’ wishes, so he promised to bring me out later after he has first shown these customers around the jetty first. However, there were too many of us to hold onto the float all in a bunch, so Cherlyn decided that she would wait out the short trip and at this time, another young Malay man, dressed in surf shorts and no life jacket that we presumed to be another member of the resort staff appeared and whisked Cherlyn off with him.
As I frantically called out to her, Harry reassured me, “Don’t worry, your friend is with an experienced guide like me,” and being nothing I could do about it, I complied and let him bring the mother hen, her chicks and me out to sea.
The marine park was a shallow area, being only 10 to 15feet at the deepest. At the shallowest, our stomachs were barely afloat above the corals; hence it was also the place where the most interaction between fishes and snorkeling humans can be achieved, and also the greatest detail into the holes and caves of the corals can be investigated.
Large schools of silver pomfrets swam and reflected off the sunlight en masse like a huge mirror as they appeared from below the shadows of the bridge linking the jetty to the mainland. Other schools of yellow and blue diamond-fishes thronged around the humans in order to get a bite of the bread that they knew would be delivered to them everyday at this time. Although the park received hundreds of tourists a day, it was still beautifully conserved as a fine of twenty-thousand Ringgit was imposed on anyone who removed anything alive or dead from all the reefs around Redang Island.
After visiting a large moray eel, the color of soot contrasted with a brilliant delineation of fire-red on its dorsal and pectoral edges, we headed back towards the beach to drop-off our passengers. Then we headed out to sea again, this time heading far left towards open water. There we encountered less people but along the way, we picked up a group of four giggling girls in bikinis of various shades of pinks. As there was not enough space on the float for four adult girls, I held the hand of the one who was wearing a white and pink bikini.
We visited a palace of gray rocks decorated with golden and brown corals, where a school of steel-green diamond-fishes swarmed us for food. Stretching out my hand to touch them as they were clearly not shy of humans, I was nipped at by two of these bold swimmers. I quickly withdrew my hand, shocked but very amused at being able to finally admire all these beautiful sea creatures, inches away from my face.
Edging away from that rock, we were at the deepest area of the park, just beside the buoy line marking the deep blue sea beyond, whereby the guide had prior warned, in his broken English, “Got big fish, sharks, alligators… and monsters there! So don’t go out.” Harry signaled to me to hold onto the buoy line and the float and then he disappeared below to pick out a large round ochre-colored rock about the size of a football. As he surfaced and turned it around, I was surprised to find that it was actually a starfish! It was a cushion-star, seemingly embedded into a large rock like a fossil, but the whole was really a rock-hard starfish.
“Want to play ball?” Harry asked, and threw the cushion-star to me underwater.
I caught it and passed it onto the other girls and we passed the cushion-star back and forth, the objective being to catch it before it sunk too deep into the ocean and beyond our reach unless we dived after it. We got bored quickly though and decided to move on.
Harry found a sea cucumber that had blue-ringed short rounded tentacles on its sides and dived to grab it for us. By this time, I was pretty uninterested in sea cucumbers as I’d seen tens of them from yesterday’s swim around the hill, and they all moved sluggishly and had no other activity, so they were extremely easy to just reach down and grab. The girls screeched as I handed it over to them, squeezing the water out from the jet-hole in one end, and they happily watched it sink downwards as none of them had caught it.
It was time to drop off these new passengers for we’ve reached the extreme left of the enclosure, so we left them at a shallower area and moved on in search of the shipwreck on the right side of the bay.
Finally I was left alone with Harry and to reach the shipwreck, we had to pass by the jetty once again. There, I encountered the cameraman and was told to pose underwater without my life-jacket. So I removed it and posed for my only underwater photographs, as my camera was not waterproof.
When I re-surfaced after the shot, I was surprised to find that Harry had in the mean time, packed up my life jacket and placed it on the float.
“Can you swim?” He asked.
“Yes.”
With that, Harry held my hand and we set off again, the float only serving as a little boat for my jacket. In this way, we covered distances much faster as both of us swam easily now, the jacket being afloat was too cumbersome and large to allow for proper swimming. We reached the shipwreck quite quickly and climbed over the top of the ship which had once really sailed the seas.
The ship was really just a small metal fishing boat. It had sunk and stuck its bow into the white sands below, jutting out at an angle of about 80 degrees vertically, and lying on its starboard side. The years had corroded its sides exposing various sized holes that allowed the sunlight to stream into the boat and stimulated an explosion of coral growth within. Two of the holes were large enough to peek into, and I was astonished to find a most beautiful garden within.
Small bright pink hard corals competed with their purple counterparts as well as yellow, orange and white flowers sought my attention, absorbing me into their splendor as they formed the most interesting wallpaper on the sides of the ship’s interior. Harry motioned for me to climb over to the other side and enter the ship. The corals here are so numerous and colorful that I’d completely forgotten about the fishes until a few brightly blue and yellow anthias came out from their camouflage behind the colorful corals and shot past my goggles. Combined with the stream of sunlight let in through the holes, it was magical. I felt like I was on an adventure to discover a lost ship, perhaps as exciting as when search-divers first entered the Titanic.
Fueled by my active imagination and the many movies that supplied it, I half-expected to come upon full sets of skeletons, the remnants of the sailors that had met such misfortune; fortunately they were not there.
In this parts, none of the other tourists had gone so far out as the guides had warned that due to the storm last night, dangerous water currents might still bring us out to sea beyond the shipwreck if we were to venture close. After exploring the interior of the ship briefly, Harry then brought me out and we headed back towards land.
Along the way, we came upon a large tunicate coral where giant clams were occupants of its sides. Since I was not wearing my life jacket, I was invited to dive down and touch them. They closed ever tighter and I was childishly delighted for a moment. Small clumps of yellow hard corals had begun to grow on the sandy areas and a large baby shark-like fish prowled the white sands. We quickly swam away and reached the beach on the far right of the island, away from the crowds.
On the beach, I scanned the seas in search of my cousin, but Harry noticed her heading back towards even further right of the beach.
“There! Cherlyn is over there. They have skirted that hill over there.” He pointed to a miniature version of the hill that we’d skirted the day before, which was located beyond the shipwreck.
I handed over my life jacket and goggles and stood on the beach to await Cherlyn. I couldn’t wait to ask her what she had seen as we were separated for the first time while snorkeling.
“Elaine! I’m so tired!” Cherlyn exclaimed the moment she spotted me further up the beach.
“So am I, but I’m so fascinated that I could perhaps go on until the sun sets!” I shouted back.
“Where did you go?” I asked her as she fell in beside me, and together, we walked after the guides, towards the shower rooms to wash off the sea water.
“He brought me out over the buoy line in search of turtles and not finding any, we went to skirt that hill,” Cherlyn grimaced and continued, “That stupid guide also made me stop and stand on the taller corals to rest. Those things are so sharp that I must have a thousand cuts on my soles by now!”
“Luckily I didn’t have to rest. I always signaled ok whenever Harry asked.” I exhaled relief. “What do you mean you went over the buoy line?” I questioned, alarmed.
“He said there were turtles out there and that it would be okay if we were just a little away from the line. We didn’t go too far and there was nothing but the deep blue sea out there so we came right back pretty quickly.” Cherlyn replied with a hint of disappointment.
“Okay, how was the hill? Was it interesting?” I tried further to extract delight from her.
“Not much, exactly like what we saw yesterday evening. Actually it wasn’t even as exciting, because there weren’t any sharks or squids or eels. Did you see any eels, by the way?” Cherlyn said, becoming even more down, as the briefing had clearly indicated that eels were to be found.
“Yes. I saw a large one, and one yesterday too, did I tell you? Wow! They’re huge!” I exclaimed and turned inwards to visually remember the magnificent snakes.
“Lucky you, I haven’t seen any. I like Harry better, he showed us so many things yesterday and he didn’t keep making us rest. I hate standing on corals barefeet!” Cherlyn complained forcefully.
By then, we had reached the shower-room, had a quick wash and were out to collect our belongings from Harry before boarding the boat and returning to Laguna Resort once again. This time, we were invited to climb to the roof of the boat on the journey back. As we passed by a beautiful beach, we saw three sea turtles swimming across underneath our boat. The boat stopped to allow everyone onboard a look and all were audibly amazed.
Despite the distortion caused by the ripples of waves, we could see the large turtles about the size of a small coffee-table each, swimming gracefully and leisurely beneath the clear green waters of the ocean. Apart from identifying them as the famous sea turtles of Terengganu though, we were disappointed to realize that we could not see any details at all. However, a look is better than none, and we were quite contented to continue our way back to the hotel for a much-awaited lunch.
After roaming about the tiny conservation park located on the shore of the small island, -if it could be called a park, being composed of less than ten wooden huts, of which one is a marine lab, one is an education centre with no doors and the rest are changing areas, toilets, cafes and rest pavilions- we decided to head right out into the waters in order not to waste any of the one and a half hour given to us to explore this conservation centre which was truly all underwater.
Harry spotted us again as we neared the beach and came over.
“You guys want to follow me again?” He offered, holding up a big float as the day before.
“Sure!!” We both agreed gaily, in unison. It was only with a guide that we’d dare venture beyond the crowded areas where the rest of the tourists were disturbing the waters too much for even the fish to swim properly, much less us.
Unfortunately today, the moment we hit waters waist-high, a middle-aged woman with her 3 children picked up on the secret and sought out the guide like a hit-man, and assassinated our plans.
“Mr. Guide, can you bring us along as well?” She insisted and immediately helped herself to a prime spot of the float while arranging her children around her before waiting for an answer.
After all, Harry was an employed snorkeling guide and could not do other than to comply with hotel guests’ wishes, so he promised to bring me out later after he has first shown these customers around the jetty first. However, there were too many of us to hold onto the float all in a bunch, so Cherlyn decided that she would wait out the short trip and at this time, another young Malay man, dressed in surf shorts and no life jacket that we presumed to be another member of the resort staff appeared and whisked Cherlyn off with him.
As I frantically called out to her, Harry reassured me, “Don’t worry, your friend is with an experienced guide like me,” and being nothing I could do about it, I complied and let him bring the mother hen, her chicks and me out to sea.
The marine park was a shallow area, being only 10 to 15feet at the deepest. At the shallowest, our stomachs were barely afloat above the corals; hence it was also the place where the most interaction between fishes and snorkeling humans can be achieved, and also the greatest detail into the holes and caves of the corals can be investigated.
Large schools of silver pomfrets swam and reflected off the sunlight en masse like a huge mirror as they appeared from below the shadows of the bridge linking the jetty to the mainland. Other schools of yellow and blue diamond-fishes thronged around the humans in order to get a bite of the bread that they knew would be delivered to them everyday at this time. Although the park received hundreds of tourists a day, it was still beautifully conserved as a fine of twenty-thousand Ringgit was imposed on anyone who removed anything alive or dead from all the reefs around Redang Island.
After visiting a large moray eel, the color of soot contrasted with a brilliant delineation of fire-red on its dorsal and pectoral edges, we headed back towards the beach to drop-off our passengers. Then we headed out to sea again, this time heading far left towards open water. There we encountered less people but along the way, we picked up a group of four giggling girls in bikinis of various shades of pinks. As there was not enough space on the float for four adult girls, I held the hand of the one who was wearing a white and pink bikini.
We visited a palace of gray rocks decorated with golden and brown corals, where a school of steel-green diamond-fishes swarmed us for food. Stretching out my hand to touch them as they were clearly not shy of humans, I was nipped at by two of these bold swimmers. I quickly withdrew my hand, shocked but very amused at being able to finally admire all these beautiful sea creatures, inches away from my face.
Edging away from that rock, we were at the deepest area of the park, just beside the buoy line marking the deep blue sea beyond, whereby the guide had prior warned, in his broken English, “Got big fish, sharks, alligators… and monsters there! So don’t go out.” Harry signaled to me to hold onto the buoy line and the float and then he disappeared below to pick out a large round ochre-colored rock about the size of a football. As he surfaced and turned it around, I was surprised to find that it was actually a starfish! It was a cushion-star, seemingly embedded into a large rock like a fossil, but the whole was really a rock-hard starfish.
“Want to play ball?” Harry asked, and threw the cushion-star to me underwater.
I caught it and passed it onto the other girls and we passed the cushion-star back and forth, the objective being to catch it before it sunk too deep into the ocean and beyond our reach unless we dived after it. We got bored quickly though and decided to move on.
Harry found a sea cucumber that had blue-ringed short rounded tentacles on its sides and dived to grab it for us. By this time, I was pretty uninterested in sea cucumbers as I’d seen tens of them from yesterday’s swim around the hill, and they all moved sluggishly and had no other activity, so they were extremely easy to just reach down and grab. The girls screeched as I handed it over to them, squeezing the water out from the jet-hole in one end, and they happily watched it sink downwards as none of them had caught it.
It was time to drop off these new passengers for we’ve reached the extreme left of the enclosure, so we left them at a shallower area and moved on in search of the shipwreck on the right side of the bay.
Finally I was left alone with Harry and to reach the shipwreck, we had to pass by the jetty once again. There, I encountered the cameraman and was told to pose underwater without my life-jacket. So I removed it and posed for my only underwater photographs, as my camera was not waterproof.
When I re-surfaced after the shot, I was surprised to find that Harry had in the mean time, packed up my life jacket and placed it on the float.
“Can you swim?” He asked.
“Yes.”
With that, Harry held my hand and we set off again, the float only serving as a little boat for my jacket. In this way, we covered distances much faster as both of us swam easily now, the jacket being afloat was too cumbersome and large to allow for proper swimming. We reached the shipwreck quite quickly and climbed over the top of the ship which had once really sailed the seas.
The ship was really just a small metal fishing boat. It had sunk and stuck its bow into the white sands below, jutting out at an angle of about 80 degrees vertically, and lying on its starboard side. The years had corroded its sides exposing various sized holes that allowed the sunlight to stream into the boat and stimulated an explosion of coral growth within. Two of the holes were large enough to peek into, and I was astonished to find a most beautiful garden within.
Small bright pink hard corals competed with their purple counterparts as well as yellow, orange and white flowers sought my attention, absorbing me into their splendor as they formed the most interesting wallpaper on the sides of the ship’s interior. Harry motioned for me to climb over to the other side and enter the ship. The corals here are so numerous and colorful that I’d completely forgotten about the fishes until a few brightly blue and yellow anthias came out from their camouflage behind the colorful corals and shot past my goggles. Combined with the stream of sunlight let in through the holes, it was magical. I felt like I was on an adventure to discover a lost ship, perhaps as exciting as when search-divers first entered the Titanic.
Fueled by my active imagination and the many movies that supplied it, I half-expected to come upon full sets of skeletons, the remnants of the sailors that had met such misfortune; fortunately they were not there.
In this parts, none of the other tourists had gone so far out as the guides had warned that due to the storm last night, dangerous water currents might still bring us out to sea beyond the shipwreck if we were to venture close. After exploring the interior of the ship briefly, Harry then brought me out and we headed back towards land.
Along the way, we came upon a large tunicate coral where giant clams were occupants of its sides. Since I was not wearing my life jacket, I was invited to dive down and touch them. They closed ever tighter and I was childishly delighted for a moment. Small clumps of yellow hard corals had begun to grow on the sandy areas and a large baby shark-like fish prowled the white sands. We quickly swam away and reached the beach on the far right of the island, away from the crowds.
On the beach, I scanned the seas in search of my cousin, but Harry noticed her heading back towards even further right of the beach.
“There! Cherlyn is over there. They have skirted that hill over there.” He pointed to a miniature version of the hill that we’d skirted the day before, which was located beyond the shipwreck.
I handed over my life jacket and goggles and stood on the beach to await Cherlyn. I couldn’t wait to ask her what she had seen as we were separated for the first time while snorkeling.
“Elaine! I’m so tired!” Cherlyn exclaimed the moment she spotted me further up the beach.
“So am I, but I’m so fascinated that I could perhaps go on until the sun sets!” I shouted back.
“Where did you go?” I asked her as she fell in beside me, and together, we walked after the guides, towards the shower rooms to wash off the sea water.
“He brought me out over the buoy line in search of turtles and not finding any, we went to skirt that hill,” Cherlyn grimaced and continued, “That stupid guide also made me stop and stand on the taller corals to rest. Those things are so sharp that I must have a thousand cuts on my soles by now!”
“Luckily I didn’t have to rest. I always signaled ok whenever Harry asked.” I exhaled relief. “What do you mean you went over the buoy line?” I questioned, alarmed.
“He said there were turtles out there and that it would be okay if we were just a little away from the line. We didn’t go too far and there was nothing but the deep blue sea out there so we came right back pretty quickly.” Cherlyn replied with a hint of disappointment.
“Okay, how was the hill? Was it interesting?” I tried further to extract delight from her.
“Not much, exactly like what we saw yesterday evening. Actually it wasn’t even as exciting, because there weren’t any sharks or squids or eels. Did you see any eels, by the way?” Cherlyn said, becoming even more down, as the briefing had clearly indicated that eels were to be found.
“Yes. I saw a large one, and one yesterday too, did I tell you? Wow! They’re huge!” I exclaimed and turned inwards to visually remember the magnificent snakes.
“Lucky you, I haven’t seen any. I like Harry better, he showed us so many things yesterday and he didn’t keep making us rest. I hate standing on corals barefeet!” Cherlyn complained forcefully.
By then, we had reached the shower-room, had a quick wash and were out to collect our belongings from Harry before boarding the boat and returning to Laguna Resort once again. This time, we were invited to climb to the roof of the boat on the journey back. As we passed by a beautiful beach, we saw three sea turtles swimming across underneath our boat. The boat stopped to allow everyone onboard a look and all were audibly amazed.
Despite the distortion caused by the ripples of waves, we could see the large turtles about the size of a small coffee-table each, swimming gracefully and leisurely beneath the clear green waters of the ocean. Apart from identifying them as the famous sea turtles of Terengganu though, we were disappointed to realize that we could not see any details at all. However, a look is better than none, and we were quite contented to continue our way back to the hotel for a much-awaited lunch.
Gray Dawn
I sat up, refreshed, as the alarm clock rang at 7am the next morning. I had had the most wonderful dream of being part of the ocean life, swimming carefree like one of the many fishes I’ve seen, chasing and catching those speedy swimmers, as only could be done in a dream.
Splashing some salty water upon my face, I was ready for more action today. Cherlyn had been roused by my switching on all the lights of the room by then, and we both changed into tanks and track-pants to have our breakfast while peeking out at the remainder of dawn. We strolled carelessly along the small footpath leading from our chalet to the hotel lobby, enjoying the crisp morning air as the sun had not yet peeked out from above the low-lying clouds of the sky.
Beyond the palms that marked the end of the path was the beach, a pale ghost of its noon-time splendor, being illuminated only by the smoky light of the hidden sun. The silver waters lapped gently upon the gray sands whilst the horizon was defined by the margin of the mirror-surface of the water upon the dusky orange sky. It was nonetheless awesome.
Cherlyn headed towards the mid-beach where a row of tanning chairs were arranged, and sat down cross-legged upon one and closed her eyes. She was shutting out her visual senses in order to fully appreciate the beautiful sound of a fresh dawn by the sea. I cooperated and without a word, sat down in the chair next to her and listened.
A gentle breeze brushed against my ear and the pale light created a halo of brilliance within the darkness of my blocked vision. The sounds of water rushing and breaking out upon the shore played out a harmonious melody against the background of distant birds calling. I opened my eyes and turned to the high mountain on the left side of the beach. An eagle was riding a thermal in a circular motion in order to climb the air to fly above the mountain peak. It rose up high into the air with its wings outspread and at the desired high, flapped it powerfully, exhibiting the grace and magnificence that earned it the title “Emperor of birds”.
We got up and headed towards the restaurant located directly above the lobby, having first washed off the sand on our sandals at a small hose set into the ground beside the staircase. I sat down at a table for four, at the central projection of the restaurant that overhung the main building, while Cherlyn went to get her breakfast. I had rice flavored with spice and curry tuna, a local delicacy and a cup of the most salty and undrinkable coffee, while Cherlyn settled for cereals, sausage and eggs and a typical glass of orange juice.
With our stomachs filled and an hour before the morning snorkeling trip, we roamed about the beach, posing with the beautiful scenery behind to capture some photographs. Soon after, we headed back to change into our bikini, and this time, being wiser, wore nothing else so as not to encumber ourselves with additional baggage. Arriving at the jetty slightly later than 930am, we were just on time for the briefing explaining that we were going to a marine conservation island via a 25 minutes boat ride, and once there we can obtain bread from the guides to feed the fishes. Furthermore, two cameramen would be hanging around the jetty of the island to take underwater photographs of whoever approaches.
Splashing some salty water upon my face, I was ready for more action today. Cherlyn had been roused by my switching on all the lights of the room by then, and we both changed into tanks and track-pants to have our breakfast while peeking out at the remainder of dawn. We strolled carelessly along the small footpath leading from our chalet to the hotel lobby, enjoying the crisp morning air as the sun had not yet peeked out from above the low-lying clouds of the sky.
Beyond the palms that marked the end of the path was the beach, a pale ghost of its noon-time splendor, being illuminated only by the smoky light of the hidden sun. The silver waters lapped gently upon the gray sands whilst the horizon was defined by the margin of the mirror-surface of the water upon the dusky orange sky. It was nonetheless awesome.
Cherlyn headed towards the mid-beach where a row of tanning chairs were arranged, and sat down cross-legged upon one and closed her eyes. She was shutting out her visual senses in order to fully appreciate the beautiful sound of a fresh dawn by the sea. I cooperated and without a word, sat down in the chair next to her and listened.
A gentle breeze brushed against my ear and the pale light created a halo of brilliance within the darkness of my blocked vision. The sounds of water rushing and breaking out upon the shore played out a harmonious melody against the background of distant birds calling. I opened my eyes and turned to the high mountain on the left side of the beach. An eagle was riding a thermal in a circular motion in order to climb the air to fly above the mountain peak. It rose up high into the air with its wings outspread and at the desired high, flapped it powerfully, exhibiting the grace and magnificence that earned it the title “Emperor of birds”.
We got up and headed towards the restaurant located directly above the lobby, having first washed off the sand on our sandals at a small hose set into the ground beside the staircase. I sat down at a table for four, at the central projection of the restaurant that overhung the main building, while Cherlyn went to get her breakfast. I had rice flavored with spice and curry tuna, a local delicacy and a cup of the most salty and undrinkable coffee, while Cherlyn settled for cereals, sausage and eggs and a typical glass of orange juice.
With our stomachs filled and an hour before the morning snorkeling trip, we roamed about the beach, posing with the beautiful scenery behind to capture some photographs. Soon after, we headed back to change into our bikini, and this time, being wiser, wore nothing else so as not to encumber ourselves with additional baggage. Arriving at the jetty slightly later than 930am, we were just on time for the briefing explaining that we were going to a marine conservation island via a 25 minutes boat ride, and once there we can obtain bread from the guides to feed the fishes. Furthermore, two cameramen would be hanging around the jetty of the island to take underwater photographs of whoever approaches.
Snorkeling at Pulau Lima
As the boat anchored off the shores of the rocky islet of Pulau Lima, everybody was in a chaotic rush to jump into the water, leaving Cherlyn and I pretty confused onboard. We were the last off the ladder into the sea, being slightly apprehensive initially. Once in the water however, I dipped my head underwater and saw an amazing spectacle of marine life laid out 15feet below me. At first, shocked at the depth of waters below me, I was quickly thrilled to push off farther from the boat to inspect more of the coral reefs and the myriad of fishes, unexpectedly lurking below these waters all the time I was above it, not suspecting a thing.
I swam close to Cherlyn and we both gazed dumbfounded at the scissor-tailed silver trevallies that swam close to the surface. Branching fire corals covered the entire ocean floor with their brown stag-horn hard corals, tipped with white. Large tunicate ochre sponges supported brightly colorful pink, yellow and blue Christmas tree worms, which retreated into their holes upon being touched. A palette surgeonfish, blue with a large black stripe across its body, of the type known as Dory in the cartoon Finding Nemo, swam in a veering manner around the hard corals, as a clown triggerfish, darted its black-spotted white body amongst the caves formed by the corals.
Being beginners, Cherlyn and I only dared flounder about the boat, but luckily, the snorkeling guide come to our rescue and brought us in search of more beautiful reefs further away.
“Come, hang onto the float. I’ll bring you to see more.” The guide, instructed.
“Is it safe?” Cherlyn needed to confirm.
“Of course, don’t worry, I’m Harry, a qualified staff.” He affirmed. We held onto the float trustingly, and faced down, back into the blue waters and amazing world below.
Further on, a school of black trigger fishes darted repeatedly downwards, picking algae off the corals to eat. I murmured unintelligibly to Cherlyn as we both saw a pair of the largest butterflyfish we have ever seen. Many small purple queen anthias were seen fleetingly amongst the caves, along with ochre-striped cardinals, which surprised me greatly as I thought cardinals were freshwater fishes.
Harry signaled to us and dived down to grab a sea cucumber for us. We were fascinated when he taught us how to squeeze the water out of the animal, as the water jetted out from a small hole in one end. He also got hold of a mushroom coral, which secreted saliva-like gel once it was dry, signifying that it was alive.
Passing by many colonies of translucent white anemones, Harry dived again and caught hold of a bright orange clownfish.
“Nemo,” he named it, and handed it over to Cherlyn. We both played with it for a while, before other people swam over, attracted by the brief commotion that Cherlyn and I created at delightfully playing with nemo.
Tiny bright blue damsel fishes, beautiful black-spotted white humpback groupers, big bi-color parrotfishes, which in truth, contain all the colors of the light spectrum from neon pink to the deepest blues, yellow spots and aqua blue stripes and a large purple head. We even saw an extremely large white-spotted puffer fish near the edge of the rocks; it was easily the size of an adult pair of sports shoes put together. Both Cherlyn and I were clearly astounded.
We just couldn’t get enough of it, but all too soon, an hour and a half was gone and we headed back to the boat. We’d by then rounded a stony outcrop onto the other side of the island and had a long way to swim; subsequently we were also the last people to get onto the boats.
Exhausted we were happy again to receive V.I.P treatment at being invited to grab our stuff and head over to a larger speedboat to sit on the sundeck. We dried off with our small towels and let the ocean breeze dry the remaining sea water off our bikini, as the boat sped off towards the resort.
We arrived at the resort slightly past 5pm and had only half an hour before our meeting time with Mi and Eddie at the More More Tea Shop. We decided to jump into the swimming pool to wash off some of the saltwater and refresh ourselves. At that time, we were still hesitant at meeting with two strangers, but we decided that since they were members of the hotel staff, and we were registered guests, they wouldn’t do anything to us since they would be detected pretty quickly. As a note of precaution however, I left a piece of paper indicating that we’d gone snorkeling with Mi and Eddie on the table of our hotel room, notifying whomever reading it that we might be in grave danger if not back by the next day.
Mi was waiting for us at the shop as we strolled by wearing only a wrap-around sarong dress to cover our bikini for convenience. We were led to the far left of the beach, beyond another resort, where a rocky hill broke the sandy stretch. Little did we know that we were to skirt that hill, of which girth was about 10km in diameter.
This trip was infinitely more interesting than the afternoon’s for only 4 of us disturbed the waters off the coast. When the furthest tourists were surpassed as they snorkeled only in front of the resort areas, we were alone and the fishes came out to play, undisturbed.
Eddie grabbed hold of my life jacket from my back and with powerful kicks of his flippers, brought me to a stony outcrop of coral and showed me the head of a large moray eel. It was bright yellow with red spots and the head alone was as big as my open hand, its full length being up to 8feet long.
We saw a lot more corals as this area was very rocky and the marine animals hooked onto the cliff sides and grew abundantly. Sea cucumbers abound on the sides; blue spiky ones, black ones with fire red-tipped short rounded tentacles, black soft ones found on white sand. Anti-social black sea-urchins poking their needles dangerously rested lonesome on the rocks. Giant clams lay stuck among the huge coral masses, seemingly not having moved for decades, only having enough space to open and close their purplish blue lips. Beautiful cone shells camouflaged as corals lay half-hidden amongst them. Large turban snails rested on peaks upon the coral hills. Aeolid nudibranches, the sea slugs of the ocean floor littered it, dotting the scape with colors. Flat worms that were black with a white central stripe weaved about like leaves on the ocean floor.
A school of common reef squid swam past our path as I was led by Eddie around a large rock, and Cherlyn and I exchanged underwater charmed glances. Their slim body was encircled with a layer of lace-like translucent wings; its head contained 2 large eyes that stood out white and black like bull’s eye and the whole glowing iridescent neon blue upon purple. They were truly magnificently colorful animals, and I’d never have guessed from all those years of eating their boring white flesh.
Large schools of ikan billis swarmed us from time to time, giving off a crackling sound whenever they approached to about 15 centimeters away.
Finally, as we swam to our furthest away from the shores, a school of about 6 baby gray reef sharks swam below us. They were silvery gray with black tipped dorsal fins, and already had the ominous style of swaying as they swam. Luckily they passed benignly, and weren’t followed by their parents!
As we neared the other shore, Eddie brought me to a growth of coral and had me dive down holding my breath to touch the Christmas tree corals and watch them disappear into the tunicate sponges. We followed a school of white groupers all the way to the sandy beach and then stood up on the other side of the same shore from which I set off an hour and a half ago. By then the waters had turned cold and it had started to drizzle. Cherlyn and I ran off to our chalets to rest after an extremely fun and exhausting day
It stormed that night, and so both of us, being extremely exhausted, went to bed immediately after our BBQ dinner and slept soundly until daybreak the next day for another wonder-filled day of sea, sun, and reefs.
I swam close to Cherlyn and we both gazed dumbfounded at the scissor-tailed silver trevallies that swam close to the surface. Branching fire corals covered the entire ocean floor with their brown stag-horn hard corals, tipped with white. Large tunicate ochre sponges supported brightly colorful pink, yellow and blue Christmas tree worms, which retreated into their holes upon being touched. A palette surgeonfish, blue with a large black stripe across its body, of the type known as Dory in the cartoon Finding Nemo, swam in a veering manner around the hard corals, as a clown triggerfish, darted its black-spotted white body amongst the caves formed by the corals.
Being beginners, Cherlyn and I only dared flounder about the boat, but luckily, the snorkeling guide come to our rescue and brought us in search of more beautiful reefs further away.
“Come, hang onto the float. I’ll bring you to see more.” The guide, instructed.
“Is it safe?” Cherlyn needed to confirm.
“Of course, don’t worry, I’m Harry, a qualified staff.” He affirmed. We held onto the float trustingly, and faced down, back into the blue waters and amazing world below.
Further on, a school of black trigger fishes darted repeatedly downwards, picking algae off the corals to eat. I murmured unintelligibly to Cherlyn as we both saw a pair of the largest butterflyfish we have ever seen. Many small purple queen anthias were seen fleetingly amongst the caves, along with ochre-striped cardinals, which surprised me greatly as I thought cardinals were freshwater fishes.
Harry signaled to us and dived down to grab a sea cucumber for us. We were fascinated when he taught us how to squeeze the water out of the animal, as the water jetted out from a small hole in one end. He also got hold of a mushroom coral, which secreted saliva-like gel once it was dry, signifying that it was alive.
Passing by many colonies of translucent white anemones, Harry dived again and caught hold of a bright orange clownfish.
“Nemo,” he named it, and handed it over to Cherlyn. We both played with it for a while, before other people swam over, attracted by the brief commotion that Cherlyn and I created at delightfully playing with nemo.
Tiny bright blue damsel fishes, beautiful black-spotted white humpback groupers, big bi-color parrotfishes, which in truth, contain all the colors of the light spectrum from neon pink to the deepest blues, yellow spots and aqua blue stripes and a large purple head. We even saw an extremely large white-spotted puffer fish near the edge of the rocks; it was easily the size of an adult pair of sports shoes put together. Both Cherlyn and I were clearly astounded.
We just couldn’t get enough of it, but all too soon, an hour and a half was gone and we headed back to the boat. We’d by then rounded a stony outcrop onto the other side of the island and had a long way to swim; subsequently we were also the last people to get onto the boats.
Exhausted we were happy again to receive V.I.P treatment at being invited to grab our stuff and head over to a larger speedboat to sit on the sundeck. We dried off with our small towels and let the ocean breeze dry the remaining sea water off our bikini, as the boat sped off towards the resort.
We arrived at the resort slightly past 5pm and had only half an hour before our meeting time with Mi and Eddie at the More More Tea Shop. We decided to jump into the swimming pool to wash off some of the saltwater and refresh ourselves. At that time, we were still hesitant at meeting with two strangers, but we decided that since they were members of the hotel staff, and we were registered guests, they wouldn’t do anything to us since they would be detected pretty quickly. As a note of precaution however, I left a piece of paper indicating that we’d gone snorkeling with Mi and Eddie on the table of our hotel room, notifying whomever reading it that we might be in grave danger if not back by the next day.
Mi was waiting for us at the shop as we strolled by wearing only a wrap-around sarong dress to cover our bikini for convenience. We were led to the far left of the beach, beyond another resort, where a rocky hill broke the sandy stretch. Little did we know that we were to skirt that hill, of which girth was about 10km in diameter.
This trip was infinitely more interesting than the afternoon’s for only 4 of us disturbed the waters off the coast. When the furthest tourists were surpassed as they snorkeled only in front of the resort areas, we were alone and the fishes came out to play, undisturbed.
Eddie grabbed hold of my life jacket from my back and with powerful kicks of his flippers, brought me to a stony outcrop of coral and showed me the head of a large moray eel. It was bright yellow with red spots and the head alone was as big as my open hand, its full length being up to 8feet long.
We saw a lot more corals as this area was very rocky and the marine animals hooked onto the cliff sides and grew abundantly. Sea cucumbers abound on the sides; blue spiky ones, black ones with fire red-tipped short rounded tentacles, black soft ones found on white sand. Anti-social black sea-urchins poking their needles dangerously rested lonesome on the rocks. Giant clams lay stuck among the huge coral masses, seemingly not having moved for decades, only having enough space to open and close their purplish blue lips. Beautiful cone shells camouflaged as corals lay half-hidden amongst them. Large turban snails rested on peaks upon the coral hills. Aeolid nudibranches, the sea slugs of the ocean floor littered it, dotting the scape with colors. Flat worms that were black with a white central stripe weaved about like leaves on the ocean floor.
A school of common reef squid swam past our path as I was led by Eddie around a large rock, and Cherlyn and I exchanged underwater charmed glances. Their slim body was encircled with a layer of lace-like translucent wings; its head contained 2 large eyes that stood out white and black like bull’s eye and the whole glowing iridescent neon blue upon purple. They were truly magnificently colorful animals, and I’d never have guessed from all those years of eating their boring white flesh.
Large schools of ikan billis swarmed us from time to time, giving off a crackling sound whenever they approached to about 15 centimeters away.
Finally, as we swam to our furthest away from the shores, a school of about 6 baby gray reef sharks swam below us. They were silvery gray with black tipped dorsal fins, and already had the ominous style of swaying as they swam. Luckily they passed benignly, and weren’t followed by their parents!
As we neared the other shore, Eddie brought me to a growth of coral and had me dive down holding my breath to touch the Christmas tree corals and watch them disappear into the tunicate sponges. We followed a school of white groupers all the way to the sandy beach and then stood up on the other side of the same shore from which I set off an hour and a half ago. By then the waters had turned cold and it had started to drizzle. Cherlyn and I ran off to our chalets to rest after an extremely fun and exhausting day
It stormed that night, and so both of us, being extremely exhausted, went to bed immediately after our BBQ dinner and slept soundly until daybreak the next day for another wonder-filled day of sea, sun, and reefs.
Pulau [Island] Redang
We passed our one hour boat ride surprisingly quickly, coming to the shallow seas of crystal clear blue-green waters dotted with marine areas indicating coral reefs below. Handing the wheel back to Mi, we went back out to be dazzled by the gleaming seas, still too far out to see shore.
The big rocky island shaped like a few blunted volcanoes joined together, loomed ahead of us, getting bigger and bigger as we neared it. It was the biggest island; the others were merely coral atolls that were so abundant in this part of the South China Seas. We passed by many other resorts, all primitive looking, except for the first one located in a private lagoon, the Berjaya resorts. A helicopter passed overhead, heading towards the only landing pad of the island, on a smoothed peak above the Berjaya resorts.
Finally we turned into a small bay with a short stretch of white beach surrounded by large rocky cliffs. This was the Laguna jetty at the back of the Laguna resort, fortunately, for the view of the sea was almost completely obscured by cliffs on both sides of the jetty. We later found out that the resort actually occupied the largest white sandy beach of the island, when we reached the front after a 5 minute walk through the chalets.
Having arranged to meet Mi and Eddie at 5:30pm for a private snorkeling session to see baby sharks, we waved goodbye and followed the other tourists to the lobby to check into our rooms.
The hotel was constructed on wooden stilts in the style of traditional Malay architecture. Kuala Terengganu is one of the largest Malay states of peninsula Malaysia, with over 90% of its population being Malays. The main building was made of dark oak, with high wooden ceilings and wooden floors, blending into the beach as natural as if it were part of it, yet welcoming and stately at the same time, being impressively large. The lobby contained rattan chairs and tables, and a contrasting modern marble and glass bar, where the guests were welcomed with freshly-made prune juice.
Looking out to sea from the lobby, the sweltering heat outside did not affect us as the air was partially-cooled by many fans on the ceiling. I was involuntarily taken aback once again at the immense beauty of the azure waters of the sea, fading greener as it neared shore and finally transparent upon the white sandy beach. The water was so clear that I could see the small rocks that dotted the right side of the bay, until they bottomed out on the sands below water.
Our room needed cleaning and was not available until 1pm. With an hour and a half to spare, we decided to shop for bikinis, since we had never worn a bikini before. This was perfect for a truly complete beach experience.
Having asked the concierge where the nearest convenience shop was, we were directed to a pink and green wooden two-storey building off the right side of the hotel. The More More Tea souvenir shop was on the ground floor and a karaoke and bistro was located above. We walked in and I quickly selected a striking water-patterned blue bikini while Cherlyn picked a white one with small dainty orange daisies. We were giggling and really looking forward to putting them on to stun all those beach boys out there.
Lunch was ready by then, and we helped ourselves to sumptuous Malay cuisine, although being careful to watch our waistline. Shortly, we moved off to place our luggage in our chalet beyond the central swimming pool of the hotel. Thankful at escaping from the noonday tropical heat, we rested briefly in our air-conditioned hotel room.
The room was charmingly decorated, with a king sized bed in the middle, wooden furniture and rattan chairs and tables. There were two extra twin beds on the opposite wall, a small television and large cupboards to place our clothing. The toilet and shower-room were separate, and tiled with pebbled floors. The whole room was lighted with soft golden light, which I thought would be perfect for couples on their honeymoon. Everything was great so far, except that all the tap water and drinking water of the island was slightly salty!
We changed into our bikinis, put on tanks and shorts and packed a small towel and our sunblock lotion into a small bag and set off for the recreation centre at 2pm. We rented our snorkeling set and were again pleasantly surprised to find out that we could hold onto the sets which cost only RM25 for the whole duration of the trip and have only to return them before checking out. With a mass of people already in their bikinis, swimsuits and some even in their diving suits, we walked over to the jetty in order to board the boat to our snorkeling destination.
Packing ourselves comfortably into one of the seven boats, we headed towards Lima island. “Do we really have to spit into the goggles in order to see clearly below water?” I turned to the blonde Australian girl next to me and asked with a disgusted look.
“Yes, otherwise it fogs up pretty quickly and you’d have to keep removing it to wipe the glasses.” She answered and we introduced ourselves and made friends. It wasn’t her first time snorkeling and Cherlyn and I were glad that we would have someone to watch over us.
The big rocky island shaped like a few blunted volcanoes joined together, loomed ahead of us, getting bigger and bigger as we neared it. It was the biggest island; the others were merely coral atolls that were so abundant in this part of the South China Seas. We passed by many other resorts, all primitive looking, except for the first one located in a private lagoon, the Berjaya resorts. A helicopter passed overhead, heading towards the only landing pad of the island, on a smoothed peak above the Berjaya resorts.
Finally we turned into a small bay with a short stretch of white beach surrounded by large rocky cliffs. This was the Laguna jetty at the back of the Laguna resort, fortunately, for the view of the sea was almost completely obscured by cliffs on both sides of the jetty. We later found out that the resort actually occupied the largest white sandy beach of the island, when we reached the front after a 5 minute walk through the chalets.
Having arranged to meet Mi and Eddie at 5:30pm for a private snorkeling session to see baby sharks, we waved goodbye and followed the other tourists to the lobby to check into our rooms.
The hotel was constructed on wooden stilts in the style of traditional Malay architecture. Kuala Terengganu is one of the largest Malay states of peninsula Malaysia, with over 90% of its population being Malays. The main building was made of dark oak, with high wooden ceilings and wooden floors, blending into the beach as natural as if it were part of it, yet welcoming and stately at the same time, being impressively large. The lobby contained rattan chairs and tables, and a contrasting modern marble and glass bar, where the guests were welcomed with freshly-made prune juice.
Looking out to sea from the lobby, the sweltering heat outside did not affect us as the air was partially-cooled by many fans on the ceiling. I was involuntarily taken aback once again at the immense beauty of the azure waters of the sea, fading greener as it neared shore and finally transparent upon the white sandy beach. The water was so clear that I could see the small rocks that dotted the right side of the bay, until they bottomed out on the sands below water.
Our room needed cleaning and was not available until 1pm. With an hour and a half to spare, we decided to shop for bikinis, since we had never worn a bikini before. This was perfect for a truly complete beach experience.
Having asked the concierge where the nearest convenience shop was, we were directed to a pink and green wooden two-storey building off the right side of the hotel. The More More Tea souvenir shop was on the ground floor and a karaoke and bistro was located above. We walked in and I quickly selected a striking water-patterned blue bikini while Cherlyn picked a white one with small dainty orange daisies. We were giggling and really looking forward to putting them on to stun all those beach boys out there.
Lunch was ready by then, and we helped ourselves to sumptuous Malay cuisine, although being careful to watch our waistline. Shortly, we moved off to place our luggage in our chalet beyond the central swimming pool of the hotel. Thankful at escaping from the noonday tropical heat, we rested briefly in our air-conditioned hotel room.
The room was charmingly decorated, with a king sized bed in the middle, wooden furniture and rattan chairs and tables. There were two extra twin beds on the opposite wall, a small television and large cupboards to place our clothing. The toilet and shower-room were separate, and tiled with pebbled floors. The whole room was lighted with soft golden light, which I thought would be perfect for couples on their honeymoon. Everything was great so far, except that all the tap water and drinking water of the island was slightly salty!
We changed into our bikinis, put on tanks and shorts and packed a small towel and our sunblock lotion into a small bag and set off for the recreation centre at 2pm. We rented our snorkeling set and were again pleasantly surprised to find out that we could hold onto the sets which cost only RM25 for the whole duration of the trip and have only to return them before checking out. With a mass of people already in their bikinis, swimsuits and some even in their diving suits, we walked over to the jetty in order to board the boat to our snorkeling destination.
Packing ourselves comfortably into one of the seven boats, we headed towards Lima island. “Do we really have to spit into the goggles in order to see clearly below water?” I turned to the blonde Australian girl next to me and asked with a disgusted look.
“Yes, otherwise it fogs up pretty quickly and you’d have to keep removing it to wipe the glasses.” She answered and we introduced ourselves and made friends. It wasn’t her first time snorkeling and Cherlyn and I were glad that we would have someone to watch over us.
Beginning of an adventure
Cherlyn turned to me and said, “You know, since I was young, I’d always look forward to this part of the flight, it’s the best. This is the beginning of adventure.” breaking out into a smile, as the airbus A310 revved its engine in preparation for take-off.
I nodded enthusiastically, and we both settled deeper into the plush cushioned seat of the plane as the forward momentum of the plane thrust us backwards. Cherlyn and I have gotten along very well as cousins for the past twenty-one years, thereby attaining legal freedom together this year and by this parent-free trip, household liberation also.
The sky was full of white plump clouds that looked like they would bring rain later on in the day; hence day-break was pretty gray at 7:30am at the time of take-off. However, as the small jet of 220 passengers gained altitude and passed the low-level puffs of grayish clouds, the fractocumulus, and further higher, the sun-blocking layer of altostratus, we broke through into a fantastic landscape of complete whiteness stretching as far as the eye can see, illuminated by the bright golden sun, so dazzling as to be impossible to look at directly.
I imagined that this would be what the Arctic would look like, if I had a chance to visit. My breath stuck in my throat and incidentally deaf due to the change in air pressure, I silently admired the beauty of the clouds, which had formed a concrete layer of solid ice yet looking as soft as fleece. I was entranced and momentarily forgot that I was 20,000 feet above sea level, instead becoming absorbed in my fantasy of describing the North Pole, with mountain peaks that poked above even the white landscape in some places and sparse wisps of high level clouds that were more fittingly mists of these mountains. Musing that clouds were indeed ice, I am probably not far off the mark
Too soon, the hour passed away and Cherlyn finally stirred from her short nap as the Captain announced that we were about to land at the Sultan Mahmud Airport. As she sat rubbing her eyes, I continued to survey the ground below. Stretching along the coast, Kuala Terrenganu was not unlike Kuala Lumpur, with many high rise steel buildings, that although were not as majestic as those in our hometown, were gray enough. I despised cities. Turning my attention to the rural areas inland, I was briefly amused at the new multi-colored bungalows that were favored here. Everywhere I looked, houses were painted neon yellows, greens and pinks. The old-style Malay houses made of wood and stilts were few and far in between, I noted sadly that perhaps rural life is dying out even here.
Finally, I’ve come to my own favorite part, touch-down. I began to feel that I’ve arrived for adventure and I couldn’t wait to get off the plane, and rush off to Redang island.
Queuing in a haphazard line, at a pavilion of a small wooden café at the jetty, I waited to register for the boat ride to Laguna Resort located at the east side of the island. Happily I handed over my hotel passes and was told, to my slight disappointment, that my boat was not due for another half hour.
We shared a table with a group of young men and noted that almost every other tourist were either in a large group of friends or family, or coupled, Cherlyn and I passed lonesome glances at each other. Most of the vacationers were youngsters and were making a riot, joking and laughing noisily. We, on the other hand, were pretty dazed after three hours of traveling, including the one hour bus ride that brought us from the airport to the jetty. We did not really look forward to another hour of boat ride in order to get to this mystical island.
Fortunately for us, the boatman, seeing two forlorn young girls, took pity on us and placed us in the captain’s cabin quite unexpectedly, to our extreme delight. I had asked the boatman rather cheekily whether we could sit at the sun deck and he replied, “Sure, but you’ve got to wait till everybody else has boarded into the cramped passenger cabin first, then you stealthily climb upstairs, okay?” with a wink.
As we stretched out on the sundeck, I turned to Cherlyn and remarked cheerily, “This is great. There is an advantage to being just two; we’re getting V.I.P. treatment right from setting off!”
We both enjoyed the beautiful marine-blue sea that sparkled like spring water. The weather was perfect; the sky was painted blue with only wisps of clear-weather cirrus clouds, and the sun was only just beginning to heat the air, although it was already a white-hot ball, far away and benign. We both untied our shoulder-length hair and let the wind blow it into disarray as the warm breeze carried the salt of the sea to our noses. Sprays of sea water fountained upon us occasionally but not enough to wet our spirits. Our enchanted holiday had begun. Shortly, not wanting to be burnt since we didn’t put on sunblock lotion, we returned to the captain’s cabin.
“So what are your names?” The dark-skinned captain asked us in deeply accented Malay, as we poked our heads through the low door from the sundeck.
“I am Elaine, and my friend is Cherlyn.” I answered hesitantly, “and what is yours?”
“Mi, and my assistant boatman is Eddie.” Mi replied, pointing to another sun-darkened rough-weather looking man. They both looked in their late twenties, wearing Laguna’s T-shirt and pants.
“Where do you come from?” He continued amiably.
“We are from Kuala Lumpur, and you?”
“Locals. We were born on Redang island, and lived there all our lives. Love the islands and the sea. Have you ever seen water like crystals? I’d be bringing you to see that shortly.” He nodded proudly.
“Great. Can we take photos pretending that I drove the boat?” I asked gingerly.
“Just take photos? Nah, you can drive the boat.”
“Really?” I exclaimed, eyes wide with pleasant surprise. “You’re not kidding, are you? I have never touched the steering wheel of a real boat before.”
He smiled, and gestured for me to take over.
Unbelievingly, I walked over and took hold of the steering wheel. Mi went on to teach me how to steer, and it was remarkably easy.
“You see those two points of smoke on the horizon over there? Yes, just follow that.” and with these instructions, he left me with Cherlyn and his assistant, Eddie and went to the sundeck for a smoke!
I drove the boat for about 20mins, enjoying my first time handling a ship, though a small one, but still carrying a significant 40 passengers on board. After a while, Cherlyn offered to try her hand and I passed the wheel to her, telling her Mi’s instructions.
Shortly, Mi returned from his cigarette break and remarked amusedly, “Look behind.”
Cherlyn and I turned around and understood. We had left a big zigzag trail of wake, created by our unsteady maneuvering of the boat. We all laughed.
“So did we pass?” I asked after our laughter died down.
“Yes. Of course, now you can stay and apply for a job with us.” Mi joked.
“We passed with that?” I exclaimed, indicating the zigzag pathway we took.
“Of course. No going home now.” Eddie joined in.
“Okay, now for our certificate, can you help us take photographs?” I requested.
I nodded enthusiastically, and we both settled deeper into the plush cushioned seat of the plane as the forward momentum of the plane thrust us backwards. Cherlyn and I have gotten along very well as cousins for the past twenty-one years, thereby attaining legal freedom together this year and by this parent-free trip, household liberation also.
The sky was full of white plump clouds that looked like they would bring rain later on in the day; hence day-break was pretty gray at 7:30am at the time of take-off. However, as the small jet of 220 passengers gained altitude and passed the low-level puffs of grayish clouds, the fractocumulus, and further higher, the sun-blocking layer of altostratus, we broke through into a fantastic landscape of complete whiteness stretching as far as the eye can see, illuminated by the bright golden sun, so dazzling as to be impossible to look at directly.
I imagined that this would be what the Arctic would look like, if I had a chance to visit. My breath stuck in my throat and incidentally deaf due to the change in air pressure, I silently admired the beauty of the clouds, which had formed a concrete layer of solid ice yet looking as soft as fleece. I was entranced and momentarily forgot that I was 20,000 feet above sea level, instead becoming absorbed in my fantasy of describing the North Pole, with mountain peaks that poked above even the white landscape in some places and sparse wisps of high level clouds that were more fittingly mists of these mountains. Musing that clouds were indeed ice, I am probably not far off the mark
Too soon, the hour passed away and Cherlyn finally stirred from her short nap as the Captain announced that we were about to land at the Sultan Mahmud Airport. As she sat rubbing her eyes, I continued to survey the ground below. Stretching along the coast, Kuala Terrenganu was not unlike Kuala Lumpur, with many high rise steel buildings, that although were not as majestic as those in our hometown, were gray enough. I despised cities. Turning my attention to the rural areas inland, I was briefly amused at the new multi-colored bungalows that were favored here. Everywhere I looked, houses were painted neon yellows, greens and pinks. The old-style Malay houses made of wood and stilts were few and far in between, I noted sadly that perhaps rural life is dying out even here.
Finally, I’ve come to my own favorite part, touch-down. I began to feel that I’ve arrived for adventure and I couldn’t wait to get off the plane, and rush off to Redang island.
Queuing in a haphazard line, at a pavilion of a small wooden café at the jetty, I waited to register for the boat ride to Laguna Resort located at the east side of the island. Happily I handed over my hotel passes and was told, to my slight disappointment, that my boat was not due for another half hour.
We shared a table with a group of young men and noted that almost every other tourist were either in a large group of friends or family, or coupled, Cherlyn and I passed lonesome glances at each other. Most of the vacationers were youngsters and were making a riot, joking and laughing noisily. We, on the other hand, were pretty dazed after three hours of traveling, including the one hour bus ride that brought us from the airport to the jetty. We did not really look forward to another hour of boat ride in order to get to this mystical island.
Fortunately for us, the boatman, seeing two forlorn young girls, took pity on us and placed us in the captain’s cabin quite unexpectedly, to our extreme delight. I had asked the boatman rather cheekily whether we could sit at the sun deck and he replied, “Sure, but you’ve got to wait till everybody else has boarded into the cramped passenger cabin first, then you stealthily climb upstairs, okay?” with a wink.
As we stretched out on the sundeck, I turned to Cherlyn and remarked cheerily, “This is great. There is an advantage to being just two; we’re getting V.I.P. treatment right from setting off!”
We both enjoyed the beautiful marine-blue sea that sparkled like spring water. The weather was perfect; the sky was painted blue with only wisps of clear-weather cirrus clouds, and the sun was only just beginning to heat the air, although it was already a white-hot ball, far away and benign. We both untied our shoulder-length hair and let the wind blow it into disarray as the warm breeze carried the salt of the sea to our noses. Sprays of sea water fountained upon us occasionally but not enough to wet our spirits. Our enchanted holiday had begun. Shortly, not wanting to be burnt since we didn’t put on sunblock lotion, we returned to the captain’s cabin.
“So what are your names?” The dark-skinned captain asked us in deeply accented Malay, as we poked our heads through the low door from the sundeck.
“I am Elaine, and my friend is Cherlyn.” I answered hesitantly, “and what is yours?”
“Mi, and my assistant boatman is Eddie.” Mi replied, pointing to another sun-darkened rough-weather looking man. They both looked in their late twenties, wearing Laguna’s T-shirt and pants.
“Where do you come from?” He continued amiably.
“We are from Kuala Lumpur, and you?”
“Locals. We were born on Redang island, and lived there all our lives. Love the islands and the sea. Have you ever seen water like crystals? I’d be bringing you to see that shortly.” He nodded proudly.
“Great. Can we take photos pretending that I drove the boat?” I asked gingerly.
“Just take photos? Nah, you can drive the boat.”
“Really?” I exclaimed, eyes wide with pleasant surprise. “You’re not kidding, are you? I have never touched the steering wheel of a real boat before.”
He smiled, and gestured for me to take over.
Unbelievingly, I walked over and took hold of the steering wheel. Mi went on to teach me how to steer, and it was remarkably easy.
“You see those two points of smoke on the horizon over there? Yes, just follow that.” and with these instructions, he left me with Cherlyn and his assistant, Eddie and went to the sundeck for a smoke!
I drove the boat for about 20mins, enjoying my first time handling a ship, though a small one, but still carrying a significant 40 passengers on board. After a while, Cherlyn offered to try her hand and I passed the wheel to her, telling her Mi’s instructions.
Shortly, Mi returned from his cigarette break and remarked amusedly, “Look behind.”
Cherlyn and I turned around and understood. We had left a big zigzag trail of wake, created by our unsteady maneuvering of the boat. We all laughed.
“So did we pass?” I asked after our laughter died down.
“Yes. Of course, now you can stay and apply for a job with us.” Mi joked.
“We passed with that?” I exclaimed, indicating the zigzag pathway we took.
“Of course. No going home now.” Eddie joined in.
“Okay, now for our certificate, can you help us take photographs?” I requested.
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