Sepang, the home of Malaysia's motorsports

(Sorry for the delay.. My camera's with Joel. Didn't had a chance to upload the pictures until today.)

On 21 May 2005 (Saturday) morning, Me, Joel, Joel's brother Gavin and Joel's sis-in-law Jennat left home for Malaysia at 6.45-7am .. Since it's a long weekend, we expected a queue at the Tuas 2nd link Causeway.. And we weren't disappointed! But lucky for us, the jam wasn't that bad.. By the time we cleared Singapore and Malaysia's customs heading towards Petronas petrol kiosk, it was approximately 8.30am. We were supposed to meet the convoy at 7.30am..

-.- bo wa nang er dai ji.. Slow traffic.

On our way, we stopped at 209km resting point (the bridge where you will see KFC and A&W) for a toilet and A&W break.. We had lots of rootbeer and *burrpppppp* Oppssss... too much rootbeer! :p

Weather has been weird in Singapore.. Malaysia is not spare.. It was SUNNY when we were at Petronas, its was CLOUDY after 1 hour on the road, it RAINED after 15mins, the rain STOP after 5 mins on the road, it was CLOUDY when we were at 209km resting point. And? it was freaking HUMID at Sepang! *melting*sticky* Need a cold shower badly..!


See the change of weather?


On our way up, Joel behaved normally until........


*arghhhhh* What happen to his face?! He's teasing me because i couldn't see his face while adjusting the angle of the camera.. :)

We reached Sepang at 1pm. We were late... SG Trackies booked the whole Circuit from 12.30-4.30pm. As usual, Gavin will be running around looking for Kin (Organiser-cum-friend) for the driver tag.. Securing the tag, Gavin started to dump all unnecessary things aside to make their 350Z lighter.. And off he goes for his warm up lap..

It was a "crowded" Track Day.. There were estimated about 100-120 cars.. WRX(s), EVO(s), Honda Accord, Toyota Vios, Civic(s), 350Z(s), Integra(s), S15(s) and M3... It was so crowded that the usual 3 Lap Race? The authorities have to reject some cars due to space constraint on the Circuit... I think there were only space available for about 25-30 cars.

See the queue for the 3 Lap Race... Its so crowded that some of the cars were rejected for the Race.

The actions were good... This orange and gold EVOs were freaking fast!! Especially the orange one... Melanie helped me with the upload of the video clip i took at the Race. Many cheers to Melanie again!!

4.30pm.. We made our way to Kuala Lumpur.. After a sweaty day, we need to wash up badly.. But we were strike by some sort of bad luck.. The so-called-arranged hotel was not booked!!

But no matter how, we were greatly blessed.. Thanks to Pin and Diana, we managed to grab 3 rooms at Crowne Plaza Mutiara.. It's 5-10 mins from Atmosphere and another 5-10 mins from Bukit Bintang. But the best of all is not the location... It's their rooms!!!

Chilling in the room...Messy ar? We just check in when i took this picture..


Oppsss.... Jennat making use of the toilet when Joel took this pciture.. Nice ar?


Joel's love for this hotel is because of this shower head!! Rainfall shower....... Delightful showering time.

After a wash up, we head towards to Jalan Imbi's Overseas Restaurant for dinner. We had 7 dishes and there were 10 of us.. We had fish (that cost a bomb!), chicken, duck, pork, tofu, deer meat (big bone) and something else which i can't recall.. Ian went after the deer's bone marrow as known as "Chinese Tulang"!! *heehee*

See what i mean... A specific amount of Singaporean likes tulang (Goat's bone marrow) and that will include this deer bone!


Look..He finished the "tulang" and not the deer meat which are right in front of him..

After dinner, Ian dumped the bone on his plate and he went for a smoke.. When we came back, we were told that the waitress asked Jennat what's the bone doing on his plate..!

Having dinner at Overseas Restaurant has become a routine for us whenever we're in Kuala Lumpur. Having Mango-Loh is another regular routine of ours.. They serve nice sago dessert at a reasonable price.. It's opposite Overseas Restuarant at the end of the corner shop where its brightly lit. Highly recommended. :)

The next morning, we met up with Pin and Diana for brunch at the Noodle House at Sungei Wang.. Another not to be missed eatery.. We ate like crazy.. Each one of us has a plate of noodles along with many side dishes and drinks.. Bill? RM$160 for 6! Cheap right?

After lunch, we went shopping! Me and Jennat has been looking forward to shopping since we left Singapore.. Our hunt? Vincci and FOS at KL Plaza!

Jennat bought a basketful of clothes and so does her husband, Gavin... I think total they spend RM$700 at FOS! *gulp* We stopped for a drink after an hour of monsterous shopping.. That was about 3pm.

At about 4pm, we went to RipCurl boutique at Piccolo Galleria, a small mall beside Lot 10. We spent say what? 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the shop! What do we do? Try this boardshort and that.. It's not the trying that's taking our time but the constant discount the Retail Manager gives! Initially, he agreed to give us 10%, then 15% and finally 25% due its Joel's birthday!! So crazy as we can be, we further prolong our shopping time.

By the time we leave Kuala Lumpur, it was 7.30-8pm... And by the time we reached Causeway after dinner and toilet break, it was 12.30am.. And by the time we cleared Singapore's customs it was 1.30am...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... No Zouk.. Just plain sleep...

A small virtually unknown island, REDANG..

Welcome to Redang Island...

Took this sun rise on the day we leave Redang for Singapore..Beautiful!

Redang.. An ideal place full of snorkelling and scuba diving activities for friends and families, but slightly boring and not romantic enough for couples. Our 2 nights stay at Laguna Redang basically is snorkelling, snorkelling and snorkelling! They have better snorkelling than Phi Phi Island but still, Phi Phi Island has better beaches and waters. Not a place for hard core shoppers though, unless souvenirs are part of your shopping list.

Day 1 - 01 May 2005
We began our 10 hours journey to Terranganu at 10pm. 10 freaking hours! OMG!! Anyway, we went on the coach, prepared with cushions, bottle of water, discman and a ting of tiredness.. After 10 hour, we reached Merang Jetty at 7am. First to arrive! And the best part?? We gotta wait till 10am for the ferry due low tide. *gulp* By the time we're about to board the ferry, there were nearly 200 guests waiting to transfer to Laguna Redang! *arghhh*

The ferry journey took 1 hour. Upon arrival, we had the most pleasure surprise since our journey to Redang.

Laguna Redang beach! Fine white sand, crashing waves and...


More More Tea Inn, Laguna made an effort to build a replicate due Redang is famous because of this landmark.

Our sufferings didn't end even though we've arrived.. We were made to wait for our keys due all rooms were still in the midst of cleaning! *haiz* By the time we washed up, we made it just in time for our 1st snorkelling trip, Rotan Bay.

Briefing at the Dive Centre. There were about 100 snorkellers.. 6 boats, each carrying about 20 paxs.


Joel, the first to jumped in to snorkel at Rotan Bay. Can you see the sea floor?

Our day ended with a fabulous BBQ dinner. We ate like mad dogs! *heehee*


That's dinner for 3 mad dogs! And it's so much better than our Lunch! We enjoyed it!

Day 2 - 03 May 2005
This day, we were scheduled for a 9.30am Marine Park snorkelling.

A shipwreck in front of the island. Can you see?

Upon arrival, we were told not to snorkel near the shipwreck due to strong currents. We were made to swim the other side. Here, you will see many different kind of fish and the best? Moral Eel!!! Me and Joel swam hard when the Moral Eel swam towards our direction, even though we had snorkelling experiences in Krabi. It was our very first encounter with a fish that is bigger than your palm! *scary*



This is the Marine Park, fantastic snorkelling. Lots of underwater activities!

Snorkelling at the pier was painful.. Due to strong current, you will encounter alot of unknown people kicking you in your face or body, worst of all, some of them who wore lifejacket will pull or thug you! It's not funny when me and Joel weren't wearing lifejacket at all!

On our way back to Laguna, we saw SEA TURTLES!!! 2 of them were spotted swimming nearby underwater. So we waited... And they surfaced! Cheers can be heard, but suddenly cheers became laughter. Huh? Why? What happened?


We not only see them in their habitat, we also witness them... MATING!!!!!

After a great time in Marine Park, we decided we should see more. We befriend a couple during our trip, Isasiah and Valencia. Therefore, Isasiah mentioned that he remember he swam with the BABY SHARK and SQUIDS before, somewhere near our hotel. Very interesting..

We wasted no time and found out that its just by the other end of our beach! Me, Joel, Isasiah and Valencia went for a swim and for the 1st time, me and Joel saw the BABY SHARKs andSQUIDs!! We were excited about this not so crowded snokelling site (beach in front of Redang Lagoon). It was very rewarding for this time round, i bought 2 underwater cameras to capture our 'rewards'!

Day 2 was a very rewarding day. For the 1st time, we saw Sea Turtles, Moral Eel, Baby Sharks and Squids!

Day 4 - 04 May 2005
Today, we will leave for Singapore. Ferry schedule for departure at 8am.. Breakfast start at 7am. Since we need to be up early, we woke at 5.40am to catch the sun rise and we weren't disappointed.



Sun rise at Laguna's beach..

Once again, the coach journey was a torture. We left Merang jetty at 10am and reached Golden Mile at 9.30pm!! Yup, almost 12 hours but we made several stops so it wasn't that bad.

Overall, Redang is a fine place for snorkelling, scuba diving and maybe fishing. Don't expect Redang to be like Phuket or Krabi. you can only travel from one place to another by water taxi. So it's still quite an isolated island other than the resorts on the beach. 2 nights stay is more than enough due meals and scheduled activties are included. 1 more night stay will be purely to slack on the beach and get tanned like charcoal. If you can, avoid 3rd night, not necessary.

We see ourselves going back Redang in the future but this time round, we'll be on a flight in to Redang instead...