A few minor adjustments

I bought a couple of items from SLS yesterday. Sorta like Birthday and Christmas gifts to myself.
My Coolermaster Elite 330 with side windows & Samsung Lightscribe Capable 18X DVD writer.
Total damage of $143. Ouch.

Lightscribe is a really cool feature that I've coveted for some time. It allows the labelling of Lightscribe enabled DVDs. Here I've created my own Heroes disc.

And of course the mandatory room cleanup for the New Year. My neighbours must hate me for using the vacuum cleaner at night.
Also must show off my toys.

Norway 2006

Proceeded to Norway after our student exchange programme in Sweden. Visited Stavanger and climed up to Prekestolen (pulpit rock). Also went to Bergen and the nice places around the city. BEAUTIFUL.

Student Exchange - Sweden 2006

My student exchange in Karolinska University in Sweden this year, plus the loads of fun that we had.

What dentists do to Cavities

Here's an old clip that we used for Dental Public Health.
Stars Weisong.
Lulin and Stanley cameo.
Rating to be advised.

Redang Trip Compilation Video

The dental guys and me in Redang. Some of the girls cameo too.

Where the Hell is Matt?

I wish I could travel all over the freakin' planet like that

Previously, on Lost....

D-Day

Meeting opposite Singapore Caskets did not necessarily mean we were joyfully celebrating someone's passing.
Quite the contrary.

Brimming with anticipation, grinning ear to ear trying to contain our excitement, and extremely entertained by the ever incessantly incomprehensible Tiong, we boarded our Transnasional Coach.

YH was still studiously mugging, grappling with first the basic, then the advanced user's manual of his brand new Canon A430 digital camera.

The rest of us took turns to amuse one another. Kenneth's white card was a notable highlight. I speculated that if Kenneth did an Apert's Syndrome expression the immigration authorities wouldn't suspect he was trying to be funny.

Remember how us guys keep getting labelled as persona non grata whereever we go (cross-ref. SARS triarch, dental lobby, Clement's pool etc.)? At our first stop, Nijam and ZX waited forever for their Ramly burgers. Problem was, we were only supposed to stop for 5 minutes. The bus attendant was so pissed off at us that he kept yelling Malay (presumably) swear words at us. Then he forced one of us (me) down the bus to find them. It kinda felt like a terrorist hostage situation right then.

D-Day + 1

2 more stops and a whooping 10 hours later, we arrived at Kuala Trengganu. By then we were frozen stiff from air-conditioning comparable to the frozen food section , so we were more than glad to escape from the winter wonderland. As you can see we've piled on the layers. You may also note our thrill at arriving at a rather desolate, bleak place that looks like it was hit by a nuclear weapon not too long ago.


As it turned out, we had to wait a little longer yet. Our temporary haven was a shophouse owned by the resort. Jokingly Nijam nicknamed it the DRC (Drug Rehab Centre). Another apt term with double meanings was "the halfway house". Obviously neither being very pleasant places to be in.

So we explored the sleepy town, myself still in partial slumber. Breakfast was a must, and we were delighted to find a hawker centre of sorts. And they had Wantan Mee!

Well, more like one-tan mee, only one solitary wantan per serving. The noodles were pretty good though.
Wantan Mee: RM2.50
Milo Peng: RM1.20
Look on Kenneth's face cos he had fat instead of char siew: Priceless

Eventually we got to the Jetty. There was some time before our ferry came, so we strolled around. There were stalls selling stuffed Nemos, clownfish toys begging to be bought by clowns like us. We mused that it would be particularly interesting if we started grabbing 5 yr old boys and teaching them reverse smoking and introducing betel nut chewing. Boy would Neville be pissed to have to edit the Squamous Cell Carcinoma part. Admittedly it's a little more sick than funny but it tickled me plenty at that point.

The hour across the choppy sea quickly passed with a few rounds of Bridge. Things were made a little more interesting with Push-ups (the exercise, not garment) as forfeit.


And finally, Touchdown!
If you stretch your imagination it was kinda like the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan where Tom Hanks and the men in green charge up Omaha beach (minus the bloodshed and gore). Jumping into knee-high water lapping at your pants, the droning of machines and the confusion than ensued when some on board refused to believe that we were indeed jumping into water, completed the comparison.

Arriving at our humble resort - Redang Bay. Granted, not the most luxurious, and a wee bit reminiscent of Tekong Holiday Resort, but otherwise meeting most of our requirements sufficiently.

Having lunch at the cookhouse. We weren't expecting Jamie Oliver standards, and food was decent, comparable to the SFI stuff we got in the Army.


An idyllic view from Redang Bay, reflective of the halcyon calm.








Exploring the island a little prior to our first snorkling experience.
Walking along the beach, with the ebbing tide at our feet, we spotted the girls from afar. We didn't think it was polite to take photographs without their consent, but we did go over to say hi. They were having a great time until we arrived, but they did say they had a great swimming pool at the Laguna Resort.

So we decided to take a look for ourselves. And we agreed it is a nice pool. Friendly staff who offer to take photographs for non-guests also. Highly recommend this place as an adjunct to all Redang Bay folks.

Our first snorkling session! We had lots of fun, this being the first time for many of us. All photographs courtesy of Tiong's underwater camera.

We started off thrilled, feeding fish of all colours with bread and crumbs we got for RM1.50.

But then we got a little more ambitious and tried to catch fish with the plastic bag.


Cold, hungry and and just a little tired.

So it's a good thing Tea is provided.

Played a little beach soccer, 3 v 3.... and no not with this ball but a normal one we borrowed from our resort.

We decided on dinner at Laguna (for variety).


Bon appétit












And of course we did more than a couple of ablutions and exploited their posh bathroom.

Midway through dinner the girls spotted us en route to thier buffet. We agreed on a post prandial rendezvous. And of course in the meantime, we made ourselves at home.

The girls visiting our humble abode. No chandeliers, fridge, nor TV, but we're pretty much self-entertained, and I'm glad to have such great travel companions. Tiong alone is hilarious to no end. Add on the rest of us and we have comedy central.

Their initial shock at our living conditions.

We played the card game Taboo, which Nijam brought. Once again Tiong was a one-man comdey act. His faux pas descriptions of "stockings" and "sausage" were beyond belief. YH also managed to demonstrate the mugger side of him with his anatomy terms, and his uncanny ability to relate almost everything to man-woman relationships throwing us into irrepressible laughter.

D-Day + 2
By the next morning, the girls had left. We had another day of the same.

Exploring:




















Snorkling:
The water was much clearer this day, and we saw a lot more, even the floating, blue luminous specs that the girls piously described. And of course we had our fun, Nijam attempting to put bread in YH's pants hoping the fish would nibble his behind. For our finale, we released lotsa bread into the water and the fish mobbed us like women at the Great Singapore Sale.

After our last session, we asked the guide where we could see baby sharks and went as directed. The site did not disappoint. The were 4 or 5 baby sharks prowling the area, and though small, appeared no less menacing. A couple of us tried to pursue them in vain. We joked about bleeding kenneth to attract them back. A pity our camera ran out of film, or it would have been a spectacular shot.


Chilling out:













We also had a semi-competitive beach soccer game with the locals which we lost 2-1. All in all, good fun.

In our Room again.

For dinner we decided to try out this place called summer point. Nijam flirted with the waitress (and she in turn flirted back, to our amusement). We ordered an assortment of food a la zi cha, and though I can't remember the names, it was delicious and well worth every penny.

Our little bit of fun.

At nite, we watched a drunk Caucasion guy make a mockery of the host at the Laguna, and then proceeded back to play Nijam's drinking game - King's Cross. We had a bottle of Whiskey and a lot of fun. Finishing taboo late into the night, the antics of Tiong and YH combined (same team) drove us amok.

Football Clubs. What can go wrong?

Kenneth introducing the cheap whiskey that was forfiet. Joker 10. Sounds super pirated rite...


D-Day + 3
The morning after.
Here you see the familiar tranquil before shock, denial, and angry throwing of stuff ensues.

Munching on our Tuna Sandwiches prior to departure.

Going back to the halfway house.
We had a some time to explore trengganu before our coach came.

Wanted to go for sponsored pap smear test but alas it wasn't today.

Had lunch at a Malay version of Chinatown market. That's where we realised that somehow, we were lost in translation. Nijam ordered Nasi Padang, and we were all taken aback when the stall owner looked quizzically at us. Speaks volumes about Nijam's Bahasa....haha...

Found a relic of the past. Damn retro.

After lunch, we walked past Wisma...

on to Taka... or rather Astaka.

Naturally some ticklish stuff along the way...

We bought some shirts and jerseys at the local Adidas...

Finally, dinner! We watched a delayed telecast of Liverpool vs Everton. Stevie G got sent off in the 19th min!

Back at the bus station before the night bus back. Midway through YH and I needed to empty our bladders badly but the guy wouldn't let us, even though he made a stop to allow some folks to board. YH got so fed up, he threatened to piss all over the driver's face. Not to him of course, not that they would have understood us. It was a case of later rather than sooner, but eventually we settled that problem.

The causeway was jammed that Mon morning, so we decided to take a leisurely stroll back to the Motherland, instead of inching across the bridge.

It was a thorougly enjoyable 4 days, and looking back, it wasn't the scenic beauty of Redang nor the posh luxury of Laguna that made it so unforgettable. It was us bunch of buffoons, and the inane, irreverent things we did, poking fun at anything and everything, whereever and whenever . It was liberty, to be freed from school and school work, and to be able to speak without either coming to mind.

Now THAT, is a holiday.

P.S. Many thanx to and YH (left) and Tiong for contributing photos.