Scubadiving in Pulau Redang, Malaysia
Ah, the day has finally come when I get to dive in Pulau Redang. Many of you have probably known that it is at this place that I got the itch to scuba-dive. Well, to sum it up in one sentence, "it's worth all the effort!" The conclusion after 4 dives in 2 days was that the marine life here is big - much bigger and more numerous than the ones in Australia, or even in Pulau Dayang. I also got to take some pictures with my new new (and first) u/w camera, the Sealife Reefmaster RC.
The trip to Redang
Shuhui and I went up to Kluang by train (cost us S$16 each) from the Tanjong Pagar station early in the morning. Really nice for her Dad to drive us there especially with our bag of clothes and dive gear, save us a bundle on cab fare. Reached my hometown in about an hour and a half later...unpacked and rested for the next day's drive up to Kuala Trengganu (my Dad has already made all the necessary arrangements).
Monday morning, we started our journey after breakfast in the roti prata store at Jalan Stesen in Kluang town. We took the Air Hitam - Segamat - Kuantan - Chukai (Kemaman) - Kuala Trengganu route which is a lot less windy (easier on the stomach, I guess). Around lunch-time, we arrived in Chukai (Kemaman) downtown to search for this place that serves stuffed crab. Turns out that there are 3 shops in a row that sells this...we chose the ones with the most people, i.e. Tong Yuan. The dish is exactly what it says, crab shells stuffed with crab meat. It's pretty bland taken on its own, but when taken with the chili provided, yummy. Arrived Kuala Trengganu about 5:30pm to look for the Redang Pelangi Resort office (a double-storey residential house located opposite the bus station). We paid the rest of the cash (total RM320/person for 3d/2n exclusive of scubadiving)and booked a night at the Midtown Hotel (about RM30 per person inclusive of breakfast). Tomorrow's the big day!
Redang Island
The journey to the island took us 30 minutes by speedboat, chickenfeed compared to the boatride to Dayang. Actually slept on the boat for a little bit, but woke up once the area suddenly began to look so familiar. Yep, we have arrived, and as it was previously there was no jetty so we had to carry our bags all the way from the boat to the resort ourselves - what do you expect for RM320? Once we get settled into our rooms, we contacted David Chang, the divemaster and scheduled our 1st dive at 11am.
Sting rayDive 1: Black Coral Garden - my first impression, lots and lots of jellyfish. Some no larger that 1 foot in diameter but has tentacles over 6 feet. Scary! The next thing we saw - a huge clown triggerfish. It's probably the biggest one I've seen to date, perhaps the maximum it can grow. Not only that, but other huge angelfish as well - most notably a pair of emperor angelfish (mating season perhaps?). Saw my first gorgonian fan, and a harp coral (with a feather star on it), Moorish idol, and a bird wrasse - absolutely beautiful.
Depth: 28m, Bottom time: 32 mins
Shovel-nosed ray, or guitar sharkDive 2: Mat Chantek - the second word is translated "beautiful" which aptly describes this dive, the best one of the 4. Saw a huge sleeping stingray, and a shovel-nosed ray. Now the shovel-nosed ray is also known as the guitar-shark which descibes its shape but it's a ray 'cos it covers itself up when it's at the sand unlike most sharks. Not only that, we also saw a barracuda wall for the first time, perhaps a hundred of them just swimming slowly. Also, quitea few bannerfishes as well. Also saw lots of sea-anemone with their resident clownfishes...I think I've seen all the many different types already, the 2-banded anemonefish, the bicolor clownfish, the whitemaned clownfish, et cetera.
Depth: 22m, Bottom time: 38 minsThat night, one of the most incredible things happened, Shuhi actually asked me to marry her - talk about equality of the sexes! She showed me the ring she bought from Tiffany and proposed. Needless to say, the answer was "yes".
Moorish idolDive 3: Tanjung Ran - visibility again is not very good, but as we descend we saw a pretty interesting fish with a hook at the end of its mouth. Other fish that we saw, a giant Napolean wrasse, a pair of blue-ring angelfish, a pair of toadfish. Saw another fan coral, and even found a nudibranch (phyllidia).
Depth: 28m, Bottom time: 29 mins
Nudibranch (phyllidia)Dive 4: Kerengga - last dive for Redang. Funny, the last dives are almost never spectacular but I guess this one is not too bad. We saw a turtle feeding on coral, and a huge clown tiggerfish. A school of golden trevally, a few fox-faced rabbit fish, lots of sea anemone filled with their resident clownfish, and lots of scarlet breasted Maori wrasse swimming about.
Depth: 20m, Bottom time: 40 mins
Kuala Lumpur
When the time came to leave the place, Shuhui and I were almost tempted to request to stay an additional day in Redang for 2 more dives. But we had a solid 4 dives which is not too bad considering we dive almost every year. Next time perhaps. Our subsequent stop is KL, the capital of Malaysia to take a look at the condo I bought 2 years ago. It's supposed to be ready for inspection, so it'll be good to bring Shuhui for a look.
Since the condo is near Sunway Lagoon, we decided to have lunch there after viewing the place. Besides Sunway, we also went window-shopping at the KLCC, at the foot of the Petronas Towers (the tallest building in the world, 1999). We stayed in KL for 2 nights, and then headed for home via Malacca where we stopped by to look at the Stadthuys and the "A famosa" fort, plus the having lunch eating "chicken rice balls".
God knows why, but time really flies when we're having fun. In the twinkling of an eye, we suddenly realized we're back in Singapore, and it's Sunday night. Yucks, we have to work tomorrow. Until next time....
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