The Oddity That Is Us

All right. 2016 and it's time to recap the last year, however this time we don't have the convenience of checking back our Instagram what we've done every day as we kinda stopped the 'photo a day' thing (maybe we ought to start that back again this year, and do away with the editing the photo to place text in...).

The X-Mini generation 1 speakers for less than SGD30, Gamecube controllers for SGD15, and the Wii Classic Controller Pro for SGD38 at Funan DigitaLife Mall.

Branded (and not the fake kinds too, but unfortunately we couldn't remember what brand) iPhone 3GS casings for SGD10 at Harvey Norman Suntec City Mall.

Calligraphy pens and nibs around SGD18 onwards from Art Friend, Takashimaya.

iPhone 3GS casings of Battlestar Galactica, Jurassic Park and Revenge Of The Mummy going for SGD13.90, two for the price of one, at Universal Studios Singapore.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in a large mug for SGD35 at the Hershey's Store, Universal Studios Singapore.

The X-Mini generation 2 speakers for under SGD50 at Urban Write, Orchard Central.

Various Super Mario Bros soft toys to bring to make the nostalgic gamer in us go crazy, from Boos to 1-Up Mushrooms and the Starman, not to mention Civilization V for PC for about SGD48, at Funz Centre at Orchard Central.

THESE ARE A LIST OF THINGS WE DID NOT GET WHEN SHOPPING IN SPORELAND. Because we were not in the proper frame of mind when shopping ie was trying to prioritize getting Christmas presents for family instead of shopping for own self when all we wanted to do was shop for ourself, and had absolutely no idea what to get for family in the first place, hence, aimless wandering in stores.

In the end we only got a couple of Zig Calligraphy pens for ourself, and at least had a night of excited shopping going through the Christmas decorations at Tangs in preparation for Christmas parties over the weekend when we were in Sporeland.

You know, it being our first time going to the east coast and our first time to Lake Kenyir Resort And Spa, we admit to being a wee bit excited as to what the place held in store for us. Factor in a treasure hunt that would start around 7am in the morning (which meant everyone had to be up by late 5am to early 6am, meet for breakfast and then head down to the venue in Shah Alam) and take around 7 hours, followed by another 250km before we reached the hotel, well...

We knew that there would be the chance that we wouldn't be able to do much once we arrived at the hotel as it would be quite likely we all would take a nap before dinner. We remembered the Rasa-Rasa treasure hunt, where after the hunt around Klang Valley finished by 3pm, we went back and slept till near 7pm before heading down to 3K Inn at USJ for the dinner.

We never expected that we would only reach the resort at Lake Kenyir only at 8pm.

8pm!

The treasure hunt itself was rather adventurous, taking us all over the place out of Klang Valley, and while solving cryptic crosswords helped speed up our ability to solve certain puzzles, we were still lacking a bit in certain areas. Like in spotting rather small logos/signs that were the answers for some of the questions. Some of the times where we spent too long looking for answers were due to trying to spot that small sign which were still visible from the car. However, there were still some questions that stumped the lot of us, that can't be helped except to keep doing more puzzles we suppose.

Once we were done with the treasure hunt, it was onwards to Lake Kenyir Resort And Spa! As esteban was familiar with Kuantan, we all stopped at Hai Peng for a tea break (time management during the treasure hunt meant we never did had time for a lunch break!). The stopover at Kuantan turned out to be both a good and bad thing, good because it meant we got a quick rest, food and coffee before making our way onwards to the resort, but bad because we only reached the hotel at 8pm, just in time for the start of dinner.

You don't really want to be travelling on the roads to Lake Kenyir when it gets dark. There aren't many street lights and as we were reaching Lake Kenyir, we were greeted by a particularly treacherous road filled with lots of potholes.

If the travel time didn't already discourage us from going to Lake Kenyir again, the roads did. We kept worrying about the car suspension when we accidentally hit the potholes in the dark, and it only got easier when we caught up with a lorry, and used it to navigate the road. Another three cars caught up with us, and didn't try overtaking us too. We learned later that they decided it was much easier to tail us to the resort, thinking we knew our way as we had lad's Nokia N97's Garmin leading the way. They continued tailing us even after we made a wrong turn and led the entire party to a jetty instead of the resort at first.

Honestly, we don't think we'll ever make the trip to Lake Kenyir by car or coach from KL. If it's a flight to Kuala Terengganu first, then a transfer pickup from the resort, then maybe.

Reaching the resort at night meant we couldn't see any scenery, but not that it mattered much anyways because we were rather hungry by that point. Parked at the parking lot, got our room keys, and were ferried by buggy (buggied?) to our respective chalets to drop our stuff before we were taken to the dinner venue.

Had our fill and then it was time for the prize-giving. Prizes were given for the top 31 places (the odd number due to tied scores we surmise), and calculating based the score the 31st team scored, we suspected we were somewhere in the top 35 (so we would like to believe).

Anyways, when people ask if we won anything we would nicely say we won a one night stay at Lake Kenyir, complete with dinner and breakfast, and a nice goodie bag. Which we did, after all.

We didn't plan to do much the next day too, for judging from the time we took to reach the resort, we thought it best to check out early for the 7-hour journey back home. So all we did was have breakfast with a view...

Then headed down to the jetty within the resort grounds to take a closer look at the lake. No, we didn't decide to rent a boat to go rowing. We hate how we tend to compare lakes here with those in Glasgow or the Lake District or in Austria, where their lakes were like mirrors.


After 5 minutes at the jetty, we headed back into our air-conditioned chalets for a quick game of Kill Dr Lucky and some rest before we packed up.

Then it was time to check out and leave!

Stopped by Kuantan again, this time at Kemaman Kopitiam (because all other places were closed when we arrived around 3pm). Three of us had the Nasi Lemak Special while esteban had the Nasi Dagang, we all had coffee and such, and then lad went to pay. When the cashier rang up a total of RM72.80, lad thought the cashier was joking. Turns out the cashier wasn't, and then we discovered that the Nasi Lemak Special we had, with the chicken chop sized lemongrass chicken, was about RM12. Our drinks were RM5.50 each. Only esteban's Nasi Dagang was the cheapest, being RM3.50. Good thing the food was good, otherwise we'd all be griping all the way home.

It was somewhere around 7pm when we arrived home, even though we left at 11am!

It was a shame that we didn't extend our stay at the resort, since the difficulty in getting there itself means we aren't going back there any time soon. So we can't say if Lake Kenyir would be a great place for a vacation. But it certainly is a large place to explore, and if you're the adventurous, nature-loving type then there would probably be enough things to keep you occupied what with the many waterfalls to visit. Otherwise, lazing a couple of days in the resort chalet would be a great way to destress (provided you don't mind your chalet running the risk of being invaded by insects that may find their way in).

Another unfair comparison we have to make here. After Nusa Dua, Lake Kenyir can't really compare. And dammit we never did get to explore the spa facilities!

And the weekend is finally here! Team Layton, once again, into the foray of treasure hunting! This time Team Layton will be taking on Top Gear's treasure hunt, which starts from Shah Alam and goes all the way to Lake Kenyir!

Well there was a treasure hunt organized by GSC, but the entry fee was a bomb while this one costed only RM600 and included a one night stay at the Lake Kenyir Resort & Spa with meals included, and each member got a generous goodie bag! Definitely quite worth it, even if we don't do as well as we could. In fact, lad has already mentioned that if we cannot answer half the questions that will come out we'll just head straight to the hotel instead.

Now if only we knew just what to expect of Lake Kenyir! Will we swim? Visit the waterfalls? Laze at the resort playing Jenga and other boardgames? Will the shutterbugs with their fancy DSLRs (and us with our iXus and iPhone) go trigger happy?

Or will we all be knocked out in bed from an exhausting morning (because treasure hunts do start at unimaginable hours of 6am!) and miss out on all Lake Kenyir has to offer? What more we should only be reaching the resort after the treasure hunt late afternoon to early evening, and on Sunday we'll be heading back home!

Here's to us snagging top prizes!

Because we've never been to Bali before, and prior to this trip we were quite busy and so did not have the time to look up what Bali has to offer, our only plans for this trip were to get daily massages, the Hard Rock Cafe Hurricane Glass for the Chief, and then see what else is there to be bought in Bali. We've already two wooden puzzles from Bali courtesy of the Taman Tun-ites when they went to Bali not too long ago, plus we already have the Bali Starbucks City Mug thanks to our sis and otousan.
What else is there to do in Bali? From what we heard, surf (hence there's a beach if we want to tan and swim), and look for babi guling to eat.

Sad to say, Nusa Dua is more of a place for us once we are bored of exploring about Bali, or tired of bargaining when we shop, and just rather stay in whichever hotel we checked in. The only avenue for shopping and dining within Nusa Dua was Bali Collection, while it may be a nice place for shopping for boutique stuff, we don't really think we'd get souvenirs there when you can bargain elsewhere.

Nevertheless, Nusa Dua is pretty with lots of greenery and the hotels were enough to make us think we were there on holiday instead of attending some congress - really, we needn't drool over the Hanging Gardens in Ubud. No dodgy streets or dark alleyways.

As we weren't in Bali for a vacation, our only free time when in Bali was after 6pm - and by 6.30pm, it's dark, similar to 7.30pm back here in Bolehland. Thus we'd only got to spend most of our time at Bali Collection for dinner before heading back to the hotel to soak in the tub (we bought bath salts the very first night!) while watching Dexter on our iPhone.

Quick aside: just when we thought 9 episodes of Dexter was more than enough to keep us occupied for the three nights we were in Bali, we finished everything in two nights. Thank goodness we had the pilot episode of Stargate: Atlantis as well for our final night in Bali. Must work faster in converting telly shows for our iPhone!

So...Bali Collection. Only on the final day before leaving Bali did we get to explore the rest of the place, and only then did we realize our three nights there we only explored about one third of it...shy. Luckily our flight was late in the evening, giving us plenty of time to explore the rest of Bali Collection. We found a Sogo in there, which got us something unexpected!

Somehow or other we never could bring ourself to spend more than a hundred on sports shoes, the last time we bought sports shoes was in...August 2007. And because we don't remember how much those pair of Reeboks costed us then, we did remember that there was a very good discount on them (checking back and it's 60%!) and somehow thought that we paid less than a hundred for them (who knows, maybe we did). Hence we've not gotten any new shoes before this even when the Chief took us shopping in Sporeland where shoes were going cheap too (but still above a hundred after conversion).

And in the end, we didn't even get our daily massages because we balked at paying Nusa Dua rates. Sigh. Nor did we get any babi guling.

Next time, we'll go specifically for a vacation and get our daily massages!

Now this happened when we were in Sporeland. We've noticed at some point that at certain MRT stations, the name of the station would be written in either just English, English and Chinese, or even in Tamil (or Hindi, we're not too sure).

Given the multilingual aspect of Sporeland and Bolehland (although we hear mainly English and Mandarin in Sporeland), this bit of what would otherwise be background noise during our commute caught our interest:

"Dhoby Ghaut."
Fine.
"多美歌."
Oh, so they announce it in Chinese too.
"Please mind the platform gap."
Reminds us of the Tube's deep voice, "Miiind, the gap!"
"下车时请注意缝隙."
Right. So they alternate between Chinese and English!
"The happy-happy warm platform."
What the hey?
"(Some mutterings we could not make out.)"
Was that the Chinese equivalent?

Now initially when we started paying attention to the announcement we somehow fancied that instead of just the one lady saying it in different languages, there were two announcers, one English and one Chinese. And with that in mind, we had this image that the English announcer would speak first, then the Chinese one would translate, then back to the English announcer, etc. And then the English one would suddenly throw a curveball by uttering a totally random sentence to be translated, and the results couldn't be made out.

We mentioned it to the Chief, and while initially critical about our assessment (of course), the Chief couldn't make out what was exactly being said too what with being slightly affected by our 'happy-happy' idea. This bugged the both of us a while until one point, the Chief got it:

"Berhati-hati di ruang platform."

And the last one was in Tamil (or Hindi).

So during the end of last month we made a trip down south to Sporeland with a few things in mind, and among the planned activities were paying a visit to the two new casinos and Universal Studios! Even though we'd planned for a nice long weekend there, the days were packed with walking and commuting and games from morning till late night, that we were quite grateful that we'd arranged our trip to leave on Monday night (by the overnight train, of course) and arrive back on Merdeka Day, giving us a day of rest before starting work again.

Imagine. By Monday our legs and feet were aching even after a leisurely stroll and by noontime we were considering heading back to our sis' place to rest instead of going about shopping. If we stayed till Tuesday, and headed back on the overnight train and arrived home on Wednesday, we would be in no condition to do anything productive.

So anyways Thursday night we made our way down, arrived in Sporeland on Friday morning, headed to settle our luggage and freshen up and our sis' place before heading out to have lunch at Kuishin-Bo. We were starving when we left our sis' place that we would have stopped for lunch at Suntec's Food Republic, where we did stop for a while to take photos of the decor.

If we recall this is not the first time we'd noticed the library-like decor at the Food Republic, but it's the first time we're paying attention to it. The Chief hurried ahead to leave us alone to suaku take photos like some awestruck tourist.

Propaganda attack: Dollar for dollar, you can enjoy a nice Japanese buffet lunch for $20-something, unlike back here where you have to break a fifty, or two.

Kuishin-Bo Suntec had this lunch offer where if you're done eating in under an hour, you pay only SGD21.90++, otherwise it's SGD28.90++ (we think we got the prices right). Certainly had our fill as we were already starving! A lesson learned here is to avoid the little chocolate desserts if we plan to make full use of the buffet spread in under an hour.

A leisurely walk around Suntec City (and our first hands-on on a working, jailbroken iPad) and Raffles after that, and by night we were back at our sis' for boardgames with the bro-in-law and his group of friends.

Till...3am.

Saturday noon was off to Marina Bay Sands! Only, we forgot to bring our passport along, and so wasn't allowed entry into the casino. So we walked about the shops, took photos of the rain oculus, and like many other people, threw coins. Except we weren't throwing it at the eye, but trying to roll the coin in a spiral towards it. Fail.

Then later inside we saw the rain oculus from below. There were boat rides going on, and we wondered if anyone in the boats got hit by coins (honestly we keep picturing rich tai-tais screaming in pain as a coin pierced through one eye). The Epicentre there was full of people so we didn't get another chance at the iPad, and so we made our way to Orchard before heading back to get our passports. The night before's gaming session told on us as every time we commuted or whenever we sat down to eat, we would go into standby mode now and then. The Chief, patient martyr, let us rest and either played Mega Jump on the iPod Touch or looked out for when to get off the MRT/bus.

The Marina Bay Sands Casino was nice, and quite modern in some ways too - like for Baccarat Punto Banco, the croupiers at Genting Resorts World had to key in the results, while in Marina Bay Sands the system somehow catches the results (we're not sure how, the Chief suggests via CCTV) and displays it automatically without the croupier doing anything. After about nearly an hour on the main floor, we explored the upper floor and discovered the non-smoking section. Bah.

As we had to make our way back to get our passports, we ended up at Marina Bay Sands rather late, and so left rather late too (no, we missed out on heading up to see the infinity pool on the rooftop) and had to catch a cab (fairly quick and easy from the hotel) back. Where we found our bro-in-law and friends having another night of boardgaming.

We showered, played Starcraft a while on the bro-in-law's pc, joined them for a round of Agricola when they started a new round, and ended up sleeping at 4am.

Sunday was to Universal Studios! Initially we planned to go Universal Studios on Saturday but they were sold out for then, so Sunday it was. And since we were going to head on to the Resorts World Casino after Universal Studios, we packed along an extra shirt, predicting our time at Universal Studios to be rather sweaty.

The Universal Studios Globe.

And the Store, where we spend a long time inside but ended up with not much.

We'll say that Universal Studios Singapore is actually not that large if compared (rather hazily due to poor memory) Universal Studios LA, but it worked to our favour as we could cover everything in one trip. We arrived at noon (thanks to yours truly who stayed up late gaming) after brunch, and managed to go for all the rides, save the kiddy ones found at the Madagascar and Lost World bit and the Battlestar Galactica rollercoaster as it was under maintenance. If we arrived when the gates opened, we could probably fit in extras like taking photos with characters (we'd only managed to get photos with Beetlejuice and some Egyptian guard as it was) and seeing a few other shows.

What we really liked about Universal Studios was how thematic it was, down to the small details! Umbrella stands were made to look like a barrel to hold weapons in the Far Far Away, in the walls of the Lost World you see amber with mosquitos in them. Of course, if you never watched the shows, you might not appreciate some of the details, but there's lots of other stuff like how toilet signs and decor differ depending whether you were in Madagascar, Far Far Away or in Ancient Egypt, that help make you feel like you're in some fantasy land and more importantly, feeling like a kid again.

We went trigger happy with the camera taking photos when in Far Far Away!

And the stuff we came across the Lost World were a tickle, from their clothes shop...

To the refreshment counter!

When we arrived at Ancient Egypt, we were quite taken in with the effort in making monuments and impressively large statues. And then we came across guards on stilts that reminded us of fauns and satyrs.

We'd no idea who he was suppose to portray, since he was off duty and was heading elsewhere ignoring a gaggle of girls who chased after him.

We didn't find anything we'd buy from the souvenir shop, and we wonder who will actually buy this throne for SGD2,800.

We went crazy at Sci-Fi City's souvenir shop buying a few Battlestar Galactica themed souvenirs. Didn't get anything that read What The Frak, though. There's more souvenirs we're keeping track off that we didn't get this time, well, because we thought the Universal Studios Store near the entrance would have all the stuff we might come across in the other stores at their respective areas (obviously not). Good thing we decided to get the BSG souvenirs when we did, otherwise we'd have to run all the way back to Sci-Fi City to get them!

After Universal Studios, our legs needed a rest and we headed for dinner, and then we were off to the casino! A quick stop at Bread Story just outside the casino showed that thematic settings didn't just stop at Universal Studios...

Resorts World Casino doesn't have that posh feel that Marina Bay Sands has, as seen by the less formal way the gamblers dress, but at least upon entry we were in the non-smoking section. And we came across the Star Wars: Light Side slots machine there! Genting has the Star Wars: Dark Side slots, and we weren't sure if there was a Light Side version till then! And we won SGD50 playing it!

That night, once home, we played Street Fighter 4 with the bro-in-law until somewhere 2am, we think. After that, we helped him get his iPad up and running, which he bought that day and left to charge till night. There was the installing of iTunes and setting up and account which took a fair bit of time, and after that we left him to play with his new toy while we went to bed.

Come Monday, it was supposed to be a rather free-and-easy day and the Chief took us around town. First up, to Sporeland's Ikea for a look-see. We haven't been there for some four years now since our sis took us there once, and remembered it differently (perhaps because our sis brought us there at night), but we found it smaller compared to the Ikea here.

After that, we crossed the street for the Katong Laksa, ate using only a spoon. Even though our legs were hurting by the afternoon we still managed to cover Queensway Mall and Chinatown before heading back to pack up our luggages!

Sis and bro-in-law then brought us to Oasis for Taiwanese porridge dinner. The place is situated at a rather nice park, and would make for rather scenic walks if not for the humid weather.

After dinner it was time to rush to the train station! It was a close call as we arrived on time with only a few minutes to spare, and we were held up by our own customs people until another officer hollered to them to let us go and stop holding up the train.

Can't remember. Think we slept throughout Tuesday. Heh. We'll be heading back to Universal Studios probably in a couple of years, when the Battlestar Galactica and Transformers rides are up and running!

It's probably the case of the holiday blues, as with most trips back from Sporeland, but this trip we're feeling something more than just the blues from a holiday ending. Not to mention, the Chief was with us pointing out advantages about Sporeland just like how our sister tried to get us to migrate over before, but the Chief has an easier job due to knowing our likes and all that.

While we won't day that the Chief's spiel succeeded, it certainly is making us wonder and thinking unpatriotic thoughts today. Especially when on the issue of currency, and dollar-to-dollar comparisons, and how with us being an Apple fanboi we'll be able to satiate our Apple product needs much easier (an argument our sis never did use as we haven't started looking so much into iMacs then, and was already satisfied with our iPod Video, and there were no such things as the iPhone or iPad.

Speaking of the iPad, our brother-in-law got his during our stay there last weekend. How did it feel? It definitely reminds us about the first time we surfed online using webchitect's iPhone or the first time using our iPod Touch: surfing the web was wow. Typing's a breeze so long as we put it on a surface in landscape mode, and everything's fleshed out even more that it doesn't look like we're looking on a magnified version of the iPhone. Too bad surfing the App Store only leads to iPad-only versions. But we'll still wait and see what's new coming for the next generation iPad.

Anyways we're in the case of grass being greener (and honestly cannot find any reason why not prepare for changes asides from our friends being here), and we're wondering if it's all for not really correct reasons too.

Right.

So here we are in Suntec City blogging from an iPad. A display set in Epicenter jailbroken and running Cydia with the fonts replaced with horrible Times New Roman, but goodness it's a pleasure to type on this heavy baby when it's resting on a surface in landscape mode.

Also, the screen on the iPhone 4! Gorgeous. We had a side-by-side comparison with our 3GS and it was like comparing a plasma telly to a LED telly.

The things we do to walk off a heavy Japanese buffet lunch at Kuishin-Bo!

Now before we left for our trip, everyone seemed to be sick or getting sick. People in the office were hacking away. Updates on Facebook detailed how friends were getting sick. In fact, a day or two just before the trip we started feeling a little trickly at the back of our throat - not a good sign.

However, once in Phuket and with lots of sleep, we'd not felt sick in the slightest!

Not until our last day in Phuket. We woke up then with a bad case of backdrip that kept us coughing nonstop.

We figure that we never got better before the trip, and that it was the R&R throughout the trip that kept it at bay. After all, we slept at the beach twice in our trip...

...had facials at the different competitive stores. We're talking some pampering facials (of course, not with Leonard Drake cosmetics and the likes, but still we were in good hands literally and dozed off now and then...) at a price of around 300 baht! 'Course, here in Bolehland we've never been for a facial before, we consider it a luxury where we'd rather spend our money on something else.

Asides from two facials, we also had two massages at the C&N Hotel within the five days. During our Bangkok trip we had a traditional Thai massage and an oil massage, both cases we told the masseurs we wanted a strong massage, resulting in us sometimes being unable to breathe due to extreme pressure and pain. This time, we opted for relaxing massages instead.

Maybe make that three massages. First was the oil massage. Then on our fourth day, just as we arrived at the beach we were approached by this rather aggressive Thai woman who'd offered to do an aloe vera massage for the two of us, saying that it protect from sunburn, very cold, good for us. We weren't keen on it, especially since we've got our own sunblock and aloe vera lotion, but the woman offered to slather on a bit of aloe vera on the Chief as a sampler.

After a bit of haggling, we had the woman slather aloe vera on the both of us. She takes a piece out from her bucket, where it's all soaked in iced water, scrapes the aloe with a comb, and proceeds to butter us with it.

It's cooling because it's been in iced water. Best described is that it's slimy. Whether or not it did help with sunburn, we cannot say, although true enough we didn't get sunburnt at all this trip. We did regret getting that aloe vera massage just as we arrived on the beach, though - it's all washed off after we went to swim a bit in the sea.

Oh and we did help with her business, as soon after we saw her applying aloe vera for a couple of girls nearby.

And that night, after the 'authentic' aloe vera massage, we went for another aloe vera massage. This time it was aloe vera lotion (we suppose) replacing massage oil, and it was roughly the same as an oil massage.

After all that, on our final day, we started getting sick again. Sigh. And once we touched down on Bolehland soil, it was two weeks of nonstop sniffling, guzzling lozenges of all sorts, and progressing from irritating backdrip with unproductive coughs to chesty phlegm and sore throats.

But at least we're grateful for the fact that we weren't sick for our holidays!

And we were reminded of All Saint's 'Pure Shores'. One of our favourite songs, even though we've never watched 'The Beach'.

Our first trip to Phuket could be considered as an introduction to the things to do on Patong, and this time around we decided to add on something else so that we didn't just do the same old, same old. And since we were staying in Phuket for a longer period this time, we slotted a day in for island hopping around the Phi Phi Islands.

Details of the island hopping package wasn't clear, and at a cost of 1000 baht we weren't too sure if we were getting much out of it when we started checking out websites on touring Phi Phi Islands. Still, pricewise we actually thought 1000 baht to be fair, and when we arrived at the hotel we asked for more details (since we got the hotel to book the package for us).

In the end, we vaguely knew that we were going to go around the island, we'd to bring a towel, sunglasses, swimwear, probably a spare change of clothes, sunblock. And that, we did. Along with our iPhone as our camera (sadly we did not pack our iXus battery charger for this trip) and some cash as well.

This, you got to take note: the tour has been paid for, which includes the transfers to and from Rassada Harbour, the boat ride, our lunch, which technically means if we're not interested in buying souvenirs we don't need to bring any money. Somehow we thought it better to bring a bit of cash along, just in case. The Chief brought some too in case there were souvenirs worth buying on Phi Phi Island. In the end, we only paid for an entry fee of 20 baht to Phi Phi Island (we weren't told of this at all), which is used for upkeep.

Imagine if we didn't bring any cash along with us. What to do then?

So anyways our day started rather early, where we'd to be up around 6am, have our buffet breakfast, then wait for our transport which was scheduled to leave at 7am. Our transport arrives, we've gotten towels from the concierge, hop onto the van along with a Singaporean Malay family and two Malaysian Chinese couples, and...

...had to wait for some more passangers who were late. 20 minutes late. By the time four Indian guys climbed up the van, they were soundly scolded by the Malay mother: "Look at the time! We were suppose to leave at 7! What happens if we're late? If the boat leaves without us and my children cannot go, what are you going to do?" The Indians muttered their apologies only to be told, "Sorry no cure!" Garangnya mak ni... The Chinese guys also voiced loudly in Cantonese that even the latecomers knew the gist of displeasure everyone had against them (in our case we sent out a strong silent wave of displeasure).

Not halfway through the ride to the harbour, one of the latecomers opened a window, letting in a drought that brought in dust and smoke. These latecomers were getting less and less popular. One of the Chinese guys asked them to close the window, and that's where we all learned that one of the latecomers was feeling nauseous, not that we could see it.

Being very late in the first place, plus the fact that it wasn't apparent why they wound down the window in the first place, it was hard to be sympathetic to the nauseous fellow. If he'd actually thrown up we think everyone would have kicked out the four and head on our way.

Interestingly, the four Indians came dressed quite proper in shirts and jeans. Without any bags, without any towels, without any change of clothes. And throughout the entire trip they never changed out of those clothes either.

Luckily we arrived on time to board the cruise boat (our package was with the Sea Angel Tours), were given our tour stickers, and we were on our way! On our way there we somehow found ourself on the top deck as the inner decks (with proper seats and air-conditioning) were full with a large tour group. The top deck was still empty so we managed to set up chairs at the front of the deck, prime spots for the trip.

Here then poses another choice: start suntanning on our way to Phi Phi Island, or not? The angmohs were already in their swimwear and/or shorts and slapping on the sunblock. In the end we decided to suntan too, since we were on the top deck and it was bright and sunny and we weren't too keen on sweating our tanktop into a wet rag. And a good idea it was to begin tanning, too! It was bright and windy so we didn't feel hot and sweaty after all, and it took about an hour before we reached the Island.

Our first stop, Tonsai Pier, where another tour group got off. Here we went down to the inside decks to enjoy the air-conditioning (when the boat isn't moving, the upper deck heats up fast!) and soon we were on our way sightseeing around the Phi Phi Lay islands. Admittedly once sitting inside we couldn't pay much attention to what the guide was saying over the loudspeakers.

After the sightseeing bits we were stopped at Monkey Beach, given lifejackets and snorkels and allowed to go swim! We were worried that the lifejackets might have some smell, but thankfully not. The snorkels, however, we decided best not to think so much about who has used them before. Then it was time to dive!

Last time we did this was end of 2001, if we're not wrong, during our Redang trip with university coursemates. We snorkled then and even did a bout of scuba diving, where we donned on the snorkel, had a gas tank, and was dragged by a professional diver while we took snapshots of the sea bed and fishes with a disposable underwater camera that gave us...proof that we did go scuba diving, at least.

Anyways it was good to get to snorkel again, and we even swam all the way from the deepwater where the boat was anchored to the beach area, where there were loads of monkeys on the trees.

We just wonder how safe our belongings are when we go snorkelling, since not everyone will want to swim. But since everything was still in place when we got back, so we dropped the issue.

Arrival at the Phi Phi Pier...

...and we're informed that we need to pay a fee. Somebody did complain that this should have been informed early on the brochure, or that it should already have been inclusive with the package.

Directions were given by signboard...

...and where to go for lunch!

The PP Princess.

They've got these nice big pavilions set up but we're surprised at the lack of fans. Surely, some form of ventilation could have been fixed up?

After lunch, it was time to roam the island! The Thais show their sense of humour not only via their advertisements, but also their signages...

So reminded of Portal in a way looking at this photo.

Unlike Patong beach where the waves are consistent (but very relaxing as white noise), here the waters were calm. And if you want a deckchair it'll cost you 100 baht. We decided to walk about the shops instead.

Soon it was time to board the boat once more, and we didn't find anything to buy so we decided to head back to snag some good seats. Climbing up the boat we were initially shocked to see this.

Not wearing our glasses and whatwith the sedate nature of this trip, instead of immediately identifying them for what they were we thought they were memorial photographs of victims.

Another incident on our trip back to Rassada Harbour. Seats were getting full as the boat picked up more passangers for the return trip, and soon enough there was this Indian chap who came up to us, tapped our shoulder and asked if anyone was sitting on the seat next to us (where we had our towel draping to dry after wiping down from snorkelling).

Now to be fair, we do think that this Indian chap was self-consciously polite. When he flagged over a staff with a rubbish bag to take his trash, the chap wanted to take away our disposable cup that we've left in the netting on the back of the chair in front of us. When he wanted to go somewhere for a while and come back, he'll tap our shoulder and tell us in broken English his intentions.

Only...we left that cup there on purpose should we have any rubbish to throw, so we weren't happy and stopped him. And when he sat beside us, he had totally no concept of personal space, and so both of us had our elbows and arms pressed against each other as we fought for armrest space and his knee tried to make friends with our hip (oh chappy was slightly chubby). Plus he tapped our shoulder rather hard, which we considered as not polite. Not to mention, we already had a bad encounter with the latecomers this morning.

And he's really pressing onto us as if we were Siamese twins. We tried sleeping. Not too much luck.

Nearing Rassada Harbour we couldn't take it anymore and abruptly sat up straight, knocking his left arm out of our personal territory (also way way past the armrest and separating line that divides our seat from his).

Back at Rassada Harbour we were greeted by more souvenir photographs! But we've decided that, if we were to have people take photos of us, we'd like the background to show more of where we've been (ie Phi Phi Island) rather than of the harbour.

Plus the Chief had already bought us the souvenir aka memorial photographs earlier on, heh.