Thoughts for the new year

Waiting around for the bridal shoot, I was thinking about the coming year ahead. 2009 promises a great number of firsts for me, and I'm sure my work will take a backseat, with my personal life's businesses coming to the fore. Now shouldn't that be true for most of us who wants a healthy life?

It's really rather sad that I need such tumultous changes to my life to push work concerns away for me to reach this conclusion, but I guess I've been blinded to the bigger picture of things busying myself with the trivialities at work.

For me at least, work should be fulfilling, and life meaningful. But I guess I'm still too green at the job to feel that it's a fulfilling one; a new teacher's lot is to always keep trying, and to continually cope with unexpected loads, rejection, and failures. So if I don't even make time to make sure my life is meaningful, then that'll be really sad.

So, some resolutions perhaps?

• Put personal basic needs first! Sleep more, work only on the essential things. Prioritise things on hand. All things should be given its appropriate time and attention, nothing more or less.
• Build my dream home. It'll be strange, peculiar, idiosyncratic, but wholly my own. I want it to be cosy for myself and others.
• Go through the whole wedding process smoothly. That'll be a real achievement I think.
• Go for a great honeymoon to somewhere far and beautiful. We're probably gonna visit Europe on a package tour, and not think at all about the itinerary. Maybe.

And in many other different ways, find the things that will fulfill my need for the aesthetics, movement, and exuberant joy.

Day at the Bridal Studio

We had our wedding photoshoot yesterday, and it was really quite a funny experience in retrospect.

It was all about making up, changing costumes, and striking poses really. Karen took about 2 hours for her makeup to be done once we got there, while I went to the nearby hawker center for an excellent bowl of loh mee. In contrast, the beautician only spent 10mins with me styling my hair with wax and brushing my face with powder.

We had 3 costume changes at the studio, with a round of photos each. I had thought that it will be hard to fake the smile during the shoot, but it turns our to be surprisingly easy because of the genuine bemusement I felt when given the directions by the photographer. He peppered his directions with funny comments too, like asking me not to sit like a boor and to drop that jian smile with the upward glance of the eyes at the camera. Sometimes the look will turn out to be a stare and he'll go "Wah, so fierce ah!", or he'll go "Eh, the smile very fake leh!" when we tried to squeeze it out.

It's rather strange that we are so reluctant to dole out the smiles, since it's not often that one gets to be the stars in front of the camera, but maybe the pose-ness of the process makes it hard to be natural. It was a day spent practicing the furtive glance (usually at some spot on the floor) and the far-away dreamy look. There was once when he asked Karen to look up and for me to look down, and I had this sudden fantasy that she's looking at the pigeon in the sky and I'm staring at its shit on the floor. Bizarre huh.

At close to 5pm, we went out to Botanic Gardens to shoot, and we went by at least 5 other couples doing their shoots there too. But it's really a nice place, and I had no complaints about that. Next, we drove down to Tanjong beach in Sentosa and took shots with the sunset at the background. Wonder how it will all turn out - you'll know in May next year.

Langkawi Paddling Day 7 - Last paddling day

Next morning, we couldn't care less about tourists looking at us cook and eat porridge as they take brisk morning walks along the beach. It was the last day of paddling and the mood was relaxed and easy. We are to go over to Pebble beach, just 1.2km away from Datai, disassemble our boats there and catch cab from the road that runs by the beach. It will be too much trouble to try lug gear across the vast Andaman/Datai resort to take a cab at their lobby, even if they allowed us to.

In the morning light, we could see a flat stretch of sand and rocks linking Datai island to the bay, elevated almost half a metre above the water. We had to go around Datai island on the other side. The sandy beach on the right is the island where we camped the previous night.

After beaching up at Pebble beach, we took an hour in all to get all our gear disassembled, packed and waiting by the side of the road for some taxi to turn up. We didn't see any after almost half an hour, then a Proton Wira just stopped by us and offered to send us to town for a fee.

It was back to civillisation once again. We checked in Holiday Villa again, unpacked, went out to look for a spa to make an appointment the next day, and had good chinese restaurant food before lazying in the room.

It was a nice trip overall, with a few hiccups but hey, that's adventure isn't it? I'm sure Karen agrees.

Langkawi Paddling Day 6 - Eventful evening

As usual, we have a slow breakfast and check out around noon. Packing really gets easier by the day, and we launch off very easily, with the kayaks packed just above the beach. I think it must have attracted much stares throughout the night.

We are aiming to reach Datai in around 4 hours at a leisurely pace, but it turns out to be a little tough with the strong winds again. The heat spell is still on us too, and at some parts paddling can get real slow. We are going past one of the 'geopark' on the island, and it's all layers and layers of rocks on the cliffs.

Here's an interesting area where the rock gets folded like a large slab of plasticine after pressure from the side produces arches and whorls in the structure.

A pee break at this nice sheltered stream outlet to the sea. It's filled with smooth round pebbles and rocks all over, and I find it endlessly fascinating marvelling at their smooth shapes and natural colours.

I can't tell you why, but I really would love to cart a whole bag of these back home to display at my new place. I have a strong attraction to rocks apparently.

The wind was pretty bad when we turned round the corner of the island - Karen was going at 2km/h again, and if you were to stare at the cliff when you paddle you wouldn't be seeing yourself moving away from a fixed spot for 5 minutes. But I had loads of energy and towed her in, taking the chance to do sprinting strokes. Towing her, we were going at 5km/h and I didn't stop till we reached the beach a kilometer away. It was hard but quite exhilarating really, to fight the wind and waves.

We rested at a beach just after the turn and before Pantai Datai. Cute hermit crabs were everywhere around here too - how many can you spot here? Apparently, some of them are terrestrial, and maybe that's why they are always a handful scuttling across the beaches here.

The Nautiraid is point at Datai island here, which is a very short distance away from the end of Datai bay. The beach and the scenery here is nothing impressive, but apparently Datai resort is the most expensive one on the island because of its golf course.

I wanted to camp on Datai island and not feel like an alien staying between the 2 resorts on Datai beach with tourists walking around. The water was very shallow and rocks were all around in the water as we landed. It was here that we got our first sandfly bites for the trip, and we doused our feet with medicated oil (a very good idea, but we should have done it earlier).

In the evening, fishermen were out wading out from mainland and coming over to the island to fish. We had early dinner again and were in our tents before 9pm.

Due to the early nights, I have the tendency to wake up in the middle of the night. I woke up at half past two in the morning, hearing the loud lapping noises of the waves on the shore. It seems that the water level has climbed quite fast, and might possibly flooded the entire beach area! It was close to spring tide with the moon just waning from its fullness, and the big pile of shell debris behind our tent indicated the possible height of the water level at its peak.

In haste, we hurriedly pack up for our first night paddle. With all extraneous things already in the dry bags after dinner, we managed to break camp and get on the water in only 20 minutes! Headlights on us, we paddled easy for only ten minutes before reaching the Datai beach. There was a light somewhere in the middle of the stretch and we decided to land there, as it has a relatively flat area beside it for camping.

It turns out to be a walkway to the beach from Datai resort restaurant. 3 men came out eventually to the beach making their rounds while we were getting comfortable making milo for ourselves, but they wasn't very interested in us at all, which was nice because I had wondered if the resort would drive campers off their areas.

With another 3 hours to go before sunrise, I decided that it was still worthwhile to pitch the tent and get good sleep, and so we did.

Langkawi Paddling Day 5 - Best beach in Langkawi

I wake up very early everyday from the early night, and it is very refreshing to wake up before sunrise and enjoy the cool air. That gave us lots of time to have a great breakfast and pack up to go just before it gets too hot.

We paddle past the shallow waters off Pulau Rebak and head straight for the southwestern end of the island. In front of Pantai (which means 'beach') Kok, there's this long barrier surrounding the entire bay from far out. We thought we saw this bridge-like structure in the middle of it, but ther was no car or people on it. On the last day of our trip, we found out from a local that it is actually a tsunami barrier! Apparently Langkawi didn't lose any life during the last great tsunami from the Andaman sea, but the waters did wash up high over the land.

Right at the corner of the island is Pantai Burau, with 2 resorts there. From afar, we saw the Berjaya resort huts lined up looking at the sea, with the numerous peaks behind framing it, really nice.

The sun was strong on us, but the strong wind made the paddling feels all right. We had to constantly adjust our steering to go straight with the beam wind on us, and I towed the Nautiraid so that it can point at the right place. It was a really efficient way of guiding someone - very often the boat gets tugged back when it veers off because the line drags the water and that pulls the bow in.

I don't recall seeing anything comparable to this over at Tioman...

...but do make sure you get an upgrade to the deluxe sea-facing chalet - the view from the balcony of the chalet behind the tree probably ain't that great.

Karen wants to stay the night at a resort today, so we intended to paddle to Datai bay instead, on the northern shore. But after taking a break here, we decided to make a call to her sister and get her to check out the rates at these places. It turns out that Datai has the most expensive resorts on the island, and so it looks like we'll have to enjoy Burau bay instead.

Landing in front of Mutiara Burau resort, the other resort on the bay. Karen checked out the rates at the counter, but eventually got her sis to help us do internet reservations to get the only room for the night at almost half the price!

There's a nice rock garden on the left side of the bay, and it made for a scenic view.

On the right, Berjaya resort again. Berjaya has a nicer, more gentle beach, while Mutiara had a steep slope and a short stretch before the water. But then, we're price sensitive tourists. The view from here looks much better too, being at the middle of the bay.

Beyond the rock gardens on the right is Harbour Park, a place with lots of yatchs packed there.

We walked from the resort after checking in and a little cleanup, and walked over to a KFC nearby for food. We passed by this place along the coast with hawkers on vans and al fresco dining, a great idea! Seems like the locals enjoy the seaview too.

At sunset, the water receded and everyone had fun walking far out to the water's edge. It was a great stay at Mutiara Burau, they've got good courteous service, and it feels more like a resort rather than a hotel, and the beach can't possibly get better than this here.

Langkawi Paddling Day 4 - Holiday-style paddling

We set off quietly the next day from the village. Advice - don't be lazy and wake up late on an expedition, because when the sun comes out and shines with its might on you, you'll hardly want to eat/pack/move.

After last night's adventure in looking for a beach, I decided to head back to go anti-clockwise around the western stretch of the island instead of heading for the huge Kilim Karst Geopark in the east. Rock cliffs are bound to dominate for most stretches of the coastline there, and there's a swamp up at the northeastern corner too. The wind also plays a part in the decision. Now that we're turning around, Karen gets to move downwind fast with the sail.

We landed on this patch of rock and sand for a rest after some diligent paddling. Karen got first hand experience of the paddling heat spell which even I'm not immune to, and both of us were eager to relax out of the boat for a while.

The break made her feel a little more like she's actually on a holiday. Rest is good.

It's strange that she's fine with the Nautiraid's seat which kills my back quite quickly. She's showing off her gloves where she wears it the wrong side so that the rubber-impregnated surface is on the top instead to save her from a tan line at the wrist.

My one and only experience with JB's greenland paddle, for 2 hours of paddling before we ended the day. I can achieve a very smooth and quiet entry into the water with it, and can hold a very good speed, but ultimately I miss having the power and versatility to do different strokes. I'm not sure i'm holding it right too, and it bites into my thumb and index finger joints when I hold the 'blade' itself.

Another 2 small piece of rock opposite our rest point, with a cute row of neat mangrove trees in between them.
Round the rock, there's a light beacon to warn ships of its presence.

We were aiming to land at Pulau Rebak Kechil, just slightly ahead of our Holiday Villa's beach stretch. For the first time, it got cloudy on the trip, and eventually it did shower after we land, albeit a very light shower, for all of three minutes.

The place draws a regular stream of paddlers who rented kayaks from Pantai Cenang and paddled over, and there's even a group of people doing teambuilding program when we arrived. The beach was nice enough, but in addition there's some mysterious slabs of concrete there that we can't figure out what it's for, but it makes a wonderful site for cooking and sleeping on. Beach camping without the sand! We realised there's a small drawback though - the tent floor was very warm when we entered it at night, but thank goodness our mats insulated us from it.

There are hermit crabs scuttling everywhere! I managed to get several closeups of this particular one. They really are very adorable creatures. When night comes, they became fearless and ran across our campsite in droves.

We hold conversation for quite a while after dinner, sitting there in the dark with our lights off, admiring both the lighted beach and the dark sky. This is one very enjoyable paddling day, and I can't think of any single day on my other trips to match this.

Langkawi Paddling Day 3 - A beach too far

I never had such a easy time launching off on expedition day. We had a leisurely brunch, packed slowly in the air-conditioned comfort of the room, and then moved everything out to the beach at the checkout time of noon. We were quite a sight there on the beach, with everyone else lazing under the sun on deck chairs while the two of us moved around building our boats. I think many of the tourists there are envious of our freedom.

A Cambodian-Chinese man was fascinated with our trip and offered to take pictures for us before we set off. It's pretty hard to get couple photos when there's only 2 of you on the trip.

I think we spent another 20 minutes floating on the water after going out, adjusting our gear and so on. Karen's pinning a scarf onto her hat so that she can get all-round face protection against the strong sun.

The pink bandit. It didn't last long however - she reported being nauseous trying to breathe through the scarf, and gave up the idea early in the trip.

So what happened was that we started the paddling just before 3pm. The wind was demonically strong and the spring tide against us, making us go at a little more than 1km/h around a jetty. We passed a becah at 5pm, at which point I persuaded her to go further seeing that there's 2 more hours of light. Bad decision. The strong winds blew unabated and it turns out that that was the last patch of sand for that stretch! After an hour, we could only see jetties and ports stretching all the way up, and the town of Kuah still 8km away.

We wasn't mentally prepared to do night paddling, and pounced upon this fishing boat with 3 men, wanting to get them to help tow us to the nearest beach. They couldn't understand our English and we couldn't say more than a handful of Malay words, and initially they thought we were asking for directions. They intended to stay at the spot to fish overnight, and were reluctant to leave and return, but they gave in eventually after some pleading from us. Thank goodness we were pretty good with Charades.

We clambered on board and their motor boat towed the kayaks alongside. It was totally dark by then, and we travelled for 30 minutes before we entered a small river outlet at a village area. We basically camped on the ground beside the small boat pier, attracting much curious attention from the locals with our camping activity.

It was saturday night, and the KTV session nearby screeched till 3am. There was also a constant stream of people walking by our tent, apparently to fish at the pier. The sleep wasn't good, needless to say.

Langkawi Paddling Day 1 & 2 - Touring

We were kind of tired out somehow on the hour long flight, and walked out of our hotel to a nearby Zi Char place forcheap but not-so-tasty Chinese food. We knew we wanted a car to go around as we don't see much taxis plying the roads and it'll be too costly to go point-to-point anyway. Planning for the day was simply a matter of selecting the places of interests and recording them in the GPS set.

The next day, we rented an RM80 Proton to zip around. It is a manual car (which means I can't drive it) and does not come with power steering - Karen has a helluva time wrestling with the wheels when doing reverse parking.

We wanted to know whether the weather is dry or wet then, but the big sunny skies says it all. We didn't get a drop of rain throughout our week's stay there, I think.

We had some difficulty trying to visit the cable car attraction because the GPS says it is not accessible by road; turns out the station is within this 'Oriental Village' place. It's just a place for tourists to take pictures in, with these funny looking buildings that bears no resemblances to anything oriental at all.

It was a very nice experience, because the cable car went up steeply and the wind whistled as it went through our car cabin. That's the Harbour Park and Burau Bay you see at the background.

The suspended bridge looks really nice and futuristic, and we want to go there too! There is an intermediate and a top station for the cable car station, and you can alight and board the cable car anytime to go further up or descend to base station.

Enjoying a childhood threat...

The whole island is really mountainous, and is one of the nicest resort island I've seen so far, by virtue of its varied landscape.

The suspended bridge has just one central pillar, and actually sways quite a bit even when everyone is just walking on it. Don't think too much when you're on it, just try to enjoy the view...

And after a climb back up to the top station, we descended and visited the shopping malls for the supermarkets. There really isn't much to shop for, so we just bought the essentials and returned to the resort. I rather watch Star Movies on cable...