I'm back from the projects, the exams, and a glorious beach holiday at the bubu island resort, Pulau Perhentian island, Trenggaunu. I really loved the white sandy beaches and clear blue sea. Its a pity that with all that water none was palatable. Coming to that, I have come to really appreciate the water purification process in Singapore, you don't get many countries where you can drink water straight from the tap. Its really a chore to buy mineral water whenever one's thirsty. Before i go on a tirade on my vacation, I should start from where I boarded the bus.

I'm absolutely stupified by how long a vehicle can be stuck in a jam. With the unfortunate incident of the escape of a certain fellow, checks at the causeway checkpoint became far too stringent for anybody's liking. Nonetheless, the bus driver's patience was quite amazing. His irritatingly impressive english(he knew only 3 words, Toilet, Checkpoint, Passport), seeking to practice them whenever he had an opportunity to do so was not. Everytime we came to a tolilet stop. He would go "toilet, toilet toilet! Toilet Toilet Toilet!" So back to the infuriating jam that only served to increase a 12 hour bus journey to a 15 hour one, the five of us played asshole dai dee to pass the time. This game also became the game of the vacation given the lack of recreational facilities on an island. An idyllic lifestyle may be appealing, but too much of a good thing is just bad. The bus ride after the checkpoint was fitful, but travelling at night did help beat the time as sleep came much easier.

We arrived at the island around noon. A refreshing drink of banana juice. A greeting by the friendly people at the resort definitely help to make us feel welcomed. My first observation was that the island's tourist population were largely caucasians, and they really did love the Sun. The beach were sprawled with them and it was quite a "sight". Meanwhile, as we waited to check into our rooms, Mark the diveshop guy came to talk to us about our dive. He was from London and had blond dreadlocks(interesting hair). They had a dive to a shipwreck at 1pm, but it was too rushed. So we had to settle with a dive at 3pm instead. We were starving by then, so we had our lunch at bubu resort restaurant. The prices were definitely similar to Singapore. The food and the presentation of it was excellent though, so it was definitely you pay for what you get.

3pm came and we went for our dive. The vis wasn't too good that day and we didn't really see very much. Julio became my dive buddy because I was the odd one out in the group, casey, seb, ivan and kenneth never forgetting to remind me. (But thanks to me we got the family room at the resort which was huge. Something like a suite. You're welcome guys.) Julio's from argentina and really loved nudibranch varicosas(little sea slugs) that were really colourful. He was our divemaster for the next 3 dives, and kept pointing out those nudibranches. The signal for it underwater's really cool too, reminiscent of what rockers like to do pointing our their index and pinky except that you had to wriggle it to signify a nudibranch. Moving on from the sea slugs. We had to consume our dinner at the bubu restaurant again a thunderstorm brewed in the horizon. It was our intention to go to the other island resort to have our dinner, but the rain detered us and we had an expensive dinner again.

The following day we were scheduled to have 3 dives. Reminder of my sad ndu life. Fortunately the water's much better and the view underwater nothing short of breathtaking. There's a reason why I'm paid to dive in NDU and why I have to pay to dive here. Our second dive of the day was the best. It was around a pinnacle that stood out 1m above the sea. Known as the Temple of the Sea, or Tokong Lauit, the schools of fishes were very pretty. Each school had like 300 to 400 fishes. An amazing sight, I tried to touch them, but they kept darting away. We saw pufferfish, bamboo sharks and a mirade of other sea animals and corals. A leaking mask was a perennial irritation but the dive was still great nonetheless. Julio was again at his best, the argentinean divemaster spotting nudibranches at an impressive rate.

We had our dinner that day, at the other island resort. The prices were 3 times lower compared to the bubu island restaurant, they also took 3 times as long. I waited for 1 hour for my drink and 2 hours for my dinner. The restaurant was packed though, so my dinner took quite a while to be prepared. The beef nachos I had was quite good, but i've come to a conclusion that a steak is definitely much better compared to minced beef. Football was next up on the agenda, with most of the diners glued to the screen. We watched man u win the premiership, much to my dismay. They did deserve it though given the brand of attacking football they had played this season and with a certain winger called ronaldo scoring 31 goals in the league.

12 beers were shared among the 5 of us and marvin, one of the resort workers from KL who was doing an internship with the bubu island resort. Haha, I wished I had this sorta internship though I don't think i can survive without technology for longer then a week. We played drinking games and had a racket of a time. At 18, Marvin didn't really hold his beer well, he got quite tipsy and casey and seb had to help him back to his room.

Monday was a horrible day. It was nua all the way because we were forced to checkout at 10am in the morning. Our bus back to Singapore was scheduled at 9pm that night. We passed the time playing more dai dee and talking nonsense. We saw goats, roosters and buffalos walking around the little town in trenggaunu. We also saw farmlands on our way back. There was even a goat family at the bus terminal. The little calves following their mother, that was quite a sight. Well, I'm done with this post. I doubt you wanna hear about my ride home. That took another 12 hours.

FOC and Rag's coming soon. Gonna be really busy then. For now, I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy my long awaited holiday. Tata.