A great week...

I had a pretty good time this week despite starting school again. i wasn't really looking forward to going back for relief teaching but my green dough is running low and i need to refill it. i met my redang friends on monday for some shopping, movie and chilling. we did shop and chill but couldn't get a good time for movie. i accompanied wy to bras bersa complex to look for some books. call me mountain turtle but that was my first time in bras bersa, i was really amazed by how many different bookstores they have there, it was like the queensway of books. wy wanted to look for this shop call "yun nan" bookstore which specialize in selling medical books. however, while looking for it we were lured to this pretty big bookstore call "tecman". this shop sells all kinds of christian stuff from souvenirs to greeting cards and of course tonnes of books. we spent quite a fair bit of time in there looking through books and cards. it was all very interesting and very appealing, especially those motivational cards with bible verses. before we know it, we spent like an hour plus in there and the others were calling to check if we got lost. by the time we found "yun nan" bookstore it was already closed for the day, and we were only 10min late. after that we met up with the others and had a chilling time in ice monster.

i met cy on wed for badminton, it's been a really long time since i last played badminton. it was quite a good practice and i had a lot of fun though my ass hurt like mad after the game. i played tennis with her again on thursday and friday, although i doubt i'll count thursday as playing because it rain the moment we step into the court. friday was not much better, we played for about 15min and then it started to rain again! how unlucky can it get, this time we continued playing and thank God the rain stop after a while. again i really enjoyed playing tennis with cy, its been so long since i had so much fun. after tennis on friday, i went to watch transformers. i shall not elaborate too much on the movie, all i want to say is that its a movie made for fans and the nostalgia it brought was awesome. if you grew up watching transformers, it is a must watch!

Night cycling...

Finally went on my first ever through out the whole night cycling on saturday night. the weather was not looking good since the start of the day and it didn't get any better towards the night, in fact it got worse. it started pouring the moment we flagged off and it didn't stop at all! we were cycling in the rain from start all the way to esplanade. we were suppose to have a mini race at the proposed F1 racing track but the weather condition was too horrible and the organising committee decided to call it off. instead we just rode around the track at our own pace, and even so there were so many people that fell. the road condition was disgusting. after that we cycled back to east coast park mac donalds which is the end point. however that wasn't the end for yl and me. we still had to cycle home and it was still pouring relentlessly. we camped at ECP mac for like 3 hours before the rain became a drizzle. i ordered mac cafe cappuccino and the girl that was making it made a smiley face for me!


By the time i reached home it was around 12pm and i still have to clean my bike! i immediately hit the sacks once i finished cleaning my bike and bathing. SHAG!

Beautiful Redang...

This took longer to appear then i expected, i think its because i was busy collecting photos (which i am still doing) but it was largely due to the fact that i'm still suffering from post holiday blues. But anyhow, here it is, some insight on my wonderful holiday in Redang.

The first interesting thing about this trip was that out of the 8 people that were going i only know 2, Samuel and his gf. the rest were his gf's dentistry classmates, so i went on a holiday with 6 dentists, i bet no one has done that before. the journey to redang itself wasn't too pleasant, it took a good 10h from Singapore to Terengganu, another 1h to reach Merang jetty and from there another 40min to the island itself. My advice to would be travellers, its ok to splurge a bit more on the coach rides, after all you'll be spending a good part of the holiday in it, might as well make the best of it. Our group was split into 2 buses, 5 in the earlier one and 3 in the later. Lets skip the uncomfortable, cold and smelly coach ride and get on with Redang!

There are several resorts all over Redang and the prices differ from one to another but not much. so do book one on the higher end side. u DO NOT want to save on your resort. the one we stayed in is call Redang Reef Resort (RRR), it is one of the better resorts around. another reason why u would wanna get a good resort is because of its location, and scenic values (highly important). once we got to the island, it was fun fun fun from the get go. we had lunch before renting our snorkeling equipments (RM 20 for as long as u are in the resort) and then its off to the beautiful open sea. wait beautiful is an under statement. you judge for yourself. it was like a dream to see waters so crystal clear, all this time i have only seen waters like this on documentaries. the sand on the beach was so white and fine that it will slip out of your hand if you try to grab some. basically it was all snorkel, beach volleyball, swim, running around playing for the entire day not forgetting our favourite magnum moments. the magnums were so cheap that we ate one whenever we felt like it. when night came, we spend most of our time singing karaoke at the little pub call the "Reef". it was really enjoyable and unknowingly addictive so we kept singing and singing. i've never sang so much with so many people in my life. on the second night, while the others were singing, i happened to look up to the sky and saw a shooting star! i was shouting "shooting star" but it disappear in less than a second. since there were more people at the pub on the second night, we or rather this time it was only xn, wy, melissa and me decided to go lie on the beach and watch stars. the sky was cloudless and the stars were countless, i made a wish for another shooting star to appear for the others to see and it did and i guess everyone started making wishes too. our eyes didn't stay open for very long, the soft cold sand, the cool sea breeze and lying under the stars was enough to make all of us fall asleep. sleeping under the stars, how cool is that! we awoke a while later coz it was getting a bit chilly and guess what, it was just nice to go to the other side of the resort where the tide has receded and search for glowing blue sand! yes u heard me right, Redang is known for its glowing "sand" which from our observation is not really sand but rather or maybe some fly that lives in the rocks, it is as small as a grain of sand only. they come out to mate when its low tide and produces this luminous blue glow when agitated, in this case being stepped on by us.


See how beautiful the sunrise is! thats wy and me, i love this pic its so beautiful it should be made into a postcard. i'm glad i got everyone to wake up to watch the sunrise, we had to climb up this flight of rocks to get the best view and boy was it worth every effort. we took a lot of photos and was just totally mesmerized by the beauty of it. after breakfast, it was time to pack up and leave the island. since our coach back to singapore was at 9pm, we had a whole day in Terengganu to kill, so we walk around town and explore the place for a bit. i enlisted the help of the 6 dentists i was with and bought a new toothbrush. while shopping around and looking for a place to eat, we chanced upon this small eatery with a very special fruit juice stall so we decided to have our dinner there and savour the ultra madness cheap seafood! then it was the dreaded 10h journey back to singapore again.

i'm very happy i went on this trip to redang and got to know 5 new friends, not forgetting the fact that they are all future dentists. being on this holiday has help me clear my mind of a lot of things and i came home feeling "lighter" and more in tune with my life. given a chance i'd love to go travelling with this bunch of people again, even if its back to redang! for more photos of redang do check out my multiply site as i'll be uploading all my photos there once i collate all of them from the others.

Back from church camp...

Being a participant of a camp and organizing one is very very different. i'm glad i was given the chance this year be part of the main committee for the annual Creative Arts Camp(CAC). it was a priceless experience to be planning for an entire camp and at the same time serve God as well. i have to admit that it wasn't easy at all, we had to plan 4 months ahead for a 4 days camp. there were several hiccups along the way but thank God, He brought us through it all safe and sound. enough of the pre camp stage, now for the camp itself.

we invited this group of speakers from cornerstone church to come and speak to the kids about worshiping and serving God. they were a pretty radical group of young adults and i guess it was a bit uncomfortable for most of us in COS. they could be a bit more tactful with their choice of words, mainly because it was little children they were talking to after all. overall they were fantastic and the children love them. especially during the altar call night, it was a very powerful and moving experience. The main speaker, Andrew went around with several others anointing the children and praying for them. Everyone was so touched by the holy spirit that we all started crying and crying. there was no stopping the tears from flowing. i remember when i was filled with the holy spirit, it was in my primary 5 church camp, i cried uncontrollably as well. it was a really wonderful and warm feeling to be embraced by the holy spirit.

then there was the finale night where the children after months of learning to play their instrument and then coming to camp to play as a band performed for all to see. even though i'm not the one performing, i felt such great achievement for these children. they played and sang so beautifully. i have some video recordings of the altar call night and finale night, i'll try to upload them if possible on my blog.

time to pack my bag! i'm going back packing in terengganu in 5h time!