Travelogue : Pulau Cotton ~ 6-8 June 08

Location :
Pulau Cotton, off Marang

Cotton at sunset

The troupe :

Faidzal @ Orang Kaya Baru. Boleh forego paid 1 nite at Kapas and stay kat KT instead ;-p

K Aini @ Iron Lady. Boleh swim pegi balik pulau-darat-pulau

Hussen @ Macho Man.

Maslina @ "Come On! Yeah! Alrite! Aha Aha" *dengan gaya paling gedik*

Junirda @ "Saya mesti belajar berenang!" "Saya mesti belajar lukis kuda!"

Liza @ Champion pictionary terulung. Boleh teka titanic! Perampas abang snorkelling Nida

Izwan @ Underwater Cameraman bertugas

Razeif @ Reporter bertugas

Milla @ Milla Bila Cinta !

Firdauz @ "Saya tak v***in* lagi!"

Hong @ Always cool and calm

Yours truly @ "Saya BERAZAM (fist in the air) utk mendapat sotong pertama pada hari ini!"

Going for snorkelling

L-R: Firdauz, Milla, Junirda,Liza,Razeif,Hong,Faidzal,K Aini (hidden),Me & Mscle

Going for squid jigging

Front L-R: Firdauz, Milla,Mscle,Razeif,me

Back L-R: Junirda, Hussen,Hong, Liza

Izwan the cameraman

Organizer :
Thanks to Izwan and Maslina for organizing the trip!

Mscle & Izwan. Hussen on the left

Day 1

We were supposed to start off at 4.15am from Taman Melati, but by 4.15 am only me and Nida have reached there (saja nak tunjuk punctuality :-p)

Then Razeif, Hong and Liza arrived

Izwan went to fetch Masl and Hussen, so he can be excused la. Anyway, he's the organizer. Tak mau la lawan tauke

The married couples were still in Bangi. So we took off first and would meet later at Marang jetty. Supposed to catch the 11.30 am boat
All were regrouped in Marang by 10.30 am, just as planned to get the 1130 boat. Pulau Kapas is very near from the jetty, it took only 15 minutes. When we arrived, our rooms were not yet ready, so we had lunch first, and had a bit of practise on Pictionary.

Pictionary practice

First snorkelling trip was at 3.30 pm, under the scorching hot sun. But tak kisahlah, it’s cool under the water. I’d say snorkelling in Kapas isn’t recommended as there aren’t much fish here as Redang or Perhentian. Plus, there are loads of jellyfish here. See here Izwan got stung by ‘em.

After snorkelling, we were hungry. So we went next door to find something to munch on. Our chalet, Kapas Island Resort couldn’t provide any as we requested on the spot, fair enough, but when requested for tea for the next day, a particular staff, henceforth called “Are you sure?” still refused. We then talked some sense into the boss who only then agreed on our request.

We coined “Are you sure?” to the lady because when Mscle requested for an additional bed (there were 4 girls to a room – we already paid for the price of 4), she asked Mscle “Are you sure?” Hence the nickname.

That night the singles went for karaoke, while the couples had ahem, something better to do :-p

Day 2

Our OKB, Faidzal and wife had a spur-of-the-moment plan. They decided to go off earlier and went to KT instead. So they didn’t join the group for the rest of the trip.

The second snorkelling trip was at 10.30 am. It wasn’t really enjoyable as there were a lot of jellyfish (more than the first day) and the current was strong. Poor Nida, she was swept away almost to the beach. The abang boat was supposed to accompany her and Liza, but somehow only brought Liza with him. I could hear her cries from my spot, poor her, but then our own Hussen went to her rescue, together with the abang boat.

Before we settled at the snorkelling spot, an earlier spot was abandoned, due to strong current. Milla accidentally slipped her snorkelling goggle off there. Thanks to her, we had to detour back to the earlier spot to retrieve the goggle. Abang boat boasted he could retrieve just about anything from the water, which was true, because he managed to find the goggle and a hair band (from another passenger)!

I said thanks to her for the detour because due to that, we had the chance to see 5 dolphins swimming and jumping as if performing synchronized swimming for our viewing pleasure ! So cool! Liza managed to get a video of the performance ;-)

The evening’s event was the highlight of our trip – mencandat sotong or squid jigging. Still no sign of Faidzal and K Aini, so we assume they must have been having a jolly time in KT.

I got really psyched up for the event – refer to caption at the start of the entry. But Milla beat me to it, only because I still haven’t got my jigging equipment when she got the first sotong of the day. (Still tak nak mengaku kalah ;-p)

Sori sotong...

Seemed that those at the aft (back) part of the boat had more luck in luring those sotong. All of them managed to get 2 each (5 of them- Firdauz, Milla, Liza, Nida and Razeif). At the front was Hussen, Mscle, Izwan, Hong and me, but only Hong and me got one each (oh yeah, I was the second person to get the sotong, soon after I got my equipment).

We were all sea sick by the end of the trip, except for Liza (still boleh makan Mamee), Hussen, Izwan and Razeif.

We then asked the chalet to fry the sotong ala goreng tepung and had barbeque dinner that night. They charged us per kg for the frying which was ridiculous. But the next day when we checked out, they didn’t charge us any.

Day 3

Back to KL. Bleurgh……
We had a detour to Paka’s Vico Kopitiam, (I forgot the name, but it has Vico ads plastered around the shop). Razeif treated us at the Kopitiam, thanks Razeif ! His house is actually in Paka, very near to the kopitiam.

From the kopitiam, we went separate ways. Razeif went back home. Izwan and co rushed back as Hussen wanted to go to office (for real?) Me, Nida & Liza took our own sweet time and made several detours, buying keropok lekor. After all, I haven’t been to Terengganu since March 2006. ‘Tis really long….until we meet again