Sipadan water village holiday :D

This place is really a little slice of heaven on earth. If I had to envision heaven, it would probably look like this place.

On the 4^th July, my groupmates from west Malaysia and Sarawak all came to Tawau for a Sabah trip of the islands. We took them toMabul island, only 30 minutes of the coast of semporna.

The weather started of bad with heavy rain in the morning.We woke up at 5.30am, had breakfast at 6.30,
were on our way by 7.30 andreached semporna jetty at 8.45am. The boat to the island left at 9am. Howeverthe r and waves made it literally a very bumpy ride.

Thank God for seasick meds. I could feel butterflies in mystomach everytime my bum lifted of the seat as we rode off a wave only to landon another.

Upon reaching the island, the staff lined up at the jettyand were drenched in rain but still they greeted us with a smile. I preferumbrellas, but smiles are nice too. :D They explained to us where to leave our bags, the rules, the commondining area and its hours… then we were of to our little chalets.

Our chalets were a good 5 minute walk away and the rain letup, so we were able to take in the sights. Soooooooo amazing. My iphone shotsdo it no justice. Clear pristine waters, thousands of visible corals andrainbow coloured fish, endless sea into the horizon, sandy white beaches, lazychairs everywhere.. my kind of holiday.dive

After resting up a bit, we were taken on another boat rideat 2.30pm to Kapalai island for a bit of snorkeling. I just love the water, Iwish I was a stronger swimmer though.. then I wouldn’t need my life jacket. Butno one can predict the strength of the sea current. Sometimes a calm sea mayhave a vicous undercurrent. It was difficult to swim back to the jettysometimes, I had to put all my strength to avoid being pulled in the wrongdirection. But it was worth it coz I met up with elusive mr. Turtle. Yayyy~~

4pm and we were back at the dive centre. They provided usfree snacks and drinks. After that we went for a little tour of the island,soothed our aching muscles with a steamy dip in the Jacuzzi, and topped it allof with a bountiful feast of fresh seafood and fruits for dinner.

The good life. T_T *sigh*

That night I just couldn’t bring myself to sleep early nomatter how tired I was. My friends and I decided to catch up with gossip till4am on lazy chairs placed on our chalet’s veranda which overlooked the ocean.Even the moon and falling stars accompanied us.

Too bad there is no camera good enough to capture what oureyes truly sees.

The next day we woke up to a postcard.

No, not really a postcard, but something that could haveeasily been one. It really looked like paradise that morning.

OK talking bout scenery is never good enough. Piccas! But onlytru my tiny iphone. Friends with DSLR haven’t uploaded any pics on fb yet. Sothis wll have to do~

The Accident Virgin

I know ive been away from this blog for like 2 years now…. But a near-death experience just needs to be marked by something. So let it be a blog post.

Yep, the title may be a bit misleading. But this was actually one of the many things that ran through my mind after coming out of the car to inspect the damage I was partly at fault for(the other driver was freaking Tokyo-drifting around the bend) when I crashed into a landcruiser the other day.

All I can say was that im glad no one got hurt. They’re were 5 of us in the car and I was behind the wheel and if anything were to happen that day I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.

Although my friends kept telling me if was such a minor accident, (the bumper and left light was ripped off the Kelisa) it looked like a trainwreck to me. I could only shake my head in either agreement of disagreement with whatever they were telling me. I was in shock. My hands were trembling and I felt numb. It was the first time I had crashed a car after all.

Got me thinking, Kelisa’s are soo fragile. We are practically just sitting in a nicely shaped tin can. Give it a good kick, and u’ll find urself a big-ass dent. The landcruiser however (whhhhhy did it have to be an expensive car?) barely had any indication it was in an accident except for some scratches on one of the rims which the lady driver insisted I pay for (her hubby came over to the workshop to see the damage, was staring at it straight in the eye and said “where?”, then when she pointed it out.. he was like… “ooooo ini tidak bole nie.. mo tukar nie” kunun) FML. Rm600 terbang. Wuhuuuu~

I admit, it was my fault since it was her road I was driving into ( FYI, that simpang memang slalu eksiden org bilang), but it was definitely a blind spot to me because the left bend she was driving from was so sharp and hidden behind a hill that you would only see her coming at the last minute if she was speeding.

Ahhh! Nevermind la. What’s important is that nobody got hurt. Money can be found, but our lives are all precious. (still… that lady could have been more considerate though.. I am just a student after all.. seeing those little scratches on her rim made my heart go URHG!.)

As for the kelisa, well it will be getting a lotta new parts. YAY kelisa! You will be reborn! (T_T) Habisssslah $$$$~~~~

Out of this experience though, my groupmates who were travelling with me and in another car we rented were my source of strength during the whole process. They hugged me, assured me it was a minor accident, went with me to the workshop, bargained with the workshop people to lower the repair costs, almost fought with the lady about her rim, called an influential uncle to help, helped me with the costs in cash in advance, kept on patting my back, made jokes, made me laugh and smile again, blanja me makan and karaoke that night, bought a TOTO number of our car…. Etc… etc… I couldn’t have been more grateful to be blessed with such friends.

Another strange thing that happened though, the TOTO number that we bought, well we almost won!

The plate number of the Kelisa was LB 5357, what came out the next day was 5537. And another number that came out  was the last four digits of my Russian telephone number, 0843. How weird is that huh??

Must be the luck of the Accident Virgin :D

 Those were some really expensive scratches.

 Bumper and left light ripped off

 Closer look

No. plate 5357 which almost won TOTO