Girls Trip to Lang Tengah Island

My annual girls trip recently is to Lang Tengah in Terengganu. It's one of the less popular islands in east coast Malaysia. In fact, I'm surprised that not a lot of people know of this island, not even Malaysian. I encountered a few fellow Malaysians who asked me where is this Lang Tengah and they only know of the infamous Redang and Perhentian island.

Well there's 5 of us in this trip, supposed to have 6 but one of the girl couldn't make it last minute, what a pity. Nevertheless, 5 of us is more than enough to have good jolly fun in a secluded island hehe. Early Friday morning, we make our way to Subang Airport for our flight to Kuala Terengganu. Ever since KLIA was built, I have never step foot into Subang Airport anymore and I am surprised that they are renovating it and it's so brand new and stylish. Only one disappointment, the entrance to this building is still under renovation and is so small that we nearly missed it. Anyway, the flight was early so we reach there way ahead of our actual arrival time. This is the first time I set foot in Kuala Terengganu's airport and it surely does look good. Better than the one in Kuching. The last time I was there, the airport look very old to me. Anyway, 5 of us shared 2 cabs to Merang Jetty. It was only a half hour drive from the airport. I can see a lot of development undergoing near the airport as we cruise along the way. Before I knew it, I'm already at Merang Jetty. It's a very small jetty with a few wooden stalls selling souvenirs and food. In fact there were only 2 food stalls. As our boat to Lang Tengah is not due untill 11am, we have plenty of time to ourselves and we decided to have our breakfast while waiting for the time to pass in one of the stall. We tried their ready packed nasi lemak which doesn't taste that nice to me and another ready packed of nasi minyak. The nasi minyak taste better with it's curry and some pickle vegetables. The stall owner was very nice to us, attending to a bunch of very demanding ladies and of course we did sweet talked him a lot. Calling him 'handsome' and 'sayang'. hehehehe .

After breakfast, we feel even more sleepy as some of us did not sleep last nite. We couldn't wait to be in the hotel room so that we can take a nap. The boat ride from Merang Jetty to Lang Tengah is another 45 mins or so. By the time we reach the resort, we are all so tired and so wanna sleep (afterall we did not have a good sleep the night before). So we checked ourselves into the resort and went for our lunch (which is provided. All the meals are provided). Surprisingly after lunch, no one wants to go back to the room for a nap. Instead everyone was excited about the beach and water. We had a slow lunch while waiting for the time to pass by as our snorkelling session is at 4pm. Everyone changed into their bikinis and head off to the sun bed out at the beach. Trying to get a nice bikini tan.

Snorkelling wasn't that bad but I don't see as much fishes as compared to when I went Perhentian Island. Praises must be given to CY, cos she finally managed to overcome her fear for water and follow us snorkelling. Although she's very scare but still she give it a try. The instructor were there to help her. Pulling her hand and bringing her around. Kudos to CY! The rest of us just swim around once we jumped into the water. Second day snorkelling was slightly better cos I managed to see some sharks. I did saw a school of them. Not a huge school but a few of them swimming in pack. Silly me wanted to chase after them but of course I can't swim as fast as them. Oh, I did my discovery dive in this trip. My first time ever in diving. It's been my wish to take up diving course but until today I have yet to make it realise. So, this time I took up the discovery dive just to see if I like diving as a hobby or not. Well, turns out I do like diving but I do have some problem with pressure too.

The 3 of us took up the discovery dive and boy, were we a bunch of panic queens. The instructor was kinda surprised as he did not expect those who can swim turns out to be panic queens. Yes, including me! In fact, the only friend of mine who does not know how to swim seem to be quite calm about diving first time in confined water. I went panic when I first dive into the water and my friend who swim very well too. She complained about her mask which water keeps flooding in and I complained that my mouth piece is too loose till I drank a lot of chlorine water. Eventually we did managed to settle down and do our balancing and dive in properly in the pool. But once we are under the water, we are like kids swimming in our different directions and not listening to what our instructor had to said. Poor instructor had to shout out to us like little kids. (I did not aware of this until we were told about it by CY who did not participate. She said it's a very funny scenario.) After lunch, it's time for us to go try out our little diving skills in the open sea. With all the gears attached to us (the tank is very heavy for me!) we walked out to the open sea from shore following our instructor. Once in the sea, we float ourselves before wearing our fins and swim out further. Everyone puts on their masks, checked their mouth piece, make sure the mask is not blurred and in we go into the water. As I sink further into the water, I feel kinda excited that finally I get to do a real dive. haha. As we are just beginners, the instructor keep us closed to him so we wont get lost. He held on to our hand and together we swim under the water towards the big open sea. Well, after awhile I was a bit sad cos there is not much to see. Mostly are dead corals and a few fishes. Yes, the distance between me and the fishes has become closer but I still cant touch the fish haha. After about half hour or so we turn back and swim toward the shore. While the instructor were holding my 2 friends, I swim alone following closely or so behind them with him always turning back to check on me. I do enjoy the moment when I am swimming alone following behind them.

That night, everyone was very tired except for my 2 friends as they got to try night snorkelling with the instructor. He had promised to bring them out in his canoe for a night snorkelling. The rest of us just hang out at the big huge rock while waiting for them to come back. All we do is just lye down and look up to the stars and moon while enjoying the night breeze and the sound of waves. Such a soothing moment. The next day we had to get up early to catch the early boat ride out of the island. Back in KT town, we called up the cab and asked them to bring us to the famous keropok lekor in KT town. Turns out we need to join the already long Q in order to buy these famous keropok lekor. Everyone bought enough for family and friends as souvenirs before heading toward the airport.

We had a great time at the beach and everyone has got a new sexy tan look. As for me, I have extra. I have a 'deaf' ear. My right ear feels like as if it's still under the water. Doctor said might be due to the pressure and there's also a slight perforation in my ear. My hearing is still not fully recovered yet and meanwhile I'm on medication to heal my 'deaf' ear. So, no more diving for me I guess. Sad.