Right now, I can't think of a title for this experience that I'm going to relate. Well, let's name it " The Journey To The Land Of The Turtles " for the time being. Let's start with the morning I set out. Once again, the June holidays are here and my family is going back to where we went last year�Redang, Terengganu. We could never forget how clear the water there was. We decided to drive up to Marang village in Cherating to take a ferry from the jetty to Kapas Island.

A rather simple wooden jetty that reflects the mood on this island. The beach here is steep and the current is strong.Not advisable for beginners to swim here. Click the picture to enlarge.

This was what we had in mind initially�to spend two days on Kapas Island before going to Redang. But after having seen the beach resorts there, we decided to cut short our stay there to one day. Here are the reasons why we did not want to carry on our stay. Firstly, the chalet there is so ( damn, you may add ) low-class. Supply of electricity starts at 7pm, so we had to endure hours of hotness and darkness because despite it is still around noontime, the whole room is so dark and the whole stupid room is so small that even the ants hate to live in there. And the worse thing is the minute I stepped into the toilet I knew that I really could not stand it and my father requested to change chalets provided the chalet next door is much better than this. Well, the chalet next to us is truly much better but the toilet gives me the creeps and you know what, I practically RAN out of the toilet EACH time I finish my bath. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my story book to kill time. You may want to ask why I did not go for a swim like my hyperactive brother did. Here's why. You can say that I'm weird or I'm crazy but the standard of the beach resort that I'm staying affects my decision whether to swim there or not. Anyway , let's get on with the rest of the story.
The next day, we drove up to Merang jetty. Parked our car in the private car park of Berjaya Redang Resort. Boarded the 2.00 p.m. ferry to Pulau Redang. The last time we almost miss the ferry. It has a a four hourly frequency.

Merang jetty. It has a private carpark for the guests of Berjaya Redang Resort. Some of the tour agents can provide arrangement for packaged tours by coach.

Well, although we were not late, there were not many seats left in the ferry so we had to make do with the seats that were left. After the 45 minutes journey to Redang, we were sent to our beach resort � the Berjaya resort which is owned by the Sultan. While going through the procedures as you would when you checked in, we made a new friend. They are a Malaysian family of four with a daughter who's 10 and a son who's 7. Although they live in JB, they go to school in Singapore which I happen to forget which one. The whole meeting goes like this. The family was supposed to go with two other families but little did they know that the two families would back out at the last minute. This trip is organised by their father's company. In the end, they have two vacant rooms. The family were very nice, they decided to give us one of the deluxe rooms at a discount. And they also prolonged their stay there by transferring the stay of the other vacant room to theirs. My dad persuaded them to do that as a one-day stay there is not enough, they needed at least 2 days to really have fun there.

The beach right at the resort is so beautiful.The white sand is so fine and the sea water is crystal clear. The scenery here is just magnificient.

During high tide the water is about thigh high and the seabed extends into the sea at a slight gradient. We walked for about 200 metres out and it is still barely hip high. Picture on the left shows the seabed during low tide

This was the boat we used to tour the island during our previous trip. This time round the boat were much smaller as the number of people is lesser.

So the next day, we woke up very early to go for the island tour together with the Lee's family. The shimmering blue sea was like myriads of diamonds as the morning sun played on it. The morning breeze tossed our raven-black hair making all of us look like we had a bad hair day when we finally stopped at our destination. " Daddy, can go down now or not ?" My brother asked in Singlish. As usual, my impatient brother is losing his patience as the minute goes by. Before I can even say anything sarcastic, the splashing of water was already heard.I shook my head at that.

See, what I mean !.


" Hey, look at that ! The fishes are really nice, MOMMY, PASS ME SOME MORE BREAD !!"
My brother shouted as if there is a shouting competition going on. I put on my goggles, trying to make it look like I was a professional going down to do some research on the fishes. I proceeded to the end of the moderately large speedboat and sat down at the edge. I was still not very prepared to go down. I swung my legs like a little child sitting on a swing in the playground. The cool, blue-green water splash against both my feet when the boat was being rocked side to side by the gentle tides. I could even feel the fishes caressing and nibbling at my feet. The water felt cool against my fair but going-to-turn-brown warm feet. I decided to enjoy this moment before going down into the water to explore the fishes.

Being a not-very-brave kind of kid, I lowered myself down into the water gently, trying to avoid chasing the fishes away. By now, schools of fishes were surrounding us. I inhaled a deep breath and went underwater. Colourful fishes of all kinds were swimming around me. I was mesmerised by the beautiful scene. It was as good as going to Sentosa to see the 'Underwater World'. Then I spotted something, it was really beautiful but scary. A school of SWORDFISHES were swimming around the area too. Terrified, I sliced through the water with quick but panicky strokes, thinking that they would attack me sooner or later - kinda dumb, huh ?:-) But little did I know that those CUTE but scary-looking fishes were actually harmless. Instead, they would give way to you if you were swimming towards them, said my know-it-all brother when I asked him after seeing him swimming fearlessly in the water. That time, I really admired him�for his bravery , that is :-}

Later, we went to two more places. The 2nd place we went to was really choppy, so we decided not to go down. But the 3rd place was not so bad. My new underwater camera did a great job of taking underwater pictures of myself. I can't wait to show those pictures to my friends. :-) Enough about all my gloating ! Let's get on ! After having seen all the fishes that were there and getting quite sick of them, we decided to leave and head to where we came from. Everyone came onto the boat dripping wet from head to toe and screaming for towels and by the way, we were the last one to come onto the boat. After everyone were ready to head back, the boat got going , travelling at a moderately fast speed. While everyone was busy looking at the scenery, I sneaked a peek at them, at that time they had one thing in common�a satisfied grin on their faces. After all it's my Mom's first time in the not-so-open sea. My Dad stood near the side of the boat, his left hand on his hips and the other hand to support him, his right leg crossed over to his left. He was the happiest among all the eight of us, excluding the others on the boat. He had the chance to use his new bought-at-a-low-price video camera to film the beautiful fishes. Then I tried to put a big grin on my face but could not because�.. I just couldn't��

When we reached the jetty, everyone was out in a flash, you would think that a shark was approaching our boat. We were the only ones left there, I wanted to take my own sweet time, but decided against that idea , I was afraid of offending the people who drove the boat. After it was also hard on them to take us to three different places while they had to sit around the boat doing nothing.
"Hey, come on !" Yan Nee, my new friend shouted to me. She was already ahead of me. I hurried after her, but stopped after realising that she had already stopped calling out to me. I trudged on the sand. Each step took every ounce of energy I had in my body. The funny thing is I don't feel tired at all. So why am I walking like this ? I asked myself. Then I knew the answer. It was the SUN ! The always-glaring SUN. Sometimes I really hate the Sun. I tried to hurry up. I reached the pool just in time to Yan Nee getting ready to jump in the pool. My brother and his new friend or Yan Nee's younger brother, Zhu Yi, was already splashing about in the water. I ran to the table where they had thrown their clothes onto. I SLIPPED out of my shorts, went to shower to get rid of the sand, grit, salt and whatever things that belonged to sea off my body. I did not want to pollute the water ( U know ) :-) . Then I lowered myself into the deliciously cooling and non-resisting (or whatever u call it) pool. I need not jump into the pool like what my unsophisticated brother would do. Actually, on second thoughts, he's not that unsophisticated, just childish. Anyway, I decided to swim a few half-laps before sitting back and relax and have a nice little chit-chat with Yan Nee about�brothers. This is just the life, I thought to myself as the splish-sploshing of the water was heard. My legs felt cold out of the water. I had put myself into a doing-sit-ups position. I closed my eyes and tried to let myself go into a world of nothing but peace and quiet. After all the studying and memorising of notes AND EXAMS, this is just what I really need. "Hey, come on, join us !" Yan Nee shouted to me. I shook my head and shouted back, "OK, I'M COMING !" Just what I needed #@^~!. I sighed loudly and swam towards her. :-(

"Hey, children come on, time to get out, we are going to Marine Park later, wouldn't want to be late, would you ?" All four of us got out of the water and walked towards my father. We wrapped ourselves in towels and made our way back to our rooms. "See you later !" I called down to them as I stepped inside our room. We took the room that was upstairs. "Hurry and go and bathe. Ervin, you go first." As usual, my Mom was already bathed clean and dressed , she was standing in front of the mirror, doing her make-up. She already started the all-Moms favourite thing�nagging . I went out of the room and stood near my father. He was all wiped out as far as I could tell. We spoke for a while and then I went in to take a bath. I rinsed myself thoroughly before steeping out of the shower. The feeling of the cold water falling down on you was really great. I wore back my swimming suit and pulled on a T-shirt and shorts. After everybody has showered and everything, we were all set and ready to go. Just as we reach downstairs, Yan Nee and ZhuYi came out and we went together to the waiting place. We were supposed to take a buggy-look-alike except that it is bigger and could ferry about 10 people down to the jetty. Then from there, we would take a boat over to Marine Park. Zhu Yi and my brother were the first of our group that went on to the boat. Seeing that our brothers were already on board and also tired of waiting for our parents, Yan Nee and I decided to go on board too. Just when the speedboat was full of people and I was thinking of way to squeeze our parents in, the boat started taking off WITHOUT my parents. And I was like 'Ohmigosh ! What am I going to do !' At first our parents were shocked, but then in the end, they just waved good-bye and asked me to take care of my brother. The journey to Marine Park was fun but short.

This Marine Park is one place that you cannot miss when you are up here. This Park is under the Conservatory Zone where no fishing of any form are allowed. The fishes here are so used to hand-feeding

As the boat was slicing through the water, the cool sea water kept splashing against our faces. We reached the jetty no faster than I can "Here we are !" I climbed out of the boat and stepped onto the stairs cautiously. It was there that we met the Malay family that we made friends with. They were just going back to Redang. We waited there until I decided (I was the eldest) to let the others go to the beach to play while Yan Nee and I waited there for our parents. Not long after enjoying ourselves at the beach, our parents finally reached. My Mom said that halfway while they were fetching the Malay family back, they ran out of fuel. And they were stranded there with a BABY before they can get their boat going. They were VERY lucky. When they reached the jetty, our parents had to wait for them to collect the fuel for the boat to get it started. Then, instead of thanking me for looking after the others and my great idea�bringing the others to the beach first, they gave a short lecture. How could they, huh ? After all my hard work ? You think I deserve this ? :-(

Anyway, right after our parents were there to look after our things, I changed out of my tee , grabbed my snorkelling set and lifejacket and sprinted towards the water. I was really enthusiastic, huh ? :-) The water was really great. It was actually greater than Redang's Beach. The fishes there were really very nice. [Notice that all the BIG & GREAT words have already been used for all the fishes that I've seen. ] :-) Well, I'm not exaggerating, the fishes there are really beautiful. Cross my heart so please believe me. Well,Yan Nee kept going back to her mother to ask for biscuits to feed the fishes. And guess what, there were fishes. Lots of big ones also came to us. My Dad filmed us while we were feeding the fishes, but it was usually my brother. ( My Brother was practically the star of the video that my father had put together ) Well, who cares ? :-) We changed our feeding position after feeling tired of the fishes there and the fishes at the jetty were indeed nicer and bigger than the fishes near the shore. We fed the fishes until we were satisfied. I even dared myself to hold the biscuits in my hand while the fishes came and eat from there.
This beach here is preferred to the Redang's beach because the corals here are just within walking distance from the beach. The corals attracted many kinds of colourful fishes. The water here is emerald green. My dad maybe able to put the video on the net if he can get hold of a video capture card soon. It was soon but after this trip it is now later, much later. $$ :-(

Frankly, we have been to other beaches in this region, like Phuket Patong beach, Pangkor island, Pulau Tioman, Pulau Payar, Pulau Kapas and Cherating (Club Med). Except for Pulau Pangkor none is close to match the beach in Pulau Redang and the Marine Park.


This is Redang's beach. The scenery speaks for itself. As you can see the sun is right overhead and real hot.

If you are by now drooling to go there I suggest the best time is between April to August. I would prefer June when you will have sunshine all round and you can watch turtle laying eggs. If lucky, hatchlings can be seen making their way to the sea before dawn breaks. Stay tuned for my other experiences in the other beaches.