Daily cycles

Hello!! :-)

Today I've decided to test out my new lens alone so I cycled out at noon to work on my photography skills. I'm still an amateur and I rarely have time to practice both shooting and editing, so it's during these times when I can truly learn. So everyone please forgive my lousiness!! :_)))

Tingz.

a h m a

hello :-)

This' just some late night emotional post so if you don't wanna feel emotional or anything plz skip this :-)

My ahma passed away a few days ago, on Wednesday 14/09 and so now it is currently the midst of her funeral. Today is the last night of her wake, and tomorrow will be her funeral. Truth is, it hasn't been easy cause I know throughout these few days I've been avoiding best as I can not to think about it. I still remember the first time I saw her in her coffin once I landed in Penang, and my heart just broke seeing her inside. I did not hold her hands one last time ; I can never play with her flappy arms again ; I can never push her around in her wheelchair again ; I can never buy her her favourite food again. Everything just ran through my head.

The past few days I've been doing anything and everything but look into the coffin -- seeing her face was just too much to bear. It's funny how everyone tries to make the situation less sad, but that's inevitable. I haven't really felt the loss of a loved one before, since I wasn't really close to my other grandparents, and I was still quite young when they passed away, but it's really not easy.

Even typing on my bed, I could hear the sniffling in the room when we are all supposed to be asleep.

But nevertheless, I finally plucked up the courage to look at ahma's face one last time, before she will be cremated. My uncle just said softly, "take a good look at your ahma. It'll be the last time you'll see her. May we meet her in our next lives."

Hearing that made everything so emotional. I will never see her again??? Has it finally sunk in??? I'm really dreading tomorrow. I wish she could stay with us forever. I really don't know if I can get back to leading my life normally again for a while???

I just know, tomorrow, we will need a fucking load of tissues.

Tioman Dive Trip 12/8 - 14/8

Have you ever thought about what goes on under the never ending waves in the ocean? The luscious waves, gently engulfing one another are constantly creating white swashes in the sea of blue all around. It has been my dream ever since young to dive in the ocean, into a world different from what we have always been in. And now, I’ve finally have had the opportunity to learn diving with my friends before going on exchange overseas.

We signed up with DeepBlue Scuba after looking through the different companies which offers diving lessons. Part of the reason why we chose Deep Blue was due to the online reviews, but we were glad that we made the right choice. Tucked away in a little building called MMI building along 74 South Bridge Road, we made our way there for payment after booking our diving lessons and timings for open water dives (overseas) through email.

There was 1 theory session and 1 pool session which we needed to clear before going for our open water dives, and it was relatively easy to ‘pass’ these sessions, other than the fact that we had to tread water for 10min, but as a non-treader (I don’t know how to tread water lol) I struggled for the full 10min. HAHA.

TIOMAN

We took a bus to Mersing from Singapore (through Ubi) at 6pm on Friday, which took a total of around 3h to reach Mersing jetty. However, as the tide was too low, we had to stay for 1 night in Mersing before taking the boat to Tioman the next morning. One thing to note is that the Wi-FI there is H O R R I B L E. Don’t even try to send any Whatsapp messages as the connection was actually really bad.

At 5am all of us headed to the jetty again to take the boat to Tioman, which took around 1 1/2h before reaching. We stayed in a little hut-like room in Damai Tioman Resort in Genting. 5 of us stayed in a room together as it was more convenient for us to hang out to chill and instead of having to split us up.

Heading out to our first dive was rather exciting as we were grouped together with Rescue Divers who were under training, and we got to witness how their training was conducted. We were taught how to gear up properly, what to check etc, and what to do before entering the water. The air tank, is ESPECIALLY important. It’s like carrying your LIFE in the water. In the sea, we were tested on the skills we did during the pool session which was relatively easy so we cleared the stage quickly. The tough part about diving is equalizing, as the water pressure would affect the ears, and it is mandatory to equalize frequently, or your ears will hurt.

During our second dive, we were tested on the rest of the skills so that our next few dives after could be for leisure. Really, who wouldn’t want to see fishes when you are diving if you are already in Tioman?

Between dives, we went to the front of the boat to chill and the view was breathtaking. The vast horizon made the sea look so endless, and you’ll never stop to wonder what’s below the moving waves. The sun rays, though merciless, made the sea sparkle like tiny gems floating on the water, and we could get a nice tan at the same time too. It felt so much like a short getaway from all the responsibilities in Singapore, not needing to care about anything but diving and enjoying the view underwater. I felt so free.

Wendz!

Honestly, the leisure dives were the ones which made me excited the most as we could actually swim with the fishes and observe them. I was literally mesmerized by the world below, with tons of corals and sea creatures inhabiting the sea. Seeing how these fishes interact and swim together with others made it look like I was living the mermaid dream. However, it was regretful that we didn’t really know much about the different species of sea creatures, since knowing them would definitely make my experience much better.

We had to do this

Anyway, we felt that we should have gotten a GoPro to record the underwater views which were so spectacular. Maybe I should invest in a GoPro soon.

We left Tioman at 1pm on Sunday and reached Singapore at 7.30pm.

Tanned and PADI Open Water Certified, we are ready for our next diving trip!

Mt Batur, BALI

IT'S TIME FOR DA HIKING POST WEW!!!

Mt Batur's view

Usually everyone goes to Bali for the beaches, but this time we decided to slot trekking into our itinerary during our stay there :>
If you actually look around, there are many tourist shops and agencies which have packages to climb up to Mt Batur, with transport and food all covered. However, you'll find out that the prices are est. 1 500 000 IDR/pax (around S$150) without bargaining.
So we decided to just take the leap of faith and go ourselves.

We booked a GrabCar at 2am from our hotel, J4 Hotels in Legian (usually you'll need to book it earlier as the traffic conditions are not very good) which took us 2h to reach the base of Mt Batur. The driver was really nice to wait for us to finish trekking and drive us back to our hotel. So technically we booked a one way ride but luckily he could wait for us. Especially when we don't have an internet connection and we were wondering how were we going to get a cab back if there were no metered cabs in the area.

Total Transport price: 800 000 IDR (S$80) round trip

Still trekking but the sun was starting to rise

ANYWAY, we thought we could go up without a guide but NO we actually need a guide haha. At the base of Mt Batur, there is a 'guide house' where they explained to us the few possible routes to reach the summit of Mt Batur. We took the shortest one cause we needed to get back to the hotel in time to check out HAHA. Since the trips all start at 4am, the shortest one was supposed to end at 8am, a total of 2h trek up and 2h trek down.

In the end we got a guide and they actually lent us torchlights (YES you definitely need it because it's so damn dark; your phone will probably not last)

Guide: 350 000 IDR/pax (S$35)

Throughout the whole way up there were no lamp posts or anything and it was pitch black, so the only light sources were our own torchlight. The road is really uneven so you must be vigilant when walking!

It would be advisable to wear long track pants and a jacket as it is REALLY COLD at the base at 4am. However as you start trekking, the temperature would start to increase but it would still not be TOO HOT. The roads were really rocky and dangerous, so be careful not to lose your footing. There were also many trekkers trekking with us together which made trekking feel much safer tho HAHA like everyone is in this together. So no matter how tired you are, you just keep going!

it looked like people but it was actually trees HAHA

There's an area with volcanic ash WHICH IS CRAZY HARD TO CLIMB UP but after climbing up is WORTH IT!!! The sunrise was at 6.20am and we BARELY MADE IT HAHA. We actually speed trek at the end to catch it.

We BARELY made it but it was BEAUTIFUL

 

The skies were purple and pink!

 

Our guide!

above the clouds

Actually we sat for really long, like around 1h, just taking in the scenery :> and the sun came up HAHA so we left the summit at around 8am! It was REALLLYYYY COLD at the summit cause of the wind and all but I really liked the cold :> but ya do bring a jacket along!

Actually they also provided us with hot drinks and food :> 

The wind was in our direction so the area started becoming really cloudy but WE TOUCHED THE CLOUDS :>

Going down was really tough tho HAHAHA cause the volcanic ash was quite slippery but Dong kept falling so it was really funny HAHAHAH

There were a family of monkeys too!

Do you see the little plot of land within the whole volcanic ash? Its called lucky island, cause the volcanic ash didn't cover that area LOL.

And while we were coming down we were playing music from our speakers which was really loud but made going down even more fun!

 Saw these steps and WE HAD TO DO THIS.

We also met this guy called Tom (right) from Germany cause he saw us with our NUS drawstring bag and he came to us asking if we were from NUS!! Apparently he's going to NUS the next sem for graduate studies SO IT WAS RLY COOL!!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDDDD!!! HAHA The sunrise is really really amazing is you'll definitely not regret!!

But to save money I would totally just recommend you to take a cab there yourself then get a guide there HAHA.

Est. total cost/pax: 510 000 IDR (S$51)

Luv, 

Tingz