My recent diving trip to Tenggol island marked the 3rd time I attempted underwater photography. This post is more on some of the better photos I took with the limited equipments I currently operate while breathing compressed air – Canon S90 with Ikelite Underwater casing.
Paradise with beach, crystal clear water, and sun, right here in Malaysia
Looking through the photos make me want to have underwater strobes and a couple Inon wet lenses so much. It’s a wish that can be answered by a few dozens RM 100 bills I can’t really afford to part with at this moment.
There’s always a delicate balance on splitting the limited amount of dough between gears and diving itself. Oh well, soon, soon…
Anyway, here are some of the better photos that serves a good summary from the 3 day trip.
nemo in anemone
Nemo, the artist formally known as clown fish, is quite abundant at coral reefs around Tenggol.
In one instance, Haze was talking to our dive master Charlie and used the word “nemo” before correcting herself and address it as “clown fish”. Charlie had to tell her that nobody uses clown fish anymore, not even the .. ahem.. older generations. Pixar is really that influential.
blue spotted stingray
Ikan bakar never looked so pretty. I found this blue spotted stingray (the colors are gone when you .. bakar them :S) hidden under some corals, these bottom dwellers usually like to hide under boulders, which makes this quite an opportunistic capture. I like how the blue spots turned out.
Haze, KY, Dave, and Rich
First pic was when we just arrived, the second on one of our normal boat dives with me and my full set of gears, and the last one just before the night dive on second day.
By the way I think that was the only pair of jeans on the whole island.
this crab is probably quite yummy on dinner plate
A lot of crustaceans come out to play and prey at night, Rich spotted this fancy crab amongst the rock and I was able to snap a pretty decent photo with the built in flash. I so wanted to have this on the dinner table, but alas, Tenggol is a marine park.
spiny lobster, even more yums!
Also known as rock lobster, this decapod would probably taste even better than the crab mentioned above! This thing was huge, at least 2 feet in length. But then looking through sea water amplifies your vision by around 30%.. emm..
the 5 sisters of Tenggol
This is one of the five sisters of Tenggol. They are five Vietnamese ship wrecks laying at the bottom peacefully at over 30 meters depth, there’s another wreck on slightly shallower water in the middle of the lagoon too.
We went to the wrecks every morning for 3 days straight. The slightly murky water, low light condition, and the quietness of being underwater gives this site a pretty ghastly feel. One can only imagine what went through the refugees’ minds from the moment the board the boat with all their belongings to feel the war torn country to the point when they reached Tenggol and had to sink their boat to make sure they weren’t gonna be towed out and left alone drifting in open sea.
A wide angle converter would do me good at this site.
look ma, a green turtle!
This was the only green turtle spotted over 8 dives. A shy little one about 2 feet in length.
Turtles aren’t very common in this part of the world anymore, this probably has something to do with the fact that they’re still selling turtle eggs at Kota Bharu and Kuala Terengganu, with the authority turning a blind eye on the grotesque abuse on animal conservation effort in this country. It’s just sad.
Giant barracuda, smile!
Schools of juvenile barracudas are pretty common at Tenggol, but the big ones less so. This was one of the two giant barracudas we spotted during the last dive. They’re some 3 feet across and can look downright scary, this photo doesn’t do justice to the awesomeness of this fish though.
look at the stars, look how they shine for you
Other than going underwater and enjoying the beach, the other thing that I absolutely love about being on an island is the stars. They are absolutely brilliant at night, thousands and thousands of stars when the sky is clear.
We were just chilling on the beach, under the star, and sipping some whisky at night. It was awesome, I want to be back there now!
Whenever a restaurant selling the same food with another more famous counterparts just a few doors a way and somehow still manage to survive all these years is always worth a visit.
Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee in Ah Fatt kopitiam is situated on the same row as the vastly more famous Ahwa Hokkien mee that I’ve blogged about, another example would be Satellite chicken rice located a few doors down from New Restaurant Ipoh Chicken Rice. If the two places can co-exist, one of them can’t be worse than the other.
Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee in Kedai Minuman dan Makanan Ah Fatt, off Jln 222
That said, we actually ended up at Peng Yuan because we had initially wanted to go to Ahwa, a place that is fast becoming one of our regulars. It was on a Tuesday, and Ahwa was closed. After a flurry of BBM messages, we decided to check out this joint to minimize logistic issues.
The place was packed, I suspect quite a lot of the extra customers ended up there due to the same reason. We made our orders, and waited, and waited, and waited….
wat tan hor (Cantonese flat noodle), hokkien mee, and fried chicken
Before our main dishes arrive (took some 20 minutes), we ordered some fried chicken wings and drumsticks as appetizer from the stall that claims to serve them “cheaper, bigger and better” (there’s a famous fried chicken wing stall at Ahwa to0).
Sure enough, the fried chicken turned out to be excellent. They were packed with flavor (asam?) and very succulent too, Jac ended up asking for an extra order, and that skinny bitch usually only eats as much as a small cat.
As far as Hokkien Mee (RM 15 for portion of 3) goes, I think Ahwa still has an edge, this dish at Peng Yuan was slightly too wet for my liking. The Cantonese flat noodle (wat tan hor, RM 15 for portion of 3) though, was fabulous. I especially like the very addictive sauce.
dessert soup, #porkgang, and nutmeg drinks
The kopitiam also serve “four fruits soup” (四果汤) that comes in a bowl with jelly and several types of nuts in a sweet soup. This is something that’s quite popular in Penang especially around those make shift theater that’s set up to worship the spirits/gods. The availability of nutmeg drinks, another Penang speciality, put me over the moon! If you haven’t tried it yet, you should.
Dinner turned out to cost less than RM 10 per person including the fried chicken and drinks. Though the hokkien mee was a bit of a let down, I’d come back here for the chicken wings and cantonese noodle, and oh, the drinks too!
Address:
Ah Fatt Kopitiam
42, Jalan 14/48,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.097563, 101.629334
Nudibranch is a type of shell-less mollusk (octopus is a mollusk too!) that dots the ocean, typically hanging at the rock wall, coral, or bottom of the sea. Also known as sea slugs, these creatures are pretty tiny, typically not larger than your pinky.
Nudis come in a huge variety of shapes and colors, but they usually have a recognizable head with a pair of antennas, and an naked gill like organ at the rear that looks almost like a flower. The colors act as a deterrence and/or camouflage, some nudis can somehow “move” venoms from their prey to the outer part of their body to make themselves toxic to their potential predators. Fascinating stuff.
Tenggol island was partly made famous by the abundance of nudibranchs, and in my last trip (31st April to 2nd May) and over 8 dives, I’ve spotted at least 11 different types of nudis at dive sites around the main and surrounding islands.
The photos below are taken with my Canon S90, either with the miserable built in flash that’s half blocked by the underwater housing, or with natural light. Color temperatures are corrected, as with a bit of contrast adjustments.
I am dreaming a set of underwater strobes, but those toys are pricey….
Phyllidia varicosa
Also referred to as the scrambled egg nudi, this one’s pretty big in size, almost 3-4 inches in length. I don’t know who came up with the name, but if you serve my scrambled egg in this color, I’m probably gonna reject it.
Flabellina exoptata
From the puplish base, white tips and the blue rings, this looks like a flabellina exoptata but I could be wrong.
black nembrotha something?
It took me better part of an hour to find out the name for this nudi, no luck. Anyone know?
Atagema intecta
Again, atagema intecta might not be the correct species name for this black nudi with tiny brown spots all over. With 3000 or so species of nudibranchs it’s quite a drag to find the correct name sometimes.
Chromodoris coi
The white and grey nudi with black outline’s just lovely.
Phyllidia coelestis
The first time I spotted this lovely blue and black nudi with yellow spikes and tentacles.
Chromodoris magnifica
This one’s also called the stripped pajama nudi, not hard to see why. But does anyone seriously still have pajamas of this yellow, white, and black color scheme?
1. Phyllidia pustulosa 2. Nembrotha kubaryana
3. Pteraeolidia ianthina 4. Hypselodoris bullocki
These few are the more common ones around Tenggol, with Pteraeolidia especially plentiful. In the last dive I could spot at least a dozen of them within 10 meters in diameter.
If you’re traveling on the road north of Kuantan and past Kemaman, you’ll eventually pass Kijal before reaching Kerteh/Dungun/Kuala Terengganu on your way to some island holidays or oil and gas work.
Now Kijal is a pretty uninteresting town with probably the only interesting place being Awana golf resort, a hotel that I’ve stayed a couple times on business travel.
the stretch of lemang stalls at Kijal
What Kijal has though, is this whole stretch of lemang stalls by the road side between Kg. Baharu Batu Anak Dara and Kg. Meraga on trunk road 145. And yes, I got the information from google map.
On the way from Dungun going south, there’s a little sign board that says “Lemang in 500 meters”. We drove past that on previous trip, but this time around, I made sure we stopped by and grab some lemang for the road.
2x lemang at RM 2.50 each, 2x serunding at RM 5 each
We stopped by the stalls and bought ourselves 2 lemang with 2 container of serunding (meat floss, we bought chicken and beef) to go with it.
The aroma of glutinous rice with coconut milk came gushing as soon as the lady split open the bamboo that was holding all that goodness in.
snooze inducing food, guaranteed
We dug in as soon as we got into the car. The rice was soft and so fragrant, and I didn’t imagine that glutinous rice with coconut milk could taste so good! The meat floss gave it a bit of extra flavor but I seriously could eat the piping hot lemang all by itself. If only we had some rendang too…
So if you’re traveling on that road, don’t miss out the lemang. A word of caution though, lemang is also probably the best traditionally sleeping medicine in Malaysia. Haze certainly pengsan about an hour after the lemang, and I almost snoozed off while driving too.
Address:
Kijal Lemang Stalls
Kijal, Terengganu
GPS: 4.3306878, 103.4508196
Mine’s at the pristine beach on Tenggol island. 6 dives yesterday and today, now waiting for sunset, dinner, and a night dive.
sand, sea, bliss!
Still no whale sharks, but we have at least another dive tomorrow before heading back to civilization.
How’s your weekends?
