the dunlap family adventures: Redang, Malaysia

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Redang, Malaysia

July 4th, 2010: Redang Malaysia

There is a country song that goes with this picture, dirk kept singing it while we were there, he offered to sing it on Chinese karaoke night too!

So like all holidays, that I make dirk go along with, we started out him knowing nothing and us ending up on a dock in the middle of a Muslim country. We wanted to get away for Independence day and I was itching to scuba dive again. So we headed to Redang, Malaysia, only a one hour plane ride from Singapore on a private airline, Berjaya air.

There were some hiccups at the start of the trip.... like me getting a middle ear infection and my ear drum perforating, not the thing you want to happen before you leave for a dive trip. This should have made me cancel the trip all together, but we trudged on with our plans anyway.

So to make a long story short... my first impression of Malaysia isn't exactly a good one. The airplane was delayed because of technical issues (not something you want to hear when you get on a tiny little airplane that is basically a no name airline). i could just see the headlines.

The hotel had just opened and had many, many, MANY problems! So many problems that dirk actually complained. monumental. To go along with all our problems, there was a family reunion of 63 Chinese Malay at the resort. They literally took over the 74 room resort, dirk said he felt right at home, like Christmas in his family, except there was bad Chinese karaoke every night. It was actually entertaining, of coarse they were gambling on everything, from the football match to their mahjonng tournaments.

All in all, we got what we paid for, fabulous diving (yes i dove with a busted ear, don't worry, the ENT said it looked great!), relaxation, and some good laughs! You have to have a good sense of humor in Asia, you won't get out alive without it.

Here are some of our dive pictures, they are very amateurish but we have fun seeing them and remembering the dive. The visibility wasn't great while we were there and huge patches of coral were dieing due to global warming. You will see that it turns white and then dies. The water was really warm, warmest water i have ever been in. The dive master said that in the last two weeks the water temperature changed two degrees and the coral started bleaching. The effects of global warming will first be seen in the killing of our reefs... so sad.

To start off, your model on the beach... HA!