~Selected Photos From My Expedition~

Here are some of the photos taken during my expedition:

These photos I took when we were heading to and from our field sites:













Such beauties~
Glad to be there ^.^

I’m Back!!

Oh well, after 8 days at Pulau Mandi Darah, my group had finally done all the works of sampling and taking physical parameters of the study sites. At last I'm back to modern luxuries... hehe..

Hmm, actually I'm not sure where I should start off with~

How about a brief introduction to Pulau Mandi Darah?

Pulau Mandi Darah got her name from the princess of Brunei, Puteri Laila. She was on her way back from the Philippines to Brunei in 1885 when she had her menstruation. She stopped at the island to wash herself up in a nearby well near a cliff of the island. She was astonished by the beauty of the island that when she went back to her ship, she asked the captain of the fleet what is the name of that island. She was thrill when the captain told her that the island had no names yet, and since she is of the highest rank in the fleet, she can name the island. That’s how the island got her name, as told by the Haji. Judging by the name the first time I saw, "Mandi Darah", I thought it was an island that had bloodbath battles before. Boo my opinions? Go ahead~

The island itself is not so big, consist mainly of sandy areas and a part with rocks and cliffs. It takes about 1 hours 15 minutes to walk around the island during ebb tide. When tide comes in, it will be harder to walk through especially the rocky areas where water will reach up to waist level and sting rays are a threat. Yes, Sting rays! We were at the rocky part during a neap tide when we encountered a sting ray. Somehow it was dangerous but the Haji's son, who was also our "tour guide" asked us not to move til it went away. Useful~

FYI, the island currently has 5 families staying there. Our camp site is located near to the Haji’s house in front of a surau. The Haji allows us to pump fresh water for cleaning and daily use from his nearby well. How generous of him. However, the water itself is groundwater with soil particles suspended and a bit salty, surely with a distinct smell. We used it mainly to bath and to clean our equipments after sampling or diving. We have our consumable water from 40 boxes of 1.5L drinking water as well as bout 20 RO water tanks. Imagine we had to carry these heavy water from one end of the jetty to the another then to ur camp site. Phew~ We also have a kitchen set up with a cook to supply us with every meal. Also, we had a lot of seafood throughout these 8 days. We got our seafood supply from the local fishermen. Cheap and fresh.

There is also a platoon of army staying there on the island in a permanent base. They are responsible to maintain the national security for that part of Sulu Sea because that area has lots of pirates and many cases of kidnapping and abduction had been reported. Illegal ships are more likely to be spotted due to its nearness to the Philippines (Sulawesi). Dangerous eh?

Here’s some pictures of the island:

Yay, I had set foot on this island!

The Girl's

The Boy's

Behind is our kitchen (Under roof)

The jetty that we used (Orange house is an observing and security post for a platoon of army)

A view on the jetty

Sunrise

Sunset

Before a thunderstorm

Beach nearby our camp site

An abandoned house on top of the sea

A short trail to the other side of the island


Beach at the other side of the island

More photos in next post~
Cheers!!

Day 1, Stucked At Kudat ~.~

Started our way to Kudat from Borneo Marine Research Institute (BMRI) at around 7.40am. A total of 22 people, including lecturers and reseach assistants joined this first batch to go. Another batch will go on 18 June. There are 7 of us from my batch of final year students in this expedition. The bus trip was rough, not a good one. It took us around 3 hours and another half to reach Kudat town.

After lunch, we were informed by the project manager that we have to postpone our trip til the next morning due to strong wind and incoming waves. We were placed into a hotel nearby the harbor. So here I am now, typing this blog. It's 2.30pm now, and we are free til 7pm for further briefing and for our dinner. So think I shall catch up some sleep for now. Didn't have enough sleep lately...

Well then, good day everyone~

Tomorrow Will Be The Day!!

Finally, 7.30am tomorrow we will start our expedition. I don't think I can online throughout the expedition period, in addition to not being able to use handset due to the absence of provider's broadcast signal. Anyway, I shall update this blog as soon as possible upon my return.

Photos I searched online......




Today was another busy day. Went out to get a sunblock in case of severe sunlight (in which will surely happens), got some junkies for the trip and returned to hostel after dinner. These few days had spent a lot of money, so sad~

Well then, Pulau Mandidarah, here I come~

My Goodness!! Everything Changed At The Last Minutes!!

Believe it or not, my proposed Sulu Sea Expedition onboard KD Perantau was canceled. Changed to be exact. Suppose the navy vessel will depart from Kota Kinabalu on 15 June but due to some reasons, whatever the reasons are I am not sure, they postponed the trip to 12 July.

Because we will have to attend lectures during that time, and obviously the trip needs weeks to be carry out, we are placed to a smaller group to join the Sulawesi Expedition instead. The site will be more or less the same as the Sulu Sea's, just that we will only cover a smaller area from the initial trip. Our base will be set up at an island called Pulau Mandidarah (amazing name?? blood bath..). From there we will go to different sites everyday and shall return to base for the night. Should be quite tiring...

I will leave Kota Kinabalu for Kudat on 15 June, then from Kudat will go to our base. The real expedition starts on 19 June.

Well then, let's hope everything will go according to plan~

Here I Am, Staying Temporarily At Hostel

Whole morning was used to pack stuffs. Took quite a long time to gather stuffs that will be needed. Thought could travel lightly this time but, stuffs were bombarded inside my baggage in the end, with an extra backpack and a laptop bag.

After done with packing, kc came and we went out to have lunch at Pending area with ameagor. Speaking of ameagor, he was supposed to attend and hear a court around 9am today. Apparently he woke up at 8.45am, so.... sure will be late. Being late, plus the previous failed-to-appear for hearing, he missed it for the second time. The first one he misread the date, 20 May for 26 May. And so me, kc and him were at court on 26 May and eventually it turned out that ameagor has to renew his hearing time with JPJ.

So today was the second try for a single hearing. Yes, date was correct, was late but acceptable, but, ironically, JPJ did not hand up his case to court. Good job?? Looks like ameagor will has to go to JPJ again for a retime. Hopefully the third time can be a success...

Back to our lunch, it was at a place kc saw from Ah Ong's facebook if not wrong. Selera Corner. RM 4.80 for a plate of food where th quantity you can take as much as the plate can hold. Nice right?? But we were a bit late and so the food left was not that much to choose. Nevertheless, we sure stuffed lots of food inside and we were really full after that, too full..

After that kc took me home. I had a quick bath, final checked my stuffs, then dad took me to airport bout 2pm. Met up with Stanley and Ray, then the three of us departed for Kota Kinabalu at 3.35pm.

Flight was quite fast. Read newspaper, took a nap and then we were there already. Bout 4.45pm we landed safely at Malaysia Airlines Terminal. Then hired a cab and headed towards UMS. Rent a room then took a bath, went to 1Borneo to buy some water and here I am now writing this blog. Line sucks here in this room. My digi line is practically "dead" and Celcom broadband that I'm using only has 1 bar of signal, and it always get disconnected...

Tomorrow morning will have to meet up with Dr.Sujjat for a briefing about the expedition.. Feeling tired from the rush today..

All right then, it shall be good night first for now.. (not yet sleep, play game for awhile first)

~Finally~

Its 3am now.
Got home quite some time ago from ameagor's place. Hang out with hh, kc and tw.

Was busy whole the day. Went downtown to get stuff for aunt (apparently it was out of stock), then went Greek's to buy my sleeping bag, had lunch at Bombay Masala then at night had dinner with family before heading to 10th miles' ameagor's place.

Milkshake was on the tonight's menu; i brought milk, kc got the ice cream. Surprisingly we (all boys) that gathered decided to prepare mee goreng. Not bad la. Apparently ameagor's share was "abducted" by his sis. You can imagine what it taste like already~ haha...

Hmm... haven't done with packing yet, or should I say haven't started packing yet~ Well, it can be done in a short while, can't it? Leave it til morning then. Just now i turned down some Ganera's buddies for a "impossible dungeon" mission of Twilight's Eve RPG whereby I was supposed to be in the game as tanker. I also missed out the night before. So it was 2 in a row that i missed, sorry guys. We'll play again when I have the time.

Kinda sleepy already. Well, gotta do some stuffs first and hopefully can get to bed in 20 minutes. good night y'all~ Sleep tight...

Last Day, Knock Knock knock...

Just got back home a while ago. Went out for a small gathering to celebrate friends' birthday for the month. There were 4 of them in total (birthday boys & girls) that came and we bought a chocolate cake for them and had dinner at a cafe at Jalan Song. Happy Birthday Guys!! Wish you guys all the best! ^.^

Morning will need to do some final shopping to get things for the expedition. Packing shall be done soon after that, i suppose.

Well then, its the start of another day~ Cheers!!

Two More Days Left

Its 10 June and I have 2 more days here to go. I don't know when will I be coming back, might be in weeks or maybe months depending on my schedule. 5 days to go for expedition.

I have not start packing my things yet. For the coming expedition I shall travel lightly, don't wanna bring too much stuffs. Hopefully everything will be provided inside KD Perantau. Been wondering what I can do at night inside the vessel for 2 weeks lately. 2 weeks on board a vessel not touching any land soil, hopefully boredom doesn't strike after sunset.

Well, til then I will know~

I Still Got A Lot To Catch'Up!!??

I still can't fully "utilise" this blog, yet... Need time to discover all the gadgets, themes, settings, etc...

Anyway, It's 9 June (GMT +8) already, which means I will be leaving in another 3 days for Kota Kinabalu to embark on KD Perantau, a navy vessel for the upcoming Sulu/Sulawesi Expedition.

This holiday is rather short, duh~
Hopefully next time can get a longer holiday.. =.="
Cheers for that!!

Hope, Peserverance, Persistence

~It shall be this then, the beginning of my blog. There's more to learn......