Bubble of Hope

Bubble of Hope is a charity dive event in which a group of young divers did what they love most - scuba diving while donating for charity at the same time. This event was organised by Project Vacation and this time they collaborated with Small Changes, a NGO whose current project is to provide english education for underprivileged children. The diving trip took place in Tioman Island.

I am so proud and happy to be part of the event. 

The diving trip took place from 16th to 18th September 2016,  during the Malaysia day weekend. I joined the trip along with my dive buddies, Hidayah and Thiru. It was also our anniversary trip as we became certified divers about a year ago in August 2015. 

We stayed at Bayu Tioman Challet, Kampung Genting (http://www.bayutioman.com) and was pleased with the cleanliness of the place. The food provided was also good. What was more impressive was that they tried to cater to Thiru's vegetarian needs despite such short notice (we told them during lunch and at dinner they prepared special vegetarian food for Thiru). 

The challet

We have been to a few dive centres and for this dive, we went to Bayu Dive Centre. So far, they are one of the most organized, professional and comfortable dive centre that we have been to, almost like Dive Downbelow in Kota Kinabalu where we took my open water and advanced open water courses (we had such good experience with Dive Downbelow that they have become our gold standard for dive centres). 

The chill-out place

Platform overlooking the sea where we setup our gears prior to a dive

Bayu Dive Center is managed by a young guy, named Najat. Guess what..he is only 24 years old! From what I heard, the dive centre was set up by his father initially and he took over the management probably about a year ago. I have to say that he did a great job. No doubt if I were going to dive in Tioman again, I will head to Bayu Dive Center without much thought. 

We dived for 4 times at 4 different dive sites; Pulau Renggis, Tomok, Batu Malang and Teluk Gaduk.

The dives were great. Thiru and I were placed in Group B along with another 6 divers. Hidayah was in Group C. They had to separate us into groups as there were quite a number of us hence, the easiest and safest way to handle us would be to place us into groups. 

My dive master, Irfa. Small but strong. Kecil-kecil cili padi. 

I had good dives at all 4 sites. The corals were pretty and extensive still, unlike certain islands where the corals are sadly dying. There was a lot of marine lives that never failed to impress me as well. 

At one of the dive sites, Renggis if I am not mistaken, there was this 'playground' as they called it -  artificial reeves which made good photo-taking spots. All camera-holder problem - I took people's photo but none of mine. 

Another diver, Hafizi struck a nice pose on the treadmill

Apart from the dives, the organiser had also prepared other activities. We had ice breaking session where each of us had to tell stuff about ourselves. It was so interesting to listen to people's travel adventures and experiences. We also had sharing sessions in which they had invited 2 speakers; one of them was Apat who shared about his UW photography interest and his experiences over the years. Another was a very experienced master instructor who has been in this field for more than 10 years, oh it is a shame that I could not recall his name now. 

On the last night, we had Acoustic Night and the theme was Hawaiian/floral. All of us were such a sport that we all dressed accordingly. We had performances by most of the DM/instructors in Bayu Dive Centre. My DM Irfa, she sang very well. She sang while her fiancé Haris played the guitar and sing along with her. They were such a cute couple. Late that night, we had photography and firework session to end the day. 

The ladies in Hawaiian/floral themed outfits

The firework

Overall, I had a good time during this trip. I'm sure Thiru and Hidayah did too. We met new people and made new friends. At the moment of writing, we are already planning our next adventure together. 

To my buddies, Thiru and Hidayah, where should we celebrate our anniversary next year? *wink*

The whole gang of Bubble of Hope 

Birthday!

I turned 30 on September 5th 2016. Happy birthday to me!

Since a lot of my girlfriends would be on call on 5th, so I made them celebrate my birthday a day earlier. We went to Konda Kondi for dinner and Yammini bought me this superbly delicious mango delight cake.

I love the wish on the cake, not the usual Happy Birthday. Instead she wrote "be happy forever Wani"
That was so sweet Yammini, thank you so much. It meant a lot to me.

Thank you girls for celebrating my birthday =)

At midnight, @Butang wished happy birthday while holding a candle in a dark room. That was so sweet of him. How I wish he is nearby and we get to celebrate together. 

I thought that would be the end of my birthday celebration. But guess what, I was wrong! I am so glad that I was wrong. LOL.

4 days later, my darling girlfriends secretly planned a surprise birthday picnic for me. I have always wanted to have a picnic. I have been ranting about it for so long but we could never find a suitable time for that. 

So last Friday, while at work, Hidayah texted and invited me for tea along with Thiru. HJ said she would be coming too. I actually planned to go jogging that day as I have missed jogging for a few days but then, tea always wins in this tea-jog battle. So I said yes. HJ said she would pick me up but then I decided that it would be easier to take my car instead. 

HJ said she needed to go to the bank first, so we did. It was passed 5pm and I still had no idea where we were going for tea as Hidayah and Thiru did not reply my texts. So I just drove around until HJ received a phone call from Hidayah, telling us that her car broke down at Taman Dr and we had to pick her up. 

So we drove to Taman Dr. I saw Hidayah's car parked nicely in a parking lot but she was nowhere to be seen. I parked closed to her car and HJ literally dragged me out of the car towards an open space. 

Then I saw a lovely picnic setup. Hidayah and Thiru were there and Hidayah was filming with her Gopro. There was the birthday song in the background. I realised it was a surprise birthday picnic for me. I was utterly happy and was beaming away at the sight. I got the picnic that I have always wanted =).

My second birthday cake this year - matcha tiramisu

The backbone of the whole event

Thank you Haslinda for the lovely roses

Thank you for coming everyone!

I am so thankful for having such good friends who went the extra mile to make my birthday special. Birthday means so much more when it is celebrated with people who love and care for us. 

Thank you girlfriends!

#ilovemygirlfriends

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Explore Nature

Hello! I am so exited to write on my latest #explorenature activity.

My friends and I have been planning to try white water rafting since last year but we never got the chance to do so until recently. Last weekend, 8 of us went on a nature adventure at Gopeng, Perak. We booked a package with Riverbug.asia and we were so glad that we chose them. We have to thank Thiru for organizing the trip and everything went on smoothly. 

The package that we took included white water rafting, waterfall abseiling and caving at Gua Kandu. Lunch and tea were provided as well. We paid RM290 each for the package. 

On Saturday, 27th August 2016, we gathered at Gopeng toll exit and waited for the tour guide from Riverbug.asia to meet us there and lead the way to the Ulu River Lodge where we parked our cars. 

The 5 of us car-pooling to go to the meet up point

Upon arrival, we were asked to fill up a form and given a locker to put our precious belongings. Then the fun began! We took a lorry to go to Riverbug briefing/storage area where the white water rafting will begin. 

The journey with the lorry took about 10-15 minutes. It was a new experience for us. I have never stand at the back of a lorry as such before. 

Gearing up for our white water rafting adventure

We were given a clear and thorough briefing on white water rafting prior starting our adventure. The safety measures and the commands that were used in rafting were explained to us. Basically, all we have to do is to listen to the guide's instruction and there were only a few of them which made it easy to remember. Forward paddle means to paddle forward, backward means paddle backward, Boom Boom means danger so we have to sit in the raft and hold tight to the safety rope, Jump Jump means to bounce on the raft in case the raft get stucked in between the rocks or someting. Pretty easy huh.

Geared up and all ready!

As can be seen from the photo, there were a lot of people doing white water rafting on that day. We had to queue and took turn to start the rafting and also to go through the rapids. The waiting was pretty time consuming. As the water level on that day was a bit shallow, we were separated into 2 groups. Soh Nam, Bany, Sashi and I were in a raft together and our guide was Han. Thiru, Hidayah, Lini and Aishah were in another raft and their guide was Jerry. 

The Riverbug person took a lot of shots of us along the way but I have not gotten the photos from them. They said it would be up in their website and we can purchase them online but the photos are still not available. 

The 2 photos above were taken with my Gopro camera. Those are the photos of Thiru's raft. I was in my raft about 20 metres from them so the photos are not very sharp. There were water droplets on the lens thus making some area of the photo a bit blurry. I can't wait to purchase the photos from Riverbug. I saw the photos in their laptop the other day. The photos are amazing. 

After white water rafting, we had lunch at the Ulu River Lodge. The food was amazing! Or perhaps because we were so hungry, we ate heartily. 

After lunch, we went for waterfall abseiling. It was my favourite activity of the day. I bruised my knee as I slammed on the rocky wall and I was bitten a bug or maybe a leech but the experience was worthy. 

Look at the waterfall. Beautiful! 

That's me! I nailed it!

Feeling so excited and super proud of myself after I abseiled down the waterfall

The awesome gang who went for #exploranature adventure 

After waterfall abseiling, we went caving at Gua Kandu. Gua Kandu is a limestone cave. It used to be the hideout place for the communist back in the days. Some part of it was very dusty. It was pitch black inside. We each had a torch light/headlight to help us move in the dark. Most parts were dry. Helmet is a must as we have to crawl/squat at certain area and I bumped my head multiple times.

We saw stalactites and stalagmites which took centuries to form. There were rocks that resemble the famous 'ThunderCats' but sadly it was too dark inside to capture any photo with my Gopro camera. 

The entrance of Gua Kandu

After caving, we went back to Ulu River Lodge to shower and change to clean and dry clothes. 

It was already dark by then. The lodge does not have electricity supply and depends on generators. But on days where there are no guest staying in for the night, they do not turn on the generators. So we showered in partial darkness, using the torch light to give some light. 

After shower we had some cakes and coffee. To our surprises, the guides brought out a birthday cake! We wondered whose birthday it was and had to see the names on the cake to find out. 

My first birthday cake for year 2016 :-)

The cake was for August babies and me. We didn't expect the cake at all. Thanks to Thiru for organizing a surprise birthday celebration for us. Surprises are always nice.

The day ended perfectly with a nice piece of chocolate cake each. The guides then lead the way back to Gopeng Toll exit and we drove back to Ipoh, exhausted but happy and satisfied.