One day in office, the courier came. It was tickets for Kobe Bryant’s Asia Tour.  Before the campaign launches, I asked myself, “Who the heck is Kobe Bryant!?” I thought he is some famous Singer whom (as usual) I’m not aware of. A basketball fanatic would think I’m stupid. Apparently he is the MVP of NBA 2008. (and also a rapist – let’s forget about that)

On the actual day, I was supposed to give out tickets to the Nuffnangers at the indoor stadium. I was honestly the least interested to be there. But since I’ve got nothing on, I decided to tag along with Elaine and her friends.

We have some super enthu fans wearing his jersey. One of them is Josh, one of my fav Nuffnanger.

Me: “Eh, Josh.. You super outdated lah.. I thought Kobe Bryant is No. 24?”

Josh: “… This one is old one lahhhh…”

I’ve come prepared! Trying to act like one of his fans also. Tsk Tsk.

[Wanted to slot in the Nuffnangers photo here, but was super blurry!]

Apparently some china dolls came up to us and ask if we were selling tickets. We had like 2 extras, and it was so tempting, you know? Cos’ Ebay is selling it like what, 200 bucks?! In the end, we didn’t

Upon entering the stadium, there are two gigantic poster which our eyes couldn’t have missed.

Cool shyt huh.

We had great seats inside, the 8th row from the front.

Follow down by the Nuffnangers!

Right on the dot at 7:30pm, comes the arrival of the King of Basketball, Kobe Bryant. The surroundings were pitch black, but only with striking white light shooting right through this translucent piece, which had his purple name on it.

Behind emerged a shadow of a well-built man. It was Kobe Bryant! And the fans cheered their lungs out!

He began his talk about his tour in Asia, what he thinks of Singapore, his new product, so on and so forth. Then I’m was enjoying on my packet of Lays.

I thought, there are going to be some kind of match coming up next. But to my disappointment (others too), the entire ‘live’ thing was just him training a bunch of bballers, teaching them drills etc. All we do is watch him talk, do a tweeny bit of stuns. That’s all. It might be a great deal to have learnt something from him for the other fans on site. But definitely not worth the money if you have paid for it!

I only liked the last part where he threw hand-signed basketballs to the crowd, like 20 of em’. That’s when the crowd got the most hyped up!

It ended pretty early. And just like after NDP ended, no cabs were available and we had to squeeze ourselves up the buses.

That day was also the first time I got to meet Ariel.

Till I blog again!

(I seriously need to complete my Tioman Post)

There we are at Coral Island! The waters there are much more clearer than Tioman itself. Isn’t it like swimming pool waters?

The beginners will start off practising their snorkelling skills at the shallow waters here, at this part of Coral Island.

For Noobs like me!

Kenny’s kuku center parting showing!

Let’s see what’s waiting for us in there!!

Woosh! Fishes fishes and more fishes!!!

Couldn’t describe the kinda feeling when I first dived my head in. It is soo beautiful! In fact seeing it real and not just fishing swarming by at your TV screen. I believe they are very immuned to humans already. They swim super fast and without touchin you an inch at all! We were literally swimming with the fishes!!!

As a noob, I woudn’t dare swim too far out as stablisation has not intialised till 100% yet! Super need Kenny by my side during my first experience.

We familiarise ourselves around the water and headed to our next destination soon enough.

We moved on to deeper water at the other side of Coral island.

The boat stopped at this place of no where. I was like, don’t tell me we are going to snorkel here…. Before I could ease my fear, Kenny dived in to the water and started his adventure..

His first words outta water was, “OMG the fishes!!!! There are millions of them!!”

That made me really excited!!

I’m all set and ready!

Snorkelling is really a great experience one should ever try in their lifetime! The underwater view is spectacular, you can never compare it to one you see on TV. Cos’ its totally different, totally.

Have fed the fishes with enough bread, and it’s our turn to be hungry!

We were brought to another village at the north of the island for our lunch. We had simple stuff like Pattaya fried rice, nth much to eat there but lotsa gritty nitty things to shop.

That’s our underwater camera, disposable tho. Am thinking of buying a chio permanent one.

After lunch, we headed to our last destination, Reggis Island, to snorkel.

Those white coloured dots are seagulls. It was such a beautiful sight..

We went from beginner to intermediate to advance snorkeling. And of course more fishes! At Reggis Island, it is way populated with Corals and I exceptionally love this blue coloured one. There I saw sea urchins too, all cluttered together and you can spot their thorns moving. I’ve spotted Squids too!

Now that we are “a-hem” abit more pro, we intent to snorkel round the island. I was quite worried, so I held on to Kenny’s hand while we swam. Under the water, all you can hear is your breathe and soft “ting ting ting” sounds from the waters.

I looked down and saw this mini shark at the sea bed. Before I can nudge Kenny, it’s gone. Until we reached the last quarter, we decided that we swim back as the current is rather strong at that end.

Din’t manage to take any photos as the camera was outta film.

This marks the end of our snorkeling trip. We got back to the hut, soaked in the bathtubs and dozed off in our bed until evening time.

The night life begins with our dinner at the same dining place. Went over to Tekek’s beach after that and finally found Canbana. Running that place were some hyped locals and Angmohs. I don’t feel really comfortable hanging out with them so we just sat at the beach, with our beer and dazed at the starry stars..

*lousy camera couldn’t capture stars*

Until a while, we thought this is so not our thing. Left that place and went shopping for souvenirs for our colleagues.

Having done shopping, we bought some BBQ stuff from the locals. While waiting for the squid and fishes to be BBQ-ed, Kenny began making friends with the store owner. I have always wondered how can he just strike a conversation with strangers just like that. And if only I had that kinda skills.. Haha.

They became “so friend” that they are willing to ask their own son to ferry us back to Berjaya.

The locals are so friendly!

We visited  a beach bar at Berjaya where they had great Pinoy singers and good entertainment.

During their intervals, there is another group of singers who will go table by table to sing for you.

Cheers!

Wad a fun night we had. I staggered back to the room and could almost knocked out! Then, there Kenny gave an shocking expression. He said, ” I got a bad news, real real bad” I was like wtf?

He lost his bloody wallet.

For the entire night, he walked to and fro the places we had been that night but still couldn’t find it. Had a tough night cos all our cash are inside. Hardly slept. Made police reports and notified the resort personnel. Kept praying and praying..

That was the kind of mood we had to leave  from this beautiful island the next morning. Luckily we still had 50 ringgit with us to last the day.

At the jetty the next day, some naughty kids threw bread into the water and here comes..

THE FISHES!!! Haha..

Though this trip ended pretty bad, it was overall a great experience and I totally love the place. I would want to visit this remarkable island again, and the next time round, I would probably do hiking, visit the waterfall and to other places that I’ve never been to.

Till then Tioman!!

*******

Two days later while on our way to church, we were telling Kenny’s mum how the wallet got lost and then came a phone call from Tioman! They said the wallet was found!!! Someone returned it. What’s most surprising is that the money was intact, nothing went missing! Amazing.

Was wondering why is this so?

1) We have scanned through the place like a bazillion times.
2) It was 100% nt in the hut (have realised it was gone when he just stepped inside)
3) If someone found it, and why he has to return it like days after?
4) If someone stole it, then why return?

Could it be…

The cats!? LOL. Look at their scheming eyes!!!

But anyway thank God!!