Hi there KarenHii

Hi there, who are you? What are you?



You said it was for my own good and you turned away coldly like a lie. I can’t see what’s in front of me and that makes me scared.

Who are you? What are you?

Getaway to Alang Rawa - Rawa Island Malaysia 2013

Let's start this post with a trailer/video of our trip to Rawa Island edited by JunChew! :D

 

Last week, I spent the semester break with my classmates (Vivian, Fahad, JunChew, Beh, Gary and Sean) in Rawa Island. Before we actually plan the trip, we were just randomly having a conversation to getaway which I don't think is gonna happen. But surprisingly we made it!

Rawa is a Sultan’s private island. Owned by the family of the Sultanate of Johor, Rawa is a 16 kilometers small island off the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia. I would say that's the perfect place to relax and bond with no crowd by the beach. But if you are looking for fancy facilities then I would suggest you to go other island. There's two resort you can chose to stay in Rawa Island. For high-end lodgings, check out Rawa Island Resort. Budget hunters should look up Alang's Rawa. We chose Alang's Rawa because it was much cheaper and the review of it was good.

The content of this post:

• Our journey to Rawa Island
• Review of the - Management
•                  - Room service
•                  - Food
• The activity to do in Rawa Island 
• Photos :D

-Journey to Rawa Island-

This is the our estimated schedule to leave our house and route to pick up everyone. But on the day of our trip we stop by at Seremban KFC to take our breakfast so we delayed our departure time.

Some of us said it was quite suffering to sit in a car for five hours. But some of them fall asleep maybe due to our early schedule. We parked our car in the Mersing jetty for RM30 (two nights). Too bad the resort officer said our boat will depart at 1pm but it delayed until 2pm because we need to wait for another couple to join our boat. So we had our lunch at a cafe right in front of Mersing jetty. When the couple arrived, we took another 30minutes speedboat ride to Rawa Island. I read a lot of review that saying we will get drench on the speedboat and suggest us to sit on the left side. But we all didn't get drench getting there, maybe the handler had improve his handling skills? Haha.

I'm so regret that I didn't tied up my hair that day, the wind is so strong and messed up my hair. So I must face the other way to avoid the hair hitting on my face. Friendly reminder: Please tied up your hair  :P
Throughout the ride, we could see different color of the sea. The water at Mersing jetty was more brownish and polluted, as we go further, the water is turning dark blue. And as we get nearer to Rawa Island, the water becoming more and more clean and clear!

This picture doesn't add any effect and it was took by my Iphone. As you can see the beach, the water is very clean and clear. The sand was super fine as it looks like the sand in the hourglass. It was hard to hold with your hands also.

-Review-

Honestly, I am not very satisfied with the management because I'm the one who deal and contact them for the booking inquiries. First, they do not accept phone booking and ask for phone inquiries. So I need to email them for more booking info and worst is that they reply very slow. Plus their website is outdated because the package and the booking price was different so it confuse us the price. From our research, the people spent around RM300-350 and we spent RM500+ for 3D2N. The package mention in their website says RM390+ for group room (min 6 pax). But after the dealer confirm my booking, she told me that there's no more group room and offer us another smaller room which the price was more expensive. We were quite upset so I send another email saying that we were students and couldn't afford to pay too much. Lastly, she offer us the smaller room but same price with the group room.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of my room but the room number is B1 and B2 and here's the picture I got online.

That's exactly how our room looks like. Is clean and simple, but we would prefer the group room because is bigger and we don't need to be separated. At Rawa, everyone walks barefoot. No aircond or hot water, but rooms have fans. Water is saline water. Towels, toilet paper and soap are provided. Very good service by very friendly staff.

The package includes 2 breakfast, 2 lunch and 2 dinner. I would give 8 of out 10 marks for the food because the food is really nice. But it was too salty so we were wondering if they use seawater to cook everything. And also, it takes quite long to serve your meal. 

This is where we have our meals.

First dinner
Main course - Creamy prawn
Side dishes - Green Vege and wedges
The prawn was very fresh, but if you are a voracious person who eat a lot, please don't order the prawn because the portion is small. But is fine for me though. 

First breakfast
Main course- Scrambled egg with toast
Side dishes - Fruit and extra toast bread
Juice, coffee or tea.

Breakfast was simple but I must say their scrambled egg and butter is nice. I normally don't like milk product especially butter but I like their butter here :D 

First lunch
Main course - Tropicana Fish
Side dishes - Steam white rice and mixed vege

The best choice I made! The fish is super nice and special. It cooked with pineapple and watermalon, it was the best choice when the weather is very hot. Their steam rice is also simply delicious. Another thing I like the most is the Mixed vege. Is so nice until I order it again the next day.  

Second Dinner
Main course - ( Forgot what's the name)
Side dishes - bean sprouts, rosemary butter potatoes.

The sauce for the fish is really good. I would like to recommend you the rosemary butter  potatoes for all the potatoes lover. Again, I don't like potatoes but I'm quite in love with their way of cooking potatoes :P

Second Breakfast
Pancakes and the same side dishes.
I'm actually a pancake lover but I'm not very satisfied with their pancake because it has too much of baking powder.

Second lunch ( Our last meal ) :(
I chose Rawa Special Fish as my main course. Mixed vege and steam white rice again.
I have to say this is the best dishes in Rawa Island. Rawa Speacial Fish is fantastic and that's a most recommended dish I found on other review and also their staff recommend. 

-The things that you must do in Alang Rawa-
Well, I did mentioned just now that Rawa doesn't have fancy facilities, but these are the things you can do in Rawa Island.

1) Jump on the jetty or play the slides.

We went to the jetty and play the slides right after we settle down our luggage. Well, dear readers, if you want to play the higher slides, please make sure you can swim in deep sea. I'm going to tell you my silly experience on the first day. I'm quite good in every sports but not swimming, I can't swim in deep sea and I went to play the slides. Then I almost drown into the sea, I tried to call for help but my friend thought I'm just acting ( just so you know we are all acting students -.- ). Then suddenly Beh came down from the slides and hit my head. My whole body drowned deeply into the sea. For the few seconds I think I'm dying. So, for advise, please make sure you swim well before you play the slides. Another advise is don't jump during the low tide or else you might hurt your back. When the tide comes in, make sure the water reaches to about waist level and is perfect for that landing.

2) Climbing to the top of the hill.

There's a flight of stairs follow by some rocky path to the top of the hill with a full view of the island. We went up around 5.30pm because the workers said we can catch the sunset view on top of the hill. But too bad the day we went was too cloudy and we actually spent 2 hours up there chilling and taking pictures. The view is really nice and you can see the other side of island which is a wider ocean. We came down before it is too dark because we literally need to climb instead of just walking up and down. We stand on the mountain top and shout to hear our voice echo.

3) Snorkeling ( That's Gary and Fahad)

Another good thing about the package was included the activities fees. You don't need to pay extra for the equipment. All you need is to pay RM50 deposit for each equipment and is refundable. Well Alang's Rawa don't have much equipment as Rawa Island Resort but Rawa Island Resort charge for every activity.
This is the price for the activity with Rawa Islands Resort:
Snorkeling - Mask & Snorkel RM 5.00 per hour 
Snorkeling - Fin RM 5.00 per hour 
Kayak (Single) RM 22.00 per hour 
Kayak (Double) RM 28.00 per hour 
Hobie Cat RM 66.00 per hour 
Windsurfing RM 33.00 per hour 
Island hopping ( maximum 7 pax ) RM 300.00 per trip 
Fishing trip ( 3 to 4 person ) RM 300.00 per trip 
Fishing trip ( 5 to 10 person ) RM 500.00 per trip 
Pool table RM 3.00 per game 
Life Jacket RM 6.00 per day 
Diving equipment ( full set ) RM 85.00 per dive 
Tank refill RM 20.00 per tank

As I said if you are budget hunters then chose Alang's Rawa. We didn't paid extra money there except for the drinks. But there's this complain from my friends saying that the snorkeling equipment was not very good  because the equipment was old and they don't have enough smaller size for the fins. Only me and Vivian got the S size and all the guys were wearing L size and they felt uncomfortable with it. Other than that, the equipment was just a little bit yellowish and looks dirty.

4) Kayak

Alang's Rawa also doesn't charge extra for renting kayak, you just need to pay RM50 and get it back after you return the kayak. After the drowning experience on the first day, I'm afraid of going to the deeper sea, so I went snorkeling for while and I start handling a kayak. It was easy to paddle the kayak and easy to control. One thing about handle kayak is tiring because it exercise your arm. But for greater efficiency, use not only your arms, but your torso and shoulders as well. Is a very good workout I can say!

5) Cheer at the bar at night!

Well the resort that we went don't have a nice bar, so the first night we went to Rawa Island Resort for drinking. The guys ordered 3shots and a bucket of beer. We chill at the jetty and the wind is so cold that we feel relax. All the drinks we can get in this island is more expensive from KL, we understand because it came with a boat transfer everyday and there was quite a high cost for them.

6) Try their fresh plug coconut!
(Left : Fahad, 1st role from the left : JunChew, SeanLee, GaryEe. 2nd role : Beh, Me, Vivian )

Coconut water is refreshment and delicious especially during the hot weather. Their coconut water is fresh plug by their worker and is RM5 each. It might not cold but is really replenishes your body better than water after staying under the hot sun. It was amazing that the worker climb very fast up to the coconut tree. We actually tried to climb after it but it was hard for us. So the worker stay on top of the coconut tree for quite a while to chose the nice coconut and make sure there's water in it.

Meet Daisy! ( She like to be buried with sand)

Of course there's more activity you can do in the beach. For us, we brought our own Frisbee and Rugby to run on the beach and you can also play Frisbee with Daisy! She's very friendly and keep us accompany for the whole day since the day we arrived. We didn't bring any beach pail and shovel set so we can't build sand castle because we thought they will provide us. So if you are bringing kids along remember to bring beach pail and shovel set yourself.
Baby shark! The third day, me and Fahad woke up very early around 7am and we saw a baby shark swimming near the beach. I read some of the review said that we can manage to see baby shark in the morning if we are lucky. :P



Well I guess that's what I want to say. Let's end this post with some of the pictures that we took in Rawa Island !

Just me and Sean wanted to do some yoga pose with the sunset view.

The sun glasses gang!

The cute guys.

Playing cards while waiting for food.

On the way to Rawa!

Small crab found by Daisy

                               'Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.'

Here's love

DPAs with Anne James

Finished a performance called 'The Playlist' last weekend. I really enjoyed this subject and the seven weeks with my classmates was very sweet. I know this is cheesy but I do miss them a lot these few days since the beginning of semester break. I don't really miss anyone on the previous semester break. Maybe something has changed (yeah it does). I used to keep distance with some of the classmates, but during this seven weeks, I try to look things with different perspective and I found love here. 

Well, there's love everywhere. 

Often when I loved, I did not say so. But when I do, I really love. hmm..gonna have a road trip with the gang soon. Looking forward with it and hope everything goes well. I'm sure I will miss my mum a lot during the trip, hope she's fine too.

Just my cat sleeping beside me
when I'm typing this post :)

Goodnight with love here.

2013, the first entry

Well, that's me recently. Sorry about lack of updates, is not that nothing happens this few months, yet a lot. Something personal, lifestyle, social relationship, work, etc.......

I'm not going to write everything that I've been through this few months because I'm looking forward. wink ;D !!

I kinda like how's my life now because it is much more productive and I do chill with the peoples like what teenager should be. (sounds weird) But ha! Since I was quite regret about me didn't achieve any crazy thing and had a no-so-productive 2012, I need more improvement as in everything this year. Let's look at some of the pictures taken this past few weeks. If you followed me at Instagram, you probably saw the pictures before and I do often update pictures there :)

Genting day trip with le DPA, Challenge accepted!

Croissant Scrambled egg with bacon at Antipodean Bangsar with the sweeties :) 

Chocolate heaven!! at Dip n dip Bangsar with the sweeties below :*

Gonna plan more vacation because a semester break is going to come! At the same time,final project is around us. We are currently preparing our performance to show to the public. I think I'm doing quite good in this subject since I like theater performance. Do something you like is always fun! Please come and support our performance on the 8th-10th March @Sunway University Roof Top Theater. Poster will up soon :)

So I guess this is the end of today's post. Oh ya, I'm new with #Nuffnang today! Have fun!

-Positive thinking will let you do better than negative thinking will

Satisfaction

" You have to be grateful "

Well, I checked my result for first Sem this morning, it was fine when I first saw it. But there's a 'B' for  Improvisation subject with the mark 68. Well, two damn marks lost. It was quite disappointing but , maybe I really didn't work very hard for it.
Again, I told myself, 'Have to be grateful'.

Something changed after I joined Famine 30 hours' performance with Ti-ratana kids and Hands. Although I didn't join the famine activity, but I got something different from the participants. Something behind the stage. Ti-ratana kids was the orphans, when I first met them, I was quite panic to talk to them while not to hurt them or something they might think offensive. But they were so nice to us, they smile and play like no worries. Something very impressive was their learning attitude is amazing. I met a lot of students, but they did responsible for the show and practice. Hard to describe but I found they were spacial.

After all, I felt embarrassed of myself. I always complained that I've no money to settle things, didn't have a father as I wish, have no good result. I always unsatisfied this and that.
But obviously, I'm better than many people else. Well at lease I got place to live and things to eat; a loving mum+bro and a bunch of friends.

Now, I'm telling you. (Please holing yourself into it)
"You have to be grateful "

I'm lost

KAREN HII!! concentrate what you suppose to do!!

-

I don't know what I want. But I'd always like to compare to the pass.

:)

One of my uni friend asked me, 'Do you miss your old friend?'

'Yes, I do.'

后记

已经两个星期没有整天呆在家了，今天睡觉醒来到现在依然呆在房间的感觉好不习惯。这两个星期多数是早出晚归，才刚结束鼓宴就去尊孔公演当工作人员。

我很喜欢尊孔的学生，也很喜欢一起工作的郑悠和伟爵。从彩排到演出结束，我很享受每一刻。当然先要排除把键盘挂上去的那个时候，哈。第一次见面的时候，我不喜欢尊孔的学生，觉得他们没有礼貌，没有纪律，但是换个角度想我觉得他们很真。怎么说，他们很不做作。尤其是与他们教练的一番对话之后，我有吓到，原来他是那么地生气，然后让我想更多。不过也对，因为我把我学校和尊孔做比较，我也觉得没有面子。尊孔的学生一直让我哭笑不得，因为他们把所有东西想得太简单，结果到最后才紧张。有很感动，当我们已经很疲倦的时候，有个学生 请我们喝 茨场街出名的罗汉果。当我们觉得他们没有几个人紧张演出的时候，有个小弟弟认真地问我们其他学校办公演的时候是不是也是这样临时抱佛脚。当我们工作的时候，一直有个小孩来烦我们，还骗我们百二块。

环境是会影响正在学习的人，尊孔的人大部分说话都很直接，就像人来人往的茨场街。我也想起循人校长，跟他说话，看都不看你一眼。所以循人的学生在外的评语有时候也不见得有多好。说真的，没有读高三，我觉得我是提早看清楚很多东西。即使很多人说高三很快活，但同时也有人在说高三很无趣。如果我读高三，我就不会帮尊孔做舞监，就不会知道别人是怎样看我们的。当然，不是要把循人说到这样，但是有人开口了，难道你不承认吗?

说话真的重要，循人的人在你面前说话很重听，可能会觉得很做作，但至少他们会看场面。尊孔的学生说话真的有够直接的，如果我是他们的教练，我可能早就气死了。这几天我不知道为什么那么注重别人怎么说话，可能是有个让我超级反感的人，他一开口就没有一句好话。他不是那两所学校的人，他完全不会看场合说话。还有，我很讨厌他说话不经大脑，所以我简直就是在无视他。可能会觉得我小气，但是他不是一次两次了。这个人很骄傲，我实在不懂他凭什么去跟尊孔的学生说尊孔鼓队是个不被重视的鼓队。凭什么去唱说尊孔鼓队没有纪律。我反而觉得尊孔的强项远远超越你我两个，我都觉得惭愧，你还说他们不行。对不起，我本来就对你们学校的人没有好感，是你加强我对你的坏影响。

每一个鼓队都有要加强的地方，有它风格，有它的强项和弱点。最重要是他们如何从弱点找出优点，从优点找出缺陷。别人没有什么资格去批评太多，如果你没有去发掘他们的优点。

唱歌給我聽

我好想有人唱歌給我聽。

一首陪我的歌 。

生活有些顛倒，不管什麼時候，好像只有我一個人在徘徊。起床後，臉書上的人已經在忙碌，讀書的讀書，工作的人工作，唯獨我在自尋奇樂。連續幾天了，起床後也沒有一點做早餐的興致。所以即使是一片白麵包，也覺得滿足。終於三月了，但早上還是那麼平靜。唯下午變得精彩一些，昨天出席一項工作坊，講課的是馬來西亞國寶級人物Encik Kamrul Hussin, 來自Beringin Sakti Percussion. 他說，音樂是自由的。我無法形容他們對音樂的那種熱情，我們來自不同地方，不同種族，但是一起唱 Wau Bulan 的時候大家卻好像是相識已久，默契十足的好朋友。我很享受昨天晚上的課。

今天鼓宴2演出第一天, 表演者加油, 前台工作人員加油, 票房加油, merchandise 加油

現在梳洗一番，準備為今晚演出工作去 :)

三月

三月，快到了。
第一个星期，要参与鼓宴2
第二个星期，要负责尊孔鼓队公演，出席彩排
第三个星期，SPM成绩出炉，要办大学手续
第四个星期，开学

其他人，祝你们考试顺利
我去忙了 :)