Redang Day Two: Finding Nemos

Location: Exactly at sea-level with many, many, many coral fishies
Mood of the day: Lazy Man's Float

Cheers! I woke up the next morning and all my clothes smell like fish. It's all the fault of the cool salty wind coming through open door and windows that never seemed to stop. My hair's got all stiffed, dried up and smelling like beached seaweed.

With 3 ladies to a bathroom, thank industrial hair product chemistry for Follow Me conditioner but the bottle's empty by the end of this post :P. Luckily, my sis didn't (or haven't) charged us for it.

Took us some time to find a picnic spot and still more people are coming.

We set off for the marine park at 10.Something AM by boat since it's on the other side. Tourism Ministry now charged peopleto get into these waters (lousy money eating, opportunity cheating, oh did I wrote that out aloud?).

There were already a lot of people and the beach was packed with locals and the most Mat Sallehs I've ever seen in one spot. Most of them were under the park's jetty out of the sun and once in the water, everybody's in red life jackets so you really can't tell who's who during snorkelling.


Most of the corals are only skeletons but still very sharp

The first thing I noticed was the lack of the black, sand covered, arm-length, motionless sea cucumbers (ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!!). Probably all shipped to the Perhentian :P. The water's very, very clear. There are the common bony staghorn corals and a flat surface variety here and there.

Mom packed this tough dry bread because they're cheapest. But they break apart in the water so I kept it in my fist as the fish nibbled between the fingers. They do like bread, I mean, where else can they get factory-baked ones in the sea?


The water's very, very clear. Too bad the Konica isn't waterproof...

By far the most common was black and white striped angelfish that were bigger than your palm. There's the tiny blue-black remora that cleans other fish and is about the side of your index finger. I saw a silverpike and a small species group of blue swordfishes. One kept following me as I go look for the famous clownfishes. I called him Long John Silver.

Underneath the jetty were thousands and thousands of slim silvery ikan bilis, swimming in groups and not in your sambal all dried up :P. Rainbow fish and parrotfish needed no extra description other than each of them was huge and could big off the whole of your thumb (I checked each of my fingers after every feeding). My sis became the Pipe Piper of Redang when all the fish followed her as she left a trail of breadcrumbs.


Two different species of baby turtles. They're sooo cute!

After the swim, we took a visit to this sea turtle centre to see the newly hatched before they get released. Lil' bro went back to study Malay Literature while the four of us took to Redang Bay for a late lunch. As I bite into my Ramli burger, sis gasped that she thought she left her purse and dad's money back at the boat. Now we can't pay for our meal. Dad was frantic and waded out to sea at the anchored boat, shouting at the seamen, my sis herself in pursuit (guilty run!).

Mom took another look into the big black bag of snorkels and masks and found the money/purse. She ran off to them herself, waving the missing items like flag signals. I couldn't desert the table of half-eaten food with the Ah Lian watching so I just keep eating as the other got waist deep back in saltwater. This was such a fun day *big wink* ;)

Signed: *Ophie, "I found 4 clownfish Nemos in this tiny patch of purple anemone. Long John Silver dived down and shook them up a bit, they're highly territorial." ;)