ANOTHER OUTING

On the advise of my guide, Putu Sudiana, we got ourselves ready for the trip to Turtle Island. My son especially was excited. My daughter, Hawadah biasa aje. All this while dia memang macam tu pun. Yang si kecik tu ikut aje. So we all pun siap-siapkan apa yang patut untuk snorkeling and after a quick breakfast we went out to the lobby as Putu promised to fetch us at 8.30am and he was punctual just like yesterday.

The trip to the jetty (if I can call it jetty but there is none actually) took us around 20 minutes. I requested for an instructor for my ever anxious boy cause aku ni bukanlah pandai sangat berenang. Dalam swimming pool pun seriau inikan pulak lautan dalam. Nasib baiklah aku tak pernah cakap kat bini aku "lautan dalam sanggup ku renangi". Jiwang-jiwang tak main la. Besides I know my son very well. Dia ni jenis yang terlebih berani. Tu sebab aku mintak instructor. The total charge for this tour was Rp1.15 million plus another Rp200000 for underwater photo taken by the instructor.

Dalam glass bottom boat, baru berlepas dari pangkalan.

So, after choosing the equipment for snorkeling, off we went. At first, the boat ride was smooth tapi bila sampai laut dalam, hah ambik kau. Dilambung ombak. Angin tak usah cakap lagi la. Habis jahanam jambul aku. Tapi anak lelaki aku bukan main enjoy lagi. Lepas lebih kurang 15 minit sampai la kat tempat snorkeling. Aku tengok airnya dalam gak. Instructor tu kata about 5 meters. What????

My son put on his snorkeling attire and before I could advise, woooosshhh.... he was already in the water. Like I said, dia ni lain macam sikit. As for me, aku teragak-agak samada nak turun ke tak. Yang ni dalam babe. Masa snorkeling kat Sabah dulu tak la sedalam ni. Anak aku dah panggil-panggil suruh turun. Tambah pulak aku tengok bot ni semakin lama semakin jauh dari tempat anak aku terjun. Dia tak pe la, instructor boleh bawak dia swim back to the boat. Aku ni...... dah la keliling kat situ ramai pelancung yang snorkeling.

Aku pun cekalkan hati duduk kat tepi bot. I saw my daughters were busy looking at colourful fish and corals through the glass at the bottom of the boat. "May be join dia orang pun ok gak", I thought. Then I heard my son yell, "Papa! turun la, nanti Haziq pegang". Ewaah...ewaah... kurang asam betul budak ni. Aku dok pikir kalau aku turun lepas tu lemas, huh.... free-free je wife aku dapat duit insurance. Banyak tu... Then aku teringat my brother told me that his friend almost lemas masa snorkeling. I look down again.... wooo... memang dalam. Tak pe la . I didn't want to take chances. Thank you very much. Then anak perempuan aku, Hawadah pulak nak turun. So, Along terpaksa naik and passed the equipment to her. So she jumped but very brief as she got panicked and asked the instructor to pull her back to the boat. Along pun apa lagi... happy la dia. Terus dia ambik balik equipment tu and.....Voooosssh dalam air. After about half an hour, we then left for Turtle Island. From there it took around 15 minutes.

Pemandangan Turtle Island dari dalam bot memang cantik. Sampai aje kami disambut oleh guide yang memang ramai menuggu pelancung-pelancung. Terus dibawa kami ke tempat turtle. Hah ambik kau...jangan kata bapak, datuk turtle pun ada. Umur dah menjangkau 70 tahun. So anak-anak aku kecuali yang bongsu pun naik atas datuk turtle tu. Begitulah bila dah jadi orang tua, selalu kena buli dengan cucu-cucu. Anak aku yang kecik cuma tengok je. Dia cautious macam aku. Control macho. Lepas tu kita orang dibawa pergi tengok ular sawa pulak. Besar dan beratnya 30kg. Makan daging 2 hari sekilo. Tengoklah hero aku ni... kita orang semua geli nak pegang tapi dia selamba aje. Kat sini pun we all dapatlah tengok secara dekat Burung Helang (Eagle), Burung Hantu (handsome....) dan Burung Enggang (berlagak semacam je...). Dah puas tengok species ni we all pun minum air kelapa and aku of course kopi o (Bali punya). 434 lagi sedap babe. Jam dah pukul 11.30am and we started walking to the boat as we had other agenda in the afternoon...apa lagi kalau bukan shopping. Nak release stress. Mana tak stress. Jambul aku dah hancus kena pukul angin. On the way back, aku dapat la tengok ombak yang tinggi and kat situ memang ramai orang surfing. Dalam gambar tak berapa nampak sangat tinggi tapi in actual memang tinggi.

Turtle Island, pemandangan dari dalam bot








Ombak tinggi, tempat surfing.

Sampai kat pangkalan, Putu dah menunggu. Dia ni memang reliable. Lepas bersihkan pasir-pasir yang melekat, we left for Kuta. I paid Putu Rp250,000. I hope sufficient la walaupun Putu tak letak harganya. I really admire this guy. Very humble and honest.




Posing dengan hero aku kat luar bilik sementara tunggu wife bersiap.








At Centro Discovery Mall, Kuta





Lepas solat and quick lunch in the room, we walked down the street of Kuta heading towards Centro Discovery Mall. Macam-macam souvenir ada jual dalam ni. Opposite the mall is another attraction to kids and my son was already asking if we could go. The place is Bali Water Bom. Ala macam yang kat tasik Shah Alam tu., ada glider, and macam-macam lah... But I said we didn't have time and my son said we should come back to Bali again. Emmm...nice idea but I'd prefer other destinations. Not because Bali is not special, it is very special, but it's better we see other places first before returning to Bali.

Satu yang tak pernah terpandang kat Malaysia ialah petrol dijual dalam botol. Putu kata yang ni dijual untuk motosikal aje. Tapi bahaya la sebab petrol kan mudah terbakar. Jalan punya jalan, tibalah masa makan malam. I suggested we have Lalapan for dinner. Everyone agreed. lalapan adalah makanan tradisi masyarakat Jawa dari Surabaya. You can find details of this in my main blog. Go to "Labels" in my main blog and click "Makanan Tradisi". My kids especially Hawadah enjoyed it and so did my wife. Harganya cuma Rp15000 sepinggan. Restoran ni halal. But I think the one I had in Miri was better.

Lepas makan we went straight back to the hotel and I knew everybody was tired and so was I. Penat menahan stress masa trip pergi island pagi tadi. Sedih jugak la sebab tonight was the last night as our flight home would be tomorrow afternoon. I told my kids they could go to the pool tomorrow morning and I asked my wife to accompany them as I wanted to continue shopping.