lavanderblues

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

the kelong trip

it was a wonderful 2d1n with bean, marcus and joshua at the kawal kelong at bintan island. sun, sand, sea, fishing under the stars, sumptious seafood everyday, unlimited banana boating, crystal clear waters, relatively inexpensive price...we even had the whole kelong to ourselves because no one happened to book it over this wkend! it was just such a gorgeous experience. and i am now thoroughly sunburnt, and marcus has turned into sebastian the crab. i shall simply let the photos speak for themselves.

pre departure photo at the tanah merah ferry terminal.

our first glimpse of the kelong, with the almost 1km long wooden bridge leading up to it. we thought we had to walk all the way, so scary. thank goodness the boatman uncle came out in the motor boat to fetch us and we were spared from walking the whole way.

the extremely nice hokkien boatman uncle who watched over us as we swam in the sea. he can amazingly snorkel with a cigarette in his mouth, and still somehow manage to smoke. amazing eh?

finally at the kelong =)

bean and i with our so amazingly delicious plate of shellfish. "zhut zhut" or sthg. it was sooo flavourful, fresh and huge; the absolute best i've eaten ever.

calamari!

a fishing boat, that came to take some singaporean men out to the high seas for some deep sea fishing. they stopped by at the kelong for lunch.

we all sat on the floating jetty to put our feet in the seawater, a coof relief in the hot day. these were some gratituous shots of bean and marky =)

charlie and chaplin, named by bean. the kelong had 10 dogs, and these 2 were adorable. they were scared of us, and wld jump into the water and swim away whenever we were on the floating jetty.

exhilirating speedboat ride!

we took many, many "model" shots in the sea, this was one of the nicer ones heh.

us on the banana boat! bean was soo terrified she was screaming all the way, even when we were going relatively slow, in a straight line. joshua was jumping up and down on the float to make it more exciting, and marcus was just "zzzz" behind. ultimately it was soo hilarious because as the boatman uncle made a turn to make us fall, the guys would frantically lean towards the "topple" side because they wanted to fall in, and the girls would lean towards the "untopple" side. we girls won! as we only fell into the sea once in the entire hour, surviving many many sharp turns made by the uncle. heh.

sunset.

we are all happy to be here =)

just picture this image with the sky covered in a blanket of stars. it was surreal. too bad the camera couldnt capture it in all its beauty.

night fishing with makeshift apparatus, using string on beer cans. and black, inky sotong bait. we didnt catch anything and all my bait got eaten up by fishes.

sunrise =) my favourite shot of the lot.

locals searching for shellfish at low tide.

joshua couldnt resist jumping into the shallow waters just around the kelong at low tide as well =)

crystal clear waters at the secluded island.

and white sandy beaches. =)

part of the catch from the returning fishermen from their overnight deep sea fishing trip. the haul included 3 baby sharks, 1 sting ray, a whole carton of catfish amongst others.

and i shall end off with delicious white pepper crab =)

lin~*
10:16 pm