Hello, I blog!

So, I’m finally back – albeit a much darker version of my former self.

We’ve had bright sunshine, sand and sea, as well as loads of strong winds and sea breezes over the past three days at Pulau Sibu. The water was mostly turquoise-green, whereas it was completely clear and blue at one of the smaller islands (Pulau Kukus) that we were brought to.

I’m going to launch into a long grandmother’s story about the trip itself – so feel free to filter out whichever parts you’re more interested in reading. Alternatively, you can let the photos do the talking.

10 simple facts about the Pulau Sibu Trip
1) Five people were stung by jellyfish during snorkeling. (No, I wasn’t one of them – wasn’t snorkeling either because I can’t swim to save my life.)

At the beach near Sea Gypsy Resort.

2) We went to a total of four beaches – scattered around various parts of the island. Three with reasonably clear water, and one with clear blue water which I couldn’t bear to leave. Oh, and one of them beaches wasn’t the usual sandy ones we have – instead, there was smooth marble and limestones in various shapes and forms making up the shoreline.)

3) While all my friends have received plentiful of sandfly bites, I’ve received less than five – all thanks to the extremely effective insecticide brought by a friend. (Although it boggles the mind why THAT friend was the worst hit among all of us when it came to insect bites.)

4) We’ve eaten enough crabs, prawns, sotongs (cuttlefish) and fish to last us a lifetime.

5) All of us agreed unanimously that we hated the toilets at the resort.

There were four toilets/bathrooms that had to be shared among all the rooms on the ground floor – and they were often sandy, smelly, dark, brimming with dirty footprints and mosquitoes.

Plus, there was always some joker who would blatantly refuse to flush the damn toilet. Grr.

6) Four of us are horrendously sunburnt now – and I happen to be one of them. (Around the shoulders and the back of my neck – ooooh, ouch.)

7) I’ve been on enough boat rides to last me a lifetime either – with me tying on my lifejacket as tightly as I can, and clinging on to the side (or any available handlebars) on the boat with my dear life because … I can’t swim, remember?

8) Watching the tides going up and down proved to be an extremely interesting experience.

When we first reached the resort – it was high tide to the point that the disembarking area of the jetty was flooded, so everyone had to walk in the water.

However, at 6 in the morning, the sea had gone all the way out that even the jetty was moored in the middle of nowhere with nothing but sand all around it.

And take note – the jetty was a considerable distance away from the shoreline! (About 200m.)

9) I held a live fish for the first time during fishing – it was wet and slimy, and the scales were falling off all over my hands. Was pretty much amused at how the fish was still its usual silvery grey colour when it was first caught while it loses all its colouring (through the shedding of its scales, perhaps?) once it dies to an extent that it becomes transparent, revealing all its insides.

Our resort’s sign at the jetty.

10) The resort we stayed at was Sibu Coconut Village Resort.

A pretty run-down place with dark and musty rooms, and inconsistent bedsheet colours. Basically, don’t expect any form of cleanliness when you reside here. Also, the power generators went down three times.

Unfortunately, this was already one of the better resorts they have on the island and we didn’t spend that much time within the resort premises anyway.