Aloha Aloha peeps!

Sorry for not being able to update this space as regularly as much as I (we) want to. There’s been quite a lot of things going on in Raymond Phang Photography – shoots, management, website issues and lots more. I wish I have a good brain, or at least have a good answer to solve all problems that come our way, but fact is I’m only a human. And an average one at that. Maybe that explains why I am where I am today. LOL!

Anyway, we took a short break over the weekend last week to Ah You Kelong / Ah Yew Kelong, which is somewhere off Sibu, in Malaysia. Just a two days one night short trip with Raymond, Susu, Lester, my parents, and a couple of friends. We went as a group of 18. Yeap, 18 people in total. Quite fun, quite enjoyable, except for the night when our dear friend Terence flashed out his bottles of Belvedere and Grey Goose plus the fakebena that gave me an unforgettable night. -_-”

To read up about our first kelong experience in Year 2010, click HERE.

So this trip was planned and organised by my dad who loves fishing. He fishes every weekend if possible, to mostly Singapore, and sometimes at St John Island or Sisters Island. I’m gonna bring him go Australia or New Zealand for deep sea fishing one day, which is something that I have promised him since a long time ago. Haha! Ah You kelong is one of the places which he frequent to get his fishing kick, so we left all the logistics to him.

In the wee morning, we had to gather at Bukit Panjang Plaza to board the two minivan or minibus which my dad has chartered. Of course you can ask them to pick you up at other locations, just have to inform the boss. We were all early, except for Mr Lionel who was the last one to arrive. Lester even had the time to buy some breakfast from MacDonald’s.

Sat in the bus, tried to sleep but couldn’t really sleep. Didn’t really catch much sleep the previous night too. Partly too excited I guess. Haha! Bus ride was bumpy but not too bad. Not to the point where you feel the motion sickness kick in.

Then we reached the checkpoint real fast in like 15 minutes or so. Cleared custom, and we are in Malaysia!

First stop – makan and pee!

Do remember to bring some coins along with you, because some, if not most of the public toilet in Malaysia requires “admission fee”. Ours was 30 cents ringgit each to pee. If you want to bathe, then it’s a different rate.

Pictures intensive post below, snapped anyhowly. Initially I wanted be the official photographer, like those touristy spots where they snap pictures for you and then sell you for $15 – $35. I only wanted $5, but looking at the quality… FORGET IT! Hahahahahaha!! Free for all my friends!! Moral of the story? Next time engage a professional photographer! :p

The boys ordered this Bak Kut Teh to share. Mr Scooby Loon was expecting to see a pot of ribs but this came instead. He dug the pot for ribs but was disappointed to find only a few pieces which didn’t satisfy his craving and expectation of a meat loaded breakkies. So he had to order something else, which was the Wanton Mee. We were secretly thinking it’s only an excuse to see the Wanton Mee Girl, who was kinda cute. Hahaha!

 

 

Raymond and Terence.

 

Susu and Al.

I had you tiao and hum chim peng, cos I didn’t felt like eating anything heavy, less I start puking in the bus later from the even bumpier bus ride which we experienced on our first Kelong trip.

 

After brekkies, we crossed the road over to Kedai Runcit Chip Mong to get our supply of drinks. The kelong does provide plain water free of charge. They do have canned or packet drinks too, but heard from my dad it’s cheaper to buy over. So we bought like 3 cartons of canned drinks, some big bottles of mineral water, and some bag of ice.

 

Saw the old school bubble gum which I used to eat in Singapore last time when I was much younger. You know, the kind where there’s a tattoo ink thingy on the reverse side of the wrapper, and you just have to put it against your skin and wet it with water to transfer the tattoo. Haha!

 

Then there’s this interesting shaped loofah hanging outside the shop. My mum says this is good because it washes your things really clean. -_-“. End up nobody bought it. But seriously, loofah makes a good body scrub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun was rising nicely, so I had Lester stand for a picture. And i saw the sun peeking in from behind the blinds and had both my mum and Lester stand there for a picture too. Lester acting coy!

 

 

 

Loaded the stuffs up, and we’re off for the second part of the journey – the long bumpy bus ride. Didn’t really catch how long was the journey, but long enough for almost everyone to fall asleep, except for the 4 monkeys (Susu, Al, Nez, Ben) who were at the back of the bus happily discussing about movies and all.

 

Reached the jetty, each of us had to pay some tax/levy and fill in our particulars. Then we waited for the boat from the kelong to arrive.

 

 

Vietnam Bride.

 

Boarded the boat, everyone of us had to wear the life vest. Some of them (like the one I was wearing) cannot even be zipped up so we tie it with the yellow string which was like… er… Hahaha! Then I started wondering what am I gonna do if really touch wood an accident happen and the boat start to sink! Cos I can’t swim, and I know my mum cannot swim too and Nez also cannot swim! So I quickly scanned around the boat with my eyes for possible life saving objects. I saw there were tyres which they can use to stay afloat. But there were only 2! So I thought 1 for Nez, and 1 for my mum. I’ll just hang around outside and hold lightly on the outside of my mum’s tyre. Should be fine. Then I wondered again, should I ask them to kick water to try swim? What if they kicked and leg cramp? Then I think better not, just ask them to hold onto the tyre and float till help comes. HAHAHA!

 

 

 

Okie, finally reached Kelong in one piece! Had to climb the vertical wooden stairs up!

 

Chose our bunk beds, unload all our stuffs, and my dad helped me set up my rod and reel. I had to use his friend’s (uncle soap) rod. And… I caught the first fish!! So exciting!! That became a morale booster for everyone, especially the 8 newbies who had never been to a kelong, or never attempted fishing.

 

My puny little fish, but good enough to use as bait when the prawn bait eventually runs out. I had to wrap myself up in layers because the breeze was too cold. NOT! Hahahahaha!!! Cos the UV ray was really strong, and the sun was scorching heaty hot! I had to apply a layer of the SPF 130++ sunblock, put on a layer of protective wear on my arms, and then a long sleeve hoodie, with a cap! Later on I even put on glasses. No joke, else you’ll be so burnt your parents won’t even recognise you when you go back home.

 

After I caught one, Terence too caught one! Here’s our two pathettic catch. Raymond had to help unhook cos I didn’t really dare to unhook them yet. All I did was to put the bait on my hook, cast the line and wait. :p

 

More fishes! My dad had to go around helping all of us, especially the 8 with no experience. Oh, if you do not have your own rod, you can rent them from the Kelong! Not sure how much is the price again, but do pay in Ringgit. If you need bait, you can also buy from the kelong.

 

Uncle soap preparing the small fishes that we caught to be used as bait.

 

Shortly after fishing, we were called to have our lunch. I think should be 11am or so, cos I heard someone saying if nobody want to eat, they’ll clear the tables at 11.30am. But all of us were too excited to fish!! So very reluctantly we parked our rod and quickly went to have our food first.

 

We gobbled our lunch within seconds, and hurried back to fishing!

 

Fished for quite some time, then the rest got tired, lethargic, and some went to catch afternoon naps. AIYO!! But I warrior, continued standing in the heat to fish. So no one else was around me (except for Alvin probably and Scooby Loon who was terrified of fishes). I ran out of bait. So I asked Mr Lionel if he could help me prepare the fish to be used as bait. Being his first time, he was uber hesistant. But upon further pleading, he finally relented and agreed. WAH! HERO!! He said OK! Everything also must have a first time.

 

So he carefully peered into the bucket of fishes to see which are the ones already sundried and dead. He picked one nice one, tested by jabbing the fish to see if there’s any response. I should have asked him to check for pulse and put the fish beside his ears to see if he can hear any breathing anot. Muwahahahaha!!

 

Anyway, he tried to do what uncle soap did – scaling the fish first. So that it’s easier for us to hook, else with the scale it’s gonna be hard to poke. Instead of scraping it backwards, Mr Lionel was helping the fish to comb the scale. -_______-“. I laughed so hard, but still, appreciative of what he did. Hahahahaha!! So I corrected him, and he did a good job! Then he tried to cut the fish, but no matter how hard he tried to chop and slice, the knife just wouldn’t go in. So I asked him to use the pointiest part of the knife to poke a small hole at the tail area first and that makes it easier to slice.

 

He did, gave me a piece, and decided to stop there. Then I told him I have two hooks, so I need two pieces. He had no choice but to continue with the other side of the fish. While he was working on that, I held up the piece of meat that he had freshly cut for me, and then I did something bad. I shook the meat infront of him and said “THE FISH IS STILL ALIVE!!!” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! He got scareded (luckily did not throw the knife at me), stopped, and then I told him JOKING ONLY LAH! Then he laughed. HAHAHAHA! So farnie!!

 

Mr Lionel is now a certified Sashimi Chef! And So I took a nice picture of him with his catch. 🙂

 

Here’s Mr Scooby Loon with his catch.

 

Then I tried to sashimi my own fish too!

 

TADAH!!

 

 

 

 

 

Mr Scooby Loon caught more fishes. This my dad calls it the Sergeant fish. Scooby Loon is really farnie. He enjoys catching fish but he didn’t dare to touch them. So everytime he catches a fish, he had to ask for help to have them unhooked. It was really bad to a point where he literally left them hooking, hanging in mid air till they die because nobody wanted to help him with the unhooking anymore at the end of the day. When he confirmed that the fishes have died, he use his foot to “hold” the fish in position, use a plier to take off the hooks, and kicked them back into the sea. -________-”

 

While everyone was napping, we saw this two biiiiig fish swimming near the surface of the water!! All of us who were around got so excited! Some of the anglers even threw in fresh fish in hope of attracting the big fishes to stay so that they can lure and catch it! But the big fishes damn fast. Stole one, and really swiftly darted away!!! What a waste!

 

Disgusting prawn with roe!! 🙁

 

Caught more fishes!

 

Cute fish.

 

Spikey fish!!

 

So cute!!

 

So after awhile we practised catch and release. Those small ones we released them back into the sea.

 

That’s my dad helping around.

 

Our catch!

 

SUSU!

 

Lester!!

 

The once colorful sergeant fish dried already became dull and grey.

 

Dinner time! I think? YEAH! All meals are provided on the kelong.

 

Yeah so by dinner time the kids woke up and continued fishing.

 

They have toilets there so if you want to bathe can go ahead. But the Sai Gang Warrior did not bathe for the 2 days there. HEHEHEHE.

 

My mum!

 

 

I thought the backdrop looks good, so I asked her stand there for a picture.

 

And included Lester in too!

 

Lester attempting to dive into the sea in search for his mermaid. -_-”

 

I was going around snapping pictures of everyone with my Medusa (my waterproof point and shoot). Didn’t bother composing, or care about exposure, lighting, temperature and all those technicalities. My hands were really dirty and smelly from handling all the scaling and shashimi-ing. Poor Medusa suffered, but had a good bath afterwards though.

 

My dad pretending that he’s fighting with a real big catch!

 

See, the thumb area with only sun block applied still became dark while the other area of my hand with sun block + protective layer + long sleeve hoodie works.

 

There’s a hammock if you want to sleep. My dad says it’s shiok.

 

Some poor fish caught trapped and died.

 

Nightfall coming real soon, wind was getting cooler.

 

My dad in the kitchen scaling and cutting and washing the small fishes that we caught, then gave the chef some money to have them fried for us for supper.

 

A picture of the Sai Gang Warrior with mum.

 

Then Lester photobombed.

 

Unfortunately the current that night was too strong,so we don’t get to catch much squids. But one of them was interesting! It’s like they have a shadow detector built into their body. Once a shadow approaches it, it’s body will start to turn black! When shadow is gone, it’ll slowly become transparent again. Hahaha! No pictures though.

 

Yum yum!! The fishes we caught!

 

Here’s a picture of the toilet at night. Forgot to snap one in the day again where you can see uber lots of fat fishes swimming underneath, all ready on standby to eat your poooooooo. :p

 

So…. there’s the part on Belvedere and Grey Goose that has no pictures to account for. Thing is, late night, we started drinking. Except for my parents, uncle soap and his wife + son, Susu, Nez, Al and Ben, Scooby Loon (the excuse many many one). We played this game where we had to pick a card, paste it on our forehead without looking at it. Then everyone gets to see everyone’s card and the person with the smallest number had to drink.

 

We took turns to fill the cup with whatever liquid that we want – alcohol, coke, fakebena and all. Fakebena is this really, really, really, really yucky drink that looks like ribena but is actually a really yuck blackcurrant drink.

 

Loser had to drink, but was allowed to change his/her card from the deck of cards. So we’ll trick the person with bigger numbered cards into thinking that they got the smallest card, in hope that they will believe us and change their cards and hopefully get a small numbered card. Was successful for quite a while. HAHAHAHA!

 

Just a mere few rounds, we finished one bottle of Grey Goose. -_______-“. There were only 8 of us playing.

 

After that, Vivi and Alvin went to sleep… left 6 of us. I remember there was once I had to drink 3 consecutive rounds of mixture. We continued for a very short while before Raymond decides to continue fishing, and Mr Lionel kept on saying he cannot make it anymore, cannot drink anymore. So we excused him for awhile. Left with Lester, myself, Terence and Mr S.

 

4 of us idiots. We played scissors paper stone. Fast game. 5 rounds to decide winner. Imagine us drunk, reaction slow, and had to play a fast game where we just flashed and didn’t have time to think.

 

I don’t know what happened next.. cannot remember… last I remembered was I kept on opening peanuts for Lester cos I scared later he vomit since he drank quite a lot. WHO KNOWS….. the two idiots to vomit was Mr S and myself. Guess all the Alcohol Training from RPP Paid off really well for Lester. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good job!

 

Last I remembered, was sitting on the floor, laying on the floor, and goodnight.

 

Raymond said I was sitting by the edge of the kelong, supporting myself against the wood to puke into the sea. WAH! If I was sober I wouldn’t have done anything like that!! Cos if I fell inside, that’s it, I’ll get washed away by the current which was really strong that night. And it was so dark you cannot even see anything below.

 

Raymond had to support me back to the bunk bed.

 

Cannot remember much again, only remember myself waking up a few times to puke in the toilet. I even had my hands touch the toilet floor and I remembered it was SLIMEY. 🙁

 

I remember one of the time after I puked, I came out of the toilet and saw a guy (I suppose it’s Raymond) at the sink, so I just concussed onto him.

 

When I woke up the next morning, terribly dizzy. Must be the lack of sleep + fake bena + motion sickness + alcohol that made me felt so miserable. I don’t recall drinking alot, so usually I should be able to drink much more. But I really hate drinks with mixer and I prefer neat most of the time. So I blame it on the fakebena.

 

Puked a lot of times again. My mum was amused. My dad was concerned.

 

Finished a can of 100 plus, some plain water, and lime water, some crysanthemum tea. Still darn miserable. Poor Mr S also puked but not even half as much as I did.

 

Missed brekkies, had 2 mouthful of lice for lunch, some veggie, went on to toilet again.

 

Boarded the boat, OMG the rocking and all made me puked again.

 

Slept on my mum’s thigh in the bus.

 

Cleared custom but got stuck cos the scanner couldn’t detect my print even after I oiled it. I got rejected and had to head off to the counter. Darn! Don’t know what happen, and I always have a problem opening up the those translucent plastic bags at NTUC.

 

Reached home, puked again!!!

 

Goodness, showered, ate subway, felt like puking again.

 

Quickly sleep till next morning for more than 14 hours.

 

Terrible migraine, got worse, and lasted until today.

 

Actually been almost 3 weeks already. Haha!

 

But ok, still surviving!!
That’s all for our kelong trip! Very lengthy post, but… I guess the trip deserves a write up for being so memorable. Spending time with family and friends… nice experience (fishing, not the puking)… chatting with friends… nice view… nice breeze. This lovely kid by the name of Jovelle (duno how to spell) who was super manja and gave me hugs. Till the next time!!

 

Love,
Angeline

🙂

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