3 Days running Capt's Longhouse

Capt Shariff Abas is away at Miri to visit his family for 2 weeks, while the temporary house captain, General Roslan have to go back to KL for an urgent matter. So I was summoned by the Captain to go back to Kapas and help Baharom to actually run the place. Capt's Longhouse. It is up to us, the two awak-awak to keep the place up to scratch and hopefully generate some money out of it. Baharom the boatman, experienced in seafarer and Island lifestyle, and I, a weekend helper, with a little expertise in the PR side.

Long story short, I arrived in Kapas Friday afternoon and we were on our own from Saturday noon to tuesday afternoon. Reflecting on this unforgettable period, I think we were not too shabby indeed. And I certainly took pride with the all smiles and berat hati departure of our clients whom their names I can still recall. Alessandro (ITA) and Rocio (SPA), Tom (HOL), Diego (SPA),Flora (FRA), Cecilia (FRA) and Bertrand (FRA), Christoph (GER) and also the Ba'occi Family from Italy. These are the client who were participating and friendly but they were also others who prefered to stay in their rooms and be on their day privately. It was fullhouse with only spaces in the dorm available.

We cooked, serve drinks, had Karaoke night,organized a snorkelling trip and chilled out in the sun,sea,sand. It was really fun and tiring at the same time.

Another thing that I could be proud of is that we served dinner with me as the chef. I cooked Baracuda Palermo style, which I picked up from a cook book I bought in Glasgow,
Easy Italian. It gave me real pleasure seeing those empty plates and good comments from the French! Particularly, Flora and Cecilia.

They came and fulled up the house at around the same time, and left to continue their travels on the same day. The house was cleared by monday afternoon and that gave us the chance to catch our breath and relax for a bit. I certainly enjoyed dozing off early last night. But I do miss the crowd and atmosphere over the 3 days.

Some Pics,


It was my pleasure to have served you all and here's hoping for more to come!

p/s-It was also great that I didn't miss my puasa while working my ass off here in Kapas.

Cheers.

Step up to inner space

My previous post may suggest that I'm in a boring setting of an internship program. Considering the no satelite TV, no proper working internet and missing the english premier league. Actually on the contrary, I'm having a whale of a time putting up in ganuland.

To be honest, I'll pass up those things for this any day of the week. For the past month or so I've experience lots of new things ranging from traditional boatmaking, plumbing, gardening and all the way to housekeeper, assiatant chef and bartender. Not forgetting driving a boat in open sea. But, my latest new experience stands out from the rest, and it is one of the greatest thrill in my life so far. Up there with bungee jumping, which I did last raya.

I've just completed my PADI open water diving course last week, and it was awesome! All my life, I had always wanted to do scuba diving but considering that it is quite pricy and I don't like the idea squeezing the money from my parents' pockets I had to put it on hold and at one point forgot about it. It was when I am here in Terengganu and in particular working in Capt's Longhouse I got the opportunity to do just that. There is a dive shop just next door to the Longhouse and all I need to do is show up with the dosh and the desire. I had bit of money in the bank and desire aplenty and also some encouragement from the Capt. As I am 21 now, I can decide for myself and my parents are quite supportive but the worry is visible. Well, any parents will. So off I
go.

The equipments minus the tank

It was the 26th of July and I started going to school again, not any school, DIVING school. It started with some briefing with introduction to the equipment, hand signal and of course the Golden Rule, breathe..... The theory lasted barely 15mins and off we go. My classmates were 2 dutch brothers and sister, Walter, thomas and Milos( not sure of the spelling..hehe). We started with confined water, breathing practice and movement. I tried breathing through the regulator underwater, I exhaled, BrRRRRRRR...too much bubble, I thought something is wrong so I tried inhaling again and of course was out of breath..Panicked ( a wee bit).. Then the divemaster Zamri told me, mestilah ade buih! Relax!... So I try again, Inhale....Exhaleeee.. inhaleeee..exhaleeee.. BrrrrBrrruupppp... Success. From that point on, there was no turning back, the heavy equipment felt weightless..the diving mask is now a negligible entity..I felt freedom..Welcome to inner space.

Preparations..

That very morning we went for our first open water dive..the place was coral garden in Kapas, about 2 mins boat ride from the dive shop. It was about 14m deep. I spent most of the time practicing buoyancy control and swimming with fins on. It was quite awkward at first, but it became natural after a while. Though there are some technical terms to be considered but I can't be arsed typing it here. Hehe. The 1st dive was good, but the 2nd is better, in the afternoon we went to southern tip and everything went well, visibility, technique, crowd and weather. It was the first time I feel at ease and really enjoyed the freedom. Probably becasue I adapted and improved. I saw fishes that are huge and the lobster is unbelievable. Yummm..

Nervous walk to the boat

The open water dive course took 4 days to complete and there were exams and tutorials. Ah well, we discussed all the way to the final exam. easy peasy. But I did pay attention in particular to the safety steps in diving. Damn, diving can be scary at times, in fact it is always scary and it is most scary when you are on the boat to the dive site. There you will have this nagging feeling of how the equipment might not work, what if things go wrong?decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, unable to equalize etc..etc...then you will start being a little paranoid, check the equipment, gas on, jacket inflated, hand signal review..etc..etc..then nausea kicks in, feel like pulling out..but MAN UP!..the nervousness is good, teaches you to be cautious and not over confident..with good practice and principles everything is fine.

I remembered in one of the dives..at 18m deep octopus reef, one peek down I saw nothing but murky water. Imagine if you have to sink in that sort of situation. I easily got panicked and needed a few second to gather my thoughts and start my descend. It was OK when I saw the bottom and able to set my orientation.

One for the ladies :p - after the dive

We had 2 more open water dives and one more confined water dive. In each dive we improved in our technique and confidence. Better buoyancy control, better breathing pattern, more relaxed posture and best of all, we were able to really enjoy the freedom. The feel of weightlessness and appreciate the colours of god's creation in inner space. 70% of eath is water, and we still know so little about it. The view down there is just amazing.

Classmates- I'm the wee one duhhh


We graduated from dive school wednesday afternoon and dived as a certified diver on thursday. A fun dive, on the house.Brilliant chaps the instructor and master divers are. Even the boatman and the crew as well. Very open to banters and always ready to share knowledge and lunch and breakfast..hehe..I can never pass up on food..

I am now an open water diver, graduated from aqua-sports Pulau Kapas under the tutelage of Azam, Salina and Zamri. I like this feeling, and here's hoping for more!

BTW

I have other things to blog about, especially things that happen last week, but I still havent uploaded any photos into my laptop..

Those have to wait...

The Start of The Season

I think I'm going to miss the start of the English Premier League season :(

I'm a rather new follower of football. I started watching football in the year 2008, when I'm housemates with hardcore football club supporters. Azli, an Arsenal fan, Hari, the scouser and Fazren a Chelsea fan now turned Citeh supporter. We were also playing around with fantasy football which really encourage me to follow the games. I also pledged my allegiance to Manchester United of reason its the only other team nnot chosen and the only team I remember watching prior to the date, it was along time ago, when the likes of centre splitting hair beckham and eric cantona are playing.

Anyway, I've been following the games, the blogs and the news since then and had never missed the start of the season. A united supporter is often referred to glory hunter but I do believe I'm not one of them. Because I started supporting United when they are being written off, so I don't give a shit about that claim.

Back to the point, I already missed the Charity shield with United battered Chealsea 3-1 at wembley. I watch the highlights and the team looked good with goals from valencia, Chicarito and Berbatov. Berbatov is probably my favourite player because I like his style, lazy and classy. Really hope he prove his worth this season. I also hope to see more of the new guy Chicarito and I would put my money on him being a big player in the coming years. As for the rest, fletch is a beast, scholes looked as good as ever and we have the likes of vidic, evra, rio, Valencia and Nani as our key players. The youngsters are a year older and I hope Fabio and rafael can stamp a big claim in the first team. Seem like a forgot somebody, oh yes, Wayne Rooney shall continue banging them in and also chip in few assists. Not to mention Giggsy proving that he should get the knighthood.

So, I am now concern that I don't get to watch the games as I am still in terengganu with not many Astro in sight. Internet here is not an entity you would count on for live games and I don't really have a place to go watch the game. Missing the match may not be evitable.

Anywayzz...Its Newcastle on monday so,

Come on UNITED!

First ever post!

4th August 2010

Test..test..test.....

So this it..after some time of passive planning I manage to conjure up this blog and this blogpost. I've been wanting to produce a blog as I realized that in the past 2 years I have experienced alot, through my time studying in the land of manskirt and recently and ongoing summer internship and seafarer lifestyle program in Terengganu, and I think it will be good to share some of it to the masses and for my own record as well. So voila, the redportgreenstarboard is created.

First thing first, what's up with the blog's name. It's absolutely random but with a meaning. It relates to Naval architecture and shipbuilding, which is the subject that I am studying now. Whereby in normal ship handling principles, each vessel are required to have a visible red light on its portside and green light on its starboard. This is to ensure that other vessels sharing the same route able to determine the size and coordination of the vessel at night. I am easily confused by the actual colour of the lights on each side, the name of the blog shall help remember the regulation. Then again the would be content of this blog does not only revolve around Naval Architecture. Its mainly random ramblings from me, or sometimes thoughtful thinking. That's the puncline anyway.

Next, who am I? Well, I am formally a Naval Architecture student studying in Glasgow. I enjoy being adventurous and sometimes I think I am an adrenaline junkie. I love football, roam the scottish mountains, did bungee jump, cliff diving and my latest addiction is scuba diving. I also enjoy travelling and interact with the different cultures of the world. I would like to think that I am a citizen of world and a student of life as a whole.

Now, what am I up to right now? Well as I am on my long awaited summer holiday from Glasgow, I am now back in Malaysia for my internship and seafarer lifestyle program located in Terengganu. Actually, my internship program is quite informal. I am on a freelance internship program, where I am doing research on the Malay traditional boatbuilding industry located in Pulau Duyong, an island sitting in the middle of the Terengganu estuary.In the end of it I shall produce a journal of my findings focusing on the history, methods, difficulties and the industry's future. More on that later. That is what I do during the weekdays. During the weekend I undergo my seafarer lifestyle training in Pulau Kapas, another Island but it is off the east coast of Malaysia. There I stay in my mentor's backpacker's longhouse called the Capt's Longhouse. I shall blog on that soon, particularly about the Longhouse which hosts many interesting characters coming in and out and also those who call the place home. There, I work as athe 2nd mate of ECBW ( Capt's boat), assistant chef, housekeeper, maintenance crew and best of all, a part time beach bum.

Life's been good so far, nothing much to complain about. Btw, I have just completed my open water diving course, and it is awesome!


Capt's Longhouse, Pulau Kapas- My current location

So here goes, blogging.

Cheers