The Fish Farm

On my trip to the mangrove in Langkawi, my family went to visit a Fish Farm. The Fish Farm was extremely interesting, with all kinds of rare and odd fishes that we do not commonly see. First, we saw the Archer Fish. Archer Fish are the most odd and fun fish. For the start, the guide put bread on the railings. After a few seconds, many Archer Fish gathered near the bread, and with a mighty force, the fish shot out sprays of water through its mouth. Don't look down of these fish, their aiming is 100% accurate! After just 1 shot, the bread dropped down and all the fish rushed for it. The guide then asked us to put out our hand, and the fish shot water at it. Secondly, the guide put the bread on our hands, and the fish tried to shoot it again. When I lowered my hand, to my surprise, the fish jumped up and bit it, but the guide told us that it had no teeth.

Next, we saw a cow fish. It was a small and yet cute coloured fish, with two horns in front and two at the back. Though it is cute, the look is decieving. Our guide told us that it was very poisonous, and would lower its horns and charge at its enemy. We then saw a big fish, that would use its mouth to bite you and later would suck your blood. We also saw the blowfish(puffer fish). There were lazy fish which would float around and change colour, according to which type of waters it was in. We saw Nemo's friends: stingrays, clownfish, the Regal Tang (that's Dory), baby sharks, moon fish and lastly, we saw Nemo's enemy, the Barracuda.

The Fish Farm will be a great place for anybody!

My Trip To Langkawi

My Langkawi trip was finally here! As we were just about to board the plane, it was announced that our flight was delayed due to some technical faults, so we had to switch to another Silk Air carrier. The airbus soon took off, leaving Singapore behind.

"We have reached Langkawi, Malaysia. Thank you for flying with SilkAir." We rented a car and sped off to our resort, Sheraton. On the way we also realized that many cars in Langkawi were very slow and we had to overtake many cars(some were only 600cc!).

Sheraton was a well furnished place, well equipped with many facilities and great staff. Once we checked in, we thought we were going to walk to our room, but to our surprise, we had to take a tram! As the driver drove us down the small and yet narrow road, I realised that we really had to take the truck to our room. Since our room was right in front of the seaside, it was far from the resort's lobby. The resort was great, except that the three beaches it had were very rocky, and one was just plain rocks! That was our first night there, with no activities as our flight was a late one(plus the delay).

"Alright! Deal done! 120 ringgit for 30 minutes!"my father agreed to the best offer granted by the Ski Operator. That was a sweet start to our second day and it would be my second time jet-skiing as the first one was done in Penang in 2007. My father, my brother and I boarded the 15oocc jet-ski."Three! Two! One!"I shouted. I was in entire control of the jet ski and I pressed the accelerator down to its maximum and we sped off at 70km/h. We went against the waves and each bump flew us up in the air. The time flew by and we had to stop. What a great time! I will recommend this water sport to all boys and anyone who enjoys thrills like speed, driving or be thoroughly soaked. Night arrived and my family went to the Langkawi Cineplex to watch Transformers 2. It was a great show, but was draggy and the robot battle was messy. Tickets were cheap, at RM40 for a family of 4.

On our third day, we chartered a speed boat at RM400 to take us out to the mangrove. We got so excited when we saw eagles. The Langkawi brown eagles and the huge sea eagles, swooped swiftly down to eat the fish. It was hard to capture those fleeting moments. We were so exhilarated to witness such eagle feeding. It was from the trip we learnt how Langkawi got its name. 'Lang' means eagle in Malay. 'Kawi' is the marble stone found in the island. Next on our itinerary was the Bat Cave. We saw hundreds and hundreds of bats hanging upside down with the light from torch. What was best was when the boat driver gave me the wheel to steer into the open sea, The Andaman Sea. I was the captain of the speed boat for almost 30 minutes. After our return trip, I pestered my dad to let me go jet-skiing for the 2nd time for this vacation. "Hooray!", he agreed. My dad bargained with the operator for further discount but he politely shook his head. Actually, we paid lesser amount to ski in Penang, at RM100 for 30 minutes. For my brother Lucas, the part he enjoyed most during the ski was he spotted a jellyfish.

"Don't shake, please don't shake.." my little brother's teeth went chattering. He, like my mom, was so afraid of heights. We took the cable car to the highest peak in Langkawi. It was beautiful and breathtaking to see the clear blue sea below. There are so many, many other smaller islands surrounding the main island. After we left the cable car ride, we almost wanted to catch a show at the Crocodile Farm but my mother refused. She said it was brutal and cruel to watch such act. Although the votes were three to one, we respected her decision so we gave it a miss. "Ha!Ha!" you can say we had ulterior motives.....because instead of spending time at the Crocodile Farm, we could opt again for the jet ski. "Huh! Jet ski again?" exclaimed my dad. Well, well, he did not reject us and for the third time we failed in getting a lower price. This time, the ride was terrible. Not smooth, very choppy and I could not ram up to the maximum speed. (Incidentally, the 1500cc jet ski can accomodate up to 4 persons per ride.)

All in all, it was so far the third best trip.

My Outing With A Friend

Today I went bowling with my classmate and friend, Henry. We played 3 games, and in the end I won 1 game and Henry won 2. After about 1 hour, we decided to play pool, which was in the bowling alley. I wasn't a very good player as it was my second time playing. After a tense and exciting game, Henry won 8 points while I won 7. Henry's parents brought me for lunch at Raffles Marina to eat. Over there we explored the yatch bay and saw many interesting and majestic yatchs. There was also a huge boat(which I think belonged to a millionair)named Lady D. She was a beauty, but a pity that no one was steeering her. I would love to see her in action, though. All in all, it was a great and fun time with Henry and his family.

My Brother's First Tooth Extraction

My brother had his first tooth extraction about 1 week ago. It was his first extraction and the first most painful one. The dentist did not extract his tooth with the tweezers, she used a way much more painful way to extract it. Guess what she used-the thin and sharp NEEDLE. Yes, the needle! This was the first time for my brother to extract his tooth, and the dentist was aleady using the needle. She had to inject a liquid into the gums to loosen the tooth. Imagine what kind of bad impression it will give my brother. Next time he extracts his teeth, I'm sure he would feel very scared. He did not want to extract it at first, but my kind and helpful neighbour bought my brother a BIG dog(he named it Spoty as she thought my brother had already extracted his teeth. Eventually, my brother went back to extract the tooth.

I hope he will "recover" from it.

My Favourite Place

My favourite place is my grandmother's house(In our common saying: Ah Ma's Place). My grandmother is the main cook and she is one of the eldest. We sometimes go there twice a week as it is the main gathering place for the whole family.I go there every week for my favourite dish-my grandmother's Kentang Rice!!! Kentang rice is a Hokkien term for "Potato Rice". It is mainly steamed rice mixed with Kentang soup and lastly, with mashed potatoes. I usually have sunny-side-up eggs or salted eggs to go with it. my grandmother also has a secret recipe to make the Kentang rice. my mother has tried many times to do it but she can never get the taste right.

The other reason I like going there is because I get to play there. My elder cousin has many games there, such as: Nintendo, Playstation 2, X-Box and many others! I also have another cousin, Daniel who brings his Nintendo DS, so we can all play.

Ah Ma's place is just great!

Paintball Shooting

"Prak! Prak!" The noise was not as deafening as I expected, but it was still quite loud. The gas-powered paintball gun I was holding weighed about 3kg. This was my second time shooting(each round with 50 paintballs)the paintball gun. It was a fun game with targets set up for you to aim at. The paintball travelled half the speed of a real bullet, but even your eye could not catch it. My aiming was great, and my cousin's was about the same.

It was also the first time for my brother to shoot the paintballs. At the starting, he was scared, but gradually became used to the loud sound.

All in all, it was a great experience!

HORRIBLE Go-Kart Ride

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, there was a totally horrible( YES, I do mean Horrible)Go-Kart ride. It was the first time we ever encountered this experience. We rented three Go-Karts. The track was about two kilometers long, and it had many obstacles along the way, such as: Dirt-Path, rocky road, hilly path, wet corner, tyre tracks etc. We were seated in such a way:

1st Go-Kart: My father and I
2nd Go-Kart: My mother and my brother
3rdGo-Kart: Uncle Royston and my cousin, Daniel

As my kart had finished the first lap, my aunt(who was videoing us)thought that it was odd we were the only ones who completed the lap, and the rest were not here yet. Then she asked the staff to check. Meanwhile, my kart went around the corner and saw the two other Karts, stopped in the middle of the road. The two karts had actually stalled, so my father exchanged karts with my mother and she drove off first. Then, the staff drove towards us and gave us his kart. He then started up the third kart and we all drove off.

Just as my kart caught up with my mother's kart, we realised the kart was wobbling about vigorously, but we did not bother about it. When the kart stopped, my mother and my brother were panting loudly. Once they saw us, they immediately told us what had happened. Something had hit my mother's knee and all of a sudden, they could not control the kart. The object that had hit my mother on the knee was the metal rod connecting the steering wheel to the two front wheels. That was why they could not control the kart. What was more, the brakes were not working at all! Imagine how dangerous that was! There was even a curve in front of them! By God's grace, the wheel somehow turned and the kart made it safely round the corner. They were also shouting for help, but the noise from the engine drowned everything. We exchanged karts again and waited for the staff to come . We took his kart and we sped off to the end. What an unbelieveable,horrible ,horrendous accident!

P.S: The photo above was before all the "accidents" happened.

My Trip to Malacca

"Hurry up! We are going to set off soon and you have not even showered!" my mother screamed. I was rushing as I had just came back from the maths carnival. We were going on our third trip to Malacca, and it was the second time with my cousin's family. After a long and boring four-hour ride,(due to my grandparents to stretch themselves.) we finally reached Holiday Inn, our hotel. The hotel was very clean and it was probably the best hotel in Malacca. Since it was getting dark, the best place we could go was the famous Jonker Street. It was bustling with tourists and locals and we could easily lose each other. But my father had thought about it way before hand, so he brought along our two walkie-talkies. We bought many souveniers e.g: Electric fans, catapults, and bowls.

The morning arrived quickly and the breakfast in Holiday Inn was scrumptious. We then drove to A-Famosa, a famous theme park. First, we went Go-Karting(and had a horrible experience, but that is in another blog.), then we went to the water park. My brother and I also had a hard time persuading my father to rent a float as it was quite expensive. We had a fun time in the wave pool as we went up and down the waves. Just as we were getting out of the wave poool, my mother realised that my goggles were missing. My father said that it would be washed up due to the waves, but our searched ended up in vain. Suddenly, a girl waded past me, wearing a pair of goggles similar to my brother's. Only then we realised that my brother's goggles were also missing. My Aunt asked the girl whether it was hers and she said it was, but after a while she gave it to us. After a few minutes, my father spotted a boy wearing my pair of goggles. He also said it was his, but also just handed it to us. How dishonest they are!

The next day arrived and it was finally time to go home. I reluctantly left our hotel and got into the car, leaving Malacca behind.