Hot summer night mid June

Around mid June I had a little getaway for 3D2N to Tioman with my family. The journey there was torturous. We took a 3 hours long bus ride to the jetty then another 3 hours on a boat. I remembered feeling extremely relieved when I got off the boat and really excited to see the beach and the clear waters cos I've never been to a nice beach with clear blue sea water before. And yes the waters there were really very clear and there were many many schools of fishes (it's scary). 

 But overall, I think it wasn't exactly as fun and exciting as we expected and the scenery there was also badly affected by the haze. The only thing I enjoyed most about the entire trip was probably the weather, and drinking + heart to heart talk with my Dad on the last night. And the thing I hated most about the trip were fishes and mosquitoes. The mozzies there are merciless.

Basically on the first day, we checked into 2 rooms at Paya Beach Resort. My sisters and I took a room while my parents and baby bro took the other one. We had lunch at the resort while my sisters and I were frantically searching for WiFi but the connection was really bad. Then we went back to our room to get a good nap before my bro woke all of us up with his persistent knocking on the door. My Dad wanted all of us to try out the snorkeling gear at the beach so we would be ready for snorkeling on the next day. So we did, reluctantly cos we were damn tired. But I'm glad we did try out the snorkeling gear because we would have drowned the next day while snorkeling. Ok maybe not we, just me...HAHA

We had seafood dinner by the beach afterwards while mozzies were feeding on us. 

Finally it's bed time and I was so bored cos there was no WiFi in our rooms, so I facebombed a few photos of my siblings and I. I wished Tioman was a lot more interesting for me to really put aside my phone and enjoy myself. But nope, it wasn't, so it was extremely torturous without Internet/3G/WiFi for me during that 3 days. 

We woke up early in the morning the next day to have our buffet breakfast then went to get changed to go snorkeling. I swear I was all excited to see the little fishes and the beautiful coral like how people exaggerated about the beauty of it. I was expecting everything to look like 

this where we will just look and swim around and I will be so amazed at everything around me and feel like it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And maybe I'll thereby conclude that I really do love the sea, and this time, every part of it. Not like how much I love the sky, without the birds. You know?

But to my horror, yes I had to use the word horror, it looked like this 

instead and I'm not even exaggerating. It was scary and the fishes were huge!!! 

And I was just terrified. The first destination we went to, the fishes were ugly and fucking huge. Apparently the main attraction was the corals instead but to get to the coral we had to swim across from the jetty, fucking swarmed with huge ugly fishes, to the floating platfoms where the corals are. I swear it took every ounce of courage in me to swim across to the floating platforms. And if it weren't cos I'm super considerate to realize I'm blocking everyone behind me for hesitating for so long, I would have taken forever to swim there. 

At the floating platform, I was just kicking the waters furiously (which was how I got the cut on my toe) and refusing to straighten my legs for fear of touching the fishes. I don't know, I just felt really insecure to straighten my legs, it's like I have no idea what's down there. And I know I could use my snorkeling gear to look in the water (which was the whole point) but I did once and I was so horrified to see millions of fishes everywhere. It was too scary it was too scary it was too scary. It was the most disgusting and scariest sight I've ever seen so I got onto the floating platform and never came down. I never found any courage to go down into the waters again. I didn't care how beautiful the corals were. All I knew was unless all the fishes disappear, I'm never going into the waters ever again. 

But eventually I had to get down from the floating platform to swim back to the jetty where we will finally move on to the second destination. I lost count how many times I told myself, "ok on the count of 3, just swim as fast as you can. 1..2..nonononoonoononono too scary/too many fishes/wait for the fishes to disappear/wait for helicopter to come and save me". Finally I told my Dad that I wanted to go back, and I guess the expression of fear on my face gave him no doubt that I was serious when I said I was really scared of the fishes and that I didn't dare to swim back. So he offered to swim me across and there, my Dad saved my life.

My Dad said the look on my face broke his heart cos it was the first time he saw me so scared of something. It seemed ridiculous to my family that I'm afraid of fishes and they thought I was exaggerating. I thought fishes would never scare me too. I even thought of going scuba diving some day with my Dad, but not anymore. I know it's not possible for me.

how much I hate cats

On the last night, we had dinner by the beach again and we ordered a few drinks. Xinlerk and Xintien went to check out the beach as it was low tide while my Dad and I stayed to chat at the table. My Dad and I are very much alike and I could tell it worries him to know how similar we are in character when he was younger. He told me I'm likely to get into a lot of troubles (which I already have) due to my curiosity and attitude. But I see my Dad leading a good life now with a past full of interesting stories to tell, and I think to myself that I wouldn't mind being just like him. It was always nice talking to my Dad because I can be completely honest with him and he will understand. I feel that in my family, my Dad is most accepting of who I really am. 

It was a good bonding time with my family over the 3 days, but I would have preferred going to Bangkok instead eventhough I've been there umpteen times. 

PS: photos in this post are only 1/5 of all the photos I took during the trip
PS': check out my boyfriend's blog here and try not to be freaked out by how obsessed he is with me. HAHA I kid.