I SAW DOLPHINS in MIRI WATERS!!! Woohoo!!!

So I'm back!!! Hahaha...sorry lah....sometimes have to be busy also bah....not every time free as a bird....kan?

Anyway, am really looking forward to THE AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 tonight...I seriously do hope Ida and Tania wins....fingers cross!!! :D

Ok, so I'm suppose to actually blog about Dolphins since last week...but suddenly out of the blue I became busy....so today I'll write about it lah :P

Well you see, a few weeks back, Gianna, the person-in-charge of the dolphin research programme in Sarawak gave me a buzz and ask me whether I was free to go to Sea and see whether we get to spot any dolphins. It was pretty last minute but I was as free as a bird at that time so I said, sure thing.

So the next day I woke up earlier than usual, got my daughter ready and sent her to the babysitter and rushed to the Piasau Jetty. Since it was pretty last minute I didn't get any motion sickness pills...so I prayed really hard that the sea would be calm. Good thing it was!!! So no vomiting on my part...phew :).

Gianna said it would be our lucky day today cause its just the two of us (of course plus the boatman and his assistant)...so I said "YAH! it should be our lucky day!!!" Obviously I was very excited about the whole idea of spotting a dolphin that day.

We left the Jetty at around 7.30am and headed out to sea towards the Baram side. We headed out towards where the fishermen were so we could talk to them first and ask them whether they've seen Dolphins. Apparently they do, and they see it on a very regular basis. That particular fishermen said he even saw a couple of them just a few minutes ago...and that was pretty depressing for us cause that meant that we just missed them. He said that if we stayed a bit longer we might have a chance to see them. Unfortunately, if we did so, it we affect the research route...so instead of staying we decided to move from them but and continue on our route.

The fisherman who gave us the information about the Dolphins....he was catching small prawns :D

So there I was again, staring into the open blue/brown sea. It was ok, the first couple of hours, but than the hot sun and the cold wind kind of made it hard for me to keep my eyes open. Thank goodness I had my ever so trustable (I know that there is not such word but I like that word, so I'm using it...:P) somboi!!! Hahaha...that did the trick in keeping me awake.

At around 10am (if I'm not mistaken), Gianna spotted a Finless Porpoise, she first thought it was a log, but than she saw it came up and went back down. Than we all turned towards the area she was pointing but sadly it didn't come back up again, so she couldn't take any picture of it. I was of course disappointed cause I would have loved to see a finless porpoise...I mean in all my life, I've only seen a bottlenose dolphin which are the normal dolphins which we see on tv that does tricks. Oh well, so much for my luck.

This is what a finless porpoise looks like...see...no fin! :D. (Picture taken from http://dolphins-world.net/image/guide/sunameri/finless_porpoise.jpg)

BUT!!! Another two hours later around 12.20pm, Gianna spotted a family of bottlenose dolphins....woohoo!!! Even though I've seen them before, it was the first time I've seen them in our Miri waters and I was ecstatic!!! Hahaha...yes, small things like this makes me happy. Note that Gianna was the one who spotted the dolphins again.....haha...this just proves that I'm pretty useless in spotting for them....hmmm...I wonder whether they'll consider bringing me out again to spot Dolphins in March...hahaha. Anyway, we all turn towards where she was pointing and I was happy to see them come up and go back in the water again. According to Gianna, they were probably feeding, as in chasing after fishes for them to eat :D. There were like 15 to 20 of them...very hard to count as they all came up and different times. It was a whole family, which probably consist of grandparents, parents, and children.....soooooo ADORABLE!!!! That just made my day!!!! We stood there looking at them for quite awhile and Gianna manage to take a few pictures.

Obviously, when things like this happen, I usually somehow always manage not to bring my camera....sigh....WHY!!! I also don't know why....but Gianna did send me some pictures. Pictures as below:

Sorry that the dolphins were a bit far....it was not easy to catch this pictures as we didn't know when they would come up to the surface....well, better than nothing right?

Another picture....

After that we went on looking for some more Dolphins but than it started to rain so we headed back to the Piasau Jetty. I was wet...but I couldn't care less about it cause I SAW DOLPHINS!!! Hahaha....and our day ended at 2pm, and it was a good day and we were indeed lucky!!! Did I mention that when I was out in the sea, all I could think of was to eat Tom Yam and Midin Belacan??? Hahaha...so mengidam at that time....and NO I'm not pregnant...not yet...maybe next year lah...see how :P

Ok than, that's it from me for today! TA!!!

Dolphin Research Project in MIRI!!! Macam Tak Percaya kan???

That's me and Gianna. Gianna is the person-in-charge of this Project.

A lady with a big heart for Dolphins!!!

A few months back I happily volunteered myself to get involve in the Dolphin Survey for the Dolphin Research Project which was being done by Unimas and funded by Shell. I volunteered cause I wanted to see DOLPHINS!!! OBVIOUSLY!!! And I was pretty surprise to find out that we could actually have Dolphins here in Miri....surprise! surprise!!!

So yesterday the day finally came when I was to go out on a boat with 6 other people to look out into the seas and spot for dolphins. Since the weather hasn't been all that fantastic, it was a 50/50 chance of actually going out to sea. Lucky me, it was one of those days where the weather was on my side :D. So we all gathered together at the Piasau Jetty at 7.30am and only left the jetty at around 8am cause we had to wait for one person.

Michael and Bill the boat drivers :)

On our way out to the sea....

It started off pretty chilly but the weather eventually got better and the sea was pretty calm! I took a sea sick pill cause I had no intentions of puking my guts out at the side of the boat. So on we went far out to sea and the boat would move at a slow pace while we all stand on the boat and look out to sea while we wait for the dolphins to appear.

To cut the story short...there were NO Dolphins yesterday...SO SAD :(. We were out there from 8am to 2pm and all I got was a nice tan....hahaha...that means I'm so dark already!!!! And I almost fell off the boat cause my eyes kept on wanting to close when I looked out into the open sea. Boring bah! (Nasib I got Somboi to keep me awake....if not sure I masuk in the sea already! Ahhhh....such a scary thought) Our Miri sea got nothing to see at all!!! Saw one green noodle fish....hmmm...who knows what it is actually called but it looks like a green stick skidding on the surface of the sea. Very interesting....and that was all i saw!!! We saw a few big wood bobbing in the water which made for some false alarm as we thought that it was dolphins....hahaha...but no such luck!

All the ladies took a dive in the sea except me!!! hahaha.....you won't believe it if I told you that I have yet to get over the movie JAWS....hahaha...SERIOUSLY!!! I'm TERRIFIED of open sea!!! I can't see what's under me and I can't even touch the ground!!!! SUCH A SCARY THOUGHT!!! NO???? YES LAH!!! Eeeeee....don't know how they all so berani....hahaha....than again....its me lah that is such a coward...kuang kuang kuang....maybe I should go learn diving to face my fears....yes, yes...indeed a good idea!!! Something to think about in the coming year :D.

The ladies in the sea...nasib no sharks...hahaha....yes! I'm so paranoid when it comes to things like this :) Hmm...and that was also a toilet break for all of them :P No toilet on the boat bah! Hahaha...so hantam lah...pee in the sea...as for me, well...hmmm...that's for me to know and for you all to never ever find out :P

I'm also considering to join them again in March next year and hopefully since it would be bubuk season than, I just hope that the Dolphins would appear as well :D...*Fingers cross* *Toes Cross* and anything that I can cross lah!!!

Hehehe...ok than, that's it from me! TA!!!

Note: There are dolphins at Semilajau and Kuching waters too!!! Cool kan? I think so too!!!

And to end it, here are some pictures of the sea trip yesterday....

Us during one of our 'light-snack' breaks!!!

Me and Cindy. Cindy is the helping Gianna out in the research. She'll be doing her Masters base on that....so cool kan!!! Do Masters lagik...hmmm...I wonder when I'll ever start with my Masters....sigh...so lazy to study already :P

Me taking a self picture...nice green sea behind me :D

This is one HUGE HOUSE!!! or more like a PALACE!!! I have no clue how you can get there from land but I'm sure its possible. It looks like a Secret Get-Away!!! Whose house is this ah??? Heard it belong to the owner of Shin Yang....true kah??? Seriously KAYA lah!!! Looks more like a Resort than a House! The picture is a bit blur cause we were speeding back to the Piasau Jetty and I had to go on FLUKE SHOTS!!! Dahlah not stable, nasib the picture came out not too bad!!! :D But trust me, I took so many pictures of the sky and the sea while trying to get this one nice shot :P

Since you have already seen the house of the Rich and Famous, I now bring you back to reality to see the Poor and the Not Famous....kesian kan! Their house looks like its going to fall down soon!!! But than again, it has withstand time already.....see! we all should be thankful for the nice houses we have....AMEN!