Corals (part i)

It has been ages since I've updated here. 

So, Hello! Hello. Hello. :D  

The black pebble beach. The higher you stack the stones, the more luck you'll get. 

The last few days I've been back to kohlipe(for the third time,I know I know). It's a tiny weeny island off Langkawi, you can explore the whole island in just 30 minutes by foot. Trust me,it's a gem. Everything here is still the same, the warmth of the sunshine, the clear waters,sand that felt like flour(we used it for our so-called facial scrub literally!).. And of course, girls in bikinis. :) It felt that time stood still there. A typical morning will be to have breakfast, and off to the beach with our towels,shades,sunblocks,earphones, books. And just lie there. Take a dip in the water.Read.Eat a Popsicle.Banana pancakes.Thai ice tea. Life is always good on the sunny side! :) 

No editing. :) Take note the clear water!!! 

Like I say, life's good on the sunny side! 

So one of the days, we went out snorkeling on the longtail boat. I saw 12 starfishes in the reef!(and u think starfishes are so rare to be seen!)  And even saw a baby blue spotted eagle stingray and and and. Cuttlefish!! :) Oh and it's my second time encountering this type of cuttlefish. The first time I saw these cute creatures is when I was in hong kong, in a seafood restaurant, waiting to be diced and sliced open for sashimi. Sigh, chinese really eat everything! 

Apparently this is the 'cousin' to the cuttlefish. - Pharoah cuttlefish! :) 

Blue spotted stingray. We saw a baby one. Tiny creature strolling in the shallow waters.

Oh, you know I always believe that beautiful places will attract tourists, but it's the friendliness of the local people that will make you stay.I wished that I could say that the people there are friendly and nice. But.. well,that's a whole different story.  The cares of the world,big hotels with high class facilitates are creeping up slowly to this small peaceful island. Once there weren't even any brick-made houses.   

Anyways, since I've been snorkling quite a lot.(since the age of 10,my parents just threw me in the water),I would want to make a short summary of the common corals that u would observe in asia waters. So in short, there are two kinds of corals- the hard ones and the soft one. 
There are a few common hard corals in southeast asia. 

1# Staghorn corals - these are one of the most common ones. (there's even a page of it in wiki!) Normally one wouldn't pay much attention to these corals.. because they are plentiful around here, and well, they are not very attractive) :P 

2# Cabbage coral - as the name suggests, yes this corals resembles a cabbage. :) 

So the centre one is the cabbage coral. You can see that it is surrounded by the other corals(table coral) and if you look carefully,there are some staghorn corals at the right corner. :)

3# Table coral- yes, again, it resembles a table. People tend to step on these corals. Although it might appear very 'solid' from the outside, in fact it is very VERY fragile! So please, dont step on this! Broken tables are hard to mend. :( 

4# and we have the Brain corals.. which is very distinctive. :) 

Here is one beautiful picture of brain corals. :) 

So those are the few corals that I know. I will update more on the soft corals and the distinctive-but-can't-be-categorized ones soon! stay tuned! :) 

Sunshine, I love you only to some certain extend. After that extend, my face goes like this. :p

Have a good weekend people! :)