weekend getaway

an old town, small island, Pangkor.

it wasn't my usual deserted, far away island trip. tiring, but with ample rest.

stayed at Pangkor Island Beach Resort.

thur night:

took the bus from novena to bangsar. reached bangsar hungry and tired and sticky, still in my office clothes. saw quite a few others in the working gear, obviously going to KL for work. must be very tiring travelling in that manner. although it stopped for toilet break, but there was nothing there to eat and i thought that i could hang on till bangsar. i nearly fainted from starvation.

Hosie fetched me, almost half an hour wait. both of us hungry. took me to this place where they had cheese butter crab. yummy. i likey... ate till near midnight and went to her place nearby to rest and finally sleep at 3am.

fri morning:

woke up by 7am. not me. hosie did. she got up and was ready before calling me, and i didn't even know she got up! by the time we got ready, it was 8:15... we were to meet chooi by 8:30. out flew the punctuality. but we got to the airport on time by 9:10... where the other 3 were waiting.

have not seen cy for so long. was good to see her again. hugz and coffee and breakfast... time to check in the old crummy subang terminal and almost deserted white elephant.

waited for the small dodgy plane to arrive at 10.30.

the plane was funny. by the time it started and was ready to take off, the aircon vents was sending out fog-like mist. it looked like some horror suspense movie where they were trying to gas us to sleep and rob us. it looked like a gas chamber, mass killing. i took only half an hour to reach pangkor.

a great way to travel. less tiring. less hassle. still in high spirits when you get to your hotel room.

fri noon:

we were hungry and didn't know where else to eat. so we tried the hotel lunch food. yucks. bad choice and expensive too. RM25 for a plate of tasteless nasi goreng.

then we all went to change and rest a while before going straight into the sea. the shore at the hotel is very gradual, hence it goes a long way out from the shoreline. the sun was shining and the water was warm. we were hoping it was nice and cool. all of us were in the water. not bad. i don't think the six of us have ever swam together in this manner before.

after the swim, we all went back to get our showers and get ready for a trip down to town and for dinner.

fri night:

small shops and salted fish and cheap tourist t shirts. the typical town for tourists.

dinner was introduced by the taxi (all taxis there are PINK vans) driver. it was a restaurant called kiah lim, i think. i have the receipt in my digi cam. will post it later.

we ordered kang kong... fried oyster egg... laksa fish (penang laksa type sauce)... sotong... prawns... and i'm not sure what else. the lady came out to ask if we wanted one prawn each... in our minds... we're thinking... "who eats only ONE prawn?"

but the prawns turned out to be HUGE and FAT! After cooked and curled, its was big as your thumb and index shaped as an 'L'. we had TWO each...

then came the time to guess the price... all said about 180 - 250... but lo and behold, small town reataurant decided to charge us RM123.40... no kidding about the numbers... they even discounted 40 cents...

so feeling really contented and happy about our bargain, we went back to the hotel and took our loot of sodas (bought from town), tit-bits and amanda's two half-consumed whisky & gin... went down to the beach, arranged the chairs and ordered some ice and glasses... and started to chat and talk and play games.

the drinks went down fast and after a while, we all slowed down and finally... the rain SUDDENLY poured and we all ran in. the rain decided for us to return to our rooms to sleep. we got 3 rooms for the six of us. the who stays with whom was very apparent. wendy & amanda, hosie & chooi, char and cy.

sat morning:

early in the morning, 7 o'clock. up and about by 9, for buffet breakfast and a slow change of clothes and arrangement to go snorkeling and swimming and other sea stuff. taxi called and a beach located for such sports. we all went snorkeling. even hosie who didn't know how to swim, ended up going and finally learning how to swim.

the weather held up. no sun either. so i'm not too badly burnt.

We first went snorkeling at some small beaches where the boat left us. with the snorkle and life jackets, we tried to make hosie swim. not float on her back. one hour later, all were experts in picking out the parrot fish and some other small fishes. i caught some in the plastic bag. well, not some, only two.

sat afternoon:

banana boat wasn't very eventful. all of them were afraid of falling into the water. sigh... then the jet ski. hai yah yai... i was the driver for several of them. but then cy wanted to ride it, so i sat at the back and she was mad! went so fast for so long... kinda like a stress reliever.

sat evening:

went back to the hotel, swam for another hour at the pool. we played silly games. did a syncro swimming rendition. tried to continue to teach hosie to swim. all got tired and went back to shower.

sat night:

we went back to the same place for dinner. we pre-ordered some food, so we had to honour our deal. crayfish... pomfret... huge clams (lala)... soup... vege... wild boar curry... oh la la... the bill? RM117 only! i love these kampung places.

done with the food, time for entertainment. they had a little band thing of some filipinos. ok singing. but the highlight was this angmoh guy that was drunk and dancing like no tomorrow and trying to get the asians out of their seats to dance. he was our entertainment for the night.

oh, but before that, we actually went for a walk on the beach. wrote some stuff on the sand. tried to take photo of what we wrote in the dark. took about half hour to position the camera for the timer... we wrote 'happy 10th 184 day' and at the side, all our names in alphabetical order.

it was quite hilarious cos they were trying their best to find the right angle, the right light, no shadows, etc... we took so long.

early rest again after a whole day of activity.

sun morning:

i got up early. 7am. got ready and went to rent a canoe. cy was supposed to go with me, but she backed out last minute. said she didn't want to get wet. luckily the sea was calm. i rowed for about half hour only. cos i actually got out of the room at 8:30, waiting for cy to 'groom' herself...

rushed back to the room to shower and pack, then went for breakfast.

rushed back to pack and get out of the room for the van waiting to send us to the airport. small little airport with only a handful of flights a day. time to go back to reality...

sun noon:

met with charles, ali and lyn... amanda went along. ate lunch at kim gary's. interesting place. sunway pyramid... went shopping... bought lyn a pair of BUM black canvas shoes with lime green graffitti all over. quite cool. so the little dark blue cash i gave her was gone in a single afternoon!

got dropped at amanda's place, grabbed a cup of coffee and she sent me down to bangsar to catch my 6:30 bus back to sg. i arrived at the bus just before it started pouring cats n dogs...

finally reached sg by 11:30pm... totally shag and sticky still from seaside breeze.

slight pain on skin at left upper arm and left thigh. a few scratches from barnacles at my left shin and a rather deep cut under my left foot.

scars for memories... :)

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a few thoughts:

good friends are hard to come by and takes effort to maintain.

ten years is actually a very short period for changes to happen.

best friends will always find fault and tell you about it. nothing bad that a best friend does will shock or amaze you.

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next year, we're going overseas!!!