Feb 13 Island Getaway in the clouds

So here we are. 5^th and last day on our Island Getaway.

We awoke to gloomy, grey and cloudy skies. It was almost as if the island itself was sad to say goodbye to us.

The rain started pelting down as we were having our breakfast at the hotel café and the clouds looming over the hills were so thick we couldn’t see even a single metal beam of the cable car, which was so obvious these few days past.

We collectively decided to head to town to finish up on our shopping. Diplodocus and I managed to get the coolest tees for the both of us and the Mickeyface, all in the same style. We couldn’t wait to try them on over the weekend when the Tiny was staying over.

A McCallan for the dad and our beloved Baileys for the liquer cabinet teamed with a bagload of chocolates and we were good to go. It was worrying that Kong Kong was still not feeling well and everyone headed back to the hotel for some quick packing and a little rest before check out.

The rain had lessened but the sky still hadn’t cleared at this point and practically begging for the clouds to clear, I decided to call the cable car company.  After 3 attempts, a friendly lady answered the call and told me that the ticketing counter had only just opened and that they may close again very soon if the weather did not improve. And so if we wanted to get on it, we needed to be there, like yesterday!

Rushing up the stairs (why is it always that the elevator doesn’t work when we are in a rush?), I excitedly told the Happy Family the good news. We hurried down to stuff our baggage into the Innova’s tiny boot space (should have rented a lorry with all the baggage we had. We might as well have stolen the whole town!) , and Mr Goblin drove as fast as he could to get us to the Cable Car. Of course we had to make a much needed pit stop at the Perdana Quay Petrol station.( And here I doubted we could have reached this fast if we had rented a lorry. Unless! Unless we could fit in some turbo charge V12 into the engine of the lorry. I bet it could work!)

Pitstop at the Perdana Quay with the fast and reliable Innova

There was no queue at the ticketing counter and even the queue to the ‘cars’ was relatively short. We had to go in sixes and there were numbered boxes showing us where to stand. All jumpy nerves, we got down onto the first station where Uncle K met some friends (is there anywhere in the world that this man doesn’t have acquaintances?? Maybe he is a politician in his free time?) Hopped onto the next carriage with Diplodocus to move to the 2^nd station and was mildly disappointed to note that the sky bridge itself was closed for maintenance.



The line up at the Cable Car



It was the first time I had ever stood so high off ground level(not counting my days as a toddler in Cameron Highlands) and I realized why I loved the hills and mountains so much. There was a sense of connection to a world that was so vast, so different and yet it was small and so similar in so many ways. The clouds were still rolling, and I literally mean rolling, over the hills and onto the unblocked atmosphere of the blue, blue ocean. The sight of them gliding away, right through us at some points, gives one a sense of peace that I haven’t actually felt in a really long time. The wind was really strong and it blew from almost every angle until at one point, I couldnt quite feel the cold anymore. The billowing was almost comforting, like holding my grandads hand all those years ago, and it felt almost as if it was trying to lift away every heartache I had ever had.

After a couple of hours of photo taking and admiring a man full of the coolest tattoos, we decided to take the descend from the hilltop. Any longer and our dearest Y might have been flown away by the strength of the winds. No idea why the Goblin and Uncle K suddenly decided that they loved capatis at this time but ignorance can sometimes be blissful.



Monkey see, monkey do?



On sea level again, and true to the Counter's earlier warning, the cable car was closed again.

We walked about the Oriental Village situated at the foot of the hill and were all mesmerized by a kid having a large green python wrapped around him for phototaking. Gotta be some brave fella, haggling the price of taking a pic with the snake with all those foreign tourists. Watching him as he expertly coiled the snake around a tourist and even holding up the head in the ‘correct’ way, I thought this is definitely some skill. I can’t even recall how to hold a rabbit and we grew up in a house that was more like a farm.

Duck Tours is available on certain times of the day at the Oriental Village. This is the amphibian vehicle used for the tours

It was already mid evening by the time we left the Village and after a lunchcumdinner at a seafood restaurant we found along the way, and a quickstop and Dataran Lang for the Y's sake, we headed to the airport.

 And to reality.

The ever-gorging geng

Buk Buk anyone?



Overgrown Pipit?

Its surely going to take me a long time, if ever, to forget the adventures and memories of this trip. From burying KK in the sand on the first day. Kong Kong- you made the perfect mermaid, but try to close those fins a little eh? To the joys of speaking to strangers for free mangoes, and actually receiving them!(good job Diplodo, just leave the cutting to someone else in the future) To the dramatic moments of Kong Kong’s illness and Diplodocus cutting a vein on her hand and making Uncle K panicked to kingdom come. To playing tag under the clear and starry skies, reminiscing a childhood long gone by.

It was definitely a good getaway, and for the Happy Family Members reading this, you guys rock!

Feb'13 Chap Goh Mei Island Getaway

The Lantern Festival in China is a festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar year in the lunar calendar marking the last day of the lunar New Year celebration

 In the olden days, young people were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love. Matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples. The brightest lanterns were symbolic of good luck and hope. As time has passed, the festival no longer has such implications. There is another tradition practiced, where the young maidens or spinsters would throw oranges inscribed with names and telephone numbers into rivers in search of a boyfriend. It is known by many as the Chinese version of Valentines’ Day.

So it is with this idea, that 5 hot and single ladies vacationing in an island decided to celebrate the Chinese Valentines Day in style. With our 2 beloved and ever handsome chaperones of course.


We managed to stroll around Kuah town and pick out some pretty dresses/parios for out special night out.

Telaga Harbour at night is the most perfectly romantic spot for such a night and we decided on Tapaz and yummiest Sangria at Bar Centro. The prices here isnt too expensive as they have dishes for sharing and the ambience is really nice.

Apart from being lured into almost stepping into cowdung by one of our chaperones( in a failed jealous attempt as I looked prettier than him), there was no disaster to be reported.
One odd thing though, the docked yatchts were similar to those we saw in the last visit 2 years ago.

The only unfortunate bit was that we had no oranges on us to throw into the yatchts. Couldnt even find a good sized coconut.

Dont get me wrong, we werent going to capsize the 'boat' but i think coconuts would have a better chance of being noticed than tiny oranges. They would rock the yatcht once they hit the floorboards and after all isnt KUKUNUT shake the best thing ever?

Feb'13 Island Get awat Day3/4

De-stressing was still  the order of the day.

We checked out of Cenang in the afternoon, after the panic drive and Clinic bumming session with Kong Kong. I did warn about the Crab earlier, and it gave dearest Kong Kong the worse tummy pains.

We took a short drive to a small stall selling Cendol and Assam Laksa behind the airport and enjoyed our food while watching planes land on the runway. Poor Kong Kong couldn’t eat much, and feeling sorry for her, deviljoe and me tried to eat more to fill in her portion.

It made sense to me at the time, now It doesn’t quite sound right.

 

Anyway. We checked into Bella Vista at Kuah town and were quite happy with our apartment for seven. The boys and Kong Kong took the rooms downstairs and the 4 of us headed upstairs. It was huge room, with a lounge chair and 2 tiny wardrobe-like rooms.

After dumping our luggage in the rooms, we headed out to town for a little shopping. Though at this point I think the Y has a different take on the word ‘little’ She came back to the hotel with a cartload of chocolates and goodies, and all I had were my beloved pomsticks. Ah, the joy of German potatoes

Dinner was at GLK restaurant, close by to our hotel and the food was pretty good. But one thing is for certain. If you plan to eat out in the island, try to get to your destination earlier, as almost everywhere we went, we had to wait a really long time to be served though there weren’t many customers in the shops.



Da meow



 

And It isn’t that easy to find a 24 hour mamak or a 24 hour McD as we later came to find out.

Part of Day 4 was spent bumming on Tanjung Rhu beach. The sea here held a special meaning for me as it was the first place that deviljoe had taught me to be less afraid of the water. The current this time was much stronger than the previous times’ visit and with the very large crocodile cum sea lion swimming among us, I wasn’t exactly at my bravest to dive in. The Y had her snorkeling gear all set but I guess it was little too murky to see anything under the water.

 

Apart from a Gecko, which made the day really exciting for everyone, it was perfect beach-bum session.

Feb'13 Island Getaway Day 2

De-stressing was the order of the day.

Since we have been awfully stressed in the last few months, Deviljoe and Diplodo agreed to hire a deck chair and deck out on the beach while the rest of the entourage took long needed naps.

The view, I got to say, was fantastic! Every color of bikini and swimsuit imaginable, every shade of suntan u can imagine and the many shapes and sizes of…bottoms… (safer for kids to read?)What more could we ask for? Ahh..this is what I call people watching.

We left our deckchairs at around mid-day to grab some local lunch. Drove up to a restaurant called ‘Jom Ikan Bakar’ . The shop has about 10-15 dishes you can choose from and the drinks are FOC. The Ikan Bakar comes at a different prices depending on the fish that you choose. The restaurant is located just after the roundabout near the airport, heading to Padang Mat Sirat and is open only from 11am to 3pm.

The geng gorging on Ikan Bakar

Diplodo and I decided on a Ikan pari and a 4inch piece caused us about RM4. Wasn’t too bad I guess

 

After which we headed back to Cenang to lounge again. We found the most heavenly Coconut Shake (KUKUNUT, deviljoe?) stall a couple of meters from our hotel. This stall proved to be our best hangout spot in the next 2 days.

The Best Coconut Shake stall!

Back on the beach, close by to our deckchairs, we found a couple of guys from Mid-east doing a thousand different poses in front of their camera. They even had a Carry-Up-Your-Trouser-Leg ala Marilyn Monroe pose. Gay? Probably.

I need to rephrase my earlier sentence, you get the view of every imaginable and Unimaginable picturesque.

Melati Tanjung Beach Front

The rest of the A-team decided to join towards the evening and after a swim in the Jetski and Banana boat filled sea, we decided to stock up on Apple Bacardi with the help of our beloved and trusted Bartender, Mr Goblin, before taking a drive out to Kuah town for a feast of seafood

The YY snapping away

Do be wary of where you order the seafood as Kong Kong got quite a nasty surprise from eating the crab at this restaurant we chose.

Second day ended with us all realizing that we are one BIG screwed up and loving FAMILY.

Probably a little too much of loving. But that’s just my POV.

And on another note, any ‘shadows’ or ‘spooks’ of any kind should not be spoken ill of when one is in Langkawi Island. In Fact, try not to speak of them at all even if you do see one. Just sip your Shake and watch the booties.

Feb'13 Island Getaway Day 1

I waited like forever to get on this trip.

And when the day finally came, we reached the airport way before our flight

And then almost missed the flight.

I gotta apologies for laughing at the Uncle K when he actually told me the story of how he almost missed his flight once, I never thought I would be in the same boat. So here, officially is my apology to Uncle K for making him so panicked.

Does the plane land on the airport, in the airport or at the airport? Gotta check that one again with the pilot.

Checked in at Melati Tanjung Resort in Cenang Beach,couldn’t do much since we arrived late at nite on Cenang, so we just grabbed some dinner and sat around enjoying the breeze and the umm..drinks. It was good to see the Goblin again after so long.

There were tons of folks seated around the nearby reggae bar and enjoying their..umm..smoke( is this ok for kids to read?) and us girls decided after a while of walking down the beach to get Kong Kong to play tag. Of course she had to be the first one and chased us all over the beach, almost knocking some hunks down. Probably they had much to smoke and thought a grasshopper had run across them as there wasn’t much reaction from the group of them.

 

The first night ended in a peaceful and warm sleep.

Much too warm perhaps.

Jungle Day, anyone?

They say that sometimes, the smallest change can make the biggest difference. And hence many organisation out there have oped to have a sort of 'away/off-work at work' day for their employees to have a little fun at the office.

I think it’s a great idea to get some fun into your workplace(and get those creative wardrobe ideas out). I am all out for the getting things to turn blue instead of seeing the everyday grey and this can really motivate people to amazing things. But when I heard the latest idea the Management had(From this point on, they shall be referred to The M) it almost gave me a fever equivalent of 5 medical certs.

The M had decided that it would be good for all of us to come to work with our PJ's on. whaaaaaa.?

OK so maybe if I worked in law firm, where everyday was black and white or at the local Korean Embassy,where formality was the order of the day, I would have jumped at the chance of  seeing how my co-workers dress down at home (assuming of course we all slept with PJ's on and not buck naked)

But here I am, where it is normal for everyone to come in to work in their jeans and tees. I mean, we look like we roughed it out of bed everyday anyway.

I could imagine this idea being accepted into other organisations. Imagine your postman, appearing in his pink boxers outside your door.
Or the Garbage disposal guys all in colorful jammies picking off your dustbin.

Or how wonderful it would be for our politicians to appear in dressing gowns with cream colored ponies and cows and zebra prints. Now that would make their sour news much more bearable, wouldn’t it?

Maybe the M should have came up with a bigger, better idea. Like dress like a clown day,or dress like a Disney Princess day(Now that’s original for all the macho men in the office!), or Dress like your fave Star Wars character day. I would love to see who would be brave enough to tackle Jabba The Hut.

Or maybe dress like your fave safari animal, after all, isn't this the concrete jungle?

A 20 year lesson

"Strangers are just friends waiting to happen."

Growing up, we learnt that we should make friends with people who are even strangers, because you never know, that stranger might just end up being your closest friend.

We learnt that the world is a round place and what goes around will magically reappear in places least expected

We learnt that it was okey to skip school sometimes and still be a good student

We learnt that not everyone is who they seem to be, and time and place will change a person. Some for the better and some for the worst

We learnt that it was okey to run in the rain, cluthing our skirts high to the thighs. As long as we don’t get caught!

We learnt that it was okey to fall in love..even with a pair of brothers. And in the end,  It was okey to get our hearts broken.

We learnt that all it took was one person to start something and it was natural for other to follow suit. It was okey to have the first all-girls soccer team and it was great to have all that guys cheering you on

We learnt to travel on our own, and we learnt to travel with each other..on roads not ventured before

We learnt patience, we learnt when to keep silent and when to shout out.

We learnt that the first try at anything may not work and that it takes a few tries to get something right. Even something as simple as Rockbuns

We learnt that plans do not always work. But we can always dream

We learnt that eventhough one plan doesn’t work, we can always make another.

We learnt that through thick, thin, rain or shine..that we will always have each other

Congratulations to my closest friend Geeta on being a mother today. May your son learn what we have learnt and more:)