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:)

Estee Lauder Pink Campaign Awareness Walk

You can call me what you want, but I am a person who always feel happy to be doing something for a good cause. And happier when I am doing something for a good cause and getting some freebies out of it.

So when I heard that my workplace was going to subsidise the participation fee for joining the Estee Lauder Breast Cancer Awareness Walk, the gang and I jumped up to register.Hearing there were Free Clinique or Estee products, and we were practically running to the registration booth.

Organised by Estee Lauder Companies Malaysia, this annual Breast Cancer Awareness campaign aims to educate Malaysian women about the importance of early detection and treatment. A

campaign running since 1996, this is a global initiative involving over 40 countries

2,000 participants were expected for this 3½ km charity walk which took place at the National Science Museum in Kuala Lumpur. The event started at 4pm and went all the way through to 6pm on Saturday, 29th September 2012.

Unfortunately the little diplodocus contracted some sort of eye infection and couldn’t join us for the walk. It was sad to leave the one eyed dino behind, as the Pekster and I drove away.

As we arrived at the Landmark, all we saw was the sea of pink. Estee Lauder had their own booth there and being one who does not miss a good oppurtunity to donate(have I already mentioned this? Are you sure?) I got myself an Estee pack for RM100. The entire proceeds go to charity,and upon hearing that, the Pekster and I proceeded to purchase a couple more tees and ribbon pins, and get our pretty faces painted. Ok, the goodies weren’t all for ourselves, after all the Pekster WAS walking for Diplodocus.

The stage and the booth

Evelyn Lauder and Elizabeth Hurley Dream Lip Collection

 

Goodies for the day

Before the walk, Jazzercise got everyone doing the macarena(ok, it wasn’t exactly the macarena) for warm up. The Y decided to go look for the toilets, which were situated a block away from milo truck and the macarena dancers. Perhaps this was the way the walk was going? Pekster and I thought so, and wanting to be the first in line for the walk (for once) we decided to wait till the whistle blew and would join the firstwalkers.

The Y was skeptical of our assumption and upon hearing the whistle blow and not seeing anyone walk by us, she decided to go check on the crowd. Maybe they all stopped at the Milo trucks?

After a couple of minutes, and I do believe she did stop for a milo before making her way back to us, The Y came huffing to tell us the walk was going the other way around. We were actually not even within the path! So much for being the first to start. But as I always say, if you can be the first, be the last! Wait, that doesn’t make sense….

Anyway, the path of 3.5 km wound around bukit damansara. On one bend a 75 year old over took all the walkers, and I wished I could have saluted him. But he was like the wind and was gone in the blink of 20 eyes.

Couple of kids couldn’t walk after the 1.5 km mark. Could probably be due to the fact that their smart parents made them were flipflops instead of proper sneakers. Cmon folks, dress your own kids and have some common sense. Don’t blame it on the maid.

The sea of pink collected their goodie bags after the walk and most hung around for the Landmark Illumination took place at around 7.45pm.

Broga Uphill & Beyond

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.  ~Lao Tzu


I think I might have taken Lao Tzu a little too seriously. Allow me to explain

Its the raya weekend today and taking into consideration that the diplodocus  has been bugging anyone that stops to listen about getting to the top of Broga hill and the fact that Carol had just asked me to go on a hike, I decided to give it a go.

Most sites I explored cited the hike as 'relatively easy' but the Pekster had warned me before that I may not be able to take the trail. You see, I have this awful knee injury that kind of puts the full stop on most of my outdoor activities. But  dealing with the injury has taught me to listen to my body and I now know the extent that I can push myself and also the consenquences of pushing too hard(*shudder*). Not giving it a second thought (or 4th in my case), I called up Carol and arranged to meet her early the next day.

We left Seri Kembangan around 5am and drove for about 30 minutes along the Silk Highway. The turning point is Semenyih town from the highway and after a 10 minute drive, you can see the signboard to Broga town. Just watch out for the Petronas station on your right.

Wee hours of the morning made it a little harder for us to spot the rabbit farm that is the landmark for the hike trail. Honestly it did not look like much of a rabbit farm..unless the rabbits were zombie rabbits running a haunted house. But find it we did, and took a left into the oil palm estate where we can park our car for RM2 per entry.By 6am there were already a lot of cars parked there and people were already on the move up.

Cars can be parked under the oil plam trees

Entrance to the Hill

Rabbit Funland Landmark

Self reminder: Please do warm up exercises if you do not want a muscle pull in the future. Only along 20 minutes up the route, I has a pull on my left calf but decided to be heroic and athletic and pushed on with Diplodocus and Carol's motivation. It was a slow hike for me, though Carol did mention that it took her about 20 minutes to reach the first peak on her last visit.

So depending on how fit you are, the hike can take from up to 20 minutes to an hour(thats me). But do take your time, the trail is pitch black at that hour and certain areas can get a little slippery and in some parts the gorges are a little deep. The original trail was smaller but Broga is a hill thats frequented by hundreds of people every weekend, so it was obvious(well to me at least) that the trail was expanding thanks to the many footsteps taken on its path. The rocky part of the hill is quite apparent and makes up most of the trail.

The topmost of Peak one is the steepest climb. Though most of the way has some plantations and trees to hold on to as you come up, this part was nothing but a dirt trail. I was really queasy looking at it but the fact that the 'scared of heights' Diplodocus was plunging her way up irregardless made me less fearfull. The Peak was crowded with people and though it was a little cloudy, the view of the hilltops and foggy valley was breathtaking.

View from midway point

It can get pretty crowded up here

We did chance upon one lady who seemed to have never seen a sunrise before as she was loudly exclaiming how it beautiful it was. Now I am one who believes in expressing oneself, but given the fact there wasnt much to behold and the ecstacy in which she was making her exclamations, I figured she either a) didnt get out much from her house b) she was still hungover from last nights booze party


Diplodocus taking her break



Trail to the second peak



View from Peak one

Anyways, 20 minutes later we decided to start on the descent which was pretty easy and uneventful, save for the one guy who came up behind us somewhere midway down the hill. He was obviously trying to macho up to the lady who was walking with him and doing a couple of daredevil stunts of jumping over 1 foot ridges to show off to her. But his shoes were not right and couldnt grip the ground, so he ended up slipping and falling into one of the ridges. So do wear proper shoes, expecially if you are trying to impress a girl.

With tummies now growling, we decided to head out the Broga Town to get some breakfast. Pepe had mentioned that this township is actually famous for its 'exotic' fare. Turtle soup, zombie rabbit satay and the like. But all we wanted was good old nasi lemak, though we couldnt find any thanks to all the shops being closed due to the public holiday.

I gotta say though, this is a pretty cool place for retirement. Its quiet and well...retire-ish..

Well, till the next post- stay healthy folks!

RWMF 2012

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. – Robert Fripp

 

So here we are. Stuck at the airport with a plane that is half an hour delayed. Which is a good thing, considering that Uncle G arrived late at the airport.

This was the first time I was flying to the east coast. A year of planning the trip to join in the Rainforest World Music Festival dancing and it was hard to believe that the date was finally here. I had heard so much about the festival- from the interesting music blend to the mud baths and (shhh) the sexual –Os.

 I must admit, I did think twice if I had made the right choice.

We arrived late into the night in Kuching airport and only managed to grab some mamak food that night. The morning was pleasantly cool as we strolled down to the riverfront and having nothing much to do, hopped onto the sampan that takes people across the river. We were the only ones on the boat and the paddler decided to give us a longer ride and took us a little further downstream. Uncle G was confidently saying to Ms B  how the crocodiles infest the river when we realised the boatman chuckling behind us. “sini mana ada buaya” . Uncle G was probably the only ‘buaya’ we had on board. Hmph.

Our cab arrived in the afternoon to take us to Santubong. The best local store selling goodies was the Ting Ting supermarket and it was here that we decided to get some mixers. Hoping there would be another store along the way, we regretfully did  not get any drinks that day. Am not sure whether it was because of the festival that most of it was stashed into someones basement, but it was definitely a difficult task. Thankfully the Gent Mo was coming up to Santubong the next day and Ms B managed to get him to buy us a couple of bottles.

It took us about half an hours drive to get to Santubong from Kuching.The first sight of Mount Santubong was breath taking. The legend associated with the mountain is of two beautiful princesses, Santubong and Sejinjang. One day, the princesses had a quarrel and exchanged blows. Putting an end to the quarrel, the King of Heaven cursed both of them into mountains. It is said that Mount Santubong resembles a woman lying on her back.

We had decided to put up in Permai Rainforest Resort. Though the cabin was a 15 minute ‘hike’ away from the reception, it was good to walk among the trees and along the small bridges lining the resort. The simplicity of the cabin wasn’t happily accepted by everyone in the group (where’s the hair dryer?? Was the frogs first reaction) but I suppose one can’t have much expectation living among nature.

We shared the ‘longhouse cabin’ with a couple of Uncle G’s mates from KL, Singapore and Brunei, whom thankfully had managed to stash some beverages. I had never been happier to see a Bombay Sapphire in my life(no, I am not a drunkard la). With a couple of stories of Prince Azim and the Sultan of Brunei filling the air, we became fast friends. Must be the vacation air, Or the % in the beverage.

It was late on Friday evening when we decided to head out to the cultural village. The concert had started at 7.30 and people were already enjoying the Heineken and music by the time we arrived. It was a small crowd on the first day- probably 800 to 1000 people. Frogster and I managed to quickly get our cans and were vowed by the Irish sisters’ band on violins. I got to agree on one thing though. Some of the music that was played can only be enjoyed with some beverage in your blood stream. Sober, you would just say music, WTF??

It was in the middle of the crowd that we met Sam the rainman. On this day, we found Sam jumping up and down on the field, shouting at the sky.  A cool looking Penangite, and the (ever-grateful) supplier of my langkau , Frogster and I made a friendship that would last, well, …3 days. Good times.

We decided to check out the village on the 2^nd day afternoon. Here’s the best part of the show. The bands performing in the show have got a lot of workshops in the afternoon. You can walk around and join any of these and learn about the musical instruments that they use. The longhouses are also open where you can go in and talk to the locals living there and probably get a bite to eat with them. Don’t be shy and do walk around and ask whatever that’s on your mind. They are used to tourists and are very different from the orang asli village I had visited once, where the womenfolk would rather huddle indoors when strangers approached.

The crowd on the 2^nd night is more than the first. The village was totally packed and the music was more upbeat on the 2^nd night. According to the volunteers (Thank you Terry, I would love to volunteer next year! Though, this was the first time a guy asked me where I got my blouse, hmmm), the biggest crowd comes in on this night since its Saturday and there would be a big beach party just opposite the village. We did a pop by the party and honestly, wasn’t much to shout about. Sometime during the performance we realised we had lost Uncle G thanks to him being chased by the mudslingers. That’s the people who roll around in the mudpit and then drag the bystanders along. In one moment, I wasn’t too sure if a boar had joined the fun in the mudpit. They all looked the same from where I was standing—miles away---

Allow me to stop here to pass on a wise piece of advise. Please try to refrain from taking 3 different types of beverages, one of which is the langkau. It WILL make you say or do things which you will say ‘WTF was that!’ When you are sober.

After dancing for 4 hours and realising I am not 16 anymore, we decided to give the workshops a pass on the 3^rd day. It was good to soak up in the South China Sea with the view of the Santubong looming above us. After enjoying a meal of barbequed meats and seafood, we headed out to the final day of the festival.

Though the crowd was again lessened, but one thing is for sure, it’s the day people have the most fun. The crowd was really noisy and the beach party was full swing. Street food is sold along the beach party and frogster and I enjoyed the burger Sarawak, while Ms B and Johnbaby gave away free hugs to everyone. Still not sure to this day for whose charity it was.

Here’s a couple of  things not to miss at the festival- let down your hair, make friends, most people there are a good bunch of people, great music, lovely tuak

Overall, do get yourself some layer cake..plenty sold along the waterfront in Kuching, Sarawak laksa and pepper. Any decorative items or small souvenirs should be bought in Kuching town as the prices can be pretty steep in Santubong.