Finally..a relaxing trip...

Finally, a truly relaxing beach trip... the trip to Pangkor last weekend was great, satieted (i think its a word) with sand, laughter, booze and Ramly burgers. Haven'e been to a beach since March, and this beach vacation came in just about the right time to chill out.

The "Pangkor" plan was iniated by the members of the high council of vacations (Ivy, YP and Bun) and was planned about a month ago. A total of 8 went ie me, the 3 above, Callie, Ow, Ian and Fio..... err... Joanna, in 3 cars, 2 taking off from KL. I went back to Ipoh on Fri night/ Sat morn and caught a ride with Bun Bun and YP. Was kinda sleepy when I arrived.. but had egg tarts from Kampung Simee which tasted heavenly.. and that kinda perked me up a little. Mum saved some mangoes from our tree and it still tasted as sweet as ever.. hehe.. i didn't inherit her green fingers though.. all plants die with me, sadly, so better eat as much fruits as I can for now :)

Well.. took off from Ipoh at about 10+am.. and got lost at the new trunk roads while trying to exit Batu Gajah..hahah.. got lost for a good half hour there.. Ivy, Ow and Callie reached Lumut first. Ian got stuck in Tanjong Malim, (some roadblock) and after that got lost at the trunk roads too.. haha.. Well, the 6 of us had lunch first at a Chinese seafood restaurant at Lumut first.. not too bad... finally fresh seafood for me. :) yummy... Ian and Joanna arrived not too long after we finished.. and off we were.. to the jetty and to Pangkor.

A return ticket costs RM 10 ringgit and the ride took about 20minutes. Pangkor is really quite developed compared to a few yrs ago when I last visited. The fishing village was still there and as usual the fishermen were drying up all their produce for the day.. ahh..the smell of ham yu in the air.. We alighted at the new jetty and took a cab (van) to Coral Bay Resort, where we checked into our apartment...

It was a quiant 3-room apartment, bigger than my own in singapore (sad, huh) and the girls took one room, leaving Ow and Bun to enjoy their night together :P. Ian and Joanna took a room of their own. All of us changed into our swimwear.. and off we were.. to the beach!!!

The beach was about 5-10minutes away from the resort.. and it was great. The only let down was the boats there that kept zooming in very close to the shore. Otherwise, the water is clean (cleaner than Sentosa lar) and the beach was not too crowded. Went for a swim as far as I dared and even took a ride on the jet-ski (ex though, costs me RM 20). We tried to play "galah panjang" err... but the linesdrawer man aka Bun, was too tired to redraw the lines after first review. So, ended up playing in the water (inc tossing Ivy and YP in to the sea) and just hanging around the beach.

By the time it hit 6 plus.. we were dead tired already. Calling it a day, we headed back to the resort to clean up before dinner, which took a looong time, so Ow had a Ramly burger in while waiting and the rest of us muched on some pisang goreng and cucur udang.

Alright!! Finally all cleaned up after about an hour. Off to dinner, we went, to a nearby seafood restaurant. Ah Bun was the maitre 'd of the moment and read out the menu to us (which sounded funny to me) hehe...fresh seafood again.. ahh..wish I had this all the time in Singapore.. steamed fish... prawns fried in some kind of batter.. mmm.. yummy.... after dinner, had a short walk around the area before heading back to the apartment.

Time to booze!!!! No bars hold this time as the bunch of us (except Ian who was sleeping and Ow who was reading "Freakanomics") were crowding around the table, with liqour in hand playing ...of all games... BlackJack. Loser takes a sip, the bigger the loss, the bigger the "sip". Ivy went as first Cheong Ker.. and sigh.. lost almost every hand.. Ah Pooi took over... not too bad.. but when Bun became the banker.. all of us practically drank after each hand, well except for Joanna... phew.. lucky not playing with money, woiuld have lost big time then.. hehe... all throughout the game, secrets and gossips were flying all over... haha..the more you lose, somehow the more gossips you talk.. haha...

All of us had a round of Ramly burger not too soon after the game... mm... (making myself drool again) ..mmm.....

We were all dead tired after all that boozing and burgers and soon after that (around 1am) were tucked in bed. Bun, being the nice Ji Mui, after all, shared the "window" ghost story with all the girls... (think Ow was already asleep) ..hahaha.... lucky I wasn't sleeping next to the window :)

Woke up late the next morning and had nasi lemak for breakfast. We were glued to the TV showing the Olympic rythmic gynastics until about 12pm, when it was time to pack up and checkout. Rented a van to the town area and walked around a bit before having a light lunch (since we just had breakfast not too long ago) Took the ferry back to Lumut and finally it was time to split up. :( .. we all said our goodbyes and made a pact to go on more similar trips in the future :)

Well... it ended as fast as it began, but the trip was fantastic.. short as it was, it was well worth it and really fun. Feel like going for another trip soon... hehehe... anyone up for Krabi anytime soon?

Photos as follow *thanks Ivy*...if you havent seen it yet :)
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cchivy/PulauPangkorTrip2324August2008

that's all for now....

trudge on... and Jonie...out!!!

The Bucket List..and growing

1. Become a Divemaster
2. Go diving in Sipadan / Maldives / Bali / Great Barrier Reef
3. Caving in Mulu (DONE 2008)
4. Climb Kinabalu via Ferrata
5. Do the Kinabalu Climbathon (DONE 2007)
6. Go Bungee-jumping
7. Get an AFF skydiving license (taking still... hopefully can complete by 04/09)
8. Go BASE jumping
9. Climb a ice-cap mountain (DONE – MIR4 Island Peak)
10. Finish a triathlon (DONE – 2008 OSIM OD)
11. Finish a Ironman triathlon (DONE _ Langkawi Ironman 28/02/2009)
12. Own a CERVELO/TREK/FELT bike (DONE May 2008)
13. Go to the South Pole/ North Pole
14. Watch an Aurora Borealis
15. Travel around Europe (DONE – 2001 Contiki)
16. Travel around Africa
17. Travel to Israel
18. Travel to Japan
19. Finish a marathon (DONE – 2005 SCM)
20. Finish an Ultra-marathon (DONE –54km ADIDAS)
21. Go white water rafting (DONE – x4)
22. Rockclimb in Krabi
23. Be at a LIVE volcano errupting
24. Win at Genting Highland (DONE RM25,then lost it all)
25. Become a croupier
26. Learn bartending
27. Appear on TV (DONE – 2004)
28. Appear on Newspaper (DONE – 1999, 2004)
29. Buy a Swiss watch in Switzerland(DONE–2001(lost in 2006))
30. Own a LV bag (DONE 29/08/08)
31. Own a Coach Bag (DONE 2008 May)
32. Own a Apple computer (DONE 2007)
33. Own a Hermes scarf
34. Eat Escargot (DONE – 2001, Paris)
35. Finish a bottle of Vodka (DONE – 2007)
36. Try Bolinger’s champagne (DONE 29/08/08)
37. Try absinthe (DONE - 2008)
38. Get a hangover (DONE – 2007)
39. Learn Salsa
40. Learn Yoga (DONE - taking classes 07/09)
41. Go for a facial (DONE - 06/08/10)
42. Go for a manicure
43. Go for a pedicure - (DONE - 15/11/08)
44. Go for a full body wax session
45. Wear a kimono (DONE – yukata – 2003)
46. Take picture in the middle of a busy road (DONE 2006 Dec)
47. Learn a musical instrument (DONE – violin 1996)
48. Read LOTR (DONE - 1996)
49. Read the Bible (DONE –cant remember when)
50. Read the Torah

Olympics!! 2008!!!

THE OLYMPICS ARE HERE!!!! After a 4 year wait since the last one, the Beijing 2008 has finally arrived.. the opening yesterday, was just sooo amazing.. the way the 5 interlocking rings lit up at the beginnning, and started to lift up towards the sky.. wow.. and the way they made the globe, with ppl running on it.. upside down!!! only China and Zhang Yimou could hace done it.. amazing.

But after all the hurrah of the opening, the part that strike me the most was when all the athletes came out, representing their countries, showing the spirit of the games. This was the part, where a person could see how the people from the other side of the globe looks like (or like how a certain someone puts it, its a good time to revise geography) ; how different we really are, and yet, how we all still look, feel and act the same, when it comes down to something we all can feel proud about. The games to me is about the world comes to an agreement again, after multitudes of war, discrimination, and fear. Its the time when we all come together and say, "heck care about fighting with guns and bullets... i wanna see my country win a medal!" This year is sure going to be one to watch out for.. with Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya and even the small Timor-Leste, after having their country ravaged by the tides of homeland insecurities, managed to send out athletes to compete against the bigger and secure countries like US, China, Europe..

Hmm... and of course the star athletes to look out for.. Phelps, Hackett, Nadal, Radcliffe... whoa.. sporting wonderland..

Hopefully nothing happens during the Games this year. It's always a shame when something happens... The olympics is to celebrate the sporting spirit and the human will to succeed..So, to end off, I hope it'll always remain so till the end of time... and that we can always look forward to a peaceful world...

Trudge on...

Bike Crash!!!

Hmm... after almost a whole month of the same old stuff.... finally something interesting happened.. :) Had a bad bike crash this morning around 5am.. at somewhere in NUS. Some stupid truck decided to break suddenly in front of me. Was not going very fast at the time, and managed to brake in time, but flew of my bike and landed about a metre away on my head. Helmet broke the fall.. but darn.. the helmet cracked. Now I need to get a new helmet again today, riding out tomorrow to complete what I didn't finish today.

Funnily, wasn't really scared or worried when I was flying. Felt more pissed at the f**king driver who stopped suddenly. He made a turn and came back to see me, but drove away when I got up and shoved my middle finger at him.

Luckily, nothing wrong with the bike.. or I would have taken his license plate down and stalk the driver.. Don't want anything wrong with my bike now that the next race is only a month away. My glasses got crooked... so need to spend money to sigh..get a new pair. More money down the drain again. sigh..

So, picked up my bike, gave a quick look.. no cracks so far... and cycled home. Reealised only in the shower later that I had a deep abrasion over my Right Ankle.. (still bleeding while I'm typing this out) .. so, i'll need to get some antiseptics later on as well.. sigh..

After this crash.. I realised that the things I learnt from it was that...
1. accidents are bad cos they costs money.. Nevermind the injuries... it hurts that I need to go buy another helmet that'll put me back by another SGD70+, or get another pair of glasses. Correction... the helmet costs... SGD 149 :(

2. Accidents also disrupt trainings cos I need to go swim tonight.. but it'll hurt like hell with the open wound now still bleeding.

3. I kinda like the feeling of flying through the air.. hmm... getting ideas in my head now. Maybe I should do some stunt works.. hmm..

4. Accidents are good... they give me sth to blog about..

Oh well... until the next accident, or whatever interesting that crosses my way..

Trudge on.. and live on...