Time to relate our Malaysia adventure. It was really Amazing Race at times, particularly on the last day :-)
Here is how the story goes...
22 Oct Sunday 10pm: Boon Lay Shopping CentreAndrew and I met Seb at Boon Lay where we witnessed the final moments of Liverpool's defeat to Man U. Had a kopi and waited for our "First Class" coach. It arrived 15 mins late. However once we boarded the bus, our frustration vanished. The seats were fully reclined and we had a TV screen to watch movies. Damn shiok! The 10-hour journey was going to be a breeze! A great start to the Amazing Race!
23 Oct Monday: Penang
Reached Nibong Bus Terminal at about 8am. We had to book our bus tickets to Redang on Tue nite. Every counter we went, we were told there were no tickets. Jialat liao, are we looking at 5 nites in Penang??? Suddenly, we chanced upon a counter auntie who after making a call, confirmed that there are tickets, albeit at a pricey RM65. This would be no ordinary bus ride - more of that later.... we took the tickets and are on our way to Redang!
Hailed a cab and the taxi uncle recommended us to stay at Gurney Drive. Before that, we went to a coffeeshop to have Penang hawker style breakfast. Ordered kuay chap, carrot cake, chee cheong fun and wanton mee. Really shiok breakfast
After roaming around Gurney Drive, we finally settled at Evergreen Hotel. Got a fantastic room with Sea and Pool View. Also had free broadband which allowed us to browse Sammyboy to look for places to go in Penang :-). Sammyboy is really full of shitty unreliable reports, so we had to rely on taxi uncles' recommendations.
The afternoon was intense kooning so that we could have energy for the nite. After dinner at the hawker centre at Gurney Drive, we asked a taxi uncle about places to go. After listing out all the places which include "papaya farms" etc, we decided to go for drinks first in Gerogetown and then Ye Lai Siang KTV, which supposedly has 30 gals to choose from!!! We reached Ye Lai Siang only to realise it is more expensive than we thought, and there were only 5 gals in the whole place, wtf!!! The gals really quite cmi and yet the manager told us it is min RM100 tip for each. The best part was when the "mommy" walked in and bro Andrew thought she was one of the meimeis hahaha and politely rejected her. Laugh until peng san man hahahaha...
The adventure ended at midnite and we went back to the hotel after having cha kuay teow and chicken wings for supper. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
24 Oct Tuesday: PenangWoke up and went for hotel breakfast, before going to koon again. Then around noon time, we took a cab to Batu Ferringhi, north of the island and supposedly a beach resort. On the cab ride, the taxi uncle told us parts of Batu Ferringhi were hit by the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, with waves 20 storeys high. I took a picture of a tsunami "poster" at a shop there.
Batu Ferringhi is nothing exciting, so we stopped at the Shangri-La resort for a beer and then went back to the hotel. Although we checked out of the hotel, we decided to go back and use the jacuzzi and bathing facilities. So confidently, we strode into the health centre, signed in using our old room number and went to the jacuzzi for a 2-hour refreshing dip. After bathing, we went for dinner and caught a cab to Nibong bus terminal. The cab driver was really very learned. He told us about how China rose to become an economic superpower through the help of overseas Chinese and also how the US is trying to curb China's growth by manipulating the oil price. Very cheem topic for 3 guys on a holiday....
We waited for the bus at the terminal. When the bus came, it did not come into the terminal. We had to run to the main road. When we boarded, it was a real surprise. We were the only passengers!!! We asked the driver and he said "Lima Orang", so there would only be a total of 5 passengers for the ride. So we took 2 seats each and relaxed. After a while, the bus drove into a totally forsaken ulu place in Perak and we thought we are going to be robbed or even raped... shit man! The bus stopped and the uncle said the headlights are spoilt so in Amazing Race lingo, we have hit a Road Block (not the only one on this trip)!! Uncle offered to buy us Ice Milo which we politely declined. We even had time to pose for photos...
After the headlights were fixed, we were on or way to Merang Jetty where it would just be a 90 minute boat ride from Redang.
25 Oct Wednesday: RedangWe paid RM45 each to the scammy looking counter man and hopped onto the speedboat. The strong waves made the boat rock which ensured we concussed a while after boarding. It was glorious weather when we reached Redang. We called the Coral Redang resort to pick us up at the Jetty and we got a very helpful reply that the Resort is just a slow walk on the beach away :-(
So we walked on the beach with our bags like characters on Lost. The resort manager (a Chen Huishan lookalike according to Andrew)welcomed us and arranged for our check-in. When we asked to join in for breakfast, we were told we had to be charged RM20 each. But after some bargainning, CHS agreed to waive the charge. The first look at Redang was really quite breathtaking...
After breakfast, it was intense kooning again as we prepared to go snorkelling at 2.30pm. After a great lunch, we were told by the dive instructor the snorkelling trip was cancelled due to strong waves. Damn scam! So we had to settle for relaxing at the pool while we looked out for bikini babes...
We saw this Caucasian Babe (hereafter referred to as CB) - must be max 18 yrs old. She looked gorgeous in her little bikini suntanning at the pool, with a really angelic face and a devilish body. While we were really keen to get to know her, her chunky father was always nearby, sian man :-(
So we hung around the chalet until night time and took a walk to the nearby Laguna Resort, which is more family style and more Asians around. The KTV was Level 0 type, what a change from Ye Lai Siang in Penang! There were children on the dance floor, really very family friendly. We had some beers, went to the empty dance floor for a while and then returned to Coral Redang. Really lucky we came back early as a thunderstorm followed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
26 Oct Thursday: RedangThursday was a gorgeous day with clear skies. CB was up early suntanning again. A great view of her side profile was available from our balcony. We had breakfast and signed up for the 9.30am snorkelling trip. CB and dad also went, but they were diving. As CB was putting on her diving suit, she was ogled by all the guys around. Really cannot tahan her figure :-P
It was Seb and my first ever snorkelling trip. We had problems breathing only through our mouth. Seb eventually vomitted some of his breakfast into the sea where the fishes gleefully got a taste of ham and eggs, milk and Koko Krunch hahaha...
We had a real chance to talk to CB on the boat as she sat closeby. It was ironic I only got to talk to CB's Dad as I asked him about his dive. CB was either painfully shy or cannot be bothered with Asian men. She has rather big feet by the way :-)
After the snokelling, we were so tired and retired to our cosy chalet, but not before taking a photo of the beautiful beach
The afternoon we went for some canoeing and doing boliao things like taking pictures of squirrels eating twisties.
The dinner was really great, with spaghetti, fried chicken, fries and crab meat soup. Yummy! We spent the nite playing daidi and wondering how we are going to get home. CHS told us all bus tickets to S'pore and JB are fully booked until 30 Oct and there were no flights out of Kuala Trengganu. We are really screwed and waited for the announcement that "we are the last team to arrive" :-(
27 October Friday: Redang/Kuala Trengganu/KuantanA shocker in the morning! CB was gone - must have left on the 7am ferry. We had a lot for breakfast and then waited to check out, still unsure how we are going to make our way home. In spite of the uncertainty, we were in high spirits and even had time for a farewell photo
We took the boat to Kuala Trengganu and were greeted by a ghost town. At 3pm, the bus ticket counters were mostly closed. No buses at all to S'pore or JB. We asked for buses that went anywhere else and were told of two - 4.30pm to Kuantan or 10.30pm to Kuala Lumpur. It was Detour time! Do we take the safe but longer option to KL where there are bound to be buses heading to S'pore or take the risky but immediate option to Kuantan. We were eager to leave Kuala Hantu and took the Kuantan bus.
A rocky 5-hour bus ride later, we reached Kuantan - a rather well developed city that looked like JB. I was hoping for a morning bus to take us to JB when we saw this Southern Johore Bus Express counter. We asked the auntie and she confirmed that there are tickets on the 10.30pm bus to JB. Our gamble has paid off!!! We hurried to the nearby A&W, wolfed down coney dogs, waffles, fried chicken and root beer floats and readied ourselves for the ride home which seemed so improbable earlier.
The ride from Kuantan to JB took about 7 hours. We were even greeted with a real Police road block which resulted in the bus aircon failing to restart for a while. The climax happened when we saw Bus 170 at Larkin station in JB - we could use our TransitLink cards to take the bus!!! We were truly winners in this Amazing Race, although I must say it was Amazing Grace which ensured we got home safely and smoothly :-)
