3 gals and a road trip

Way back in the Uni days, I rented a house in Kajang. I shared a room with my coursemate and good friend, Curly*. Living under the same roof with us are Blonde* and Specky*. Us 3 gals and Specky got along very well. In living under the same roof for 2 years, shared many adventures and memories...

Some of the adventures are.....watching 'The Ring' at night on Curly's PC and screaming our lungs out, arguments with other members of the 'household', cooking dinners in the kitchen although aunty landlady said 'no cooking', doing household chores, shopping at pasar malam, countless mamak sessions, bombarding Specky with tips on how to 'kau lui' (courting gals), bombarding Specky with advises and nonsense jokes when he failed to 'kau lui'...we are so bad, Specky installing 'virus' into our computers where the picture and screaming sound of 'The Exorcist' will appear into our computer screen whilst we were playing solitaire.....and so many many more adventures......

After graduating, Specky went back to Johor to start his career, while the 3 of us started work at various parts in KL. The last time we all saw Specky is when he visited us during our graduation ceremony. That's 5 years ago.

Suddenly, 2 weeks ago, Specky sms us. Inviting us to his wedding in Batu Pahat, his hometown on 13th May. Woo-hoo.....Specky's getting married....woo-hoo we get to have a road trip to Batu Pahat.

The plan is that the 3 of us gals would drive down to Batu Pahat town, reach there around 1-2pm. Specky will meet up with us, we will find and place to eat eat and talk talk and catch up. Then Specky will have to head to a hotel where he needs to get ready for the dinner and we'll go to the dinner place with him.

So, Specky drew out a map to guide us to the Batu Pahat town, scanned it and sent to us via e-mail. Before I even opened the map, the other 2 gals already complaining.....the map is too blur ! ....poor Specky said we haven't even see him, already start bullying him again..hehe...so, he drew another map, this time on Microsoft Word, and sent to us again. This time, the map met our ISO1234 standards and we approved of it.

Early that morning, I was at Curly's place. Upon arriving at Curly's place only I remembered that I left the printed out 'clear' map at my house ! I asked Curly if she has printed out the map, she said she only have the 'blur' map....furthermore, she was playing around with the rotate function of the printer, and the 'blur' map was printed out upside down. Pening ! Now you think that upside down map, we can read it by turning it upside down again right ?...no....it's not upside down that way. The only way for us to read the map correctly is to have a mirror to the map and look at the mirror to read the map ! We were already late, so we headed off to pick up Blonde. She's worse, printed the maps and left all of them in her office ! So, not only gals don't know how to read map.....they also leave them in the office, apartments and prints them upside down !

Nvm, Blonde has been to Batu Pahat once on business trip, hopefully she still remembers the way. After 3 hours of driving and yakking in the car....we exited the Yong Peng tol and headed to Batu Pahat through the trunk road.

We called Specky and he said to look for the Summit supermarket, somewhere in the Batu Pahat town center and he'll meet us there. We didn't dare to tell Specky that we only have a upside down + 'blur' map, so, we just blindly figured how to go to Summit supermarket. Later, we passed a 3 storey building resembling some sort of supermarket, Curly quickly u-turn and headed towards that building. Once there, we told Specky that we reach Summit already. But upon nearer inspection, the building is actually another supermarket called Wira Court and not Summit...... pening ! Anyhow, we were hungry already, so we decided to stop for lunch at the nearby coffeeshops. And guess what we spied a few shops away from the coffeeshop......boutiques ! Clothes boutiques !....3 of them ! .....woo-hoo....and we though there's nothing to do in Batu Pahat.

During lunch around 1pm, Specky called us and dropped the bomb on us, he told us he's not able to meet up with us as he need to go to the Crystal Inn for his and his wife's make up session. His makeup session starts at 3pm and it'll take him around 1/2 hour from his house to reach the hotel, which is also at Batu Pahat town center. He said he's arrange for his sister to meet with us and bring us back to his house. And we were like....'you are guy le, what you make up for 3 hours for ha?'. Anyway, we came up with a better plan. We told Specky that we'll have lunch and then go shopping at those 3 boutiques, until around 3pm then we'll go to the Crystal Inn to meet up with him. Brilliant....

So, we shop shop shop and shop! I tell you, only in a trip with gals will this kind of thing happen. Who knew Batu Pahat had some really nice boutiques.....but the clothes are not cheap ! .....still we managed to each spend around RM100 ! There goes Specky's angpau money.

After shopping, it's time to meet Specky in Crystal Inn, we got some directions and off we went. See, gals will ask for directions and gals will make lots of u-turns to where we want to go. Finally, we met up with Specky....we talked and got to reminicing about the 'old days', we had a great time. We also decided that no one has changed, we still had the same laugh and demeanor and still look as young as ever... :)

Later it's time for Specky's makeup session, after his bride's done. His makeup session, super fast .....just spray some hair gel...2 strokes of the comb and done...haha

We got ready too, and at 6 pm we headed to the dinner place together. The dinner place..wow...imagine a big big community hall, but inside it's very nicely decorated and renovated. There were 2 more weddings going on that evening.

Specky got us seated at our table and he went about greeting his guests. Since it's still early, we were the only 3 seated at our table and we were sooo hungry then, we walloped the whole plate of crackers (biskut bantal - 'cham tau peng'??) at the table, after finishing that, we asked the waitress for refill and walloped everything again. Then, Specky came over and seated us at another table, which also was empty and we walloped that table's crackers too !

By the time dinner started, we were actually a bit full from all the crackers. The food in Batu Pahat a bit different from what's served in KL. First the cold plate came and each of the dishes in the cold plate is quite special, there's otak-otak, 'char kuih', siu mai and others...totally different and very special. No photos of the food le, I shy, don't want people to think 'from which kampung this girl come from arr??'.....

Next dish is usually the shark's fin soup (we didn't know what was to be served because they didn't have the 'menu' shown). But when it came, it was in individual bowls. Blonde mention 'wah, the shark's fin soup here come indivually arr', I jokingly said 'maybe it's 'buddha jump over the wall' soup...yumyum'. And guess what, it was ! It was 'Buddha jump over the wall' soup. Wow ! ...this is a first for me, the soup was delicious. In fact everything served that night was very nice. Later on, we had chicken with winter chestnut and peanut, steamed talapia fish, braised broccoli with mushroon, scallops, sea cucumber and a bunch of seafood stuff. There's also 'nestum' prawns and mantau with 'tung po yuk'. All were yummilicious....We agreed that coming all the way from KL to Batu Pahat just for this meal itself was very very well worth it.

After dinner at 9.30pm, we bid Specky goodbye and made our way back to KL again. We didn't want to stay overnight as to avoid the jam on Sunday, since Sunday is the end of a 3 weekend holiday. On the way back, we chit chat again. I talked so much the whole day that by this time, my voice was cracking and my throat was sore.

By the time I reached home, it's almost 2 am. Very tiring trip and I had a little migraine in the afternoon too, but after taking panadols it's ok. But it's all worth it. It's such an adventure for the 3 of us gals to go on this road trip. To go to this place and get lost and have fun. And it's so great to catch up with old friends and talk about the 'good old days'.

* Names has been change to protect whatever it's suppose to protect.....

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 4

Day 5 - 24th Apr 06

We hired a long tail boat to take us to Maya Island in the afternoon. Maya Island is a lovely island which the film 'The Beach' was filmed at. We could go there in the afternoon and the sea water will look beautiful because the sun is still bright and shining. You can also see the corals and sea fishes more clearly too. Some tours also offer to take you there in the evenings. In the evenings, you can enjoy the sunset at Maya Bay.

We stopped at a few places around the Maya Island, for snorkelling and swimming. The scenery there is really nice. With the sun shining on the clear sea water, it's quite a sight.
The snorkelling experience though is a bit of a dissappointment, especially for all of us who have been to Redang before. Cannot compare ! Redang's coral and sea creatures are very much more diversed.

After this it's back to Phi Phi island again. The guys had a short football match with the locals there. Kena sapu by the local guys there.....cheh.....memalukan !...hahaha....

For dinner, since everyone had 'extra' Thai Baht, we decided to splurge a bit and had seafood dinner :

Day 6 - 25th Apr 06

Today is our last day in Thailand....*sniff sniff*....there's a long tail boat to pick us up to the jetty. But it's high tide today, we are unable to wade through the sea water to climb up the long tail boat, if we did that, everyone would be wet from waist down. So, the operators took our luggage and loaded it into the long tail boat and asked us to walk to the jetty oursevles! Aiyo....after a very tiring, tiring vacation...still have to walk 15 minutes to the jetty.

After boarding the ferry, it's another 2 hours ride to get back to Phuket island. One of our guys was feeling seasick and vomitted in the ferry.....kesian the fellow....

Back in Phuket, it's straight to the airport, lunch and back to Malaysia !

Our journey back to Malaysia started at 9am from Phi Phi and by the time we reach Malaysia it's already 4 pm ! What a long journey !

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 3

Day 3 - 22st Apr 06

For today's day trip, we had to get up even earlier (this vacation is more tiring than going to work) ! We have to get ready and have breakfast before our ride pick us up. Early in the morning, Patong is still very much asleep, there isn't a lot of restaurant opened at this hour. So we just tapau-ed some breakfast from their local convenient store (like 7-Eleven). I had pork burger...yummy yummy, the rest had bread, instant noodle and stuff like that. After a quick breakfast, and off we go to Phang Nga Province.

Phang Nga is about 1 1/2 hours ride from Phuket. First activity of the day was white water rafting, it's a first time for all of us, we were so excited. Each raft is to have 4 person, followed by 2 captains. The lead captain gave us a short briefing as to what we need to do when he's giving out instructions. That guy is really funny with his accent and he referred the captains as 'katipan'.....and he's says things like 'if kapitan tell you for-what (forward)! you for-what (forward)!'...hahahaha...mind you, I'm not being mean and laughing at this language, but he's a really funny guy and made the trip very lively and had us in stitches the whole time. So, we started calling all the captains - kapitan, and when he said for-what......we for-what !

Soon, we are all in our rafts, in the Song Prak River, waiting for the dam water flow to reach us. Once the dam water reaches us, off we go rafting ! There were so many bright colour rafts blobbing on the river ! After rafting for some time, we would sometimes stop to rest and also to wait for the dam water to catch up to us. When we rest, some will get down from the raft and swim around in the river. If you don't get down from the raft, the kapitans will help you along by sneaking up behind you and pulling you into the water !

After what seems like a few minutes, our rafting time was up. We chose the shorter rafting route while others who signed up for the longer route will continue rafting. Our group was one of the few groups who chose the shorter route, the kapitan offerred us to continue by paying additional money. We were all hype up and was not ready to stop yet! And the early route was quite mild, we were looking forward to more excitement, so we chose to continue with the longer route. For-what !

At the end of the rafting trip, our hands were sooooo tired. We went back to the camp like building to have lunch.....yummy yummy, tomyam, tom ka kai, fried chicken, mixed vege, all over again, but who's complaining, it's all yummy!

Next is the elephant jungle trekking. Upon arriving at the place, we were complaining that it stinks, well, what to expect? Elephants don't wear Chanel No.5. Initially, there's suppose to be 3 elephants for the 6 of us, but one of the elephants fell sick and there's only 2 left. So, the 3 of us gals have to squeeze into the chair of 1 elephant. And the guys....one of the got to sit on the elephant's neck and the other 2 sat on the chair. hehe. Mind you, sitting on an elephant that's moving isn't very comfortable, that chair rock back and forth and left and right, we have to hold tight to the chair to avoid from falling down......and the elephant's 'bulu'....eeeiii...so prickly...hehehe
The elephant took us for a ride around the jungle, crossing rivers, going up hill and down hill. We saw snake (yikkkk!), monitor lizards and got lots of mosquito bites.

After that, the kapitan took us to a water fall place, were we swam in the river. Nothing special there. Just like the waterfalls that we have in Malaysia too.

That's the end of another day trip. All of us are exhausted already. I was so tired, I slept along a way back to Patong. Overall, it was a fun trip. The rafting was not as wild and 'dangerous' as I expect, none of our raft capsized or even came close to capsizing. But since it's a first time rafting for me, also first time in elephant trekking it was really fun and exciting for me. And the kapitans made it a even more fun trip.

Back in Patong, for dinner, we wanted to try the satay...and not just satay....but pork satay ! We went to a restaurant, the owner is a teochew chinese, and they only served chicken satay. We told the owner that we wanted pork satay and the owner said she can make for us. Yes ! Of course, we order seafood tomyam, tom ka kai (with pork) ! and mixed vege (of course) and etc etc....

We wanted to experience the night scene in Patong, we walked over to Bangla Street which has rows and rows of pubs and discos. But suprisingly, 90% of the pubs where closed, on a Saturday night ! How strange. Later on, we got to know that the pubs where closed due to the elections that's going on. hmm...not sure about that.....but then I was a bit relieved that we got to sleep early because I was sooooo tired already.

Another that to note is that I had a allergy attack after the day trip today. My whole body was covered in tiny red swollen spots, it itches too. My hands, legs, neck, back, butt, stomach...the whole body and my lips were swollen! yikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so gross. I was afraid that the allergy might spread to my ear, or inner ears or tongue....*gulp*...I can feel my throat closing up already........ ok ok...it's not that bad, it's probably due to the river water and my sensitive skin....but scary......and no photo ok, no mood to photo already that time.

Lucky in Bangla street, there's Boots pharmacy and the pharmacist there speak English, thank you god ! She prescribe me some anti-histamine and cream to put on. By the next morning, most of the red spots have subsided. Thank you to whoever that created anti-histamine !

Day 4 - 23st Apr 06

Today, we made our way to Phi Phi Island. Since there's no early trip, finally we had the time to slowly get ready and have a relaxing buffet breakfast. After breakfast, we walked around Patong Beach again to take some photos. The minibus came to take us to Rassada Harbour, where we'll take a ferry to Phi Phi Island. The ferry journey was about 2 hours.

Upon reaching, a long tail boat came to pick us up from the jetty to our resort. We'll be staying in Araya Buri Resort. We booked 3 sea view rooms, but the agent that we booked with made a mistake and the resort only reserved 1 sea view room for us ! And since all the other sea view rooms were fully booked, they could only offer us 2 more room with no sea view. When we demanded that we get refund since we are getting 2 lower priced room, the staff there said 'no no, same price same price'......then we asked them to show us the price list, to prove that its' the same price. From the price list, there's difference of 300 baht for each room! Same price my foot! In the end they gave us free lunch buffet.

Phi Phi Island

The sea view that cost an extra 300 bath.....

By the time, we reached Phi Phi, more than half a day has already gone past. For the rest of the day, we just walked around Phi Phi and search for our dinner. There's really nothing much in Phi Phi. It's small and quiet, suitable for a quiet down time.

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 2

Day 2 - 21st Apr 06

We woke up early, real early at 6.30am ! So that we could be ready for our day trip to James Bond Island. Our ride came to pick us up at 7.00 am. And off we went to dunno-what-name-jetty to board a boat which will be our ride of the day.

By the time we got up the boat, the 6 of us were sooo hungry. Since the tour guide told us that there'll be breakfast served on the boat, we didn't eat anything beforehand ! When the breakfast arrived :

Egads, that plate of 'kuih' to serve all the 20 (including the rest of the tourists who joined the tour) of us in the boat ??! The tour guide even took the time to give some basic introduction of the kuih to us, and I'm thinking 'just hand me the food !' It's 80% like nyonya kuihs that we have here. Most of the 'angmoh' tourist took a few bites only, in fact most of them didn't even touch the kuih, I guess it's not to their taste, which is more the good news to us cause the 6 of us just surrounded the plate and wallop almost everything ! ...hahahahaha...Malaysians Boleh !

Along the way in the boat, we did pass by lots of tiny little islands scattered around Phuket. At first, we were all 'wah...this one very nice, that one very nice'....after a while, it's 'how long more to reach James Bond Island ?? '..

At last, we reached James Bond Island, it's made famous by the James Bond movie (duuh..) starring Roger Moore....ya, it's long time ago, and I don't know the name of the movie....guess who wasn't paying attention when tour guide was giving us a briefing?....

Someone told me that Roger Moore circled this thingy in the movie :

Next up, it's kayaking in don't-remember-what-name-island. Basically, we went kayaking around the islands, got into some cool caves and paya bakau area. There's are 'kayakers' to take us, so we just sit there and gawk at the islands.....if we kayak ourselves, tenggelam (sink) already.

Then it's back to the boat for lunch ! There's fried chicken, squids, fried noodle, mixed vege (seems like there's only 1 kind of vege dish in Phuket, which is mixed vege...?!) and lots more. Once we saw the drumsticks, we were ready to pounce!

After lunch, it's off to another island for some swimming and lazing around, nothing special there.

Then we headed to Panyee Village (hey, I remembered this name). Which is also known as Muslim Fisherman Village. Where most of the villagers there are Muslim and duh...fisherman. The whole village is actually contructed above the sea. There are stilts underneath and planks of wood and slabs to cement that make up the floor. Under the planks of woods you can see sea water underneath. Imagine there's even a school in the village. It's not advisable to go into the village on your own cause it's very very easy to get lost. The tour guide also warned us that there are villagers there doing some monkey shows and can have the monkey take photos with the tourist, but we are not to do that because the monkey will actually steal your jewelries and money !

And that was the end of our trip, we made it back to the jetty, got onto the minibus and back to our hotel.

It was the tiring tiring trip but well worth it. We were getting sunburn already even with sunblock applied. By evening, we went for dinner (tomyam(again), tom ka kai(again), green curry chicken, mixed vege (and again) etc etc).

Edit: Wrong wrong, we had that dinner on our first night in Phuket. On the second day, we had McD ! Samurai Pork burger......sooo yummy-licous.....too bad we don't have it in Malaysia....

Again we walked around the Patong area to see if there's anything interesting and cheap to buy, also need to scout for some souvenirs. But I find shopping in Patong a bit dissappointing. The stuff are expensive. One shop charged me more that Rm150 for a lousy ripoff bag, of course I didn't buy. Then, for some ripoff Billabong shorts...it's RM50, after some bargaining I managed to get it down to RM25 and the owner didn't want to lower the price anymore, so I didn't buy too. And the people there weren't exactly very friendly either. It's quite a hassle to bargain with them, some will ignore you when you ask for lower price, some will have 'tactics' to pressure you to buy ! After a few tries, all of us got quite sien already, and just settled for look look and see see only. Well, I guess we are 'cheapo' tourist to them, they have all the angmoh tourist who are have more spending power.

We also signed up another trip to Phang Nga bay for white water rafting and elephant trekking for the next day !