Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The Journey of Air Salak and Bukit Rambai Boys and Gals

Here the story goes.....
After for about 27 years we know each other, this is the 2nd time we were having a trip together. First trip together, as far as I can think would be the Genting Highland Trip which I forget which year and which month already (Siew Fang, Le Le, Luke- can you refresh my mind?). Before I go any further, I would like to introduce my group of special friends; from kindergarten school to primary to secondary, and up to now. I am from Kampong Bukit Rambai (kampong meh??) and the next Kampong is Air Salak (this one sure kampong). The BR clan consist me(Ijay), Bong Kim Liew or Luke, Vincent Pang @ Kupang, Christina or Teena (now she moved to Ayer Keroh d), Jane (Working in Australia now, and come back once in while). And for the AS clan, they are Chin “Cicak” Hak Boon, Sek Tee Yong a.k.a. Father John, Yeo Le Le (maybe now we can called her Mother Yeo-joking yea), Aunty Beraunty already married, Heng Siew Fang and Teng yew Fong, and the lost world category, Ho Kai Tiong and Anthony Lee.

Can’t imagine we have known each other for about 27 years. Some already married, especially the gals, and as for the guys, still need to play play. Every year, during the Chinese New Year, we will visit each other and make a gathering so that we can update each other what’s going on in each other lives. Every year, we plan and plan to go somewhere, but as usual, gone with the wind. Everybody will forget about it and the next year gathering, will discuss the same thing again. Then forget, then discuss. It continued just like Karma until this year. This year, we plan and execute.

For this year, we have come out with something during our Chinese New Year gathering. And for the fist time in the history, everybody is so excited about this, and we pledge to each other that this year, we must make whatever trip we planned to be successful. Wow, it’s like we all are The Fellowship of The Ring…So, comes April. We start to plan. Plan punyak plan, email punyak email, call punya call, then Pulau Tioman is our final choice as it is nearer and cheaper. Furthermore, Vince and Teena had the phobia of traveling to Kay EL area (ha ha ha) and that’s why we all decided to start our journey from Melaka. Teena and especially Vince like to terperap in Melaka and they both make up the Melaka Information Ministry Department.

Our trip will be 3D2N from 29th Jun to 1st July and only 8 of Rambaian and Salakian will join this trip. And they are Ijay, Vince, Luke, Chin, Sek, Le Le, Christina and Jane. 5 male and 3 female. We will be staying at Panuba Inn Resort. I didn’t bring Jessica along as this is purely single trip. Sorry dear. But, we found out later that this is not single trip after all. Please continue reading to know more.

So, here we go. On the 29th early morning, we gathered at Christina house. Since her mum already wake up (taktau siapa suruh dia bangun pagi pagi ni), we asked her to become the camera gal and took our group photo before we start our journey to Tioman via Mersing jetty. She even pass some plastic bags (enough for 1 week vacation) to Luke so that Luke can put dirty clothes, or used it when he want to puke. So, we start out journey around 7:30 a.m. with 2 cars. One Kia Spectra Sport and one is Nissan Sentra. Both are black in colour. We took the exit of Ayer Keroh toll, and drive all the way to Air Hitam exit. Then, we stop by at Kluang (for Vincent, it’s Klu-ENG not Klu-ANG) for breakfast at Kluang Station, which is the original coffee shop which situated just beside Kluang Railway Station. We ate so many and it only cost us around RM28.

After that, we shoot up to Mersing. It took us another more than 1 hour (maybe 1 ½ hour) to reach Mersing jetty. After we parked our car at a field nearby, which are converted into parking lot (total parking fee for 3 days per car is around RM21), we walked to the Panuba Inn office. After registration and payment, we took to ferry to Tioman Island. The ferry was big, but it was not a comfortable ride for me, neither to few of them. The ferry has two compartment passengers sit, one side with the air-con and the other open air upstairs. Since upstairs passengers sit is crowded, we only managed to get the air-con passengers sit mix with the stink from the engine diesel. At first, everybody was like energetic and lively, taking picture here and there and posing like mad, even before the ferry was moving. Even the diesel stink smell couldn’t hamper our mood to take the photo. But after about 45 minutes of journey, everybody was like tired and sleepy, no energy and lemah semangat (poor spirits) due to the ferry was f**king slow with the diesel stinking smell. During the 3.5 hours journey to the resort, we went upstairs to of the ferry. Meaning- our resort was at the end of the island. The ferry stops many times before stops at our resort jetty.

At last, we reached Panuba Inn Resort, Tioman Island. What a relief and what a joy. Luckily, this area didn’t make our eyes soared, and we were happy to see that this area is our chosen destination. If previous stop or resort was our destination, then I think it will damper our mood. This area is quite clean and beautiful and don’t have many visitor, compared to previous resort, which is too pack and not so clean. Once we got down from the jetty, everybody was like..wow…ar……….syok…….then someone shout ( I think it’s me )- wei, jom group photo….Apa lagi…all gathered around and 1, 2 smelll…opsss 1,2 smile……photo was taken. Underneath the jetty, we saw a big big swamp of small fish (it’s not ikan bilis, but another type of small fish). When checked in time, my plan was interrupted. Since we only know that Jane and Chin are proudly announce as a couple, so they are given the weapon of choice to stay together. Original plan was 3 gals in one room, 2 guys and 3 guys in another room. This left us with no choice, but to sumbat one room with 4 boys and 2 gals in another room. I did asked Sek to stay with the gals to make it even, 3 in each rooms, but he resist. Maybe he is too scared or maybe he just like guys..hahah..sorry ok Sek (just kidding). And the gals said …ar..there goes my chance….hehehe.

After taking shower and resting, we met at the lobby at 4 p.m. We opted for jungle trekking after taking picture at the beach. The jungle trekking took about 1 ½ hours two way. It was a wonderful trekking along the way and we were still taking picture inside the jungle. Then, the moment of truth, it’s dinner time. The food was not bad, rice served with vegetables, sotong sambal, etc., and we ate until maximum because everybody was damn hungry. Furthermore, dinner was buffet style. After dinner, we lepak at the jetty- chatting and taking photo. After bored, we went back to our rooms to play some indoor card games. And the victim is Teena/ Le Le room….Fuh, lucky is not our room..hahaha..Sure later when sleeping, Teena and Le Le will feel gatal…hahaha. After a few card games, back to the rooms we go and we slept like pigs until the next day (hope the same for Chin and Jane).

The next day, all of us woke up early in the morning to have breakfast, except the couple. They came later to have breakfast. After breakfast, we wait for 10 a.m. for our boat riding and snorkeling. We had a great time at the first or morning session, but unfortunately, 2 macho guys, Vince and Luke can’t stand the sea waves and they got sea sick. Or even worst, Luke puke to the sea and coincidently, Sek jumped to the sea and luckily didn’t smack the puke. We took many photos, and some photos are very rare, special and memorable for us. For lunch, we went back to our resort and have a delicious lunch over there. After lunch, we continue snorkeling at 2 p.m..Around 4:30 p.m., we are back to the resort. Since we got nothing to do, we found a perfect place to rest and sleep at the beach under the tree. After the nap, we swam at the beach until 6:30 p.m. before heading for our dinner. Dinner was great; there were barbequed chicken and fish. After dinner, we lepak at the beach and jetty. Then, we lepak in Tina/ Le Le room again to have some chat, games and laughter. When midnight strikes, we all headed to our rooms and have a good sleep since we are all damn tired after boat riding and snorkeling the whole day. Zzzzzzzzz…….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…Oh wait…..we managed to create a special pantun….contrbuted by all of us, and with a special reading by Chin.

From Ayer Salak to Bukit Rambai,
Then to Ayer Keroh,
Tiba Panuba jalan tepi pantai,
Malam makan BBQ hangus, fuyoh!


The next day, which is the last day of our trip, we took the earliest boat at 8 a.m. after breakfast. But, I don’t dare to eat as I am scared my stomach will explode and I need to go to the toilet. Ferry toilet was small, and I can’t imagine doing my business inside there. Sure damn sweat. Goodbye Tioman…Goodbye Panuba….Around 11 a.m., we reached the Mersing jetty. This journey is much more comfortable than the first ferry ride and faster too. From Mersing, we start to move out to Kluang. We had our lunch there- chicken, duck, roasted pork, char siu, takua and black egg with rice. Nice food and we clean it up in a short time like a barbarian. From Kluang, we took the highway back to Ayer Keroh, Melaka and gathered at Christina house to settle all the outstanding items. Finally, with a tired face but internally happy feelings, we went back home and in our mind, everybody was like thinking for another trip. End of our Tioman journey.

And this is especially for Luke:-

Berhenti Kluang Makan Char-siu,
Semua licin tinggal kuah,
Siapa suruh bawa laju laju,
Kena speedtrap sendiri bayar lah.



To all of the guys and gals, hope you enjoy reading this, as some of the items are just for fun and not intended to hurt anyone feelings.
Let’s have another memorable trip in the future.

Thierry Henry First Hat-trick

Saturday, Sept 29- Ciudad de Valencia Stadium, Spain

Levante 1-4 Barcelona

Thierry Henry scored a hat-trick to steer Barcelona to a 4-1 win at bottom club Levante in the Primera Liga on Saturday.

The France striker had notched his first Barca goal in the 3-0 victory over Olympique Lyon in the Champions League last week and broke his Primera Liga duck with two early goals against Levante.

The former Arsenal striker netted after 17, 24 and 48 minutes to end his Primera Liga goal drought and set Barcelona on the road to a comprehensive victory which sees them move provisionally top of the Primera Liga.

Henry completed his hat-trick just after the restart and almost immediately Argentina's Lionel Messi made it four.

Well Done TH...