The Moment When I Felt....

It was on such a short notice. The journey was a long drive, luckily I wasn’t the one driving. We stopped at Gunung Semanggol for dinner. A bowl of ‘beehoon soup’ with chicken and some fishballs only cost me rm2.50. Yes, it was dirt cheap! I don’t think I can get that in KL. Continued the rest of the journey with bloated stomachs and a smile on my face.

Reached the island at about 9pm. Went to all the hotels we could get our eyes on. All of them were fully booked. Left us with no choice, last resort was Hotel Sri Malaysia. Finally, we managed to get rooms after two hours of going around. It wasn’t too bad, although I wish there’s a bathtub for me to sink in. Oh well, at least I get an air-conditioned room with a queen size bed all too myself. :)

After having our breakfasts, we headed straight to the camp site. It was my first time ever going to site. Worms were crawling everywhere on the ground. The trick is, just don’t look at the ground! The boat came on at about 9.30am. There wasn’t any jetty, had to watch our steps as the rocks were quite slippery. The ride was splashy, sea water all over us. Nonetheless, I like it when the boat hit away those waves, the air blew off my hair and the sound of the ocean. Gosh, I miss rowing and being in the water!

After an hour of bumpy ride, we arrived to our first location. Had to jump over a boat to get on the anchored boat. For a second there, I felt like Trinity from the Matrix. Haha. At first, I thought I was seasick as every things seem a little shaky, then I realised it’s an anchored boat. It doesn’t have a firm support around the corners, hence, the instability. Yeay! Glad to know I’m not seasick!

The project manager gave me a chair to sit on and placed it in the middle. They were surrounding me in a big circle and bombarded me with all sorts of questions. It was like the scene in the King and I where all those concubines were fascinated with Anna’s skirt. Language became the barrier between us, the local contractor had to be our middle man. But that didn’t stop us from getting to know each other’s culture.

...to be continued.