That Failed Camping Trip To Monkey Beach

In my futile attempts to keep up with my blogging, here’s one of the recent things I got up to – a camping trip to Monkey Beach at Batu Feringghi that didn’t quite materialize. It’s not really that recent. This was about two months ago. -_-

Next up: Photos from New Year’s Eve~! lol

I was really dreading the long hike up the hills and down to the secluded beach but since I am already in the final bits of my fourth year, I thought I should at least try to spend more time with my classmates who will be spreaded all over the country come August 2010.

We did go to the beach and all…but read on to find out why we didn’t need to stay the night. (yay!)

We left Sungai Petani really early, like 7am early. The plan was to go to Batu Feringghi and maybe spend a night on Pantai Kerachut or Monkey Beach.

Sent Chee Kiang back to his Aunt’s place after spending an entire week with me in Sungai Petani. He had to attend the very important Lush.fm anniversary party on that same day since he is an intern DJ there.

I’m not sure if his two months at LUSH are up, but do check out his 2 hours show (if it’s still on) from 10am or 12pm on Saturdays. 🙂 He’s hosting a show called the Lush Lab targeting tertiary students.

Andy was up to his antics again with Sett filming in the background.

We had breakfast at a residential area somewhere on the island. It was quite nice to be there early to see the very local morning market buzzing with families. I even bought some ear diggers there. I now have enough ear diggers to last me a life time (provided I don’t lose the entire stack). Do you know how difficult it is to look for ear diggers?

Zhu Zen might look really petite to you but she actually enjoys hiking. All the girls in my class are into the great outdoors Minus Poh Yee and Brenda..lol. Poh Yee proposed for a High Heels Racing competition for the upcoming Adsalympics, our annual interbatch sports event, which she would be sitting out. Bad sport! 🙁

Bummed out about missing the last camping tri, Lie Yuen vowed to come for this one.

When Sett eats, Steffi goes around with the camera. When Steffi eats, Sett goes around with the camera. 🙂 They’ve got it covered! Though I don’t suppose we’ll be watching the video anytime soon. *huff* Just like the dental dinner performance my class filmed. *huff*

Smiling for the camera. Not mine. ;\

I thought the boots lend a really rustic touch to the morning market. 🙂 I’m not sure if they were for sale or if some construction workers put them aside while they had their breakfast.

This is not your usual camping trip where we bring food there to cook. We tapau-ed a few stuff from the morning market for lunch time on the beach!

Chee Kiang was telling me those are really good made in Thailand pants. LOL That’s coz he bought some before. They are his Penang pants. Zhu Zen was just in the way. 😛

Haven’t seen him since. 😐 *forlorn*

l-r: Xin Yi, Ee Chean and Chwan Horng with his egg tarts.

When I went to buy my lunch from the chicken rice stall, they did not have pak cham kai yet. This is me being depressed about the whole thing. With pak cham kai, I savour my lunch, relish every bite. Strangely, with the siu kai I just gobble everything as fast I can. No idea why.

Like a scene out of some made in Malaysia drama.

When Sett goes camping, he means business. He went all the way into the residential areas of Penang to borrow these tents for us.

It’s awesome to be a girl. The guys will carry all the things! It’s even more awesome to be me because they remember how I almost passed out from the hike during the last camping and hence didn’t want to burden me with any excess weight. Some of them even offered to carry my backpack for me! Such sweethearts!

Saw a poor diseased looking kitty at the registration area. It looks like a stray but strays don’t wear gold necklaces!

My hand is there for size comparison.

Nien and I! It was at this time that I had second thoughts and had cold feet. Yeah, you can use the term cold feet too when it comes to hiking and camping, not just for weddings. I was seriously tempted to drive all the way back to Sungai Petani from there. So close. The thought of a two hour hike into the forest was killing me. I’m a pussy like that so bite me.

And me is teh most disgusting woman on planet earth! Didn’t wash this pair of shoes since the last camping trip…which was in September. LOL. It was soggy from the rain and the socks were stuffed inside it, which I threw away in January. I reckoned mushrooms were growing inside it and died from a lack of nutrients, so in the end, it’s not that gross when I wore it again after 6 months.

What was I getting myself into?

Kitteh was having a good time out in the sun.

You might be lucky enough to get a random stranger who so happens to be really awesome at photography to help you and your friends to snap a picture. This was not one such man.

It was okay at first.

Still good. At least i had my camera with me to absorb my surroundings.

With my ipod, hiking was a breeze. *dismissive wave*

In his commendable efforts to excite me about the upcoming camping trips, Chee Kiang gave me some activities to do. I was supposed to photograph three species of flora for him. He was going on and on about it like a kindergarten teacher reminding her students that it would be OH SO FUN and EDUCATIONAL. What I did was stop at one spot, point camera down, click..

Point camera up, click…

and point camera right and click. Done. So much for enthusiasm! All can be found in his own garden at home. 🙂

Lie Yuen living life precariously on the hanging bridge.

And after awhile, everyone wanted to have a precarious photo on the hanging bridge. Chee Wen still looks happy lugging this box because we were only about 5% into our hike.
L-r: Zhu Zen, Lie Yuen, Nien, Andy, Chee Wen, myself and Steffi.

Aww this was kind of gorgeous. 🙂 The water looks inviting but anybody who swims in the waters of the west coast must be out of their mind.

Maybe from the angle my camera was at, the slope doesn’t look that nasty. But trust me, it was. And there were worse. So bad that I had to stash my camera in my bag in case it falls between the rocks. HIKING IS SO NOT FOR ME.

I managed to entertain myself with serene sceneries such as this. A lone narrow swing in the afternoon sun.

A green lake that flows gently, possibly full of algae.

A boy who pooh-poohed the entire hike and went way ahead of us. That’s Maxis for you. Always the most active among us. He’s like the Energizer bunny!

To find such a beautiful bed of seashells on a Penang beach was a lovely surprise!

More of aforementioned seashells. I especially love the red ones.

Jakuns trying to bring home souvenirs.

Jakuns smiling for the camera.

I look like Nancy Sit!

Look at those dangerous rocks!

The cast of Desperate Dentists. (recurring guest appearance, Steffi the Pharmacist)

This would make a nice picture for the year book that we’re planning to do come the end of fifth year.

That’s what you do when you have rocks and the deep blue sea.

Ditto.

Must be a bit flamboyant wan when you’re on a rock with the sea as your backdrop.

That’s Lie Yuen btw if you can’t see her face underneath her cap.

We were so happy when we saw this beach coz we thought we already reached Monkey Beach. Little did I know that we were only half way through. It’s like slogging for your exams only to be told it’s not until two more days.

I thought we were already on the beach! Imagine the pain and sadness I felt when Cze-Yin said, “Half way only lah. Keep moving.”

We had to hike through this rocks! One of our bottle caps fell through the rocks and we couldn’t even hear it touch the ground.

AT LONG LAST. The entire hike took us about two hours. I know it sounds like child’s play to you serious hikers out there but if I am to walk anywhere for two hours, it would be in a shopping mall.

It must be nice to be a guy. When you take your shirt off, girls won’t assume that you want to seduce them.

Me and my delicious Chicken Rice. Well, it wasn’t even that great, but when you’re fecking angry, anything goes.

Lie Yuen and her mee hoon.

Mmmmm.

mmmmm 2.

Behind the scenes shots of the popular TV programme “Desperate Dentists”.

How do you resist a float this size?

Xin Yi and Chee Wen waiting for their turn on the jet ski.

When we first arrived, I was like, “I wanna play jet ski!! i want to go i want to go anybody want to go with me? Anyone? Ok fine I go myself.”

Had a good 15 minutes giving myself heart attacks and vowed never to go jet skiing again.

And when I came back, the couples started going on the jet skis. -____- See, got boyfriend around so nice.

Then the rest also started going. In pairs. T___T

Maybe because I made jet skiing look so fun.

Lie Yuen and the whale.

The whale got lucky.

Sexy, wind swept, beach side photo FAIL.

ooooh my ass.

ewwww.. I wouldn’t swim in that water.

But Ee Chean and Chee Wen were fine with it.

RM45 for 15 minutes on the jet ski..

Obviously must take photos when there’s a hammock around.

of course Nien wanted one too!

Me too me too! I could sleep there all day.

Surprising how the hammock can still support all of us.

The jet ski operators signalling to the rest.

Such a nice photo of me and Nien!

Chwan Horng finally takes out his camera.

Look at them go!

Really like some scene out of a movie.

I know some of you have seen this photo quite a long time ago. 😀

This one as well.

See the look of concern on Chwan Horng’s face?

Maxis went full speed as he did a sharp turn. According to Ah Thong, Ah Thong himself flew up from the back of the jet ski and into the water. Thankfully there were no other boats or jet ski nearby or something bad could’ve happened. Maxis himself didn’t let go of the handles and his body got thrown off the jet ski. As a result, he slammed into the side of the jet ski face first.

They managed to climb back onto the jet ski and came back to shore. Poor Maxis was bleeding profusely from his mouth. His upper front teeth (12, 11, 21 and 22) were partially avulsed. This means that they were inclined at a horrific angle out of their socket. According to his orthodontist, he was lucky that he had braces on as those brackets are mofing strong or else his teeth would have been knocked out.

One of the wires from his braces hooked out on to his lip. That wound bled the most!

14 fourth year dental students there just did what any other layman would do. Ah Thong ran through the crowd shouting, “Dental emergency! Dental emergency!” as he went to get the first aid kit. -_- That’s the title of one of our assignments last year. LOL.

We poured water over his wound and then stuffed gauze into his mouth to prevent the bleeding – think victim of a kidnap case. He was then rushed to the hospital on the jet ski. The rest of us took a boat back.

That’s Xin Yi and Chee Wen who were totally unaware what happened.

See, still smiling and all.

Ah Thong was such a hero. He was the one who got us the boat and did multiple phone calls to settle things.

See the look of concern on all their faces.

After spending two hours at the hospital with Maxis, who fortunately only had very minor injuries, we went for Steamboat. Maxis couldn’t eat anything but tofu. 😀

One of the best Steamboat buffet places in Penang. Can’t remember the name but it’s somewhere near Georgetown, I think.

The ice cream roxxXo. And my face is red because of the heat from the damn steamboat.

OMG I FINALLY FINISHED THIS POST AFTER TWO MONTHS. Procrastinator iz me.