Sunday, August 06, 2006
Sand, sea and biscuits
It's been a while since I had to wake up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. So, needless to say it was a pretty daunting task for me yesterday. But the thought of a road trip to the beach, woo hoo! kind of made up for all that. Yep... we (me, Brendon and Hai Yuan) headed out to Morib Beach (BTW, that's in Banting after Kuala Langat....far away on the other side of Selangor) with the Sem 2 Architecture students to cover a story of their Sandcastle Building project.
We were the papparazis in flip-flops (Yuanie in her orange Crocs), on assignment for the college newsletter. Yuanie warmed up the camera by taking pictures of a taxi with three huge-ass Malaysia and Selangor flags stuck on the car booth, proudly flowing in the morning wind. Way too early in the morning to jog my spirit of patriotism. Were told to meet in college at 7am.... only had to wait for the Archis to show up later which resulted in the bus leaving at 8 something.
So off we went, plying through the roads flanked by palm oil and vegetable farms in the small town of Kuala Langat. The journey there was somewhat nostalgic for me because I used to travel to Banting when I was about eight (ya ha..donkeys years ago) to my aunt's house in Telok Datok, when my Three Stooges boy cousins were in diapers. In between that were the sounds of our incessant giggles (stressing the presence of Mass Commers in the bus) after I told my story about the cat outside my house which stuck its tongue at me when I shoo-ed it away (Ripley's here I come!). AND the story of Yuanie's friend who can't differentiate the words come and cum! Yikes! Funny story, really. So, yeah we had our own laughing session behind the bus. Then suddenly one of the Archi dudes announced he had to piss so the driver made a stop at the petrol station and a bunch of them got down as well. While nature called out to them, the three of us crossed the road to buy some biscuits at the sundry shop. I ended up chomping Brendon and Yuanie's biscuits of orange wafers and peanut butter crackers coz my sesame seed ones sucked. Oh yeah, the bus almost abandoned us when we were paying for our munchies. Shees..
Morib beach was like any other, accept it is quite polluted since we spotted two ships shitting out its pollutants. It was 10am and the Archis started their building their sandcastles. The sun weather was tolerable until about 1pm when it turned vicious. Blasting down its scorching heat, the sun was slowly baking the Archis who were painstakingly designing their constructions. Let's see, one of the "sandcastles" looked like a deformed penis and another like two giant doughnuts stacked up. He he... another laughing session under the coconut tree for us.
Oh yeah, why would anyone wear low-riding jeans to the beach, when YOU KNOW you have to get down and dirty on the sand I'll never know! Butt-crack overkill! God, we were nearly blinded! Mr Leow, the lecturer, was nice enough to provide everybody, including us, with lunch of packed fried rice, mee and bee hoon. Full tummies, sweltering heat, sleepiness kicking in.. not a good combination. Didn't think about bringing a mat so we just tried to get comfy on the sand under the coconut tree. I was no doubt restless and Brendon said I looked like a tranquilized elephant! Thanks, friend. Keep up the compliments. Pbbbttthhh....
Three o' clock came and it was time for the Archis to pack up. The penis and doughnuts now looked like a small castle doomed for destruction and Saddam Hussein's fortress. The others were also somewhat ok la for Sem 2 students. So, it was 4pm and we were all in the bus once again headed back, but only to find out Mr Leow was taking us for a seafood dinner somewhere. We were awoken from our much needed slumber an hour later when the bus arrived at the seafood place in Tanjung Sepat, about 40km after Morib. The usual seafood spread with rice was alright and Yuanie was suffering from sunburns. It was nearly six when we left. To say that the small town trunk roads were bumpy is an understatement. It was like a Camel Trophy expedition and worst still, we were sitting at the back. Arrived in college close to 7.30pm. Tired (we didn't actually do anything. I blame the weather) and in desperate need of a cold shower, Brendon sent me home.
I think that was quite an enjoyable Saturday I've had in quite a while though, despite the heat. Oh yeah, Brendon and Yuanie, below is my Top 5 list. (One of our intellectually-stimulating discussions at the beach).
1) Hugh Jackman
2) John Travolta
3) Matt Dillon
4) Jon Bon Jovi
5) Tom Cavanagh (from Ed)
