::Thursday, August 12, 2004::
:: Weekend holiday ::

Just a quick blog on my recent trip...

Thank God for a good time of R&R (rest and relax) in the sunny islands of Penang and Langkawi. However, being the organiser for this trip, I have to constantly think ahead about what’s coming up next and settle most of the arrangements like hotel accommodations (both in P&L), car rental (L), ferry tickets (P-L-P), etc… Thank God that everything went fine.

Penang Hill
It was a 3-hour trek up the hill. The weather was fine and we could see lots of locals there as well. There were a few rest points with drinks (even coffee!) for the weary hikers. Our group meet up with my other Penang friends and their Motorola colleagues somewhere at the mid point of the hill. From there, we attempted to make our way up. By then, it was already close to 6pm in the evening. My friend (trek leader) almost got ‘lost’ at some points along the way! Not really his fault. The last time he was here, that was 2 years ago. Somehow, we managed to make our way to the top by 8:30pm. We were rewarded with the clear view of the city at 800m+ above sea level. From the top, you can really have a bird’s eye view of north-eastern part of the island. You can even see the headlamps of the cars on the roads. At this, one can’t help but sense the smallness/insignificance of man. We were too tired to think of hiking all the way down the hill so we took the electric tram instead. That day was it’s first day of service after it was taken off service for 6 months or so for maintenance/repairs. Can you get a better timing than this? Thank God!

On the next morning, we made our way to the ferry terminal. From there, we would take a 2½ hour ferry ride to the island of Langkawi. The seats were cushioned but it’s just nice for an regular-sized person. Therefore you can imagine the 3-hour agony I have to go thru. My butt hurts! Somebody at the control cabin also decided to give all the passengers their money’s worth and keep the thermostat for the air-con fixed at what seems like 17°C! Brr….!!

At the ferry got nearer to Langkawi, we could see many lush green islands ‘popping’ out of above the waters. What a sight! We checked in without any hassle into the hotel and then proceeded to rent a car and toured the island. Our plan to visit the beach and play in the waves the next day. However, when we woke up the next morning, it was raining! Undaunted, we decided to drive to the beach after all. Amazingly, by the time we reached there, the sky was clear and the rain stopped! Our God who divided the Red Sea can surely stop a small rain!

We went for a 10-min jog on the sand (with me trying to take in the wonderful scenery at the same time). After that, it’s into the water we went! Sometimes the waves were quite high and it was really fun diving into the oncoming waves! It was with much reluctance that we had to leave the beautiful beach behind to catch our 11am ferry back to Penang.

Back on Penang, our good old Penang friend actually took ½ a day off to bring us around. The 7 of us squeezed into his car and we took the whole afternoon and evening to sample the local food and visited some of the places of interest. After dinner, we took the 9pm Singapore-bound coach. Thankfully, I had a good rest on the coach and by the time the bus dropped us off at Golden Mile, it was only 6:15am. A quick breakfast at a coffee shop and a shower at the office toilet was enough to give me the strength to go thru that day at work! Whew, what a trip!

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