Across the causeway
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Perfect way to end the A's, and I didn't realize it sooner. 10 of us and the long stretch of causeway from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. It was a bit too soon, but the timing had to be in order to fit in for the prom shopping. Dreaded prom actually. Dang shopping.
We met at Golden Mile Complex, I met up with Danial and Faizal prior, not knowing the way there by MRT. We were the latest in the end but at least the other passengers we shared the coach with were later. Turns out they were NUS students, Berlin was listening in on coversations, heh heh.
I packed light, along with a silly mini tripod that I ended up using only twice during the entire trip.
The 6 and a half hour journey, without any landslide. Monsoon had gone, to bad for that ominous prediction, huh.
Nothing mush on the way there, two stops with shabby maintenance, the start of what became to be long and tiresome complaints, and Sex and the City, the movie, on Dedrick's iPod. We reached the central city and everything was new to me, the last time I went there, I was too wee a little lad to recall a thing.
Took taxi's to our serviced apaprtments, The Nomad Suscasa. Not bad at all, for the low price of around $140 for four nights with breakfast, I think it was a steal. Almost backpacking rates, or maybe it's just cuz it's Malaysia? From right, Berlin, the only girl on the trip, Dedrick, Ahmad with a really square face that I didn't notice till this picture, and Danial.
HAHA
We unpacked and settled down, having some deliberation about the room allocation. In the end I took the room with Berlin, and Kenneth, Brandon and Jun De took the other room, they were two room apartments. The other five to room 922. Home sweet home to be, 923.
We left for KLCC not long after, and soon found it to be out of our budgete range, and just like any town shopping mall here. Ate at A&W. The guys: there's no A&W in Singapore, we have to eat here. I don't fancy fast food. But ah well. We're on holiday. Just went with the flow.
It drizzled afterwards, so I couldn't get a good shot when we went outside to take a picture. Anyway, in blur, Jun De, Arif, the main organizer (whom we owe lotsa thanks to, heh), Ahmad, Faizal and Kenneth.
Brandon bought some music cd's there, never saw anyone who collects music cds and dvds like him as that strong a hobby.
Room 923
Berlin's bear. Pinky. It looked really cute-funny on that seat, really laugh out loud moment. That's the living room in the apartment.
Faizal lugged his Playstation 2 Prtable or something, all the way to KL, with two controllers even. Played that capcom street fighter thing or whatever its called. Surprisingly fun! Heh we played for teams, 5 on 5.
That night, the first, didn't get much rest. Couldn't sleep, was drifitng in and out of sleep, woke up not refreshed. We were set for Berjaya Times Square for the second day, free and easy shopping. Had breakfast at the hotel bistro and headed out on a really cheap private hotel shuttle there.
Transport there is cheap, private transport can be cheaper than public transport, oddly so. And I didn't know just about no one uses the meter there anymore. Here we are in the morning, all ready to leave. Ahmad and his antics.
For her guy. Shopping there was kinda dead in the morning, since it was the morning. So we headed over to the indoor themepark pretty early, allowing us queueless rides and immediate thrills :D
The supposed tame ride that left me with an aching arm for the next day. Haha, I'm outta shape, haven't exercised in a looong time. So happened to sit next to Arif for most of the rides, heh he was commenting about how they wouldn't be any pictures of him since I'm always snappingt he rest not sitting in our car.
The DNA mixer. left me nauseas as heck, heh the rest were no kick and adrenaline pumping, but this one mixed me up wayy to much.
Not in picture was me wanting to sit down and realign my stomach. Jun De, Arif, and Dedrick.
We tried one of the stall games there, it's almost impossible to win this one, and no that wasn't the sour grapes in me, heh. We didn't get anything. But at three rounds for three bottles and a weighted CG on them, I didn't think we'd win anything anyway. Dedrick got closest to winning, taking aim here..
Space rocket! At a 20% discount that we got from the Popular card (Danial so happened to bring his) the rides were wrothwhile. Maximized, we came back for a second round later in the day.
Broke for lunch and met up with the three who didn't go to the theme park. Ate at Kenny Rogers, where due to neglience, Berlin and Jun De ended up not paying for their meal. Haha, they really gotta do something about their management.
om nom nom
Second round of the rollercoaster!
WE took some kiddy rides afterwards, the nausea came back quickly for me. Arif has a stomach of steel, man he can take all the rides with that enthusiasm, all with a plain 'that was fun' heh heh BOS. Dedrick took everything too, without the nausea.
Who knew spinning the teacups in that carousel could bring on that nausea so fast. Tilting our head while spinning at the speed we were at was so stupid, it was hilarous. instant dizziness and disorientation.
I kinda like these two shots. Kinda like those nostalgic feelings that it incites.
On the phone with brandon there, where're we having dinner P: This kiddy ride was some train that snailed around the kiddy side of the theme park. Good for the relaxing of that built up nausea. Choo choo.
Into the haunted cave, haha he looks so serious here like he's about to freak.
The christmas decorations at berjaya times square mall. Had gelato there, Fruity Gelato, dang their apple and starfruit flavour is awesome. Back to the apartments after that, I was tired on all of the nights, went to bed before most of the rest. Not sure why, when I could sleep late back home I as pooped there.
Not like we did really intensive stuff too. Just holiday energy for me I suppose.
Berlin slept on the single on my right, there's Jun De crashing our bed playing his favourite on Danial's iPhone. Tap Tap. And below, selfish me. No, I don't like people sitting on my bed, much less lying on it, and definitely no use of my pillow. The bed's like the sanctuary ah, can't just lie in it with dirty clothes, augh.
Haha so they all crammed on Berlin's bed, but nah that's just a facade, they wallowed in my bed like a pig when I was in the toilet or other times, dang.
Day three! Left for Genting at 8am I think, rushed breakfast. Slept for most of the ride, and there was nothing much to see on the way either. The cold wind was a refresher for the hour plus ride, then we got onto the cable cars.
Got separated, gosh the people over there are more kiasu than Singaporeans, push and shove. There're more than enough cable cars to go around but they wanna pick theirs before it even gets in the station, dammit wish i could shove them off.
Got on a car with Jun De in the end, and some other noisy Hong Kong gamblers, yakking away about chips and cards. The cable car just seemed to go on and on, but the way back was much nicer. Seeing the wire stretch all the way downhill in front of you is like a ride itself, heh heh.
Cloud went kablooie
Off the cars and got the tickets, 44RM each. The indoor themepark looked kinda pathetic. We headed out and took the first thing that was open and that we say, some water log ride. Then headed to what turned out to be a puny circuit of a roller coaster.
Good warm up, short and no big turns.
In the end we didn't have neough time to ride the bigass rollercoasters like the corkscrew, space rocket thingy and some others. Was looking forward to the Pirate ride thingy too, some scary ride thing, but ah, no time. Queued too long at that silly Bumper Boats.
Windy!
Corn cups while waiting for some rollercoaster. This was was kinda short, augh why didn't we have time for the longer ones..
Bumper Boats, damn the class had some aggro on me, every bumper thingy, they'd target me, just for the heck of it to see my expression. But this, dang, got me wet. Jeans, cardigan, top and SOCKS.
Waits were wayy too long, they and their stupid 'maintenance break', maintenance my rear, they were probably relaxing in one corner. Skipped lunch that day, we wanted to try as many rides as possible.
Ahmad, ah, first to be enlisted, whatta shame.
Arif, surprisingly not at the front of the car this time. The ride reminded me of the simple rides you can set up in that theme park game I had last time when I was younger. So linear, really short lived fun. Cosmo's World's roller coaster >>> all the rides here, save for the go cart and the space shot.
Highly disturbed.
Waiting for the Go Carts. This reminds me of some scene in some movie, could be a scene from L4D 2 too.
It rained halfway while waiting, but we stayed on anyway, wanting badly to try the Go Carts. Well worth the wait in the end, but Berlin didn't pass the height requirement, lol, after all that queueing, bad luck.
haha, Danial looks damn kiddy here, cute. All cars are equal, but some cars are more equal than others. Damn that book got into my head, must've read it easily four five times. But yeah, the cars weren't very fair, So happened I got one of the faster ones, ended up outlapping. Would've been more fun if it had been on a level playing field.
Speeding away for his dear life, heh. Ahmad got one of the slower cars, so despite his driving license, couldn't get very far, lol.
WHEE!
This reminds me of that song from Aqua. Goodbye to the Circus. Damn that's an old band. Youtube it!
This one's a bit scary.
Space shot, best ride of the few we tried. Took it twice even.
It went up about.. 8 storeys I'd estimate. Then it fell faster above
g, crap those few seconds were heart pumping, all my insides still several metres higher than where we fell.
Took the cable car back soon after, to catch the 7pm coach back. Dedrick lost his spectacles there, so we frantically searched for it before leaving. Couldn't find it in the end though, $200+ specs :\
The ride back was the best part of the trip, the scenic view and the sunset was perfect timing, I took lotsa shots of these. Unusually good mood back there, they said I changed momentarily, no more complaints. Hard to find anything to gripe about when the scenery was that stunning.
A macro shot of the window and the glow reflected off the water droplets.
Looks like jewelry to me.
4 cabin mates, we split into 5 and 5.
I know I keep repeating this, but at least people agree with me. Jurassic Park, no?
On the coach back, talked for a bit before dozing the rest of the way back. Ahmad wanted to get acquainted with the two hot girls sitting in front of us.
Long exposure of some car, pew pew!
Chinatown was the next stop, figured we clear it before we miss the opportunity. Most of them found stuff to buy, but I only got a tiny bag for a gift thingy. Helped bargain a bit, but these people have been around the area for years ah, hard to squeeze em tight unless you're a local.
Back to the hotel, where they played capcom and mahjong. I was kinda knocked out though, I think the first to turn in. Dang I was so tired that night, I didn't brush my teeth >< first time I didn't brushbefore bed in a really long time, say.. a decade? ):
Took some pictures before turning in anyway, here's Pinky and her cruel owner D:
And the Brain. Jun De sat on him one night, poor guy. wonder if he brought it along to BMT, haha!
Found this tee at Factory Outlet Store at Berjaya Times Square, we went back there for the last day, get last minute stuff we had second thoughts on buying earlier. Looks cute dunnit? Heh I think its really funny for some reason. Like the Snapple bottle with pink lemonade flavour, the little falling lemon says
oh chute! I don't know about you, but it tickled me good.
Our last meal in Malaysia, At Manhattan's Fish Market, dang the food there was cheap, and good too.
Wiped plates clean, then we took the public bus back home. The bus tickets were really nice, funny thing to say, but really.
I was the one underneath on the first night already, man, hefty stuff.
The view from my bed and Berlin's. The room opposite, lying somewhere in the arctic region.
The next day, homeward bound, on a local coach service that was actually better than Grassland Express. Cheaper too, I think. This last shot, man they abused my wrapping paper. Yes, I bought wrapping paper there.
Now that you have seen this, you'll know if your wrapped present has had been touched by Brandon and Faizal in bad bad ways. Shame on them.
This post took quite a while to put up, been really busy. In the good sense, busy. Been looking for a job though, I need that extra cash. Until now they haven't told me the enlistment date into NS and I don't wanna be stuck with several months without any cash when all my friends have gone in and I can't shower myself with stuff I wanna buy.
Got some christmas present wrapped up already, ho ho ho.
Maybe I'll upload the prom pictures when I get back. Leaving for Osaka tomorrow night, another hiatus, see ya!
penned by joel at 7:18 PM
Dec x
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