Perhentian, Finally!
The sea was rough, well, at least for the first portion of the journey as we tranverse through the choppy pre monsoon sea condition (if there was such terms for that la..). The ferry that thook us was like some pseudo roller coaster ride. But when we enter the Perhentian island water (ie between the big and small island, that is), the water was unbelieavably calm, maybe because the boat wasn't going at it's almost full speed anymore.
We were greeted by the GM of the Bubu Resort on some poonton that was supposed to be used to carry us from the ship to the beach. The floating poonton was pulled to the beach by the locals, hmm, talk about slavery...hahahaha...
It was still drizzling when we reach the island. This can't be, Island are not supposed to be effected by rain. No? Ah well, i guess it is too late to turn back and go back to the comfort of the home, isn't it?
OP Bean was there to greet us. Or was it because his wife was with us? But it is sure nice to see another familiar face. We unloaded the luggages and all the bananas enough to make the whole Zoo Negara primates happy (okok, at least just the Chimps' cage that is) and a few cartons of isotonic drinks and mineral water.
Bubu wasn't the place where we will stay. The place that was arranged by Bandit was circa 500 meters away from Bubu. It is called Matahari. Walking on the brown wet sand with the rain falling on you, and the tiredness of the journey, sorta seep into some of us.
Perhentian viewed from floating poonton
Don't worry bro, this Poontoon floats
When we reached matahari, there were some glitches in the reservation of chalet. Instead of giving us 12 chalet as per deal, the management only reserved 10 for all of us. That also mean that some of us has to put up with chalet that shares common toilet/bathroom and some would be staying a further 200 meters away.
Nordin and family was staying in Coral Bay, on the other side of the Island that is about 10 minutes worth of trekking through the island's track. Shouldn't be a problem for him. (by the way, did you see lil Adam Nordin? gosh..he is so so adorable... Unlike his father...All MAN, All 240Lbs of it!)
OP Adventure has purchased a set of Walkie Talkie
that proved to be useful as a few of us was staying away from the main group.
Later in the afternoon, all participants went to Bubu to submit the disclaimer form to the organisers. We also took our time to check out the route map. Oh ya, did I tell you ppl about the goodie bags??? There were one Banana Flavoured Powerbar, One Arena Latex Swim cap, complimentary toiletries from Bubu, Race Bib (cool stuff, Bright Orange colour, suitable for any of us planning to change job to become highway maintaince crew), Note book with PIC 2004 logo and info, Participant tag and T-shirt (err..may i suggest to you guys to double stitch the seams...the T-Shirts are falling apart).
Lunch was served at 4pm, a simple meal of curry chicken with sayur mess and rice. And loads of banana. To give you guys an idea of how much banana...look at the picture below. Amir was carrying one of the gunny sack ala santa claus and it is actually filled with banana...all 50kg of it!
Mr. Banana Man finally understand why Santa Claus only deliver gifts ONCE a year
After lunch, a few of us decided to try out the MTB trail and a few of us swimmer went into the sea and did a few laps out to some bouy far far away. It was dangerous actually, espcially with those speed boats whizzing past like some member of the KLCC (KL Cubchai Club). The white latex swim cap ensure that the swimmer are well spotted even 500 meters away from the beach.
The MTBers were very excited about the trail. It was a technical trail, but unlike Kiara, it is rideable.
Some of us decided to take it easy and just do the tourist thing, ie snap pictures...
Later in the evening the participants went to Bubu for Cocktail reception. The GM then signalled everyone to go ahead and eat the stumpous meal being served. Well, we, being trained in RMC, followed the instruction to the dot. Ate we did and did we ate! After going through the food 3 times, one of the staff approched us and asked us if we are staying in Bubu, and if not, we must purchase the meal vouchers.
Oh! OOhhh...Kayyy....
That isn't too nice of some story, isn't it?
WHY stop us ONLY after we finish eating?
WHY ask us ONLY after we got to the third serving?
Not satisfied with the whole scene and definately not too happy about being treated like freeloader, Bandit approached the GM and seek explaination. He admitted it was his fault and we got off scot free. I mean, if we have to pay for it, i guess we won't be too happy about it as we were asked to eat in the first place, and not as if we were hawking at the food like some unnourished beggers. That settled. We went back to where everyone is and had our carbo loading meal of spagetti and salad and whole loads of banana again. The carbo loading session was specially organised by Bandit and he personally bought the item (thanks to the OPA budget) and brought it there to Perhentian. Kudos to this ever efficient fatigue boy. :Þ
We decided to boycott the drinks, as it is all alcohol, so we make our own OJ
Everyone had an early night, the divers sorted out the diving arrangement, and the racers all quietly went to bed at 9.30pm. Damn, we don't even sleep until it is like 2am in KL!
To be continued.....
Farah, Doc Hisyam Daughter
If we were to wear any army fatigues, ppl would had mistaken us for going to war with those baggage and food
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