August 30th, Day 1 - A graduation vacation: Beginning to an end

This is the day a group of friends came together to celebrate my thesis submission (Ahem... Maybe I was the only celebrating that). Let's see if I remember enough to log everything here.

I remember waking up an hour before the supposed gathering time (7:00AM). And, I remember having a Kit-Kat and two Chipsmores as breakfast as I look forward to the promised breakfast in Bidor -- Duck Noodle Soup. Thirty minutes to gathering time, I diligently unlocked the door and the car, threw my bag into the boot, locked the door, unlocked the gate, reversed the car out, locked the gate and drove to Taman Sri Langat, the default gathering spot for many outings grouping the same few friends.

On the way, I stopped at the brother's house because it only came to me then that I'd be the only person passing that route and could offer him a ride. Parked at the stair to his apartment, I texted both him and MP, who lived just nearby if they would like me to give them a ride. Both replied with an imagined sleepy voice (of course I imagined it as it came in text), that thanks, but no thanks they'd make their own way there.

I arrived at Taman Sri Langat at 5 minutes to. The house is dark, there're no sign of life within (Yeah, I imagined that as well. How was I supposed to know if anything is moving inside when I'm guess-spying from more than 5 meters away?). Locked out of the house for about 15 minutes later, I spy the sliding door opened. So I got out of the car and went to the gate to scream: "Is anybody going to let me in?". That got me in, eventually (once those who heard but had not the key went to find someone who has a key). The house was just stirring, nobody's had breakfast. It was then clear that I'd gotten the schedule wrong and was early by a complete 30 minutes. So, I flipped newspapers and watched whatever was on TV half-heartedly, wondering how late everybody would be.

7:30AM ticked pass, but we were still waiting for MP. I remember a vague discussion about Jessie J, because she was on TV. I remember myself commenting that the music video for "Price Tag" was cute. Some time after that, we some how decided it was too late. I called MP and told her we would be picking her up instead of waiting for her to come. Thereafter, a lot of action involving throwing of bags and moving of legs went on. I got my brother, Star, and Miss J in my car. CY had a full car and went ahead, while my vessel were to get MP, who later confirmed that she woke up late, and had only started to pack since waking up. She was crowned the least reliable then and there. Many times in the following days, she was poked as the one who would rise latest.

It was almost 11AM when we arrived Bidor (if my memory serves me correctly). Duck Noodle Soup was sold out! So, it was decided that breakfast would be skipped and we would proceed to lunch in Ipoh. I had been craving Rice Noodle Soup (Ipoh Sha Hor Fun) since the writing period and between CY and I, we made it a motivation for me to finish writing up as soon as possible. Some time at noon, a hot bowl of it was served to me, and I was incredibly grateful for it! There were Rice Flour Cake (Ju Cheong Fun) and Stuffed Tofu (Yong Tau Fu) as side dishes, and we found out many do not take leek, spring onions and such. I belonged to those who enjoyed picking them up (picked out by those who avoid them) and stuffing into my mouth.

The stop at Ipoh lasted for not more than an hour. We got back into the car and pooled towards Taiping as soon as lunch was out of the way. The 90 minutes (approx.) drive was quiet. Miss J was almost knocked entirely out the whole trip while MP phased in and out of consciousness. Star was incredibly dedicated, tuning the radio once in a while when it sounds staticky, because my car hasn't got a CD player (unlike the other more popular car) and rely completely on the radio for entertainment.

It must've been about three o'clock when we arrived Taiping and found our way to the rest house. Bags were removed from the cars into the house, and about a ten minutes later we piled into the cars again. Points of interest for that afternoon included a Mangroove forest, charcoal factories and the zoo. That would set us up till very much after sun down.

The Mangroove forest was green, and reddish. There was sometimes smell of salt in the wet air. The park was badly maintained, where foot paths consisting of wooden bridges were often broken. We threaded carefully while enjoying the green forest and the blue sky, cameras clicking away...

The charcoal factories were adjacent, probably because the charcoal were made from Mangroove trees. Here, the air was dry, and carried a smokey flavour. We got dirty pretty quick, with bits of ashes attaching to our bodies readily. Many of the photographs taken here were toned black and whites, because I felt that it belonged that way. There were other visitors, but we seemed to linger much longer at every spot. That seemed to have amused a certain worker there. So we put on our friendly mood and asked questions. He was amused enough to explain the production process and schedule.

We then drove to a town called Sepetang, where the first train station (Portweld) was built. We had a foodie-break, and had ABC and Prawn Cakes (Har Beng). Then, we loitered around the fishing village and little town waiting for dinner time. Most seafood restaurants were out of fish by the time we thought it was time. When we decided to leave town, however, the restaurant near where we parked our car seemed to just stir. After a little enquiry we sat to wait for our dinner. I don't remember exactly how long it was, but we managed to have gone through most of the photographs that we've taken for the day, and finished 2-3 rounds of tea. When dinner finally came, we were hungry enough to wolf it down without much chatter.

We drove straight to the Night Safari after dinner. It was too dark to see anything, and not many of the animals were nocturnal. We tried our best to spot animals on the tram that was going too fast. The tram let us of at the last stop where the elephants were (I think), and we walked around the zoo a bit, trying to spot the animals that we missed on the tram. I remember that the highlight was on a discussion regarding differentiating orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas, and relating back to the movie we recently saw -- Rise of the planet of the apes (which is a mouthful to say, and infused some laughter). Anyway, nobody remembered the differences after we left the zoo, or so I believe.

It must have been near mid-night when we arrived back at the rest house. Everybody took turn cleaning up and I must have collapse into slumber before everybody else, for I don't remember much of anything that happened that night.