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I, Jew and Hendry left the house at about 9:00 24 April 2010 to the nearby coffee shop called “Bali-Bali” for a breakfast…after breakfast, we headed straight to Penang National Park office at Teluk Bahang where most trails start off...it was already about 11:00 when we arrived at the Penang National Park office for registration….at the registration counter, I was told we couldn’t stay overnight at Pantai Kerachut no more…there were already about 80 campers at the camp site and it was more than the daily prohibited number…apparently there was a school program going on there…we were a little saddened but then decided to go to Teluk Duyung @ Monkey Beach…Looking at the trail map, it is about 2.2 Km distance of 1 and a half hour journey….Pantai Kerachut is about 3 Km distance of 2 hours journey…the entrance and its first 1 Km trail has now been developed….well, there was no office and nor trail built (tiles) 8 years ago…the journey began at about 11:30 and managed to reach Teluk Duyung less than the predicted duration…
At Teluk Duyung, there was also a school program going on as well so the camp site wasn’t empty…I think they’ve got about 30 students…we found a good spot to put up our camps as it has great access to the beach, sea and nearby bamboo shelter equipped with decent bamboo shelf and of course a place to do BBQ…it was about 14:00 when we had our lunch…I brought cooked rice from home so this helped to ease the lunch preparation... punya membuka selera lunch ni kali..makan nasi + sambal bilis dalam tin +ikan black bean (touse) + jagung dalam tin + beer…we spent the whole afternoon resting, chatting and did some small chores….we collected enough dried woods for the BBQ and fire at night before it was dark….the night before at home, I bought a crate of beer so me and Jew had already drank 12 cans off 24 cans…the other 12 cans were our main drinking water that afternoon at Teluk Duyung…whilst drinking and chatting, we observed those students making their lunch preparation….they spent hours to cook and finally at 16:00 they’ve finally got their stomach filled with food …there was another group among us at the Teluk Duyung camp site…we realized it was not an ordinary group later that evening when we were resting and swimming in the sea….looking at the flag, it looked like a PAS meeting…a secret meeting??
Just when it was about to get dark, we lit up the ‘ungun api’ I prepared earlier….it was awesome! I have not had the chance to do it as I used to when I was actively into boy scout during my early years…I still got the touch pula...hehe…we took turn taking bath and I really love having bath there…there’s a big gallon of water which was really cold and refreshing…it was night time after we had taken our bath and each of us did what we were meant to do…I did the BBQ, Jew with his instant noodles and Henry had earlier taking care of the fire and charcoal for BBQ and he kept our 'ungun api' to its best….we had instant noodles as appetizer followed by BBQ chicken wings along with our main course of 1 litre Chivas….desert would be dried fish in black bean (Touse) plus cigarettes…prior to dinner we had to go through a panic moment..I’ve predicted it was going to rain but we did not expect it was going to be that scary….Jew had to run for his camp when a strong wind came to the shore...we had to carry all the stuffs outside back into the bamboo shelter especially the BBQ set…thankfully it wasn’t long and we survived the ‘hurricane’…Jew’s camp almost thrown off by the strong wind…it was quite scary being at that situation…those school students were of course panicking and ran to save their own camps…we spent the whole night chatting about life...It was interesting night for us to catch up with each other…discussed couple other personal stuffs with a bottle of Chivas, 2 bottles of coke, some side dishes at a windy surrounding…a nice place to let your mind forget about work…I guessed we went to sleep at almost 2:00 the next day (Sunday)…personally it wasn’t easy for me as I kept hearing this wild/stray dogs wandering around looking for foods….I even heard the sound of bones being crushed in their mouth…the sound of their footsteps wandering around our camping site…I finally managed to get sleep when it was almost sunrise...but had to wake up early as the sun has gone high up heating my camp from the inside….huhu…
The next morning....we had instant noodles for brunch until 3 fellas arrived by boat asking us to empty the shelter for their oncoming customers whom to have a picnic there….we decided to pack all our stuffs and headed back…I think we arrived at the national park office at the predicted time of 1 hour and a half this time….spent almost an hour at the office’s porch...I even took a bath before we headed back home for an actual lunch at 14:00 that day…it was quite a tiring journey but I think we’ve achieved our objective...spending time together out of the ordinary (stay at home)….we have discussed and made another plan in near time soon to really go to Pantai Kerachut and this time we will make a reservation…hehe…
* I look a little darker since my return...
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