Last Time in November.

Prologue: Clearing up some of the November backlog...in the month of December. It's already more than a week in the month of December and a year is coming to a close. Unbelievable.

Just to pick up where we left off in the month of November...(Pic Spam ahead because I feel lazy to readjust pictures and what not while making picture collages.)

~Humanities Postgraduates Club Weekend Escape to Langkawi (11-15 Nov)~

~Day 1: 11 November, Friday~

Waking up at ungodly hours. Sky in stunning shade of blue and orange hue.

Going through seemingly endless paddy fields while catching a sneak peak of Alor Setar Skyline with Alor Setar Tower sticking out prominently.

All the way up north to Kuala Perlis and endure another one hour of ferry ride...

...and here we are at Langkawi: Permata Kedah. To be precised Pantai Chenang because that where our  place to be for the next three days.

Banana boats in which the Arab ladies despite their hijabs and such, partake enthusiastically. 

Walking along the shore while watching the wave breaks gently.

Palm tree, white sand and sunsets.

Glowing sunset.

~Day 2: 12 November, Saturday~

Getting down and dirty for mangrove replanting!

Explaining how to plant mangrove saplings to bunch of foreigners.

Au nuturel mud spa. I wonder did my feet got exfoliated.

Kampung life equals to cow strolling around...

...and leaving their pile of leaving around so watch out your step!

Walked about an hour or so under scorching sun just to see the most underwhelming "historical sites" in Langkawi: Beras Terbakar, basically a small patch of charred land. The road leading up to that patch of nothing is lined with touristy strip mall as well.

Bus finally came and went to another historical sites: Mahsuri's Tomb. While the unassuming tomb is the main attraction here, Mahsuri's Tomb is also surrounded by all sorts of random paraphernalia...

For example this well in which if you wash your face or drink it (they do sell filtered well water in bottle at the souvenir stall beside it) , you will have longevity and even romance in your life.

Replicas of Mahsuri's house and such.

Next: Tanjong Rhu Beach.

Here's an interesting sight: a sandbar that only appears during low tide, connecting the beach all the way to the rocky islet at the end! Formation due to crossing wave in the bay that brings the sand together into a sandbar.

Hermit Crab and I learned a new trick from my Indonesian roommate: blew hot air to the entrance and it will pop out!

...and then my camera died hence no pictures of the Barbecue dinner we had later.

~Day 3: 13 November (Sunday)~

Whirlwind tour around the best sites of Langkawi.

Langkawi Skybridge at Gunung Machinchang.

At another end looking at the peak cable car station and promontory point.

Coral blue sea looking towards Thailand.

Next: Kilim Geopark Jetty.

Mulut Buaya which is basically an cave under a rock which can connects to the other end. We didn't go through it though because it was high tide and as you can see from there, it will be hard to navigate through low hanging cave ceiling.

Sailboats taking shelter and floating fish platform.

Stingrays.

Then we have eagle feeding. Of course with my crappy point and shot camera, this is the best picture that I can get.

See the profile of a face at the rock face?

Kilim Geoforest Park on a majestic rock formation.

Going through more mangrove swamp area...

...and we reach Gua Kelawar or bat cave. Stalagtite.

Bat is important for pollination.

There this one part of the Gua Kelawar wooden platform trails that actually leads down to a small, wet cave that goes out to the other side and some part of it is actually inundated with water. While most of the group didn't go through that, a small group of those younger Arabs feel adventurous to go through despite my loud plea of staying in group. In the end, they reached jetty earlier than me (who decided to play safe) and I was ANGRY. Those bunch of foreigners!

Seafood lunch.

Last minute of shopping spree for tax-free chocolate over Haji Ismail Group Supermarket.

One hour of ferry ride and another four hours of boring and wet bus journey back later, Penang.

Ferrero Rocher by that Malay guy who I save him from missing out the ferry because that fecker don't know when should he go for prayers. In the end, it was ME who was almost missed out the ferry due to undeclared liquour (CHAN PAO!) and my teammate have to save me. I am, AGAIN,  furious.

So what did I get in the end: RM70+ worth of chocolate products.

Pepero Original, Korean's answer to Japanese's Pocky.

The packaging is better for Pepero compared to Pocky though. Originally I am looking for the oddly named "Nude" flavour which is basically hollowed cracker stick filled with Chocolate instead of covering it on the outside (hence nude) but Haji Ismail Group has none and it was a last minute shopping spree before we head to the jetty.

Kinder Bueno~~

Just look at it chocolatey, creamy goodness. It's orgasmic!

Toblerone, the triangular shaped chocolate, now available in mixed mini form! The black one is obviously the dark chocolate while the white one is white chocolate.

Last but not least, Hershey Kisses Milk Chocolate Flavour.

What did I get from Langkawi in the end? Sunburn (not fun when your skin started to peel off), mud in the toe nail (mangrove replanting was fun!), fatigue & fatigue (of being usher making sure no foreigner was missed out bus/delay schedule/left behind in Langkawi and some new sights that I didn't manage to see (especially the beaches.). Bittersweet I guess? It's fun when it's fun but it's no fun when one has to work.

~Updated post here onward!~

~Visitor from the Port of Fragrant Spice 24 Nov-28 Nov~

Went to Penang International Airport with Syahmi to pick a visitor coming all the way from Hong Kong to Penang (while getting a sneak peek of what the future may hold for PIA once the renovation completes in a year time or two).

The visitor I meant is actually more familiar that you might expect because he's Cheng Fai, who is now in HKU pursuing his MPhil (Lit.) but came back to Penang just for the Georgetown Literary Festival which will be held on 26-27 Nov on the coming weekend. Here he is enjoying his first plate of typical Malaysian supper fair of Maggi Goreng and Roti Bom almost as soon as he settles down for the night. And yeah, I am in a way his host for his weekend here in Penang but he has to endure sleeping on the floor though, partially compensated with the comfy comforter from Syahmi and cushion I stole from the common room.)

Went to Chancellor's Rock over Padang Minden to chat while enjoying the late night scenery of the light up Penang Bridge not to mention exploring obscure corner of USM such as the USM Guesthouse and Vice Chancellor's Residence.

25 Nov (Friday): went to this interesting seminar titled Towards the Erotics of Creativity: The Pleasure and Sensuality of Writing and Art. Despite it's seemingly eyecatching name, it's in fact quite academic.

Opening performance which leave me scratching my head. There's one point in which the lady in white just spin around and round until she falls to the ground while the man, Dr Aris recites an excerpts from Shakespeare work (not sure which one).

Erotics as defined in this talk (by quoting original Grecian notion as well a French) is all about unfulfilled yearning and our constant struggle to close the gap, to achieve completeness from our current incompleteness and such. While "eros" is commonly associated with the physical act of sexual and the pleasure that derives from it, the core concept of eroticism can be applied in arts and literature as well. At one point, Dr Ismer said that Arts and Literature is indeed useless devoid of purpose from the point of view of functionalist but an extension of human desire...but that's what make human more wholesome than just machinery to fulfill certain function in life and such.

Cheng Fai's visit back to Penang is certainly incomplete without any good food like Sakae Sushi in which we had Kakiage and trying to scrap the last of the pickled ginger.

2nd night with me and Syahmi in which he brought me to a rather large establishment over Sungai Ara named Pak Hussein Tomyam. It's basically like your usual tomyam stall right beside the street joozed up to restaurant standard.

On the 3rd night we had Seoul Garden BBQ Buffet over Gurney Plaza (before we went for late movie. Puss in Boots) in which I filled myself to brim while watching in horror how Cheng Fai continued to chow down more meats.  The downside of buffet strikes again.

And on the last day before we head back to the Airport, Secret Recipe lunch set but the chocolate mud cake as side.

Back to the airport we were...

....and good bye and safe trip back to Hong Kong from me...

...and Syahmi. What an interesting weekend it was.

And that's what you all missed on the month of November. Tune in next time while we head towards the month of December and the finale! *sprinkle confetti.*

Epilogue: It's December. It's already half way over December. There are a lot of thing that's not half way through yet though. Where's my sense of urgency? (Especially since my laptop is acting up again, the power current over my block still overloads and trip because of foreigners having EXCESSIVE home appliances, hurting my laptop in the process and the latest problem: Firefox gone from Program File inexplicably after one such crash. What exactly happened?