A local get-together of more than 3 peehechdee studs is by itself fun - given the different timings and demands of each project (so much scene to get away from gmail-chatting and facebooking for a few hours ;) ) . More often than not, one of us would excuse ourself from the gang and leave sooner/join later to 'finish an experiment' (or to 'waste more resources') . A synchronized outing together is a rarity. The only way to bring that about would be to prise the studs a few hundred miles away from the labs and wi-fi and beautiful - if the phone connectivity could also be gotten rid of. A getaway - the mind and the body badly needed it, having been for several months in 'QE mode'. Having 'garnished my academic self' ( borrowed from Aneesh Sathe) as well as several other aspects to make myself more presentable to the QE panel, I needed some wild jumping around and hysterical laughing to tear away that mask and remind myself of the several other qualities (enjoying mokkai jokes and pranks, pulling legs mercilessly till they kick me away, walking away on my own for a while to do some dreaming and chew on some 'phlasaphee') that have stayed with me through thick and thin and can never be gotten rid of, whatever.
Day 1:
A small Malaysian island surrounded by coral reefs ~200 km away, a bunch of mokkai jokes-loving peehechdees yearning for a holiday - the combo clicked in place and with no further ado, we ferried over the green and blue hues of the South China sea which holds one third of the entire world's marine biodiversity. At the very beginning of the trip - the girls got into the pick-up van first and had to direct the driver to where the guys where put up - slightly drowsy and confused in the dark, one screamed "Left! Left!" while another said "No! To the right!" and our beloved bondhu shouted "Theriyaaddhu!" ('I don't know' in Tamil) so that the Malay driver won't understand it enough to appreciate our stupidity. After such starting trouble, we set off : Sg to Mersing to Tekek to our resort at Juara beach - we switched vehicles thrice in that 6-hour-long-journey. As we neared the Tioman island, we chanced upon 'Omar gift shop' and 'Coffee with Omar'. We looked at the island map and 'Omar guest house' popped up. Enough fodder for our fertile imagination - we decided that 'Theevu Omar -> Thivomar -> Tiomar became Tioman' and cooked a 'Badsha'-like story hero'd by our treasurer, Omar Sheriff. 'Juara beach resort' - deserves a whole para.
Around 10 cute stilt houses on a well-maintained lawn a few hundred meters from the sea; a clucking hen followed by a handsome rooster over the lawn; some shy kittens; Malay dwarf coconut palm trees outside every house, each bearing a bunch of green or golden coconuts; a couple of hammocks; comfortable,entirely-wooden interior ; a breezy restaurant overlooking the beach with delicious sea-food and enough native dishes to cater even to the vegetarians (6 out of the 9 of us); a very capable, brisk and tireless host who fulfilled our demands patiently; several friendly and ever-smiling helpers; a beach between two green hills; the sea hardened most of the white sand so that we could tread over it easily without sinking our feet in it; little streams joined the sea at the two ends of the long beach; coral remains strewn all over; the beach had it all - rocks,logs, trees, shallow water near the shore and most important - the right number of tourists - not too less, not too many. I couldn't ask for more. It was so picturesque.
A hearty lunch followed by exploring the beach - coral-picking; crab-chasing; rock-jumping; tree-hanging (Vikky.nesh excelled at it) and what we are always good at - photo-posing ;). The sea soothed our eyes - it sported several distinct shades of blue and green and little boats were moored around. Since the tide was low, we could walk over to little isles of sand by jumping over the sun-dried,green,algae-coated rocks. The sky darkened slowly - both due to the sunset and dark storm-clouds taking over. Having read in several Enid Blyton's books about high tides taking over suddenly, I grew anxious to get back because we were really inside, quite a distance from the beach. It was a sight to behold - black sky, blue horizon, green-blue sea and white-brown sand. As we walked back fast, huge,fat droplets of rain fell - funnily we never got drenched in it - may be the drops were spaced out and we just walked in the spaces.But it was a weird moment - to walk in a heavy drizzle and stay totally dry.
After a prolonged and noisy dinner, it was still storming and we wanted to go to our rooms.3 over-enthu buddies just ran in the pouring rain to the room. The remaining stately people bought a couple of umbrellas (too huge for the price) from the gift shop in the restaurant - the other diners looked at us, amused- 3 of us under each umbrella - pushing and pulling to get some space and stay out of the rain; running in the dark in the not-so familiar way to our rooms. One of the umbrella-holders- King Omar, got so sick of the pushing and random running in different directions, that he held a bottle in front and shouted "Follow the bottle!". His presence of mind in the crisis was much appreciated.;D. Back in the room, we played cards - Ass and Bluff (which didn't go very well as we were a bunch of extremities - one bluffed all the time, one never did; one doubted her previous player (poor me) every time while the remaining docile ones never bothered to challenge anyone). After playing dumb charades for an hour, we retired to our rooms. Thin walls separated the rooms and hence after a few minutes of conversing by banging on the wooden wall, we slept happily. I spent some more time reading a book (A Passage to India - love it; taking time to savour every line - don't want to finish it too soon).
Day 2:
Our alarm clock (HTC) woke us all up - except the guys - they never heeded the dutious alarm clock. It made her so angry that one of those days she actually threatened them to wake up, standing at their door step with a huge stone in her hand. The guys pretended to get alarmed but it was only to send her away asap and hit the bed again. The girls explored the remaining part of the long beach - the dslr-owners experimented different shots and we were only too happy to pose and suggest new ideas for them. My coral collection grew bigger - I wanted to gift corals to some friends and some of the favorite cousins, nieces and nephews and hence toiled hard, picking or digging up for corals, washing and drying them up. The sun went higher- our beauties missed their sunscreen lotion and hence rushed back to the rooms.
Toast,butter,jam,Nasi lemak,juice,coffee and we got ready for snorkeling. We tried out the equipment, carried them down the jetty to the speedboat and I had fun on the boat, imagining and describing every possible horror that could happen while on the sea to the already-scared people. I don't think I have ever been so close to the deep sea as on the boat. Short cruises on ships can never recapitulate that slashing through the green-blue water that would splash on us and feeling every bump and fall of the boat on the sea. We (Prat, bondhu and I) sang like crazy. After an hour of the ride, we reached our first site - Tulai island. Life jacket, diving mask, snorkel and gently down the ladder into the sea (couldn't jump off the boat - some rocks underneath).
My first look at the World undersea - one of those moments when I feel glad to be alive. Some of those ethereal wallpapers do exist in truth. It was delightful looking at a beautiful form of life that I had never had the chance to see in my ~23 years of life. I flapped around, getting used to breathing through the snorkel(Thanks to the swimming training) - eager to look at the different types of corals. There were not many fish. A rainbow-coloured fish was particularly fascinating in that dark ambience. And to top it all - the water beneath me - I have never before been inside such depth - 5 or 6 Akila's could have stood on top of each other and still not reached the surface - despite the life-jacket, it still felt scary. We called out to each other - enjoying the moment. I grabbed bondhu and helped her move faster cos I could swim - we explored the floor together. She liked the brain corals especially. I then pulled Miss.Lopsided-specs (She slept on her specs- typical her ;) ) along. She had some trouble fixing her snorkel and it made her so cynical - she next doubted her mask and I had to assure her that it was the water that was blurry and not her mask. Anyways these two girls - bondhu and lopsi.. - I admired them for venturing bravely into the water, not a bit nervous and enjoying the whole process - despite not knowing swimming. I would have panicked with faulty equipment.
After an hour or two, we were called back into the boat. King Omar was missing! I took the chance to go back in search of him and snorkel more - I was starting to love it. I screamed for him and the boatman in the neighboring boat screamed back :D. Too many Omar's around. Anyways the King had flapped back around another way and was reaching the boat. When all were boarded in safely, we sped to the next site - Salang.
We stopped at a white-sanded beach. Miss.Anonymous loved the rocks in the shallow,clear water and I couldn't convince her that the corals further inside, in the deep would be prettier - she preferred walking around and snorkeling to floating around and snorkeling. We saw more corals, oysters, sea cucumbers and sea anemones. Bondhu and lopsi.. learned to move faster and could do the breaststroke fairly well. I stayed for longer in the sea while the others played on the beach. I learned that Miss.Fitness-first had never gotten inside the water in both the sites - her mortal fear of water prevented her from getting in - I was determined to make her try snorkeling in the third site.
The third site - I'm not sure of its name - was the best- according to me. We dropped in - it was the deepest site of all- and we were immediately in the midst of a school of coral zebrafish. The boatman ( Depp as Captain Jack must have taken inspiration from him for looks) had dropped in bread crumbs which brought a lot of fish near the boat. There were several huge purple corals and a couple of divers as well. It looked like a desktop wallpaper to me - except for the fact that this was real and I was frisking about in the sea and not squatting in front of an eye-tiring lcd screen. Miss.Anonymous got into the water with a little bit of fuss but refused to get away from the boat. Some calming down and convincing and she let me take her further away. Bravo! She enjoyed the corals in the deeeee..eep though she still shivered every now and then at the depth. She also called out to Miss. Fitness-first to get in. Miss.Fit.. doubtfully wore her equipment (rented in vain) and called out to someone to come and help her in the water. I went to the boat. She reluctantly stepped on the ladder. First rung. I coaxed her. Second rung. Yay! More coaxing. Third rung. I pleaded her. Fourth rung. I fought against her will power to not get in the water. I seemed to lose out and called HTC to help me. Both of us hung onto Miss.Fit's legs. The boatman enjoyed the scene. Miss.Fit never let go of the fourth rung. It was the one aim of her life to not let go of it. No coaxing, no cajoling, no begging, no bad words could move her off the fourth rung. HTC and I were bad losers. We exited the scene, abusing Miss.Fit while she went back to her seat on the boat, triumphant. I snorkeled for some more time and then we were called back into the boat.
I chose to sit in a weird position on the ladder resting on the seat in the bow of the boat. I paid for my choice. We still wonder what induced our boatman to drive so rashly, dashing against the waves. We flew over the sea. And every drop was a pain in my head and ass. Salt water kept splashing onto my face and I had to keep making further choices between holding on to the railing or wiping the water out of my eyes or rubbing my sore ass or the head. I was worried if I would be tossed overboard. I also wonder what made the boatman drive less wildly later. I quickly shifted to a better position. The ride was then thoroughly enjoyable. He was very fast but not rash and that made a lot of difference. I missed my lil sis just then - she would love snorkeling too- and it would be fun to do it with her. When we reached our jetty after an hour, we wished that the ride could have been longer.
We gulped down the lunch hungrily. After a long bath, we settled on the lawn to play cards. The King learned to play 'Jam jam,enna jam,tea jam, enna tea etc' and enjoyed it. In the evening we played frisbee like the amateurs that we are. I missed learning tips and techniques from eskimuman - it was his frisbee that we were playing with. A hearty, clamorous dinner - the King kept hushing me down even when I was not talking. He gets so upset at noise. A looong dumb charades game in the room - when Miss.Anonymous got christened as 'Gujak' ( she owes the name to her multilingual prowess). The King turned out to be really good at acting out and guessing even in Tamil, which he claims to know better than all of us (!). He killed Tamil when he acted out 'dar' and 'muth' (in Hindi) for 'Dharmathin Thalaivan'. I was no less and killed Hindi in return several times. Prat, however, stole the show away by taking the pain(and giving some) to act out the whole cycle of every process she wished to convey. Miss.Fit never joined our childish games - her head was deep inside books all the time except when she would pop up and help us over a difficult clue. Happy sleep again after more pages of 'A passage to India' ( Kingly mokkai - 'If it's only a passage, why so many pages in the book?").
Day Three:
Lazy morning with a lonely walk down the beach with the latest addictive song playing over and over in my ears - more coral-picking and book-reading on the beach chair. Breakfast and lawn-lying while discussing the -to do- list for the day. An hour-long trek to a waterfalls - the directions to which Prat and King didn't want to find out - for the sake of an 'adventure'. It was an upward climb. Miss.Fit, HTC and I led the troupe which could hardly keep up with us. Lopsi called us 'Pei's'(Ghosts cos we glided fast before them) while the King decided that we were not girls (he did try to jog the last few meters to catch up with us - in vain ;) ). It was a mini waterfalls though the pit at its bottom was too deep and hence we ended waddling and playing in the pool.
Vikky.nesh got too bored of it and ventured to climb up a steep,narrow path beside the waterfalls. On his recommendation, King and I followed. It was really a beautiful place above the waterfalls where the creek winded its way into the forest, with huge rocks on either side. Cobwebs glistened between some rocks in the sunlight- the path was scarcely tread and that made it more fascinating. King returned to keep an eye over our bags and entered Bondhu into the tranquil scene. The remaining girls were still arguing whether to wear shoes and leave their bags or not before climbing up the steep path - much to the King's frustration. Bondhu was so thirsty for an adventure and Vikky.nesh accompanied her further up the creek. I lied down for a few joyful moments in the cold water of the creek and then went back to the waterfalls while the other girls climbed up finally. Bondhu returned and convinced all of us that the path up the creek will be a great adventure and thus we followed her. She was unstoppable - over the slippery rocks; Vikky.nesh followed. King and I had a contest to keep our shoes dry, out of the creek, as we jumped rock-to-rock. He was more successful than me- I was more careful and preferred putting my feet into the water to walking over big, green-coloured rocks.
The rest of the troupe stayed behind one particularly slippery place, cursing and pleading us to return - I transferred the blame (rightfully) on to Bondhu who was so fast and so determined to have her adventure - she was far ahead than the rest of us. There was a small, cave-like entrance from which the creek flowed down and Bondhu was so sure of going into it to 'explore' - I was just as sure to not go inside it. Thoughts of animals and snakes beside the water source had been lurking inside my head all the time and I had reached the limit of my 'daredevil'/'exploring the unknown' mode. We tamed and cured Bondhu of the adventurous spirit that had possessed her and she returned, sulking as we went back down the path, back to the waterfalls and then back on the road. The downhill stroll was far easier- we sang/whistled tunes for the others to guess the song it came from; clicked photos of our heads- each one's wet hair sported a different look; plucked mangoes and kicked stones downhill. The best lunch we had had so far in that place followed by an hour-long walk to a Turtle farm nearby. It was an American project and a sleepy American described about it in an interesting powerpoint presentation. It was a cute, little place where they protected the turtle eggs till they hatched and released the little ones in the same beach from where they had collected the eggs. The temperature at which the eggs were stored affected the gender ratio of the hatch lot - interesting.
We bathed in the sea. It was shallow for atleast a couple of hundred meters from the beach and hence there was a lot of space for us to fool around. Even Gujak and Miss.Fit enjoyed the water. Gujak stayed unaffected by the King's taunts that there could be a sudden precipitous drop anywhere in the shallow part and she could drown. The three 'swimmers' showed off their skills while the others tried to float above the salty water. 'Small boy' Vikky.nesh was the only brave and illustrious non-swimmer who could float. Prat and I piggybacked each other in turns - something that we can't do on the land. After and hour or two, we had dinner. Despite the King's constant complaint that we are too noisy, we were actually complimented for the same by our host - that we are a jolly lot and that she liked watching us have fun the way we did. More playing cards and dumb charades, before which Prat and I entertained the other girls with a dance performance that was recorded and is sure to go down in history as a severely over-acted version. We deserved rotten eggs and tomatoes but were greeted instead, with huge guffaws of laughter that shook the wooden house,according to the guys who were loitering on the lawn outside. More pages and happy sleep.
Day four:
Packing. Breakfast. Goodbyes. An hour-long wait at the Salang jetty where we were entertained by a couple of German kids who were fishing as well as by the beautiful patterns formed by the school of fish that refused to be baited by them.In Mersing, we emptied our wallets of whatever Malaysian currency it had, at Omar's gift shop - he was so gratified. Pitstop again at the Johor bahru Central Mall - we exchanged more dollars for ringgits - had a pizza dinner followed by an hour of shopping - to give time for the King as well as our Malay driver to break their Ramadan fasting for the day. Back in Singapore Woodlands checkpoint, Vikky.nesh and I had a doubt if the man standing before us in the queue was handicapped or not. Vikky's doubts were soon cleared and we were giggling like idiots.
In the van, Vikky.nesh thanked Prat for organizing the trip - she was slow to respond to it - she wondered if she deserved it as it took only a couple of mails to organize it all. The others assured her that she did deserve it and I had to thank her solemnly and cordially for changing my life's direction. Empty promises to upload the photos pretty soon - none of the buggers have done it yet (except HTC, of course). It was a trip that was much-needed and it did what we wanted it to - made us forget Sg and peehechdee. (The signboards on the road instructing us to 'drive safe' , 'have fun' etc brought back all the Sg-sick feeling flooding into me). Several voices bid me to write a post on the trip to mark it as important and thus I did - a low bow to the love and trust reposed in me ;).
The 8 folks I went with to Tioman - you are the best! :)
