Ramadhan around the bend..

Well, its another Friday - 3.45pm.

Roughly a little over an hour to the end of the work day but really, being in the JB there isn't much to look forward to if at all. Perhaps I'm being a bit of a downer today but it's not that surprising based on the somewhat screwed up day I'm having. First, no one bothered to tell me that I had a matter in Court today until the 11th hour which caused a frantic dash to ensue followed by my dishevelled (and slightly damp) appearance in front of the Judge in chambers. Second, some pleadings which I wanted to file in Court today are still not ready despite the fact that I've already amended it over 10 times at this point without getting what I want. Its like give instructions to a 8 year old. Truthfully, over a dozen nasty words are popping to mind when I think about the clerk in charge of the file in question but all are too harsh to be mentioned here. Suffice to say that she is quite, nay, excruciatingly slow.. to the point that I feel like just snapping but I'm trying to avoid any scene making here as much as possible.

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Instead, I would much rather focus my energy and thoughts on the fact that the month of Ramadhan starts tomorrow. Hopefully, it would give me more clarity and peace of mind although it has been known to be a very challenging month to get through. Many a conflict and/or crisis has arisen during this time in the past but none that had remained unresolved for long which is a very good thing because when you're fasting, you don't really have the energy to fight or hold a grudge especially if its over something that is trivial. Did I mention that its not exactly the right thing to do during this time? Yea, that too.

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I must also admit that in this moment I've never missed KL more. Feels like it has been ages since I had a proper chill with my friends over there. Ramadhan has always been a fun time for us. Granted, perhaps we could've been more religious during this time but we enjoyed the month in each other's company nonetheless. Going around looking for food with Raya songs blasting from the car's sound system was the norm even from Day 1. The break fast was also more of a social thing for us to get together to catch up and hang out until the next morning for sahur. The Ramadhan Bazaar is also a fun part of the whole month especially to satisfy any cravings one might have for something Melayu.

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Honestly, if I had my way I would be up and driving to KL in 30 minutes from now but I've already planned to go up next weekend so I can't be spending too much on travelling expenses. Besides, the 1st day of fasting would be more fitting if it was spent with family which is what I've decided to do. After all, it's been somewhat of a tradition for me and I would want to break it now. I will still go back to KL soon enough though and I will make sure I'll have the best time despite the short time frame I have to do it.

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In any event, to all Muslims.. have a wonderful and blessed Ramadhan and selamat berpuasa y'all ;).

Long Beach Part Deux

ow

So I spent a weekend on Long Beach in Perhentian Kecil and the only observations I had to make where in regards to the hellish the bus ride and scrumptious seafood? Something is definitely missing here.. Surely, there must be more to the famed Long Beach than that.

Truth be told, I didn't even know that Long Beach had such a reputation until I heard scores of tourist as well as my own travel mates telling the travel agent at Kuala Besut jetty that accommodation on Long Beach is A MUST. Apparently, Perhentian Kecil is much nicer than its sister island, Perhentian Besar and is also a backpacker's haven which pretty much meant that the entire length of Long Beach was packed with Westerners. In a nutshell, it was basically an awesome spot to people watch. It was safe to say that my travel mates and I did our fair share of looking at the heavenly bodies all around and in such concentration.

Despite the beach being densely populated with tourist,it is worthy to note the water was pristine.. clear turquoise as far as the eye can see which gradually turned into a deeper shade of azure that indicated the depth of the water. The water was also shallow for quite a length from the beach itself so I suppose you don't have to worry much if you don't really know how to swim. It was like a huge, salty swimming pool. The light tan sand was also very smooth and fine to the touch although I wouldn't go digging too much in it as a lot of the visitors tend to bury their litter in it. Yes, it seems horrible but that's what they do so you're better off just sitting or lying on the sand rather than building a sand castle as you might dig up more than you bargained for.

My first day on Long Beach was spent literally on the beach for the entire day. For not wanting to waste a moment of our short trip in our electricity-less chalet, we headed for the sea during mid-day.. truly a ridiculously bad idea if you do not apply sun block properly (and by that, I mean a full on thick lather of the stuff). At any rate, we did spend several hours in the water and even managed to chat up other vacationers in the water. When we got tired, we came up to the sand to take a short nap under an beach umbrella which you can rent for the whole day for RM10 and then headed to one of the restaurants on the beach for a teatime snack before heading back into the water again until dusk. Despite being severely burnt that day, I must say that the experience of just hanging out on the beach and swimming (or perhaps soaking) was brilliant and in my opinion, well deserved.

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The next day was spent snorkeling as we had pre-booked a snorkeling package for the whole day with our travel agent earlier. I believe there were 5 snorkel sites altogether. The first snorkel site was pretty deep and I lost my snorkel as soon as I jumped into it because I forgot that it was only loose placed on my head at the time. Thankfully, one of our guides dove in to retrieve it much to my appreciation and embarrassment. The coral and marine life was indeed beautiful but I must say lacked variety and after the 3rd snorkeling site, it was pretty much a repetition of the same things. We were however brought to areas where you can spot sea turtles and sharks. Unfortunately, this involves a lot of chasing with about 20 other people around you. I didn't see much pass the crowd so that was a bit of a disappointment though I believe my mates did manage to get a view of both.

We got back to Long Beach just a little before the sun went down so again.. we went back into the water until the sun had properly set before heading back to the chalet to get ready for a night of further chilling. Once again, we headed to the Palm Tree Cafe but we weren't in much of a mood to dance.. especially on sand which makes you look drunk even when you don't have a drop of alcohol in you. Instead, we opted for card games with a friendly islander who works at the club. God only know who only came up with the ridiculous card game but it got more funny and at times, extreme as the night went on. I think I lasted until about half past 1am until I realized something was wrong with me so I decided to go back to the chalet earlier than my mates but not before stumbling, falling and cutting myself on sandbags cum makeshift steps. Wholly embarrassed, I limped as fast as I could into the darkness back to our chalet. My mates stayed until almost 5am.. our boat off the island was at 6.30am and our bus back to KL was at 8am. Nice.

An insane vay-k? Definitely.. but what can I say, insanity loves its company.. and apparently random holidays to boot.