Really glad that my efforts to organize this many-time postponed Kelong Trip paid off! Especially for our best pal Tzewee - in his own words - it was most likely his "last holiday for the next 2 years".
With that, I would like (abruptly) attribute this small space to formally congratulate my SOON-TO-BE very 1st pilot friend!!! (Ever since Maoch who went on to execute his other passion.) Woohooo so excited for you dude, finally your big break has come! And this was what i meant when i imagined you in the near future:
Leonardo Di Caprio in his Captain get-up.
Haha..everytime I think of pilots this pops up in my mental space. Good luck to you my good ol' pal! And yes it's true, exactly what Farah said - "Your eligibility value just went up!" :) Tremendously. Dream job come true! ;)
Anyway, back to the Kelong trip. Definitely a good get away for all of us away from the cement city...to the land of mudskippers, plenty of seafood/bbq and neverending old-school Chinese KTV songs.
We started the day with some 'street shopping' - actually we patronized only one store of snacks - followed by a wholesome lunch of seafood at the pier.
Then there was the short boat ride to our Kelong chalet where we amused ourselves taking all sorts of zi-pai shots. Which turned out pretty well thanks to A's long arms.
The chalet was pretty cosy and clean actually, despite the fishy smell and muddy waters surrounding it. Kinda reminded me of hall coz we all had to bunk in together and go wild like this:
Do count the number of legs involved...
And this:
Stephen strumming emo-ly on Ian's SUPER ADORABLE ukelele - singing The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars.
Well, I would say that song actually did sum up the essence of the trip. It was a day, no TWO full days of basically doing nothing but KTV, sleep (for TW - he slept like 2/3 the time!), (attempt to) fish, eat, and play this awesome card game that XB brought - called BANG!
Which was like a detective game but Cowboy style where you had to eliminate your opponents depending on whether you were on the good side (Sheriff, Vice) or bad side (Outlaw, ohno i forgot the last one who had to be the last to die). Anyway, it was good stuff - i think i played like at least half a dozen of rounds!
KTV was good too, i guess. haha i have never heard so many chi songs sung non-stop/repeatedly my whole life! And they were pretty much classics - somebody stole the Jay Chou DVD :( - so i could only partake in one song which was, well. ONE rare Jay Chou song in one of the mixes. But luckily, thanks to my older bro at home, i actually recognized quite a couple of the oldies. Needless to say, my cheena bf and some of the others had their fill of singing the daylights away. *cough cough..mike hogger..cough*
Fishing was pretty cool - I finally learnt how to fish!! (ok not the hooking bait part which is gross) Not that we fished anything in the muddy waters la. Although Stephen did almost manage to hook up an eel -which splashed back into the waters not long after leaving the surface. I blame the hooks - apparently not big enough - and the muddy waters - fish simi sai?? But at least we all looked like we were on vacation for a moment there...
Check out the 'i'm going fishin'!' look!
And we also managed to grab some pretty sweet sunset shots in the evening.
Lovely group shot!
Boys acting like there was actually something to fish..haha checkout WK's gek face.
The best meal of the trip was unbeatably the free-flow BBQ by the Kelong in the evening. There's just something about charcoal-grilled chickenwings, fishballs, fresh prawns, belachan-eels and good ol' satay that speaks to one's soul...& belly. :p
Only managed to capture some of the food before they disappeared. Not including huge fresh-water prawns, chilli-eels and plenty of yummy satay! They must've done something to the marinate - super good!
Oh, did i forget to mention that - EVERYTHING WAS FREE-FLOW?? yeah. Part of the package..the family running the business was incharge of the food - old and young were carrying trays of freshly BBQed food to our group. I'd say we shamelessly didn't bother to help but kept demanding more food as if to replenish all the energy after KTVing non-stop. -_-
On to the ultimate highlight of the trip - FIREWORKS and KONG MING DENGs!!! *starts playing Katy Perry song*
We all chose our own coloured lanterns and started scribbling our (neverending) wishlists and dreams furiously...
Some (well actually most, except the teacher couple) forgot how to write in Chinese and had to resort to checking words up on the iPhone.
If i had a big red arrow i'd photoshop it behind TW's head.
Here's us all lining up with our written dreams and wishes, ready to be set free into the sky!
And we were all set to FIRE UP!!
I wrote mine with a mix of Chinese & English just in case haha...
O.M.G it's magic!! haha funny guys
And we watched each lantern float dramatically away with our hopes and dreams...Btw, this ultimate wedding shot by Cheezy of the teacher couple - super nice i simply must add it here!!
All our lanterns were launched successfully except Ian's. His was the most dramatic one which kinda reminded me of the stock market of recent months..float up..wobble down..float up..then crashed and burned for good. Lol. Must be the 2 small holes he accidentally burnt at the sides. Plus the fact he mis-spelled and cancelled some words:
ROFL. Still say dui bu qi! But eventually he got another one to ensure all his dreams will come true.
After the lanterns, there was the NDP-like fireworks which were super worth it. All the surrounding kelongs were firing fireworks like mad that Saturday night, it was like multiple explosions around us. Felt like NDP again. :)
With that, i shall end this long entry with another group shot, or two - can't decide haha coz the second one had such goofy laughs it still makes me grin looking at it.
:) :) :)
