3rd Year Anniversary @ Pangkor Island

Wee~ 3rd Year anniversary..

We celebrated our 4th year anniversary on 14th April 2010.. –.-“

Anyway, Pangkor was major FUN!! Partly because we found the right hotel promotion and the other part was the company.. (ehem.. I meant me)

http://offerstation.com/offers-promotions/25618/pangkor-island-beach-resort-promotion.htm

Sadly, the promotion is not available this year.

The journey:

I would recommend you to drive there. The drive there was very enjoyable. No dangerous winding road uphill and downhill (co..genting..ugh*) and Look at the view!

Do stop for Air Nira on the way there.. The cooling drink is just the right drinks to start a beach holiday. It was one of the most refreshing and cooling drink to replenish yourself during the long drive. It was yumz!!

I’m gonna let Catfish do all the mundane detail work of describing the taste and full history of Air Nira.

Catfish Nibbles: Air Nira is one of the sweetest natural drink I had ever drink plus it does not leave any after taste like those over sweetened drink in restaurants. It was RM2 each pack.

There is many Air Nira stalls along the way.

Shea! The drive cannot be any easier. Catfish will be happy provide the direction if you ask. Bring him some fish food..

Catfish nibbles: The old road is easy to drive, highly recommended. The road were so straight that you could even let go your steering for some part of the trip. <—don’t try this =P. Check out the road map here to see how straight the road is. There are 2 turns you need to make but worry not just follow the sign indicating “Lumut” or “Sitiawan”. Shea, you can get me air nira. heheh…

Wonder if Air Nira causes immediate hair growth. Be forewarn the hair will be bit greenish and spiky. See..

Catfish Nibbles: There is a 3 storey car park available located walking distance to the ferry. RM10 per day.

At the jetty. Must take some tourist shot to set the mood.

In the ferry. Pardon my tired face. Last minute packing the night before.. *Yawn* What’s new??

You get nipple sticker if you behave on the boat. 

Catfish Nibbles: We got on the private shutter to get us to the Pangkor Island Beach Resort Lobby from the jetty.

When we reach the hotel lobby, we had a very welcoming entrance. All of us were given a drink and greeted by 2 very energetic singers. 

Catfish was with his NEW camera in the lobby. Hence the greenish pictures above.. Setting semua salah..

Trying to be artistic. All he manage to take from that angle was my Fat thigh. FML! Picture censored.

Catfish Nibbles: The hotel room were huge but slightly old I would say.

After settling down in our room, we immediately enquire about the transport/tour to the city. We wanted SEAFOOD!!… (Again, mundane details like pricing will be by Catfish)

Catfish Nibbles: The ‘taxi’ in Pangkor are all by one taxi community the pink vans. They basically have fix prices. A round trip tour which includes fish factory, Foo Lin Kong Temple and Dutch fort cost RM40 each person. Bloody expensive! What we did was we negotiated for the tour but leave us at the town, which he charged us RM20 each. 50% because no round trip back to hotel. It was tough work to get the deal!

First stop was the fish packaging tour. Nothing much here though. The Seafood items sold here were not really fresh and cheap. Luckily we bought a little only else we are sure to regret when we get to the town. Don’t spend too much time here!

Foo Lin Kong Temple. If you can’t get to China, this is THE BEST PLACE to actually conquer the China’s Great Wall! It is just so easy to climb!

Next up the Dutch Fortress. Nothing special.

Catfish Nibbles: The city is filled with a lot pink vans, so no worry for transportation. The town is filled with seafood shop. Do scout and try the seafood snacks at diffrent shop before you make your purchase. We found one shop particularly cheap and fresh! There are plenty of banks here so if you need… The hotel have none.

Seafood! but it was so-so only.. The only picture of food here.. Promise!

Catfish Nibbles: This is apparently the only seafood available in town at that time. We ordered 1 salted egg crab, 1 sweet sour crab, 1 claypot seafood vege and a coconut each! It caused us RM54 not so cheap though.

Catfish Nibble: We brought these to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary.

Our strawberry ‘fatt Mo’..

Catfish Nibbles: The fridge is not cold..The only complain I have for the hotel room. The hotel service were good enough to try to change the fridge. Even that did not help but they offer us a fridge to keep our strawberries with the restaurant.

The view from our balcony. It’s got this dreamy effect caused the camera got foggy.

2nd day was dedicated to the hotel, enjoying their private beach and facilities. The promotion package includes all non motorised sports free.

Catfish Nibbles: In case if you are wondering how PIBR’s private beach look like. The sand on the beach is always clean, they have rubbish collecting machine sweeping up rubbish every 3 hours or so.

We went for kayak, the beach waves were a little rough at that time. We wanted to try out the kayak sailing but were not brave enough to do it.

I break my slippers playing ping pong. –.-“ Hence the bare foot.

Next we got a bicycle each.

Manage to stumble upon the humble Pangkor airport.

and also some mamak stalls for makan. Catfish Nibbles: Don’t blame PW for another food picture. =p

OMG! Wat’s that?

I think I’m more qualified to be a National Geographic presenter. Catfish can be the camera man. We were chasing it hoping it will flash his tail.

Catfish Nibbles: We got to play Archery and fishing during the night for free too! There is a list of weekly event timetable.

Lolx.. Catfish Missed!!

A must photo before we leave Pangkor Island Beach Resort.

This year we have celebrated our 4th year anniversary in Krabi, well sort of. We might possibly be posting it up next year… =p

 

Nibbled,

PW

and Catfish

Merry Nibbly Christmas!

Woo hoo, it’s already past midnight… I’ve been writing this post since Christmas… 8920 (8920, internal office code.. =p)

On Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas gift exchange session.

It’s so nice of ShookYee to make us some nice blueberry muffins (I’m not sure if it is strawberry). Thank you!

Chirstmas Eve is actually our last day of work of year 2009. It is an official off days for all of us till 4th of January 2010.

We were all playing Christmas music using USB on Sony TV blasting it through the whole break time and lunch time. Iron man and Terminator 4 played using USB Video. Awww really no mood to work leh…

We tried to kill time by killing some reindeer as well.

And I didn’t know that killing a reindeer will make you a stupider reindeer.

Merry Christmas from nibbleofthoughts!

Wishing you a Joyful Christmas and many blessings!

 

-Catfish-

I’ve done it! KL Marathon Yataa!

YES I’ve done 21km, the longest distance ever achieved!

I was so excited on the night before the race till I only got 4 hours sleep (intended for 7h sleep at least). I set my alarm to go off at 3.30am but I jumped up earlier at 3am (I hate it when you get all excited like this!).

The organizer was kind enough to arrange for a special shutter bus which operates from 3am onwards, from various pick up points. 2 of my colleagues and I took the Bkt Jalil one at 5am.

I really did pack light, evidence.

Our bus came on time, however, Axiao complained that their bus only came 45min later. The bus journey was so smooth that we got there a little too very early.

We have plenty of time to get our bags checked in and clear our bladders. We even have time to do a 2 round the field jog warm up.

While lining up at the starting line, I suddenly the urge to go to the toilet again, the excitement must be getting my nerves. However, looking behind me were about 1500 people so I decided to just go with a full tank. The same thing happened to me during the towerthon though.

Upon reaching the first water station which was about 10min away only, only 2 toilet available but later came to realize that the trees along the road are also toilets for the guys (more than 6 trees available).

The race started with a slight drizzle which was quite refreshing which made running smooth and breezed. I broke my record for a 10km stretch at under 1h which I usually take 1h 10min on flat ground.

An ~5m distance shower was provided at around Hang Tuah station. I’m just wondering who the hell needs a shower that will only add weight to their run and might cause blister easily with the wet shoes. In my opinion, it is a waste of water with only 1/50 using it. They could have installed a mist shower like those you find in mamak fan instead.

The route got tougher as we reached the first flyover from MAA turning into Jln Istana. The stretch from Jln Istana –> Jln Parliament was all steep + another flyover. My legs lack of practice on slopes gave way before the flyover which was 3/4 away from the finish line.

Once I’ve reached the last 3km point, I pushed myself to finish as my target time is about up (2.5h). I was smiling when I saw the clock at the finishing line printing 2h 30min 10s!

I have finished the race in:

2h 30min 40s

The start and finish line. The second clock from the right is the 21km time.

I was so thirsty and tired after the finishing line that I sort of made a quick walk to grab for some isotonic drink and some banana. I met my colleagues around the 100plus corner and asked to get them all a yellow stick each:

Karen was together with her bf running 10km, aw such a sweet couple. Eh… no no I was suppose to say: spot spiderman!
It is Mawar Sahlan again! Myave you guess that he is young but no he is 69 years old uncle! He has been running with Spiderman suit at run quite a number of marathon races. This time he participated the 10km run. Read more at NST.

The race indeed have 12,000 participant.

The queue to baggage collection was terribly long like 3 long python attacking one booth. Many people utilized the bag provided by the organizer so it was difficult to spot the owner’s bag. I was smart to bring a different bag …

Finisher medal marks me completing the half marathon:

There is one thing that I didn’t like about the race is that the medal should be given on the spot when you pass the finisher line instead of the long queue at the end. Well maybe they have their reason to get their chip back but some people get to keep theirs… I wonder if it works.

The half marathon gang from Sony:

Oops Axio is still on her way back but we are using her camera now … Heheh…

I met a few guys while lining up for the bag and talk for a bit about marathon. They told me that I had used the wrong shoe for marathon. I’ve used a cross-training shoe Nike Air Max 180.

Which will lead to:

Actually, there were a few major complains from the participant includes:
1. Drink station dried up before race finish. Axiao experienced this.
2. Local winner were not crowned local champion, …

This is my first Marathon and the experience was fantastic beside the medal distribution method. Maybe to avoid from the mentioned complain is to avoid running first and the last.

After the race, I had a feeling that I can achieve anything. Maybe next I shall go for a try for something more extreme like bungy jumping at sunway.

The thought came crashing when my father said 2h 30min? If you don’t finish within 2h 30min then you are not a marathon runner. He say his 21km time was 1h 45min. I was like erm… so spoil… Heheh but it’s alright! I shall beat that and aim for a 42km as well…

Oh yea… I’ve almost forgot that Hew and me did signed up for the King of the Road race. 11km for 50min qualifying time. That’s a target to beat!
Notice that both of us are signing up for the T-Shirt. The package comes with 2 x RM50 voucher to be used for purchase of shoe worth more than RM250 (one voucher per shoe). I think I’m making use of it to get a correct shoe at least!

Feel like joining? You better act quick, the closing date is 3rd of July. Click here

Resting,

--Catfish--

PS: Photos courtesy of Axiao, Hew, Goh and Helmut. Thanks!