Such is Life at Port Dickson

WARNING: 77 photos ahead.

On a bright Monday morning few days ago at about 8.30am, Esther came literally a-knocking on my bedroom door – I roused, ate breakfast, chatted with Haensly while Esther tried to get some shut-eye, then when Heng was dropped off by his mum and Ding and Andy arrived, I went with Esther in Ding’s Myvi to Adrian’s place to pick up Esther’s stuffs while the rest went for breakfast at the Chinese kopitiam behind my house. On the way back I picked Jess up, dropped the girls at the aforementioned kopitiam, then picked the guys and returned to my house, proceeded to place our bags in my fat ol’ Serena, then returned to the kopitiam.

We proceeded to lat and Ding lost on the first round and had to drive the whole lot of us to Port Dickson, about an hour’s drive with nary an incident. When we were at Ding’s unit of Astana Beach Resort (previously Sunshine Bay Resort), we discovered that the unit has yet to be cleaned up yet so we hung out at the swimming pool.

#1 Moving the bench so we can sit side-by-side.

#2 A vertical shot of the pool.

#3 Pre-push.

#4 The push.

#5 Post-push.

#6 Esther’s cries of indignation and surprise.

#7 Angry/annoyed Esther.

#8 Us relaxing by the pool.

With a tinge of chlorine breathing through the sea breeze carried from not too far off from where we were, we sat by the swimming pool, chatting, some swimming (by Esther and Heng), me reading the intensely powerful Midwest-accented narration of Brokeback Mountain, half of the time not understand with a vague sense of comprehension of ranches, rodeos, but with deliberate repeated rereadings, formed a concrete familiarisation of Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar.

#9 After a while we went back to the apartment and hung out there for a while, then we went to the town and dropped by at Kedai Kopi Pak Lang for a very late lunch at like 3.30pm.

#10 My stomach had an acidic growl and I ate two meals: an asam laksa and a Hainanese chicken rice.

There we sat at the round marble table reminiscing secondary school, teachers whose some names escaped us for a moment then like a distant veiled vacation, anecdotes of teachers punishing us, cruel practical jokes bullied onto fellow schoolmates, the list dredges on.

Said discussion filled with laughters and giggles. This video is also available in HQ (High Quality).

#11 We then went to this old mall to buy some tidbits and drinks from the supermarket and a 4-in-1 DVD to watch movies at Ding’s apartment.

#12 We then returned to the apartment. (Notice how close we were to the beach.)

#13 And we were down at the beach at about 6.30pm for some photo shooting session. This is one of my favourite pics by far.

#14 Another shot of Heng and Esther.

#15 And another.

#16 And more.

#17 Ding, Esther, me.

#18 Esther pulling an awkward pose lol.

#19 Trying to survive a shipwreck.

#20 We made Jess pose there for us lol.

#21 Ding, Jess, Esther.

#22 Another shot.

#23 Candid.

#24 Heng pushing a moored boat.

#25 By the evening glow.

#26 Alternative shot.

#27 And another.

#28 Corus on the left.

#29 I like these pretty faint lights.

#30 Another of my favourite shot.

#31 More look of the boat.

#32 Ding fanning Datin Seri Jessica.

#33 Me by the beach.

#34 Romantic couple gazing at the horizon.

#35 And another.

#36 A silhouette of Jess.

#37 Nearly sunset at the sea.

#38 Silhouetted Ding, Esther, Jess, Heng.

#39 Sunset.

#40 And another.

#41 We’re even lucky enough to see not one rainbow, but two! (If you squint at the picture properly, you’ll see the faint rainbow on top of the clear one.)

#42 Another more centralised pic. Ding also unfortunately dropped Esther’s phone into the sea, and it refused to start after that. :/

#43 The road near the beach.

#44 Back at the apartment.

#45 Me chillin’.

#46 We went around looking for food – initially kangkung belacan and telur dada – but we settled for KFC instead. >_>

#47 KFC’s chicken rice, which was actually quite good. Would’ve been perfect if the counter lady didn’t mistook my request for Original for Spicy. -___- Ding kindly traded one of his Original for one of my Spicy.

When we finished and got into my Serena, I accidentally banged the door shut while Esther’s fingers were still wrapped at the ‘ledge’ of the door, for the lack of a better word – ouch, three of her fingers were slightly bruised! She was screaming and laughing at the same time that Jess had to ask if she was actually laughing or crying. >____>

After buying two packets of ice at the nearby 7-Eleven, we returned to the apartment and resumed watching the movie College, which was mainly a wtf-slapstick comedy along the lines of American Pie. When the credits rolled, we began our drinking session – some beer, followed by a cocktail of vodka and Coke.

Drinking Session Part 1 – Ding fooled to drink an entire glass of vodka. (This video is set to play in HD by default – I’ve been testing uploading HD videos to Youtube since I got back from PD. You can also choose to play the video in normal quality if your connection isn’t very fast.)

Drinking Session Part 2.

Drinking Session Part 3.

Later that night when we had probably finished half a bottle of Absolut Citron and some beer, a few of us passed out – apparently I fell asleep on the couch first. And when I came to a while later, Daniel, Heng, and Jess were talking at the balcony and I joined them. At one point Jess mentioned that it has been 4 years since Form 5 – and god I didn’t particularly notice it has been that long. The strange thing was, we were still together and banded through our infrequent meet-ups, despite my thinking a couple of years ago that when secondary school ends, we will drift away with the crevasse of time and distance pulling us apart.

After chatting, Ding and Jess decided to sleep even though we still have a jug full of a mixture of Ribena, lemon, and Absolut Citron. Heng and I proceeded to watch Burn After Reading in the dark up till about 5am – it was a weird, nearly pointless movie but its saving grace is its odd, satirical/dark sense of humour. I was still marvellously awake when the movie ended, and after tossing for a bit Jess got up, I talked to her for a bit (she told me that apparently during the first night of all of her vacations she would keep getting up throughout the night), and then we both went back to sleep.

At about 8am a strong gust of wind from the sea stormed into our apartment, and the pants that Heng was hanging by the balcony was blown right off. It was in fact, so strong, that it had a loud whistling sound and when I went to the bathroom to shower, the windows of the toilet were practically rattling and I had to hope the window panels won’t fly off and slice me dead. >_>

I then went back to sleep and only woke up at about 11am, where Heng asked if it was alright for us to eat dinner together later on.

#48 After waiting for the rest to get ready, we went to a medan selera for lunch after finding out that the nasi lemak stall that Jess wanted to go to was closed. Food was actually quite cheap for only about RM3-RM3.50 for the dish that we ordered for ourselves individually, although my wan tan mee was just mediocre.

Esther singing Daughtry’s No Surprise in the car on the way back to the apartment.

#49 Craziness saw us at the beach at about 2pm under the hot afternoon sun. I like how the reflection was so clear on Andy’s sunglasses.

#50 Hanging out by the beach.

#51 Ding singing songs accompanied by Jess’ portable radio aka new cellphone.

#52 Priceless.

#53 Esther doing the tribal dance.

Frolicking in the sea of Port Dickson (Part 1).

Daniel “Craig” Ding LOL.

Esther doing the mud treatment on Ding.. and with Heng, rowing an imaginary kayak.

#54 A pair of sloppy sandals.

#55 Chillin’ and relaxin’.

#56 The Esther Jump.

#57 Heng’s artistic rendition of Jess, and Jess.

#58 The Jump.

#59 The Crazed Heng Jump.

#60 Playing an old primary school game.

#61 Attempting the Superman (and Superwoman) pose.

#62 Ding’s mat wouldn’t ‘float’ so some manual assistance is required.

#63 It says “Extended Femerie” lol, with the upside-down “extended” done by Ding, and “femerie” by Heng. We also saw some Indian secondary students drinking alcohol nearby us wtf.

#64 Obligatory crazy group shots!

#65

#66

#67

#68

#69

#70

#71

#72

#73 HAHAHAHA IN YOUR FACE.

#74 Lala pose.

#75 I drove the whole lot of us back (and also paid the RM0.30/hour parking that was imposed on us by Majlis Perbandaran Port Dickson when we parked somewhere near the Kedai Kopitiam Pak Lang yesterday by dumping the money along with the ticket on an unattended booth as it closes at 5pm), then at a Sepang petrol station, Andy took over from there and brought us to Yuen Steamboat Buffet Restaurant, Sunway.

Watch the insanity of uncivilised Malaysians who lack poise and grace who rush for the chicken wings at Yuen Steamboat Restaurant, the moment a staff brings over the chicken wings (the kakak in the video who tries to escape from the madness).

Despite this being our shortest vacation by far that stands at only a night when previously our holidays were 2 or 3 nights long, we managed to squeeze in a torrent of repeated inside jokes (“such is life”, “culture shock”, “PnG”), infectious laughters, and a lifetime of inanity. My gut feeling tells me that it will be a while – maybe a year, maybe a bit more – till I see the “extended femerie” again, and my 4 to 5-year long fear of us drifting apart is slowly on its road to reality.

The strange thing is, as time draws closer to this Sunday 11pm, I no longer fear Melbourne. The odd sense of numbness that I feel right now is like the accursed criminal accepting a death sentence, the realisation that there’s no turning back now.

My pre-departure anxiety is slowly diminishing – I didn’t feel the fear as much as I did previously as the date drew closer, and my heart even allowed some excitement to creep in. Maybe I should know indeed that such is life – that as I allow my heart to tumble through the rollercoaster of emotions for the past few weeks, I’m walking out to the new world beyond the airport terminal of LCCT on Sunday with a renewed sense of acceptance and embracing Melbourne with open arms.