LIMA 2011 (1/5) : The Journey Up North

Okay, with Gabe Bondoc singing and strumming in the background, I am finally in the mood and in the place to start blogging this long delayed LIMA blogpost! so, here goes. Last week was a hurl of fun, stress, enthusiasm, nervousness, jitters, friendship, hard work and a whole lotta madness! I'd be lying if I proclaim I hadn't been all stressed up and in situations where swearing and cursing is happening like bullets out of a gun. But I have to say I literally enjoyed every second of it. Dead serious, I am.

Right, i'll do this in chapters and in different posts to make things easier, for you readers and for me, the blogger knowing I tend to sway really easily. LOL

THE JOURNEY UP NORTH

The paddy fields of Kedah, against the picturesque underlaying hills in the background.

Picked up Naomi from McD Kota Kemuning and headed straight to the ZETRO building, where we had our first LIMA Briefing (click here to see how I got into being a part of LIMA and what went down before, during and after the Volunteer's Briefing). When we got there, we waited at the guardhouse for the rest to show up and sure enough, a few minutes later, Gup and Izz arrived. Looks like we are the early early birds and the ones are freakin' enthusiastic! Well, evidently more enthusiastic than the others, since Mr Haswan 'warned' us, again and again, not to be late. Padahal he, himself also came late. But I guess he was busy too lah! LOL 

We left the place at about 9am and stopped at Sungai Buloh R&R for brunch which Izz then met up with Vern, this only other sixth former from KL who he met during his briefing which was in a later slot than ours. First impression of him, he was this really smart-ass KL kid who is pretty awkward and shy around girls. LOL To know that he isn't in any way arrogant but actually quite nice to talk to is great, knowing that we were gonna spend a whole week working with him. Back on the road for a whole 6hours + lunch at Semanggol R&R before we reached the Kuala Perlis jetty.

"So, you wanna go through the programme"

My view on my left.

My view in front.

Calm waters of Kuala Perlis.

We had to wait for around 3hours in the jetty, self-entertaining as we were way ahead schedule. So, we made some new peeps and chit-chatted quite a bit. Naomi was pretty much glued to the phone screen playing some bouncing penguin game which I find pretty amusing. Oh and on the way there, I was pretty occupied with this awesome app in Gup's phone called the Moron Test! Left me so frustrated at times and I was like speechless most of the time. With that said, I did enjoyed it and of course, the company of my new great  crazy friends. 

Work In Progress.
Do Not Disturb. 

Being assigned rooms and roomies for the week.

THE FERRY RIDE

The ferry ride was amazing, in a way. Why I say "in a way" because, I'm a huge fan of nature and wicked nature photography which I managed to capture and witness some of most amazing sunsets on the way. However, they were playing this local movie called Alamak! Toyol! and being not much of a fan of horror movies or anything creepy, that creeped me out quite a fair bit. So, when the sun went down, I was quite worn out so I slept.

Tasik Dayang Bunting - Lake of the Pregnant Maiden

After an hour in the ferry, we finally arrived at our destination - Langkawi! I was over the moon, I'm pretty sure the others were too! As we all got our luggage, we all took photos and headed to the Kuah jetty. Got onto the bus and it took us to our hotel -Sandy Beach Resort. And in one hour, we had to freshen up, grab dinner and get going to the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre to have a first look at the venue where we are going to work in for the week. 

Shot by Naomi

During the tour around the venue, we had a little culture shock as the place was in a mess and most of the booths were not intact yet and there is still so much to be done. I guess, I was being naive, expecting to see most of the stuff up and ready to go, considering that the exhibition is going to be open to trade visitors and royalties in two days! it was somewhat impossible to be all ready and nice in a mere period of time! And so, we headed to the pre-function room for our first briefing in the venue! Managing Director, Mr Ahmad Dzuhri gave us a talk. he was intimidating in a way but was super funny. Well, then again, I can't really take him seriously cuz he was in jogging attire! As he introduced the staff or superiors, we couldn't really take them seriously too as they were dressed so casually. Again, to think that they'd dress up in coat and formal wear and working in an exhibition hall with no air-conditioning is ridiculous. 

We went back to the resort late, at about 12+am. When we went back, after getting ready for bed, Nay, Gup and I sat down on the bed for a while, stoned. We literally couldn't believe that this was really happening, finally. After all that stressful paperwork for application, we were finally there. 

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