My mini trip to Cherating

I feel so in relief now. I'm exhausted but I'm happy coz I finally made it back to KL again. So let today be a lazy day to recuperate. Ok now it's time to document and recapture the moments throughout the mini trip to Cherating.

I went to Cherating with Reuben and Billy, well let's call him Bachya. Bachya reached my house and picked me up at 7+ AM. Then we had a quick check of the car which includes topping up on brake fluids, water and engine lubricant. After that, we set forth our way to Cherating.

Bachya was complaining that when braking, it's giving shivers to the steering wheel. Apparently that bugger didn't replace his exhausted brake pads. So we had a stop at Bandar Maran to get some new brake pads. Bachya kinda behaves like a woman being very choosy and picky. Finally Bachya settled with his choice of brake pads at Kuantan.

Upon reaching Cherating, Bachya collapsed on the bed. Reuben and I walked to the nearby cafe / restaurant along the beach to have a drink and snack while watching beach dogs and mat sallehs playing with frisbees. There were a group of uncles sitting across our table chatting out loud in a humourous perspective on the topics of death, how liquor will kill them but not beer and ermmm, basically that's all. While heading back to our room, Reuben collected many umang-umangs and placed them in a coconut, the drink he had earlier.

We had seafood for dinner and planned to hit some pubs later on. While we were driving around to check out our options, the car got uppity. The power windows became slow, then the lights from the dashboard became dimmer and inevitably the clock also is dying. Damn it, we can't even have the headlights on and there's not even time to bother about the brake lights yet. So as you've guessed it, we drove around in some kampung roads without headlights, turn-signal lights and brakelights. It's as if we were some secret agents trying to camouflage the vehicle and blend in with the night. It's much of a fear factor kinda thing coz we nearly got smacked by a van. So we ended up tailing a lorry, a huge vehicle with plenty of lights to guide us back.

We reached our hotel safely but the car's gone. The battery was flat I guessed. Nevermind that, we abandoned the thought about the car and carried on with our pub trip by foot. Yeah, so we were again, walking along the beach in pure darkness with the sights of pubs some kilometres away motivating us to keep walking. We finally reached at one and enjoyed our beers and stouts.

About an hour later, a big ass Malay dude tapped Bachya's shoulder and points at the beach signalling they need to talk there. Reuben and I didn't quite get bothered by that. After a minute later, we heard a loud and echoing "SPAK". We instinctively look at Bachya's direction and he was at the receiving end of a big smack from that dude. Immediately my heart started to palpilate and I scoured around looking for potential weapons while preparing my mind to be in triad mode. I was juggling the options available which were the plastic chair, some bricks nearby some pots of plants and my glass. In my mind, I selected the glass. The next thing I saw was that Bachya raising his arms showing both of his palms to that dude backing off. That corpulent dude still managed to land a lame kick and two extra right handed hook. Bachya came back and we gave him some minutes to compose himself. He then became our laughing stock for the rest of the hours. He got whacked for talking to some ugly bitches a while ago. The conclusion to this could be made in one sentence. "Chun Tou Lan".

The car died a few times when we were travelling from Cherating to Kuantan the next morning. We managed to get it running again by doing the classic push and rev solution. Finally the verdict has been spoken. The car fuckin died at a traffic light junction of all places. Damn! We pushed the car and did a U-turn at the traffic light junction and pushed it all away along a row of shoplots into a workshop. That was like one of the most heroic attempts I ever did with so many people watching. I would rate that second, coz carrying a mattress with 3 other guys across the city with many gwai lous watching still rates first. At approximately 6 PM, the mechanics from the workshop said they couldn't get the car ready by that night itself.

Bachya said he will stay another day for his car while we can go back by bus first. Reuben argued with Bachya and I was kinda caught in the middle. That was some very unnecessary squabbles which could sour their many years of friendship. The rude and high decibels of mocking and fingers pointing just wouldn't be benefiting anything. I said to Bachya, "Eh, don't get angry lah" and he gave me a small nod before I left for the bus station.

I bet I look like a haggard after 5 hours of that bus trip. While I'm on the bus, I miss KL and my mind was fully occupied with many things, both good and bad. I guess sometimes I'm a bloody muthafugga who just won't tell anybody everything. That's me. Luckily I had Corner King to pick us up from Pudu Raya at 1 AM and I appreciate that.

Lessons Learnt:
1. Service that damn car.
2. Shit happens
3. Uncertainty always exist, prepare for disaster management.

translation:
umang-umang: hermit crab?
Chun Tou Lan: imbecile