Redang Day Three: Back on the Mainland

Location: Sitting on a pile of funny smelling bags, waiting for the boat to the mainland
Mood-of-the-day: Shopoholic

Today's the end of the trip. I still feel so exhausted and wasn't looking forward to the long car ride back to Kt. D'sara. I just want to lie down in my sand-ridden bed and let gravity push me down and keep me in place. But mom pulled out the blankets and I fell down to the floor real heavy (woke up every body else in all 10 rooms. They thought there was a bomb).

I'm so sluggish this morning because I ate so much food last night. There was an All-You-Can-Stuff-Yourself-Before-You-Blow-Up Barbecue by the beach and I took a generous helping of everything on the table. I knew I should have stopped at the 4th leg of chicken but, oh come on, look at the scene! The sun has gone down, the sea breeze in your hair, the sand in your toes (I had not worn any shoes since Thursday afternoon), the only light is the fluorescent lamp... It's enough to make any carbs conscious person to turn Atkin's (and aim for the 5th chicken :P).

"Chicken, fish or hot dog, miss?"

So after much persuasion and threats (it took the promise of mainland shopping to get me out of subconscious), I joined the family into the getting-all-packed-up-and-ready-to-go mode. But the thing was, it's raining, HEAVILY, and the sea's getting rough. The boat dudes won't get to the Redang jetty in this weather. So to pass the time, my sis taught lil' bro and me how to play congkak. I admit I've never played it before, even with 50+ cousins ready to teach me how.


"This is the boat between Redang jetty and here. We take a ferry to the mainland."

We missed the first ferry because of the rain but there's a second one at around noon so that leave us a satisfied amount of time to do mainland shopping. The boat got back with a healthy number of new and pink-faced passengers (including a couple of Mat Sallehs) all ready to take over our rooms (hope they didn't mind the toilet we broke :P). The sea was still rough though, so we had to be careful as we get on board.

Yay, shopping! Because it's the school holidays and soon there'll be a Merdeka free day, everything seemed to be doubled-the-halved-priced. That means everything is still so expensive! I found this lovely dark green with fair floral designs on light material. Price = $260. Ouch. Yeah, like it's really already been discounted.

As we move on, mom looked for a pair of batik pants for bro (who's stuck at home). She found this lavender + indigo piece that would have got a dude some gays in San Francisco and shot at in Texas. It's funkie and he liked it like sweet (he wanted one since mom got me a pair from her Indonesia trip).


"Original Terrengganu batik! I'm still deciding if I prefered it to be a kurung, kebarung or kebaya... :P"

These shop owners were always on the ready, more than KL's owners. My sis took a quick touch-and-see on this metal belt and the guy suddenly appeared with his price and plastic. Wow, talk about quick service. My dad didn't marry a shopoholic without absorbing some ideas for himself. He got himself a gold-threaded songket while finally found a batik I really, really liked.

We ate lunch at this food court where tables were wooden and stapled with flamboyant floral plastic covers. Mom got herself a headscarf while lil' bro didn't shop for anything (he's probably still in sea sickness). Time was limited since we wanted to get home by midnight. As we took the mainland road to pass through election filled Kuala Berang. I took one last look at the South China Sea horizon and wondered when I'll see it again.


That's me! And see my raggedy Jeans now become really, really raggedy!

Signed: *Ophie, all tanned brown and still swaying with the ocean wave as she walked in the workstation.