Kukup

Long post!!

Though admittedly not many photos of myself coz it's about my weekend trip to Kukup and I didn't have make up on the entire time. Yes yes maybe you are not interested to see photos of me but I am, ok! Photo-editing for this post was so boring coz there is like ONE camwhoring shot of me.

I digressed! So, Kukup!!

Got invited to a weekend trip there by Ripple and I thought Mike would really enjoy it so I went. It was actually supposed to be a company retreat thing for Ripple and her ex colleagues but they needed more people to go so Ripple invited Wongsie and I!!

I was a bit apprehensive at first coz it only cost $86 per person for 2 days 1 night and all food is provided. And it's at a kelong. In a swamp. So that usually translates to nasty toilets and no aircon and thin mattresses.

And it didn't help that when I asked twitter followers if I should bring a bikini most of them gave me sarcastic answers like "Yeah if you wanna swim in mud with mosquitoes and mudskippers". -_-

But to my uber surprise the chalet we stayed in was really nice, fully airconed, had no insects, AND HAD ITS OWN KTV THINGY AND TWO SETS OF MAHJONG TABLES/TILES!! I AM SOLD!

And we had seafood the whole time and it was all DELICIOUS!!

In short, the trip FAR exceeded expectations!!! Super fun!! A lot of it is just company too I guess and Ripple's colleagues were an awesome bunch.

I wanna organise another trip there!!

Eh don't ask me how to get there coz 1) I don't know, not I organize one 2) I know also don't wanna share coz it's apparently booked fully all the time wtf.

OK picture time!

Bus picked us up at 8am and we stopped for breakfast in JB... I prayed and prayed it is the "go by weight zhup cai bng place" and it was!!

I love economic rice and here, you get to ladle your own ingredients! You can take as many as you want as it's all by weight, not variety. SHIOK MAX!!

And lookie those CDs hanging there! It's for chasing flies away. Apparently effective!

(So coincidentally next to the store is a pirated DVD shop so I presume that's where they get their CDs from when the DVD shop people burn the discs wrongly. Nice.)

After food - Ripple in purple, her friend Cerenna in black, her husband Jason and in the corner - Eekean aka Wong da lawyer. Let's close in on her.

Everyone was laughing at her coz she looks like she dressed for a billion dollar yacht trip. Blue nautical striped shirt. Sensible PANTS. Canvas shoes. And look at that hat! I'm surprised she didn't wear a cravat.

Everyone else in casual slippers and tees! LOL... Oh Wongsie. She insists she did not overdress.

I took this picture because this is where I brushed my teeth after my meal. The upper one. I just wanna say I love outdoor sinks. They are awesome for brushing - with a view!

To our horror when we reached the getty it was FLOODED. I think it is a daily occurance.

And I remembered with glee that Eekean had on CANVAS shoes...

Because everyone had to walk through the filthy water!!!!!!!!!!!

ANKLE DEEP!

There were 2 other groups of people with us and they all braved through the grossness without hesitation wtf. In the end we tried to find an alternate route but still had to step in the water for a bit.

And to my disappointment Wongsie SOMEHOW managed to hop from stone to stone and avoided getting her shoes wet!!!!!!! WTF

Had a seafood lunch. That's Ripple's bottle of soy bean milk. We made lactating jokes. We are childish.

Inside the chalat a door opens up to the mangrove swamp!!

The "sea".

Here's the exterior. And we were brought on a tour to see the other houses in Kukup...

Eekean is excited

People gathering outside while Jason (he is squatting) shoots Ripple in a supermodel pose wtf

This is apparently where the owner stays. Nice pad!

Atas girl must pose with atas house

And these... where the rest of the commoners stay.

Reached a "ma zhu" temple with ice cream dude outside. LOVE his sprayed pink cans

Dex posing with the uncle.

Freaking yummeh yam ice cream

Artsy shot attempt

Meanwhile inside the chalet...

Wongsie already started to hog the mic and traumatize the rest of us

And here's me winning a mahjong game. WOOT. Oh and this photo is stolen from Jason's facebook wtf. And so are some of the other photos.

Others were playing monopoly deal or wandering around outside having a beer.... and then...

THIS IS LIKE THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP!!!

I shall act mysterious and not tell you what we are doing in this photo till later in the post.

Soon it was time for dinner and after that..........

WE SET OFF FIREWORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not really legal in Malaysia but they always say... As long as you don't get caught!

The other group of people were setting off floating lanterns and they really went all out!!! So many lanterns floating away... It was so beautiful!!

Looks terrible in photos but gorgeous irl.

I must say it is really quite damn shiok to see people set off fireworks while you gnaw on sambal stingray.

And soon it was our turn to set off ours!!

Only one boring firework picture and I swear it's not that boring. Check it out - our firework almost burn someone else's floating lantern!! :D

Time to write wishes on the floating lanterns!! They are super big so got a lot of space to write rubbish lol

They said must write in Chinese coz it's a Chinese tradition wtf. And I'm gonna get INTERNATIONAL FAME LOL!!!

And here's to hoping Ripple and Jason get the dragon/bunny baby they wants!! GO HAVE SEX NOW!!

This lantern written by Wongsie. She said she will write general things that are good for everyone.

AND ALL WRITTEN IN CHINESE.

I was like WTF how can you remember all these freaking words and she was like "I am good at writing what, just bad at speaking."

Super do River Valley proud can?

Also she wanted to write that everyone got a lot of "tao hua yun" (meaning lucky in love) and got scolded by all the attached couples so she had to put a disclaimer. HAHAHA

Kukup person lighting it up for us!! Must hold on to it for a long time and let the air heat up before letting go.

AND OFF IT GOES!!!!!!

It was so fun everyone was screaming and jumping up and down while it floated away.

I guess it's a light-hearted feeling when you send your fate up to the heavens.

Bye!

After fireworks we continued mahjonging till the wee hours of the night and at one point, from the mahjong table Ripple commented on the 3 people singing KTV: "Woah they look good together"... referring to two of her single friends.

But as I look over, all I saw was 1 girl and 2 guys, all back facing me, so I asked "With which guy?"

She stared at me for a long time and yelled "HELLO! THE OTHER ONE IS WA EH LAO (my husband)!!!"

HAHHAHAAHA I couldn't recognise Jason from the back!!! We kept laughing about this for damn long and couldn't stop.

Next day:

OK mystery revealed....

We were playing with a pufferfish!!!

At the kelong there was a net that goes up and down the waters and it captures fishes, horseshoe crabs, eels, mudskippers, prawns, jellyfish, stingrays etc!!

And all the captives were in a fish tank... Of them all the cutest are the puffers!

We were told that if you stroke the belly of the pufferfish they will puff up and it's soooo super adorable!!

A bit cruel lah but it takes skills to puff them up!

LOL!

Too cute!

Don't worry we are not killing them. After stroking their bellies we put them back into the tank and guess what?

They float on the top for a long time coz they cannot deflate that quickly! MAD KAWAII!!

Cerenna was the best stroker there LOL her fishes have the highest successful inflating rate.

Mudskipper. The kelong people put this giant one on the floor and it hopped violently everywhere, making girls scream.

They are so... unevolved-looking.

Stupid Shengrong told me they are very beautiful (???) with iridescent blue spots.

Ok lah got blue spots but still ugly.

Cute little jellyfish. Very fun to poke

Here's the ONE camwhoring shot.

And Mike's unedited. I should be pleased and proud that my husband's so goddamn handsome but instead I wonder why the world is so unfair. Why can't I be the one with the giant eyes???

Ok I guess I do have perfect vision so maybe the world is kinda fair. And my wayfarers are freaking GORGEOUS!

Ripple, Wongsie and I.

Friends for 14 years and counting!!

Before we leave we visit another Kelong...

This dude is freaking funny. Here he is showing us that sharks are very happy and love to smile with 8 rows of teeth.

Peishan's (right) expression is exaggarated max LOLLLL