I guess I should log down something about the penang trip besides the race.

Well we travelled aboard the super bus konsortium. Which looks like one of the better coach companies around.

Quite nostalgic of my trip there 2 years back with Jabez. We headed to that same roti canai store which is supposed to be pretty awesome. But it still can't beat the one in Bishan. Heck, not even Jalan kayu's stores can beat the one in Bishan.

Went to sightsee some temples, and I bought 2 slingshots and one of those jet butane lighters. But I picked the most awesome one - this one has not one but two jet outlets and its shaped like a gun. W00t. Fascinating, I found how to change batteries, what type of fuel does it use, and how to refill the fuel. The slingshot is pretty awesome too.

We headed to Parkson and I checked out the local arcade with Melvin. Quite retarded. The guy in charge thought that CVS2 had a 4 button attack layout like CVS. And they even had it layed out KOF style so guess what? You have 3 punches and 1 light kick to play with. Ridiculous.

Then headed to parkson, went to the arcade with Melvin cuz we had some hours to burn before we could check in the hotel.

Then checked into the crown prince hotel. Played in the pool a little, then went to Gurney lane/drive to eat dinner. Another familiar place.

I was set to have the most awesome penang laksa experience so I set out to survey the stalls.

Total 8 stalls selling asam laksa, most of them had diferent colored bowls so it was easy to survey which ones were more popluar, Unfortunately 2 stalls used red bowls so it complicated things a little. Finally I came to the conclusion that the orange, blue and red bowled stalls were the most popular, and people closest to either stall bought the one that was nearer. Hence, no one stall stood out too much, but these 3 were the most popular.

The other food there scared me. Fried kway teow, fried this, fried that, I'm suprised people around there don't drop down by 70 due to coronary heart diseases.

We headed back to another shopping centre. Not sure what that one was called, but they had a toys r us. I tried one of the hoola hoops and hidayah somehow managed to capture a video sequence with her digital camera and proceeded to taunt me endlessly throughout the rest of the day by showing the clip to every single girl in the team.

We headed back to the hotel and had a little suprise birthday celebration for jon and one of the girls.

Then the guys headed over to one of the guys room to "ambush" Jon. Jeremy was dead set to get "sexy nude poses" of Jonathan XD and kept bugging me to bring my digital cam over. Then Jon found out when he caught me behind him putting the camera down to push him in the room and decided to undress himself before we did it for him... then jeremy went trigger happy with the camera and we proceeded to pummel Jon under a blanket. Hui was hilarious. He's so politically correct and just... good and holy type... only took out his slipper and gently thwapped Jonny at intervals during the barrage.

Went to bed and had to beat on Thomas several times to get him to stop snoring in the middle of the night.

The race the next day was pretty awesome. Quite a number of top teams from the inter varsity polytechnic category was there, ntu, ngee ann. And the local teams... pretty impressive. The local buggers don't sit down to row, they squat on their seats, then towards the end they stand up and row. That was pretty cool! I'm inspired to try to squat and row in my t1 now :D

The race took place in a reservoir, near a dam. So that waters are so calm. And when you splash water in the boat and it gets in your eyes or mouth, hell, you can just drink it. Not like the putrid kallang water which will sting your eyes and send you into hypertension if you drink too much of it. The boats are alot lighter too, and so are the paddles. You could twirl one of their paddles easily around with one hand.

I was admiring some of the local teams strokes and was wondering about the concept behind their stroke. Ben came over and explained that some of the local teams brought their own paddles, which are longer than the default ones so that they can squat or stand and row and still catch enough water to pull. They also wear knee guards for their squat/stand strokes. Thats so creative and unorthodoxed :D. I wonder if we can bring our own paddles for local races too.

Talked with Agnes a little after the race. She's cool, and loves water sports alooooooooot. Canoeing, canoe polo, dragonboating, she's doing it all. And she understood my reason for picking up canoeing when she asked why I did it. She recognizes competitive spirit, or the lack of it, and anyone who knows that feeling, that fight or can recognize it in others, is highly respectable in my book.

We headed to grab some dinner, then headed back to the bus and slept the way back to Singapore. Pretty short trip :)