A simple thought is all that was needed to manifest it to a great camping trip. The preparation wasn’t much but what came out of it was fantastic food and nice bonding among close friends – something we rarely had the opportunity to do and probably would be the last one this time.

We departed on Monday afternoon rather late, near 3pm but nevertheless, we left with high spirit, looking forward toward a nice camping. We talked and laughed all the way to Lumut in Chung Ginn’s van. The weather was just perfect, and 6 of us is just the right manpower to carry all our stuff to the beach.

Jim, Teik, Kelvin, Shean Chuan, Chung Ginn and Jesse had loads to carry, but the heavy stuff were none my responsibility. Whuahaha. The ferry (RM 10 for two ways) arrived at 5.10pm and shipped us to the island.

Once there, we took a taxi (RM 15) to Teluk Nipah, our camp site. It was a public beach so we’re allowed to do pretty much anything we want. We owned it!

When we stepped our feet at the beach, the sun was already setting. So much for watching the sun set. A monkey must have felt our disappointment, hence decided to entertain us by peeing at our stuff we set on the ground. Luckily not all our stuff were rained by urine, only Chung Ginn’s sack that he use to put the tent materials. Huhu~~

The troublemaker, and his looming friends made us realised we were not alone after all. There were cats, dogs, and hornbills, and god knows what else on the island. So before it gets any darker, we quickly set up the tent, and the BBQ pit.

At first we wanted to set it at the front of the beach for nicer view but due to strong winds we changed location – behind a beach stand to guard against the wind. In the midst of setting up the tent in the strong wind, we totally overlooked the dump located only about 10 metres away. Thinking that dump looked harmless compared to our primate friends, we let our tent be as where it was.

Alas, just as we thought the slight rain would get heavier and ruin our BBQ camping, it miraculously stopped and the sun came out to greet us. It was a golden moment as we basked under the sunset and enjoyed its glory for a while before getting back to BBQuing our food while there was light.

Our chicken wings BBQed to perfection. But some were not so fortunate and fell onto the sand. Sad case, but we still had plenty of food for the night.

At one point, right after we had done with BBQ, we saw a living carcass lying on the beach. He must have been washed ashore from the nearby island. Poor stranger but luckily he still had his shorts on, or otherwise, his wee wee would have been gobbled up by the fishes.

Since he was alive, we invited him to join us for dinner, which he happily did so. We started a little fire by the side to give us some illumination at night, but it was still a little tad too dark. We had to rely on  torchlight to help us see what we were eating.

The food was the best of all BBQ I’ve eaten so far. The chicken and char siu pork was superb. Salad and potato salad were also very nice and fresh. Even the tuna+telur cair turned out to be quite tasty. We also had bread, and hotdog with char siu and honey sauce. We even managed to keep the drinks cool in the ice box that we brought along. Wonderful! We were full for dinner and kept some for supper.

Later that night, a couple of caucasian came over and asked Kelvin whether we had weed. He was confused as to what weed was. Luckily they didn’t ask for grass, or otherwise Kelvin would have offered them our lemon grass. Haha… And no, we didn’t have any weed, and they left.

With our belly full, we proceeded down the beach and chilled out. We lied down, and dug our feet into the cold sand, and listened to waves breaking, and moon and stars staring us down. It was pretty romantic if you have to ask. What was better was the stories that we shared.

For supper we had the leftover food and the best of all – banana rolled with ham (suppose to be bacon but we bought wrongly =P)  and BBQ with generous squeeze of honey! Whoaa..delicious like crap man.

That night, the stench from the rubbish dump was getting a little too uncomfortable for us. How wrong were we to think that it was harmless. So we moved our tent to the original place chosen – that is nearer to the beach. We all slept through the night, safely, although uncomfortably. Well at least for me, because I’m not used to sleeping on sandy ground (who is anyway?)

I woke up early the next day to be greeted by Jesse. He said he can’t sleep anymore and took a walk around the beach. I joined him and took some photos until the rest woke up. We all walked the beach a little more and then packed.

Dinosaur running on the beach

I think the most difficult part of camping was finding clean water, for drinking and washing. We were fortunate that the cafe by the beach nearby was willing to let us fill our empty bottles with water without charge. We used that for washing but no enough for bathing. We didn’t bathe the night before. But we didn’t smell either, or perhaps we were all smelly but didn’t realise. So the next mission was to find a place to bathe.

After packing, we walked further down to find a washroom, but couldn’t find one (yes we pee on the trees and the sand and the sea all these while).  We had to find amongst the resorts nearby. After much searching, there’s one, also generously let us use the shower for free!

The shower is of course located outside, open air for all macho macho guys to bathe. Since I’m no He-Man, I rather stand behind the camera with Dinosaur.

Here we are. Dedicated to Wong Ning just to make you jealous… hmmm~~~

Refreshed, and cleaned, we took taxi back to the jeti and boarded a ferry to Lumut. We were a bit exhausted (just a bit) but glad that we had successfully camped and enjoyed ourselves.

The whole trip including food and transportation cost us just near RM 50 per person. For a happy trip like this, I consider it as priceless!

Thanks Ginn, Jim, Kelvin, Jesse and Shean Chuan for everything. Also thank my mum and sister who have helped in food preparation.