Expect the Unexpected - 21 Aug 2012

When things didn't turn out like we expected......

 We've a week school-term break that overlapped with Hari Raya celebration. We thought of going to Malacca for an overnight camp - quite last minute, without any booking. We got stuck in a horrible jam, instead of wasting time on the road, we turned back home. We thought of catching a movie - but we couldn't find any that's worth watching. Then, we decided to go ahead with our plan to camp, but at home instead. 
BBQ fun at home with our roasted potatoes and burgers. Everyone chipped in to help and soon we had a fire going.

Our own makeshift rubbish dump!
A first class air-conditioned camp at home and the children slept soundly until the next morning! We thought of setting the tent outside but it rained heavily after dinner and the children backed out.

The next day, we tried again to go to Malacca, at least for a day trip. Traffic was better, but still a lot of cars.  We arrived quite late and set to find the submarine site which was opened to public end of 2011. It was located at Dataran 1Malaysia, Pantai Klebang. We came to this sandy reclaimed area, road was bumpy and there’s nothing much in this place except the submarine on display. This was the decommissioned Augusta 70 class submarine named SMD Quessant. It's an electric-diesel warship made in France.
The submarine was really very very long - about 220 feet! Too bad we could not go inside the submarine.

Going from one place to another in Malacca took like forever. Finally, we came to Pantai Kemunting, a more laid-back beach which is next to the famous Pantai Tg Bidara. There's supposed to be a turtle sanctuary nearby but it was closed! We found a nice sandy beach that's not so crowded and spent the rest of the afternoon there. What we've learnt was that it's different camping on a beach, because the sand kept coming into the tent, the food, and everywhere. And the wind was strong too.

Boys were excited to see this man's attempt to set up his paramotor. It's supposed to be the simplest way of motorized ultralight flying. With a paramotor, he could take-off from a flat area and fly for hours. Well, things didn't always turn out the way you expected..... After many attempts, he still couldn't fly! 

On the way back, we planned to go to Seremban for dinner to avoid the crowd in Malacca.... and it turned out quite differently - again. After our exit from Malacca, the traffic was at a standstill. Boys were starving and we're snapping at one another. We saw the one and only petrol stopover to relieve ourselves. Couldn't believe it - they ran out of food in the kiosk, and no bread or buns! We have to settle with Hot Cup instant noodle - the boys were thrilled. Then we turned an almost unpleasant evening into something special. We took our own food from the car and made our own tuna sandwich with chips and jelly for dessert, and own paper plates and cutlery! We've such an enjoyable time trying to find a solution for dinner that we forgot about our situation.

Picnic in the petrol station! Indeed all things work together for good, even in the unexpected.




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