Penang Trip @ USM tournament part 1

Last Friday morning, a day I really couldn't forget. I never expected I was able to wake up by 5 am especially I slept past 12 am midnight. Anyway, 4.53 am I woke up by my watch standard. Boy, I surprised myself because I jump up from my bed, instead of through my alarm clock. Preparation work was done throughly before I went to bed the previous night. By 6:00 am sharp, I left my house from Sg Long and pick up my teammates.

By actual standards, I ain't not supposed to reach Utar PJ campus by 7.30 am, however after some running around and picking up, I was there by then. That was when I realized another driver hasn't arrived, boy that cut my reliefs into half. Before 8:00 am, we left for Penang, heading to "Destination USM". After driving for not too long, we stop by Rawang for our breakfast as most of us came out empty stomach, lol...

Finishing breakfast we continue our journey. Being my first long period driving, I couldn't withstand the aftermath of eating. After less than an hour of driving from Rawang, I have to switch and allow another person to continue driving up Penang. After our short stop, I went into sleeping mode and my friend start catching up with the driving speed of 120 - 130 kph. Luckily Mr Lim doesn't drive too fast. After Ipoh (S) toll, I woke up and we switch again. This time, our stop was rather long. I sped at a speed of 140 - 160 kph, yet it took me longer than Calvin to catch up with Lim's. Sigh!!! However, I was relieved cause I wasn't being ask to stop. Imagine driving faster than most cars along the road yet I wasn't recorded in The Police Force eagle eyes...

Catching up with Lim around the area of Bukit Merah took me around 35 minutes. Not a record being graceful about since I sped at an average speed of 150 kph. Yet it took us less than an hour to reach the exit towards Georgetown, Penang Bridge. Exiting into Penang Bridge saw us take a long turning running towards the toll gate. It took us 45 minutes at least just to cross the toll gate and proceed on the bridge. Well, that was what we least expected since we were running on a tight time schedule. Given a KL boy planning his journey towards Penang, god knows the traffic running into the tiny island would cause us so much chaos.

We were very lucky we finally reach our destination on time, 2 pm sharp. It was Albee, from USM whom I contacted ever since the planning of this trip greeted us with her warm smile. Boy was I relief to seen such a warm welcoming after a tiring journey in the car. Driving 2 hours continuously was quite a harsh period especially I never drove that long before. Couple with a traffic jam before entering Penang Bridge was really devastating. Tell you all a secret, USM got many pretty girls as well, not to mention I haven't seen them all yet, haha(at least their Tae Kwon Do club have many).

Proceeding with player registration, we carry on with trial weight-in, official weight-in, paying registration fees etc. I was supposed to feel happy, but we were told by most of the official there that they doesn't really know the way very well to our accommodation. Gosh, I was feeling devastation in my heart as I hope to settle down my players as it was my responsibility to let them have a comfort zone after a long day. Nevertheless, they were more than willing to help out. They took out Penang map, cellphone and start off their effort of getting information on our accommodation. Luckily we have two Lim's on our team and they all join effort and read the road to YMCA hostel in no time.

After finish unloading our luggage, I quickly rush back to USM for team manager meeting. Even though I was late, but I was running lucky due to technical error as I was able to attend the full meeting. A small meeting on the remaining details and drawing on ballots determine the bout chart for the following days. 1 hours was enough to wrap all these stuff.


That's all for the moment. I am going to make dinner & eat it. Part 2 of Penang Trip @ USM tournament will be uploaded in a day of 2, after I am able to find more time type it out of my brain...