Just being me.

Of beer, long flights of stairs and old men

Haha...funny title huh? I must say, the trip was quite enjoyable lah. Albeit the little hiccups like asking the sailors to pay for boat charter when it was initially considered to be free... and my first time in a protest room. Right...maybe I should just start off by blogging about the highs of the trip first.

There were about 8 race officers and 3 other officials from Singapore who were invited to help organise and manage the races. You could say we were treated quite well there as we were seen to be experienced and it was a learning experience for the officials from Indonesia sailing federation. So everything was taken care of, from the accomodation to the food and the allowance we got for 3 days of work done. I must say that we were well taken care of lah. Furthermore, the committee boat was a navy patrol boat which kept us really dry, unlike the dynaglass boats we use in S'pore. Haha... so that was a plus. And I did not have to lift a finger to pull up marks or drop anchor as we had the navy guys to do those tasks. Haha, I was just in charge of recording. That's all. :) By the way, this regatta was organised by the navy so that was why we could make use of their resources.

The comapny was also great. We were given one "house", 2 storeys, 2 rooms upstairs and 1 room downstairs. Being a lady also has its privileges. There were 2 of us, so we were given the priority to pick the rooms of our choice. So we chose the biggest room. Wahaha...so spacious and we had a bathtub too. :) Oh well...we had a great diversity of characters living together so it was a lot of fun. Of course with Uncle George, its hilarious! Lol. For the first time, I drank the most beer in one night. One and a half cans...and we had a great time just listening to his stories...most of which I had heard before. Lots of jokes and laughter too. It was damn funny lah...listening to Huzaini spout nonsense when he's stoned. Wed night we had seafood which cost only about 13 bucks per pax!!! It was freaking cheap! And the crab was marvellicious! So the reggatta ended with a closing ceremony where there was good food, long speeches and surprising finds! The race officials could sing particularly well! Especially the Indonesian people.

It was quite a good experience on the whole. I had lots of fun, was exposed to a different way of conducting races over in Batam, and met many interesting charcters. Learnt a lot from the old hands too. But the long flights of steps back to the chalet was a killer. Can you imagine, walking up a long flight of stairs at night, with almost no lighting, on a full stomach? Wow. That was... exhausting. It was no joke man. Well, I'm sure that there will be more like this to come. I think I'm going for a nap now.... feeling tired. Ciaoz.

posted by ah choy @ 2:17 PM