Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Yes I'm alive M. Charly

I was on my way to Penang on the 26th of December when my stepmom's friend called from there. I picked up the call and I thought I heard her wrongly... she said that there'd been a tidal wave in Penang! I didn't want to ask her to repeat it, so I just said okay...

And later we got other calls telling us about it and then we heard about tremors felt back at home. I didn't feel it because the ground was supposed to have shaken at about 9am but I was in church (thank God!) and at about 1pm when the tsunami struck Penang, I was on my way up there.

However, being in Penang wasn't much. It was rather quiet and everyone was going about their normal business. Only the area around Tanjong Tokong was quite destroyed but the authorities had cleared them all up. Didn't manage to get pictures of that. I didn't go up to Batu Ferringhi either... heard it was closed up because there was quite serious damage up there and further up at Balik Pulau. I saw the papers this evening and a bus driver who'd taken his family up to Balik Pulau for a picnic holiday had all 5 of his children killed! And another man lost his wife and 4 children. I just hope their other family members give them the support they need and help lift them out of this sad time.

And in the other countries, accumulated death toll of over 20 000! That's massive! And think of all the families, children and grandparents who've been separated...

We must pray for their souls and for their surviving family members and friends.

Anyway, my family and I were already on our way to Penang so we arrived safely and the Penang Bridge was FINE!! Contrary to some stupid SMS rumour people were spreading around saying they were expecting seismic activity around that area. This country does NOT have seismic activity! The tremors were only from the huge earthquake experienced just off Sumatera. (And by the way, I was just looking at the map and thinking that if Sumatera wasn't where it is, we'd have the same situation as Sri Lanka.)

Oh and tragedy for Phuket Island as well. 40% of their US dollar revenue was from Phuket Island. Now that it's destroyed, what are they going to do? It's all really quite terrible.

Okay okay, back to me :P

I took some pictures of the beach in front of my hotel...





Here's a cool one, showing how people are still brave enough to walk on the edge of the sea.




A study of light as Claude Monet did... the top one was taken in the afternoon, the bottom in the evening. Notice how the afternoon sun is yellower and more orange, while the evening sun is more white and grey. Just a note hehe...





The notice stuck on red and white striped tape to stop people from wandering out to the beach. However, as shown in the first picture, it don't make no difference, mate.



Me, little sis and Dad.




Penang is the Land of the Motorcycles (and most horrendous drivers, I might add). We've coined a slogan for this Pearl of the Orient : "Make your own rules." To be related to driving, riding motorcyles, hawker stalls and just about everything else.




I love taking pictures of motorcyclists. This is a smashing picture I took of this lady while I drove past her. So glad she didn't come and bash me up after glancing in my direction.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jun Yi!
Thank God you're okay! I totally forgot you were going to Penang after Christmas... it's so sad isn't what's happened? We have to keep praying for everyone! And yes, we're so extremely lucky to have Sumatera protect our country...imagine what could've happened if Sumatera wasn't there. Singapore would be underwater. Thanks for the present again :) I haven't worn it yet but I will!
Love, Janice

Anonymous said...

Hey...yeah...good to see you all still with us....dunno if you have been reading my lj but i would do anything to fly over and help. Kinda sad..i was at Penang and Langkawi, september 2003. I plan to go to thailand in march :)

take care sweety
Pocky Man

Anonymous said...

oh...and im also happy the lady on teh bike did not eat you 8S

Pocky!