SSYS Penang 2008 (part 3)

Day 3 in Penang for the SSYS congress.

The whole morning was rather uneventful except for that impending moment of doom when we were to present our projects in front of the entire hall of delegates and judges. Once done, the Q&A session were to commence regarding our projects. Questions were mostly forwarded by various delegates and we had to answer them with utmost confidence and clarity.

A good portion of the morning was spent entirely on the Science category whereas the Mathematics category were to follow soon after during the afternoon (I missed most of them, taking a nap and all).

Indeed, there were some rather fascinating projects that truly benefited mankind's well-being, amongst them were a cure for cancer, flood prevention and a plastic city! Yes, I kid you not! A Plastic City (courtesy of Lee Julin, of course XD)

Ehem...moving on, once the presentations were done and over with, we joined the Filipinos for yet another night out in town. This time, we were headed in the direction of the city centre, or more specifically, Perangin Mall; a shopping complex built adjacent to the KOMTAR tower.

Me and Jonard; one of the Filipino delegates

You'd be surprised at how friendly and courteous the Filipino's are. It was indeed a stark contrast to some of the people we had here in Malaysia.

Upon arrival in Perangin Mall, the clock showed 6 pm and that wasn't much time for us to play or window-shop within the mall. Then again, it was a rather old mall and truth be told, there wasn't much things of interest anyway.

Pay attention to the bottom floor, what do you see?? o.O

With the clock striking 10 pm, we decided it was high time we headed back to our hostel. We didn't want to get abandoned in a shopping mall of all places, ya know.

The dawning of the sun marked the 4th day we were in Penang and today was the deciding moment of it all. The personal evaluation of the judges themselves on our projects and booths. Speaking of the judges, they consisted of a batch of Australians, Japanese and Indonesians.

The waiting room for the involved delegates

With so many booths set up. the judges allocated time slots to the respective booths for their evaluation. We (me and Liew's) were to see the judges at 10.30. Oh my gosh, the wait was an unrelenting torture that pounded with suspense with each and every passing second. The evaluation too, was no different, except for the fact that the judges were nice and all...

Anyhoo, with that aside, we finally settled down with Julin to practice our 'Getaran Jiwa' which was to be presented during the cultural show during the prize-giving ceremonies. XD

Ryner: Wow, you play the violin?
Julin: Yeah. So?
Ryner: You're perfect!!!
Julin: Excuse me?
Ryner: Oh hi, I'm Julin and I'm perfect!
Julin: Ok....swt.....

Getaran Jiwa~~~~~

After an hour of enduring out-of-key singing and horrible debaucheries of P.Ramlee's 'Getaran Jiwa', we headed off for our much-awaited Penang Island Trip. Our large group actually needed 2 buses to accomodate us all. Gwahh!

We sat in the same bus with most of the Singaporeans

Random peektureesss!!

After say, an hour or so of cruising the blue, picturesque coastline of Penang (including a moment of bitter irony when we passed Queensbay Mall), we arrived at our first pit-stop, can't quite remember the name but I'm sure it was Air Hitam.

The bus trip was rather harrowing and a very dizzying experience, so by the time we got off the bus, I was sick to my tummy. Even the tempting prospect of eating Penang laksa at the best place where it was served wasn't helping much either.

Managed to squeeze a shot off with the Vietnamese delegates

The second stop for today was at Air Terjun Titi Kerawang which was indeed a very, very sad excuse for a waterfall. Water wasn't falling, it was more like, dripping.

More peektureesss cuz' Julin asked to..

Then, we headed off to a small little alcove somewhere up on the hills of Penang which I presumed to be the water treatment facility if it weren't for the fact that no water treatment pumps were in sight.

Then again, the place was beautiful and its ephemeral resplendence I captured with my handy-dandy but kanasai camera. (which tends to blur pictures at all the wrong times)

You're more than welcomed to save this as your desktop, you know

Last stop for today, a craft batik shop located right in the very heart of Penang's lavish esplanades itself, Batu Ferringhi. Nothing much to see inside, very boring, very not-so-worth my time there because NO CAMERAS ALLOWED. Mai chicken

Seriously, we only looked at how the batik were pressed and how the designs were incorporated onto the fabric themselves. See, told you it was boring.


And of course, a random picture of one of the many hotels there in Batu Ferringhi. This one's special cuz' it's closed. Why? I asked the construction workers there and they said it was haunted. Wowza!!

Looks can be deceiving. It's haunted!!!

And that concludes this post for today. Next up, Penang's almighty, majestic hawker cuisine!!!

Sorry if this post seemed a bit rushed. I'm typing it out at midnight when I'm supposed to have classes in school the next morning!

Till then, toodles!