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We have actually been to Redang island for a couple of times through out last few years and this time we went back to a same place again, but that was for the Musical Beach Party! I have been dreaming about this party for long, a couple of weeks maybe and got really excited thinking about the whole event as how it will be carried out. I love music, to be specific I love live music. So when I seen those music party on TV, there I saw lots of people gathering around for such an event and then I wish so much that I could have one in Malaysia too. And this year - 2009, I was so lucky to be invited by one of Elaine's friends to this party - Borderless Musical Beach Party 2009. The party was carried out over the weekend from 31/07 - 02/08 for 3 days and 2 nights at Redang Pelangi Resort.

As we learned from our past experiences, to make a night drive to the jetty which was located at Merang (a small town around 25 km away from Kuala Terengganu) is very tiring. We would normally ended up having nausea during boat transfer to the island and wasted our first day on the bed for some rest. So for this round, we decided to arrive at Kuala Terengganu one day earlier and spend a night there (to get enough rest) before heading to Merang Jetty the next morning.


Such a long long drive, approximately 400+ km.


Some of the pictures that we took during our evening walk at Kuala Terengganu.








On 31/07 morning, we woke up as early as 5am and packed up before leaving to Merang jetty. So we arrived there around 6:40am in the morning and I think we were among the earliest to reach there. While waiting for other's to arrive, we walked around the jetty snapping photos.




After a while, we were so sleepy and decided to take our breakfast in one of the shops there.


Sun rises up and slowly one by one, buses loaded full with party comers were arriving. Due the the high number of participants, we waited so long for everyone to arrive and depart together to Redang Island on several boats.




We were dropped off from the boat at the jetty in front of our resort - Redang Pelangi Resort.





After briefing and room keys distribution, we went backed to our room to unpack our luggages. After lunch, the organizers gathered the music party's performers and started their rehearsal to test on the sound systems and musical instruments settings. Elaine and I were taking time off without joining the rest of the non-performers for snorkelling trip. Instead, we were sitting right next to the stage, taking rest, enjoying music and the beautiful beach of Redang.


ManHand...






We took some group photos (together with all the participants) before dinner right in front of the stage.






After dinner, the first day of the party was started! So with some drinks, me and Elaine looked for a comfortable place on the beach to sit down and enjoy the music! Oh gosh, I don't know how to describe all these... The overall atmosphere went so high, the music was like flowing with my blood right into my heart... superb!





The party carried on till after mid night. As we planned to go for the morning snorkeling trip to Marine Park, so we went for bed around 12 am. It was a good night sleep, guess both of us were too tired.

The next morning, we woke up early and went for breakfast and get ourselves ready for the marine park snorkeling trip. Nothing special at the marine park though, in fact it was getting worse than our last 2 visits. Corals were dead, not so many fishes around and it was just too crowded at the park on that morning. It was like every few move in the water then you will kick or claw on somebody. So no luck though for us to see the beautiful corals. We ended up backed on beach early and sitting there enjoying the wind from sea. As someone within our group was not punctual when we were leaving, we ended up late for lunch backed at resort. Anyway, not really in a mood to complain about him. His ignorance or I don't know if that should be describe as "big ass" face made everyone on the boat waited for him so long and not even a single apology from him.

After lunch, we were sitting right at the corner of the juice bar to enjoy music being played by performers as they were doing some rehearsal there.












We were not in a mood to go for afternoon snorkel trip as we both thought that nothing much left to see as most of the corals closed to shore were dead. So we went to the other side of the beach - somewhere near the Redang Beach resort to take a short afternoon nap. Wow, that made me feel so good! Imagine by hiding yourself under the shades of palm trees, lying on the powdery sand beach and enjoying the soft wind blowing from the sea - awesome!




In the evening, we just snorkel around the reef closed to shore. After we got tired with the swim at the sea, we tried playing another game which is to build a sand turtle :p. Lol, guess what? The turtle that we made was not really look like a turtle but more like a turtle+dragon. Strange right? Anyway, those were for fun and not really making something of an artistic work. At least we enjoyed it as I realized that during our past visit to beach, we had never tried building any thing with sand.



The night did not come in a good weather. It started to rain after 7pm and carried on until 9pm. I was really impressed by the commitment of the organizers as well as those music performers as they were so dedicated for the event and even continue to perform under the heavy rain. Until a point that when the rain got too heavy, they stopped the music and started to move everything indoor at the juice bar. As soon as they got their settings right, they continued to rock everyone of us.







Although the place got too crowded after a while as it was not meant to accommodate so many people. But that did not affect everyone of us and music continues. We saw a lot of the party comers were standing on the chair, let their bodies move together with the music and that really made the night rocks. The party ended around 1am in the morning and many of them still continue to have after paty events until morning. Elaine and I went to bed when the music stopped as we were too tired and really needed some rest.

The next morning, we set our alarm to 6:20am to wake us up to catch the sun rise view at Redang. So we woke up early and headed to the beach to catch a perfect spot to snap a few pictures when sun rises up from the sea line.




To my surprise, a lot of the people did not sleep after last night's party and were sitting at the beach waiting too. While, that was so amazing. They were too energetic! Anyway, we waited till 7:15am in the morning for the sun to fully rise up to the sky and then we headed back to canteen for breakfast. After that we got ourselves cleaned up and packed up to get ready for leaving.

By 10:15am, we were on a speed boat on our way back to Merang jetty. After a bumpy ride, we arrived at the jetty and after waving good bye to the group, we get on our car and drove all the way back to Kuala Lumpur... Argh, another very long journey backed to KL.

Well, that marks an end to the Beach party event but I can still hear the music in my ears every time when I am thinking about last few days. I love music, from my heart. And I know I wanted to learn music when I was young. I should not have gave up on learning to play good music and I know now I have all the reasons for me to pick my guitar up again :). Let music rocks my life!