Day At The Beach

Time for a wordy post. I don't know how long this post will be, but all I know is, I feel like ditching my Statics book aside, because I don't understand the problems and I don't feel like solving them. And, I can always research the Bay of Pigs later in the evening. Solved.

Anyways, I finally managed to go to the beach when the sun was at its best and when the skies were as blue as blue could get.And, I also managed to catch a movie while I was at it. Body of Lies, I don't know if it is screening in Malaysia, but if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend that you watch it. The plot is good and the acting even better.

How did we get there? Well, we cycled all the way from campus to the beach. Since I didn't have a bike, I borrowed Deep's. He was kind enough to let me use it, considering the fact that I had not used one in years. The bike ride from campus took about 40 minutes. And in that 40 minutes, I learnt quite abit about American drivers and the way the entire system operates. Generally, I was impressed with th way they respected pedestrians an cyclists. Some even offered us the right of way even though the green light shone for them. Of course, keeping our senses, Isaac, Nickie and myself chose not to accept their offers. We chose instead to stay by the road and to wait our turn to cross. Some things are just more important than catching a movie or going to the beach. However, I don't believe that I can say the same for my roommate and Ganesh. The way I saw it, they were as good as having a death wish. The amount of red traffic lights they beat, the way they sprinted across traffic, I really don't know how they have not landed in hospital or how I am not on the phone to give some bad news to their parents. I don't mean to be mean but, that is the way it was.

But apart from that, the cycling was rather interesting. We cycled past the street where they were having the Biketober fest. The biketober fest is where bikers, like the ones you see in the movies gather at Daytona Beach, park their choppers by the side of the streets and drink like there is no tomorrow. If you think that this is some sort of tourist attraction, like I thought before this, don't. Unless you look, walk, talk, act and drink like a biker, I highly suggest that you avoid places like these. I'll explain why later. But seriously, the amount of heavily tattooed bikers in leather jackets was mind boggling. Then we cycled past a few beach front hotels before we got to Ocean Walk. Ocean walk is a building facing the beach, joined to the hip of a few hotels. In it there are plenty of surf and beach shoppes, restaurants and a cinema.

Once we got there, we parked or bikes by the side of the road and secured them to a metal bench right under what looked like a palm tree. All in all, our bike ride took us about 40 minutes and by that time, my legs were already half dead. But thankfully, the cure lied just beyond the entrance to Ocean walk. The beach. But before I go on, one fact about the beaches at Daytona Beach. We rank second in the amount of shark attacks per year. Cheers!

We then went to buy tickets to our movies. But upon getting there, about 5 minutes before the movie started, the attendants told us that the movie were for those 21 and above and they didn't accept our student ID's. Apparently, it was because it didn't contain our date of births. However, we kept negotiating until they said that they had made a mistake and that the movie was for those aged 17 and above and we had to show them our Malaysian IC's before they let us in. But the downside was we missed the beginning of the movie and had to settle for the 7.40pm time slot, which was fine by me because, I had other plans. I had my K200D and my Tamron 70-300 with me!

I managed to take some good pictures of the beach side. Surprisingly, my camera wasn't having its mood swing and I managed to get some decent shots. I'll post them over facebook. Apparently, I've already used up 15 percent of my blogger capability. I didn't know that existed until just now.

After taking some pictures, I took my shoes off and took a walk down the beach. Like I said before, the beach itself wasn't that beautiful. But what made it interesting was the atmosphere that surrounded it. It was somewhat like a carnival with shoppes lined up, people walking around, and surfers plying their trade. But if you are expecting me to speak about ladies in skimpy attire, don't bother. There weren't much. I think I only saw two or three out of the many who were there.

I then sat by one of the beach chairs to absorb the sounds of the crashing waves. By that time, the sun was coming down and there were not as many people on the beach. It was very windy as well. That coupled with the sound of birds had a real calming effect. It was like this moment of peace where nothing else really mattered. It was just you, the beach and your senses. Everything else was just an ambient sound meant to enhance your experience and I enjoyed it.

After some time, the guys came around and we went for dinner. After dinner, we went to watch the movie and like I said earlier, the movie is a very good movie. It had a very powerful message and it served to poke fun at the American people for their lack of knowledge about the world beyond their borders and their lack of knowledge on other cultures and how to deal with them. Allow me to tell you what I read over CNN. One citizen said that she would not trust Obama because he was an Arab. I rest my case.

The difference between the cinema here and the ones we have back home is that, the ones back home look more polished and new. The ones here don't look impressive and the sound system can't compete with the ones back home. However, I liked the seats. They were spacious and they could be reclined.The popcorn was not too bad as well. I had mine with butter.

After the movie, we went down to get our bicycles. But when we got there, we found bird droppings on both mine and Nickie's bike. The ones on mine weren't much but Nickie, was unfortunate in a sense that he sat on top of them without knowing it.

Oh, when we were cycling back, we passed through the street which had the Biketober fest. When were passing by, we saw heaps of drunk bikers. All of them behaving like small kids and for once, I got slightly nervous. Some of them started taunting us and my worst fear was that drunk people don't often know what they are doing and when surrounded by so many like minded people who are drunk and would do just about anything to get laid... you get the picture. But the good thing was nothing untoward happened and we managed to get home safely. The bike ride home seemed a whole lot faster though, event though I took it slow. But that ride home showed me quite a bit on how I should not behave as a friend. Where I came from, I was taught that friends look out for one another and not behave selfishly. At least I'm glad that I've got one guy whom I can trust and rely on over here.

After we got home, I got something to eat and we went to Bryan's room to watch the Fuji Grand Prix at around 12.30 am. And the grand prix itself was both good and bad. If only Hamilton and Heikkihad not tried to win the race on the first lap, Kimi would have won. But anyways, that's all for now I guess.