Penang International Dragon Boat Festival 2008

The weather the last few days and most of the week was pretty hot in Penang. A good thing too - cause if not, then I would have missed watching the Dragon Boat race, which was held at the Teluk Bahang Dam.

To be exact, this was the 6th Club Crew World Championships & 8th ADBF Asian Dragon Boat Championships - and some 500+ teams competed in the four day championship. I went on the third day, a Saturday, since weekends are the only time I can take time off during the day ;p

Some of my friends and I headed off from Bayan Baru area to the dam around 11am - we started pretty late cause most of us were just too lazy to get up on a Saturday morning. Can't blame us, right?

OK, anyway, by the time we reached, the sun was already blazing hot. But thanks to strong winds, temperature wise it wasn't too bad - getting a little bit darker isn't a problem for guys ;p

As it was already the third day, the competition was in full swing and I didn't want to wait till I walk all the way across the dam to snap pictures. So I simply "zoomed across" and quickly snapped some early pics. Given, that at full stretch, the pics weren't superb, but it was good enough for me see what was going on. The above pics show competitors waiting at the starting line

There was a huge crowd, which was both spectators and competitors. Plenty of colours too and they stood out from far across the dam! We saw a bunch of pink...

Blue...red...orange...making it a colourful crowd indeed!

Here is a shot on the boats paddling furiously on the start.

At the end of the race. Everyone looked tired. Well, these were not the eventual winners, so I guess it explains the not-so-energetic look ;p

More pictures from after a race.

And here is a shot of a guy going closer than anyone of us just to get a good angle of the race :)

While walking around the stalls, Cat had the opportunity to take some pictures with the Iranian ladies! Not sure if they were competitors or was just there to support their fellow countrymen.

And they did win one of the events :D Not sure which one though cause I didn't really follow - was there to just snap and snap and snap pictures ;p

From Down Under :)

From Canada!

Not sure if they were local ;p

And lastly, here is a shot of a team getting warmed up for the next event. We were heading off then - stomach getting hungry and the sun was getting too hot for comfort.

While we were there only for a short while, it was a great experience for me, considering that was the first time I went to any boat race ;p