Project: Watermelon

Sailor Boy: Can you get me a present for Alex? I pay you when I get back.

Me: We are buying him an SD card liao. Never mind la. When you come back, buy him dinner.

Sailor Boy: Okay. I thought of getting him a watermelon.

Me: Oh!! Ha ha. I have boxes. Ha ha. Ok. I will buy and wrap up nicely. Lol!

Sailor Boy: Thanks a lot. I will pay you when I get back.

Me: Yellow or red?

Sailor Boy: Colors don’t matter. Bigger the better.

So, this morning, I went to shop for the biggest watermelon.

Final touches on the watermelon.

Sis helped to wrap it up nicely.

Happy Birthday, Alex! May your years be filled with much love and happiness.

Love of Literature

Thanks to CC for this meme. I need a break from my routine bitching session!

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
I was quite a lazy child. I spent most of my time playing in the sun when I was little. I think I didn’t really read much (till much later at age 10) except memorizing Bible verses being taught in Sunday School where my mom forced every child in my family to attend to improve our English! Haha! But I remember instead of the toy section, my mom would leave me at the book section in the supermarket while she did her marketing. Yes. In those days the security was THAT great!

What are some books you read as a child?
I read mainly Malay books when I was a child and not English. My command in English was quite bad then. I love the Malay language. My mom spoiled me rotten whenever I requested to buy books from the school program at a fraction of a price. (I think it was about RM1.90 per book only!) I seized the opportunity and read every single book from Alfred Hitchcock (The Alfred Hitchcock series), Enid Blyton (Famous Five – I love Georgina!) and Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys) in Malay! My top favorite is a collection of folklores from Asean countries. I remember buying 6 books (8 short stories per book) and finished reading them in two days! Proud to say my mom’s contribution and my zealousness for the Malay language paid off when I scored distinctions in both SRP and SPM. Chewah!

What is your favourite genre?
It has to be mixture of literature, fiction, biography and comedy. I am always intrigued by how an ordinary individual can do extraordinary things. People in the likes of Mahatma Ghandi, Fidel Castro, Princess Diana, Francis Coppola, etc fascinate me. Also human struggles and sufferings of great magnitude, for instance, Dr. Haing S Ngor, in the Survival in the Killing Fields. I prefer reading Asian literature. And I am with CC. I am one of the very rare breed of people who don’t fancy reading Harry Potter and don’t give a rat ass about the big hoo hah over the book! I fell asleep even before finishing the last sentence on the first page. The movie is okay though.

Do you have a favourite novel?
If I have to choose only one, it has to be the Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. I’ve been Murakamized after that! And amongst others – A Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan, Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding, the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, Farewell to my Concubine by Lillian Lee and Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

Where do you usually read?
When I was a child, I used to read in the toilet. Haha! Or lying on the floor in the living room with half my body tugged under the wooden couch with cushions, where the floor was cold. As I got older, when I was still taking the public transport – I read on the bus. Now, I read when I am traveling or on my bed .

When do you usually read?
Only when I am in the mood.. and usually, moments before I go to sleep.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Yes…. that is a bad habit. If the book is boring, I would switch books then go back to the same book again. I would try to finish what I started. But then nowadays, my bad habits seem to get better hold of me. Sigh.

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
I tend to get very serious and emotional when I read non fiction. Haha!

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
I bought most of the books I own now. Most friends know I love books, so they sometimes buy for me! Yay! A friend, Kat, usually would chuck me whatever she has read to me. I don’t know why but I cannot read e-books. Prefer them in hard copies, with cover and the mildew smell of the low quality paper!

Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them?
Yes. I think todate, I have about 400 books stacking at every corner of my house much to the chagrin of my aunt! I still have some of the books I read when I was a child!

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
This is a bloody tricky question. For now, I would like Sasha and Lok Lok to read the Asean folklore that I loved so much. Even till today.

What are you reading now?
I am hit by the lazy bug now. So, I am reading books with lots of pictures! Haha! I recently bought a few series on history of the world in pictures. And I am also reading Paulo Coelho’s the Witch of Portobello.

Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
I have a list in facebook but I never follow! I read as and when I feel like reading.

What’s next?
I think I will try reading the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I can’t seem to get pass the first chapter. It’s quite mind boggling. I am waiting for Khaled Hosseni’s A Thousand Splendid Suns as Christmas gift. *Hint hint*

What books would you like to reread?
When I get my Norwegian Wood (by Haruki Murakami) back from Sailor Boy, I would like to re-read that! And Love in the time of Cholera (by Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

Who are your favourite authors?
“I’ve been Murakamized” says it all! Haha! I am also a fan of Paulo Coelho (reading almost his entire collection!) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (top favorite – Love in the Time of Cholera).

I know only a few people who read and tag Zing (fantasy!), Mr Fat Dragon (or should we call him Slim Dragon now?), Mrs Short Horse (My English Teacher!), Lil Ms Pinky and The Hermit (it’s about time for her to start blogging again!).

Good and Bad Neighbors

I have pretty decent neighbors. I have been living in the same house since I moved to Kuala Lumpur 18 years ago. The old petite Indian lady at the back of my house cooks really fantastic curries and we get to eat every Deepavali and on occasional days. The Malay neighbor on their right is also nice. We exchange goodies during festive seasons. Mandarin oranges and kuih bakul on Chinese New Year; cookies, ketupat and rendang on Hari Raya; kick-ass Indian curries and murukkus on Deepavali. They watch our house when my family goes back to Taiping every festive season. What more could you ask for?

Stories were a little different concerning the Chinese neighbors though. We have changed a few neighbors till now, the current neighbor has been with us the past 5 or 6 years.

The previous neighbor was really a pain in the ass. He would scream loudly at his children or had huge arguments with the wife. Apparently, this prick had an affair outside and the wife found out and asked for divorce. They ended divorced and moved out. There was a tree in front of his house ripe with mangoes. Since they were moving away in haste and didn’t manage to pluck the mangoes, my mom was courteous enough to ask if she could have some. Guess what did the neighbor do?

Upon hearing this, he poured an entire bottle of paraquat on the tree killing it instantly. Well, I hope his dick shriveled up like the poisoned mangoes on the tree and couldn’t get an erection as long as he lives.

After that dickhead left, there was a group of very young girls living in the house. My mom called them the vampires because they slept in the afternoon and then went out late at night till wee hours in the morning. I saw them before in the middle of the night after late night party. As I was getting into my house, I saw the girls wear really skimpy clothes and puffing away. I didn’t want to judge them but from the way they are behaving, they look like prostitutes.

My mom complained that in the afternoon, sometimes, they would play music so damn loud – and worse, they even played music of people moaning and groaning having sex.

Thank goodness they only live there temporarily for a few months and moved out, till we have the current left neighbor.

The neighbor on my left hand side could be quite annoying at times. Sometimes, they like to park indiscriminately in front of my house. When I was working in KL, I had to force myself to ring their door bell at 6.45 am to ask them to move their car in order for me to I reverse mine. Sometimes you could hear weird noises from their house at wee hours in the morning – like someone using a lesung to make sambal belacan at 3 am and once, as I was still online till wee hours in the morning, I heard them using a power hammer. WAH LAO EH! Who on earth would do such things at 2 in the morning???

It was a lucky thing that the sounds went off 15 minutes after that. Or else, I would have a word with the grandmother in the morning. (The grandmother is the “chief” in the house and would tell them off if they irk us, the neighbors! Hehe!)

Apart from these, they are pretty much amicable neighbor. The big family always gives us fish as they are fish sellers, and in return, we would give them chicken or vegetables.

The neighbor on the right is another story altogether. I haven’t met such selfish people before in my entire life.

Some years ago, during one night on New Year’s Eve, my uncle accidentally drove my dad’s car into the ditch. My family went out to help to try to move the car out from the ditch. Since it’s a small old Toyota Corolla, I think if there were two more persons, we would be able to move the car out from the ditch. This neighbor came out to check what the commotion was all about. Instead of lending his hand, he stood there, with his arms crossed behind his back and watched us.

I asked if he could help. He stared at me as if I were speaking Greek. After trying to get it out and couldn’t, we decide to call for a tow truck. The selfish bastard was still standing there with his arms crossed behind his back and watching us helpless with the car in the ditch. Utterly pissed, I couldn’t refrain myself from telling him off – asking him to get lost if he doesn’t want to help. I think he’s probably deaf or retarded. He still stood there and stared at us.

Recently, the Mechanic parked his car at the back lane of this neighbor’s house. Since, it’s a back lane belonging to two neighbors with their backyard facing each other (one is the moron’s and the other is an empty house), I am pretty sure that back lane belongs to no one. The asshole actually let the air out from one of the tyres of Mechanic’s Volvo. If he doesn’t like us parking behind his house, he should have let us know. Further, the Mechanic took great pains to park his car very near the ditch in order not to take up too much space at the back lane. And, he only parks his car perhaps, 4-5x per month as sometimes, he would come in his motorbike.

We don’t even make noise when he took his small little dog out and take a dump at our backyard and now, he’s doing this to us. Fucking morons! (Imagine.. a balding man in his 40s having Paris Hilton’s small puppy as pet! What a pussy!)

Well, I think everyone has a fair share of moronic neighbors but I guess mine is still tolerable. I think I should pay more attention to the nice neighbors I have and ignore this prick. I wonder where do they sell their bak kut teh. With this kind of attitude, I don’t think they could have good business.

I hope that these morons would one day beg for help and till then, we will see who would lend a hand in times of their needs after all these years of being selfish bastards. Probably I would knock myself out, putting my arms behind my back like he did and put up the widest grin on my face as he mutters profanity for not giving him any assistance. Oh boy! Revenge is sweet! (Dreaming only lah!) Or better still, please move far far away from us.

Sleep Over

I thought of penning something down regarding the pajamas party last Saturday night. As we are all grown adults, we don’t really wear pajamas, discuss boys and probably steal a smoke or two or do some illegal drinking.

All we did was had a nice home cooked dinner of curry noodles and pastries, brief chat and watched some TVB series on Wah Lai Toi before watching DVDs back to back till wee hours in the morning. No alcohol was involved. Wah.. I am surprised!

We gave priority to Sex & the City as some of us have heard rave reviews about it. I didn’t catch it in the local cinema. It doesn’t make sense to watch Sex & the City in local cinema with all the censorship. A total waste of RM10 if you ask me. It doesn’t make sense to have sex scenes eliminated from the movie – especially when Samantha Jones is it!

The movie started with the usual familiar catchy theme song from the HBO series which fans waited every week in front of the tv for another 30 minutes of sheer entertainment. Datin even had this ringing tone back then. Now, Datin said, it’s a bit outdated to use SATC tone for the handphone!

Now come to think about it, I don’t remember the opening scene of the movie. It was that forgettable. What I could remember were vague memories of Carrie Bradshaw trying on the white Vivienne Westwood dress for her high profile wedding, Carrie wearing a curtain, Miranda Hobbes’ untrimmed bush, Charlotte York’s disgustingly almost perfect image and of course, the ever entertaining Samantha Jones.

Initially, I wanted to go into some details of the characters in the movie but decided against it since there was nothing….. absolutely nothing new about the four characters even after 4 years of hiatus. Selfish Carrie with her overly zealousness to look for the “true love”, Miranda and her up tightness and her over controlling manner of her career and family life, Samantha trying too hard to be faithful and Charlotte with her perfect, almost immaculate image which made me sick. Mr Big is no longer as suave as he was in the series. Steve looked old and haggard, and sadly so was Smith Jarod.

One new thing though, we found out what Mr Big’s real name was: John James Preston.

An hour into the show, all of us were looking at each other and felt that the movie is a bit too draggy and long. The director should have left the series at its glorious exit in 2004 and leave it at there.

It was a super sien movie.

Next, we caught a Thai horror flick – Art of the Devil 2. Since ML and I were very afraid to watch horror movie, we decided to watch it with half of our eyes closed. It was not that bad actually. Both Datin and I enjoyed the plot very much. We find the plot is even better compared to SATC! The other two girls fell asleep 15 minutes to the movie while Datin, ML and I persevered to watch some disgusting scenes of people being BBQ and eaten alive!

We woke up late in the morning and had brunch, continued to watch some local productions. Waiting for Love by James Lee. Perhaps we are not the arty farty type.. so this movie did not gel well with us. James Lee happened to be Datin’s schoolmate back in secondary school and, James Lee did not leave a good impression of himself. But Datin said, he has grown to be a real macho man now!

I fell asleep half way through an Autumn in New York starred Richard Gere and the shoplifter Winona Ryder.

It was a good weekend – food, friends, conversations, endless DVDs and sleeping like pigs. Looking forward to more of these soon.

Thanks Datin for the good times.

Things To Be Happy About

Today, when I finally managed to call through RHB Bank’s customer service line to enquire about the release letter for my car, I was ecstatic! God knows how long I have been trying to call the damn number to ask about my release letter! For those who are taking car loan, I don’t recommend RHB Bank! Their customer service is indeed shit!

Anyway, I was in a rather jovial mood for the past few weeks. Hoping to continue to bask in this good mood! (Too bad dad’s car got stolen, though) I am going to list here in no particular order on what makes me happy.

1. I finished my bank installment last month and collecting my release letter this month! Yay to finally settling a 5-year debt!
2. A dear friend found a job after many months of agony. I hope the new job would bring him much joy and contentment!
3. Anwar was granted bail – which came as a big surprise! And hopefully, he would safely contest this coming 26th August. Will continue to pray for him.. even if it means I am going to contradict myself being an atheist!
4. The Australian dollar is depreciating against Ringgit! So, you could have guessed by now where is my next holiday destination.
5. I am expecting a big cheque end of this month after five years of painstakingly saving for it.
6. It rained finally after a few days of scorching hot weather. I silently prayed before I sleep for rain.. and indeed, it rained after that! What miracle!
7. I got my family our first microwave for free! Redeeming it using my Maybank credit card points.
8. A friend returning from Japan bought me lotsa goodies. *Thanks* <3
9. We are getting an old second hand Datsun for dad. It sure perks up his mood today.
10. As I am typing this, I am eating cempedak goreng. I have been having cravings for quite a while now but never manage to buy whenever we made our way past the stall.. till today.

See.. it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

The Italian Job

Yesterday after work, my sis and I went to run some errands – the bank and also bought some tai chow for the family to eat.

When we got home, we heard splashing sounds at the balcony. My sis saw water running down from the balcony to my dad’s car, which was parked by the sidewalk. Both of us were cursing. Nobody uses the balcony anyway. Why wash? Why want to waste water? I know Selangor gives free water every month but this is not a way to utilize it! We only wash it once a year but my aunt insisted on washing it whenever she feels like it.

After taking a bath, I joined my family for dinner. My aunt was still splashing away at the balcony and my dad’s car. My dad asked us what was the noise all about. We told him aunt was helping him to wash his car. In fact.. not washing.. aunt was pouring water on his car from the balcony!

After several rounds of persuasion, asking her to stop and come down to join us for dinner before it gets cold, she came down.

My dad, who had finished eating dinner decided to take the bicycle to the grocery shop.

We were having between 2 spoonfuls of sing chow mai when my dad made a u turn and went to the back of our house and called out to us.

“Where is my car?”

Thinking that he must be joking, my aunt said, “It’s there! I just poured water on it awhile ago!”

“It’s not there anymore!”

The few of us having dinner were alarmed. We frantically ran to the back of the house and some of us went to the front of the house and couldn’t believe our eyes that the car which was there less than 5 minutes ago, soaking wet is gone!

We ran upstairs and all of us were talking at the top of our voices. Our neighbor two houses away who was playing badminton with his sons outside their house compound did not notice anything suspicious. They were as dumbstruck as we were.

Not wasting any more time, my sister and I took our cars to comb the neighborhood for the car.

What puzzled us was – there was no ignition sound. The old white Nissan Sunny always took awhile to start. And it was truly puzzling how one could steal that car! And the engine always made a lot of noise when being ignited.

My dad and sister later went to the police station to lodge a report (which took them two hours, by the way). Apparently, the car now is a “hot” commodity for criminals. They were told by the police that, Nissan Sunny or any old car are stolen because of its sturdy exterior. It won’t be easily damaged if being rammed. Heck. I met with an accident with an old Nissan Sunny a few years ago and the car was as good as before but my poor Kenari koyak habis.

In fact, the police said earlier on, someone else also reported about his stolen Nissan Sunny.

So now, two old Nissan Sunnies were stolen and would probably be used for robbery. To humour myself, I tried to imagine Mark Wharlberg and Matt Damien doing the Italian Job in two old junks.

So friends, if you happen to see an old white Nissan Sunny ’85 car number plate ABD 2477, please call the police.

PS. I know some of you most likely would buy 4D tomorrow!

Home with Gratitude

Day 3

We decided not to wake up early to watch sunrise as the clouds were expected to be just as thick as the day before. Indeed. We just enjoy the sunrise from our hotel balcony.

Sunrise

After breakfast, we were led to the beach for net trawling experience. It was said that the ancient people, not having big boats like we do now to catch fish, relied on a small sampan and a net to catch fish on daily basis.

Net Trawling

A huge net secured by two poles is used. One pole would be placed at one side and the fisherman would row his sampan towards the sea, dragging the other pole of net and form a “C” shape back to the shore. With the help of another person holding the poles, they drag both poles, hence trapping the fishes within the “C” shape net and catch fish. It was an indigenous idea to round up the fish in such manner!

We didn’t catch many fish that way, but we indeed caught some unique fishes which we eventually, thrown back to the sea.

After the interesting experience, I walked about the seaside to snap some photos. It was indeed a good day.

Lone chair by the sea of waves

When I first came to this place, I was apprehensive and decided to hate it. Afterall, who would want to spend a weekend with some moronic people from office?? Then, to make things worse, the first two days, there were some irresponsible people eating rambutans and durians by the swimming pool. I mean – Come on! Who in the right mind would have a picnic of smelly fruits by the swimming pool? No wonder they hardly have Mat Sallehs around.

The worst thing was their children throwing durian seeds into the swimming pool whether accidentally or not. If they want to have durians, please have it at the durian dusun please! And definitely not next to the swimming pool! I blame the hotel for obliging to do this for the pea sized brains clients who totally have no social etiquette and inconsiderate of other people’s feelings. I avoided the durian-smelling pool at all costs.

Apart from this unpleasant durian and rambutan encounter, everything else was quite alright. The staff was truly friendly and they greeted you whenever they see you on the hotel corridor, or while you walk to the beach or the restaurant. Also, whenever you asked for something, they attend to you almost immediately. Probably we were the biggest group there, apart from the durian eating barbarians. Not that I am complaining (about the attentive service).

The deserted beach

When I took a stroll at the beach in the morning, I saw the staff driving golf cart to collect some rubbish on the beach and the hotel compound area. I think we couldn’t blame them if they could not keep the beach pristine clean all the time. We saw some irresponsible people did an open burning on the beach at night and did not have the courtesy to get rid of the burnt leftovers the night before.

Oh, I forgot to mention how starry the sky was the night before. It was like Vincent van Gogh’s painting – Starry, Starry night. Simply beautiful!

Come surf with me!

I was walking along the beach near the sea and submerged my feet in the crashing waves. I was surprised to find that I am going to miss this moment and wish that the weekend would not end so quickly.

The day ended with good lunch at the Billfish Bistro and after taking group photo, we headed back to Kuala Lumpur. On the way, we stopped by a dragon fruit farm and had karaoke session throughout the entire 6 hours journey, which simply made the long journey bearable.

It was truly an enjoyable weekend.

Note: Kudos goes to the organizing committee (even if they have NO knowledge at all about this blog) as well as the tour agent that we hired who tried their very best to accommodate to all our whims and fancies. They are true professionals.

Confidence Travel & Tour Sdn Bhd
No.29-1, Jalan A, Taman Batu, Off Jalan Kuching,
Jinjang, Kuala Lumpur
51200 Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Tel: 03-6257 2848
Fax: 03-6250 2848

What A Wonderful World

Day 2

I was very surprised with myself for being motivated to get up as early as 5.30 am to watch the sunrise! I brisk walked to the beach in total darkness. It was a lucky thing that I took my hand phone with me. I used the dim light to lead the path. I was cursing profusely because they didn’t keep the corridor lights on and the lightings along the way to the beach. To save cost, I guess!

As soon as we got there, my colleague and I sat on the ramshackle life guard platform. It was a shaky structure, so if it could withstand my weight, anyone else could just climb on it!

We waited patiently for the sun rise while waiting for others to drop by. About five minutes later, my sister joined me with the Mechanic, then followed by another colleague. Not long later, a motorbike passed by us and stopped some 100m in front of us. I was a bit worried he might be a Mat Rempit. Who knows? Mat Rempit are bunch of morons who don’t know how to get a proper job and prey on other honest and hardworking people for a living. They should all be lined up against the wall and be shot! I was worried that the Mat Rempits might come to terrorize the early birds who wake up early to watch the sunrise.

For a moment, I felt vulnerable. Even with the five of us there, I didn’t feel we were safe. I was telling my colleagues to run as fast as we can if he began to behave suspiciously.

We heaved a sigh of relief when we got to know he was actually the security guard. He made his rounds in the mornings to ensure those people who came to watch sunrise were safe. Thank goodness for that. Blame our fear on the useless government who failed to do something about the dreadful pests.

The sky was thick with clouds and mist. As forewarned by the tour guide the night before, he said, the past few mornings sunrise watch had been unsuccessful due to thick clouds. He wished us good luck though.

The Shy Sun

He was right. The clouds were so thick, that we actually waited almost two hours for the shy sun to emerge from its hiding. It wasn’t as spectacular as I wished it would be but, it was sufficient to make me happy. I tried to absorb the very moment as much as I could and Nat King Cole’s song – “What a Wonderful World” kept playing repeatedly in my mind.

Romancing the Sun

The few of us were goofing around taking pictures of sort. I kinda like the one above.

After the lookout for sunrise, we headed straight to the restaurant near the beach for breakfast. There was a beeline at the omelets counter. I guess the hotel was not prepared for such big eaters. We basically cleaned up the buffet within minutes!

Breakfast with a View

The morning started with nature walk – which the lazy me avoided. I went back to the hotel to catch up with some sleep since I woke up early. I was awaken by a knock at the door, asking me if I would like my room to be cleaned. I was quite annoyed actually that they didn’t have keys to our rooms to clean it while we were gone. I think the hotel hired extra help from outside and wanted to keep things simple.

Woodball goalie

Disrupted from sleep and feeling slightly disgruntled, I decided to go for a walk myself and joined others for a game of woodball. It was quite fun actually. The colleagues had a ball of time hitting the ball to the “goal”. We were supposed to play only 4 lanes but ended playing all 24 lanes. Haha! It’s a must try for everybody who intends to visit this resort!

After the woodball game, we went to have lunch at the Casuarina Restaurant near the seaside again. Actually, we were kinda sick of the place as its environment is not that comfortable. It was a bit hot and the place is old. We were glad that we were informed dinner would be served at the Bill Fish bistro by the pool, which is nearer to our hotel

The deserted beach

Instead of watching the boys to play water polo, I decided to walk about beach myself and took some photos. The sun was a bit unbearable, so I decided to go back to my room to catch up with some winks of sleep. This is a holiday – so by all means I am going to indulge myself with some valuable shut eye!

Mana tau… my nap became a long, long sleep. I couldn’t believe I slept from 2 pm right through till 7 pm! If my sister didn’t come to wake me up for dinner, I wouldn’t have woken up!

Jejarum

Some of the girls complained of lack of activities to help them go through the day. Indeed. When you are here in Lanjut Beach & Golf Resort, time passes so damn slowly! It’s like you are being sucked into a time warp where time stands still. Not a bad thing entirely. Don’t we all always wish to stay young forever? Probably this is the place to go!

After dinner, we got ready to go to a nearby mangrove swamp for fire flies watch. I was glad that it was a truly dark night. Instead of using small sampans to ferry the passengers to watch fire flies, we gotten into big sampan which could cater for 35 people in each boat. The night was fresh due to the rain earlier in the evening. I simply love the smell of the air. There wasn’t smelly salty river. It smelled kinda clean and almost untainted.

As my eyes slowly gotten accustomed to the darkness and feasted on the swarm of dimly flickering fire flies, I breathed in the fresh air and somewhat felt, we are living in such a lovely country. How I wish that everyone in our country feel truly blessed with the abundance of wealth that nature bestows us and make the most of everything.

The night ended with jungle war games in which again I didn’t participate. My old bones probably couldn’t take my heavy frame prancing around in the forest! I went to karaoke instead. I didn’t sing any songs as songs selection was restrictive to only Malay songs and the only English CD has some oldies which I didn’t even heard of. I was entertained by the antics of some colleagues, particularly the super moron woman, who belted her lungs out with her son wailing and tugging at her legs; as if begging her to stop as she was embarrassing him.

I went to bed just before 12 am. It was such bliss to be able to sleep even after a marathon afternoon nap, on such a comfortable big bed and soft pillows and dreamed away.

To be continued..

The Long Journey to Rompin

Sorry for the lack of updates. I was rather busy the past one week in office as well as at home. Before I knew it, I was already packing for another short trip with the office’s sports club to Serai di Lanjut Beach & Golf Resort, Rompin, Pahang.

I know a lot of you would go, “Huh??? Where the heck is that??”

I shared the same sentiment when I was told that this year our sports and social club would be organizing a trip to this resort.

A quick check on the internet did not show many blogs writing about this place. The already few blogs did not really give a clear picture of how this place is. Most were disheartened by the long journey; taking about 6-7 hours to reach by bus. I almost did not make it when I read some blogs on how tiring and sickly the journey would be as the bus would take the old trunk road to Rompin via Seremban Highway, cut through Senawang, Kuala Pilah then Batu Kikir and finally Rompin.

Day 1

The day started as early as 7 am, waiting at the office lobby for colleagues to arrive and register. We started the journey about 8.30 am, half an hour late from scheduled time – as usual people just cannot be punctual. We ought to have just 10 minutes cut off time. Those who were late ought to be left behind to learn their lessons!

The journey to Serai di Lanjut Golf & Beach Resort was not as torturous as I thought it would be. The moment the bus exited the highway to Senawang, we reached a winding road like snake. The guide said; this stretch is much worse than Cameron Highland’s. I was panicked when I recalled the not so pleasant journey up to Cameron Highlands two years ago on how I turned green and was lucky enough to be able to hold myself from puking my guts out.

Not wanting to risk vomiting over the pristine clean double deck bus, I opted to sleep it off and was glad that I somehow could fall asleep throughout the 20 minutes of gut wrenching stretch.

We made a brief stop at Astana Seri Menanti, Kuala Pilah. This palace was well known for not using nails to hold the building. The guide said that, this building was built to commemorate a story –the Bugis came to invade the small village. Seeing the fertile paddy grew on the vast land, the Bugis decided not to destroy the small village and decided to build a palace to stay in order to wait for the harvest of the paddy. The “waiting palace” was aptly named, Seri Menanti.

A quick check on the internet did not really mention this story. But it was quite a nice story – even if it’s being made up!

When we stopped at Batu Kikir for lunch, I had a slight headache. I decided to sit at the lower deck of the bus where the karaoke machine is. It was quite an agonizing moment but despite all the songs they sang whether off key or not; I was surprised I was able to take cat naps lying straight on my back with well laid cushion and a luggage bag as pillow. It was actually quite a comfortable way to travel!

After about 6 hours, we reached the resort and were greeted by the reception at and was given a drink made of serai (lemon grass) and pandan leaves. It was quite refreshing.

Once we were shown to our hotel room – it was quite decent but the floor was somehow sticky . We called up the housekeeping and in just a matter of five minutes, the workers came to our room and started to scrub the bathroom. We told them it was the floor of our room and not the bathroom which was dirty. But they cleaned the bathroom anyway and place a floor mat in the bathroom. Talk about swift action!

We then went to the beach front to play some telematch games. Being a highly passive person, I did not play any games but opted to take photos of my colleagues making a fool out of themselves! Haha!

As they were lining up to form groups, the super moron colleague’s son threw sand at me. I was mad not because he threw sand at me. I was fuming mad that he threw sand at my camera!!!

Somehow, I managed to remain composed despite showing an utterly disgusted face that the stupid woman didn’t know how to teach her son to behave. The funniest thing was, just after she shouted at the son for throwing sand at me, they still had the cheek to pose for my camera; showing peace sign. I cropped out both mother and son and took pics of the other three colleagues instead. Revenge is sweet!

The game ended and we were given free and easy time. I chose to walk about the beach and then went to my room to have a bath and a short nap before dinner.

At night, having dinner at the dilapidated restaurant overlooking the sea, we were entertained by the workers of some dances and games. It was indeed a remarkable feat, given that they were actually the office staff – the cleaners, the receptionists, the waiters, etc. This place is also clearly under staff like A Famosa’s! I guess it’s hard to retain workers in such a far away place.

I ended the night early, feeling tired from the long journey and went to bed, only to be greeted by this bug in the bathroom. I was lucky to have a brave room mate to shoo the bug away!

To be continued…

An Outing to A Famosa Resort

Over the weekend, the family went to A Famosa Resort in Alor Gajah, Melaka. A quick check online didn’t specify much information but found some blogs with many complaints! Lol!

I was skeptical to go at first. My third aunt has a bad knee, so we decided that walking about Melaka town is out of the question. Since we were not sure where to bring the family in Melaka, we decided to stay a night at A Famosa Resort.

We left home at almost 10 am after mom fussed over the children, getting them dressed and packing their things. We went to Clan Restaurant at Sri Petaling for breakfast. This restaurant serves good dim sum and kai wor pao. The kai wor pao is a combination of char siew pao and loh mai kai. For those who love both, it’s good to order this.

After breakfast, we headed for Melaka. Traffic was smooth and nice. There weren’t many cars on the road. We reached Alor Gajah and went straight to the Safari World as the villa check in time was at 4 pm.

The ticketing booth is quite ridiculous. It’s a weekend and I was surprised only one person manning the three counters. Perhaps it was lunch hour. Anyway, they can opt for earlier lunch and rotate. It’s really stupid that they did not have a signboard to let you know the prices of the tickets. Then I realized that they charged foreigners differently. Locals were charged RM38 for adult and RM28 for children for Safari World and foreigners were charged RM58! A check on most blogs, they were posted in 2007 – so prices had since increased from RM35 to a steep RM38.

I find the ticketing system is chaotic. They have the same white color band with bar code for all amusement parks. They should have come up with something like color coded so that the staff don’t have to stress out for no reason. Imagine have to check one by one. If there were hordes of people, it would be chaotic.

Our timing couldn’t be better. We checked in at 1.30 pm after queuing for some 15 minutes at the ticketing counter.

The first show started at 2.15 pm, Wild Wild West. It has a couple of cowboys, Red Indians and horses running around. It’s just like the show I saw in Thailand. In fact, the setting is almost the same. I guess you don’t have to travel all the way to Chonbhuri for this show. You can get it here at A Famosa Resort. QQ was scared when he heard loud banging and explosion of guns. So if you have children, I suggest you cover their ears or hold them tight. It was quite enjoyable, but I do hope that they shorten the chit chatting and get into actions right away. The Red Indian dude is cute, though!

Right after the Wild Wild West, we made our way to the Multiple Animal Show. They have animals playing golf, playing dead, playing doctor, etc. it was not really enjoyable as I somehow felt pity for the animals having to do all the nonsense for the small token of food towards end of each trick. It reminded me of us. We work hard and run around like a monkey just to put food on the table. Same concept! But this is a form of exploiting animals, though it’s not as bad as some places which extract bile from a bear alive. I watched it over the tv during one of my hotel stays and felt totally upset about it.

After the multiple animal show, we went for the bird show. I enjoyed the bird show as it was something different. You have to duck your head when the eagle is flying low to avoid your head from being scratched by its sharp talon. My first aunt, being the obstinate one, didn’t want to sit down and preferred to stand up. We nagged her to sit down when the eagle was about to fly and fortunately, she relented. Somehow, we joked about her toupee. Both my cousin brother and I were giggling and wondered what if the eagle grabbed her false hair – it would be super hilarious. The emcee is the same guy from the Multiple Animal Show. What I didn’t like about the show was, they asked for money from guests and made the parrots went collecting money from the people who handed out money. It was said to be given as donation. Yeah right. Minimum RM10!

The next show was the Elephant Show. I guess the elephants and trainers are from Thailand. They did the same elephant show in Thailand – playing ball, painting, massaging, etc. I guess Safari World has the same concept as the one in Thailand – in terms of layout, shows and performers. The emcee is the same guy from the Multiple Animal Show and the Bird Show.. must be very, very short handed huh? We have some visitors from Iraq and they were actually movie stars in the hometown. That explained the two hand held camera man running around taking shots of the stars making the fool out of themselves. They pretty much enjoyed the show. They were even offered massage from the elephants. When the show finished, they spotted QQ and asked for permission to take picture with the cute toddler. Who would have thought QQ might be to be famous in Iraq some day!

We headed for the truck station after all the shows. It was quite a hectic schedule, running from one show to another so, I guess RM38 is quite well spent. Imagine you have to feed all the performers in the show; the animals!

We boarded the truck station to check out animals in the safari. I find the safari is quite well maintained. We were guided by a bored looking middle aged Chinese man driving the truck. Half of the time, I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying till he switched to Mandarin. He was nice enough to make brief stop for us to take pictures of the animals in the “wild”.

The route to safari is quite a bumpy ride. Hence, pregnant ladies and people who have weak hearts are not allowed to be on board.

We came out from the safari with smiles on our faces and were glad it was a good day out. We headed to check into our 3-bedroom villa. The website showed super nice villas and bungalows but they didn’t put us up at the nice ones as seen on website. It was a good thing that I forgot how it looked like in the website that I would kick up a fuss if I don’t get the same. The one we went to wasn’t that bad either but, the room service is terrible. For real pictures of the villa, click here. Don’t believe the website. It’s bullshit.

We were asked to check if there were towels and floor mats in the villa and to revert if there is none. So, we immediately called the reception to ask for them. They took almost an hour and 15 minutes to revert with the things. I was a little bit pissed as mom was screaming at the kids was splashing water all over the place at the backyard swimming pool. Mom messed up the kitchen and water was all over the floor. The whole place was a mess and we don’t have floor mat to wipe. And my third aunt used my brother’s towel as kitchen towel, thinking it was the hotel towel.

I read from blogs, we need to buy food vouchers if we wanted to eat lunch at the safari world. We came prepared. We brought along some biscuits and cookies for lunch since we had late breakfast and then, went to the villa to have early dinner which we brought ourselves – bread, bak kua, tuna spread, kuih muihs, butter spread, instant noodles in cups and heong peng from Taiping. We even brought two crates of mineral water (48 bottles).

There is no place for cooking and don’t even think about having utensils. They have only one measly ridiculously small kettle to boil water. My family are like a bunch of scouts – we are always prepared. We even brought our own forks and spoons, plates, mugs, boiling kettle and a pot! They don’t have dish washer either, so we ended up using a bar of soap to wash up. so much “service” for RM788 per night, huh?

Anyhow, just as we were about to leave the villa to head to our next destination, the Cowboy Town, they managed to send two persons to deliver our towels and floor mats. Meaning, we have double set of everything. Yeah. We prefer it that way as there were 11 adults and 3 kids. Mess is order of the day!

We reached Cowboy Town rather late, at about 8 pm. Again, there was a beeline at the ticketing counter with one person manning the counter. It was really annoying.

While waiting for my sister to get the tickets, I was watching some people performing at the entrance. They hired a few Mak Nyahs (Ah Kua) dancing. QQ was very excited and went to dance along with them much to everyone’s amusement.

When we went in, it was already time for the show to start at 8.30 pm. We didn’t manage to get a good seating as there was a huge crowd at the entrance waiting earlier. It is mind boggling that the management decided to clog the entrance to the show area with a platform for patrons to take pictures with the lion cub. I found it utterly stupid. After we got stuck in the sea of people, everyone grew impatient and shouted “Oi!!!” then they finally let us in.

As I was seated at the far end of the 50m runway, I didn’t manage to take good pictures of the fire eater. I probably enjoy the fire eating part the best. The cute Red Indian guy earlier came and performed as well, so did the emcee, the guy who got shot dead at the Wild Wild West show, the Mak Nyahs at the entrance came in to do some belly dancing in some obscene see-through pants. This place is totally under staff. Heck. Even the same parrot in earlier bird show came and cycled on thin wire during the last gig. While waiting for the carnival to start, the management played some Arabic songs and you get to see a bunch of Middle Eastern men took to the runway and danced away. It was quite fun actually to watch them. It’s like we were visiting their country instead of the other way round.

The carnival-like show ended with three-minute fireworks at the end of the 50m runway. So, when you reached the end of the show of the very long carnival parade, at about 9.45 pm, it’s better for you to move your ass to the end of the lane where fireworks burst to the sky. Don’t you think, a round stadium is more appropriate than a long runway? It caused unnecessary stampede for people to move around from one end to another. Luckily, when I was there, the crowd of people is still controllable.

Thinking the hectic day is over, we were soon walking towards the lantern show. It seems, the RM38 for adult and RM33 for children that we paid covered the lantern area. The place was not properly maintained. Some lanterns were broken and were not replaced. I mistakenly took the fallen peacock as a clam!

Anyway, since everyone is tired, we waited for the acrobatic show from China. It was quite amusing that this place is manned by only four persons. There were three male jugglers and a pretty Chinese lady. She did all the emceeing, the hula hoop and lastly, the balancing act on her forehead with hula hoop swinging at her waist and hands swinging two handkerchiefs simultaneously!! My aunts were screaming in anxiety. It was kinda pitiful as the place they performed in is so run down and the male performers were wearing dirty clothes like some street performers. It made me felt like giving them tips at the end of the show for such entertaining show.

I couldn’t stand the place as it was infested with mosquitoes. I couldn’t wait to go back to the villa for a bath and sleep.

The whole resort is crowded with people from the Middle East. Everywhere you look, you see ladies in black veil in such a hot tropical climate. I wonder why they even bother to take pictures. Sometime I wonder how the men could recognize their wives on the streets with all the covering up. They even served Middle Eastern food and played Middle Eastern songs to accommodate the visitors.

The next morning, since we only have 6 vouchers for breakfast – the six of us went to the Safari World café for breakfast. Kinda stupid, isn’t it? They place you at the villa some 5 minutes drive away from the café and expected you to drive back all the way back to Safari World and pay RM3 for parking to have breakfast. Of course we didn’t pay for the parking. We went in before 8.30 am to be entitled for the free parking. The breakfast is not buffet breakfast and you get to choose only one out of three types of meals offered – the nasi lemak, the porridge or western. We opted for 3 nasi lemak and 3 western food. The nasi lemak is quite mediocre and perhaps, everyone should try the western styled food.

After everyone is awake, we left the villa in good spirit. We made a brief stop in Melaka for lunch. We didn’t get to eat the my favorite chicken rice ball shop at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah as Melaka was infested with tourists on weekend and it was total madness! Never ever go to Melaka on weekends. The crowd is crazy! We headed home after everyone complained about the heat and QQ couldn’t stop whining and crying. It must have been very tiring since we all went to bed late last night.

All in all it was quite an enjoyable trip, despite a few chaotic moments.

For other blogs feedback (mostly complaints), please check out the following links:-

Mama Zara
A dad’s point of view

For more pics, click here.