It’s home sweet home.
After four blissful days, I am finally back in Singapore. The trip to Genting Highlands and Kuala Lumpur had been fantastic. Matthias, Jeremiah and I were granted the freedom of roaming wherever we wished and we spent most of our time in First World Plaza, occasionally dropping by the Outdoor Theme Park whever the weather seemed right. Many humorous events had taken place, and some of them can be seen from the photographs that we had taken.
The first night was spent in Genting Hotel, which went by well. However, we had to spend the second night at Theme Park Hotel which was believed to be haunted. To make matters worse, our room happened to be in the basement. My cousins and I were so spooked out that we stuck closely to each other each time we were in the hotel, and that included using the toilet. For instance, one of us would enter the bathroom and the other two would stand guard just in case. Uncle Johnny and Aunty Margaret may have been influenced by our beliefs that they had decided to shift the entire bed from the other room into our room so that the five of us could stay together. Safety in numbers, they said.
Drove down to Kuala Lumpur on the third day and dropped by the newly opened Berjaya Times Square. The theme park didn’t impress us as much, except for the roller coaster ride which left us dumbstruck at first sight. Other than that, all of us had agreed that the theme park at Genting Highlands was much better. However, we were amazed at the number of shops there were and sure enough, all of us soon indulged in retail therapy. All of us headed back to the hotel fully loaded with shopping bags, happy and contented with all the purchases we had made.
The drive to and from Genting Highlands had also been eventful. After all, one can never be bored when in the same car as Uncle Johnny and my two cousins. Jeremiah spun some CDs in the car and all of us started to sing along, manipulating the lyrics at times to make the typical pop songs sound extremely corny. A mild form of wrestling was also going on between Jeremiah and Matthias as both of them fought for the front seat during all the stopovers during the journey. All this would then by followed by a brief few minutes of whining fron the losing party.
Since David was unable to join us on this trip, my two cousins and I had decided to pool our money together to get him a present — a box of B-String undergarments. It was meant to be a prank since many jokes related to the abovementioned item had been passed during the previous trip three weeks ago. The look on David’s face when he opened the present a few hours ago had sent us rolling on the floor with laughter, and that moment had also been captured on camera.
Due to all the events of the pass four days, I have concluded that this is the very best trip out of all the family vacations to Genting Highlands made in my entire lifetime.
(Complete photo set no longer available)
Phew, I’m finally home and feeling completely lethargic. But yet I am still here stoning in front of the computer. After the past few excitement filled days, the mere thought of being back at home with nothing to do is something which I am not looking forward to. Even though I had just left Port Dickson 10 hours ago, I miss that place already. However, I miss Genting Highlands even more. Even though the past few days in Genting Highlands hadn’t been very enjoyable, there is always a sense of nostalgia from that resort which constantly makes me return for more. After all, it had been my yearly destination ever since the day I was born and I can easily recite out the developments in that resort for the past 17 years of my life span.
Our last few hours at Port Dickson was spent in the pool. I was desperately trying to get a tan while frolicking in the shallow end of the pool with my cousins and nephew and thus, I remained under the hot sun for almost two hours. The result? I remained as pale as ever, but managed to wind up with a terrible migrane. Later on, David got into a minor accident near the pool when he slammed one of his toes into a nearby rock formation, causing his toenail to break and fall out. David then started to panic there and then. The sight of all that blood made me feel like passing out but I managed to help David bandage up his toe before any further damage could be done.
Riding in the same van with my little nephew, Joshua can be horrifying especially when it is a long journey. I was deep in slumber on the way back to Singapore today when suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my leg and a loud burst of laughter. I gave a loud yelp and jerked awake immediately to discover that Joshua had jabbed his sharp fingernail into my kneecap. Any future attempts to return to sleep were foiled by Joshua screeching and giggling at the top of his lungs. Joshua also had this strange habit of spitting his saliva at other people. Thus, poor Matthias, David and I had to bear with a constant spray of “showers of blessing” for an entire 5 hour ride back home.
Uploaded all the photographs from the trip. However, most photographs would be based in Genting Highlands since my camera had run out of storage space by the time I had reached Port Dickson.
(Complete photo set no longer available)
Today went by much better than yesterday. The weather remained perfectly clear so the whole group of us headed for the Outdoor Theme Park. Jeremiah, Matthias and I had an extremely hard time coaxcing David to try out the Pirate Train, mainly because he had an extreme phobia to the ride. David was sitting by a nearby escalator and sobbing while Jeremiah reassured him that the ride wasn’t frightening at all. Somehow, I find David rather queer because I remeber exactly three years ago, David loved that ride so much and he had no problems when he went on that ride. I wonder what had made him change his opinions so drastically…
Since we couldn’t talk David over, we decided to head for other attractions instead. It’s always the same old thing whenever we go to Genting every 6 months so it somehow became our usual routine. First stop would be the Flying Dragon Roller Coaster Ride followed by the thrilling Spinner (which David also had a phobia to). So David just stood aside and watched forlornly as we ran off without him. Seriously, that boy has to learn to overgrow his fears sometime soon. He is already eleven years old and yet he is still so cowardly, as Jeremiah puts it. After the rides ended, Matthias spent the entire time calling David a “Scaredy Cat” while David just fumed and walked on.
Had a hearty lunch at the Resort Cafe before heading back to the Outdoor Theme Park again. This time, our first stop was the Bumper Boats, which we hadn’t tried out in almost two years. Since there were 5 of us, we decided to play a little game called “AIDS”. We had to select someone who would be known as the “AIDS Carrier” and as the ride progresses, this “carrier” would have to try to bump the rest of our boats, which would in turn “infect us with the virus”. The game was extremely enjoyable and just 1 minute after the ride started, Aunty Olive (Who happened to be the “AIDS” Carrier) had already infected each and every single one of us. So we just started to bump each other merrily on the boats just for the fun of it.
Just arrived home from First World Plaza and had spent the past two hours locked up in the Pavilon watching “Fantastica”. In my opinion, the starting was rather thrashy but the rest were rather nice. I was amazed by some of the stunts that were shown during the show, but sadly though they weren’t very original. Many of those acrobats were extremely young and they looked less than 15 to me. All throughout the time, I cannot help wondering about how much they are actually paid to put their lives at risk. Does this constitute child labour? How much intense training must they go through? To think that all these young performers are actually suffering backstage while the rest of us just sit aside and stare at their performances.
Leaving Genting and heading for Port Dickson tomorrow. Although I can’t wait to leave this cold weather into the warm sunshine, I must admit that I would miss Genting Highlands a lot. Although the past few days hadn’t been as enjoyable as I had expected, such an opportunity comes only once every 6 months and I intend to enjoy every moment of it, even though it is just 4 days.
One last thought. Sometimes, I wonder why Aunty Olive still treats me like a little girl. I feel so smothered by her and she has me feeling as though I just don’t know how to take care of myself. When I refuse to do something, she would stand there and start to scold me for no apparent reason and whenever I tell her I need to go somewhere, she would start firing questions at me such as, “Do you know where’s the place or not?” “Are you sure you won’t get lost?” and yadda yadda. Hello? This is the 24th time I am stepping foot into Genting Highlands and I know each and every single corner of the resort extremely well. Furthermore, I am already seventeen years old and going on to the second year of Junior College, and yet she still treats me as though I am just in the second year of Kindergarthen. Another thing I must mention is the way she just reaches over to zip up my jacket for me whenever we are outdoors, just because she thinks I am feeling cold. Words cannot express how small I felt when she does something like this, as though she doesn’t trust me to look after myself. Unfortunately for me, I just had to keep quiet or risk another round of endless scolding and nagging from Mrs “I don’t think Brenda knows how to take care of herself”.
This always happens when we are in Genting. Don’t ask me why, but I am extremely sick of it and it is high time I did something to combat this.