Little-Wonder.Net

18 March, 2007

The Malacca Experience

23:00:57 | Travel | writebacks (8)

Yours truly is back from Malacca. Thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Companions a.k.a relatives were awesome, the food was fantabulous, the shopping was mediocre, but it was still a pretty excellent vacation on the whole.

A General Summary (Because going into the specifics will take 3 page of writing)
1) Malacca has the world’s smelliest rivers. Seriously, I can smell the sewage in there. It can possibly be collecting the world’s population of pee, seriously. The mudskippers seem to like it, though. Within the past two days, I’ve seen enough mudskippers to last me a lifetime.

By the Malacca River.

2) Cousin Jer came down with a pretty bad stomach problem after our first lunch in Malacca, courtesy of half a Wasabi Prawn - which left him queasy for the rest of the trip. Interestingly, Cousin David gobbled around five pieces of the same dish and did not come down with anything, which pretty much explains how he has an iron cast of a stomach.

3) Grassland Tours generously gave us a club suite and three other rooms on the Club Level of Hotel Renaissance, Malacca even though we’ve made bookings for standard rooms. Imagine our ecstasy!

4) Although I wasn’t that ecstatic to find that the room I was assigned to was practically a human freezer. With the air-conditioner strength set to low and at 29 degrees celsius, I still had to walk around the room huddled in a jacket, a blanket and slippers. Imagine my agony when I had to take a shower.

5) Oh, and not to mention how several of us were constantly locked out of our hotel room floor. (Being on the Club Level meant that you had to swipe your card on the card reader upon entering the lift in order to access your level. So if you do not happen to have the card, then good luck to you.)

6) Last point about the room, I extremely enjoyed reviewing my notes and catching up on a bit of schoolwork at night in a hotel room fit for a queen. Boy, talk about a conducive study environment!

7) The streets in Malacca are so 1960s. High rise buildings are rare, and shophouses line the streets, making me feel as if I’ve travelled back in time.

Cousin David, and yours truly.

8) I’ve discovered how visiting relative, Uncle Ivan and I are so similar in terms of personality, especially how I only see him (and my Aunt Queenie) once every two years. We have a tendency to be dead serious. (Although he is definitely more serious a person than I am, because I had to surpress the urge to tell him to loosen up quite a few times during the trip.)

9) This particular song kept running through my head several times during the course of the trip - to an extent that once I replay that song, memories of the Malacca Vacation start flooding back. I hereby christen it the “Malacca Trip Theme Song”.

10) This trip also seemed to a be a trip where I revisited my roots, since the population in Malacca was largely Perenakan. (And I am 25% Perenakan.) Hence, there was no short of Perenakan food around. Boy, was I hooked!

11) Poor Cousin Jer had to forgo most of the food due to the reason stated in (2). He’s worried that he might become an ambassador of Singapore’s National Icon.

12) We travelled round and round in the van for almost one and a half hours just to look for my Aunt’s favourite pineapple tarts.

13) And an additional half an hour to look for Durians.

14) And an additional half an hour to look for a toilet because (12) and (13) made me want to pee, badly.

15) I needed (14) for other reasons as well - mainly because I was stuck in the van with Cousin David who was constantly letting out gas periodically, making the van ride even more unbearable, hence making me yearn for fresh air.

16) I regretted not having the chance to devour my last bowl of Gula Melaka Chendol prior to leaving Malacca yesterday afternoon.

Gula Melaka Chendol!

17) We strolled into an ancient Portugese Ship with internal exhibits on Malacca’s History as well as Marine Life. All for the mere price of 3RM. ($1.30 in Singapore currency) And yet Cousin David is still screeching his lungs out, going “We paid 3RM for this?” Just gotta’ pardon him, though. Having scored an A1 in History, that fellow probably could have memorized everything in that ship.

18) Shopping haul wasn’t all that good. Only managed two tees and a rather huge gym bag (which my mum insisted on getting for me even though I wasn’t sure whether I really wanted it), and stopped from there because I didn’t want to overspend. (I wanted to spend more on FOOD!)

19) Constant whining from Cousin David who wanted to visit the video games arcade while Cousin Jer and I were engaged in (18). We ended up going to the video games arcade for a short while anyway, where he blew quite a bit of money on one round of ‘Time Crisis 2′ because he was constantly ‘dying’ in the game. As usual, he cooked up an alibi that the ‘gun wasn’t working properly’. (Insert image of Cousin David’s whiny look here.)

20) Ran into a bit of (hilarious) trouble at the Singapore checkpoint en route home involving Chewing Gum (which is banned in Singapore), and the sudden rain of fruits from a broken paper bag that distracted the officers at the security checking station. Can’t go into too much detail here though, because it concerns the law. Eek.

All in all, a wonderful trip. And I salute you if you’ve read this far.

30 December, 2006

I want to be a Cameronian.

16:21:42 | Travel | writebacks (7)

I will definitely return to Cameron Highlands for the third time if I do get the chance.

There is a certain quiet serenity of that place that could put one’s mind at ease. The air is fresh. Very fresh, considering the sheer amount of greenery around. The views are breathtaking, and locals at Cameron Highlands are (mostly) friendly and approachable.

The epitome of the perfect holiday destination. Especially for nature lovers like me.

The coach ride up there nearly spoiled the whole trip, though.

Continue reading this entry »

26 December, 2006

One memorable vacation.

02:26:21 | Travel | writebacks (9)

First and foremost, this is an appeal to the public.

If you are the person who has submitted my domain to designsnack.com, pretty pretty please remove my domain from there. I am flattered that you feel my site deserves to be listed. :P However, with effect from two months ago, I have ceased all my listings in various communities because I have reached a certain point where I’ve decided to keep a low profile online.

Meanwhile, I’ve returned from Kuala Lumpur. (Duh, why would I be writing here, otherwise!)

It was all in all, a highly enjoyable (and interesting) vacation. A good amount of time was spent catching up with my distant relatives from where we’ve left a year ago. Plus, they provided excellent companionship especially when it comes to a girl’s favourite activity - shopping.

Expenditure was a rather touchy issue this time round because I’ve purchased several items which (i) I already have an abundance of (ii) do not need or (iii) are liable to end up as white elephants in my cupboards or shelves. Strangely though, the amount spent looked pretty scary when in Malaysian ringgits, but seemed very reasonable when converted to my own currency. That’s the wonder of the currency value differences for you.

To sum up the boring facts in a nutshell, I’ve returned with;

1) A nice golden-brown tan, all thanks to that entire day spent outdoors at Sunway Lagoon.

2) A lighter mood. All that laughter had put me in a rather cheery state - an antithesis of my rather depressed state prior to the trip.

3) Six new pieces of apparel, 5 of which were tees. (Argh!)

4) Photographs and videos as memorabilia.

5) A sore bottom and back from sitting in the coach for several long hours on end.

Meanwhile, I just can’t not relate a particular scenario that took place sometime during this vacation which involved one of my younger distant cousins who is still at the (rather) tender age of eight - Little Joey.

Apparently, most of the younger generation had decided to catch this particular movie, of which the title would not be mentioned. This movie has been rated NC16 locally, but was merely PG rated in Malaysia, despite containing a couple of mild-sexually explicit scenes.

Somehow, my eldest distant cousin happened to be the unlucky soul who was seated right next to Little Joey, and had to endure much of his senseless remarks during the course of the movie. Of course, considering how young he was, there were just too many things that he could not appreciate at that age.

Thus, during a particular scene involving a half-naked woman, Little Joey piped up. Pointing at the screen, he went;

“Na na pok! Na na pok! Na na pok! Na na pok! Na na pok!”
(Repeat this several times. For the uninitiated, ‘Na na pok’ is a local slang for breasts.)

My eldest distant cousin placed her head in her hands. She didn’t know whether to hide her face in embarassment or to burst out laughing, because several other people present at the cinema were already beginning to turn around.

Little Joey poked her again.

“Jie jie, look! Very big hor?”

To quote my distant cousin’s exact words - “I was speechless. I really did not know how to reply him!”

“I don’t blame you,” was my answer. If caught in that situation, I would certainly be laughing too hard to even be able to think. However, Little Joey had provided us all with much entertainment throughout the entire vacation. Plus, who can resist those big, innocent looking eyes of his?

Lastly, I know that this is late.

Wishing all readers out there a very Merry Christmas, and peace and joy for the years that lie ahead.

Meanwhile, I’m off to Cameron Highlands for three-four days, and would be back on the 29th. So, yes. Another short disappearance.