Malaysian Adventures (Part 2)
Day 3 Mentakab
1st day of CNY and only vegetarian meals were prepared. Everyone were probably weak from just eating the veggies and stayed at home for the whole day. My cousin had her operation late in the afternoon and needed to stay in the hospital for a coupla more days. At night we did go out and my Indian uncle treated us to a mobile steamboat stall.
Another partial blackout occurred just past midnight. Without the lights we had nothing to do so my bro and I went to the place where we slept the night before. Immediately after stepping out of the house, we noticed a commotion at the T-junction ahead. Being kaypoh we went to see.
It turned out to be the electrical cable caught fire and the fire engine was called in. My aunt and uncle came out as well and asked the firemen what happened. Since the fire was put out and there was nothing else to watch we went back to sleep. My brother was brushing his teeth when the all the lights went out. It was a total blackout.
We tried to get to sleep but it was too hot for us and we ended up chatting about our army experiences. Finally I went to sleep and the electricity was restored in the middle of night. I was too sleepy to wake up but my brother switched on the air-con.
Day 4 Mentakab/Lanchang/Karak/Mentakab
My aunt and her Indian husband wanted to make a trip to Karak to visit his parents. They asked their daughters whether they wanted to go visit their tata/tati or not but they didn't want to . In the end somebody (I dunno who) suggested going to the elephant conservation place about 45 minutes drive away and suddenly everybody was interested.
I was watching Wedding Crashers on HBO and didn't really want to go. I wanted to stay behind and admire Rachel McAdams but in the end got pulled along. The trip turned out to be quite interesting.
Visitors can visit the elephant conservation place for free and many ang moh tourists actually found their way there. All visitors can feed and feel the elephants and take all the pictures they want. Those who managed to get passes were allowed to take rides on the elephants' backs. It was very interesting as this was the first time that I was so close to these gigantic animals. The texture of their skin was very rough and they felt like toilet brushes.
After that we went to another place called Deerland. It was a privately-run farm with many different animals inside. There was an entrance fee of 5 ringgits for adults and we could really get up close with the animals inside. This place turned out to be owned by one of my aunt's (the one with Indian husband) student's family but we received no discount. My mother was saying the total cost for the 12 of us was probably lower than an adult ticket for the Singapore Zoo.
How do we define up close? Basically the animals were right in your face. We could go run up to the sun bear and touch its tummy. Its fur felt like the teddy bear's. Beside the bears, there were also ostriches (very smelly), monkey (very naughty), deers (very hungry) and many other animals. We spent around 45 minutes feeding the animals before finally making our way to Karak.
Karak is actually a small place not far from Genting. We went to my Indian uncle's parents' house and sat there for a while. My half-Indian cousins seemed to be unfamiliar with their grandparents and had to be coaxed to call them. We did not stay for very long and made our way back to Mentakab before the sun set.
My the other aunt had returned home and my brother and I had no place to sleep for the night. In the end we went to my grandmother's old house which was further up the road. The balcony where I used to play seemed to have shrunk. Perhaps it was more of me growing older.
My brother, me and two other cousins were sitting on the balcony feeling the night breeze, Me and my siblings were rather detached from our cousins but that day we did manage to say a few more words. We also caught up a bit with my eldest uncle who got his first tattoo at the age of 57. Interesting.
Day 5 Mentakab/Singapore
My family and I would be going home on that day. We left after the lion dance performance at my aunt's place at around 10 am. It would be a long journey mainly on those 2-lanes trunk roads. Our lunch was at Pizza Hut in Segamat and cost only 45 ringgit.
We finally got to the expressway where the car could travel much faster than the trunk roads. However we were locked in a 10 km traffic jam near the Simpang Rengam/Benut exit for an hour. Along the way we could see about 20 cars being whacked; 60% were Singapore-registered vehicles. Seemed to me Singaporeans are not that street-wise on Malaysian roads.
Crossing the 2nd link was surprisingly a breeze and I had to go back to reality. The mid-term break would turn out to be non-existent after all.
1st day of CNY and only vegetarian meals were prepared. Everyone were probably weak from just eating the veggies and stayed at home for the whole day. My cousin had her operation late in the afternoon and needed to stay in the hospital for a coupla more days. At night we did go out and my Indian uncle treated us to a mobile steamboat stall.
Another partial blackout occurred just past midnight. Without the lights we had nothing to do so my bro and I went to the place where we slept the night before. Immediately after stepping out of the house, we noticed a commotion at the T-junction ahead. Being kaypoh we went to see.
It turned out to be the electrical cable caught fire and the fire engine was called in. My aunt and uncle came out as well and asked the firemen what happened. Since the fire was put out and there was nothing else to watch we went back to sleep. My brother was brushing his teeth when the all the lights went out. It was a total blackout.
We tried to get to sleep but it was too hot for us and we ended up chatting about our army experiences. Finally I went to sleep and the electricity was restored in the middle of night. I was too sleepy to wake up but my brother switched on the air-con.
Day 4 Mentakab/Lanchang/Karak/Mentakab
My aunt and her Indian husband wanted to make a trip to Karak to visit his parents. They asked their daughters whether they wanted to go visit their tata/tati or not but they didn't want to . In the end somebody (I dunno who) suggested going to the elephant conservation place about 45 minutes drive away and suddenly everybody was interested.
I was watching Wedding Crashers on HBO and didn't really want to go. I wanted to stay behind and admire Rachel McAdams but in the end got pulled along. The trip turned out to be quite interesting.
Visitors can visit the elephant conservation place for free and many ang moh tourists actually found their way there. All visitors can feed and feel the elephants and take all the pictures they want. Those who managed to get passes were allowed to take rides on the elephants' backs. It was very interesting as this was the first time that I was so close to these gigantic animals. The texture of their skin was very rough and they felt like toilet brushes.
After that we went to another place called Deerland. It was a privately-run farm with many different animals inside. There was an entrance fee of 5 ringgits for adults and we could really get up close with the animals inside. This place turned out to be owned by one of my aunt's (the one with Indian husband) student's family but we received no discount. My mother was saying the total cost for the 12 of us was probably lower than an adult ticket for the Singapore Zoo.
How do we define up close? Basically the animals were right in your face. We could go run up to the sun bear and touch its tummy. Its fur felt like the teddy bear's. Beside the bears, there were also ostriches (very smelly), monkey (very naughty), deers (very hungry) and many other animals. We spent around 45 minutes feeding the animals before finally making our way to Karak.
Karak is actually a small place not far from Genting. We went to my Indian uncle's parents' house and sat there for a while. My half-Indian cousins seemed to be unfamiliar with their grandparents and had to be coaxed to call them. We did not stay for very long and made our way back to Mentakab before the sun set.
My the other aunt had returned home and my brother and I had no place to sleep for the night. In the end we went to my grandmother's old house which was further up the road. The balcony where I used to play seemed to have shrunk. Perhaps it was more of me growing older.
My brother, me and two other cousins were sitting on the balcony feeling the night breeze, Me and my siblings were rather detached from our cousins but that day we did manage to say a few more words. We also caught up a bit with my eldest uncle who got his first tattoo at the age of 57. Interesting.
Day 5 Mentakab/Singapore
My family and I would be going home on that day. We left after the lion dance performance at my aunt's place at around 10 am. It would be a long journey mainly on those 2-lanes trunk roads. Our lunch was at Pizza Hut in Segamat and cost only 45 ringgit.
We finally got to the expressway where the car could travel much faster than the trunk roads. However we were locked in a 10 km traffic jam near the Simpang Rengam/Benut exit for an hour. Along the way we could see about 20 cars being whacked; 60% were Singapore-registered vehicles. Seemed to me Singaporeans are not that street-wise on Malaysian roads.
Crossing the 2nd link was surprisingly a breeze and I had to go back to reality. The mid-term break would turn out to be non-existent after all.
posted by shyh jie at 11:31 PM
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