2011

It's terrible. I have not blogged for quite a while and there is a whole stack of pictures waiting to be edited and stories to be blogged. Looks like I have to carry them into the new year!!

Had a simple dinner tonight. Just the family. Beef balls, fries, sausages n salad....ended with a tub of icecream. I had mine with kahlua.

2011 had its ups and downs ... May 2012 be filled with God's presence, joy and peace!!!

Bangkok

I have to get this blogged before I forget it completely. We spent two nights in Bangkok at Bangkok Cha-da. Quite a nice hotel. The kids and I had adjoining rooms....we could had just bunked into one room as the room and bed are very big.

Bangkok is so much like KL. It's hot and humid. We really missed the north where it was so cooling and nice. The traffic was horrible especially when we returned from the Floating Market. I think it took us an extra hour to reach the next destination.

We tried to maximise our time. The first day we hired a van which took us around. Around was just the Floating Market (an hour away) and The Grand Palace (which is in the city) and finally a shopping complex where we had our dinner.

We headed off to the Floating Market first thing in the morning. Took us an hour to reach the jetty. We had to pay 500baht a person for the ride to and fro. Very very expensive. Actually the other option is to get the driver to take us straight to the market and we can just hire a boat there to take us around for a shorter distance.

We got into one of these boats. We were given a welcome drink each....coconut water.
It's actually narrow canals and pretty smelly. The dirty water sprayed onto our faces. Before reaching the market, we passed by people's backyards....so you can imagine the smell when you pass the backyards.

The boatman stopped by this place. All part of the sales gimmick. Here we were shown how they make coconut sugar but half of the place was taken up by souvenir shop. Want us to buy the stuff there....I didn't get a thing...it's the same everywhere.

The market....interesting place. They sell almost everything; from souvenir to food. I bought my favourite sticky rice with mango here. Really delicious. Also got myself a leather handbag; which Albert claimed to be genuine. The price started at 5500 baht; I finally paid 2500baht. I think it's still expensive. Just the other day I saw a handbag almost like the one I bought and branded...Hidesign; cost slightly over RM200.

Spent quite a while walking through the market before leaving for The Grand Palace. Another expensive tour. 400baht....but Thai citizens get to visit it for free. I think that is good. Malaysia should implement this too.

The whole place is big and massive. There is also a big temple in the palace ground. Am so amazed at how they preserve the place.

Each of us were given a brochure of the place. We needed it as we need to know where we were and what the place is. So the kids read the brochure and tried to guide us around. Architecture is amazing. I can imagine Mongkut and Chulalongkorn walking on those grounds that I walked.

There is a long mural along the wall of a corridor. I guess it tells a story...but don't know where the beginning or ending is. The kids made their own story as they walked along.

This is outside the weapon museum. This place got the boys real excited. Again I was impressed to look at the weapons that they had kept and preserved. Not just a few but lots and lots of them. Really put Malaysia to shame....look at Melaka and what weapons from Kesultanan Melaka is left in the museum??

We were not allowed to take pictures in the museum so nothing to show from inside. The Thais really take care of their own people. Before going upstairs, we had to remove our shoes. They actually had different shelves for foreign shoes and local shoes.

We left the palace before the agreed time...too tired. Outside the palace, a woman kept pressing packets of corns into our hands. I didn't want but she insisted that we take it. It was to feed the pigeons. When we wanted to walk away, she made KC pay her 300baht (that's what KC said...bit too much right?). So if you are here....don't take anything from these people...just ignore them and walk away.

The next day we decided to take the MRT to Chinatown. We walked around the place. It was hot and we were all sweating. We were quite lost....didn't know where exactly to go and what to look for.

After a long tiring walk, we jumped into a tuk tuk. Dan had been pestering to sit in one. Albert said it's scary; they ride real fast like in the James Bond show. The boys were imagining 'Hawaii Five 0' theme as they rode along. The tuk tuk which KC, Lyn and I took followed behind the boys.....it was an interesting ride.

All along the buildings, sandbags like this was a common sight. The flood was indeed very bad but the city was really clean. The only sign of flood was the sandbags.

Our final destination was a shopping complex called Terminal 21. It is new and very impressive. Each level is themed after a city. There is London, San Francisco, Tokyo, Bangkok, Istanbul,Paris and Carribean. The toilets are beautifully decorated according to the city. The first place we visit at each floor was the toilet!!!!!

San Francisco.....the toilet was bread themed....even smelt like a bakery.

London...

Japanese themed door outside the toilet on Tokyo floor.

We didn't get to visit all the floors. This place is really really nice.

Overall....I will not visit Bangkok again. It's just like KL but maybe nicer. The MRT is more organized. Lyn asked why the rail system in other countries like HK, Singapore and even Thailand is better than Malaysia? Oh well....Anyway.....I've no intention of visiting Thailand again. Enough for my lifetime!!! Want to visit elsewhere.

my favourite pastime

One of the topics that the Form 1 students have to write at the beginning of the year is My Favourite Pastime. I'm going to write a short essay here on my favourite pastime this holiday. (hahaha)

This holiday (I sound so like a student), I've been enjoying quite a few things but there are three things that I enjoy best. Reading (top on the list), cross-stitching and watching mini-series on youtube.

Reading is my all time favourite. I've finished two of Ken Follet's books (Pillar of the Earth and World without End). Giving him a break...too long-winded and scandalous. Characters get all twisted one way or other; how frustrating. I'm still reading; rereading some of my old favourites.

Cross-stitching....it started off as Lyn's holiday project. She has so much to do too....reading, making origami, cross-stitching etc etc. As she was hardly moving, I decided to lend a hand. Now that she's away for camp, I've taken over the cross-stitching and I find it real soothing especially with Christmas music on.

Watching the mini-series is done mostly at night when KC is home. I've been watching a lot of 'Love come softly' series but gave up after a while because almost every woman ends up being a widow. Sigh....why must they make the story so complicated??

Looks like my favourite pastime involves a lot of energy from my eyes and I wake up every morning with heavy and panda looking eyes. I wish my eyes are stronger but as age catches up it gets worse. My eye-sight has never been good and one of my fear is going blind. I wonder will this happen one day? What am I to do if I can't read or watch tv???

Oh dear...the essay has gone out of topic.

apprentice

The kids have been my apprentice in keropok making. They have been doing all the kneading after I make sure the dough is at the right texture. It is more like play for them; each having a dough to roll and knead and bang around. Told them to knead it like washing clothes and they actually don't know how to wash clothes. Dan said, just throw in the washing machine!

I hope this will help them remember how to make the keropok when they need to do it one day on their own!!

eating grubs

A short walk from the hotel in Maesai is the night market. We saw a stall selling a variety of grubs. You get to choose what grubs you want and then seasoning will be added to it. I challenged Joash to eat it and he said why not....so he chose a three types of grubs. Paid 40baht for it; ie about RM4 or more.

This big insect is 7baht per piece. He picked one of it. He told Lyn that it smelt like cockroach. Yucks....
The grubs fried and mixed with pandan to make it smell good I suppose.

I saw this in the morning market. They are alive!!!! Joash chose this too the previous night. Lyn said it tasted quite ok. It's almost like the sago worms in Sarawak but I think the worms in Sarawak are fatter. Somebody said it taste like butter. Can you imagine eating maggots?

from golden triangle to the royal villa

When everyone is not in, I seem to be more motivated to work and not laze around. Ok ... some update of our trip to Myanmar/Thailand.

On 26th November, we rented a van to take us to two places...the Golden Triangle and Mae Fah Luang Garden/Doi Tung Royal Villa. The van is really spacious and comfortable. When you travel around like this, you feel like you can just travel on and on....

The road to the Golden Triangle was under construction. Maybe the flood spoilt the road. When we reached the place...the road there was dusty and dirty due to the flood. Lots of shops selling souvenirs and shirts and we bought quite a few items here. The rule in buying in these places is you must bring down the price by half. If the saleperson refuses to give in, just walk away and forget about it. Many times they actually called us back and offer the price we want.

This is the map of the places we had been. The Golden Triangle is pretty clear...The pink part is Laos, the blue is Myanmar and yellow is Thailand. We stayed at Tachilek (Myanmar) a night and Maesai (Thailand) two nights.
From where we stood, we could see Laos and Myanmar. That's why it's the Golden Traingle....lots of opium in the highlands I believe.

Mae Fah Luang Garden is part of the royal grounds. The valley is filled with flowers. From the royal villa, the royalty are able to get a good view of the garden. We have to buy two tickets...one for the garden; the other to get into the villa.

A little pond in the garden with a swan and a few ducks. The ponds and rivers here are all brownish. I wonder why.

Very beautifully landscaped.

Quite a few arches like this around the garden.

The colours of the flowers are well coordinated too. This garden has brought about a lot of work to the people around. We saw many tribal people (in their costumes) and monks visiting the garden.

Outside the royal villa. Can't take pictures inside.

The majestic view of the mountains from the balcony of the villa. Imagine staying in a villa like this and sitting at the balcony sipping hot coffee; looking at the mountains. I don't mind living like this too.

After the trip ended, we went back to the hotel. That night, I went for a foot massage. Only RM12!!! Sooooo cheap.

Rambutan

We were in the kitchen looking down into our neighbour's garden. She was plucking rambutans. She has a big tree in her garden. She looked up and saw us and asked if we want some. I quickly shouted yes yes!!!

So here we are eating yellow rambutan from the neighbour's garden!!! The tree that we had been envying.

holiday

Two weeks of holiday has gone by. What have I done with my time? Since I returned from Thailand, I had done absolutely nothing except sleep, eat, read, exercise and repeat the whole process again.

I did help to edit some articles but that didn't take much time. I thought of uploading pictures in facebook....takes up too much time as there as so many pictures. Will give that a skip.

Thought of blogging some of my experiences with pictures...again too lazy to select pictures.

Ing says my house has the spirit of laziness and sleepiness. I agree with her. The three of us are just feeling so lazy and we sleep so much everyday. Well, it's holiday. When else do we get to do this?? So I'll just laze around with my books and junk food till I feel real guilty...

Oh yes....I did my first batch of keropok today. Forced myself out of bed to do it. Raining a lot..not sure how to dry it but I hope to be able to make 10kg of prawns (ie 10 times) before the year ends. That will be the supply for Christmas, CNY and throughout 2012.