Woooooo Hooooo!

Malaysia, here I come!



I made a decision last year to spend the majority of my holidays in Malaysia. While I would LOVE to explore other countries, I don't want to regret not seeing my parents for years. I don't know what it is- fillial piety? I like to think I simply like them very much. I certainly don't feel obligated. When they were here last month, I realized that if I were to visit them once a year, I'd end up seeing them only 15 more times before they pass away (and that 15 years is if they survive til 85!) which is kind off depressing.


We'll be visiting Malaysia twice in 2010- Chinese New Year in Feb and again, in July (for 4-8 weeks). My in-laws will join us there as well so that should be fun (and stressful).

I love how cheap Malaysia is. I love Topshop. I love t-shirts which fit me properly.



I have it all planned (sort of la). A few days at the E&O in Penang (or Cheong Fatt Tze mansion), a few days at The Lakehouse or Cameron Highlands Resort, 2 nights in Melaka, a 4-day jungle trekking package (which I will NOT join. I hate being active haha), 3 nights at an East Coast island... am I missing anything? The Dutchman and I will take advantage of Air Asia or MAS cheap fares to Cambodia or Vietnam or Hong Kong.

Woooo, I know it's still AGES away but I am so looking forward to it!



I'm not ready for school. I don't feel as if I'd a holiday. Being a student in The Netherlands is amazing though- I have one full day and all mornings off this semester. I pretty much have an average of 12 hours a week.

5.5 months before I get to eat cookies and pong teh.

Great Offer

Plane tickets are getting cheaper and cheaper everyday. I'd like to celebrate Chinese New Year in 2010 as it coincides with my spring vacation and I haven't celebrated it for 4 years now. The next time I'm free during CNY would be after graduation (CNY 2013).

There's a promotion going on and a return flight costs only 542 euro. I'm very tempted but I'm afraid the price will fall further. :/ I'm after all just a poor student and even 100 euro will mean I can shop quite a bit back home ^^

To buy or not to buy....

Food From Home

When my parents were here, they cooked a few of my favourite dishes and froze it in the freezer.

What I had for dinner yesterday:


Chilli Garam
Vegetables
Chicken Stir-Fry

What else they made for me:
All kinds of Chinese food
Chilli Crabs

Mihun Siam
Char Kuey Teow


Man, I miss Malaysian food!

Camping

I had a facial today and it was awesome.

Now, about the holiday...

I'll be honest. I don't think camping is our thing. I don't mind staying in a tent but I think renting a house or paying for a hotel would've been better and not necessarily more expensive.

To camp, you:

i) need a tent (which can be ridiculously expensive. Ours was very cheap, only 150 euro- but some go up to well over 1000 euro).

ii) buy all kinds of rubbish like an electric kettle, gas/camping stove, table, chairs, air mattresses, sleeping bags etc. etc. etc. which obviously all cost money.

iii) need to be aware of your surroundings- in other words, be considerate and when you're in a quiet place like ours, you end up whispering to each other for 10 days.

iv) have put up with people who have no such considerations. In our case, there was a family with 3 boys (seriously, why did they choose a camping which was specifically listed as VERY QUIET AND SMALL and more importantly, why did the camping owners allow them to camp there.... Everyone hated that family) who shouted all day long (the parents AND the boys).

v) have little privacy. Toilets and bathrooms are shared. You can't expect to be able to brush your teeth alone. You can't expect to poop without anyone hearing 'it' go *plonk* into French-style toilets. You can't always have a shower when you want because someone else might be using it.

vi) have to put up with insects.

vii) have to deal with the weather. It was nice most of the time for us but it's usually too hot to sleep in the tent at 10 a.m. and there was a pretty bad storm on the last night.

That makes it sound like I absolutely HATE camping, right? I won't deny that it's not my vacation of choice but I'm not ruling it out completely. I see and understand its charms. The toilets are showers were clean (and it had warm water as well!), the surroundings absolutely gorgeous and it's just kind off fun to make your own food on a one-pit stove and being in complete darkness at night.

Our tent was great, especially considering how cheap it was. It has 2 'bedrooms' and a sort of living room where we placed our picnic table and groceries.



Our camping site(quite cheap at 17.60 euro a night. A friend went camping in Normandy and paid 35 euro a night 0_0). I liked how quiet it was, the pretty mountains and how we could always hear the cow bells tinkling all day.





What we did (We're terrible at taking pictures. We took about 15 pictures this whole trip!)

i) visited cities/towns/villages around the area
ii) ate out a lot
iii) fishing
iv) fishing
v) fishing

Yop, we fished a looot! We caught 2 trouts the first day but didn't have any success after that. Quite frustrating. The ones we DID catch tasted wonderful though yum yum



Photos of some of the places we went to:

Lac d'Annecy



Mont Blanc


Waterfall in Seythenex

Home Sweet Home

Must pick up the cat but will update later tonight or tomorrow!

:(

My parents left today and I miss them so much:(

No updates for the next 2 weeks as I'll be in France.

I wish I could live close to my parents. I wish I didn't have to pick between my partner and my parents. Sometimes I resent him for having family living nearby whom he's not even close to. Yet, I have to be so far apart from mine eventhough I'm really close with my parents and extended family. I know I shouldn't blame him and I don't but I can't help but want things to be different. He's been awfully understanding about it though and he likes my parents as well. They cooked all my favourite dishes, ironed my clothes, made my plants happy (which weren't dead but slowly dying for the last year...)... I paid for most of our outings/food (they paid some as well) which I totally did not mind. In fact, I was prepared and wanted to pay for everything. At the airport today, they told me to check my shoe under the bed. They left me close to a thousand euros. Bla. Why do they always have to be so nice to me:(

I just feel so lonely without them. I felt so secure when they were here. We chatted so much (obviously they annoyed me as well). It's just different with parents, isn't it... There will always be boundaries with a partner. Sure, I tell him everything but I know things will never be the same if I were to do something horrible such as cheat on him. Parents on the other hand (at least mine!) will be nice to me, no matter what.

One more year before I see them again. :(

Continuation

Right. Soooo, after that, both couples went into their repective rooms to talk it out. As usual, I was in the middle between the 2 parties because I could understand both sides.

Dutchman being Dutch, wanted to talk it out. Parents, being Malaysians, are terrible at talking things out so pretended everything was fine.

It wasn't obviously.

And I was grumpy because I'd paid lots of money (present for parents) for nothing.

Basically, my mother walked with a grumpy face the entire time.

We took them to the Astrological clock (not that there was much to see...) to witness the uhm.. 'chimes'. However, when we were there, my mother refused to sit with us? Apparently, she didn't want a drink or something. The Dutchman and I were extremely annoyed.

Mother kept making snide comments. Dutchman was very upset. Decided he didn't like my parents at all anymore. Decided my parents were not nice people. I felt like crap.

Luckily, it improved on the last evening. We had a lovely meal at Fish restaurant in Mala Strana which made everyone very happy.

Foo. Glad it's over. Glad everything's OK again.

P/S: I am so annoyed that we were totally fleeced in Prague. 3 cappucinos, 1 Cola Light and 2 slices of honey cakes = 800 CZK (30+ euro!). WTF right?

Back From Prague

Wow, am I glad to be home haha.

It's hard being in the middle of the Dutchman and my parents.

It all started on the first day. Dutchman drove us there (8-9 hours) and was pretty tired by the time we arrived. Because parking at the hotel is ridiculously expensive (80 euro which is a huge amount for parking in Czech Republic), we tried to look for public/free parking outside (we have a lease car so frankly, do not give a rat's ass if the thing gets stolen- just as long as it's legal parking). After driving for 15 minutes, we finally found a spot in front of some apartments in a poor-ish area. Relieved, we all came out of the car but my mother was obviously too enthusiastic and opened the car door much too hard, which dented the car next to ours rather badly. I'd expected a scratch but it was quite a large dent! Dutchman was pissed because he was tired and number 2, it's just a shitty thing to do. My mother wasn't apologetic. In fact, she continues to insist that the dent was already there (it wasn't. Dutchman saw it happening). Dutchman reacted rather harshly (by Asian standards)which caused my already sensitive mum to decide that she was going to hate the trip no matter what happens. Yay.

To be continued later...