Runawaycat in Singapore

Today’s long journey has come to an end! For now I’m just gonna stick at home until tomorrow afternoon.

In the Penang flight to KL, I saw a group of guys who looked like Vietnamese and it turned out they are! Lapchai! I was wearing a cap with the words Vietnam on it and when he saw it he was like, “Vietnam! Are you Vietnamese?” in super fluent English. Too bad I was already seated in the plane and he had to move to the back, like really, really back. So I ended up talking to the Dubai guy next to me.

And during the flight to Singapore from KL, one Chinese sat a seat away from me. I couldn’t discern whether he was a she or a he so I refrained from talking to him/her. It’s dangerous when the situation is this way. You might get in trouble (Just use your imagination). If only a cute guy was sitting next to me. I could have started a conversation and maybe get myself a tour guide, if he’s from Singapore :P

My first flight was with Air Asia and for the first time I thought I’ve finally found an Air Asia flight with nice stewardesses. How wrong was I. When we reached LCCT, the plane stopped for a while and 2 guys stood up to get their bags. The stewardess asked them to sit. Then later the plane moved and stopped again. This time a couple stood up and walked along the aisle. This totally pissed off the stewardess.

“Please sit down” she said in a teacher-threatening voice.
Then she continued, “Can’t you understand simple English?”

Ho ho ho! Monster stewardess.

From this point onwards I’m gonna share my agony with you. My backpack was almost 10 kg, thanks to the compulsory formal wear (which meant extra pairs of shoes too) that I have to bring. And my laptop bag was, what, 4 kg? I don’t know, it’s just goddamned heavy. It was agonizingly painful to carry. And my boarding gate had to be at the very end. Thank you for inventing the travellator, whoever you are! Though I wish you could have made it faster, like the escalator in the MRT stations. Gawd, it totally reflects the hectic Singaporean lifestyle. And when I reached Singapore it had to be the peak hours and I didn’t even get to sit all through the confusing MRT journey. I can’t help but see the sign “Please offer this seat to someone who needs it more than you” everytime and feel betrayed. Does carrying a 10 kg bag with an almost bent to the max spine, looking like a half-dead fish not count as someone who needs the seat more than all you bastards glued to the seat? When I finally reached my destination, I couldn’t feel my shoulders anymore. I need Yoko Yoko.

And I’m gonna end this now because it’s taxing my shoulders to be typing so much.

Camp of a lifetime

I’m back home again after 4 and a half days in Kedah, which is a neighbouring state to Penang. I was there for a school project and we were assigned to stay with families in the area where our project took place, i.e. homestay. The whole program was like attending an army camp yet an anorexic treatment camp at the same time.

It felt like an army camp because our project leader has anger management problem; imagine those generals you see on TV, or your school’s discipline teacher. It was an anorexic camp because our ‘foster parents’ kept feeding us food; not that it’s a bad thing, considering my financial status, but that gained me 1 kg. Some participants had to go out and buy themselves food, whereas I came back home with my packets of security instant mee untouched.

Honestly, for the past 4 days, I sorta hated food. Or should I say I sorta hated lunch, tea, and dinner times. Breakfast was ok because I’d be hungry after a long night’s sleep (long in terms our stomach hours). On the first day I had 2 lunches in 1 hour. Imagine that. When we arrived we ate the lunch that was provided and when we arrived at our foster parent’s home, we had a second lunch. We told them we already had lunch but apparently we were ignored. It’d be rude to not eat so we had to swallow everything down no matter what. Before we even had time to digest our lunches, it was time for tea. Oh the horror. Don’t you call this a camp for anorexics? But, but, but…I still have to say this, thank you for not making me buy my own meals!

The family was nice to us and the auntie even gave us a big ang pau this morning… it’s all about the money hahahah. (I just came back today and I’m tired yet here I am. See how dedicated I am to the what little concerned readers I have :P I deserve a treat, don’t you think?)

As for the army camp, I would have written a 10 page blog 2 days ago if I had access to the computer but I think I’m just gonna forget it now. Too much anger isn’t gonna do me any good, though if you’re interested I’d be glad to tell you, if I still remember, that is. Now I’m just happy it’s over.

So I have another one week before I start packing my bags again. Sigh. I’ve been leading a one-week-stay-home-interval lifestyle for a month now. One week after my finals I went to Vietnam, one week after I came back from there I went to Kedah. Now one week after this I’ll be going to Singapore. And one week after that the new semester would start. I guess this is the busy traveling lifestyle I dreamt of? Not so fun considering I have things to do at home and my fragile paper pocket that’s going to tear anytime soon. I think I’m gonna have to skip the end year holiday. Tsk.

Tune Hotels

Look what’s new! It’s every traveler’s dream! Ok it’s my dream come true. Check out the new Tune Hotel, Asia’s first no frills hotel. You can get a room for as low as MYR 9.99! That’s cheaper than guest houses which I would usually opt for. Of course you'll have to pay for the air-con but that doesn't bother me because I don't need it :) The unfortunate thing is it’s now only available in KL. Well let’s hope it expands soon enough throughout Asia. Yay!

I shall say no more. Check out the website if you're all interested already.