gollysmolly

My family goes up to KL for two purposes; to eat and to shop =P. This trip was precisely that.

The drive up was okay, except for the horrendous traffic jam toward the end of the North-South Highway, but other than that, it was pretty fine.

We got to the Concorde Hotel without MUCH difficulty, with the exception of the expected KL traffic jams and the occasional loss of direction with the disorientation that seems inevitable in Malaysia.

That night we had dinner at some Chinatown place, where we had a good feast, and some magosteens after. I tried one or two, and even ate one that tasted REALLY bitter. Only then was I told not to eat the yellow stuff… "Now you tell me…" were my exact words.

We met several nice people who brought us out for meals (and showed us what KL had to offer).

Aunty Maureen, whom I trust will not read this blog, has absolutely *splendid* driving skills. From what I am told (since I was asleep in the car due to my mild fever), she couldn’t see the traffic light turn from amber to red, so she simply followed the car in front of her, which happily shot through the junction with her trailing. When my mother pointed out that it was a red light, she stopped dead in the centre of the junction, with cars bypassing her front and her back, luckily skilfully done so that we were quite safe. Thankfully, we survived to have a nice meal; chicken hor fun or something like that. I barely ate, since I came down with a fever earlier that morning, and didn’t feel well at all.

I ended up going back to the hotel to rest, while my crazy family went shopping the rest of the afternoon, leaving my elder sister to take care of me (but she went swimming while I was asleep) till they came home and went out again for dinner (leaving me all by myself).

I was getting bored when they came home, and invited me down for dinner, where I had a buffet (since it was cheaper than ordering anything from the a la carte menu).

That night I could hardly sleep since I had already slept the whole afternoon away. When I was awoken in the morning, I was surprised that I was not tired at all.

My father’s brother’s wife’s brother (sister in law’s brother), Uncle Phillip, took us out for lunch at some distant coffee shop in a nearby town. One thing for sure, (hope he doesn’t find this blog), if Aunty Maureen’s driving was splendid, his was *SUPERB*.

1. He U-turned from the second turning lane, which is illegal (and uncourteous), and also made my brother do it, since he was following behind!

2. He indicated to cut into the right lane, but when my brother (who was following his car) let him out and blocked up the right lane for his exit, he didn’t cut out. So my brother, to allow cars to pass him, cut into the left lane, Uncle Phillip cut out into the right lane, so my brother had to follow him (and looked like a fool in thr process).

3. He drove all the way up to a green light intersection and stopped to allow jaywalkers to cross the street.

That’s about all I can rememeber about his driving, but he also has this fearful eyebrow that has a clump of hair sticking out in the centre, like a claw or something… Fascinating.

At the coffee shop itself, there was a toilet which, as I was told, was a small cubicle with a sloping floor and water to wash whatever out of the cubicle through a hole in the side. Basically, it was a flat floor with a hole to one side. Outside on the door, it said in Chinese,"bu zun da bian", meaning,’not sutiable for big business’. How very appropriate.

Later that day, my eldest brother and my elder sister brought me to the amusement park in Times Square, where I sat on my first REAL roller coaster (one that goes upside down). I sound so sua ku, but nevermind, its VERY fun, and I went on it again, but not before we tried most other rides (on the adults’ level).

We had dinner with my Mum’s friends, Stephen and Evan (Evangeline? I don’t know, but it’s prounounced E-Vanne), who brought us to a hawker centre, where we had good chinese food, not unlike what we have here in Singapore. After that, we went for durians! (Sadly enough, I don’t eat them).

Thank goodness I had a blocked nose, but I was still emboldened enough to try one small seed. To say the least, I didn’t go for seconds =P.

The next morning was for packing already, and the drive home afer an EXCELLENT lunch at Jalan Imbi (the famous kway teow soup) was not disastrous, but it was a close call. We spent about an hour looking for the North-South Highway to get back home, and got stuck on the second link causeway due to a hoard of cars all trying to get back to Singapore through a limited number of open customs booths.

So now I’m back, after a VERY fun trip to KL, looking forward to more roller coasters after my sadly deprived childhood… That ends from this trip forth. I know how to eat fruits that I don’t eat, though I probably still won’t eat them, but most important of all, I want to sit on a roller coaster!!!

Anyone up for a ride?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2005 at 7:13 am and is filed under my life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.