To Malaysia… ~reminder of childhood~
I think this is probably my last trip overseas before I get captured by the army. Oh well, better than nothing. Today, I went with my siblings, uncle and grandma to Malaysia to do some prayers and shopping(!!!).
Woke up really early in the morning today; at around 7:30am. Haven’t been waking up so early in the morning since I quit my job at the hotel. Besides, I’m working during the afternoon/night shift so the earliest I would wake up is around 12:30pm.
Well~ I took lots of pictures today and I’m lazy to type so I’ll just use the pictures to do the talking…
Took this in the morning before we left the house. The clouds were really beautiful and the sky was really blue~
So early in the morning, my uncle (who, in case you didn’t know, is a Buddhist monk) had to do some funeral ritual at Bedok and we were dragged there to wait for him. Not the smartest thing to do considering that we could still be enjoying the company of our comfortable beds. Leon and Vera bought these huge biscuits that we used to eat when we were little.
Vera is obviously enjoying her biscuits.
And here’s my Po-po (grandma) walking out from I-forgot-where.
So, while we wait for the ritual (which took over 2 hours to complete) to be done, we sat like senior citizens at the void deck’s table. Vera and Leon were eating their biscuits while I was busy snapping pictures of Vera.
The yellow biscuit is durian-flavored and I don’t fancy it.
Vera played with her biscuit…
… and made this epic face.
Impression of Mickey Mouse~
I don’t know what to say about this picture other than the fact that I just want it published.
Did I mention that Vera and Leon made a mess on the table with the biscuit crumbs?
The table that we were stuck at for over 2 hours doing practically nothing.
Okay… Doing practically nothing is quite an exaggeration. We did random things like talking on the telephone…
…playing Pokemon Platinum to train my Starmie…
…napping…
…and snapping random shots of my feet, just to name a few. Vera took this shot by the way.
And finally, after my uncle is done, we went to ICA to collect Leon’s passport and that was another tedious wait. Due to security reasons, I was unable to take photos there but it wasn’t a huge loss since there’s nothing much to snap at to begin with. With the passport in our possession, we finally made it to my uncle’s house in Malaysia!!
This is how his semi-D looks like… It looks like it can crumble to the ground any moment though. I could still remember how it was like years ago; when it was new and gorgeous. This is what happens when you get a house overseas but only go back say, 5 times per month?
Fatty bom bom~
Did I mention that the house is in due for serious cleaning? Look at the layer of dust on that slipper…
…and the rack of musky slippers that looks as though they are starting to rot…
…and the thick layer of dirt on the floor…
…and not to mention, stray paw prints that we believe belonged to a stray cat that entered the house uninvited…
…and look what it’s done to our feet! We should have wore socks…
Indiana-Jones-ing on slippers so that we don’t get our feet dirty and grimy…
After bracing ourselves in the house, we left for Giant to do our shopping! This is how part of the inside of the car looks like. The plastic on the seats are not removed yet due to some weird reason and it was extremely uncomfortable to sit on plastic. Not to mention that the 4 of us had to squeeze throughout the entire trip in 2 seats! Painful experience!!
I brought this Snoopy purse to keep my Malaysian money because I didn’t want to confuse my Singapore notes with the Malaysian ones. I won this purse at the Japanese Sports Carnival when I was in Year 1 and I’m finally putting it to good use!! It’s adorable, no?
We were given only one hour to shop at the Giant building because my uncle dropped us there so that he can go back home to do some tidying up (as if one hour’s enough but anyway~), we were rushing like crazy, looking for lunch and all.
We came to this place for lunch because there weren’t many options. Okay, there were many options but this was the first that caught our eyes because we were starving already~
We bought Nasi Lemak at this place for RM1.80!! That’s not even 90 cents in Singapore currency! The people there didn’t understand English and we obviously have no clue what they were saying because they spoke to us in Malay but luckily, the man talking on the phone could translate for us. They were friendly~
If only food in Singapore were that cheap…
The Nasi Lemak came in this pyramid packaging.
So this is what you get with RM1.80. You get a slice of miserable omelet (reminds me of the similarly miserable one at Food Court 5 back in school), some sambal chilli with onions, a few peanuts and ikan billis and the rice. What do you expect from RM1.80~ The portion was really small but it was actually quite delicious.
We were stuffing our faces with the rice because we were hungry. Actually, I was not meant to take pictures here but who cares~ I already did before I realized that there was a “No Photography” sign. Besides, I’m helping to advertise this shop okay~ We were the only customers at that moment too so they wouldn’t want to chase us away, would they?
Then, we headed upstairs to Giant.
Alright, before we went into Giant, we went to get ourselves some bread because we were still hungry after the RM1.80 Nasi Lemak. Each of us got 2 breads/random stuff each. The staff was friendly too because they are not MICs.
Leon and his chocolate donut. I had a rainbow sparkle donut and I think it’s a little tough to chew on though.
After getting our breads, we went to Giant and again, I was unable to take pictures there because the security guards told us not to. We even had to keep our bags at the counter! What on earth~ But we were co-operative and we went inside to grab whatever we needed to (or rather, whatever I needed).
I bought my swimming trunks, goggles, rubber gloves and shaver for around RM$61, which is slightly under S$30!! That’s freakin’ dirt cheap! That day when I went to Sportslink to check out the prices for the swimming trunks and goggles, they would cost me a total of around S$60!! I made a clever, clever choice of coming to Giant to get my supplies. I may be missing out on the quality but who cares!! I won’t be using it often anyway~
While I shopped for my stuff, my siblings grabbed tidbits like Twisties, seaweed, etc etc. Then after that, Nick went to play a round of basketball at the arcade downstairs.
We agreed to meet our uncle at the entrance of the building at 4:00pm but we eventually met him at 4:15pm because he was late and also because we were dilly-dally-ing. He brought us fries and cupcorn!!
And that cup of golden goodness costs RM2.50, which is around S$1.20! A saving of a whopping 80 cents if you buy the same thing in Singapore! They used to sell cupcorn at a dollar or S$1.50 last time but I don’t understand why they have to up the price to S$2.00~ Doesn’t make sense considering that corn is so cheap.
Our uncle stopped by at a petrol kiosk while we were on our way to Holiday Plaza (more shopping!!) and Nick treated us to drinks. Nick and Leon had Mountain Dew and I’m loving the bottle!
I had the sudden craving for orange juice and so I got this one, which costs around S$1.20 too! And it’s really nice!! Though it’s not really worth mentioning but Vera got green tea… -_-“
At Holiday Plaza, the first place we went to was to shop for candies. Okay, they shopped for candies while I took pictures because I wasn’t in the candy mood. This place reminded me of my grandparents provision shop when we were little. The atmosphere is so special.
There were lots of childhood goodies there for sale too~
Leon posing with his Mountain Dew bottle.
Vera is happy… :P
Anyway, Holiday Plaza wasn’t as magnificent a shopping center as I thought. I was thinking of getting a watch there but it’s either the watches that they are selling are running low on batteries or they are way over my budget. So much for cheap stuff. I was also looking for F.I.R’s re-release version of their new album (Had been hunting for it in Singapore but with no luck. Even if I found one, it was way overpriced!) but all I saw was pirated DVDs and games.
The place does bring back old memories though. My mom used to bring us there when we were young to buy pirated VCDs and DVDs back home to watch because in those days, no one gave a heck about piracy. But now that I’m a CD collector (or something-or-nothing), I have quite a stand on piracy. I rather not listen to the music than download it off the internet (I don’t mind paying for it though).
Speaking of pirated games, I saw lots of bootleg Pokemon games and they made my brother and I laugh. When we were little, we bought this Pokemon Jade, thinking that it was the latest Pokemon but it was actually some random game that is nowhere close to Pokemon. In fact, I don’t even think I’ve completed the game before because it was so retarded!
Holiday Plaza is like a cheaper version (in terms of pricing and feel and environment) of Far East Plaza because of all the clothes that they sell. Vera almost bought this fake branded bag but she gave it a pass eventually. Oh well~ Better not get caught~ Holiday Plaza is basically like a Sin City, with all the illegal stuff for sale.
Oh yes~ Did I mention that I saw police patrolling the place and apparently, they don’t give a damn about the piracy issue? Oh well~ That’s the difference between Singapore and Malaysia then.
After shopping at Holiday Plaza (I didn’t buy anything at all there), we went home, back to Singapore. Before going home, we went to get takeaways from Ponggol (Yes, it’s spelled like this and I don’t know why) Nasi Lemak for dinner. Took this picture because I felt the lighting very cool~ And while reviewing the film for today, I realized that I started the day and ended the day with a similar shot~ Coolness!!
Anyway, I did have fun, although some things in Malaysia disgusts me but there are lots of things to be happy about over there (like ridiculously cheap stuff for cheapo people like me~). At least I managed to spend like 60% of my Malaysian money that my aunt gave us over the past few years for Chinese New Year and from my uncle…
Okay~ Time to end off here because it’s getting seriously long with the pictures and words. Hopefully in the coming 2 days, I will have the energy to blog before I get enlisted. That’s when my blog will be seriously collecting dust…
