Saturday, July 01, 2006

Singapore adventure

Yup...I've been missing for a couple of weeks and now I'm back again. Phew..it has been a rather busy holiday for me. One week more and we are going to University Malaya to start another phase of our lives. Hmm...definitely not looking forward to it.
Anyway, so where have I been for the past two weeks? I was in Singapore "visiting" my eldest sister and her family for the first week and then went sightseeing in Taiwan in the second week.
Let me tell you what happened in the first week. It all started badly. It was a Tuesday morning and it had rained heavily in the morning. Rain = terrible, snail-paced traffic congestion everywhere in KL. My mom and I began our "adventure" to Singapore at 10:45 a.m. We only reached KL at 12 p.m. A quick brunch in Petaling Street and we walked to Puduraya. Our 1:30 p.m. bus came a bit late and when we got on our "VIP bus", we found out that we'd been conned and we were given a 44 seater! Not only that, but tickets with the same seats were printed twice!! My cousin and I had the same seats as two Swedish guys! Sheesh! Talk about Malaysian efficiency! Lucky thing they still know how to count, so only 44 tickets were issued and there were empty seats in the middle, so my cousin and I sat there! One hour into our journey, the bus stopped by the road and said that because the air-cond was not working, we had to wait for a replacement bus. We finally continued the journey at almost 3 p.m. in another 44 seater. But alas! another 1 hour's jam in the Seremban exit and we finally reached Johor at about 5:30 p.m. (If we had taken the more expensive Nice bus, we would have reached Singapore at 5:30 p.m. or 6:30 at the latest). So anyway, the bus stopped at its terminal in Machang for half an hour, then stopped again at another bus terminal, I forget which place. Then, the bus took the First Cosway which is terribly crowded on any day, any time. Everything went well til we reached the Singapore checkpoint. The line that we were standing in was manned by a plump lady who was taking her own sweet time asking questions, humming a little tune and then stamping our passports! Our line was at first the shortest and we ended up lining for more than half an hour. When we finally cleared the customs, our bus had left us! Hahaha...so, to those who want to save the fare and take the more economical buses, take note: the drivers only wait for half and hour, their duty of sending you to Singapore is completed once your feet touch Singapore soil, even though it's at the tip of Singapore. So, anyway, my cousin and i went and asked another driver if we could go to the bus terminal in their bus, and the driver wanted S$2 per person. By then, our mothers were nowhere to be seen, so we told the driver to hold the offer while we went and asked our mothers. When we turned around to look for the bus driver, he was nowhere to be found! Grrr...so we went to another bus driver, and he told us to get on his Delima bus, which by the way, is so much more comfortable and spacious compared to our Transnational bus, without charge. That's what I like about Malaysians, some Malaysians anyway...they help fellow Malaysians if the said Malaysian uses Bahasa Melayu to politely ask for help. :) So, anyway, we reached the bus terminal in Kallang Baru safely and my brother-in-law and sister came to pick us up. We were hungry so we went for dinner near their place so that my brother-in-law could go and pick up his son. Not even an hour into the "reunion" with my sister, my sister blurted out some very hurtful statements which made the whole situation awkward and unhappy. I, for one, felt the unwelcome vibes the moment I heard her voice on the phone, but after she had blurted out the statements, everyone felt it. My poor mom! (I'll blog about it some other time) It made all our adventure so NOT worthwhile. If my mom hadn't wanted to go and see her, I wouldn't have cared less if I don't see her for years! True, she must have been hurt by my mom years ago. I actually don't blame her for feeling neglected and hurt by my mom, but couldn't she have made those statements later? Heck! She should have stayed home more and then she'd understand that that is how our mom is like. She would know that our family is weird and its members even weirder. Haha...the episodes in our family could be made into a soap opera and we would have a wide following! ;P
Hmm...4 days in Singapore and we only made truce on the 3rd day- my sister and I, I mean. I guess my mom just took the blows coz she is still her daughter no matter what, which makes me realise that my whole family has been taking everyone for granted. Do you realise that whatever your family does for you is deemed as what they "SHOULD" do, but when someone who's not related to you does the same thing, you'd appreciate their effort? Is it just my family or is that just human nature? Isn't that just so unfair? No one chooses to be related to you or not, except for parents. If you could have a choice, would you choose to be related to your family members now? If it were up to me, I wouldn't want to be born or may be just related to my second sister, and am a far relative of my parents and brother! Hahaha...where does my eldest sister stand? Erm..maybe a friend - she's great with her friends! =P
All said, I'm glad that the visit ended well...for now, dear eldest sister, you are still SO you...but I guess if you had changed, we wouldn't know you anymore. Haha...as Joey McIntyre sang...Stay the Same, eventhough it makes me go bonkers whenever I'm with/around/thinking about you. Haha...cheerios!

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