Merdeka Blues?

Merdeka is fast approaching. This year it falls on a Tuesday. We haven't got any plans, probably a day to laze around at home or do some house improvement work.

At this Merdeka, I am feeling sad for our country. Alhtough much is going on outside of our own confines, majority of the rakyat are still the same. They live the same lives, work the same jobs, interact with the same people. But as we celebrate the Independence Day of our beloved country, are we proud of her achievements, are we proud of the societies that she has? Many times, I really think we have gone backwards instead of forward. 50+ years, and we are still harping about race and religion. People say these are sensitive topics and to be avoided. So we will avoid them by circling around them but never really dwelve into them. But does it really help? 50 years on, I definitely think it did not.

However, I truly believe majority of the people are peace-loving and fair people. I hope people will not be played by the politicians or the main stream media into feeling the need to bash one group in order to come out tops. It is my heart felt hope that all Malaysian should just go back to the basics, the fundamentals. We want good not evil, we want fairness not biasness, we want capable leaders not corrupt ones, we want all the needy to be assisted.

God is our ultimate judge. I ask for for His divine help, to make this country one that we are proud to call HOME, the only one we know of. Amen.

Being a Mum is not a bed of roses

Hectic week with my hubby working late. I have to manage all the kids by myself after work and they are really a handful. It is fortunate that dinner is taken care of at my in laws or I would really have no breathing space. Well, these are some of the sacrifices working mothers have to face. Not that stay-at-home mothers have it easy, I honestly do not think I can be that even if we can afford it. I think stay-at-home mothers have it worse and I really take my hats off to them.

The house may be in a mess, the clean laundry is still sitting on the sofa. But cleaning is not priority for me. I need to get the kids cleaned and fed and ready for bed. If they have homework, need them to finish it and nag them to practise their piano.

If you have me on facebook then you probably would know about my puppy going crazy and destroyed my small little pebble garden. We even set up a 3 feet fence around it but I think she was must have been really bored last night and decided to jump in and murder my plants! Now we are at a lost on how to prevent it from happening again. Just hope she will grow out of this phase SOON! Here is the mess we found this morning.

This is probably an understatement, being a mum for 3 kids and a puppy is defintely not a bed of roses! Thanks mum, for taking care of us 4 and a couple of dogs too. But as Beyonce would sing...

I'm a survivor, I'm not going to give up, I'm not goin' stop, I'm gonna work harder...

Kob Kun Kaa

We arrived home on Sunday afternoon from our 5 day 4 night trip to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai with a short stop in Laos thrown in. Had some pretty hectic travelling on one day where we only had dinner at midnight! The other few days were relaxing by comparison. But I think the tour guide, Xiao Zhen (a Thai Chinese), did a good job and worked hard trying to keep everyone in the group happy. Overall, it was a good trip. Air Asia was quite acceptable, the seats were surprisingly quite comfortable in leather! I knew there was no food provided but there was no bagage provided either?! So, we ended up paying extra for baggage check in. Well, next time I will be smarter. Only carry 7 kg with you on the plane and no check-in baggage.

From my short trip (the last trip to Thailand was to Bangkok/Pattaya many moons ago), I can see many similarities and also many differences between Thailand and Malaysia. The weather is pretty similar, very hot and rains often. However it just drizzles and doesn't pour, at least on the the few days that we were there. The buildings are similar, the kampong houses looks like what we can find in our kampongs. The roads are also the same except all the signboards are in the thai language, you hardly can find anything in English! The people and the shopping malls are the same, the Thais look mostly like typically Malaysian chinese, maybe more so in northern Thailand.

There are things that I noticed that are different. Shrines and satelite dishes are everywhere! Temples are aplenty too. Another thing is they really love and respect their Monarchy, big pictures of their King and Queen are displayed everywhere too.

Strangely, there are hardly any fat people in Thailand. Could it their diet of sour, spicy and sweet in everything? I also noticed many Ah Kuas (transexuals) working in normal jobs, I was even molested (or massaged) by one! But my sis assured me that he (or more like she) was not the least bit interested in me, of which I am convinced.

Elephants ('Chang' in Thai) are very respected there, there are many elephant decos decorating buildings and hotels. Elephant ornaments are sold to tourist eveyrwhere. There are also many beautiful dogs (mostly pure breeds), I can see that the Thais love their dogs. One more major difference is that the Thai McDonalds serve pork burgers, delicous! Definitely one of the highlights of my trip, having pork burgers from McD, twice.

We went up to the border and crossed over the Mekong river to Laos for a short stop. We also visited the border town of Maesai which is bordering Myanmar. There is a village camp which we visited where some Myanmar refugees lives there and make a living from tourists, these include the long neck and big ear Karen hill tribe.

Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai

A child on the back of her mother, begging on street of Measai border town.

A big ear lady from a Myanmar refugee camp near Chiang Rai.

It was a great trip for photo taking, I have more pictures posted on my facebook which you can see from this link. It will not be soon when I can go on such type of trip again, already I feel guilty that I left my kids behind. So I guess we will plan our next trip to include the kids and the hubby, hopefully soon.

Kob Kun Kaa (thank you) for reading my blog....