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....

Holiday Upcoming

Finally, the day for me to leave my kids to my hubby and enjoy 3 days 2 nights of girly fun is around the corner. It took the girls many emails and date changes before it was finally set to this weekend. Not to be wet blanket, but I actually do not expect a whole lot from this vacation. A lot of girly chats for sure but I doubt there will be overflowing adventures and excitement. Not young and carefree anymore, girls. But nevertheless, it's been a long while since I have gone on a vacation, so will make the most of it. Who knows, maybe I will be proven wrong. We may actually have loads of crazy fun. Well, will just have to wait and see :).

I still have not packed and do not know what clothes to bring. Looking at my current shape, i doubt it will make any difference :P. But I do have a new hairstyle which I am still not used to. I have to tell myself just relax and have fun, don't think too much!

As prmoised, here are some pictures I took of my girl with the new lens. Will be taking more pictures during my trip.

Bad Malaysian Drivers, me included

It's only Tuesday but I felt apt to do an entry on my blog about something that I happened to think about this morning and coincidentally read about as well in an article in Malaysian Insider (How to greet pedestrian by Colin Boyd Safer). It is none other than about driving ethics in Malaysia. The article spoke about the dangers drivers posed to pedestrians and I definitely agree. Malaysians are bad drivers, especially so in KL.

How could a person be this very well-mannared individual off the road but when he/she gets into the car, he/she has a totally different temperament! It is particularly common in the big cities in Malaysia. I have to admit I am one of those guilty. But I definitely have compassion for pedestrians, especially children. I will defintely slow down to let a person cross the street, provided it is safe for him to do so. I have once, in my University's days, tried to cross a busy street. This kind driver stopped to let me cross but just as I rushed past his car, an on-coming car overtook him and nearly knocked me dead! From then on, I am very careful when to stop and let a pedestrian cross. I do not want my act of kindness to turn into a disaster for the person trying to cross a street. One thing I hate when I do stop to let a pedestrian cross the street, instead of walking briskly as I would expect, this person walks slowly as if afraid to lose his/her composure/style. Sorry to say this, your grandfather does not own this street and when you 'mati katak', there will be no style at all!

I am especially worried when I see young school kids walking by the roadside or crossing the streets by themselves when I send/fetch my son to/from school. Kids are kids, they are playful and sometimes, their concentration span is short. Walking/crossing the streets by themselves is just too dangerous. Parents, kids under 12 should not be allowed to cross the streets without the help of an adult!!

As I said earlier, I am guilty of being a bad driver. Not for having bad driving skills, but for having lack of patience. I have to confess, I am guilty of cutting queues whenever there is a traffic jam. I just cannot sit patiently and see others cut queue while I wait in line. And for that I really admire those who can wait in line. I will always cut in and out to find the fastest lane, or even drive on the road shoulders or ermergency lanes. I will never cut queue in other circumstances but in the car, it's like I am a different person. I do not know if I can change or am willing to change. I am challenged every day when coming to work. I will try to be patient and wait in line, maybe, someday.

On a entirely different matter, I just got my new 55-200 Nikkor lens last night. So I will be testing it out soon and also bringing it along to my vacation in Cherating next month with the girls. Will upload pictures soon.