At GH...

Drove my paternal granma to General Hospital of BP for her regular 3-monthly check-up on her hypertension... An old lady sat beside us at the waiting room and started to boast to us on her wealth and health consciousness! As she's from Ipoh (staying in BP now as her daughter lives here), she couldn't understand or speak in Hokkien... But my granma could only understand and speak Hokkien, and understand some Mandarin... That lady spoke in Mandarin to us... Eventually, Granma got bored and chose to watch TV! So i ended up talking to the lady! :-/ I was so unwilling to talk to her, thanks to her attitude! I wished i were deaf for that moment... Hope we won't see her again in future :P

heard the GP explaining to a Malay patient with numb fingers about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome... that patient was an old lady... i bet she couldn't understand everything :P hmm... i've to master the correct way of explaining medical stuffs to my patients in layman's terms... don't want to end up like this GP :P

One round around Peninsula Malaysia - Part 3

Kedah
Reached my maternal granma's house in the evening. It's situated just beside the railway, so we could hear trains passing by as scheduled. The weather in Kedah was very hot! My granma's very good in cooking! A typical Cantonese :) So we'd delicious meals throughout our stay there...
Mum met up with some of her ex-schoolmates... They looked older than my mum! :P My mum has a very young heart :)
My uncle (mum's youngest brother) brought us out to taste the famous Penang laksa! It was delicious :)
We tried all kinds of foods here in the north, which were slightly different from the food we'd in the south. Some even claimed that the food here was more delicious! :)
There's a morning market near my granma's house. We walked there every morning to buy food, clothes, shoes, bags, and other stuffs... It's a mini bazaar :) Things there were relatively cheaper than those in shopping malls, but their standards were equally good! I bought 2 blouses, a pair of jeans and a skirt :)
On the night before we left, Uncle brought us to a seafood restaurant by the riverside... Wow... I ate a lot! :P
After dinner, mum attended a gathering at her friend's house... According to her after that, some of her friends had various health complications... I'm thankful that both my parents are healthy :)
Granma followed us back to Johor as she's going to my aunt's house in Singapore in July, after my uni reopens... She's promised to cook good food for me to help me gain more weight :)
At 9am on Sunday, we set off from Kedah, and reached BP at 5pm... It was a tiring journey, but we were all used to it :)

One round around Peninsula Malaysia - Part 2

~Kota Bharu, Kelantan~

Wednesday, 30th of May

Traffic was heavy on the way from Terengganu to Kelantan, and there was no highway, only trunk roads! We had to stop for a few times for animals like cows and goats to cross the road :) little boys and girls were riding motorbikes at a very young age... typical kampung kids!

The buildings in the towns looked different from those in the West Coast, they're more of Islamic style. As we're near the coastline, the weather was very hot and sunny!

Arrived at Kota Bharu by noon. Had lunch at KB Mall, supposed to be the largest shopping mall in Kota Bharu, if not the only one :)

Food here was slightly different from what we've in the West Coast and Down South. Curry and laksa are sweet instead of spicy! There're nasi kerabu, nasi dagang, and other types of special nasi here.

After lunch, we visitted the famous Sitting Buddha Temple and Reclining Buddha Temple. The Reclining Buddha Temple is the second largest of its kind in the world!

After praying, we headed to Mrs Tan's relative's house. They're rich businessmen in Kota Bharu. We took pictures with their Volkswagen sport car :)

The son of the old lady of that house married a Japanese lady, they've 2 children, both schooling in Malaysia. Yusei is a Form 1 boy who loves to draw. He can draw any model of any car, especially Formula One racing cars, as long as you can name it :)

Karin is a Standard 4 girl who's very shy, soft-spoken and gentle... typical Japanese girl :) She reads Harry Potter... in Japanese!

The children speaks Japanese to each other and their parents. We managed to learn a few words from them :)

Before dinner, we went to Mrs Tan's another relative's house. They're richer and own a house of 1 acre, with a spacious garden planted with fruit trees! They even hired professors from universities to monitor their illed plants! Wow... And we took pictures with their Morris Minor car! A true car fan will be so thrilled to see this car :)

We had dinner at a famous Thai Restaurant. We had tomyam, Thai salad, kerabu, fish steamed with unripe mangoes, pig leg, Thai style veggy... all the food was spicy and sour, but delicious! I ate a lot :P Took an antacid pill before going to bed to prevent getting gastric pain, 'cause i'm prone to getting it :)

Thursday, 31st of May

Had a sumptuous breakfast, thanks to the old lady, Mrs Yeo. She brought one of her 3 maids to town to buy food for us early in the morning. She bought many local foods like nasi kerabu (this was nicer than the one we had yesterday), nasi lemak(the sambal was slightly different from the one we normally had, it's sweet and delicious!), pulut pisang (it's very sweet!), and lakse (it's a bit like mee soto).

before leaving, Mrs Yeo told us stories of her own family. if we didn't stop her, she could have continued forever :P She wished me all the best in my studies when we were about to leave. We'll never forget her warm hospitality to us. The whole family was so friendly to us. In fact, we spent less than a day's time there!

Mr Lim's family and my family left Kelantan for Kedah. We took the Grik way. It was like going up Cameron Highlands as we had to travel over the Titiwangsa Highlands. We saw a boar crossing the road on the way :) i've seen a boar before in New Zealand in year 1998. Malaysian boars looked different, their fur colour was lighter.

We saw signboards warning us to beware of elephants and deers! Mrs Yeo's brother told us that one should never travel on this road at night as elephants will come out of the forest and sit on the road when they see cars coming. They will not move! And the cars should never sound their horns as the elephants will walk towards the cars and might smash them! You can only turn off your headlights and wait for the animals to move away from the road, and that might take you hours! The only solution is to wait for big trucks and tankers to come by as elephants are scared of the loud sound from the horns of the big vehicles :)

We stopped by the riverside of Perak River to take a look at the Floating Jetty of Grik. The scenery there was beautiful!

We had lunch at Grik town before continuing our journey to Kedah.

One round around Peninsula Malaysia - Part 1

~Lang Tengah Island~

Sunday, 27th of May

Set off from my hometown, Batu Pahat, Johor with dad's colleagues, Mr See, Mr Tan and his wife, and mum's collegue, Mdm Leh , her husband, Mr Lim, and the children, Yvonne and Leonard.

Ate breakfast in a small town - Cha'ah.

Had lunch at a hawker centre in Kuantan, Pahang. Things there made all my sweet memories when i was studying in Pahang Matriculation College. As the Chinese saying goes, "time passes like a shooting arrow". It's true :)

The way from Johor to the East Coast, and up the East Coast is not a highway, we couldn't speed fast...

On the way to Terengganu, we passed by many Malay villages... people there lead a peaceful but poor life... should i admire them or feel grateful for my current life?

reached Merang Suria Resort in Kuala Terengganu in the evening... we're too tired to go to the beach, and we knew the fact that beaches on the islands will be more beautiful :)

Monday, 28th of May

went to Merang Jetty by the resort van. There were around 20 other people travelling together with us in the ferry. It took us more than an hour to reach Lang Tengah Island!

The sand on the beach was so white and soft and tiny! The seawater was crystal clear and we could see fishes swimming happily in underwater! wow... It's paradise!

My sis - Daphne and I shared a room with 2 double beds, but we slept together on only one.

We went to the Marine Park on Redang Island, which was 45 minutes from Lang Tengah Island by ferry. We went snorkelling near the beach. It was quite disappointing as the corals there weren't as beautiful as what my family and i saw on Tioman Island (we went there in 2003). We managed to visit the turtle-hatching centre before leaving. The turtles were so cute :)

Food on Lang Tengah Island was good! It was of Chinese style, cooked by Malay cooks, so it was halal.

We played mahjong (my favourite game) after dinner, and had a karaoke session too! Daphne really has a good voice :) i was so proud of her when other girls invited her to sing together with them!

It rained heavily at night and the wind was very strong. For unknown reasons, the roof of the karaoke room was leaking water! However, we enjoyed ourselves :)

Tuesday, 29th of May

Watched Miss Universe on Astro in the morning... everyone was so surprised that Miss Japan won the title!

we girls didn't follow the men and other ladies for jungle trekking as we're afraid of getting mosquitoe bites :P

played mahjong after lunch before going around the island by ferry. We went snorkelling at another site, which had more beautiful corals (however, we still think that Tioman Island's is better) and more fishes! We lured the fishes to come near us with bread!

Daphne and 6 other people took the banana boat ride. i didn't go as i've experienced it before in 2004 when i went to Awana Kijal, Kuala Terengganu with my family and my 2nd uncle's family...

had barbecued food for dinner. 1st time eating lamb chop with fingers as there're no knives provided :)

night life on the island is quite boring... karaoke, mahjong, drinking, chit-chatting...

and yes... it rained again...

Wednesday, 30th of May

we left the island after breakfast... it was a great trip to Lang Tengah Island :) and my dad has even planned to go there for a second time in 2 year's time... so, does anyone want to join? i'm sure you do :)

Results...

Just came back from vacation. Received my 1st-year professional exam result slip from the university. Didn't get distinction for 2 of the course subjects which i attended the viva voce, quite disappointed. 'Cause i thought i could at least get a distinction for Oral Biology. However, i passed all core and university subjects with a few A's, at least :) Compared to those unlucky ones, my results are good.

I really envy some of my friends who got better results... I'm really happy for you people :) Congrats! I'll work harder in the coming academic year to get better results, i'm not a easily contented person :) On top of that, i'll make sure that all the knowledge i've gained are put into good use and practised!

Days are blue recently, but i must have a positive mind and attitude towards life... Always remember that there are bright and wonderful days ahead... and you'll find them!