Days of joyness, weirdness and crappyness

The topic today is THIS week. The up's and down's before Deepavali.

First on Tuesday, the results day. As expected, the results will be disappointing and worrying.
English = B4
Literature = B3
Chinese = A2
Science = A2
Math, IH, Malay, and IS = A1

In the end, the msg is (without Malay): 2.00
Haha, why was my English the lousiest and another language unknown to me the highest?
I usually spoke English and Chinese rather than Malay at home or in school, why didn't they score well? Probably because of the paper lah, Haiz.

Wednesday is free from everything, but Cikgu Faizal approached me on the Literature exam day and invited me for the Johor Baru trip on that Wednesday. The whole day event was gloriously successful as Mr Faizal and Mr Tieu brought us there. The sky wasn't clear of haze but the particles in the humid atmosphere waited with anticipation. Soon, altogether I think 20 of us, we boarded the bus. With so many faces I do not know, I tried to communicate with them. Joseph (Sec 3 Proed)(Library EP3), Kenneth (Ortus 1I) and the two seniors which participated in the Racial Harmony 2006 play with me were all there. Still, there were several unknown faces as I do not know most of the "Malaysian Scholars". Just to make myself clear, there were a couple of Singaporeans too.

Slowly, the bus departed from Hwa Chong and the sun was rising slowly. It was rather slow as we reached the Woodlands Checkpoint. Woodlands Checkpoint was the magical moment where most illegal things occur. One of them was smuggling. However, departure from Singapore was rather smooth as you will only need to have a chop on the passport. Especially when the Malaysian Passport went electronic as the officer just had to scan it for details.

Soon, the bus "dumped" us at the Woodlands checkpoint and left hurriedly without us. What I thought was different. I thought that the bus would go through the Woodlands Checkpoint, and the tour guide was Cikgu Faizal. But I was wrong. Since everything was sponsored, I barely could understand why the bus stopped at the "incorrect" place, walking through the long bridges and pavements just to reach the checkpoint, boarding SBS bus 170 and alighting it at the other side of the causeway. Of course, the vibrant image of Johor Baru was destroyed by the haze. You could bare see the word "Aiwa(is it?)" when entering Malaysia. The vibrant image of Malaysia was also destroyed by the (re-)construction of the checkpoint which took years to complete.

Getting past the human checkpoint was easy. You just need to insert the passport into the "MRT gateway" machine and after 10 seconds, the other gate would automatically open. Others would have to write the White card, get their passports chopped and ...before getting passed the checkpoint.

We waited for a miserable 30 minutes for getting through the malaysian Checkpoint because one of my seniors had its VISA expiring that day. The miserable 30 minutes still, was quite fun. The Star newspaper, the chewing gums, the currypuff and the different types of items sold in Malaysia. It has been some time I been to Malaysia. But this time, I went to Malaysia with a completely different group of people. I went there with my teachers and friends. Coming to Malaysia this time feels so cool and I felt I had returned to my own world, which is, not packed in the old dark room where the alcove is packed with thousands of books to learn.

However, this is not considered freedom. This was because I still need to understand the traditions(infer lah) of the Malays and be aware of my surroundings. Coming to Malaysia seemed coming back to a place which I lived. Just like, coming back to Singapore from an overseas trip. However, Malaysia is not considered my only home. The world is my home, my home is the world. Malaysia or Singapore or any other country is a part of my home (where the size or population of that particular country doesn't matter).

This is the part of the journey. The whole event does not end there. After waiting for 30 minutes, I edged out of the crowd, wearing the only Hwa Chong PE T-shirt, walked towards the side of the road, where the checkpoint was west of me and mainland Singapore was directly in front of me. What do I do there? I still felt a sense of uncertainty as there were no coach to bring us to the next destination. But what am I doing then, I was waiting for a coach, a Malaysian-hired coach. The haze situation was really bad then. With the grey outline of Singapore that contrasted with the white-greyish outline of the sky. I could see nothing. The sea was blue, however, the pavement wasn't well facilitated as the cement walls were not thatched properly to the bank of the sea. This is exceptionally haphazardous if a small child were to squezze through the walls and jump into the sea. Maybe, the authourities could do something to it.

When the bus arrived, my first impression was: there will be excess space on the humongous bus. The 21 people squezzing into a 49 seat bus? This caused me to giggle silently. The bus was named "DESARU" something something something. And the tour guide was a Malaysian Chinese who could speak 3 or more languages. He was Jeffery. (umm...Not Jeffery Lim DM of HCI hor). This is a malay cultural trip, and I found out something. He was speaking Chinese! This disabled Mr Faizal as he knows how to speak very basic Chinese only. Maybe, he had concerns for us as he knew that we do not understand if Jeffery had spoken in Malay. For this, we can see that Mr Faizal is understanding and willing to make some sacrifices.

Soon, after boarding the bus, we needed to alight again. The first stop was the museum. The national museum of Johor. I barely could understand and 吸收so many information all at once. From what I heard, Mr Wong Ah Fook was a great man. If I were to relate him with the museum, would he be the founder of the present building?
From what I heard, the building was once a palace. It had many storeys. I think it was one of the places Yamashita occupied to overlook the north of Singapore during World War II. Is it?

If you been to that place, please correct me if I am wrong. We went into the building after waiting for several minutes for the tour guide to purchase tickets. He mentioned, if you are students, you will get special offers. If you are foreigners you will get a more expansive price. If you are one of the locals, you will get a slightly cheaper price than the foreigners. We waited for a couple of minutes and saw two groups of Malay students　(which I thought of some Secondary school students in Johor, Malaysia). One girl group, one boys group, both alighting the buses they hopped on and walked briskly to the museum.

Entering the museum was about 11am in the morning already. The sunshine was killing. The clouds did not appear in the sky. The haze situation was a little serious. We got into a building, and the tour guide began relating the history of the palace and the building to us. Such profound Chinese he spoke made me mesmerised of the blabbering unknown words. I cannot understand a single bit. The two groups of students also came in. Until then, the perspiration on our body made me uncomfortable.

He said that the Malaysian Museum had Chinese 对联　because of the fact that Mr Wong Ah Fook is a Chinese who helped in this building one way or another. He was a Chinese. Therefore, ther are several 对联 on the pillars. The tour guide also explain the differences between a female Malay burial and a male Malay burial, where the differences are the shape of the tomb. Soon, we walked one round and arrived at the exit with sweat oozing out of our sweat glands, and we saw one secret passage down an unknown place. The tour guide do not want to explain further.

We went into the main building where the wearing of shoes is prohibited. The exhibition starts on the second storey and no photography or videography is allowed. The gold and crystal yellow jewellery and many other fashionable artefacts that were found on the building were displayed there. This main building, on the second floor, shows the bedrooms of the Sultan, the bedrooms of the Sultan's mistress and many more. It also shows an example of an assembly that was carried out by the Sultan. (Chairs and tables arranged nicely and labelled: Who seat where.) The museum ends on the first storey where different artefacts, such as the forks and spoons the Sultan and the royal family used etc. The Keris is a sword used by the Sultan during hunts and fights, the different types of coins which includes a 1/4 cents coin, 1/2 cent coin, the banana money with banana motif printed without serial numbers on it and other notes that are valuable and worthwhile examining.

Before leaving the museum, we went to the room which kept some of the perserved animals Sultan's hunted. In that room, also showed the different achievements the Sultan made and the trophies the Sultan achieved. The room had all kinds of specimens the sultan hunted. There were tigers, crocodiles, birds and even a list of the dates the animals were hunted by the Sultan. After that, we went to the back of the museum for a phototaking. However, 3 people were missing. When we returned back, we found out that they were under the shade, waiting for us to come out.

Walking to the bus was a distance away. Beside the carpark was a souvenior shop, where we did not enter. When asked about the secret passage to the bottom of the palace, the tour guide did not answer the question (I could not remember what he spoken). I thought of him beating around the bush. Hmm...The next destination was a mosque, which we, non-muslim could not enter. This gave advantages to Mr Faizal, as he could enter the mosque and took several pictures of the mosque. What was amazing there was the bus, which was gigantic, could not enter the road towards the mosque because it was making a 315 degrees turn counter clockwise. Furthermore, the road was so narrow, which disabled the bus from entering the compound.

Outside the mosque, there was a tablet which I could barely read which states that the construction of the mosque lasted for a very long time. Still the "clock tower" with no clock stoods there vibrantly in the hill, overseeing the magnificient scenery of the villages downhill. This mosque, was a sacred place for prayers and other religious activities, which attracts probably the most muslims during Hari Raya Puasa. I took some landscape photos of the mosque before departing to the bus. When taking photos, one guy, which I thought he was someone who belonged to the mosque, asked me a question. He asked, "Where did you come from?" I replied not looking at him,"Singapore." rather rudely, I left very quickly. However, Mr Tieu and Cikgu Faizal walked a step further and went to explore the whole of the mosque. Cikgu Faizal went into the mosque while Mr Tieu went around the mosque exploring for new things.

Jeffery, the tour guide, after departing the mosque, talked about the cheapest zoo in Johor anyone can find. When he compared the prices with the Singapore Zoological Gardens and this, we found that the price is extremely expansive. The tour guide mentioned that the entrance fee is RM5 when entering the Johor zoo. This Johor zoo was built by the Sultan because he loved animals. Therefore, he built a zoo at the end of his compound. Before proceeding to Danga bay, the tour guide mentioned that it was like "the east coast park" in Singapore". Then, speaking about the faboulous things about the Danga Bay.

However, there were no cars parking at the parking compound and the place inside was deserted. Although PappaRoti opened its franchised shop there, business was good only when several of the "tourists" bought bread from that shop. Overall, the place was still deserted and there were very little people. What's more, the shutters of most shops in the Danga Bay were closed. On top of that, the "West Coast Park Shopping Mall" of Johor, Malaysia, which was two storeys was deserted. Shops selling beverages and food is countable, telling us that there is a limited choice of food.

Mr Tieu and I walked ahead with our hungry stomachs and urging to fill it as soon as possible. Upon seeing the "extraordinary" place, we knew that the place was empty. Without much hope, we toured round the place but found nothing. Until Mr Tieu began criticising the tour guide for his lousy plan of itinery. Finding him strolling at the back, we quickly approach him to guide us to a "Marybrown" stall.

Since it was the Ramadan festival, Cikgu Faizal could not devour any food. However, I don't feel this a pity as it was their religion, and they had to abide with the rules.

Sponsored, we need not need to pay for any food. Hungry stomachs were waiting outside under the sweltering hot sun waiting for food until someone informed us that there was a cooler place for a meal. Looking towards the comfort of the air-conditioned place within the Danga bay compound, all of us hurried to the cooling and refreshing but "peopleless" place to eat. We enjoyed the comfort and waited patiently for the intriguing food to arrive.

I met Kenneth Koong.

We chatted about the trip and many things under the sky while waiting for the food to arrive. The drinks came first, followed by the fries. Then the chicken wings where each person is allowed to have two pieces. Looking back, the trip was overall successful somehow. But the events later from that point, I hoped, should be better.
We got extra fries because other groups do not want them. Mr Tieu ordered the Marybrown's rice. I wondered it tastes delicious.

Filling our empty stomach with food and drinks, Kenneth and I walked around the shopping mall, attempting to find a washroom. Walking after some time, we came across several boys who were in a VCD shop, trying to purchase some VCD. They knew it was pirated, and smuggling into Singapore would be a heavy offense. Luckily, they did not buy those VCD's.

We went on for a hunt on the toilets. Little did we know that the washroom were outside the shopping complex after asking one of the "friendly" stall owners.

Walking on the outside of the complex, we went into a convinience stall like a 7-11 stall in Singapore. I bought some sweets. Kenneth too. However, he dropped some boxes of sweets, which we had to pick it up. Altogether, both our sweets cost less than RM3, probably a reasonable price.

We strolled back to the bus. Being the first two on the bus, we counted the seating capacity of the Desaru GOLF and country resort bus we boarded. I forgotten the figures but it was roughly the size of a regular coach. Fancy storing 21 of us in such a gigantic bus?

The bus left when everyone was seated on their seats. Kenneth and I sat together. The tour guide started talking about the green flag which flew right above the pole. The significance of the flag represents the Sultan of the state of Johor was present in Johor. When the flag was up, he was in Johor. When the flag was down, he is out of Johor. We were lucky enough, on that day, to witness the flag soaring in the sky. We proceeded to the batik shop not far away.

I was not really interested about the speech after lunch. This was because my stomach has already absorbed the maximum amount of matter, where, in this case, knowledge is matter. Furthermore, batik is not my profession, and I don't really like art. For some other people, things that they had not heard of, or things that they are not in profession of, they will listen and ask as much questions as possible. The lack of interest in me only know that there is three ways to manufacture batik. However, I forgotten one of them. The first one was hand-drawn, the second one was using machine and the last one...(waiting for someone to answer). If you know the answer, just type it in the comments, no prizes will be awarded.

The batik shop, was directly opposite Danga Bay. I heard the shopkeeper emphasising that there is no two hand-drawn batik cloth exactly the same. After that, questions sprung out by some of the seniors. What if the designer made an error while drawing? What if this? What if that? Hey, this is the first school trip I have gone "OVERSEAS"(or gone over the causeway). I have never seen such wonderful designs.

We went into the fan-conditioned room. Then, we were entertained by a group of "musicians" who played some music like "Rasa Sayang" on their wood musical instruments. I taken one photo, but due to the lighting conditions and the wobbliness of my arms, the picture was blurred. I just missed that opportunity. LOL. The music was magical and magnificient. Using such musical intruments, making such magical music was amazing, especially the musical instruments were made by themselves. After the music, we crowded the stage. The performers told us that they mastered using these musical instruments for more than 6 years. Roughly about 20 over years, the few performers must have started playing these musical instruments from 12 years old. I felt that the batik shop has earned some money through the performance from the box of money displayed in the front with some money. However, you may ask the same question I asked. What does the musical got to do with the batik shop?

Someone told me that it was traditional things that the batik shop is trying to bring out. For whatever the reason, since the performance was tremendously wonderful, there is no need for finding out, I guess. Lastly, before we departed from the batik shop, we went to the sovenior shop. Some things found there could be found in Singapore. One example is the sepak takraw which can be found in Kampong Glam. Another was the brown wood frog which you scratch it with a piece of small wood to make a frog croaking sound. However, most things there were expansive, which made me refuse to buy anything from there. I wondered why Mr Tieu bought one box of biscuits even though it was rather expansive. However, the biscuits, Mr Tieu invited us to eat, was delicious and sweet. This changed my mind and I donated some money for the performance.

Last three destinations. The tour guide began to speak about the Johor Laksa which was located on one of the streets somewhere in the central of Johor. He mentioned that many Singaporean cars liked to go there and claimed that it was the best Johor laksa in Johor state. If you came across this blog, and you are CONFIRMED that you knew the address, please write in the comments.

The next destination we are going seemed like it was cancelled due to some problems there. I don't really understand what was going on. But never mind, I dont really like walking again after a short break on the bus. Then we proceeded to the Ramadan Bazaar and shopped there. It was near the place we went to Desaru on June.

Now, going there with my friends was a little different. However, this difference is similar in such a way that there is presence of heat. The heat was broiling. After getting down the bus, we were instructed to go in groups getting to know the place well and shop. Actually, this was the best place to buy pirated VCDs. This place is well known of that and very little stallholders were caught doing it. Hehe. I do not want to relate the negative aspects of one senior who did some negative things there through this blog. I've been there. And everything was the same. It is the market place all the way walking straight from the main carpark and there is a supermarket towards the direction of the west. You could easily find household needs conviniently.

We assembled at the carpark at 4pm for the mini-game. It was a quiz where we need to get all the questions right by 1) asking stallholders about the food sold at the ramadan bazaar and the market. 2) navigate yourself accordingly. Questions are in Malay. I could barely understand. Kenneth and I formed a group with some other seniors.

We went around the whole bazzar rounds and rounds, asking the same people questions and around some of the places we explored just now. It was already 4.45pm and we could only managed to answer 7/10 questions. Desperate, we knew we could not give up. So, we tried harder. Until then, someone looked for us and told us to go stop and go back to the MacDonalds(where the teachers are waiting) and submit the answers. In the bus, Cikgu Faizal announced that the last team who arrived(that was us) was the winner. And the prize was RM5 shared among four of us, which meant that each person could get RM1.25. I don't think I deserved it. This was because I feel that it was a drag for me to be in that group as I did not contribute anything but walking. Our final destination was Tebrau City and it was already 5.30 pm. The sun was going to set and all of us were hungry.

Tebrau City was the shopping mall we went to during the June Holidays on a return trip from Desaru. It was the place where Jusco was. My family and I went there. However, we went to the carpark only. This was because we were too exhausted after a day's trip and sleepy as I did got a too comfortable bed in Desaru. Having went there once for about 1 minute, we exit and went for dinner.

But this time was completely different. This time, we actually alighted at the carpark and went into the shopping centre. This time, we actually got to see the magics inside the building. This time, we actually got to eat, got to play and got to shop around the shopping mall. This place, on Saturday's and Sunday's usually attract many Singaporean. Maybe the reason was because places in Singapore are very common and they had shopped there for a very long period of time and got bored of it.

We searched for food. That was the first instinct on my mind. I was terribly hungry by then. I ordered one Yang Zhou Fried Rice. It was not very splendid, I felt. But it is eadible. Tebrau City, was large. I can't believe shopping there within a one hour limit. After eating, Kenneth and I went to the arcade nearby to play. It was the arcade which I spent RM10.

I thought at everything in the arcade was functioning properly. I was wrong. The arcade had limited number of games to play. However, the only one that attracted me was the table-disc or something. (Where you had to hold a hard rubber equipment, defending and attacking your goal and your opponent's goal respectively, with a disc that is always moving around on the table. It is usually found in most arcades and Science Center in Singapore). We tied the first round. And I lost subsequent rounds after inserting four coins into the machine. After that, we played unlimited number of times. Each round, the score is displayed on the screen above. Then, when I thought that we needed to go out, I was wrong. There is still 15 minutes before we needed to gather at the bus. I was damned Kiasu. If not, we could play another few more games. On the last match, I won. In the end, we played five games after inserting four coins. The intense game made me perspire under an air-conditioned environment. It was strange as I did not know what to do the last 15 minutes. I made that stupid mistake. Crap!

6.30 was here. We boarded the bus. It was scheduled 10.00 when we will arrive in HCI. We breezed through the checkpoints and I got to know more about Kenneth. A day of joyness and crappyness was all displayed in a day. It was a day I was exhausted, but not really very exhausted. By the time I reached school, it was 8.30pm. My mother offered a ride for Kenneth because his apartment was in Bukit Gombak. It was 9.00pm when I reached home.

The next day was Festival Of Sports. I do not want to touch deeply about that. We lost 3 goals to 0 when the rivals were from the proed consortium. And we won 2 goals to 0 when we are challenging the Ortus consortium. However, due to the fact that the haze shot to over 100 on the second day of the FOS, we did not manage to challenge the I-spark pupils. Instead, we got home early after some events lined up for us. Proed was the overall champion. Which I think, followed by Aphelion.

Then it was Sunday's and Saturdays. Monday was Consortium day where we had the mini aphelion concert for the graduating Sec 4 classes. The miniconcert was rushy and had impromtu performance. I was at the control room, slacking.

Tuesday was Hari Raya. Wednesday was Sec 1 aphelion day. I do not want to touch so deeply about that. It was a day where we watched Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron for the movie screening. Although this show was motivating, the rest was not. The games provided by the council are not up to standard and had many copied from various sources. In the end, I think our class got the 9 from the 14 classes.

Thursday was worrying day as we got back our report books. I only can say that in the morning, we were amazed by the grand finals and finals projects which entered the project competition from our seniors. Aiya, everything seems to rock, but my concentration span was limited. And the sheer coldness in the Drama Center made me unable to understand what they were saying. Shivers...

Friday was Deepavali in Lieu. Then it was the weekends. And monday tuesday was staying at home. The holidays have begun. Lastly, it was the Media Tech "course training" which looked more like a camp. It is organised. But not going accordingly. Soccer was played on 2 days, instead of one in the plan. Haiz, I feel that the word "dismissed" is still a strong word for the seniors to say. But through this Media Tech course training, it was still better than the activities in the sec one camp, but not well organised.

tar tar for now, I hope you had a great time reading. And thanks for reading such lengthy post. Subsequent entries may be longer.