Brunch

Muahahaha. I'm so boliao. 

蛍の墓

I went to Malaysia on Saturday. The plan was to visit a fruit farm, then have a lobster lunch, followed by a visit to an ostrich farm, and then a trip down the river to see fireflies. Ok la, so my post has nothing to do with Hayao Miyazaki's Grave of the Fireflies :p

Anyway, I woke up at 5am to prepare for the trip. Reached the meeting point just on time but we had to wait for the bus and other latecomers. After we departed, we went through customs and had breakfast at some coffee shop. Snoozed in the coach before reaching the fruit farm. If you look down, you'll notice their aren't any pictures of fruits but there are several pictures of animals from the fruit farm. The reason for this strange phenomenon is that the fruit farm people have tied up just about all their fruits in plastic bags to protect them from bugs or something. So I didn't really see any fruits haha. They did have a small enclosure with some animals like bunnies, goats, an ostrich, turkeys, chickens, a mouse and a monkey. They also had a small museum of sorts.


Mouse. His nose is cut off in the picture cos it wouldn't keep still while I was taking the picture. 


Kambing :p 


The pond outside the small museum at the fruit farm. I saw a frog swimming in the water. Cute. 


Mass of writhing carp. 


Ostrich egg exhibit at the fruit farm. Huge. 


Some vases with arabic written on them. No idea as to their significance. 


This monkey was chained by its neck to a metal pole. Many people were taunting it then ran away screaming when it tried to scratch/bite them. What do they expect? However, its really not a very hygienic monkey. It sat on and peed into a blue bowl, then took the said bowl and drank from it. Yummy! *Note: Monkeys creep me out a bit cos of the monster from Princess Mononoke, and also cos I watched the movie Outbreak and Ebola from monkeys is horrible.  


Here's a 2 week old baby ostrich. 


Looks like a kiwi. 


There was an option to ride one of the huge ostriches. Apparently the "ridable" ostriches are chosen for their docile nature.  


The lone, lonely captive in the "ride-an-ostrich" enclosure.  


Bunch of ostriches trying to seek shade from the scorching sun. I was nearly burnt to bits myself, don't know how they can stand it with their feathers and all. Poor birdies. 


At the souvenir store of the ostrich farm. The fashionable items you see are actually made of ostrich shells heh. What I can't figure is how they're put on. You just let them dangle from your neck or what??? 


 


Quaint heart-shaped leaves growing on a fence outside the ostrich farm :) Someone should create a hybrid with red leaves, then they would really look like hearts. 

After the ostrich farm we were brought to some mall in Kota Tinggi to shop. Kota Tinggi is really not the most interesting place, I have to admit. However, I was pleasantly occupied in a vcd/dvd shop looking at anime and jap dramas. After dinner, we were brought to the jetty.


Waiting for nightfall. The lamp posts are so European. 


Our boat.  


Sunset just before we left the jetty to go for the firefly tour. Lots of swallows have their clay nests stuck to the underneath of the bridge. When the boat passed under the bridge, they all started flying around madly and screeching. The sky appeared to be full of bat-like thingies. Made me think of those apocalypse movie scenes. 

The fireflies weren't as impressive as I thought they would be. Probably cos there were so few of them and so many trees. Actually, only certain clumps of foliage had colonies of fireflies. They really do look like lit Christmas decorations though. Some jokers took lots of pictures using their camera flashes. Quite funny.

Trip was quite an eye-opener but I was glad to go home :)

财神爷敲了我的门一下

Yes, a very strange title but its true. I was watching tv when the doorbell rang and when I looked out the peephole, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because I saw an outline of a head with long springy things sticking out of it, with ball-like thingies on the end. X-files perhaps?

Maybe I was too tired from school or something, hallucinating and all, but I opened my door to see a guy decked out in the full 财神爷 costume. Really thought I lost it. He kept asking me 你知道我是谁吗？but I was simply too stunned to say anything. Then he said 我是财神爷啊！to enlighten me as to his identity and promptly tried to shove an angpao through the gate. Wah ha that was it, I said ok thanks bye! and shut the door.

There's my weird story of the day. Lab is not going fantastic, but I suppose that is to be expected as I really am a greenhorn. People are quite nice though so its fine. Schoolwork is suffering because I don't have the time or the presence of mind to devote myself to my subjects properly so that needs attention.

I was very happy just now because I just saw a travel documentary on Salzburg. It is absolutely beautiful in winter with snow covered sidewalks and the mountains in the distance. I also like the sense of community cos farmers (from both big and small establishments) come to sell their produce at the market every Thursday. Its also famous for Mozart and the Sound of Music and I really wanna go there someday! I only passed through Vienna last time and didn't really get to enjoy Austria thoroughly. I think its also good for skiing. Much to offer.



Its only been a month since I went on my holiday but I feel like its been ages. School really catches hold of you and doesn't let go. I suddenly remember that travelling really does make me happy cos I felt exhilarated as I watched the Salzburg show. What I want to be when I grow up: the travel host who gets to go to many countries and stay in good hotels and just tell the audience "this place is great because... (fill in umpteen reasons)"? Wah what an existence.

Alaska, Alaska... ~~








Apparently it is normal to walk round the corner of a building in Anchorage and come face to face with a moose/caribou. Can't wait. :)

Here's also a funny video clip to tickle those funny bones. Cats are crafty and you'll know why after watching :)


Last disjointed thought of the day: I wanna learn European languages. So far I've only dabbled in Asian languages. Time to challenge my tongue and make it contort into new shapes. Very cool BBC link: BBC Language Quick Fix

I wanted to do more but Blogger is not cooperating with me. So that's it for today. Toodles folks! Have a great weekend.