Hat Yai Travels (Day 1)

Figured I should blog today instead of

a) procrastinating on the many blogposts I've mentally scheduled. this includes the london/paris trip posts. THEY WILL BE CONTINUED, though its already 2017 I WILL STICK TO MY WORDS.

b) binge watching kdramas/sherlock/gilmore girls/that 70's show/hindi + china movies cause I will be going out for a movie in a while

c) stressing over my driving pretest tomorrow which I have a horrible feeling of. No idea why. It's not like I'm HORRIBLE at driving or anything, its just not my most confident trait. And to have someone more experienced sit next to you to judge and evaluate your every amateur move? Definitely not favourable for someone who gets anxious so easily ie. me

Anywho, before I kick off this post I'd like to express how unbelievable it feels to be in the year of 2017, turning 18 in 10 months, done with high school - the first milestone of life; and to be looking toward the future. That's crazy. I've been dreaming of this moment. January of 2017. Never thought 2016 would pass, it was always the furthest I could imagine for myself since my primary school days. Now, I have to see beyond that, make decisions toward the later part of my future but till then, I deserve this little blessing of peace bestowed upon me (apart from the stress of driving).

With all positive thoughts and happy vibes, I wish my non-existent readers a happy 2017! ^-^

On with Thailand!

My family planned a semi-impromptu (you probably have never read the words 'planned' and 'impromptu' in the same sentence before. alas, enjoy my post-spm it's been a while since i crafted sentences what even is english writing style. I need to work on my flair, it seems to be dissipating. It was just a small 3 days one 2 night trip but I loved it!!! The fresh air was great, the food even greater and the shopping was INCREDIBLE.

Instead of opting for the usual hotel my parents (and apparently other fellow malaysians) usually stay in ie. Lee Gardens Plaza, my dad's friend recommend us to try a new hotel just 1.2 km away from Lee Gardens called the Bed Hatyai.

note: It was my first time in Hat Yai so I have nothing to compare my experience to except other overseas experiences.

Including the hour of immigration I would say the ride from Penang to Hatyai is roughly 4 hours, give or take. Much nearer than the drive to kl. Once we passed the border, we decided to have mcdonalds. As every traveler is aware, it is a silent rule to have Mcdonalds for at least ONE meal during your entire trip. International mcdonalds acts a yardstick to gauge the difference in currency, pretty much.

I was kind of disappointed because we went there for breakfast and their breakfast sets are literally the same as Malaysia, only with the option of adding bacon to everything. There was this one particular breakfast sandwich that I've never heard of before but they were unfortunately out of the patty....sighz

contemplates life

The hotel was great! Albeit a the hotel as a whole is on the smaller side, I thought our rooms were too huge for even 4 people. It was impeccably clean and had Christmas spirit smothered all over. The hotel uses a "bedtime story/fairytale concept" in each of their rooms. My family got the Rapunzel room and I thought it was adorable.

everything above was written around a week ago lol. I procrastinated so much but now I am back and will try to be more productive on this blog seeing as I am, in this moment, given the luxury of time. 

welcome drinks

what I mean when I say "smothered by Christmas"

We were greeted by an attempt of cute animal folded towels. A+ for effort. The bellboy (?) -such an odd term for a profession that suits grown men-, was a really friendly person and ensured our pantry of complementary items was constantly full and even restocked!!

hotel freebies r great

After resting for around an hour (or two) we decided to head out and walk around our hotel area but came back after 15 mins cause it was scorching hot and we had no clue where to go since Hatyai's nightlife is more active than daytime. Hence, we then headed to tesco extra (ard 3km from our hotel) and got the HatYai holiday essentials ie. soy milk, seaweed, pocky, etc... finally a country which sells food and clothes at a lower rate even after currency conversion. ((could be lower...coughs))

after purchasing the essentials, we then decided to have a small look around the area of our hotel. nothing much since, as I have mentioned earlier, HatYai is more alive at night.

after that, we went back to the hotel and had a little rest. my dad slept and when he woke up, he immediately told us to change into our clothes as he wanted to go to a Buddhist temple nearby. 

it was pretty cute as they were having a special ceremony so the temple was swarming with abbots, all completely fitting the description of Minfong Ho's story Sing to the Dawn. (our 1119 english lit novel)

the buddha at the back and the monks on the right!!!

 after getting blessings and circling round the temple, my family decided to take a stroll round the lee gardens night market where we stuffed ourselves with food, bought shoes, clothes, ate coconut ice cream and enjoyed people watching (or tourist watching, should I say)

p/s there are not many pictures because I had a bigger intention to vlog rather than blog but I now regret it because I would rather blog instead of edit my little clips sighsss.

coconut ice creammmm that apparently beats sangkaya by a long shot (I've never been to sangkaya)

That pretty much sums up day 1. It is a rather shot post compared to my usual travel posts but I feel like no one reads these anyways but if you are thanks!!!!! and be on the look out for my next post!




     

Paris Travels: Roaming the Streets

hey guys! I'm back with another post. This may be shorter than the previous one (but hey, the previous post was considerably lengthy). Also, I think I've figured out a more effective system of blogging and transferring pictures from the various sources of devices that hold them that won't leave me so drained after blogging. I do get an immense headache from sorting out all of the pictures and trying to piece everything together. Now, the headache is still there but less intense cause I take 2 days to create a post. The first day is preparation ie.gather everything up and get your shit together and the second day is just typing everything and positioning them together. This way, the fun in blogging is not sucked out by me rendering on every little detail expected of me and I can just type my thoughts and.....quickly drift from the subject matter at hand. Like this. OK. I'm done being distracted now, lets get into Paris.

We left London early in the morning to King's Cross Station (oh, so many monopoly memories!) where the Eurostar headed to Paris is stationed. Yes, we went to Paris by Eurostar. It was an interesting trip altogether cause the last time I actually went on a train ride was when I was 8 or 9 and my family and I were headed to KL. 8 hours. Tired. Noisy. and NEVER AGAIN. Gosh it was a nightmare. Mind you, that was before the ETS system was even introduced what more practised. The Eurostar however was a great contrast to my experience in the Malaysian train. It was efficient, clean and all-round spacious. It was lovely.

excuse me, I just woke up. and was having a very very bad hair day. and face day. I now am beginning to think that it's just me.

yes we were also sleepy HAHAHAH 

as we waited for our train we went to marks and spencer's for a little food shopping!! of course, snacks are mandatory. My mum and I were vegetarian on that day (something of a tradition being a vegetarian every friday) but we were so surprised (at least I know I was) at the luxurious amount of food I could find in M&S that suited our nutritious needs!! From salads to pastas to sandwiches...I kinda wish Malaysia had more M&S's around here.

when we entered the train we also found out that the spacious allocation for our family on the train was the best because we got the once smack middle with four seats facing each other..the others were just pair seats and were like aeroplane seats but they looked slightly cramp. thankfully, we were lucky enough to book the spacious seats.

mmm...much chocolate...many wows.

bet you can tell which one's mine

this, ladies and gentlemen, is the MOST INCREDIBLE SOFT COOKIE I HAVE EVERY EATEN. THE CHOCOLATE WAS SO RICH AND OH MY GOD I WAS IN LOVE LONDON I NEED YOUR PASTRIES AND CHOCOLATES BACK. 

of course as the kids my sister and I used our advantage of being the youngest to get the window seat. I also managed to get a good hour of reading done during the journey. It was lovely.

ah yes!! Looking at this pic I remember the nice little family that sat next to us. They looked European and had two of the cutest little children - a girl and a boy. The girl was reading too with the father and we kept exchanging looks with the two of them. They seemed like a beautiful family. A shame I know I will never cross paths with them ever again.

here is some graffiti which welcomed us into Paris

after a seemingly long journey, we finally reached the city of Madeline, the city of love and the city of art.

after checking into our apartment, we decided to stroll around to see if there were any interesting sightings before embarking on our actual planned adventure tomorrow. It was day 8 of our vacation and you could say we were getting pretty exhausted by that point always walking around and sight-seeing. The trip in Paris was slightly more laid back given that we had a week and managed to see most of what Paris had to offer.


here is the view we were greeted with when we FIRST laid eyes on Paris herself

pretty great, huh? We walked past this bunch of Christmas trees every day since we live so nearby. And it was positioned right ahead the nearest station - and the train was our main transport.

The location of our stay was also very very convenient - just like the place we had in London - and we could visit the Notre Dame with less than 5 minutes of walking!!

our apartment is suuuuuper cool. My sister and I had to climb up a wooden ladder BUILT IN THE APARTMENT to get to our beds where we could actually touch the ceiling cause our rooms were the top most floor and just LOOK at the exterior of the place;

hogwarts af or what?!

according to trip advisor and also my personal experience, this building has a natural history of its own having survived 2 world wars and all that. I could hear the tour guides actually explaining the history behind this beautiful building every morning and it was a super cool experience!

in front of the notre dame!!

believe me when I say that the queue was exceptionally long that day cause entrance was free. Did you know Paris has free entrance to all museums every first Sunday of the month? We were suuuper lucky cause we went to Paris just in time for their first Sunday of December.

attempt at a selife #1

Then we walked around more... did some window shopping and people watching

my mum and chargeable cars (I think)

I remember that these are the cars like teslas (?) where you don't need fuel to power them but just a quick charge. And there were charging pods all around. My mum got a little over-excied at the sight of them.

I was also vlogging alot but sadly deleted all my footage absent-mindedly thinking that it was all backed up but no...... :(((( 

onwards with our walk we reached the iconic love lock bridge!!!! Although there were some locks that have been taken down due to the weight that exceeds the original max weight in which the bridge was supposed to withstand, there was still millions upon gazillions love locks and they were all so.....sappy HAHAHA. but cool!! I read love from all over the world - across mumba to san francisco. from russia to the phillipines. I could have stood there all day reading the hopes and dreams of young love. My biggest dream now is to come back to this bridge, face these locks with the sunshine of Paris beating down on my face alongside some cool breeze, and write. Just write. In a diary. A short story. A poem. I want to go back and write. 

 

following on, we went to the louvre!! Yes now I remember. this day was a friday. Not a sunday yet. So we had to pay to enter the louvre. I guess the line for notre dame was long just ....because HAHAH. We were patient though and didn't enter to see Mona Lisa till Sunday so we didn't have to pay HAHAHHA. But we definitely took some shots outside!!

my sister and the louvre

 yes, one does not simply come to the louvre and not attempt this pose. 

attempt at a selfie #2

proceeding from the louvre, we found ourselves amidst the plethora of people in a tiny park with a miniature stature that looked the arc de triomphe...but was not. HAHAH. Don't worry we still managed to see the real one in our later days but this was such a cute replica! Well I don't think it is a replica honestly and has its own significant symbollic resonances but hey it got us confused in the spur of the moment didn't it HAHAH

don't you just adore the lush greenery surrounding the entire place? echoing the beauty of nature that sparks a natural lust in the most innocent of men.

another thing I absolutely love about the city of Paris is that no matter where you travel or how far you think you are going... you will ALWAYS get a glimpse of the eiffel tower as though it were a chide to seduce you back home of remind you that this is the city of love. And I love that so much.

spot the eiffel tower! ^^^

and so we just continued on..observing nature

Paris has great floorwork might I add...not in terms of dancing but their tiles oh gosh so quaint and beautiful.

 later on, we decided to grab a quick lunch at mcdonalds cause everyone knows it is an unspoken rule that at least one mcdonalds meal MUST be eaten when you visit a foreign country. Rule one of travelling.

I don't necessarily remember what we had exactly but I know we could substitute fries for wedges. They sold french macarons too there. And I'm pretty sure their array of sauces knocks Malaysia out of competition. 

everyone knows international mcdonalds is always better than local ones because 1) bacon and 2) the grass is always greener on the other side.

after food we, of course, resumed the roaming

ah yes... I also remember that as we were walking about we even received free christmas chocolate from a guy dressed up as Santa Claus. What's NOT to love about Paris?!

and so after a long journey of walking and as darkness began to display its dark and dense veil the christmas markets came alive with the most cheery of tunes and the happiest of people.

yes this is my picture I shot it off my iphone

I still remember how shocked I was at how good it turned out a shot to be and knew at the back of my palm that this one of the many magic powers of this city.

we then decided to head home and visit the closest supermarket and got a ton of snacks!!

 

after washing up, I decided to put on a mask as I was breaking out slightly that day due to the amount of travelling and dry air my face was being exposed to. 

with the tiny bistro making lots of noise outside our apartment where there was a plentiful of gay bars, I fell asleep to these foreign sounds that tugged at my heart begging me to make them sound less foreign in the near future and more like home.