Left on the morning of 3rd Dec. Woke up at an ungodly hour of 4.30am cos of last minute packing and travel time. Loading the bus was a nightmare cos the students were slow and barang barang plentiful. But! We managed to load up and head to Second Link.
When we reached the checkpoint, it seemed like half of Singapore decided to go on holiday at the exact same time. Customs at Singapore side was a nightmare to clear. I also found out that I can use the computers to clear customs using my passport. =D Next time at Second Link, I'll use that to clear customs rather than stand in front of an unsmiling customs officer and let him/her scrutinise my really ugly passport photo.
Had an unpleasant incident at the M'sian customs because of the bus driver. To cut a long story short, he used vulgarities in front of the students, which got me and the conductor very upset. Other than that, the M'sian customs was actually easier and faster to clear, contrary to popular belief. Because it was so late, we stopped over at a small coffee shop for breakfast.
Pic 510: The inside of the coffeeshop.
Pic 511: ...And the outside. I have two more pictures of the surroundings, but if I put up every picture, I'd probably take twenty years to finish this entry.
Then we were off! The bus ride was long, and luckily most of the kids fell asleep. So did I! Woke up along to way to take a few pictures before plonking back into bed.
Pic 512: One of those random road trip pictures. Took this cos the kid sitting in the seat next to aisle next to me (did that make sense?) was called Jasmine. She was quite excited when she saw the sign. She said, "That's my name!" Yes, sweetie, that's your name.
Pic 513: Blurry picture of above-mentioned kid's shoes. Nice, hor? I want a pair like that to walk about in.
Pic 514: Another one of those random road trip pics that you simply have to take cos at that time it seemed vaguely interesting and suitable to be put on your blog.
We stopped over at Malacca to have lunch, cos we were too late to head to KL to eat. It was at a nice golf club called Orna. I think it's called Orna Something-Or-Another Club. The food wasn't too bad, quite nice. I went around to check on the kids' progress, and they ate their veggies! They ate up almost everything, which is good. Don't waste food!
Pic 515: Entering Malacca.
Pic 516: I know this is something interesting, cos the guide said so. But I don't remember exactly what it is.
Pic 517: A view of the golf course from the restaurant's window. I didn't manage to capture the entire view, so you'll just have to be satisfied with a restricted view.
Pic 518: FOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOOooOOOD!
Pic 519: Heading towards KL.
More specifically, we headed towards Putrajaya, which is the administrative capital of Malaysia. See! I do remember some things that the guide said. She also mentioned that different parts of Putrajaya have different street-lamp designs. I took a thousand and one pictures of buildings in Putrajaya. Here are some samples:
Pic 520: First sighting of Putrajaya. The name means Prince something. I forgot already!
Pic 521: The istana.
Pic 522: Another view of the istana, with the flags all in front. Taken from a moving bus!
Pic 523: I'm going to lump them all together as one picture. I don't remember what these buildings are, but I'm sure I can find out in some brochure or whatnot. We were on a moving bus as these pictures were taken, so I don't quite really remember what the guide said.
Pic 524: The Prime Minister's office. It's right at the end of a long road. They sure know how to create suspense. It's like, you can see it, but you gotta travel down the longest, straightest road ever to reach it. What a tease!
Pic 525: Another nice picture of architecture.
Pic 526: I quite like this bridge. I thought it was pretty unique until we passed by another bridge of the same design. Then I realised the same type of design was everywhere in Putrajaya. -_-
Pic 527: Me and Sari!!! It was so freaking hot, we were squinting at the camera and muttering under our breaths, "So hot, hurry up larh, Lionel!"
Pic 528: Okay, I just had to take this picture. I was very amused by the 'nudle', and also the 'nando'. OKAY so I am easily amused, can???
After taking some group pictures with the prime minister's office as the background, in the blazing sun, where I got a tan (I tan really easily), and nearly ruined my eyes cos of the bright sun, we zoomed off to Kuala Selangor to see fireflies! But before that, dinner first. (=
Pic 529: The seafood place we ate at.
Pic 530: Can you believe it? We had crabs! (The crustacean, not the disease.) Only the teachers' table though. Not really a good choice, actually, cos it wasn't a good setting to have crabs in. Crabs should be eaten when you have plenty of time to sit around and get your hands dirty.
After dinner, we took a short drive down to the jetty to see the fireflies. There were some people selling lightsticks for RM1, and our kids, being kids, were suckers for it. I bet these people earn a lot from groups of students visiting and buying lightsticks at a whim. Actually, I got one also, but I didn't buy it. The conductor gave one to me. =D
Pic 531: This is the fireflies place. You can go visit if you want to.
Since no photography nor video was allowed, I have no pictures of the fireflies to show you. But actually, all you need to do is close your eyes, and imagine the Christmas lights along Orchard Road. Those twinkles when the lights catch the sun, that's how the fireflies looked like. Of course, there's no boat ride and absolute quiet to enhance the experience, but that's about it.
Okay I'm going to stop here and continue Day 2 another time. This entry took me a good two days to write, cos blogger died on me last night. (=
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