Berjaya ke Tioman!

Pulau Tioman is an island close to my heart. I first holidayed there when I was 4 years old; before younger siblings existed for me. I do not remember much more than the nausea during the boat ride from Mersing (no Berjaya Air back in the 1970s YES I'mthatold). Years later, I would travel back with then-fiance Tony, to collect clearer, more pleasant memories.

The thing also is... sandy beaches really are THE thing for my whole family; we have an affinity for them, dare I say the same way ants take to sugar; I daresay the way scandals take to Malaysian politics. Better get back to the beach. It is such a calming place; soft powdery sand stretched out for miles along a wavy shoreline, asking to be walked along and played upon. The breeze nudges the waves, and they oblige, alternately tapping and thrashing the shoreline, then receding. Only to be nudged again... repeatedly. Slowly. Lazily. Eventually, realization sets in that the breeze is also teasing *us*, blowing sand and salty air in our face, tickling our ears with rustling coconut leaves.... sighhh. In a trance, we then unleash our cute kids, slippery with sunblock and brimming with energy, and they scurry out and become part of the beach scenery. Perfect.

That memory is from our last holiday on April 28th, where we spent 3 days at Berjaya Tioman. The journey began with a small glitch; the flight was delayed by an hour. We coped by letting the kids roam around Subang airport until they began trip up other travellers as they ran underfoot, and roll themselves about on the carpeting outside the public toilets. I think the additional zillion microorganisms they picked up during the delay actually required an additional seat...

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Finally we boarded, and most of us managed to snatch some sleep on the plane during the one-hour flight...

...except Charu, can't you tell from that face -- "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

When we finally reached, we boarded the shuttle van to the hotel (a mere 2km away but its a steep winding road). Along the way, I saw sights that triggered memories of my last visit, so many years ago. No change to people's living conditions:

Some parts however were cleaned up and modernized; the island has just been declared duty-free so a few metres from the entrance to Berjaya Tioman there is now a dusty new concrete building, built to house the Customs Department and huge in comparison to surrounding ramshackle eateries and even the nearby school.

FINALLY, we reached!! Checked in, chucked bags, and though I did not do real shutterbugging, when I DID remember to bring my trusty Moto U9, I got some (slightly fuzzy but) REAL holiday shots:

Heaven is a place on earth...

It must seem obvious that "indulgent relaxing holiday" and "wailing flailing children" are two mutually exclusive entities. They sound so strange together in the same sentence, that your brain may be tingling right now. But if you have children who at some point in your recent life, introduced you to new dimensions of wailing and flailing, you must read on, for you are hence a qualified member of the common humanoididal speciogenus 'in-dire-need-of-indulgent-relaxing-holiday-but-unable-to-leave-wailing-flailing-children-behind'. More brain-tingling? Trust me and read on...

Club Med Phuket. Maybe Club Med anything, but Phuket to begin with, is a three-letter word that promises a hoard of fun for everyone, ESPECIALLY tired parents who want a holiday from answering questions and explaining things to wide-eyed, cute, unpinchable short human beings. Well, thats my take anyway. For us, four days was not quite enough. There was sun, sea and sunblocked frolicking in the powdery white sand and frothy beach. The shoreline stretched far, white and smooth into the distance, reducing people from lanky topless saggy beachcombers into little black dots on the horizon. I cursed my throbby ankle for not being able to add some salty sweat to that shoreline. Ohwell. Didn't matter in the end because there were still insufficient hours in the day to spend squishing toes in the sand. Not just mine, but twenty other small fleshy ones, turning wailing and flailing into an expression of joy. Amidst sandcastling and swimming, I hydrated the kids with milkshakes and fruit juices, while I sipped pina coladas and mai tais beside my draftbeer husband.

I loved the food; I could live forever on their freshly baked bread, and don't ask which was my favorite, I can't decide at all. Wholemeal, country, french, poppyseed, sesame, dontaskme. There was food for everyone; porridge and grilled fish for Rohan, hash browns and all sorts of pasta for Charu. Chocolate krispies, miso soup, Hong Kong coffee barbecue ribs, kuih lapis, lemon meringue pie. Slabs of ham, shards of bacon. Slivers of coconut, chunks of pomelo.

The most uncomfortable thing was the 1+ hour travel from Phuket airport to Club Med. But in a comfy plush van with ample water supply and interesting things to see all along the way, it doesn't qualify as a complaint, even with Rohan constantly demanding to "see stateeyues!!", thanks to the numerous sculptured statues standing at a roundabout, outside stores and atop scupltured temples zipping past.

I admit though, that going there right after the situation in Bangkok was unplanned good timing. At such a post-incident calm time, there is a quiet careful air all around, with additional security checks and law enforcement. Visitors cancel and stay away to obviously minimize risks to their well-being and travel schedules. So anyway, because of that, we had a clear passage to and from Phuket Airport, and Club Med itself had many cancellations, granting easier access to facilities -- shorter queues at the trapeze (darn I didn't get a shot of Tony climbing and swinging), better attention from the friendly G.O.s (I think G.O. is short for Guest Officer). All friendly, helpful and multinational. Show you to the bar? Get your kids some food? Help you carry stuff to the beach? Great concept, it encouraged all the guests to be friendly with each other too. Interestingly, I confirm, yet again, that my looks are innately Japanese, even to the Japanese themselves :-) I got a lot of "Japanese?" to which I'd say, "No.. Malaysian". But having two cute kids quickly smooths such quirky situations because everyone just shifts attention to their smooth little cheeks and coos, and nobody is for the worse...

I didn't get many still photos because we used our new videocam, from which I have not extracted them videos. So with my trusty Motorola U9, I only managed a few shots of the kids on the beach near sunset, as they hopped about trying to get the attention of a baby elephant transported there to help merrify a wedding-on-the-beach. It was the cuuuutest thing there besides Charu and Rohan. You be the judge:

Celebrity spottings on Kata Beach, Phuket:

Matt Damon hides behind Mickey sunnies and a huge grin (bloodied lip from filming fourth Bourne movie... no actually from slipping while shimmying off the bed..!)


.. and a brunette Gwen Stefani performs Hollaback girl in pink Barbie sunnies


Post-performance press conference


Baby elephant - flappy-eared, swishy-tailed, well-behaved, covered in fine fuzzy baby hair, and with cuteness that is inversely proportional to distance from it.


As sunset nears, cuteness is in abundance...


Charu with some Japanese tourist :-D


Rohan squishing toes in sand..


Charu savouring powdery texture of sand..


Rohan realizing that some basic needs must be attended to soon..


Charu: "Can I pelt the bride with this... ?" .. no actually she said, "This is a sand ball!!"

Have passport, will travel to -- Jakarta!

The blog posts here stagnated for half a month... sorry! I was busybusy, preparing for our First Ever trip overseas as a family; to Jakarta! Why there, asked quite a few colleagues and friends who when talking about regional travel are more accustomed to discussing trips to Singapore, Hong Kong, Phuket, Chiangmai and even Siem Reap. But... Jakarta? And here I admit, it would not be my destination of choice if Tony didn't have a business trip there, and if he had not also been there enough times to be familiar with the hotel and the place (its a province, by the way, consisting of a few towns... more on that later).

Well, to cut a very long story short (and believe you me, if you let me ramble I will go on for days till you never want to hear the word Jakarta again), it was a very very interesting trip, for a few reasons:

1) I have not been on an overseas trip for aaaaeeeons. Especially to a city (I mean province... blah no matter city province state land longkang stranger's backyard or outer space, anyone ask me if I want to go, and I will say yes before you finish your question) unfamiliar and waiting for getting-to-knowness. Consider me travel-deprived.

2) It was my first time taking The Two Kids on an overseas trip. Alone, by myself without maid or mother. Yea there was Tony, but he was away at work during the day, and some days he worked late. Meaning I was solo with two young bubbly energetic children. Okay okay okay... I wasn't really solo. There was the entire staff of Hotel Mulia at my beck and call, from the gardener by the kiddy pool to the room service waiter. I actually deserve a good hard kick for being so spoilt! And would you believe that my first Jakarta experience tells me this - Indonesian friendliness does not rival Malaysian. It SURPASSES it big time. They actually seem to genuinely take a liking to your kids, no fake I'm-paid-to-bare-my-teeth-at-you-and-your-annoying-kid sneer, but a lot of walk-out-of-the-way-and-towards-you-to-shake-your-kid's-hand kind of niceness. I thought it was the 5 star hotel treatment, until we walked the streets and I realised that people smiled amicably at Charu and Rohan even though these two goblins trespassed into their shopping paths. They greeted sweaty, fidgety and slightly whiny kids with pleasant smiles despite trying to berdating over their McDonald's lunch at a table half a foot away. I truly appreciate such tolerance!

3) Jakarta itself. Amazing, interesting, city (I do mean province) of contrasts. Rich in history, all of it revealed and displayed in gorgeous detail in the museums, unlike local history as I know it, that reveals only what Malaysia wants its gape-mouthed youth and touristy visitors to know about its past, leaving gaping holes that make Malaysian history a huge crushing bore. Hey don't take my word for gospel truth, maybe I just don't know better; this is from someone who got A2 for Sejarah in Form 3, and thanked goodness that there wasn't more nonsense to memorize in upper secondary forms. There is so much to say about what little I learnt about Indonesia from this little short trip, that I have to create another post, or risk this one extending way waaay to the bottom and leaving no space for photos.

And that reminds me too, I should tell you about my new photo-taking machine - its a MOTO U9 mobile phone :-D It replaces my trusty old Nokia that went bust a few weeks back. I had to get a Motorola phone eventually, or risk being ostracized by my colleagues. So by-the-by, get one that is bundled with camera, video, and lots of features that'll take me years to discover. More on that in another post, I guess.

Darn drat the Dutch (who invaded Jakarta back when it was known as Jayakarta... and occupied it for 350 years after renaming it Batavia). I downloaded my photos to another machine. Oh well maybe I do have a couple left in this one that I can post. At least that would spare you the agony of me spouting awful Jakartaisms like the one I just slipped into this paragraph...

Rohan with Papa on a scary bird ride called "Burung Tempur" ('bird of war'? 'war bird'? 'warbler'? :-P). I don't think scary is the intent, but it wobbled a lot (hey so maybe 'wobbler'...heheh!!) because it was probably not meant to carry an adult of Tony's height. Safety measures on these rides seemed horribly lacking, we realized after a few rounds...


Charu sitting on a stone ball in the courtyard of what used to be the Governor's Office (now a museum). Many similar balls are scattered quite puzzlingly all over the area. I'm sure they aren't really for kids to sit on and flash their innerwear. Oh and in case it isn't obvious, the tall, strapping dude next to Charu, is my little chubbywubby Rohan. Eight years from now he'll hate the word 'chubbywubby'. Heheh..!!

Em. More, loads more photos I will post later! Once I get hold of them.