Closer To Heaven

 Hey I’m back with
the “goodies” again =P What? You thought I wasn’t going to continue to blog the
Adventure?? Well you can think again…hehehe

 Well later we landed
for a “pit-stop” at Jo’Berg for some good walking around the airport before we
caught the next flight to

Cape Town

.
So I took a few good minutes to “revive” my legs and my brains. I went into the
bookstore to look for some good mags to read during the next few hours of
flight. I was actually flipping through a couple of car mags till my eyes
caught something nasty. You won’t believe it. I accidentally flipped a mag
between those car mags called PB. Which I got to know was PlayBoy. Oh Man!!
How embarrassing! Lucky they don’t sell those magazines in this country (but
sooner or later without any doubt, it will reach this country). Imagine how
embarrassing you could get if you were accidentally caught red handed by your
girlfriend, which you didn’t intentionally flip. Hah!! So I quickly hand off
the mag and walk off before any “dirty” things get stuck on my head. I realize
I could never push away these types of unwanted “surprise” out of my life, but
I could hold my dignity high up then just walk away and avoid it from polluting
me. Not all guys are perverts!

 Not long after that
nasty encounter, I was “Q-ing” up to board the plane once again. Now that I
know the “martian” I was talking about, was actually my dad’s friend’s daughter
I tried to be nice giving her another smile with a polite nod for some respect.
And this time I was free to sit on my own (well before my rascal sister showed
up, interrupting my peace), I didn’t have to show my competitive side =P

 After a short nap,
we were in

Cape Town

. I was amazed
at the beautiful scenery which I never expected. With my mouth semi-open
(without the outpouring saliva) I stared at the beauty of this land. It was a
combination of both seas and mountains. It was just “heavenly”. I couldn’t wait
to jump out of the plane. I was thinking, any change of plan to NZ would have
been a great regret.

                                  Heavenly
(Picture taken just before landing at Capetown International)

  The immigration
counter has always been a pain in the butt for all foreigners. The long queue
and slow process has always made me complained. Imagine yourself just offered a
nice scenery which you are so excited to explore only to be slowed down by the
“traffic jam” in the airport. It gets into your nerves. So my turn was up. As I
walked towards the counter, I got a strange look from the lady sitting behind
the huge counter. “Hello Good Morning!” I greeted, in hopes that I won’t get
into any trouble. “Here for business?” she asked with a firm tone, maybe
judging from my “smart” appearance. “Nope! I’m a student and I’m here for
vacation.” I replied, hoping that’ll be all. After looking at my passport, she
gave me a strange look and asked again, “What are you studying?” A simple reply
and she let me off. This lady was really kepo.
What has my study got to do with my vacation?

 Right at the waiting
area, our tour guide has been waiting for us. It was amazing that he could
recognize us, and walk directly towards us even though we haven’t met before.
This guy looks like M. Gandhi with only some hair sticking out. A cheerful guy
with a big smile makes everyone feel at home. While in the car, he just gave a
short brief of where he was going to take us that day.

 Looking out of the
car, I never thought I would see squatter areas in

Cape
  Town

. The squatter houses stretched for miles. It was
a pity to see people staying in those small houses; I guess it’s only slightly
bigger than my kitchen. House made out of old zinc plates and some other
recycle materials. I felt very blessed at that moment for what I have.

 After checking in to
the apartment-style room, we headed for a good lunch at Nando’s. Yeah! I know
you must be thinking “Nandos? We would you wanna all the way to

Africa

just to have Nando’s?” But Nando’s there are simply delicious. Walking down the
street I suddenly felt all eyes were on us. Turning my head to the left and
right, I realized that I was surrounded by Africans. There were no Asians to be
seen. I felt lost. I felt very small and fragile compared to their muscular
bodies. Soon the insecurity faded away, I was feeling at home with sounds of
mini van rushing down the streets which reminds me of the pink bas mini we used
to have. Honking and shouting from the vans trying to attract attention. The
building there was also quite old but repainted with cheerful colors.

 First stop was the
Waterfront. It’s a cool place to hang out and a new place build just opposite
the harbor. The place was just filled with multinational people. It was truly a
hot attraction for tourist. There were so much of activities going on. With
anti-AIDS campaign just around the corner, the younger kids performed on stage.
Singing Christian songs and dancing all over stage, it was simply a fantastic
sight. Although our Malaysian currency was a little stronger, but it was too
expensive to buy stuff there. I wondered just how much the people there were
earning for a living. Some of the items were ridiculously pricey. So it was
obviously a No No for shopping today. So we just wasted the rest of our first
of seven days by walking around at the stunning shopping centre before ending
it with a good sleep on the comfy bed.

  Picture taken just out of Waterfront

 Hey YEA!! YES YES!! I
know should be sleeping this time around. But there’s just too much thing going
around my head. I have too much problems to worry about. So the only way to
keep my mind clear, I guess is to continue blogging.

 Well I’ve been really
under pressure this week. Not able to perform at my best potential really put
me into lots of stress. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been on holiday for too
long, leading to my rusty controls and skills. To top that, I should be having
my test next week which leads me into more pressure adding that the examiner is
seriously strict and fussy. I’m afraid that I’m pushing myself to the limit.
Pressured, I am. So I thought going to church and seek God would be the best
idea. I was about to give up hope with faith dying of slowly, I couldn’t handle
this massive pressure. I was afraid I would make a wrong decision or just
forget something during flights. I was unsure of my future, not able to get a confirm
seat in any of the schools in

Malaysia

.
Pressure is building up against me. So praying and leaving it to God was all I could
do.

  So the next morning I woke up with an “answer”
on my handphone. It was something I never expected. “Do not be afraid, for the
Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” It was a comforting message to get
from a friend. Thanks, Gal!  With this “answer”,
I could walk with my head lifted up high and take every step knowing I am never
alone.

 TADA!! I’m Back…
hehehehe…Anyone missed me??? =P Okay I know it’s really been a LONG time since
my last entry but I have some really good excuse though. I was stuck with a lot
of problems that never seem to end. But I’m quite bored of thinking of it and
prefer to let God do the job

 So obviously I have
been enjoying some good time lately. So guess what?? Of course I went “up”
again… hehehehe… But this time it was quite a boring flight, because I had to
behave myself. So let me start off with where I had a pretty good time.

 It’ll all happen
roughly three weeks ago; mom told me that we were going to

Africa

for holidays this time. And obviously I was like “Hello!!

AFRICA

!!
What on EARTH!! Its SUMMER there, U KNOW?? Isn’t

Malaysia

hot enough??” Yeah that was my first answer when my mom told me about

AFRICA

for holiday (I actually wanted to go NZ another round, well at least to spend
some good summer there rather than

AFRICA

). The issue
about the hot weather kept rushing into my mind. I kept thinking how was I
going to survive in the HOT DESERT (excuse my lack of knowledge. I had always
thought of

Africa

as nothing but sand…hehe…Cuz I
never passed my Geography during secondary). So in order to keep my sanity, I
run through the net to prove to my parents that it will be a big mistake to go
during this season. To my surprise, I found out that the weather was quite
cold. “

South Africa

cold???” I asked myself. I was in total disbelief. “This must be a total
mistake.” I told myself. So I did some extra searching in the web for the
latest weather conditions and temperatures. Guess what?? It all showed that it
was like 12- 20 Celsius that week. I could actually smile once again. Looks
like it ain’t that bad after all.

 Now came the day of
departure. I was ready to see what this country had to show me. I predicted it
to be a good 12hours journey, with lots of movie to watch and music to cuddle
me to sleep. So I couldn’t wait to board the plane. Only this time I had to
really behave myself. There were too many “High Class” people sitting around,
so in order not to embarrass my parents I had cancel of any dirty plans. Well
obviously I aint wanna cramp myself into the seat right behind for the next 12
hours, so good behavior is a must.

 It’s now

1am

in the morning; everyone is getting ready to
jump onboard. So with my sleepy eyes and hungry stomach I dragged myself down
the corridor, and into the plane.

“All the way front, sir” I heard the pretty stewardess said
showing off her bright shining teethes. As I walk down towards my seat, I was
wondering which guy was going to be my chat partner (or my victim, I should
say) for the next 12 hours. Well I had hope for an old veteran for a flight
partner, so that he could boast his past glories to a young ciku. Then something caught my attention. It was some long hair species
sitting right next to my seat. “WOW!! This is going to be one heck of an ah pak. Must be a super cool dude.” I
told myself. But as I reached my seat and glance at my neighbor, I had to
swallow my hopes down to my hungry stomach. It was a GIRL. “This cannot be
happening to me! I can’t be sitting here.” I screamed to myself. I panicked.
Sitting beside a GIRL (I have to tell you that these species aint from Earth,
they are martians trying to invade my land…hehehe) was really my worst
nightmare, well besides heights and blood. And she is a total Stranger (mom
warned me about sitting with strangers. Well I think she should change the word
strangers to MARTIANS =P). I was pretty sure my sister was laughing out laud
back there. Okay I had to change my plans to being talkative to just being
NICE. To show a bit of respect since she got to the seat first, a good HELLO
should do the trick and get the ball rolling. So there it was a good polite
HELLO, not too loud not too soft, presented with a winning smile which I
thought it was going to be the best start off. But to my disappointment, all
she gave me was a lost look which was probably also the GET OUT OF MY FACE
look. So still think I’m going for second try? Well of course, it’s do or
suffer the next 12hours of complete silence (or I could just change my
attention to the stewardess of course…hehehe).

 Yes it’s makan time. Man!! I was really hungry
that time. It was like 6hours late for dinner, 3hours late for supper and an
hour late for snacks. Pulling out the menu and looking at it with the most
“gentleman” look (only if they knew it was just a mask covered over a “little
devil” =D), I selected my orders. Since I couldn’t be in my worse behavior,
maybe I try being the most “gentleman”. First on the menu was the satay. And MAN! It was pretty difficult
course to tackle without dirtying both my mouth and hands, imagine with the satay sauce dripping from the stick. I
should have asked them to pour the sauce on the side. But boy! Did I pull it
out perfectly! Not a single drip of sauce touches either my shirt or table.
“Well Done! Like a Pro!” I praised myself. Next course, THE SOUP (Note that
I’ve skipped salad cuz I was rushing to sleep). Ah! This will be a piece of cake,
I thought. I’ve practiced this dish well enough. So as “Soup Trained, I was” I
again tried to show my skills, but was sabotaged by the weather. As the plane
began to shake vigorously, I tried my very best to hold the spoon as steady as
possible. That showed a lot of concentration just to direct the spoon right
into my mouth. As I glance to my left, I noticed the “martian” was struggling
with her wavy soup. I looked at her and smiled. “Hah! Amateur!” I laughed to
myself. After the “Soup Trained” kungfu
I showed, it was off for the next meal. As the easiest among all, the next meal
was beef steak with some cute little potatoes (kedekut). And what was best to
go with red beef?? Red wine, of course!! Trying to show off my wine sipping
skills, I had place the glass into a nice good circle just allowing the liquid
to roll around the walls of the glass. Placing high concentration once again,
so to not spill the drink. Then I gently placed the liquid just close to my
nose, and tried to smell the aroma. Just a slight nod to indicate it was good,
so I had some good sip. But it was all only just for show, cause at that time
my nose wasn’t able to detect any sign of smell due to nose blockage…heehehe..
Eventually my nose cleared up thanks to the wine and I was ready for a nap.

 “Geeezzz!! Apa bising nih?” I complained to myself.
Getting a little frustrated from the Noise that woke me up from my sweet
dreams. I opened my eyes reluctantly and got a fright. All I saw was an alien face just inches away from my eye
balls. So I reposition myself away and tried to locate the noise pollution. Well
again and again I was surprised. Sound actually came from nowhere but from
little “martian”. I never thought that “Martians”
could actually snore.

 After a good rest, I
was once again disturbed from my dreams. But this time I wasn’t angry. Guess
why?? Hehehe… I was disturbed by an “angel”. What better way to wake up and see
a cheerful person right before your eyes. “Morning, Sir!! We’ll be serving
breakfast soon.” The peaceful voice traveled into my ears. The sun was already
slightly visible from the window. How nice!! So I had some good cereals and
those “cute” little potatoes again. Then the action of the “martian” caught my
attention. She was covering her eyes with both her hands. So I felt a little kepo and peeped into her screen and
wanted to see what horror movie she was actually watching. My jaw dropped on
the table when I discovered the truth (okay I have to exaggerate). It wasn’t a
horror movie. It was just a comedy movie and there was a couple kissing on
screen. “How old is she?? Where is she from” I asked myself. For a girl her
age, I don’t think there was anything new seeing couple kissing on screen. Oh
man!! If only you know how I hoped this flight ends fast…. 

————————————–To BE
Continued————————