My Day at Thailand

This is quite a late post. I forgive myself for procrastinating. :)

So it was a one-day trip. My dad drove my mom, her friend and I to the border of Malaysia, parked our car, changed currencies and took a taxi to Hatyai, Thailand. Oh before that, I had to get out of bed at 4.30 a.m! Just thought I'd mention that. It was a challenging task to gather enough self-control to not just continue lazing in bed or sleeping in. Yea so I got up. I guess I was kinda sorta a little excited. Upon reaching the Thai border/custom, four of us climbed out of the car and joined many many sweaty impatient Malaysians and a minority of Thais in line, passports and one ringgit in hand. It was a long wait and it was blazing hot!

After the whole border-of-Thailand episode, we climbed back into the same taxi and continued our taxi journey to the city of Hatyai. After 45 minutes, we finally reached the city. We had lunch and walked to a market. I can't remember exactly what we did and where we went after that, but I do know that we had to ride on mini truck-like vehicles, equivalent to our taxis called "tut-tuts". It is such a cute name for a truck; it makes it sound fat.

Me on a fat truck. I'm sorry truck. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. But I'm pretty sure I hurt you anyway. Cause I sat on you!

We traveled the city, moved with the agility of street monkeys from street to street with both speed and money in our pockets. We conquered the shopping malls; explored the market places...

The sun going down was a sign for us to head back home. And so we headed back home.

It was a long day. There were some rather awkward moments on my part when people would talk to me in Thai and I would reply in English - sometimes I tried Mandarin or any other language I know - and we would end up staring at each other speechless.

But it was a good experience all in all.

A fact

I have been back in Penang for nearly 3 weeks now. It has been great thus far.
A quick summary of what I have been up to :

• Shopping - sales up to 70% discounts have made it all the better.
• Catching up with friends; remembering the good old times when we would get into cat fights, hitting each other with headless barbie dolls.
  
• Sleeping - a lot, but going to bed at very late hours. It's not healthy I keep telling myself, but what do I do? Sleep late.
  
• Entertaining myself by reading New Moon + watching Korean dramas and Lost Season 4.
• Church activities - camp, sleepover..
  
• Going online.
• Discovering I have a look alike.
• Queensbay/ Gurney Plaza.
• Enjoying food I haven't tasted for a year.

It just struck me that around the same time last year, my family and I were in Brisbane unpacking and trying to settle down in that, at the time, foreign place. It was a hard and difficult time for all of us and it was God who helped us through that stormy phase. The fact of the matter is time flies. It has already been a year. And soon, due to the fact that time flies, I would be back in Brisbane, in that constricted space surrounded by four walls called my home. But I won't complain; I miss home.

I still have Christmas and Chinese New Year to look forward to before I head for home. Speaking of which, Christmas is in 8 days!!!!