La Tanière d’un Rêveur

The long awaited story is about to begin! After procrastinating for so long, I’ve decided to post up ‘The Adventures of Princess Zoonie’ (as quoted from Grandpa Daryl) seeing that I may not be active in Choir after some time next year. Pictures may say a thousand words but you may not know exactly what is happening, so…there will be stories behind each picture.

Now, let’s begin!

30th October 2008

The day we move from KL to Kelantan – our first stop. It was to be a long journey. We were to meet at Istana Budaya at about 1.30-2.00pm. So that morning, once I was satisfied with my packing, I asked my dad to drop me at Ampang Point. I had a checklist of what to buy and I slowly worked my way through the list. Shopping done, I had my mom picked me on the way home from work. Packed, got ready, rushed out. After loads of dawdling, we finally took off at about…3.30pm. Of course, it was a really long journey, we reached Kelantan at about 1AM. (If my memory’s not failing me) We were placed at Pantai Cahaya Bulan Resort. It was really late by then. We were assigned a chalet each pair. So me and my roomie, dragged our luggage and made our way to the chalet. To our horror, the “bathroom” for our chalet was…inhabitable!! It was old! And it was like some jungle hole! Seriously, if anyone is to shoot a horror film, the toilet would’ve made a great scene. I can already imagine the scary figure hanging upside down from the ceiling, scaring the wits off the unfortunate person in the horror toilet. *shudders* (Thank God, nothing happened to me, for I bathed the minute we reached. I needed one!) So it was sleep, and the next day, we woke up early, had breakfast, and went for rehearsal. The venue of our concert was ok. Not very large, but it was ok. Ooooh! It was Kak Marina’s birthday too! Great chocolate cake! ! So then, comes the concert.

Glitches here and there happened during the concert. Early in the concert, we had a miscommunication with our conductor. Our next song was Adai Adai, where we would have to sit. The next song after that would be another song with movements. So when our conductor cued us, half of us, started to sit, the other half turned and made the movement for the other song. I swear, it was embarrassing and almost hilarious, but at that point, we were scared to bits to even laugh. So, yada yada yada, the show’s over. It was generally good, not the best, but good. Then we went for supper. I thought we were going to have this Kelantan specialty, I don’t know how you spell it, but it’s really good. The specialty dish I mean. I had it in Iman’s place during Raya, and man, it was good! So my friend told me it was the specialty served, but I wasn’t so sure. Probably just an imitation of the dish. Apparently, it’s difficult and expensive to make. I’ll probably dedicate an entire post one day, about the dish. That’s if I find anything to post. Anyway, right after supper, we went to this night market. It was really late by then, almost 1 plus AM and some shops were closing already. We walked around, ‘window-shopped’ a little, and I bought myself a pair of slippers! I had wanted this pair – when you put them together, side by side, the pattern forms a lady bug! – but it doesn’t have my size. (I never really knew slippers come in sizes! *gasps*) Anyway, after getting tired of walking, we went to some mamak, and then back to the bus. It had been a really long day. And night.

1^st November 2008

Oh, did you know that the resort we are staying at is just right next to the beach? Well, the beach ain’t pretty. But it’s been almost forever since I’ve been to the beach, so I was only thankful to be able to look out at the horizon over the sea. It was a great calming effect. Before we took off to our volunteer programme, we all cam-whored! In every tour trip, it is sort of…mandatory for us choir-ians to do some volunteer work. Not that we mind. I certainly don’t mind. He he. So, our volunteer today was to go visit a hospital. UKM in Kelantan. We were brought to the children’s ward, to the cancer patients. Most of them are really small. L There was one who’s about 20 years old, but he looked like he’s 14. The saddest one of all was a baby (I can’t remember if it’s a she or he), placed in a special room, with all sorts of needles poking into her. She/he has lung problems and currently I think she’s hooked up on some machine to help him/her breathe. He/she’s so tiny!!  After we were done, we were off to lunch. At Four Seasons Restaurant! Cool! So it was…Chinese cuisine!  The kerabu was great! YummY! After lunch, we went back to the resort, packed in like…15 minutes and then off we go! To sightseeing. We went to another market, a famous one, it seems, near The Grand Palace. It was HUGE! There are SO many things! From there I bought 4 caftans! Pretty too! And some dodol, for my mom. I think I got like…1 kg?? Or was it ½ kg? Can’t remember now, it was only RM4! So much, and it was good too. I also got a fan, cause it was so hot! Yada yada yada, shop shop shop, it was time to head off to the bus. You think the journey ends here? HAH! You are WRONG! The journey was just about to begin!  WE were not going to head back home. WE were going to go to PERLIS!

And so, the journey continued. At first the bus ride was pretty smooth. However, nearing dusk…I felt…strange. It felt like…car-sick! It was weird, because I’ve never had any problems with cars, or reading in cars or anything like that. I started feeling sick to my stomach, and nauseous. And the headache…gosh, it was the weirdest feeling ever! I thought I was the only one. But when I look across to my right, I saw the same expression on Chee Kan’s face! Hahaha! He was having the symptoms too! He looked just as sick. The road was getting windy, and everyone in the bus was getting sick too. The bus then stopped, and a few of us rushed down the bus and most of them threw up. I didn’t get to, though. I felt like it, but I couldn’t. We had to endure a little more of the crazy bus ride, and finally stopped for dinner. We reached the hotel in Perlis at about 2AM. Thank goodness, the room wasn’t so bad. It was pretty ok. I mean, it’s a hotel! It was definitely much better than Kelantan.

2^nd November 2008

Concert day! Unfortunately, tonight’s concert wasn’t that great. We lacked energy, and the power. We were pretty disappointed too. Sigh. Nothing we could do but to look forward to the next concert. However, we got a seafood supper treat from the VIP who attended the concert. He brought us to some dodgy looking mamak stall or some sort, which serves seafood, and we just ate. Well, I didn’t eat a lot, but, there were some interesting “delicacies” that I’ve tried. Look at the pictures below, there’s one with Cik Syafinaz holding the interesting – looking clam or some sort.  

3^rd November 2008

Again, as usual, volunteer work. We went to this special local school in Perlis, which caters for normal students and special students. They allocated kids who have problems, such as autism, Down syndrome’s, and such. We had fun, the students even performed something for us! Will show you the video, in a bit. ! Haha, most of us became famous too! Kids were lining up asking for autographs! So cute! Then, it was HOME! But before that, we stopped at Gua Kelam! Beautiful err…what’s gua in English??)…AH! CAVE! Beautiful cave! ! I’ll show you the pictures, you’ll be the judge. I mean, it’s been quite a while since I went into a cave. The last time was…when I was in…Tekam? Ah, sweet memories. Alright, let’s not get distracted now. So after that, it was really home. Another long journey to endure. We reached KL at about midnight or so.  

Now…

Let the pictures tell the story! Hehe.

Oh and by the way, I published this post at work, so there are more pictures to come, I don’t have it with me, and I can only post the pictures up at home tonight. Pray you stay patient. J I’m sorry, I know this post is extremely long and without pictures, it can be boring. So, do forgive me this once, and let me upload the pictures tonight.

Cheers.