The problem with traveling with bagpacker is that, we tend to find way to save up money in many ways. Perhaps, this round, we kind of overdid it. We were told that his hotel is famous for having spacious room, and hence we sort of decided to get a 3 bed-room for 5 person, after all, we are all family member, no problem squishing a bit.
As many might aware or might not aware of, hotel actually have a strict policy on the number of people staying in a room due to safety purposes (obviously is bad for business also-lar), and my sister was stupid enough to bring out all our passport during registration (when i said all, i means 12 passports, as we all so happened all renew the passport and decided to bring along the old one). The person over the counter got the shock of his life, and sort of like keep an eye on us since then.
When we going up the room, we kinda feel like we are being watched. Later, upon entering our room, we received a phone call regarding how they charge extra person for this amount and bla bla bla. Then 5 minutes later, we received a call saying that they usually check on the number of people in the room once in the afternoon and once during the night. Then 5 minutes again received another called saying in fact they do rounding and checking throughout the midnight.
My sister was kind of irked by the calls and she stand up and shouted, "i had enough, lets go to another hotel!!" so we went down to the counter to return the room and request for refund. Interestingly everyone in the counter know us and our reimbursement was done in like 10 minutes.
As we are still puzzled over the incident, we seek some clarification from a local friend of our sister. Then only we realize, the hotel staff actually believe that we are doing prostitution business, WTF~~!!!~~
Do i look like someone who need to do this? my sister screamed.
No, i said calmly,then i grinned at my dad and said, perhaps he looks like a pimp to them.
Received nothing but an innocent stared from him. How i not love my dad :)
Bangkok (3)
Bangkok (2)
Traffic, is what you cant missed in Bangkok
heaven~~obviously that's what my sister was screaming...
In PJ,i totally ignore all this. In bangkok, i find it interesting. Pathetic touristBangkok (1)
With much anticipation, we as a family, finally gathered around and have our 2nd ever family trip (as a whole) in Bangkok. The last round happened when i was 11 year old, and obviously things has changed so much since then. 4 of us were being guided worrying that one of us will fell into the Lake Toba during that time. This time around, 4 of us are worrying over our clumsy dad that he would actually fall into the Mekong River :)
My parent is actually kinda concern for this trip as its their first time traveling without following a tour package. On the contrary, the evil daughter and son of theirs are extremely excited over this arrangement as we know very well free and easy = lots of element of surprise.
And the surprise really hit us as soon as we step into the relatively renown hotel in Bangkok.
The end
With this, i finally completed my travel blog of year 2005 (!!!) special dedication to my pen and my notebooks that served me well throughout the journey. Next project, photo blog of year 2006
23/11/05 4.12pm
32,000 feet above, 2 hours since departing Auckland
Concluded my first bag packing experience today after spending 2 nights in Auckland. Experienced quite a few things in Auckland, like have my first ever Wendy's burger, met a long lost secondary school friend along the street ( what are the odds man!), hop on to a garbage car for a free ride to the town after i was lost in suburb for 2 hours, had the best Korean meal ever, being ill-treated by bus driver for the first time in NZ, help by many local Indians throughout the stay and perhaps many more.
overall, its jut another city, perhaps a cleaner one, to certain extent only. The city looks so identical to KL, especially around the main street that heavily occupied by Asian, at least that's what i felt. It may be suffering from identity crisis just like KL, but it does have some sense of romanticism flowing along the higher-end part of the city.
When i was crossing this main crossroad over viewing this giant santa claus, i suddenly felt a lost of identity. I cant remember who am i or why i was here for. Stephanie Sun was humming softly through my mp3 player "i wish i am aninvisible person, and i could hide all my sadness" into my ear. The world seems to have pause 3 seconds for me. I managed to catch a glimpse of all the passerby in the middle of the crossroad. So emotionless, so cold, so far. 3 second gone, the pedestrian light start turning red and buzzing the people to finish crossing. I ran to the opposite side, and tell myself, dont worry, i am heading home now...
21/11/05
YHA Hostel, Waitomo Caves
After a whole day of sulphuric smell, i head off my journey again for a fresher air, this time i am going to Waitomo that is famous for its caves.
famous not only because it has unique looking caves, but also inside these caves, there's this interesting creature call glow worms. These glow worms are actually larvae that can glow in the dark and attract flying insects to fly towards them and then trapped in their sticky web. Beautiful but deadly creature. So what's the different between glow worms and fireflies? my perspective, besides the fact that one live in the riverside and another one live in the cave, there's not much different. However, it feels much cooler to be seeing all this artificial milky way on the roof of the underground cave.
this is exactly what i observed in the cave, but i got this picture off the internet :)
instead of seeing the glowworms via a slow sailing boat, i go for the extreme option, black water rafting.
those tube are my boat and we need to cave through the running water under the caves for 2 hours. Its not exactly that challenging, but its definitely fun to do so, especially when u are playing along a group of American ladies that scream for every single tiny thing.
Waitomo have some good scenery to offer too besides the cave. Ended up having an extremely relaxing 2 days in Waitomo with lots of, lots of fresh air.
you will become lazy here...19/11/05 7pm
Rotorua
Without knowing much about the town, i arrived this town just in time to view the children's day parade.
As i walked along the town, a pungent smell is swirling in the sky and yet everyone seems okey with it. Maybe its just me... Later on when i saw this, i know things are not as simple as i first perceived.
look~ The drain releasing some pungent smell along with obvious smoke flowing out. The smell is so strong that it is visible, just like what i see in the cartoon!! OMG, i should call 911. Wait a second, the smoke and the smell is everywhere~
normally a park will have a blue lake within it and people calmly sitting next to it. Interestingly, this park near the city center has a lake that smells real bad and release lots of smoke. Knowing that i have not done my homework regarding this town, i head off to tourism center to figure out what is it all about..
Turn out that Rotorua is a very unique town in which is has extremely high geothermal activity, so high that literally every single hole you dig will cause a release of sulphur from the land below. So if you choose to stay here, you have to live with the smell.
according to my source, Rotorua is famous for 3 things, the first one is Geyser. A geyser is a hot spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accomplished by a vapor phase. its quite impressive to see the periodical eruption the vapour, besides the fact that i got wet after standing too near the eruption point.
Pahula Geyserthe 2nd thing Rotorua famous for is spa/bath house.
this is a former bath house call 'Blue Bath' that eventually become a museum. Nothing impressive to be frank, and later i did go the the real bath house to soke in some hot water. Besides the smell, i really cant distinguish the different from the hot shower i would have at home.The 3rd thing Rotorua famous for is the Maori Cultural heritage. Maybe i have not traveled far enough ever since i got to NZ, but for the first time , i see more Polynesian on the road than Caucasian. There's quite a bit of Maori Cultural show for tourist too in this area. Due to the limitation of the time, i didnt manage to see any cultural show, but i do realise that i should have bring along some egg, because u can almost cook your egg in anywhere.
No joking, people in the past do cook their egg this way....
19/11/05
On the Road
Before I've gone crazy enough to jump from the plane, there's another far more interesting thing happened early in the morning.
(I have shared this story to most of my friends, because it happened in such unexpected manner till now i'm still blushed over what had happened then)
As i scheduled from an early skydiving session so that i can make my way to next destination in the early afternoon, i woke up around 6.30am to prepare myself both mentally and physically. I was sharing the room with the German guy and Jewish girl that i spoke to the night before. I was told that another 2 roommates are British ladies but they were still partying out there when i was heading to bed, hence i did not get to see them.
Just a little bit of the side note, most of the bagpackers around NZ are separated between male and female, but some of the bagpackers do practice co-ed, and obviously i'm content with such arrangement :)
The alarm ring at the note as it should, and i react quickly to prevent the sound from disturbing the rest. Stared at the ceiling for 2 second, recalling back why am i waking up so early, and pick up my spec from the table next to my bed.
As my vision turning from blur to clear, i doubted my eye and stunt from 2 second. the first thing i see in the morning is a naked butt.
To be exact, its one and half naked butt. One of the British girl's butt was facing me while another one was facing me side way. They were both naked, and looking for clothes to wear as well as packing up their stuff.
Honestly, i didnt see much. Or perhaps, my brain wasnt fast enough to process what my eyes manage to see. I cannot recall the exact picture of what i saw, but i remember clearly how i react to this. I was so stunt that i lay down to my bed straightaway and covered myself with duvet. I even take out my spec fearing that they might thought that i am peeping through the duvet.
They took about a good 10minutes before they finally dressed up and leave the room. I'm glad that they did not see me staring at them and scream. As i wore back my spec and look across my bed, i saw the German guy smirked at me and winked. At that instant, i know i was being an idiot. The German guy was enjoying the whole morning while i was fearing of being caught! Damn, why do i have to be short sighted?
After i packed my stuff and ready to leave, i saw 2 Caucasians having breakfast on the table nearby me. I know they must be my roommates, but i decided not to go and say hi to them eventually.
Why? because i find it to hard to say hi to someone that i've seen their butt before seeing their face
19/11/05
Taupo
How to you tell people that you have been to New Zealand?
1. You have seen the Kiwi bird
2. You have done bungee jumping
3. you have done Skydiving
And i decided to take up the challenge no. 3.
How cool is that? take a look and you will know it
yes, our geography teachers weren't lying, the earth, is indeed round in shape. for the full set of pictures, click here
the journey
a lot of time we were so focus on our goal,our destination, we have forgotten to slow down to take a look around during the process. Here's some of the pictures that i snapped along the journey from Wellington to Taupo. Take a better look and you will understand the uniqueness of this area. Pictures below are taken in sequence, within an hour time.
Cloud just seems cuter over here
this is Mordor
Mt Doom, where the ring got destroyed
the plain around the snowy mountain
forest that's just across the desert
greeny mountain
deep blue lake
the curve
civilization18/11/05 (2)
Taupo
the night is getting late, i was still sitting around with 3 Israeli, 1 german, 1 austrian and a canadian tasting over NZ wine, and talking about our motherland.
From historical point of view, we all have a very conflicting background, but hey, that's the beauty of this bagpacking thingy! A german guy that almost being named Elvis by his dad pouring wine for the Austrian; the Canadian that speak mostly French in his life poking fun of America while the Israeli happily reply back "go easy tiger, they are our best friend"; and i'm just a malaysian that gladly showing the rest how malaysia passport has a big printout on "this passport is valid except in Israel"
We really should win Noble peace price for this. I have always dream of meeting these people and asked them about their burden from the past, and today, i actually can meet them in a far fetch country call New Zealand.
Beautiful. Life.
18/11/05 (1)
Taupo
Arrived late on lake Taupo, missed out all the activities that can be done here. Without hesitation, i booked the only possible activities that be done on next day morning, SKYDIVING~
wondered around taupo, snapped a few good shots, and have a medium pizza over viewing the stunning lake taupo that surrounded by greeny mountain. Regret for doing so an hour later, because in order to look cool/romantic/poetic by having meal on the lake side, my fingers are literrally becoming 10 sticks of paddle pop.
My wallpaper picture
The Road that i've taken 