Back from Malacca

After suffering Malacca and KL withdrawal symptoms for most of the year, we finally made a trip up north over the ND holiday- our first this year!

While it felt good to be back, the trip came with a teeny bit of drama. At the Tuas checkpoint, we discovered that Isaac's passport only had 2 months left before expiry. The usual requirement for travel is a 6 month allowance of validity. But we were all packed, the car was loaded as usual with kids, luggage, sweets, comforters, pillows etc so turning back felt like such a boo-boo. Luckily Malaysian immigration didn't detect this and waved us through.

Then the next day we headed up to KL. Spent a day at the Times Square theme park which was nice and empty, so no queues for the rides. Ended the day at my sister's place checking out her three dogs - canine cousins to my kids. Magz, the Shih-Tzu she saved, no longer had the maggoty hole in the head - its healed very nicely. And he was so manja and sweet-natured, always toddling off after her, letting the kids stroke his head and body, no nipping/snapping etc. Wolfie, apparently the Alpha male in the house, was more aggressive and barked at the kids a couple of times. Have to hand it to the kids - no one wailed, screamed when Wolfie barked in their faces (and yes it was loud!). When he barked in her face, Trin just looked taken aback and coolly walked away and Owain just scrambled on the sofa when Wolfie got a bit loud. Poppet, dog number 1 that my sister adopted, looked forlorn most of the time. I felt a bit sorry for him - he was head honcho until Wolfie came along. According to Viv, Wolf is now numero uno in the doggie hierarchy at home, and having taken Magz under his wing, Magz is now number 2 and poor Pops has been relegated to the back of the ranks. Luckily he's still quite the ladies' man and very popular with all the girl-dogs he meets!

Had dinner in a small restaurant in a quiet residential estate - the food was good. Isaac was running a very high fever. No children's paracet so he had to chew down one adult tablet - very ugh. After that we drove back to Malacca.

Next day we had dinner with my SIL and BIL who happened to be in Malacca for a couple-only weekend, sans kids. After dinner at Bei Zhan restaurant (whose food was not so good that night and service a tad snotty), we all piled into our car - 5 kids + 4 adults! It was a short ride so I had Owain with me on my lap. Driving back to Jonker, we were pulled over by a policeman. When KH tried to get out of the car, the policeman waved him back in and said, no need to get out just wind down window. He asked to see KH's licence. Then he said KH and I were not wearing our seat belts and wanted to fine us RM200 each!! Well, we all knew what was coming. KH asked delicately, could we erm, settle this here instead of paying the fine at the border. Policeman said, ok, how do you want to settle it? KH said, I'll settle with RM50. Oh RM50! said the policeman, rolling his eyes, so little! The fine is RM400 total you know... But despite the theatrics, the guy finally said, okay lah. Money changed hands so quickly even I could not tell what happened. Sleight of hand. Next thing I knew he gave a parting grin and a wave and drove off on his bike. Malaysia boleh!!

Last time this happened to us was on the Kota Tinggi Road in Johor. At the height of the MM row when he mouthed off about JB being a hotbed of crime etc - that sparked off a pretty nasty diplomatic spat. So when we, and another Singaporean car, were pulled over, the policemen there did not bother entertaining any suggestion of 'settling it' - they hauled both cars off to the nearest police station where we had to pay a RM300 fine. This was long before Badawi and his crusade for cleanliness in the force. It was unusual because back then it was common knowledge that being pulled over was (1) normal for Singaporean vehicles to be targetted and (2) it was a sideline for easy kopi money. No doubt a long dormant sense of patriotism must have been awakened due to the spat and they were not taking any kopi money for this.

Now I'm not going to stand on my soapbox and give a moving speech about integrity and honesty etc. Yes, it was a form of bribery/corruption and was less than honest. But it was also something that, to me, makes part of the charm that makes Malaysia what it is. The revelation of a bit of an underbelly, an almost entrepreneural reading between the lines of the law. Yes in contrast Singapore is efficient, honest blah blah blah... but I think we lack that teensy defiant lick of unsavoury sleazy charm that makes a country that bit more interesting and 'human'. So Happy National Day! Maybe with the IRs coming up we can see more of the Danny Ocean emerging in the average Singaporean.

Meanwhile, Isaac and KH were both down with high fever. But fever or not, we still went swimming in the condo pool, hit the pasar malam at Jonker, had the ubiquitous chendol and mee siam at Donald & Lily's, shopped at Mahkota, the kids blew RM20 on arcade games and kiddie rides, found a new bootleg DVD place with honest pirates (they told us honestly which DVD movie was still 'bu qing' ie not clear yet and 'not master copy'!). And we drove home on Saturday satisfied for the time being. And incidentally, even though Secret Recipe in Malaysia is cheaper than Singapore by about 50% (thanks to the currency differences), I boycotted it when I realised that they too, like their Singaporean counterparts, now charge for a glass of water! In the menu, they charged for tap water and they also charged for RO water! Please lah, the water in Singapore and Malaysia is potable - turning on the tap does not equate to a RM0.50sen charge. It's not the money, as KH loves to say, its the principle! So bye-bye Chocolate Banana cake!

We came home late on Saturday. On Sunday, Gillian took and passed her Gold survival swimming test. So no more swimming lessons for her! One down, four to go! She can now officially tread water while making a float out of clothes, swim 1 kim in under 3min and swim the side stroke, the back stroke, the front crawl. The family celebrated (we celebrate at the slightest excuse!) with dinner at Marutama Ramen which the kids enjoyed, and Hokkaido ice-cream after.