Experience Malacca 2008

20 - 22 June 2008
It really took me a while to write this entry... Mix feelings between endurable, horrible, adventurous and tiring. First time bring a bunch of monsters out of the country, in Singapore already (sometimes) buay tahan them liao, imagine when we had to bring them out of the country.

I guess for all of them, it's their first time staying out & away from their parents. I could see the excitement on some of their faces, some expressionless and some a solemn (maybe they started to miss their bed liao). We had to walk to Goldenmile to board the bus, hence their parents also followed. Most of the mothers kept telling me to look out for their children and all i could say was I try I try. =S

The bus ride was quite a noisy one for me, the kids kept talking & munching on their tibits non-stop. As we arrived at our stop-over, guess what the kids were excited about? CHEWING GUMS! They literally cheong to the mart to grab gums, chewing gums, bubble gums, whatever gums they could eat, they just grab.

After we reached Hotel Equitorial, I heard some of the kids saying "Wah the hotel so nice leh." It was amusing when you get to see it with their facial expression. We went to our rooms and were all excited that we had a balcony. YAY! But i had to be really careful cos Grace has sleep walking habit. It was pretty much a chore to arrange dinner for so many kids, not sure if they are spoilt, unadventurous or unexposed, they were choosy on food. Most of them don't eat greens, sounds horrible huh. Malcom was the worst, we asked him to try 2 stalks of veg, he was weeping at the dining table as if he was being forced.

We had an educational trip lined up the following day, visited the Dutch Graveyard, a history museum and Christ Church. The museum was interesting, it showed some antiquated costumes and crockery and utensils, brings back the nostalgia days of the traditional Peranakans. It was ashame that I couldn't bring Sweetheart along, if not he'll be taking the beautiful nostalgic old buildings & churches. We made it to eat the famous chicken rice ball, some enjoyed it some don't. After that we took the river cruise and had a ride down the Malacca canel. The kids kept complaining they were tired and hot, so pampered.

I guess all the look forward to was the shopping spree. Don't think kids can't shop, this bunch can really shop. =P They could tell me what's nice and not. How smart hor. I received 2 gifts from Kok Hao & Syahirah, really sweet of them to think of me while getting gifts for their parents.

To summerise the trip, it's a challenging one and i find it endurable than enjoyable. I learnt about the kids behaviour more and had time to bond with a few. There were also some disappointments, we expect the older ones to be more sensible and well behaved but it turned out the vice versa, in fact the younger ones are much better. The shouting & discipline in public I felt was a little too much, though I agree that they should be discipline but overdoing it won't help to make them better either.

On sunday night, KH sent me a sms and I was a little taken aback by one of his message. I set 3 criterias to challenge him in order to 'qualify' for the next trip and asked if he can do it. I waited for his reply. I thought he gave up but his message to me was "of cos i can, i have faith in myself." I hope that he'll make it.