Lessons from road trip

Thanks to CS and BM's wedding dinner in Bukit Mertajam, the gang has set out on a road trip together up north. the last time we did that was probably two years ago when we went to Port Dickson to welcome the New Year together.

It was a good trip, filled with much laughter and of course, lots of teasing and poking fun at each other. I met them half-way in Ipoh on Fri, as I attended a wedding two nights before that. we took the opportunity to have lunch there. Ipoh happens to be my favourite town, as i loved the small community, ease of travelling as well as great food --> it boasts of the best white coffee in the country and chicken with bean sprout :)

The minute we sat down, we were given a lesson about shit hole by JT. Two cardinal rules to jumping shit holes:

1) All shit holes are the same. If wanna jump from one shit hole to the other, might as well get more pay for it.

2) For the same pay, better to take the one with the less shit.

During lunch, we were also told of certain sensitive issues that we shouldn't be bringing up. for what reasons, we were not told. sensitive woh ... some key words from this trip -- mental organism and tuna can story.

We stopped by Taiping to visit WH after that as we had some time to kill. he brought us to this Kacang Merah place. it was pretty yummy as it was crushed ice with red bean. Taiping is smaller than what i had imagined but it's surrounded by mountains so the sight was pretty breathtaking :) apparently, Taiping is also the wettest town in the country as it rains more than 200 days a year! WH took us to the lake garden near to the zoo. we didn't get to come out of the car because it started drizzling :P

We ate a lot while in Penang. after breakfast on Saturday, we decided to take a walk at the Botanical Garden before heading for the shopping mall. it was a nice walk cos' the weather was sunny and not too humid. we weren't in a hurry so could have conversations along the way and catching up with each other. it was one of those moments that we enjoy each other's company without having to say it.

KF commented that this was probably one of the last few times that we could gather in such a way again. sharing suites, sleeping on sofas ... it's like the good ol' days in uni except that now, we could afford more comfortable accommodations. few more years down the road when more of us settled down, kids wld come and we definitely could not re-live days like these. it's interesting how life teaches us that some things would forever not be the same anymore but they were good while they were still here ...

CS looked blissfully happy. this is her third wedding celebration as the registration of marriage was last year in Spore. she and BM left for Paris soon after that, and they had a reception there too. now in Penang, her parents are hosting the Chinese wedding dinner, which is customary to inform relatives and friends that the couple has wedded.

I heard this phrase from someone recently: "Good friends go their separate ways but the friendship never grow apart.." i have a feeling that this friendship i share with this bunch would be like that. eventually everyone would go live the lives that they've chosen; in another country, another state or just another way of living but we would still be friends to each other. not all the time we get to share every good or bad days but we will try to be there when we can.

I just finished watching a Chinese TVB series and one of the things I learned was --> "a wealthy man is not the person with a lot of money, but he is the person surrounded by loved ones, both family members and friends."

My sifu aptly puts it: "Never measure success with numbers - someone else would always have a bigger number. Measure them with relationships cos' they belong to you alone ..."