The Pregnant Trend

Is it true that someone that you know is pregnant, the next thing you know, your other friend is pregnant too or you start getting pregnant news from your friend.

My high school mate, Wanlyn is four month pregnant. My other high school mate is flying back from the states to wait for her baby due date. Last few weeks ago, i receive email from Jeremy saying that he is going to be an uncle, his little sister is pregnant. Today, i received another email from Samira, yes, she is 30 weeks pregnant and her due date is on 23 Dec.

Suddenly, i have this chill streaming down my spine. Here I am, figuring out my next step in my life, while my friends is bringing new life to this world.

Being pregnant is not an easy task, and it might have different effect on each individual. Wanlyn is having such a hard time, she's been throwing up so constantly that she almost admitted to the hospital. She have to change all her toilette to non-perfume product. Perfume and cigarette makes her felt uncomfortable. TV's show and crowded place makes her dizzy. All she does most of the time is lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling. Well, she should be thankful that she is being born in a well off family where staying at home will not affect the funding for the baby's diaper and milk.

In the other hand, Samira is going to school full time, while working part time. Her job required her to stand on her feet the whole time. I wonder how she did it. She is one tough lady. Samira is a middle eastern lady who married to a Mexican man. Her family is so upset that she married to someone who is not from middle eastern and worst of all, a catholic instead of a muslim. Despite her family objection, she ran away and follow her heart. I could tell she loves her husband as much as her husband loves her.

Not everyone are equally born into a well off family, sometimes we become so tough when we're force to do so.

I just wanna wish all the "soon to be a mother" friend, Be safe, Be happy and most of all Be tough.

Where's your past tense?

A raining night at Batu Ferringgi, watching the rain while sipping on a cold beer, we start off some random topics regarding college life, relationship, carrier, family, culture of America and culture of Asia.

One topic that quite interesting as my friend mention, “everyone have a “past tense”.
Indeed there's a past, there's a history behind each of us. You may choose to ignore it, live with it, buried it, share it or learn from it.

But like it or not, our “past tense” is who we are today.

*Sawadeeka*

Finally, here we come Hatyai!

We’ve been planning for this trip for ages. The first time was a sudden depart of my dear friend's dad, then we can't seem to find a right time for everyone schedule. At last, we broke the curse.

We went to Hatyai at 6 in the morning by van, reached Hatyai about 11 in the morning. We meet up with Ah Hai (our tour guide who also known as Mr. Ramboo) and check in to the New Season Hotel, a pretty new hotel with a spacious and modern concept interior design and most of all a very clean room, yet with a very affordable price. Before we even change our money to Thai currency, we rush to a shop infront of the hotel and savoring down some Vegetarian Thai style Laksa, Thai Tom Yam noodle and some corn fried appetizer. Luckily Aka still have some small Thai Baht, for I left my Thai Baht at the hotel.

Then Mr.Ah Hai , our tour guide squeeze all of us into his TukTuk, yup six of us. We manage to change some Thai Baht before heading to our first destination. We're kind of lucky for the Thai currency was much higher than the last trip that i went. For those of you who use USD, arghh i envy you, cos' your rate is much higher in Thailand compare to Malaysia.


Just in case you don't live in Asia and never been to Thailand, Tutuk is a very popular transportation in Thailand, basically is a small van where it's been modify. No AC just natural air, even tough you kind of become a human vacuum cleaner but for those smokers, yea you are welcome to smoke. But one thing i did notice from Siamese, they don't smoke as much as Malaysian. That's a good sign.
After about a 20 Minute ride from Hatyai downtown, we arrive in a rural area called “Chan Tra”, who would in a world know that there's good serving in such a remote area if Mr. Ah Hai never bring me there before. We have to travel through a muddy road bumpy road before we reach this lake side mansion that turn into a restaurant, coconut trees surround the lake in front of the mansion.


As soon as we find a table facing the lake, the waitress walk by to take order from us, off course with our language barrier, Ah Hai had to order for us and become our food translator. Here's what we order: Tom Yam (Our soul will not rest in peace if Thai food without Tom Yam, that's would be like French fries without ketchup) Mango salad with crispy fish flakes, Otak Otak , Green Curry, and appetizer that i have no idea what's the dishes name was. For Beverage: Coconut juices (Yes fresh from the coconut tree surrounding us) and 3 or 4 Heineken.
After stuffing ourselves with all the spicy food, we all pretty much have a sexy burning lip, not to mention the warm and spicy feeling in your stomach, but couldn't be more satisfy. Awesome food with spectacular view.
Spicy level for this meal: *****
Cost of the meal: RM130 (more or less) that about USD35 to USD40


Our next stop was to head back to Hatyai downtown. Hello lingerie, here we come... off course this is the most boring part for the guys.
Basically the lingerie in Thailand was almost half of the price that we are paying in Malaysia. I will use the word dirt-cheap if I'm still earning in USD. Anyway, after almost 3 hours of lingerie shopping, Nicole is the Queen of Lingerie... I'm sure Aaron is happy about it, like Aka said, all this hassle just for the eye pleasure of Aaron. Well if you put it that way, it sound like pretty good excuse for buying more lingerie. I won't mention how much she bought, let just said she have new bra for each month for almost a year.
That's not it, three of us go back to the handbags department to look at our love at first sight bags, she fell in love with a pink satin material Lacoste handbags, while I was admiring my huge green stripy tote bag by Lacoste. Finally Nicole (the devil) decide to swipe her credit card for Wendy, yes the bag have a new owner. For me, I’m in a stage of undecided. Before the two of them shove my head in the tote bag, I decided to leave the evil's handbag department. I mean I could live without buying another totes bag right?

So we walk back to our hotel, and go for a whole body massage on the second floor of our hotel. Six of us changed into a comfy clothes that they provided, throw our exhausted body on the mattress while waiting for our massage lady. I did manage to get few minute of sleep, then I was disturb by the annoying singing that sound like one of those communist song on the TV's, apparently it was some national event that held in some part of China. It was a two hour session, by the end of the session, all three guys were bend in a human bridge(I think this position is practice in Yoga, in Chinese is called "Kong Chiao") by their massage lady, this way if you lying beside them, you will hear a cracking sound. I don't know about cracking sound, but we all laugh our ass off when we saw them doing that. Even though I’m not too fancy about the body massage; overall it was relaxing despite the patriotic songs that played on the TV's.
Cost of Massage: about RM48 (not including tips) for two hour
Relaxing level: ****

After a relaxing session, it's Dinnertime. We went to a place called 59 (highly recommended by Nicole), a Tiaochew cuisine in Hatyai. What we order: Clay pot crab and clear noodles (Nicole's Favorite), Deep Fried fish with chili sauces (love it!), stir fried Kang Kung Veggie with belachan, Stir fried Squid with dried chili, and clay pot pork ribs with bitternut. Overall everything is yummy yet another satisfying meal
Spicy level for this meal: **
Cost of the meal: RM140 (more or less) that about USD35 to USD40

We're in a hurry to rush back to the hotel, for Nick need to visit the toilet, his stomach can't tolerate these intense spicy food. Poor guy. Anyway, he survived. After saying good night to Ah hai (tour guide) we all stroll to nearby shopping complex (again).



As the sun set down, the city of Hatyai become a different atmosphere, you'll find varieties of food hawkers along the side walk, barbeque cutlet fish, deep fried drum stick, king prawns, noodle soup with meat balls and fish balls, mango and sticky rice, Thai's dessert and fresh fruit. All sort of souvenirs item were sell along the street. As usual i visit my favorite dessert, "Tau Fu Far" (soy bean custard) with warm sweet ginger soup.
Since is not our bed time yet, so we decided to go to the shopping complex to do some final shopping, yes we did go to the handbags area, how wicked, the green stripy tote bag was looking at me with a tiny voice begging me to bring it home, how can I reject this temptation. In fact, my tote bag is sleeping in front of my ibook while I’m writing this blog. Is it me or all the women have weakness for shoes, bags, and clothes.
After my green tote incident, the guys went down to the food and beverage area to grab some beers for tonight. 3 Heineken, 2 Asahi, 1 Chang and 1 Sing Ha (Thai beer). On the way back to the hotel, Nick and Aka grab a few pack of ice cube. To make sure we have chilled beer to drink in their room tonight, they put all the beers in the sink and filled up the sink with ice cubes and water. That's what I call an alcoholic genius.
I’m glad that we mange to finish up all the beers before we dozed off.

The next morning, we hoop on Ah Hai Tutuk and head to Hatyai's Market Place. It sells all sorts of things, from edible to non-edible. Not to mention you could literally find any branded replica in that market. We all did some browsing and shop for local food e.g. marinated squid with chili paste, roasted cutlet fish, banana chip, durian chip, roasted nuts.
After all the work out in the market, is time for breakfast. Ah Hai took us to a nifty restaurant that serves Chiang Mai (Northern Thai) cuisine. A very unique place with chandelier made of beer can, and drinking cups that look like a small pot for planting. After looking at the menu, we decided to leave our eating luck to Ah Hai. He order about 10 dishes for us: Tom Yam (Northern Thai Tom Yam is much clearer compare to southern Thai Tom Yam but don't be fool by the color, the spicy level is not judge by the color), 2 Marinated Barbeque pork, Roasted chicken, Papaya Salad (Som Tum), Thai Egg omelet, sweet and sour fish with lemon grass, 2 Mama's noodle in seafood soup, Mango Salad. I prefer this white Tom Yam but love the fish and Som Tum. Yum Yum Yum. What's more can we ask for, damn good Thai food with dirt-cheap price?
Spicy level for this meal: ***
Cost of the meal: RM48 (more or less) that about USD15

Before we head back to hotel, we gotta get our all time favorite Thai brand instant noodle " MAMA's". We went to TESCO at Hatyai, as I mention before, our main purpose is to buy MAMA's noodle, but apparently, we bought some car accessories and my dear friend, Nicole manage to shop for more lingerie (yes, even at Tesco).
After shoving our stuff into the luggage, the front desk calls to remind us that we are way pass the check out time.
After checking out. Wendy, Nicole and I head straight up to the second floor for foot massage. The lady who massage for me, she's been into massage business for almost 20 years, she speak Hokkien fluently. Her name is Apom 46, what a cute name to remember. I'm sure she will be my massage lady if I ever visit Hatyai again. Many used to say there only a thin line between pleasure and pain. Indeed the foot massage is painful but it's a very good way to detoxify and distress your body. Trust me, you'll feel the different if you have a long day of walking. The foot massage package includes a full massage for neck, shoulder and hand. I felt like thousand tons of weight has been lifted from my tired feet.
Cost of Massage: about RM25 (not including tips) for an hour
Relaxing level: ****

After the relaxing massage, is time to go. We meet up with the three guys whose waiting for us in the lobby. At about 3.45 p.m. our van arrived at the front door of the hotel. We say our goodbye to Ah Hai, and tucked our luggage into the back of the van. Sitting in the van, I put on my sunglasses and turn on my ipod. Bye Hatyai, I'm going to miss you.
Even tough this is not a complete trip yet, due to the absence of meow meow, keng leong, and Ching Ching(just for the record, I won't accept such a lame excuse from you next time) still it was a kick ass trip.

For those of you who are interested of visiting Hatyai and need any info about those places that we went, please email me or leave me a comment.