Day 14: Finale!

It was the last day and the times passed by so fast! I felt that it was yesterday when the trip started. I met new friends, I visited new places and ultimately I carved a lot of memories! All in all the trip was the best memories I had so far. Being in difference place with different languages, cultures and lifestyle really taught me a lot on how human are different from each other. It trips also taught me to be more tolerable to each other everyday life knowing that the human relationship is more important that the feeling of oneself.

All in all, I never regretted my decision in joining this trip. I knew a lot of new friends and I knew my old friends way better that I did before. If I had given a chance to join another trip next time, I would not hesitate to join it. I love to travel and it will be my passion.

Day 13: Paris!

This is our last destination before we went back and it was on my birthday! I remembered that my friend act differently and just want to piss me off on that day. I was frustrated as they knew it was my birthday but it seemed everything was not right at that day. I stayed in Paris late to snap a picture of Eiffel tower at night while everyone else were back to the camp. I met the other group from the trip and joined them. It was already 13 days into the trip and I never talked to some of them yet. I just knew we were in the same trip. But it's good to know them before the trip end, I would say.

We missed our last train back into the camp and once again we had difficulty dealing with taxi as many of them were not even know English. We had to used body language and ultimately I just showed the driver the addresses and he drove us away. I don't know whether we were heading to the right place but that is the only thing that we can do at that moment. Anyway, the incident was a good ice breaker for us. I wished I knew them earlier.

We went back to the camp and we killed the night with chats and games. It is the last night for the trip and everybody enjoyed it to the fullest.

Day 12: Disneyland, Paris!

Everyone wanted to go to Disneyland, but I never did. I wasn't raised with Disney character. I might watched some of them, but I never really had an actual memory of it. Almost everyone else in the trip would like to go to Disneyland. I said to myself that I don't lose anything to try and experience the Disneyland.

We waited for several hours for a ride, rode the roller coaster for two minutes and then walked away. That was not my type at all. It was tiring and I don't know how these people manage to stay put and wait for the next ride. However I was not expressing my feeling to other people in the group as it might ruined the day. I think that it is better to keep the thought to myself and go with the flow. 

That was not the only time. I always found myself in a situation where I need to kept thing to myself in order to prevent things to become worse. I found it good to be that way because expressing thought sometimes can be detrimental in friendship. Sometimes, there are thing that is better not to be said. 

Day 10 and 11: Switzerland!

There was nothing more exciting that I was waiting for before the trip than skiing in the summer! Swiss Alps was one of the reasons why I chose to go to Europe in the first place. I started skiing when I was in my freshman year. I even never actually touched snow until that time. When I was my first time skiing, it was horrible. I was almost gave up and kept whining about me falling of after several meter. My friends answer was simple "You never touched snow in your whole life and you expecting that you know how to ski right away?" The answer kept me going and I was determined to ski again. I'm glad to have such friend that was so supportive. They wait for me when I fell, they even help me to put the ski back when it loosen. Not long after that, my ski level kind of fair and I started to go to more challenging trail. The feel of the adrenaline rushed was worthless.

Summerski!

When I was in the Alps, it was during the Summer and the Sun went straight up. It was cold with the snow everywhere, 3,500 m away from the ground. I was super excited to went to the ski park and the ski park was not the ski park that I was imagining all this while . It is just a recreational spot if anyone want to try ski. I was frustrated but considering two other people in the trip ask me to teach them to ski, I skied as well.

Skiing in the cloud! 

I'm glad I did. Even if it just a beginner trail with some bumps at the side, but who else can ski in the middle of June? The picture of me in the air after jumping from a bump had bring jealousy to my friends. I used it to encourage them to explore the world! It was awesome.

Day 9: Pisa, Italy!

It was day 9, one of my friend that come with me from the US was burned out. All she want to do was sleep in the tent whenever she had the chance. I would say the trip was tiring, having to pack up the tent every single day in the evening and set it up in the evening was a lot of work. It is just the matter of time when everyone started to feel totally exhausted doing all those stuff. I kept myself occupied and always chatted with people in order not to be overwhelmed with all those thing. I already had a mind set it is a budget trip and I was not hoping for five class services. I guess I had it all covered.

Pisa!

 However seeing one of my friend left the group and stay at the camp while we were having fun visiting Pisa was not fun. I always love to be in larger groups of people. As people said, the more the merrier. I believed that everybody should enjoyed the moment and sincerely I felt bad for her. Anyway, there's nothing I could do at that time and it was just her that cam give herself courage.

Camwhore with the street mural painting!

I probably did not have a lot of friend, but every friend that I had were worth to be friend with. The analogy is, if it is a products, the quality is better that the quantity. I love to have a lively communication with friend and keep the conversation long. Sometimes it was bad especially when the time wasn't right but I did think it works most of the time to keep somebody happy. Somehow I managed to cheer her up and we were visiting Pisa again that night so that she would not missed it!

Everyone was happy again!

Day 7 and 8: Florence and Rome, Italy

After Venice, the other part of Italy did not seem to be interesting. The people in the trip started to get exhausted especially the adults and the kid. However, the trip must go on. I also felt exhausted as nothing compelling was there, and there is no excitement. The main reason was because I did not know anything about the place that we were visiting in Florence and Rome. I had seen it in the movie before, but I just did not know the story well enough so that the places can be appealing to me. I don't spend time reading about those places that I was about to visit and I just felt that my money just went down the drain. It is just empty. I definitely took some picture of the place that I went but they don't have any value to it.

What's this sculpture represent?

That was also happening when I was studying in RIT. There were some classes that I did not know anything about, maybe because of the professor wasn't be specific about the course goal or maybe the class outline was not my interest at all. It did not have value to me and I just tend to forget it right after the class. Yes, I had to remembered it before the exam but that the only it.

The Colloseum.

We end our trip in Rome with boring faces. I saw it in almost everyone. I was thinking probably everyone was having the same dilemma as I did. As a take home lesson for the day, never ever went to a trip without reading the ins and outs of it. The more the values, the sweeter the memories are.

Day 6: Venice, Italy!

When we were on our way to Venice, we watched The Tourist, a movie that was filmed in Venice. In the movie, Venice was depicted as a truly beautiful city. The surrounding was nice, the street was not crowded, and the water was crystal clear. We were super excited after watching the movie to experience Venice firsthand.

My expectation went down to the ground along with my first step on Venice. My first sight of it wasn't as depicted in the movie. Venice was so crowded, the water was smelly, and there's a lot of trash. What makes it more difficult for me in Venice is that the local does not speak English at all. It's kind of difficult, but their actions were justified. They just did not want to adopt other languages and left their language at home. Seeing by the amount of tourist that were in and out of Venice everyday, I would say they can speak English fluently if they chose to adopt the language.

It's kind of a good thing to preserve their languages. They still have a lot of tourist coming in and out everyday despite the never speak English. They have the demands and speaking Italian was not changing anything. It was not the case back in my home country. There was a time where Mathematics and Science were taught in Malay language, then changed to English, and recently they tried to change it back to Malay. They said it because to preserve our own identity, our own language. I wasn't happy with the decision at all. It just make it difficult for the student when they entered university level as everything will be in English. Even me myself had difficulties studying in the States during the first year I was here even though I learn both in English.


I learned English since I was 5, but never actually had a conversation until I was 17. It was during my scholarship interview! The education system was tailored to teach the students to write and read in English, but not the speaking part of it. We don't have the demand and we basically need to follow the global trend. We just need it.

Sometimes, we just need to sacrifice big thing for larger benefits.

Day 5: Austria

After 5 days travelling together, the ice started to break. One of the guys bought a soccer ball and we ended up playing soccer every evening in the camp site. That was the thing that break the thick brick wall between me and the other guys. Finally, we found a thing in common and we ended up like knowing each other for quite some time. Like I said before, I wasn't skilled at starting up a conversation, but once I'm on it, I pretty much friendly. After several chats, I found out that this one guy was actually my teacher's son. I also found out that we actually live closed to each other. The atmosphere was lively as everyone now chatted with each other.

The Invisible Man

When we were strolling around Austria, I found two living statue on the street. It was in the hot day of summer and they were frozen in the middle of the street. I was so touched by their efforts to earn a living, froze in the middle of the street hoping for tips from the passer by. Their determination in the job was something that I admired. I never think that I can do the thing that they did. It's hard. I never had to actually work for money to earn a living before, and I could not imagined myself in their shoe.  I wish I was as strong as them, but I don't think I could considering what I had now.

The Silver Woman and the Golden Roof. 

On that night, it was rain heavily. The cooking canopy were almost being flew away. There was the time where we help each other and hold the canopy from flying away while some other in the tent cooking for all people in the trip. Some of them also hold canvases to prevent water from went into the canopy and into the food. It such a little space that cramp with lots of people but everyone helps each other out to make it work. Eventually it breaks more bricks and bring more fun!

Day 3 and 4: Germany!

My father bought me a Euro 2008 hoody during his visit to Gemany in 2008. I never had a chance to wear the hoodies yet before it was ruined by bleach. My father was so angry at that time where he threw away all bleach in the house. He was mad as the bleach also ruined his shirt earlier. The maid was new to the job, so she knew how to handle with bleach properly. What makes him so mad is that the hoody was expensive as he bought it in Euro currency which is 5 times our Malaysian Ringgit. 50 euros hoodies cost us 250 Malaysian Ringgit which was a lot! I was frustrated too, it was my first thing that I had from outside the country.

Because our money is so cheap, or probably because other money is so expensive, we could not travel a lot. Travel outside the country even was not an option for us even though my parents had a stable job.  I never had a chance to see how people outside the country live their life. I knew it from movies, but I never believe in it. Movies show either the good side of a community or the bad side of it. They never depict the actual day to day life of their people.

The story that I remembered from my dad was that when Germany won the semifinal of Euro 2008, everyone went out to the street and celebrate. They really showed their spirit and love their national team. Even when German team were about to play for the final, offices and shop close early so that the employers can watch the match. It was far from what happened in Malaysia.

My father and I used to go to the stadium to watch our state soccer team. However, after several years, the routine suddenly vanished. It happened when I was still naive to know what happened. It took me several years to find out that the reason was that the soccer games at that time were full of bribery and match set up. The quality of the games drop, the supporters weren’t interested anymore, and the soccer just wasn’t been at every mouth of every people at the coffee shop anymore. There was only one thing that were considered good, the players have money! It wasn’t that good though.

I blamed the players and the one who bribe them for what had happened. It ruined my good time with my dad. For now, I felt that it was not wholly their fault. It was 15 years ago when this happened where Malaysia economy was at recession, and they just did whatever thing that they can do to live a living. I remembered my mother stacked pennies and coins into 5 stacks for me to buy food at school during the week. The money was just enough to buy food for the day and nothing fancy. I even brought drinks from home. Living in those difficult times really taught me to appreciate things even a penny.

Day 2: Amsterdam, Holland

It was day 2 of the trip. Sleeping in the tent seems easy. Everybody was energetic and full of smiles. I made one  friend, my tent mate. He was a nice guy, but I just did not get along well with him in conversation. Probably he was older than me that makes our conversation awkward. There's is a lot of the other guy that was about the same age with me that I would like to be friend of, but I just could not break the ice yet.  It is just hard for me to start the conversation. It is just hard. I rarely start a conversation with a stranger.

 Looking back to all my friend that I ever had, all of them have something in common with myself, it is either we are from the same school, or from the same neighborhood, or we were introduced by a friend. I talked a lot, but not to strangers. I joined the trip with my other 3 friends and parents of one of them, so we tend to stick to the small group that we have. The other people in the trip also tend to stick to their group, and it feel kind of awkward to interfere into that group.

We finally ended up stroll around Amsterdam in our group of 6. Nothing much to see though. I just knew that Amsterdam only has legal prostitution, drugs, and I amsterdamstatue. I remembered when we took a boat to see around Amsterdam, there was a house that is only one feet wide and three storey high. The tax for the house in depending on how wide the house is, thus in order to avoid paying extra money on tax, the owner decided to make its house that way.

That is also what my dad did in our business restaurant. He changed the ownership of our house and our car to company names and all the rent and monthly payment will decrease the company's profits and subsequently decrease the income taxes. When he told me why he did that, I was so amazed on how a system can be manipulated if you know the ins and outs of it. That is when I decided to take business minor just in order to speak the same language as my parents and older sister. All of them had business experiences and strong business background and I felt left out not knowing things about business. 

By the end of the day, I still making no friends. I found out that one of the groups were smoking weed in the camp. They bought it when we were in Amsterdam. I was wondering that this group were Malaysian student that were sponsored to study in the UK. If the country hopes, or as many politician refer a student outside the country as the cream of the cream, also capable of doing drugs, the investment for them was just a waste. Maybe they don't do it regularly, but doing drug is just unacceptable. We all grew in a community and religious belief that will never accept drugs and prostitution. I believe there were no reasons for them to justify what they just did.

Day 1: London!

United Kingdom, once was our colonizer, once was our ruler, once was our decision maker, once was our employer. 

Upon stepping my leg in London, I remembered about how my country gained its independence.  In February 8, 1956, Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, signed a “Merdeka” treaty with the Secretary of State of United Kingdom. This was the first step toward the Malaysia as an independent state. Without his courage and determination to create the unity among three major races that make up the whole population in Malaysia, the independence will never achieve.  I wasn’t born at that time, neither my parents. However, that history was among the one that we all knew and remembered. We appreciated it; we valued it.

The Tower of London

It had been for quite a while in the news on how other was fighting for their independence and peace everyday, and we had our independence without any bloodshed. Even a drop! However, there were people who did not even appreciate the peace that Malaysia has. There were always people that try to make chaos in the country in order to eliminate the current government and destroy the peace. Probably, they just did not get the value of how hard it is to get the independence. I could not explain those actions of people with no responsibility try to create chaos in their own country. I just could not explained it.

History never replenished!

 Being in London also reminded me how develop Malaysia are compare to Malaysia 57 years ago. Even, it wasn't called Malaysia yet at that time. London was developed with new technology such as sophisticated underground tube system while maintaining its historical structure at the same time. Malaysia also had comparable technology and development, which match its colonizer which had been in the map for decades. It was an achievement!

The tubes! 

London Eye

Big Ben

The Dream Comes True!

The Eurotrip was a thing that I had been dreaming of since I was a child. Suddenly the dream comes true! The journey to London was long and uncomfortable. It was like riding a floating Greyhound buses without wheels. I should have gotten a better airline than Iceland Express, I told myself. However, that was the only flight that I can afford at that time considering I had to save all of my money by myself for the trip.

The story behind the stack of the money also was worth remembering. Coming from a kind of wealthy family back in Malaysia and having the experience to be a manager for my own family restaurant makes me never really experience the hard works to raise money. Money was not everything, as people always said. However, it is not everything not because there is more important thing in life. It is just how easy to get money back then. All it takes to get some money was just several words.

When I stepped on this Uncle Sam’s land of opportunity for the first time, I said to myself that this is the time where I need to change. I need to be independent. I cannot live all of my life using my parent money; there is one time where I should be changed and be independent. I somehow decided that the first step on the States to be my turning point. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t. Even though I was granted full scholarship from the Malaysia government, the scholarship was not enough to cover my bills living in the dorm. There was the time when I started to work on campus. I remembered my first salary working on campus; I felt that I should appreciate more on what I had in Malaysia. It was different to gain money with sweats and energy rather than with words. It was different! I worked 17 hours a week and took 16 credits of classes for two quarters to save money for the trip. All of it was spent on my 20 days trips, but every sweat that dropped was worth it.

I originally planned the trip and my best friend, Nad. When she told her parent about the trip, her parents’ replies were “Alright, we’ll see you there”. Finally, the trip was also joined by the other two friends, As and Sha. I do think that travelling for quite some time will give insight about the true color of someone. People can act good in every conversation and action, but they can’t act forever. The trip had taught me several lessons in dealing with people and becoming friend with them. For the trip, we were not alone, we decided to join a Conquest of Europe trips by a Malaysian owned tourism company, Kelana Convoy. More than a hundred Malaysian joined the trip. We rode two big busses, sleep in the tent and had so much fun!