Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Life so far..

Life has been pretty good lately! It’s been like 4 days since I started working, and I’m good. :) Maybe it is because I have such ah-may-zing senior PRPs and FRPs in the hosp to help me and Huey Chin to get familiar with the flow of things and all.

I enjoy what I do, and I wake up with energy. Maybe I’m just lucky that the hospital and my house is 5 minutes apart. :)

I have nothing to do now..so I shall go stream a show or 2 and fill in my spare time. :) working life is fun here in Kelantan! :)

I (singlehandedly) counterchecked the meds for half the wards today and managed to clear it at 11.10am. The target is 80% cleared at 11am. I’ll try to aim for 100% clear BEFORE 11am tomorrow. :)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Tales from Kelantan!

I went from homeless, to a person living in a fully furnished house with an aunty and a doggie! :) We (Huey Chin and I) are renting 2 rooms, with attached toilets from this kind aunty here in Kelantan.(probably see her pics here soon.. :p) The house is 10 minutes drive to the hospital and also to the airport, and aunty has volunteered to fetch me to the airport when I intend to fly back to KL. So yea, in within 12 hours, most of the problems have been solved! :)

What I’ve come to know so far is, here weekends are on Friday and Saturdays, which means I work on Sundays. On Thursdays, I get off from work at 3.30pm! :)

Here, I’ve come to noticed that all signs have Jawi translations on them. Like these shops..

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I can’t read Jawi, but I think it says, “McDonalds” ???

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I know I may sound like a Jakun, but you don’t see this in KL so it was something new to me!

Went to the beach with my parents today. The beach here is WAAAAY cleaner than PD, and after walking along the beach, I had sand in my shoes. But what is a beach without sands right??? Here are some pictures from there! :)

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Its a nice place PCB, they have rows of seafood restaurants facing the beach and I’m sure they will be packed once everyone has “buka puasa”. The drive there brought me to many batik shops, unfortunately, due to the fasting month, they were all closed. I’m looking forward to going there again, and this time, coming home with purchases!! :p

Had lunch at this Indian Restaurant opposite the ‘Dewan Perniagaan Cina Kelantan’ along Jalan Kebun Sultan (?? hope I got the name right). Honestly, if you ask kelantanese people they will say the if you want Indian food, head to “Meena curry house”. I will not say that. Meena curry house only serves banana leaf rice. Period. No thosai, chapati, naan, roti canai and all. If you ask me, the shop which sells authentic Indian food would have to be “Sri Devi”(The shop opposite the Dewan, unsure of the name.. :p). And I think the food there tastes better than Meena’s. Just my point of view. :)

Had dinner at this chinese restaurant recommended by Huey Chin which is located within walking distance to my hotel.

Didn’t manage to take much pics today because the camera is with my brother and he is on Vay-Cay, so I’ll have to wait till he gets back before I can snap like 1000++ pics. The pics here are courtesy of my handphone. :P

Hope 2mrw, at this time, I would be in my new room! :)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

The arrival to Kota Bharu

I’m here!! In Kota Bharu, writing this from my hotel room. =)

I started my journey to the East Coast on Wednesday, leaving my house at 6am. Took the highway to Kuantan before turning off to Bentong timur after the 2nd toll. The ride from my house to the tolls was AMAZING.  I was literally driving through clouds of mist. Its no time to speed on the highway, but the view was so scenic, it was breathtaking. I would fly back to KL, and wake up at 5am, just to start driving at 6am for the view.

Once I hit the old road (the only way to Kelantan via road), the maximum speed is 60-80km/hr. That is because it is unsafe to go faster than that, there is no divider between the two lanes (yes, 2 LANES ONLY). I passed by a few accidents on the way, mainly caused by overtaking while there is an oncoming car, and thus, they end up in a ditch near by next to the road. Also, a lot of timber lorries. I also became unconsciously suicidal at one point and was driving in the opposite lane, and there was a car coming  to me, and Thank GOD, i managed to sway back into my lane. (In my defence, I’ve been driving 6 hours straight and I was distracted by the “Transnational R&R” sign across the road.) I will most probably,100% take the 55 minute flight back to KL the next time. :)

The view and experience was worth it. I don’t regret the 8 hour drive to Kota Bharu (KB), Kelantan.

The environment here is nice, peaceful, different from KL in the sense that no one is rushing. Life moves at a different speed here. They have internet access ( cause some ppl may think KB is a kampung). Honestly, KB town reminds me of KL. buildings everywhere, they have like 3 malls la..the biggest is KB mall. You can get all the basic necessities here. Tesco, Giant, Parkson. I saw like 3 McDonalds, 4 KFCs, and 2 Pizza Huts. They have Secret Recipe here too. I honestly don’t know why I was made to believe that Kota Bharu is a kampung area. Its more than what I expected it to be.

But Yes. There are rural areas around Kelantan. Looking at their life makes me wonder about the way I live. It made me reassess the way I live my life and look at life.

The traffic here is AMAZING! (minus the KL-like-crazy-jams) The people here rarely honk at your car! You can switch lanes peacefully most of the times. And they are very patient!(unlike KL drivers) You can accidently stop at the yellow box during the jam, and the oncoming traffic (whose path u’ve blocked) won’t honk at you and curse you, they WAIT for you to pass.. I think its kinda cool!

The only problem which I’m facing right now is accommodation. Work starts on Sunday and I’m still homeless. I hope things will be better tomorrow. The idea of living in a hotel for a whole year is pretty cool. Especially since the hotel is 5 minute drive from the workplace. Its good that I have friends around me right now. It makes this whole adventure a whole lot fun. Yes- ADVENTURE. I mean, to experience being in a foreign place and finding your own accommodation, and doing things on your own makes you feel like finally, you’re living your life as an ADULT. Its honestly FUN! I really don’t know how to explain my feelings. I guess I know how Frodo Baggins would have felt! (not in direct comparison, but he was going through an adventure and so am I :) )

I’m counting down to next year’s postings where we see where we get for our 3-year compulsory service. I’m excited and I hope I get somewhere new so that I can start over this awesome adventure.

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The view from the hotel. :) I was aiming for the Kelantan river, hope you can see it!

This is like the back/edge of Kota Bharu. The town centre is infront of this. :P

Hoping that I can find a home 2mrw.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Off I go

I’m being shipped of, with a week’s notice, to Kelantan. To work as a PRP. A place did not ask for, but I’m definitely not saying ‘No’ to.

While the rest are going, “Thank God I got somewhere near home”, I’m going “Oh, cool! Kelantan!”

Yes, I’ll be away from home for a year or so, but so what, I’m 24 23! I get to go wherever I want to go, and yes, I WANT to go there. Sometime ago, I think I did mention that I enjoy such random adventurous trips (Referring to the sem 8 attachment at Malacca which turned out to be the best Semester ever) and this is one of it!

So yea, I’ll be away from my usual malls (E.G: KLCC, Midvalley/Gardens, Curve, 1 Utama, Bangsar Shopping Village, ect..), but I can still chill at Kota Bharu Mall, which was referred to by some blog somewhere as the “Midvalley of Kelantan”. I’ll learn loads of new cultures and what not. And I’ve never been more ready for this!

I can be considered lucky as this time around I’m fortunate enough to have 2 close friends tagging along to the same destination. I guess we’re gonna make some awesome memories in Kelantan. Not to mention the new people I’ll get to meet there!

I’m going to start a new chapter of my life, in a new place.I’m literally getting a fresh start! :)

So yea, I can see myself blogging in 1 year’s time saying how sad I am to leave a lovely place called Kelantan. From now till that post comes, you will be updated with whatever that happens there! :)

Let’s discover Kelantan people!!