over the hills and not-so-far-away

i'm still a little upset over my dashed bintan trip. but we've confirmed another short holiday in early june.

my childhood friend marcus will be holding his traditional wedding banquet in kuala lumpur, malaysia and we (parents, kids and us) will be driving up to attend the dinner.

i've known marcus since i was 3 years old and he was 1 plus. our fathers have been friends since their university days and our families have been pretty close all these years. when marcus decided to study in singapore (raffles institution, no less - that brainy dude) my parents were his local sponsors. naturally, he aced his examinations, went on to RJC and received scholarships to the prestigious oxford university, then yale for his masters.

needless to say, marcus is academically perfect, which was disastrous news for me especially since i'm no braniac and the total number of distinctions in my entire academic career is less than the number of aces he scored in a mid-term test.

not kidding. he's quite the genius.

anyway, our original plan was to arrive at KL for the wedding, spend a night or two there before we drive up to fraser's hill which is about 100km away. with the hub's plentiful meetings scattered all over the next 3 weeks, our schedule's all muddled up but we managed to juggle the days and will visit fraser's hill first before attending marcus' wedding.

i was 3 years old (i think) when we visited fraser's hill and it used to be one of our regular holiday destinations. xian's been up there too, when she was almost 2 years old. on our last visit, during the 2004 easter holidays, my dad drove in to malaysia. this time, it's the hub's turn behind the steering wheel. we'll be staying at frasers silverpark resort again, much like the previous trip.


there isn't very much to do up in the hills - but the cool weather's excellent and the fresh air's a welcoming change. i think the kids would like to try horse riding - although it's just a slow, short ride round the paddock, nothing too fascinating. but who knows? perhaps they will enjoy the experience. :)

as for me, i just want to get out of this country. i've been feeling a little too suffocated lately.