miss cayce

I need a holiday from my holiday.

My trip last weekend was an eye-opener, in many respects. Mostly, I felt so frustrated at a lot of people, including poor Spanky. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very fond of Spanky – he’s one of a kind (that’s for sure). But it frustrates me to watch someone with so much potential, sabotage themselves in ways that they may not even be aware of.

I was also irritated at these chicks that went googly-eyed at Spanky and gave me the once-over like I was competition. Have a little more respect for yourselves, ladies. Over the weekend, it was pretty obvious that we were very good friends – we were usually together and would go off for walks on our own. We even got some ribbing from strangers (?) who thought we were going out. There was this cute chick who was interested in him – she had previously ignored me but when it was established that we were good friends, she started talking to me and being all nice. I hate that!

And there was the latch-on by this other chick who was obviously interested in Spanky. When we first met, she gave me the Look and very conveniently, Spanky got up and left us together. Thanks a lot, Spanky. I took the initiative to be nice and friendly to her and we actually had a decent conversation going until he came back and she directed her full attention towards him. Any more attempts on my part to get to know her were met with a solid brick wall. So I gave up and wandered off.

Since I’m on a roll, I might as well tell you about the Air Asia stewardess bimbo who was also interested in Spanky. He had fallen asleep and I decided to move to a row where I could recline my seat. She immediately went over, sat on the seat-rest of the row next to Spanky’s and started this loud, giggly conversation with her colleague. Obviously, she wanted attention from him and eventually got it.

Of course, he’s milking up all this attention because he’s a guy. He definitely wasn’t getting the flirty attention from me. I managed to establish from almost the very beginning of the trip that we were just platonic friends, not even the humpty-humpty on the side, because that’s just not me. Also, because I’m very fond of him, I feel that he needs a good friend more than just a fly-by-hump. Well, you know what I mean. He was definitely testing the waters with me that’s for sure.

But anyway, I thought Taiping was a lovely town. I really liked the old colonial houses and their large gardens. Spanky and I had a couple of walks around Taiping and once, I dragged him into a church compound to read the grave headstones so now, he teases me about being a necrophiliac because of the graveyard visit and the book I bought in KL about human cadavers.

(I just told Marita about our graveyard visit and she yelped, “during the opening of the Gates of Hell???” Oops.. forgot about the Hungry Ghost Festival Month).

We took a night safari at the infamous hey-let’s-illegally-obtain-wild-gorillas-and-no-one’s-going-to-kick-up-a-big-fuss-ha-ha-haaa Taiping Zoo. Spanky enjoyed the safari but I just hated it. I mean, sure, they attempted to have animals in “natural enclosures” but clipping muscle tendons on birds such as owls and flamingos so that they can’t fly is worse than putting them into a cage. And anyway, the “natural enclosures” were too small for the number of animals they had in each exhibit and the thick exhaust coming from the trains (there were at least three with three cable cars going at the same time) can’t be that healthy for the animals. I also thought that it was pretty intrusive to have spotlights on the nocturnal animals. We were told that this was the “best zoo in Malaysia” and I just shudder at the thought of the other zoos around the country. Boo to Taiping Zoo! Don’t ever go there, please. Taiping itself is worth a visit. I’m just disappointed that we didn’t see more of the town and its surroundings (the Bukit Larut hills are beautiful!).

I arrived home yesterday night and my parents were shocked to find out that I had left the island over the weekend. They had thought that I went “hiking” – mom, dad, it was TAIPING. I went to TAIPING not hiking! I wonder what they'd hear when I tell them that I'm going to Bali next.

posted by Cayce @ 3:40 PM