wah..kah ki lang..

kah ki lang...

so i went to singapore over the cny holidays...the drive there was such a breeze. got from my house to my friend's apartment in exactly 4 hours...was waved away by our jb immigration without even a smile or look from immigration officer's face but was suddenly so warmly welcomed and greeted on the singapore side..what a difference..!! even the cleaners at the woodlands checkpoint said gong xi fa cai to me while i was asking for directions to go get the autopass card..wow !!

anyway, it was an orgy of food and more food at my friend's relatives' as we went around visiting..man, those singaporeans can really eat !! was talking to my friend's dad during one of those visits, he, now a grandfather, had originated from kampar, perak long2 time ago, and told me of stories about how he could not get any work during his youth because of his ethnic background, how he came to singapore, took in all kinds of works and managed to raise a large family..he still spoke with a smattering of malay words..i was impressed with his courage, his tenacity and endurance in the face of those odds that were stacked against him by his country of birth..and his subsequent success in life in a new country that accepted him as one of her own..

it was a brief visit to a "different" country, so near, yet so far...i did not manage to catch in all the touristy sights or visit the new sentosa island resort due to time constraints but what i could just see from the balcony of my friend's apartment in pasir ris, with pulau ubin in between and pasir gudang at the far end in another country, the view could not have been any more distinct or divergent..