CW - TRIP / HOLIDAY

MY HOLIDAY...
         During my last school holiday,I spent a few days at my friend's house in Morib, one of the well-known and interesting beach of Negeri Sembilan,Malaysia.

            On the day I arrived, when I just stepped down from the train I saw my friend,Haziq, and his family were already at the railway station. I greeted his parents respectedly before I shook hands and hugged him. He said “Good to see you, Hafiz”.  I replied “Good to see you too. At last, our dream to meet each other back comes true”. We laughed happily. Then we rode back to his place. When we were on our way, Haziq told me “I will make this holiday, the most unforgettable holiday you have never experienced”.I smiled delightedly and became all excited. I took the oppurtunity to introduce myself and have a little chat with his parents. While we were engrossed chatting till I didn’t realise we had already in front of his house. I was amazed looking at his uniqe house. It was big and a uniqe structure of his roof were more amazed me. Besides, a few metre from his lawn facing the  fascinated sea. “ Come, let’s go in.” His mother invited me with friendly.

         In the evening, after I unpacked my things, we walked up and have some conversation at the beach. While we were there, the view of the sea was extremely beautiful, the air was fresh with the sound of the wave that can release our stress and the water was so clear and clean. While the birds flying calmly in the high sky, a few boys and girls were playing happily. I also saw some tired fishermen who worked all day long coming out from thier boat with thier catches. All of this view indeed very interesting to look at, it is very different from my neighbourhood. We walked leisurely, then Haziq told me “You have to get a lot of rest tonight because tomorrow we need all your energy”. I became curious.

        On the next day, early in the morning Haziq suddenly ask me to follow him into the forest. “Can you give me a hand?” Haziq asked. “What can I help you?” I asked back with excitedly.

“We need some tree trunks” .He grinned. With curious I just help him what he told me to do. After collected some of its, we took some tools at his store. “You know what we will build,do you?” Haziq asked me. “No?” I replied. “ A raft!” he shouted slowly. “Oh, you know how to build it?” I startled. “Of course, I am very skill of it too”  he explained. It took us almost a whole morning to build it. Just after we tied our raft at the coconut tree near his house, his mom called us to have our lunch. When we  had our lunch Haziq told his mom “Mom, I will took Hafiz at my favorite place after this” “Okay, but be careful!” his mom warned. “We will” we both replied.

      We headed to his favorite place with  his motorcycle. A few minutes later we arrived and I saw a signboard showed Banting Market. I was all excited. “We have to buy fishing tools and a net for our sea activties since we had our raft done” Haziq said. “Can I take a time to buy a few things for my family?” I asked. “Sure, there is a lot of  things you can buy here” Haziq give me permission. I smiled happily. After we got all the things we need, we headed back to his house.

      In the evening, we pushed our raft to the sea. As the tide was still high the raft floated very well. We sat on the raft and with the oars we had made we began to row it not too far from the beach. We bring along our fishing tools we had bought at the market and some baits we had dug in the mud with us. We started to fishing, while we wait we had some chat and ate our snacks that Haziq mom has packed for us. Suddenly, our raft shaked slightly. Haziq swiftly pulled up his fishing rod with all his strength and he moved his body backwards. Poof! A big fish came out from the sea. “Wow!” I shouted shockedly. “That is a big one!” I continued excitedly. “Well, today is our lucky day.” Haziq said. Then, we rowed back to the beach. We showed the fish to his mom. She smiled and told us “I’ll cook this for dinner tonight. Before that, both of you have to get a shower.”  After we had our fresh shower, we went to the kitchen and saw a lot of dishes served including the fish that was fried perfectly. A while later, everybody sat and had the dinner, I was very delighted as the fish was so delicious of the freshness.

      Early on the morning on my third day, we rode bicycles for our exercise while took a deep breath of fresh morning air. Then, we had a delicious ‘Nasi Lemak’ and a tea for our breakfast, at a small stall down the road. Around 8 a.m. We went back to Haziq home’s to took the net we had bought it at the market. We went out to the sea to try our luck catch some crabs and fishes to sell it at the market. “The bigger we can catch a lot we can get the money” told Haziq. Haziq taught me how to use the net because I never used the net before. After a while, we had caught 10 crabs and a lot of small fishes. We were glad our tried turn out great. We sold all of our catches and got a lot of money. The money we got we gave it equally. We ran back home to have our lunch. Haziq said “My mom said that she will cook a delicious lunch as today is you last day spent your holiday here”. I smiled sadly.  “Don’t worry, next time you can come here whenever you want too, okay?” I nod, a sign that I understand. We had our lunch together, then his mom said “ Haziq, you should teach Hafiz how to make a beautiful memory.” “I will, mom.” He replied with a smile on his face.

     Around 5 p.m. we went out again as Hafiz wanted to teach me how to make a beautiful memory as his mom told him. I realised there is a camera and a few things in the basket he had brought along to the beach. I asked him “What is that for?” He answered “Something that you will keep as our memory.” “We will be a part-time model for a day today” he joked. “I see” I smiled.  He continued “We will take a few pictures and  make a beautiful kite for us. Then we put our picture on the kite with ours encouragement words, then we will fly them high in the sky” I smiled delightedly. We began to make a beautiful kite while Haziq was snapped ours picture at the beach making it together. It was a fun moment. After we had finished it, we put our pictures and wrote down our words. I wrote ‘The Best Memory Ever’ while Haziq wrote ‘Thank You’. We flew it together. Haziq still snapped our picture for us to keep in our album as our sweet memories ever.

HOLIDAYS...

Just as sleep is necessary for our body similarly holidays are important for relaxation and change – they provide relief from the monotony of our daily routine. They are important for our mental and emotional well being.

Holidays! Holidays! Holidays who does not wait for them? Holidays give us a break from our routine and help us to refresh ourselves and go back to work with renewed energy.
They are not only meant for enjoying but also for pursuing our hobbies and interests. During holidays we can live our life as we want.
There are no rules for getting up in the morning and going to school, coming back home, having lunch, playing for a short while and then completing the home work.
We are our own rulers as we manage our time according lo our own wish; we play, visit places, pursue our hobbies and are relaxed.
After working hard throughout the year, summer holidays are eagerly awaited by students and teachers alike. During summer break my family always goes to a hill station for nearly 20 to 25 days.
We have a small cottage there and we enjoy ourselves, away from the hustle and bustle of the city life, in the lap of Mother Nature.
We play indoor games like cards, carom board, loud and chess. We also go for walks in the evenings, the cool fresh air, the long walks late into the night, having boiled eggs and corn from the road side is truly enjoyable. When we come back to our cottage we are tired but very happy and have a good night’s sleep.
After a good night’s sleep the chirping of the birds and the golden sunlight wakes us up gently. A hot cup of tea in the morning is truly welcome especially in the pleasant weather of a hill station.
I read many story books during my summer holidays and enjoy every moment of it. I enjoy my summer holidays also because I get time to spend with my parents. We go together for picnics and watch lot movies. I have a nice time during my holidays but I also keep some time aside for my friends. I chat with them and also play games with them but of course, on line.
We get holidays during winter as well as autumn. Autumn break is the time when my family and I enjoy the festive season. We do not go out during autumn break as we are busy celebrating different festivals. During the winter break, my father usually takes us to visit some or the other place but our visit is a short visit, of a week or so, only.
I know, holidays are enjoyed more by those, who work hard, because they bring a change for them rather then for those who while away their time. It is indeed true that life without holidays would become boring, making one lose all interest in work and studies after all “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Thus, holidays are as important for as going to school and study.


A holiday I would never forget
 
Holidays, a time everyone gets hyped up over, parents planning activities for the family to spend quality time with and school children ( as well as teachers) jumping for joy. Hello, waking up late, celebrating, goin for tuition and best of all, vacations! In myy case, a holiday I would never forget is a fruitful one I expereinced five years ago, where my family I spent six days in the land of K-Pop and ' kimchi '- Korea.

        Finally, after ages of waiting, our family arrived in beautiful Korea. Stepping out of the plane, we could feel the chilly weather to our bones. Never experiencing that kind of weather, my siblings and I were totally excited. Passing through immigration and baggage claim, we were talking animatedly about our new surroundings. Since we went with tour group, we knew we were in good hands.

        Incident number one. We were supposed to take a bus to check in at the hotel, as instructed. I guessed I was overeager and without thinking. I ran to a random bus and knocked on the door. The young bus driver opened the door and looked at me with a puzzled expression. He started asking me something in Korean, which of course I did not understand. I tried to reply in English, but before I could make the attempt, my father quickly apologized to the driver and walked me back to the tour group who was watching from afar, shaking with laughter. It turned out that the bus I was running to was not the bus we were supposed to take. I dismissed my burning cheeks. I was glad I could be the butt of everyone's jokes on my first day in a foreign country.

        It was a bit past lunch time when we were done checking in our hotel. Not doubt, everybody's stomachs were grumbling. Thank God after checking in, we were going to have our lunch and do a bit of sightseeing. While waiting for the others outside the hotel, we walked around nearby. There was a row of vending machines that sold various snacks and beverages, including Haagen Dazs ice-cream , and instant noodles. My mother had a craving for Nescafe, so she spent her first Korrean money on that.

        At the restaurant, a delicious meal was already spread out for us. That was the first time we all tried kimchi, a spicy  and sour vegetable side dish.I did not think it was horrible,  buut I preferred the fish kimchi much better. We all ate using chopsticks, so that was kind or awkward for me  and  my siblings, as we were not skilled at using them yet. Being Malaysians, we were used to rice, so it was a good thing that the Korean meal included rice and a few other side dish, eaten from a Bento box. It was weird though, the rice was stickier compared to the rice  we eat at home, mainly to make it easier to eat using chopsticks. There was also hot and scumptious miso soup together with the meal. Since my sister and my brother did not like it much, I finshed up theirs. I gulped the warm soup down my throat- a nice connntrast from the shivering weather outside.

        One of the highlights of our activities that we did in Korea was skiling. Everybody from the tour group was looking forward to that, even the 52-year old couple traveling with us. Since it was'nt fully snownig yet, the hill was coverred with artificial snow. After grobbing our ski gear, we listen to a briefing by the instructor. He was very help ful, especially with us kids annd the elderly couple.

        Feeling jumpy and hyperactive, me and my sister made our way to the cable car and successfully skied down a slope. I thought, " We're natural at this," and my sister could not agree more. When we came to see how our parents and brother were doing, my brother started to throw a snowball towards me and my sister. It hit me, and we started having a small snowball fight of our own, just like in the movies! I guessed we got a bit out of hand and my sister accidentally hit a woman's back. when she turned around, she had this angry look on her face and started to walk towards us.I hurried my siblings to continue skiing with our parents,and we ran away before she cold catch us. Breathless, we giggled innaivety as we recapped the moment.

        In a way, skiing is like swimming. Why do I say so? Well, when swimming ,you do not feel tired , but you would see the effect when you get ravenous and eat more after a session or when you aintend to tke a nap, but it is extended to long hours. The same goes to skiing. When we arrived at the hotel after skiing, we were drained out and starving. Instant noodles saved the day! We all ate curry-flavoured Maggi together, savouring the memontary pleasure. We also dozed off quite early that night , right after going for a walk to enjoy the amazing night view of th mountains, and breathing the cool, fresh winter air.

        Shopping in Korea was also different compared to Malaysia. Its malls were packed with small shops or stalla on every floor. Big boutiques were not seen as much as the quaint kiosks. Nevertheless, I found shopping at their markets more enjoyable, especially because you could haggle the price. Their specialities   were crystals, fabrics and outerwear. Apart form that, I also liked their wet markets , mainly because they were very clean and they did not have that fishy smell. I remembered a shocking incident when walking through the stalls of the wet market. A large fish jumped  out its aquarium  and onto the floor. I stared at it and suddenly, I saw a huge cutting knife slicing through the fish's neck! It was the owner of the stall's doing. Then, the owner left the fish flapping around lifelessly without a head.

    After saying our prayers, we devoured our mouth-watering find of the day. Dripped in a type of souce, the seafood was the best I had ever eaten, as you could taste the freshness. Or maybe I was just hungry after  a full day of activities.

        If it was up to me, there were so many things to write on my memorabe trip to Korean. Not onli we got to spend quality time together as a family, but we also learnt countless new things and even discovered hidden talents. My father always said we should travel with an open mind and an open  heart. This is when you get to see your capability to adapt to changes. Just enjoy the simple things in life and be thankful of what you have. So, do just that. Who knows you might discover a part of yourself you never know existed?