horri... horriday....

It's amazing how much one can learn about people around him/her when travelling on a group tour. During a recent trip to Hong Kong, I was quite amused to find the following categories of people...

The Rookie Indian Chief
These are the kind of people who in any circumstance, refuse to admit that they are a rookie. One of the women in my group has never in her life been to Hong Kong for a tour. But she refuses to admit her cluelessness and weeks ahead of the trip, began planning her itinerary and checking out internet websites on "where to go", "what to do" during the trip. The best part is, such people are also keen to show-off their "intelligence" by taking the lead. It's as though nobody else would know what to do if she does not lead the group. End result? Apparently this lady led her tiny party of four to purchase Madam Trussard museum entry tickets which were packaged with a tram ticket at HK$120. When all the party needed to pay for was the museum entry, as they already have a pre-paid MTR card that enables them to travel on the tram without paying extra. And not to mention travelling a long way to have Tsu Cha dinner which cost the party HK$70 per head for cooking fee, on top of what they were already paying for the ingredients and dishes. When in a place where bargains are aplenty like HK, she's certainly not cut out to lead the pack.

The Lost Ones
I don't know about other people but no matter how familiar I am with the foreign city, I always find that having a good map makes me feel secure about exploring the city. That's all the more important when one does not understand the language in which road signs are written, or generally have a bad sense of direction. If all else fails, finding someone to ask is the key. In this trip, it amazes me how people can happily wander around a foreign place without taking note which way they came from nor bothering to look at road signs. At each traffic junction, the poor lost ones would turn to one another to ask "which way?? which way??" and still not have a clue where to go. And please, dear ones, you don't have gold in your mouth. So please open them and ask for directions.

The Ones who Laugh First
These are the ones who tend to make the biggest fool of themselves. I'm referring to those who laugh at other experienced travellers for bringing a bigger than necc luggage for a shopping trip to HK, or those who think they had the best deals simply because they bought Espirit clothing at S$10 cheaper than in Singapore and thought they had the best deal. Well hello hello on check out day when these are the same people who realised they have to purchase additional luggage to contain their shopping, or people who discover to their dismay that there is an Espirit factory outlet which had the same clothes at even lower bargains.

The Blamers
Perhaps I would see them as the most irritating sort of the group. These are people who don't bother to find their own programme, who don't have a mind of their own and their itineraries depend on what other people have suggested or commented. Then at the end of the trip, they would say things like "aiyah... XX shouldn't have told us this and that cos YY said it's something else. We should have gone there... " etc. It's like... hello... you can listen but ultimately you make your own choices what you want to do with your time there. So quit blaming anyone or anything.

As for me?? which type am I?? I'm the kind that works best on my own. Equipped with a map so I know where to go, I plan my walks and cover every inch I want to explore. Street market bargains may be attractive to some but I believe in "ai pi, ai chi".... cheap and good quality so I can wear it more than once. And most of all, walking on my own is the best as it gives me the most freedom... I can decide which shop I want to go to, which small lane I want to turn into away from the main road to explore the place, what do I want to do for meals and where to go. There's no need to blame anything or anyone if I missed a spot cos I planned my own adventure. I'm the Lone Wanderer... A little anti-social I admit, but at the very least, the decisions I make do not make anybody else's holiday into a horriday...kekeke

*pardon my rambling... I'm just enjoying a little self-entertainment from people-watching during my trip

Your Animal Personality

Your Power Animal: Eagle Animal You Were in a Past Life: Whale You are active, a challenger, and optimistic. Hard-working, you are always working towards a set goal.

The Animal Personality Test

Face-Lift.... almost literally

Sometimes I wonder why do some people insist on sticking their face so close to the elevator door... it's almost as if they wanted to kiss the door while they are in the lift... and when the lift door opens, the person on the outside gets a shock of nearly running into a human wall when they want to step into the lift compartment. The most champion of the lot are those who stick their noses next to the lift door and somehow refuses to budge to make way for incoming lift passengers. Afterall, if everyone is going to the same floor (in this case, the carpark) and if there's plenty of room in the lift compartment, there's no harm in taking a step back right? You will still get out of the lift with plenty of time to spare before the door closes....

(lift door opens)

A: (nearly bumping into lift-door kisser) oops sorry...

B: (Stares blankly at A, refuses to move)

A: Is this lift going up or down?

Others: Down (B continues to stare mutely)

A: err... ok (makes a move to enter the lift)

B: (still staring blankly and not moving despite plenty of space behind her... while Others are wondering why is B is holding up everyone when A clearly wants to enter the lift.)

A: (makes a step to squeeze in nevertheless... ignoring B's idiocy)

B: (Finally moves aside from lift-door kissing position because B is obviously too big build to feel comfortable squeezing with someone else)

And finally everyone makes their way to the carpark level. *shake head*

Sleepy monday...

Arggh... I hate this feeling of medication-induced sleepy lethargy... makes me feel as though I shouldn't be awake when the effect should have worn off in last night's sleep. And the cool weather didn't help... almost makes me feel like shutting my eyes when I was driving. Believe me... the persuasion of heavy eyelids was pretty tough to fight off in the morning drive...

Called up helpdesk last friday due to some msn problems I had... and the episode just made me wish that people would stop to listen and understand what the problem is before rattling off standard answers....

Me: Hi, I've got problems connecting to msn. I understand that the msn server is currently experiencing problems so I can't connect but I've accidentally....

Helpdesk: err.. the msn server is currently down so everyone can't connect.

Me: Yes I know that. I was saying I accidentally installed msn version 7.5. How can I uninstall and have it as version 7.0 again?

Helpdesk: everyone is using msn version 7.0.

Me: (slightly frustrated) Yes I know that. I'm asking how do I uninstall version 7.5 so I can install version 7.0 again?

Helpdesk: you'll have to uninstall version 7.5

Me: (totally lost it) argh... forget it.

Obviously the helpdesk person wasn't using her ears or brain to listen to what I just said. otherwise she wouldn't be repeating everything I just said... sigh,....