The lil’ dude and his family…

We left for Paris on Christmas Eve. Many flights were cancelled due to the snow and the bad weather but thankfully easyjet did not cancel our flight. The Ciampino airport was just madness but we are lucky to be travelling with Irfan because they gave way for families with toddlers everywhere. We didn’t have to queue for more than an hour to check-in and didn’t have to wait for long to board the plane either. :)

The ride was smooth and when we arrived at Orly, we took the train to Gare Du Nord as I chose an apartment near the station since we’d be taking the Eurostar to London. Weather was cold and it took us quite a while to get to Gare Du Nord because we screwed the tickets up somehow and while waiting at the Anthony Metro station, paranoia kicked in. Irwan had to repurchase the tickets to Du Nord so he had to leave me and the luggages and for a moment there it was just me and some queer looking chaps at the station. I was just wary of everyone and when one guy kept staring at me and getting closer and closer to me, I just wanted to cry. Pathetic I know but I was pretty much alone and that incident in Rome kept coming back to me so yeah, when Irwan finally arrived with Irfan, it was a big huge relief for me. And the guy? He went to the other side of the platform after that. Go figure. Heh.

When we arrived at the apartment (about 200sf in size) we immediately fell in love with the place. Oklah, the place is a bit small but the owners have done it up nicely and we were happy to be at a homey place. Metro station is just about 2 mins walk and there is this grocery store that sells halal meat. There were a few Asian stores for me to find my “ingredients” as well so we were very happy with our choice. :)

A lot of places were closed because it was the Christmas Eve but we walked around the area for a bit until we couldn’t tahan the coldness no more.

The next day we took the Metro and headed over towards La Fayette as the bus stop for the hop on hop off bus was near the famous shopping mall. We had our lunch at one of the restaurants along Champs-Élysées and that place was just packed with people! Irfan had fun being able to run around just about everywhere so I just let him be lah although I was kesejukan like mad!! I think the temperature that day was about 0° or 1°. All I wanted to do was stay in a room with the heater on full blast! :P

When we got to Eiffel Tower, the queue to go up was just too crazy! I’ve been all the way up already so it was more of Irwan’s call if he wanted to queue. Since the weather was too cold and he didn’t want to freeze his a** off, we didn’t bother queueinglah. There were a lot of pigeons there and when about 20 of them came near us, Irfan started crying his lungs out! He said he was scared of them. Instead of pacifying him, I took the chance to snap some shots of him wailing. Yes, tak baik I know, but couldn’t help itlah. :P

Irwan did the tour of Le Louvre the next day while Irfan and I hopped from La Fayette to Printemps to H&M. I didn’t see the point in dragging the poor boy to stare at artsy-fartsy stuff so I volunteered to babysit him (and get some shopping done) while Irwan spent some few hours at the museum. We met up with him back towards the later part of the evening and spent some time strolling the area. The next time I’m coming back to Paris will be during bearable weather months because the city is just lovely and when it gets too cold, you miss out on a lot of stuff because you cannot bear being outside and getting frostbites! Heh.

I checked the Eurostar’s website that night to see if our train is still on schedule to depart for London the next day and thankfully, they’ve resumed their services again. But the same cannot be said for the London-Paris service as the weather in London was/is still too cold and I heard that they were cancelling on a lot of them. I pity those people who have had to miss their Christmas gatherings and what not due to the erratic bad weather. :(

Our train ride was good but the train was going slower than it should but I guess they just want to be on the safe side. The couple seated next to us had two kids with them and Irfan was having fun playing with Alex - the 2.5 year old boy and Amelie - the 18 months old chubby girl. Alex had this sticker magazine with him and Irfan made us promise that we’ll get him one when we arrive in London. I can’t find those sticker magazines in KL - has any one of you seen them?

We arrived at King’s Cross Station 40 minutes behind schedule and there were just throngs of people there! Anyway, here are some photos of us in Paris and I shall continue the last bit in the next post because work is calling already! :P 

We left KL on 18th of December and arrived in London close to midnight. Weather? Well below freezing point. The plane ride? Quite good. Airport hotel? Mengarut to the max!

Since we were planning to take the first flight out of London to Rome the next day, I didn’t see the point in staying in a posh hotel for 6 hours. So I booked us in a small hotel that only costed us about £39 per night. Not too shabby, right? Wrong! Apparently the hotel couldn’t “claim” the money from my credit card (because I had to send it back to the bank since the CVV couldn’t be seen anymore) and so we got charged £79 instead! Blardy hell, had I known, we’d have just stayed at Hilton for that same amount of moolah. Dahlah kasi bilik kat atas and then berbau rokok. Gah!

Fast forward to the next day, it was our flight to Rome via Ryan Air. The queue at the airport was massive because I guess everyone wants to go home/somewhere for Christmas but we managed to sort our luggages out (1 bag per person and 15kg per bag and it doesn’t matter if you’re travelling on the same itinerary because there is to be no pooling of weight amongst the 3 of us - it was quite hell-ish packing 3 bags and making sure that they’re all 15kg per bag) and waited for the annoucement for our boarding gate. Ryan Air has already a month before the flight sent out an email saying that our flight would be delayed by two hours (and that has made all the necessary arrangements in Rome and Sorrento go haywire) and when we got passed security at Stansted, we were told that the flight would be delayed for another two hours! Guh-reat!

Upon arriving at Ciampino Airport, which is relatively small (and quiet) even by our LCCT’s standards, we had to go pick up the rented car to drive to Sorrento (Southern Italy). With 3 luggages, a stroller and a toddler, you’d wish that the rental car office/desk is in the airport itself, right? But nope, we had to drag everything with us for about 15-20 minutes walk outside with cars going in every direction.

Traffic getting out of Rome was quite bad but getting into Sorrento was even worse! Everyone was out shopping or dining and instead of arriving at our destination 2 hours after we left, I think it took us about 3.5 hours to get to the hotel. By the time we settled in, it was almost 8pm and with the wind from the sea blowing directly at us, I was freezing as h*ll!

The next day, we drove around Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi Coast. Not many restaurants were opened but we managed to find a small and quaint Italian/Mediterranean restaurant that served one of the best stuff I’ve eaten during our trip. :) Irwan had fun negotiating the bends from Sorrento all the way to Amalfi Coast.

We headed back for Rome after spending 2 nights in Sorrento and got to our cute lil’ hotel near the Termini Station after going through more jams in Sorrento and Rome. Sigh. What a waste of time, man!

It rained the next day but we had two umbrellas with us and Irfan was having fun playing in the rain as well. We visited lots of fountains and monuments and churches and by the end of the day I was feeling tired from walking in the rain and suggested to Irwan that we should take the train back instead. What a big horrendous mistake that was. :(

At the Barberini metro station, there was hardly anyone around us when we were waiting for the train. So when the train arrived, we immediately boarded it but to our surprise, someone was sort of blocking Irwan and the stroller and I felt something amiss because never in my entire life of travelling anywhere that such thing has happened before. People would always give way to a parent with stroller.  2 seconds later I could feel that there were at least 5 people behind me trying to push their way in. And we were still trying to get the stroller inside the blasted train. 3 seconds later, I felt someone’s hand inside my handbag (which was zipped) and tugged it immediately! As though on cue, the perpetrator who was “blocking” our way moved in and so Irwan and Irfan who was in the stroller could go in. I related to Irwan in BM about what happened and while talking to him, I looked at my handbag and sigh, the zip was opened and my wallet gone. I wanted to scream, and I wanted to hit all the bitches that were behind me but all I could do was cry. Rome was the start of our journey so I do have quite a substantial amount of cash in my wallet. Yes, I wanted to leave them in the safe deposit box but because we were rushing in the morning, I completely had forgotten all about it. All the what ifs, could haves, should haves came to mind but my RM3,500 will not come back to melah, kan? Next time, just use the blardy credit cards! Even if that means wreaking havoc in the budget but at least the money was spent on me and not some stooooopid gypsies. Urgh! I seriously hope they’ll die a slow painful death. Gah!

So then I had to make all the necessary calls to Malaysia to cancel my credit cards and asked from AMEX and VISA for a replacement card since I’ve got no cash whatsoever to survive. :P Next was to walk to the nearest police station to make a report but I was turned away because I did not have any ID (passport was left at the hotel) with me. Habis tu, dah my wallet kena curi? Duh! We had to walk for about 30 minutes (because I just refused to take the train again since they can’t even letak bloody CCTVs in the metro station knowing that this pickpocket business is so rampant there!) and I just wanted to collapse. All my energy was gone and I was furious, upset, disappointed, etc etc and I didn’t have an ounce of energy left to walk to the Termini station to lodge the report. But we did anyway.

Upon arriving, there was an Arab couple who was pickpocketed and just before we left, there was a group of Japanese people who shared the similar experience as well. In a span of 1 hour and in 1 police station, 3 people were making reports that they were pickpocketed. I wonder if the same ratio applies in Kuala Lumpur. Hrmmmmm…

Anyway, I couldn’t really sleep that night but vowed not to let this sh*tty incident affect our holiday. Sh*t happens and there is nothing I can do about it. So the next day we hopped on the “hop-on-hop-off bus” and toured the whole of Rome.

Here are some photos from our journey and I will continue on in the next post. :)

Okay okay, I know I’ve left this blog too long a time, but life has been busy and I’ve been running out of stuff to write on. And yes, the pictures from the trip aren’t ready yet either because there are too many things to settle at work and bloody red tapes to follow to get all my Malaysian documents replaced.

Last Saturday I decided to go to JPN Maju Junction to get my IC done. I was tired carrying my passport all over town and so the three of us went there about 10-ish in the morning. Upon arriving at the place, I was shocked to see that the JPN is actually in a parking lot itself. Like hooooo-kaaaaayyyy! Feeling anxious, I stepped in line and told the lady who was playing Farmville manning the counter that my wallet was stolen in Italy and that I needed to get my IC replaced.

She then asked if I’ve made a Malaysian police report. And I replied whatever hell for (not in the exact words) as I didn’t lose the documents in Malaysia. She said that it’s “procedure” and that they don’t read English (like seriously?!) and also that they need the reference number from the Malaysian police report. By this time I was too tired to argue with a dingbat like her so Irwan asked to see the officer in charge. And so he went and 10 minutes later came out trembling with anger. Apparently the so-called officer in charge kept insisting on the Bahasa Melayu report and said that it’s procedure and that they don’t have any other procedures for those that lost their ICs abroad and had the cheek to even say “bukannya nak menyusahkan orang pun!” Sheaaaaaahhhhh right! Dumbness to the core, I tell ya!

So yeah, we proceeded to the Dang Wangi Police Station and more stupidness was on our way.

Me: Cik, saya nak buat translation police report sebab wallet saya dicuri di Itali dan JPN nakkan report dalam BM.

Police: Hilang kat mana?

Me: Rome, Itali.

Police: Kat mana?

Me: Ni, ada tulis kat report tu - Station Metro Barberini (while pointing to the report that was already in front of her).

Police: Kat mana?

Me: (Looking at Irwan and trying hard to think of the blardy coordinates of the metro station - NOT!) Kat mana apanya Cik?

Police: Yelah, Brickfields ke Sentul ke?

Me: Cikkkkkk, kan saya dah cakap Itali. I-t-a-l-i. Luar Malaysia!

Police: Oh ye ke?

Me: (Feeling like I was about to faint and vomit blood and everything else lah!)

So, after she has typed out the report in the language that is so required by the stooooopid JPN people, she had to dispatch the report to Pantai Police Station because my address on the IC is in Bangsar. After calling them up to get some ID or reference number or whatever it was that was needed, she was told by the officer in Pantai that she should amend my report and say that I only realised that my documents were missing when I got back to Malaysia. Why she even considered that is beyond me but seriously, my wallet was stolen in Rome and I realised that they were stolen 5 seconds after the stupid b*tch-who-shall-die-a-slow-painful-death took them out of my handbag (another story for another day) and I even have an Italian police report (written in English!) for that. So why on earth should I accept a report that says I’ve only realised that my things were missing 2 weeks after they were stolen? I told the (blur) officer in front of me that I shall refuse to accept that report and her colleague overheard my case and she called back the officer at Pantai and told her that what she suggested is totally unacceptable because I already have a police report made on the 22nd of December while I was in Rome.

By this time I think if I have a weak heart I may have had a heart attack or something. Is our police force that bad? I mean I know they’re not the greatest or anything but my case isn’t rocket science or anything, you know? It is a pretty straight forward thing that needed to be done. Everything was in front of her in black and white.

Sigh. Damn sadlah I tell u.

No wonder some people think we still live on trees! :|