MASAF 2008, Nice - Part 1

..::*+Small Talk +*::..
Being sick, is nothing fun at all. Can't even concentrate myself to hear what the lecturers said. Time just ticked pass me. I want back my healthy body. What's the point of winning gold medals but in the end destroy my physical body?
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On the 10th April 2008 18:00 GMT +1:00, a young guy was seen with a backpack, a pullable handluggage and a badminton bag running around in the midst of the Heilbronn city, place where bullets were made during the era of World War II. This young guy was seen chasing for a bus which was moving in the direction towards Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof (Heilbronn Main Train Station). As soon as he got into the bus, sweat was seen dipping down from his hairs, and his black Australia T-Shirt was halfly soaked the solution which contains Sodium Chloride.

He was so clumsy that he almost forgot to punch his 4-ier Karte, which, if caught, would have to pay €40,00 as punishment. He hopped into the train, had some rest, and took a photo of himself. His name is Vincent Goh.


The 45 minutes just flew passed and I stepped into the familiar Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (Hbf). I saw none Malaysian. I began to worried. After some dreadful searches, finally, I found Lay Sean, Wei Chung and Che Sohairy. They came from Ulm. Anyway, not soon after that, the others joined in. We all actually were waiting for our bus from Köln. Due to some unforseen circumstances, they came exactly 2 hours late. It was worst than Malaysian time. Wonder where they´re from. After loading those heavy luggages into the bus, we all departed in this double-decker under the moonlight.

The journey was seriously unpleasant. 10 hours sitting in a bus, crossing Switzerland, Italy, and finally came back into France. By the time we reached Nice, I´m already a half-dead-fish. So it was friday afternoon by the time we got there. Driving a big bus inside a crowded city was not easy task at all. After stucking at lots of places, we reached our hotel, Hotel le Berne.

welcome, my brothers and sisters, to the ville de Nice.

Child: Mommy "rela" to carry a teddy bear than me T,T.

It's a "Jaein" answer, combination of "ja (yes)" and "nein (no)". She was indeed carrying a teddy bear, which inside hold another baby. LoL.

We unloaded stuffs from the bus and checked in in the hotel. After taking shower and had some rest, we decided to walk around Nice. First we went to KFC to have our lunch. The Malays were so happy because KFC here was halal.


KFC, that's where I want to be~

Then we went for the beach, since it should be very nice. And yes, it was really such a pleasant and nice scenery! Even the journey to the beach was great!

Nike Swoosh - just do it!

Nice fountain eh?

After some stroll, here we were at the beach!

Nice right? Seriously it was worth for visits... The breeze, the sea water, the saltiness, the cooling air, seriously, I enjoyed it very much. When were the last time I went to beach? Oh yea, at Pahang during Karisma '07.

So we walked around, visiting those souvenior shops, looking for interesting scenes. These were pictures that I took during the stroll in Nice.

Wonder why I took picture of the traffic lights? Look carefully, got mini traffic lights at the lower part of the post. You need not to be giraffe to check whether it's good to go.

A statue. Beside the casino.

The park...
Barisan National lost badly in Malaysia. They decided to make a change - "bertapak" at Nice.

This is the main train station in Nice. What a cool building.

Here came the most important part. I attent the opening ceremony dinner. So, around 1800 GMT +1, I prepared myself up - putting on my when-flying-to-Germany formal shirt. Gave my hair some gel that I didn't ask permission from the owner. Making myself look smart, and went to the venue along with other attendees with the public bus. =.=

This is me, salty after the breeze of salts..

The aeroplane is flying to the east... when will be my turn to be in it and go east? :'(

Just playing with some photography. Learning ok? =.= want to buy those DSL-R thingy when rich enough. Alright alright, this photo was taken in the hotel. Some open air space. After some breathe we went in for the dinner.

A drink. But guess what it is? Sprite? 7up? No, it's just gased mineral water with some carboxylic acid. Don't know which clever people telling the hotel people to provide mineral water.

Starter dish - Mesclun salad from Nice with vegetable flakes, large prawns with parsley and emulsion of citrus fruits and basil.

Main dish - Sea bream with spices, wok of crunchy vegetables with vermicelli.

Appetizer - Royal crunchy chocolate, cacao sirop.

That's all. Yes. Don't laugh. A dinner with 3 dishes. You know why? Because the main event is below.

Saw who this is already or not? He is Malaysia's Education Minister - YB Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein. I stood beside him.

Ho ho ho~ Who is this beautiful lady? She is Datuk Seri's wife =) What an honour :P

This is the nightview of Nice. I like the blue lights~

I reached back hotel around 0030 the next day. Others who did not go for the dinner already asleep. I was really really tired. The next day I still had badminton competition.

Well, the dinner although it's just very little dishes, but it took quite long time because there was an Question and Answering session. The first public QnA session after the general election. Well, of course, most of us who were in foreign countries were really curious about what really happened in Malaysia's General Election. The Government Barisan National (BN) suffered the worst defeat, losing 5 states to the Barisan Alternatif (BA), in which important states, such as Penang, Perak, Selangor and even Wilayah Persekutuan, BN failed to rule. Kuala Lumpur, Capital of Malaysia and also the Federal Government Centre is now under BA. Capital should shift to Sarawak or Johor, maybe?

But anyway, this defeat really brought BN some valuable lessons, at least. Judging from the way Datuk Seri responed the questions asked by students, I couldn't stop thinking that this time, BN would be the BN in 50 years ago. As in BN would learn to be humble and acceptive, learn to fight for the Rakyat and learn to be smarter. From the past until now, BN were like Melacca, ruling and conquering the whole country. Now, without the 2/3, both BN and BA must learn how to tolerate with each other, for the sake of the country. If not, Malaysia will hardly develop. Indeed, to most of the political analyzers, they looked at this as a sight of maturity of the country. The rakyat started to learn to think. Just that in my opinion, they voted BA because they don't want to vote for BN, not because they want BA to be the government.

Although there are still a long way to go, but I guess BN has enough time to check back it's paces, to think more critically and to adapt to the world of ICT. Television is not the only source to brainwash the citizens, therefore, setting limits in the publication of news is not a wise choice. A long way to go, and I don't think the next General Election will be a "clean-sweep" by BN, unless they manage to implant the assurance in the Rakyat's heart.

But funny thing is, why everyone blames others for the lost? Why even inside BN and UMNO cracks exist? There are rumours everywhere. And to me, Pak Lah is too soft in handling things. Some caricature was really funny:

Kami mahukan pemimpin, bukanya pemimpin, with graphics showing all the sleepy looks of Pak Lah.

Anyway, I see this result as a symbol of maturity of Malaysia politics. Rakyat will no longer follow blindly as how it happened in the past, with exceptions in Sabah and Sarawak. Well, BN in Sabah and Sarawak remain near-total unbeaten because of the lack of awareness of the people. Trust me, if things going on like this, the next city fall to DAP is Sibu.

Wow, went into politics too much. Alright, that's all for the Day1 report during the Nice trip. 2nd part coming soon. 3rd part? I don't think I want to make it that long =)

Vincent