I did not mention about a very weird yet funny conversation me and SoGua had with one of the Hotel staffs at Ibis who is a Parisian himself. It all started with a simple fix that Sogua had to make on a Saturday night after he was informed he had to stay for another week. He was, of course, shocked to find out his company did not make any necessary arrangements with the Hotel to extend his stay. Luckily, he checked and found out and quickly make payments using his own credit card so he wouldn’t be sleeping in the streets the following night.

You see, Sogua’s a 100% traditional chinese man that believes Chinese people should sign off their names in Chinese characters and not alphabetics because Chinese names are simply in chinese. So you could imagine the look on that Parisian’s face when he saw a scribble on the credit card receipt.

“May I know where’s your signature?”, asked the Parisian

“Here,” Sogua pointed at the signature

Puzzled, the Parisian looked at the paper and looked at the computer screen again “Your name is So Gua?”

“Yes…”

“And this is your name? Where’s the S-O-G-U-A?”, the doubful Parisian asked

“Oh, this is not my full name. Just the GUA word”

“So where’s the G.U.A?”, the Parisian asked again

“This is a chinese character, so this chinese character represents the Gua word”

“Ha? So Chinese characters have no ABCs?”

“No, they have their own set of characters.”

“And how many characters does a Chinese Language have?”

“Almost more than 5000 characters!”

“OH!!!! And I thought French is a complicated language! So which country uses this language? Japan?”

“No, but many like Hong Kong, Taiwan etc …”

It was then I chripped in that we are not Chinese but Malaysians. The last time I was mistaken for a Korean / Japanese. I really wonder the Europeans always mistaken us like how we always mistaken them between them and the Americans.

This is just a short view of my personal view of Paris. Just a matter of my own opinion. Feel free to drop me a note if you agree or disagree!

• Airport in KLIA definitely more prettier. Paris airport Charles De Gaulle is not so impressive and pretty cham la

• All the Cafes and Brasseries there have menus sticked out at their restaurants so you can see if the restaurant is at your offordability or not

• No such thing as mamaks or simple food stalls. All are cafes, restaurants or brasseries there so poor people, sorry, no food for you! Go makan McD’s la.

• People there don’t really speak English so be prepared and go for classes first. The more tourist the place is, the more likely the people there can speak English. If not, its duck and chicken talk with sign languages involved

• Weather during winter’s so nice. Its so cold and wonderful. The weather always give you the feeling like its going to rain in KL. Here there’s always sun, burns you like a charcoal

• Very strong winds and windy during this time of the year. When the wind comes, your face can feel so cold and you can’t even open your eyes because the cold stings

• They stick the road names all over the buildings so you won’t get lost. At least, you know where are you. Unlike, KL, the roadsigns are for the cars and usually direct you to the nearest toll and not the exit

• Bus and train stations are so convenient! That every 5 minutes you walk, you can at least see a bus or train station. The distance between the train stations are so near its within walking distance. Unlike here, when they say its nearby, you have to walk at least 15 minutes.

• Busses there are so frequent that you do not have to wait more than 10 minutes. Bus stops there all have a digital system which shows which bus is coming and how long you have to wait

• Sidewalks are dirty and some pedestrian walks smells of pee because Parisian loves to bring their dog walking. Someone told me once to be careful of walking along the pavements there just in case you step on dog dung but actually, I don’t see any. I just smell them!

• When you see the white zebra lines which internationally means pedestrian crossings, you don’t have to worry about the cars. Here, pedestrians are bigger! So, walk like a king! Here, you’ll most probably end up in the hospital

• Women there smoke more than men

• If you smoke, this is paradise. If you hate smoke like me, every restaurant smells burnt

• Parisians there don’t start work if 10am hasn’t arrive yet. Here, the earliest is 7.30am

I think that’s all for now! There’s not much I can remember already, like I said before, I’m pretty forgetful!

To understand this post, you’ll have to go through my 1st boring post “My trip to Paris Pt 1 - At KLIA Airport”, “My trip to Paris Pt 2 - Touchdown Paris”, “My trip to Paris Pt 2.5 - Touchdown Paris”, “My trip to Paris Pt 3 - Grevin’s and Paris Central” , “My trip to Paris Pt 3.5 - Grevin’s and Paris Central“, “My trip to Paris Pt 3.5.5 - Grevin’s and Paris Central“, “My trip to Paris Pt 4 - Louvre”, “My trip to Paris Pt 4.5 - Louvre” & “My trip to Paris Pt 5 - Montmartre”

21st January 2007

Woke up early at 7am, brushed my teeth and dressed up for an early breakfast with Sogua. After walking down to the lobby, we only realized that Parisians don’t wake up so early! Especially when its on a Sunday morning! Disappointed that my trip wouldn’t end with a special French breakfast, we headed back to the usual coffeehouse to have my 7 Euros breakfast.

After breakfast, I mopped around the hotel room until my taxi came at approximately 9am. Found out my cabbie is from Mauritius. Taxi costs 40 Euros again (apparently, they mentioned that on Sundays taxi fares are more expensive so I imagine the jam on the day I arrive was quiet bad).

Actually, on the way to the airport, I was frightened by the cabbie when he asked me which airport I was heading to. Actually, he meant more of which TERMINAL I was heading to. Freaked me out for the first time since I wasn’t sure if the airport’s name was Charles de Gaulle or not. Then he asked for the terminal, I lagi shock. When the ticket didn’t state the terminal number, I was starting to panic. Luckily, he had this handbook which states which airline stops at which terminal so I only managed to find out that MAS goes to Terminal 1.

Upon reaching the airport, I breathe the last Parisian air before I go into the building. Boy, I’m going to miss the weather there. After checking in, I only found out that they did not allow water or spray stuffs to be bought in your handcarry. Luckily, I had none of that with me. My water bottle, I’ll just throw away.

After shopping for some chocolates and perfume for dad and myself (I finally bought something for me!!!), I waited for the airplane.

Finally, I’m heading back to KL. 11 hours of airplane. I forgot to tell the teller there that I needed a window aisle seat. Luckily, they still placed me in the aisle seat but at the center so I sat next to a restless guy for the next 11 hours.