Marsha Maung: Write. Cook. Read. Watch. Try. Innovate.

My parents and their siblings are sticking the landing as far as Cuti-Cuti Malaysia is concerned. In their twilight years and after going through some pretty tough life stuff, they’ve decided to embark on small little journeys and road trips to wherever their hearts desire once every fortnight. The one ‘uns are usually invited but with our little families in tow and own personal commitments, it’s pretty hard to nail us down for their little sojourns. But we try. It’s particularly hard when we either have little kids with us, work weekends, travel regularly for work as it is (a break from all that traveling is just the kind of break we need, huh?), or when we have no clear working hours. But like I said, we try. Their little outings depend on my Google-expert uncle who is the head of the family and mastermind behind these little road trips. So, we could be heading south one weekend, and then north east the next. We never know until a couple of days before the trip when my da...

I really needed to get away. I was tired. Although I don't believe in wallowing, I believe in getting away from the shit storm even if it was a for a few hours. I found myself wishing how people knew more about the struggle. I was eyeball-deep in an emotional sinkhole...hence, I needed to get away. My parents, literally, half-live in Genting Highlands , so, when the thought popped into my head, this seemed like a natural idea. If you're not familiar with Malaysia, it's the only casino in the country and it is located atop a hill. It's such a unique attraction that Singaporeans, Thais, Chinese and people from many other countries come to Malaysia just to try their luck at the casino. View this post on Instagram Up in the #clouds #gentinghighland #sky #sun #hills #breaks A post shared by Marsha Maung (@marshamaung) on Mar 9, 2019 at 1:21am PST For me, Genting Highlands has a special place in my hear...

My son was due to go to Penang with his friends (yes, without me) but considering the situation there right now, they've moved the trip closer to home. Right here. LOL. The last I heard, they'll have a massive sleepover with each other, anyway, by getting an Air B&B nearby and just hang out with each other. Quite a number of them are leaving the school next year and they just want to hang out after the exams. Credit : The Malay Mail Online Isn't it nice being kids? They've been planning this lofty-ambitioned sans-parents Penang trip for the longest time so, when they heard Penang got a bashing from the storm, they were rightfully a little upset. But I've argued ' Who are we to blame? Penang? Earth? The storm ?' Nobody asks to be flooded like this. Nobody. Our plans, a separate one, to head to the island remains, though, since we have a bit of time for Penang to recover from the torrential rain it suffered recently. Initially, my son would g...

Traveling together has been known to throw off and kill the best of friends and lovers. If you want to test if your friendship and love for each other is strong enough, travel together. Alone. If both of you come back alive, congratulations, you obviously love each other enough. I have done this before a couple of times, two times, we came back unfriending each other on Facebook and unfollowing each other on Twitter and blocking each other on all social media sites and complained about the other being a bi***...and one of them was a guy. That was how bad it was. In fact, based on experience, it spoils the whole trip even before you get on the flight back. So, it would totally suck if you shared a room. So, quite recently, I traveled with a friend I love so much I will kill for her (wellll....maybe not but I will hire someone to kill for her....and THAT says a lot!!!) and we BOTH came back ALIVEEEEEEEE so, here is my conclusion about double-shot traveling. There were things we did...

This is not an ad, I am not paid to do this but then I have to put up a plug about it because I am happy. I am totally happy with using Agoda. First off, I used it when I went to Singapore some time back, and then I used Agoda again when I went to Korea. And then I will be using again for Singapore. You know the one thing that I really like? The reviews and the credit system. I know there's Tripadvisor and all of that but somehow, I feel that Agoda is more.....er....local? Or perhaps more relevant to this region as opposed to other systems. In a rush, heading out for lunch. Talk soon, XOXO, Marsha p.s. Yes, this is another happy community service blog plug. =))))

I did mention that we should make a visit to DMZ before the trip began, we didn't really plan for it to happen. We were Lonely Planeting this whole thing....seriously, with an official Lonely Planet book I bought some 6 years back when I said I wanted to visit South Korea. But it was in Insadong (I have to give my very persistent friend credit here and for dealing with a very impatient Marsha) that we found an information booth that KNEW EVERYTHING. You could ask the info counter when your next period will be and it can tell you the precise second and also bonus of telling you exactly how many kids you will have in the future. Heehe...of course not. But thanks to their ability to hook us up to a seller that sells the precise universal charger we need AND find us a DMZ tour almost on the spot, the trip happened. I am telling you once again that Korean summer is no...effin....joke. If you can see my pictures taken during our trip, first day...nice clothes, nice makeup, big ready ...

' No visit to Seoul will be complete without scaling one of its many palaces ,' says only one book, countless magazines, three friends and many bloggers. And I did NOT intend to leave the place without hitting at least one of them. Initially wanting to hit ALL of them within the five days that we were there, once we got to Gyeongbokgung and started walking around, I soon realized how foolish that was. Gyeongbokgung is.....HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! As noted by my friend, this is the 'entrance' to Gwanghwamun, I think it's an area or a subway station thing that links us to Gyeongbokgung My equally ambitious friend and me were intent on seeing every single little corner of the palace. All the other tour guides took the visitors to some of the main attractions where they all noisily climbed the stairs to huddle together in front of whatever structure it was for a group photo....us? We were hell bent on walking as many inches, feet and miles of this palace gr...

We took the midnight flight quite by accident (for me) but for my friend and I, it was a good thing because by the time we made it to South Korea, it would be first thing in the morning and we have a full full FULL day ahead of us. The flight was your usual thing but it was the first time I was actually required to take a night's sleep in the air. On flight meal was....as expected but can someone, pray tell, what the hell is this supposed to be a meal for? LOL A mushroom fresh out of a tin can? Not sauteed, not fried, not blanched, not baked, not sliced, oh God, I hope they washed it or something. Interesting, isn't it? In this space, we had to catch a couple of hours of sleep (at least) in order to make full use of our advantageous FULL DAY ahead. If we don't, we would officially be awake and trudging all around Seoul with less than 3 hours sleep in 2 days.  No in-flight incident or drama accept for seeing a man in KLIA zonked out blind from drinking and...