It has been quite an awesome week.

I went to Batam on Sunday and Monday with a cousin and a mutual friend of ours. Because my cousin mati-mati want the Batam tour, we followed a group on our first day and ended up visiting places like temples and dry markets selling smelly sotong and fish and sea cucumbers.

We went go-karting where I emerged the champion! Well amongst the 3 of us, that is. I was the champion. Hurhur. Then we went to a massage parlor where the other two had feet reflexology and I had a full body massage. So meh sini aku describe kan sikit the scenario. For those seeking full body massages, we were led to this space where a bed is laid on the floor and only a batik cloth covers you from the person next to you. The beds are on a slightly elevated ground, like a platform. So you can hear every noise (or moan) the person next to you makes, or any conversation your neighbour has with his/her masseuse. This is not a cheesy place so I thought it should be quite fine and peaceful. Oh how wrong was I.

Apparently, this ching chong fun couple who had their kids with them during the trip decided to bring the kids INTO the massage space. Ok THREE kids eh. That's THREE NOISY BOYS. Semua muka mintak kena sepak punya. See, it's okay if they have slap-able faces and are quiet. But they have slap-able faces AND noisy. So I thought it'd be $20 well-spent but nooooOOoo... These kids eventually got bored while their parents were happily being massaged. They started stomping on the platform floor and begin talking loudly. So I said to their mother "Aunty ah... Can you please ask your kids to keep quiet or not? Very noisy leh. Thank you hor." She she said to them in Mandarin asking them to keep it down tapi macam tak sungguh-sungguh gitu ah.

If all that stomping and shouting are not noisy enough, eh... Diorang start main game lah! Kau tau, those hand-held games yang bising-bising make a 'tiu-tiu-tiu' that kinda noise. And then they spoke in Mandarin tapi aku faham. One of the boys said he wanted to borrow the game but the other boy wouldn't lend it to him and so the first boy cried. CRIED eh. In the massage place. Cried and tried to complain to his parents at the same time. I'm sure you can figure how that sounded.

So I just tsk tsk tsk loud enough for the mother to hear.

And then the kids' father's handphone rang and he answered it in typical ah-pek fashion. "HARLOW?! AH... AH.... SEMO? CHING CHONG FUN CHING CHONG FUN BLA BLA BLA.... AH OK OK. BYE!"

Eh macam mana aku nak marah anak-anak dia ni if the parent don't set a good example. His handphone rang 3 more times after the first one. Honestly, these people. They can only be Singaporeans. At one point, I got so pissed off that I scolded the kids myself, through the thin batik shield. Pergi mampos. Apa? Mak dia nak marah aku for scolding her kids? Meh sini ah marah. Aku macam makin tension sey. Bukan lagi relax.

When we got back to the bus, the mother gave me dirty looks. Ewah masih boleh tunjuk perasan ni. I found out later that the kids's father is a broker, hence therefore thus, his handphone kept ringing every 10mins. Now the strange thing was, I didn't hear him talking loudly when we were in the bus, and I sat just adjacent to him. Big shot hor, broker.

I mean, look okay. I believe that kids should be allowed to be kids. Sure, go ahead and run, scream, play games and make as much noise as you want but they still must be disciplined enough to know when they should behave. And the parents play an important role in making them know the difference. Like, in the library for example. Running and screaming kids? Itu mintak kena smack. But if you wanna run and scream at the playground then by all means. These are the kind of parents who leave their maids and grandma to discipline the kids. The kids tend to be spoilt silly.

I only got comforted with the fact that I'll have a quiet spa treatment the next day so all was not lost.