I’m off to the shop
With a skip and a hop
To buy a balloon
That won’t go pop.

I wonder how many of you remember this childhood rhyme?

Well I was reminded of it this morning because I am off to the shops not with a skip and a hop but on a big Malaysian Airlines plane come tomorrow night.

Yes! Finally the much awaited Malaysia Trip that I’d won through Blogadda’s MalaysiaJao contest is coming through. And  the Year End Sale is the highlight of the trip that I’ll be on for the next few days.

Follow this blog for tips on what to see, where to shop, where to eat and what to not do in KL, Melaka and Johor Baru and a blow by blow account of this trip of a life time.

Thanks Blogadda and Malaysian Tourism for making this happen!

Pre-Trip


Ever since Tulika of Beehive told me about the Malaysia Trip, I was excited but was keeping my fingers crossed and my lips sealed till the trip actually came through.

Well, now I just have to let the whole world know that finally I’m going for a holiday to Malaysia a country I had visited almost thirty years ago and which will undoubtedly be a trip of a life time.

To start with, we were invited to a brief orientation by the Malaysian Tourism office at Mumbai where I met my co-travellers for the first time. They seem to be a pleasant bunch of women, some seasoned travellers and some not, but all enthusiastic to be going for the trip.

Life is always a learning experience and the first thing I learnt even before this trip was how to get a business card in under an hour!

Considering that it sometimes takes me all of an hour to just go down 500 m in a car in peak traffic, I was simply amazed that I could get 96 cards right from designing to printing in just an hour! Amazing….of course this is all thanks to DTP, Corel and the numerous Xerox shops that are dotting our commercial hubs.

The Malaysian Tourism Office in Jolly Maker Tower 2 at Nariman Point had its access road all dug up, and the nearby Xerox shops had stopped printing instantly unless they had the artwork approved. So they sent me along to ASIATIC opposite Churchgate station where I could manage to get my cards designed and printed there and then!

Yipee! Malaysia here I come.