Saturday, December 8, 2007

Maldives....and one UGLY S'POREAN family


The beauty of the sea atolls that make up the Maldives surpasses that
shown on these postcards. The beauty is both above and beneath the sea. To truly appreciate and enjoy nature's gift or God's gifts to us, one need to have enough time to simply relax and take in the wondrous and exotic scene and atmosphere around us.
Maldives is the same. D2 and I, together with 2 other Singaporean families we met there, got along very well throughout the trip. We even kept in touch long after that trip.
But, there was another S'porean family numbering about 7 persons that completely turned everyone off, including the local staff of the resort. Though basically English-speaking, they were nevertheless most uneducated and were a constant embarassment to the rest of us fellow Singaporeans. Their behaviour and speech were painfully obnoxious throughout. With my sharp senses, I had actually noticed them at the departure lounge at Changi Airport when the father was the only traveller in our Silk Air flight to carry his Golfing things and his son openly leafing through a Medical textbook. And other family members similarly engaged....everyone seeming to project and advertise they are well-heeled and perhaps super intelligent! What a LOAD OF RUBBISH they
all turned out to be at our resort! The mother, a well-oiled and dolled -up uppity type, scolded the poor washroom boys," What kind of soap is this ? In SINGAPORE we do not use such LOUSY soap! You all here GOT NO CLASS. NO STANDARD ! I want some BETTER soap than this ! "
When this was going on, I was actually at the common wash basin next to her. Looking closely at the 2 poor Maldivians and staring at her with my steely eyes, I could not contain myself any longer. I spoke...." Nothing wrong with this piece of soap. It is GOOD enough for me ! And I AM FROM SINGAPORE ! "
She stared at me with dagger eyes but not for long. Why?
Those who know me well can confirm that I NEVER BACK off from BULLIES of any kind,
whatever size or shape, colour or skin. My eyes pierced right through hers and made her realise that her uppity behaviour were all a facade and so much smokescreen to me and the other normal S'poreans. We saw through her and her obnoxious family. I took the incident further.
Sensing the need to set the record straight and to protect the good name of our country, I went straight to the manager's office and spoke up for the washroom boys. The office staff were most appreciative of my gesture and "big heartedness" and were even more pleased to hear that most S'poreans do not behave like them and that back home we do not condone such rude manners. We call them" Ugly S'poreans" in our travels. At dinner that night, we [ S'pore angels..ha ha! ] were served with a big platter of fried fish and curry fish in a pot and mineral water on the house [ very expensive]. The UGLY S'porean table, next to us were served ordinarily by icily cold waiters. They could not "Tahan" and the mother beast reared her ugly head once more. She pointed to our superbly set table and questioned the staff why " they have fish curry, water , etc,...and we don't have??"
We all chuckled and truly ENJOYED our dinner that night!
ps: BTW, our resort has no golf course.

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