On Travelling Solo

Europe is crawling with people who travel on their own. As I said earlier, Munich was the first time I travelled on my own. And it was brilliant!! When you're on your own, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want and at your own pace. If you get bored, you can easily meet people at the hostel or go on an organised pubcrawl with other travellers. And best of all, there is no group politics. No arguing over where to eat or where to go etc. And because you're "forced" to make friends, you end up meeting interesting people from different parts of the world, which is great, and also useful if you ever decide to visit their part of the world. This definitely boosts your self confidence, in terms of socialising with other people.
And when you're own, you're more likely to open your mind to the local culture than if you're travelling with friends from the same background. You will be more inclined to try new things, even if they're weird.

I'm rambling

München

Diary entry

Before I left Europe, I decided to have a final European holiday. I chose to go to Munich again because of how much I loved it the last time and because I didn't have time to visit a few famous places the last time. It was also the first time I travelled by myself.

So on Day 1, I checked in and went to the Olympia Stadion (Olympic Stadium), which in all honesty, was really boring. It was like going to Bukit Jalil. Empty. But there was some sort of fair going on so I had some beer and sausage!
Then I left promptly to check out BMW Welt. BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works), which is why it's such a big thing in Munich. On entering, it looked like a huge state of the art showroom. All the latest models were out on display and you could sit in them. This was of course, like heaven to me. Then, I managed to get a student discount for the BMW museum with my expired card (4 euros instead of 12!). This was just amazing. Many old models were on display, from the very first BMW, to the war vehicles of Nazi Germany to the gimmicky 3-wheeled vehicle.
Then I returned to my hostel and met JunSup (a South Korean guy backpacking across Europe on his own). We decide to go to the bar to hangout, where I meet 2 South Korean girls.

Day 2. Went on the walking tour again, and was reminded of some important history surrounding the Third Reich and Munich itself, and how Bavaria is such a wealthy separatist state. After this, I decided to check out the Residenz and then ventured a bit further to Schloss Nymphenburg. Upon returning, I decided to just chill out in the Englischer Garten, to find some nude sunbathers on the riverbank! Later, went out to dinner with JunSup and SiYoung, another South Korean travelling in Europe in a big beer garden near the hostel.

Day 3. Had breakfast with JunSup and said goodbye. Plan to visit Seoul in the future. I promptly left for the Müller'sches Volksbad, which is a public bath in Munich which was opened in 1901. The architecture was stunning both from the outside and on the inside. Then I went on a tour to Dachau Concentration Camp. It was slightly disappointing because most of the camp was destroyed by the local people after the war (compared to Sachsenhausen in Berlin, which was pretty much the size it was). There, I was told about the atrocities of the Nazies, which I was already very familiar with. Lastly, I visited some eccentric bits in Munich like the Asamkirsche (Asam Church) which was absolutely stunning.
Then I left.

The Best Holiday

I'm back in cold, gloomy London from the most perfect holiday in Malaysia. I'm trying to get back into the whole routine so I'm cleaning up and doing some laundry (with the most annoying washing machine on the planet)

The holiday was just perfect with an almost complete reunion of all the Krishnans (except for uncle Vejayan's family in Michigan and Kumar in London). Sugu was back in Malaysia for the first time after 18 long years! And her family were in Malaysia for the first time.
It was just great to have everyone back again, all the cousins, reunited. Sugu, Sharmini, Kaanchana, Suman, Johan and me. This holiday taught me a lot about my family. Untold stories and secrets were unleashed. Old photos taken out of their dusty boxes (and I mean OLD).
We spent almost everyday talking till at least 3am, catching up, gossiping etc.

The endless disasters were hilarious! To name one, we were playing pool in a bar and Sugu decides to break. Having not played pool in ages, she tipped the cue down at the very last minute while putting all her strength in the shot and sent the ball flying into a porcelain fountain with a loud crash and plop!!! The worker standing by the fountain looked so confused, and when he finally realised what happened, he had to bend into the fountain to get the ball out and wipe it! Omg we were all wetting ourselves by this point!

Another one: Sugu goes saree shopping and knocks over a huge reel of material. Seeing this, Kaanchana tries to save the day and tips it over to the other side, when it then fell on all the other giant reels of material and sent them all crashing in the shop! The shopkeepers could only watch in complete horror and helplessness with open mouths... LOL. On the very same day in a similar place, Sugu and Kaanch were buying bangles for Asha. Kaanch insisted to pay for them despite Sugu's protests. After a lengthy debate, Kaanch decides to just turn to the counter and pay before Sugu gets a chance. While doing her very swift turn, Kaanchana knocks this little chinese woman over into reels of material!

Another disaster! After I left for England, all the cousins decided to go to the waterpark in Tambun. Now, this waterpark was designed with Malaysian sizes and weights in mind i.e. not for a big black man (Sugu's husband, Garrick, and children!!)
Anyway, due to them weighing at least twice the average Malaysian, they were zooming SO fast down the waterslides to the point where it was terrifying and crazy. Suman and Big Garrick were sat on a float together zooming down one of the giant slides at a speed that was uncontrollably fast. The slide had a sudden bend in the tunnel and they overturned!! So Suman lands on his head at a high speed in this slide and uncontrollably splashed in to the pool at the end! Poor Suman, luckily it was nothing serious (as confirmed by Brachial plexus testing by Dr Johan!) but he wont be turning his head in a while...

Celebrating the New Year at KLCC was just perfect! We saw the grandest fireworks ever by the beautiful twin towers, and later on had drinks and hung out till 6.30am!!

However, we still had an unfortunate event. My grandfather (tata) got a heart attack (Non ST-elevation MI). The good news is that he's very stable at the moment at the National Heart Institute. He will be undergoing a bypass on Thursday by the best surgeons in the country and we're all praying that everything will go well. I'm very nervous but am keeping my fingers crossed.