Haiz... Susah nye nak cuti-cuti Malaysia....

Hmm.... how do I start? Well the title itself says it all actually... While our government is promoting heavily on cuti-cuti Malaysia, apparently it seems only directed to foreigners and not us the locals.... Although I do remember some radio advertisement some time ago encouraging us Malaysians to spend our holidays in Malaysia... but in the end, I found out that we Malaysians are apparently the "smaller than small fries" in this scheme to boost our Malaysian Tourism.....
My fren and I have been planning to climb Mount Kinabalu since somewhere mid last year when we managed to book some cheap Air Asia tickets to KK.... But since the climb was only mid 2008, no early bookings in 2007 was allowed so we waited for 2008 to come before we started trying to book.. being Malaysians, I would have thought it would be easy to plan the entire trip ourselves and basically do everything free and easy... Book the rooms, book the guide, pay the climbing fees etc... it was fairly simple as we can get ourselves around to whichever destinations we wanted to get to... by bus, taxi or etc....

But lo behold... apparently we couldnt.... Why? Coz everything has been packaged... "3D2N Mount KK Climb" it says... even the official website told all and sunshine that it is now impossible to plan and book the whole trip yourselves... You needed to go through an agent... As a Malaysian I think i have the right and the ability to plan a trip within Malaysia without the need for a travel agent right? it is not as if I am foreign... Jeez!!! Of course i agree that there should be such packages around for foreigners or locals who doesnt want the hassle and got money to burn... but the option of doing everything ourselves should not be taken away from us.. This is just plain unfair.. Why must we be slaughtered in our own home country when on a normal basis if we were to go travel to another country, the packages are always cheaper than if you were to plan and book everything separately.. but in Malaysia, it is always the opposite.. it always becomes more expensive... why is this so? This is so unfair!!!! Why do we allow ourselves to be conned off our own hard earn money to travel within our own country... if that is the case, I might as well just go overseas for my holidays... at least it is more worth it and I do have the option of planning the entire trip myself...

Look at it this way.... if I could go all the way across the world and travel on my own itinerary and book everything separately from accomodations to entrance tickets to rental vehicles... and all that done in a foreign country... why can I not do the same in my own country? Is it that I cannot converse well enought in Malay? I dont think so... Is it coz I dont know my way around? I also dont think so... Then Why?!!!

Only reason I can think of is that.... at the end of the day... we are not the ones most welcomes to travel around our own country... It is the foreigners they want.. or more specifically, it is the foreigner's money that they want.... I am clearly quite unhappy bout this scenario... How can the industry be so selfish and so self centered.... :(