There is still goodness out there

Shiny happy people is back! (-:

How a simple gesture can turn into an act of benevolence

Last week me & mom had dinner, nothing unusual

While waiting for our food, we were served nuts

We saw a young family at the table next to ours, one of the daughters went off to take another helping of nuts

We weren't having ours, we thought nothing of it, so we called the girl, and offered our bowl of nuts

...To only later find out, when I went to pay, the boss told me that the next table to ours had already paid for ours!

I didn't believe him at first, and asked him if he was sure. He insisted -neighbouring table had paid for us, an Encik Azman, red shirt

I couldn't believe myself, neither did my mom. I thought this only happened in movies.

Encik Azman, wherever you are, we thank you so much, it was very generous of you (you didn't even know us), we were so touched by your kind gesture. ^_^

It gives us hope again that are still a lot of goodness out there

A Cultured Aural Experience

Gah! Pretty lame of me only to finally set foot into the DFP after years of its existence!
And pretty lame an excuse too, as I finally did it because of free tickets lol! Shame on me...

We were there to see Irama Warisan Kita by MPO, conducted by Dato' Johari Salleh with orchestral musical arrangment of ethereal Malay songs such as Getaran Jiwa, Tunggu Sekejap, Bahtera Merdeka and also more modern songs such as Hijau and Cindai (I preferred the evergreen ones though. As for Cindai, I felt it was quite odd)

Being a first timer in the DFP, I found out that I loved the acoustics. (Gah! If only I could sneak in recordable instruments ...syyhh...) I could hear almost all the intricate layers of each of the instruments clearly. (And it makes me want to pick up an instrument and join the MPO this instant, if only just to play the tambourines or the cymbals ...I think I could manage that :-p)

It's quite a small hall, so you feel intimacy with the performers. You could see their hands/fingers fiddling with the instruments. (Reminds me of my friend Liz' obsession with musicians' hands lol!)

I guess it's inevitable for me to sooner or later delve into more 'cultured' music when my knees will start to fail me so I have to sit tight and watch performances without going monkey ape bonkers :-p!

Prisoner of Tehran

Warning! Shiny happy people takes a serious mode

Reading Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat, a memoir of her being a political prisoner at Evin urged me to write my observations of Tehran / Iran during my visit a few months ago. Her accounts were tragic, being tortured and condemned to death by the Islamic Revolution regime (she referred to them as ‘regime’). I was not there in her place, and did not experience it myself, so I would not place her accounts as biased. After all, she never mentioned the religion (Islam) as cruel, just the people behind the regime who instructed the orders. However, there were also people in the regime who were sympathetic and tried to relax the punishments.

Unfortunately, the whole experience has etched a permanent scar towards the writer, her family and all the other survivors, and their families and also families of the fallen. And unfortunately too that this may cause a distorted view of the religion to those who are unable to differentiate between religion and the people quoting religion for their own overzealous ideals. The Islamic Revolution overthrowing of the Shah was supposedly to rid the country of corruption and sharing the wealth of the nation, but execution of those not in agreement with the regime was blatantly unjust.

But then again, the reverse happened during the time of the Shah, when supporters of the Islamic Revol were being arrested and executed. Ultimately, in both cases, lives were lost –political prisoners were sentenced to capital punishment and sadly, most of them were barely teenagers.

Back to the book - Some accounts were also very detailed, e.g. she remembered the exact dates of the writings of previous prisoners in her cell on the wall of the prison, e.g. Mahtab, Bahram, Katayoon and Pirooz and more dates: Dec 2, 1981; Dec 28, 1981; Feb 12, 1982 etc. Now I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she wrote these facts somewhere (but she never mentioned she kept a diary or anything) because it’s hard for anyone to remember exact dates of unknown, random people after 20 years (she was arrested in 1982, started to write the book in 2002).

Meanwhile, here are some of the accounts that I could relate to during our visit. Excerpts from the book are in bold, italic

Pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and hateful slogans like “Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Communists and All Enemies of Islam” and “Death to Anti-Revolutionaries” covered most walls.

The slogans aren’t visible anymore around Tehran (at least at the places we visited), except at the ex-US Embassy in Tehran. Iran severed ties with the US after the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew the Shah.
See here

The government had ordered women to cover their hair and had issued edicts against music, makeup, paintings of unveiled women, and Western books, which had all been declared satanic and therefore illegal.

The hair covering is still true as even tourists (female) have to cover their hair coming to Iran, although this ruling is a bit relaxed now, where you just need to wear a shawl or a hat over and it is OK to show strands of hair (and they can be of any colour)

As for music, I saw a row of shops selling musical instruments near our hotel in Tehran, so I guess they have allowed this now.

However, public musical performance may not yet being allowed, as per our conversation in a chance meeting with a rapper (yes, you read it right! As in Yo Wassup? kind) under one of the bridges in Esfahan (what a unique meeting place!), he was performing underground and kept it hush hush.

No bans on Western books though. We saw many of these at the bookstores in Esfahan.

I didn’t get the opportunity to see any paintings though. But there were pictures of unveiled women during the time of the Shah.

Ayatollah Khomeini died on June 3, 1989

We were in Tehran exactly 20 years after his death. The mood was somber, all the shops and touristic places were closed, it was a public holiday. Many people, women wearing chadors, flocked the train towards Khomeini’s shrine. People still revered the Ayatollah 20 years on.

These are only some of our observations during our very short trip and at just a few places.

Evin still holds political prisoners to this day.

KL-Nippon Tour

Ohaiyo! Konnichiwa! Kongbangwa! Depends on which time of day you are reading this, the Japanese do not have a specific greeting for Hello! ;-)

Now where am I getting at? Well, I said yes to Nurul when she asked me if I’d like to accompany her giving her boss and another senior staff at her office a tour of KL! Yes, the boss is Japanese ;)

I didn’t function much as a guide though, Nurul did the job splendidly! She speaks really good Japanese. I swear if I ever spend another day with them, I’d speak Japanese in no time! Haha, OK maybe I’m exaggerating, but it’s true that you could greatly improve your language skills when you spend your time with people speaking the language and you are the only one there who doesn’t speak the language (yet).

Genting Highlands

We started off early at 8am to Genting Highlands. Since Boss is a very gentleman, he doesn’t let the ladies drive. We felt we took quite a long route to Genting though as we followed the GPS. After Genting, we chucked the GPS lol!

We reached Genting quite early at 9am and took the Skyway cable car. Again, Boss is such a gentleman, he sponsored us all. Arigato gozaimasu!!! Senior san was initially quite worried with the height, but he was calm soon after. It rained the night before, so it was kiri (misty) and cool. I was wearing thin clothes (in anticipation of the scorching sun at the city later), so Boss kept asking me if I was OK. I can’t stop on how gentleman Boss had been to us!

In the cable car

At Genting, we showed the attractions there – the Casino and the Amusement Park. Cringe when Boss said the park looked like an 80s version of a park in Japan! Am not really surprised there though. Nevertheless, Boss would be coming back to Genting on his own the next time, he did have some interest in there ;-)

Unexpectedly, Boss suggested that we should have a Purikura (print club) taken. Purikura = the enclosed booth where you act silly and take kawaii (cute) pictures with your friends, then get the pictures printed on photo stickers. Pictures of the Purikura sessions aren’t posted here though for fear of jeopardizing the Boss’ reputation :D On top of being a gentleman, he’s such a sporting man! He also sponsored the Purikuras. And Senior san joined in too! Respect!

We left after about an hour, via the cable car again for the return trip. Boss saw an uma (horse) ranch nearby, and asked if we knew where he could ride horses. Apparently the Boss likes horses. We suggested Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club. Don’t know how much it’d cost though.

KL Tower

Next destination was KL Tower. Oh dear, in my opinion, I don’t think KL Tower is a worth a visit though. The ticket was RM 38/person regardless if you are Malaysian or a foreigner. (Senior san got a discount though – for senior citizens) When we went up to the observatory tower, one of the female guides there were extremely nice to Boss and Senior san, but were indifferent towards me and Nurul. One shouldn’t treat a local with a lesser treatment than to a foreigner, after all we paid the same price. (Although Boss sponsored us again). The aerial view of KL city isn’t really something to shout about, except for the Twin Towers maybe. And lastly, there wasn’t enough parking spaces, we had to park by the road.

View from KL tower


Posing posing!

Since we were already hungry by then, the KL Tower not-so-sweet-experience was quickly forgotten when we were served our Dim Sum lunch. Nurul did a great research and found a value for money All You Can Eat Dim Sum lunch at Prince Hotel which only costs RM45++ per person. Boss sponsored us again :D

Dim Sum. Yummeh!

Mango pudding dessert. Inc in lunch buffet

Putrajaya

After a hearty meal, we moved on to Putrajaya. Boss seemed a bit sleepy, but he went ahead so Nurul had to keep them awake with conversations, and did a great job! I just listened and wished I could join them lol!

We visited the Masjid Putra at Putrajaya. It was disheartening though that the guards there wouldn’t let non-Muslims inside. The prayer hall is really beautiful and serene which may pique their interest to know more. We excused ourselves for a while to perform our prayers before meeting up again.

Masjid Putra

We then headed towards the lake to ride the Dondang Sayang perahu (RM20/person with MyKad, RM40/person without), but it looked like it was going to ame’ (rain), so the rides were discontinued for the day. Feeling Boss and Senior San should relax some more before hitting back the roads, we suggested the nearby Fish Spa (RM5/person for 10 minutes) and boss gamely agreed. It was really ticklish as the fishes supposedly sucked our dead skin cells (I’m still not fully convinced on this though hmmm).

After fish spa, it had started to rain, so Boss decided to go back. We figured he was quite tired already. We profusely thanked Boss and Senior san for the treats, for having us and for a great time touring KL. Arigato Gozaimasu!!! ^_^

White Water Rafting : Jeram Besu

This happened some time ago – 2 May 09 to be exact, but since I just got the pictures today (dah basi lol!), I’m only writing it now :-p

We (myself, Nurul and her 2 sisters) went for white water rafting at Jeram Besu, Kuala Lipis Pahang. This was only a Level 1 rafting (the easiest level), so the rapids were not really challenging. But then we were all novices, so we’ve got to start easy first ;-) We took a half day tour, with lunch (very very yummy, authentic kampung food! I remember this vividly) which costed RM160/person. We also asked the tour operator to drive us to Jeram Besu, which we only paid for the petrol cost, quite a deal huh?

The journey from KL to Jeram Besu took about 1.5 hours (we took off around 7.30am and arrived by 9am) – but then again, the dude drove like a maniac, we could only pray we’d arrive safely. Other than that, the dude was a nice lad though :-)

Before we went for rafting proper, we had to go through 3 exercises:
- swimming to middle of the river and come back (with safety jacket of course)
- jumping into the rapids feet first and land on water in L-sitting position then let yourself drift with the rapids until you reach calm waters
- turn over the raft

We were then ready to go! We had to row for about 2km in calm water (it hadn’t rained for some time) before we reached the first rapids. The second rapid was more challenging than the first, and we got through fine without turning over! Maybe we had a really good guide ;-)


Our team!


Briefing


Exercise #3: Turning over the raft

Row! row!

Arrr rapid ahead!!

We survived the rapids!

Done! :-)

Filmology

A bit on recent films I caught..

500 days of summer
Quirky and Sweet! Love it, but then again I am bias - as The Smiths and Belle & Sebastian were mentioned in the film
Zooey Deschanel as Summer is soooooooooooo cute! She made Tom (Gordon-Levitt) cry..
Favourite tagline: I heart Us

Inglourious Basterds
Lengthy, dialogue based film, but I loved it! I would have appreciated it better if I'd watch/knew the spaghetti western and combat war films referenced in the movie..

Cristoph Waltz as Col Hans Landa is one heck of a superb actor! He speaks French, German, English & Italian in the movie - what a feat! No wonder Tarantino mentioned that there would not be Basterds if not for Waltz
I missed Tarantino in a cameo part though
And why didn't Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine die?! (tak puas hati :-p)

Krabi - Day 5

Day 5 –19/10/09
Bye bye

We booked the same van for airport transfer at 12pm. Cost us 600 Baht (RM7.10 / person). However, we didn’t get the same van this time – older one.

After breakfast, we went to Ao Nang beach North for our final jumping shots session. Turned out quite beautifully! Next, we took the tuk-tuk to the Tsunami Memorial , just about 5 minutes down the road. We could have walked, but since we haven’t tried the tuk-tuk since our arrival, this was our final chance! It was fun riding the tuk-tuk, although it went really slow. We took some zany poses, then it’s off to the hotel. We had 1 more hour before the van arrives, so we went for brunch at the usual stall, then the final last minute shopping. We got Krabi t-shirts for 130 Baht each (RM13). Quite lucky, as the night before, we couldn’t get any lower than 140 Baht.


Ao Nang -North

Final jumping shot

Paparazzo dlm semak

Tuk tuk

Mas rempit tuk tuk

Tsunami memorial

Then it’s time to check out. Sob sob. Time flew so quickly when you’re having fun.

Our van arrived as scheduled. At the airport, we went for prayers first (the surau was sufficiently equipped – we were impressed). We then decided to check in for immigration, then have lunch (we were hungry again already) in the boarding lounge. However, there was no café / food court there, just a souvenir and a tidbits stall. We had to endure our hunger pangs with biscuits, and later cup noodles in the flight.

Surau at Krabi airport

We reached KL at 4.30pm as scheduled. Izwan & Zu took off immediately as their drivers were already waiting. The rest took the bus to LCCT but we should have taken the red bus (it costs RM1 more than the yellow bus). The yellow bus arrived late at the LCCT, so we only reached KL Sentral almost 7pm! Lesson learnt: Always buy the ticket at the point of bus entry , i.e. not at the counter so that you can see and choose which bus would be leaving first.

Nevertheless, the little bumps did not dampen our spirits. We really enjoyed our trip to Krabi. We have our memories to treasure, and the pictures to reminisce and laugh together. Next trip awaits…

Krabi - Day 4

Day 4 – 18/10/09
Kayaking

The boys took off earlier at 8.30am, but it rained around 9am, although not so heavily. We started out for brunch around 9.30am after the rain stopped at the food stalls to the North. I had a nice padthai (like char kuey teow ) for just 350 Baht. Enough to sustain energy for a 2 hour kayak exercise!


The tour operator came to fetch us at 11am. The ride by jeepney to Ao Thalane was about 30 minutes, going through the kampungs. It was interesting to see the view. We felt pity for the tour assistant – a 15 year old boy – who claimed he has finished school and is now working. Our families are lucky that we get to finish school, then pursue higher education, unlike the boy (and many other underprivileged children around the world actually). So always be thankful, and reach out to them in whatever way you can.

The boy

When we reached Ao Thalane, we were divided into 3 kayaks – me and Mas; Zu and Zairul; while Liza as always, gets the guide :-p It was really fun kayaking actually, once you get the hang of it. Plus, the water was calm at the mangrove area.

Zu & Zairul

Liza & abang Thai

Me & Mas

Survivor!

Our first stop was the Monkey area, where we can feed the monkeys with fruits brought by the guide. The monkeys looked fierce and hungry. They tried to grab the fruits from our basket, but our guide told them off. To our amusement, they were obedient to the guide. We were told to hold out and give the fruits to the monkeys. Again to our surprise, the monkeys were gentle when receiving fruits from our hands. They weren’t really nasty after all, just hungry I suppose. Or maybe scared of the guide hehe.

Bagi makan buah

Searching for food

We then went further into the mangrove swamp. It was beautiful and peaceful in there. We couldn’t stop pitying for Razeif & Izwan for missing the awesome kayak trip. Saw mudskippers aka ikan tembakul / belacak (reminds me of Bakaugruv trip back in standard 4 – my first school outdoor trip!) I also saw a monkey swimming! Yes, swimming towards us when we stopped for the second spot.

Calm mangrove

Luckily we took the half day tour as I felt I was quite drained by the end of the 2 hours. I guess me & Mas started off with the wrong technique, that’s why we were using a lot of unnecessary energy. But then again, this wasn’t my first time kayaking hmmm…

We reached back at our hotel around 4pm, then we marched straight to the food stall for energy replenishment. Quite starved by now. We had pancakes, banana fritters and hotdogs. All fatty food. When we returned back, the guys were also back, but Razeif had already gone out to town on his own – searching for Le Sports Sacs. After showering and a bit of rest, me & Mas took the plunge again – into the swimming pool this time. There was no one around, so Mas took the opportunity to XXX (details cannot be revealed – use your imagination hehe).

Our final dinner was rather grande with tom yam, green curry, vegetable tempura and prawn in thai sauce. Splendid! All that cost us just 1000 Baht (or RM14.30/person) After dinner we went for shopping again. Then the greatly appreciated massage at Sunset as my arms were aching by now. Me and Zairul opted for the Oil Massage for 300 Baht (RM30) for 1 hour. The massage was really nice and it helped eased the ache, thankfully. The guys chose After Beach Massage (Milk + Aloe Vera) for 500 Baht while Mas and Liza chose Body Scrub (750 Baht).

Sunset massage spa

Krabi -Day 3

Day 3 -17/10/09
Phi Phi Island

We started earlier today at 8.30am The tour operator fetched us from the hotel with a jeepney. There were 8 other tourists with our group of 8, so there were 16 of us on the boat. The couple in front of me were from Germany. I think the ones in front of the boat were French.

Shane- 3rd from right

We had a lovely tour guide – Shane (I think that’s what I heard). Our first stop was Viking cave where the locals collect bird’s nest inside. We didn’t go down here, just a quick stop. First beach stop was at Bamboo Island. We stayed here for an hour. Not much marine life/fishes here, but the beach here really is sandy white!

Viking cave

Happy at Bamboo Island

Next stop was (I think it was Hin Klarng) for open sea snorkelling. Many fishes here, but too bad we didn’t bring bread to feed them. Many boats were anchored here, and many were also moving in and out, so the water was rather choppy here, I couldn’t really enjoy my snorkel. I did see a woman here who, on top of wearing a life jacket, was also wearing a (Pooh cartoon) float. Gives more security eh ;-)

We then went down to the second beach -Maya bay at Phi Phi Lay island (small Phi Phi) where The Beach was filmed. Stayed here for 45 minutes. Same here as Bamboo Island, not much sea life/fishes here, but sandy white beaches and emerald waters.



Azure / emerald waters of the Andaman sea

We were quite drained by now, so the mention of lunch perked us up. We stopped for lunch at Phi Phi Don (Big Phi Phi) island at Ton Sai Bay for 2 hours. Lunch was tom yam (just OK), fish fillet, spaghetti Bolognese, chap chai with rice. After lunch, we browsed around the shops.

Phi Phi shops

We wanted to go to the Tsunami memorial (Phi Phi was one of the affected places), but was told by Shane that it was a 2 hour walk away. She did tell us that Phi Phi had 2 bays, opposite to each other (see here) so it was swept from both sides during the Tsunami.

A banner on the 2004 tsunami

Excerpt form link: The thin, low-lying isthmus where most the development was, received waves from both directions, amplified by the two bays that sandwich it. Zairul bought a magazine on the Tsunami – it was really awful, people had nowhere else to run on the tiny island

A cute kitty in Phi Phi

From Phi Phi, we had a quick stop at Monkey Beach – to see – well, monkeys! We thought nothing much of it, but the farangs were really impressed though. They were really fascinated by the sight of monkeys.

Monkey beach

Last stop for our tour was XX (I didn't get the name – for our second open sea snorkel. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, as it has got an abundance of corals, sea urchins and fishes. The water was calm too. I snapped some photos here with Liza’s underwater camera. Glad that at least one site was satisfying enough. We were not long here though, only 45 minutes. We then head back to shore, dropping 2 of the other passengers at Railay Beach (an awesome place for rock climbing) before reaching back to Ao Nang.

Open sea snorkel

We promised to meet back at 6.30 pm (2 hour rest), but most of us were out and about soon after. Razeif & Izwan went to the North side of Ao Nang to catch the sunset there, and caught a Chinese ceremony by the beach in the process. Myself and Zu head towards the shopping stretch, but straight to the opposite lane (without stopping at the shops). Managed to reach until McD’s. Zairul & Amin also went browsing around the shops area.

After all of us met back together, we went for dinner at Aeshah’s, just beside our hotel. I had rice with cashew nut chicken. Something in the spice caused me allergic reactions in the wee hours of the morning. I woke up scratching of itchiness. I had mosquito bite-like spots under my eye and left leg. Luckily Clarinase (anti-histamine for flu) did the job to clear the allergies. Very useful!

Back to the night. After dinner, the girls had to decide what to do the next day. Razeif & Izwan wanted to do the 4-island hopping tour. The girls felt that it would be quite the same as Phi Phi island, so we decided to do something else. The caving kayak tour to Bor Thor was the most exciting, but there was no afternoon trip. (We had to wait for Zairul to send off Amin). So we settled on the half day kayak tour to Ao Thalane mangrove site for 350 Baht (RM35). After deciding what to do, we continued with more shopping. The guys & Zu retired earlier, while the rest continued until the end of the road (literally).

We turned back after that, searching for a more decent yet reasonably priced spa parlour. The one beside Best Western was already closed, so we decided to check out Sunset Spa beside it. It was much better than the seedy looking first spa center we went to. Relaxing ambient, soothing music and sweet aroma. Mas & Liza tried the 1 hour foot and shoulder massage while I opted for the snooze therapy, i.e. back to hotel and sleep ;-)

Krabi Day 2

Day 2 – 16/10/09
The Rainforest Tour

As mentioned, we booked a private van (and spanking new) for the whole day to bring us wherever we fancy ;-) We started off to Thung Thieo Emerald Pool Natural Park (or Khao Phra Bang Khram Nature Reserve) Took us about an hour from our hotel. Entrance fee was 200 Baht.

The trail

We trekked a bit (800m flat trail) to reach Emerald Pool. The pool was indeed green. Hot springs from the underground are sedimented with layers of alkaline limestone, resulting in a crystal clear large pool. Depending on the temperature and other factors, the water can be anything from crystal clear to deep green (source here).

The pool was shallow, just about the height of my neck. When we arrived, there were not many people around, so we immediately took a plunge. While we were swimming, more people came, until the pool became quite full, so we decided to leave, and it was really hot by then (it was around 11am). We decided to trek to Blue Pool next.

Emerald pool

Inside the pool

Happy bathers!

Blue Pool was a bit further inland, some 1 km away. But it was worth the trek. The water really is azure (due to CaCO3), but we couldn’t swim there. We could see the water whirling at the bottom of the pool, and bubbles coming up. The signage there was in Thai, so it was anybody’s guess whatever it was that caused the whirl (it did say there magma- hot water maybe?). I searched the net and found this: It is a hot spring originated from underground volcanic chambers. Source here

Blue pool

Video of Blue Pool:

We then trekked back to the entry point, but using a different trail which was a bit further than the first trail we took to Emerald Pool. We crossed Crystal Pool on the way, which was also not swimmable as it was full of tree debris. One starkly different thing we noticed here was that the water flowed freely all over, like the place was flooded. It didn’t seem like a river where you normally see a trough/ditch filled with water. This is water ON a FLAT surface flowing freely in all directions.

Looks like flooded area more than stream

Next destination was Bang Kram Hot Spring, a short drive from Emerald Pool. Entrance fee was 80 Baht. The Hot Spring is a natural mineral water source. The temperature is around 40-42 deg C. We took a dip in the natural Jacuzzi, it was nice to soak a bit in warm water, although for not too long, as you could feel dizzy if you stayed longer. As it is a mineral water source, I gulped in the water that I dipped in heheh as I was feeling thirsty. It tasted just like bottled water, and I didn’t fall sick after, so it was fine ;-)

Hot spring

As it was drizzling, we left hurriedly to the shelter of (what else!) a warm, welcoming food stall. We had a sumptuous lunch of tom yam (less spicy this time, to my relief hehe), green curry (yummy), vegetable soup (just OK) and vegetable tempura (which was accidentally ordered – we asked for calamari a.k.a sotong goreng tepung – but the waitress misunderstood – but it tasted really good!)

After lunch (just around RM14/person), we stopped by the airport to fetch Amin. We went to the Factory Outlet next. It just stopped raining, we were still damp from swimming, with no change of clothes and the air cond in the building was at full blast, with not much customer around. We were freezing so much (in supposedly sunny Krabi – such irony!) that we darted to the restroom for some relief. Not much to be found here though– no Le Sports Sac sigh – and the price wasn’t really cheap. However, Zairul and Liza got themselves a vest each.

Factory Outlet

We went back to the hotel next for a quick shower/rest. Then we continued back to Krabi town to the night market. We browsed around here for about 1.5hours. Not really big, but there were more variety compared to our pasar malam. They had all sorts of food, drinks (they even sell cocktails / alcoholic beverages openly at the stalls), musical bands and a stage – a small girl sang that night. They had tables and chairs at an open area for patrons to enjoy their food while it’s still hot – a good idea to emulate for our local pasar malam.

Ketupat daun palas pun ada!

Can sit & enjoy the food

Band

Girl singing

Cocktail pun ada

The others were feeling adventurous, so they tried everything from the Muslim stalls – the most adventurous being the normal/horseshoe crab hybrid (I dunno what type of crab it is really). I didn’t try it though, as I have allergies to seafood (but I ignore them for calamaris though heheh). At the night market, we saw a CIMB Thai branch across the road. Just wanted to tell that.

Not sure what type of crab this is

Tak dpt tmpt duduk...diri je

We then head back to the hotel. We were already full, except for Mas & Razeif. They proceeded to have dinner while the rest went back to retire for the day. I wanted to watch Mr Kayu (Keanu Reeves hehe) acting (on Constantine) but was too sleepy and fell asleep before the movie even started (on Filmax channel).