Merdeka Break in KL, 29th August ~ 2nd Sept '08, Part 1

Went back to KL for the long Merdeka weekend from 29th August until the 2nd September, and as always it was an enjoyable trip with friends and family. It wasn't spectacular but fun nonetheless. Here’s what unfolded within those 5 days:


Friday, 29th August 2008.

As most of my friends were rushing to complete their work before the long Merdeka holidays, I spent the day with my family. Having not seen them for more than 4 months (in the last trip back to KL, they were having fun in Bali. Again. They tend to go to the best holidays when I’m not around. Sigh. I wonder why??!!! What have I done to deserve this, mummy??!! WHAT??!! Sigh) I spent the time having lunch with them (my treat lah of course) at ‘Kar Heong’ chicken rice (still the best chicken rice shop in the Klang Valley. Honestly) and chitchat with them at home while having tea and durians. Not the ideal combination for conversations but it was good to have played catch-up with their lives and shared neighborly gossips once again (gossip highlight of the trip: our neighbor had an affair with their indo maid, had a huge argument, homely items started to fly and became UFOs and the police were even called in. Damn, wish I could have seen it!!!).

Lazing around the house until 4pm, I finally adjourned out to the outside world and drove to Mid Valley for a hair cut. I didn’t drive all the way there for a hair cut lah of course; I made plans to meet up K after his working hours. I went to look for my regular hair stylist but he wasn’t there. Has he left the saloon? No idea, so I have to try out a new stylist. I hate trying out new stylists because more often than not, they will screw up the cut and I’ll end up looking like a cina-beng. Not saying I’m not one now, but with a screwed-up haircut I look so cina-beng, I can march right through Chinese airport customs and the officials will not even check my passport. Long live China, Beijing here I come.

In the end, the haircut was bloody awful. I hate it. It was too short. It made my head look so huge. I look like a walking lollipop. Dammit. And the stylist cut off my fringe even though I said NOT to. She said it will “complete the look”. Yeah, complete my cina-beng look, right? If I wanted that “complete” look I would have gone to an Indian barbershop instead (or a Chinese barbershop. Got anot ah?). It would have saved me a heck a lot of money as well. And she even had the nerve to ask me for more business by suggesting I highlight my hair bright blonde. More of her “complete look” perhaps. Perhaps NOT dear stylist, good BYE.

After waking around Mid Valley (really fast to avoid any weird stares), K arrived moments later and we headed off to ‘Sushi Zenmai’ at The Gardens for our dinner. It turns out K had his hair cut too. Damn short as well. But it looked good on him. While mine…SIGH. Anyway, I had the usual ‘Unagi Roll’ and ‘Hourai’ set (I think that is what it’s called) and yes, it was damn delicious. Maybe because I didn’t have sushi for such a long time!! We chitchatted until it was going to close at around 11pm, but it was so early we decided to chat some more at ‘Starbucks’. I treated K coz he treated me the Sushi. Good deal in my book bbwwahahahhahahhah!!! Chitchatted until 1am plus (but ‘Starbucks’ was still crowded. Amazing) and headed back home after that.


Saturday, 30th August 2008.

Woke up early to have breakfast with mum and dad again, but before going home we stopped by Subang Parade. Why? To buy ‘Baskin Robbins’ of course!! But it’s not 31st yet…But no matter, they brought forward the promotion early!!! And the best part is, there was no queue ‘cause maybe not many people knew of the early promo and also because it was only 11am when I started queuing. Yayyy!!! I bought a quart with a mix of 2 flavors namely ‘Chocolate Orange Chunk’ (chocolate with tangy orange sherbet loaded with choco chips and ribbons of liquid chocolate) & ‘World Class Chocolate’ (chocolate that is…world class lah). Actually ‘Baskin Robbins’ is not my favorite, ever tried ‘Ben & Jerry’s’? It’s HEAVENLY.

SL was finally free. As I already had lunch with mum and dad at 'Little Penang', I accompanied SL to ‘Old Taste Kopitiam’ in Taipan for lunch while I had my cup of warm Hazelnut White Coffee. It’s so0000oo good, it is simply luscious with elegant aromas of coffee with hints of fine Hazelnuts. Okla, it wasn’t that fabulous but still delicious nonetheless haha. I wanted to go to The Curve for a movie at 3pm but SL had to collect a mail package at ‘Poslaju’ nearby KL Central. I had a very bad feeling about it as these 2 words sent cold shivers down my spine: Poslaju = “Bos, lambat” and KL Central = KL jam. Well, I can’t complain coz I’m down in KL for a KL trip aren’t I? And with that thought, we headed down to KL Central…

…and was caught in jam for more than 2 hours. And by the time we reached The Curve, the car journey clocked at a very impressive 3 hours plus. I could have reached Ipoh already for some really delicious chicken rice. Oh well, oh KL. Once reach there, movie tickets were all sold out for most of the movies. Not surprising. So we decided to just ronda-ronda Curvy area until dinner time with TK and Ah Nei. I tried calling a few more people but they were either busy with their own plans or are afraid to go out coz the jams might bite big time.

Dinner time, we wandered around for a place to eat and ended up in a new place called ‘Fireman BBQ’. It may sound familiar to some; this is because it is not the 1st branch in Malaysia. There’s another one in Jaya 1 (which I heard has an actual semi-naked-fire-breathing-fireman-cum-waiter serving you food. So while you are BBQ-ing your meat, this guy will come over and blow fire over your meat to give you that extra crispiness. Okla, I made up that cripiness part but the fireman is true I was told. Anyone can rectify this?) As for the food, we went for the ‘Fireman Parade’ set (I’m still pondering why it’s a parade. Seafood can’t parade. Hmmm) that consisted of pork meat and seafood while for drinks we went for that extra healthy option and chose this herbal-tea-with-‘lin gao’. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry, I dunno what I’m talking either. Just go the pictures why don’t you:

Generous slices of pork to wet any meat lover's appetite!!! Notice that piece of paper that reads '20'? That's a coupon to rebate RM20 for every RM50 spent. It's not bad a deal!!!!

Too meaty for you? Don't worry, there's seafood and noodles to provide you with that 'balanced healthy diet'...

Before: clean and clear. Notice those chunks of stuffs on top? It's actually piggy fatty to glaze the top of the BBQ set so that your food don't stick. Also provides you that what added 'ummpphh' in taste. Definately non-halal....

In-progress: soup is boiling hot and all sorts of stuff gets BBQ-ed. Marinate your meat with the chillie/BBQ sauces and garlic provided and the food will taste surprisingly goooood....

After: Cripsy burnt and greasy. All in a day's work for the hungry meat-eating "firemen".

And this is the 'healthy-herbal-tea-with-lin-gao' I was talking about. THAT's lin gao lah...


Feeling fired up from dinner (pardon the pun), Ah Nei left for another party while me, TK and SL loitered around The Curve at the ‘The Tarik Place’ (damn packed) until countdown and we ventured out onto the street (in between The Curve and IKEA one) and watched the countdown. As usual, the foam sprayers were all over the place and we suffered minor collateral damage. The big shots in the Government said this year the celebrations will be low-key, and my God it really felt low-key. That gay (but I’m sure a nice person) Farhad was on stage doing his best to pump up the atmosphere, but honestly, everyone was just waiting for some fireworks and then go home. And when the fireworks came, it was so ‘spectacular’, Beijing would have been proud. No really, it was ok la, it lasted only a few minutes with one big bang at the end. We can’t blame them for effort, I guess the right excuse here is that Beijing used up all the fireworks supplies in the world for the Olympics. And this is what’s left. Happy Merdeka everyone.


Sunday, 31st August 2008.

Woke up early for breakfast. But not just any breakfast, it’s a ‘Bak Kut Teh’ breakfast all the way in Klang. I call this the breakfast of champions. I mean, wake up early in the morning to devour chunks of fatty meat for breakfast? Not everyone's cup (or bowl) of tea. Except if you are living in the Klang area. They devour chunks of meat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. They drink the soup as medicine too. Amazing. We went for the shop called ‘Yeoh’s Bak Kut Teh’ located right behind the Hokkien Association. Yup, some of you already know where I’m talking about. This place is good. It is so good, it even has its own website (http://www.bakkutteh.com/... I think). One sip of the soup and your mouth will burst into a celebration of taste, and when you add that with some juicy succulent pork meat, it is a marriage of flavor made in heaven.

In the afternoon, me and SL met up with TK, Ah Nei, Paul and Maj (my old school buddies) for shopping and movie at Sunway Pyramid. The jams were horrendous so we parked outside. We bought some shirt stuff and headed for the ‘Babylon A.D’ movie starring Vin Diesel. On the outside, this movie looks promising (set in the post apocalyptic future, with fancy futuristic guns and stuff, perfect as a pop-corn movie). But…I guess even Hollywood actors can get caught in the rising oil prices as Vin Diesel ran out of diesel from moment this movie started. This movie was so bad, the coolest thing in this movie was a map. Yup, a super cool square map that allows the user to scroll the map with your fingers to areas that can’t be seen in the map. Basically like the iPod phone where you can scroll left or right to view your photos with your touch screen pad. See, when you pay 10 bucks and feel that the most impressive thing about the movie was a CGI map, you know you are in big trouble. And the sad thing is, this movie was my recommendation to my buddies. Crap. Maj was all over me with dirt after the movie. My Vin-dication is that the poster rocked. I shall not put my trust in Diesel-run Hollywood actors anymore. Go Hybrid cars, go go go!!!

After the movie, we continued shopping (last days of sales!!!) and all I got was a normal looking t-shirt from ‘Padini’. My jeans acquiring mission failed. Oh well. Went to ‘Wendy’s’ for dinner and while everyone was conservative with the food, TK went super ballistic and ordered the ‘¾ Pound Beef Burger’. It’s a triple decker with cheese. And it’s a set. With fries. And a super large drink. And he had one ‘Bread Papa’ right before dinner. He’s Gandhi right after the hunger strike ended. But unlike Gandhi, I think TK kinda regretted his decision to go gung-ho on his beef. His reaction? :

Severe indigestion of Wendy's beef burger can cause massive heatiness in the body. In extreme cases, heads tend to explode in a great ball of fire known as 'spontaneous human head combustion'.

We lingered around, discussed about our plans for the new year (Camerons or Langkawi? Or more bolder like Bali or Phuket? Decisions decisions). Ah Nei, Maj and Paul left Pyramid while me, SL and TK went to a nearby mamak place in Dataran Sunway (I think that is what it’s called). This mamak place is special. Why? Because this is the place where TK and I usually watch our EPL football matches, and since I left for Labuan, we hardly come down here anymore. Sad sad. Those were the old times but good times. Simple yet memorable. Anyway, it was Chelsea Vs. Spurs and both teams drew. A good result for the Lilywhites, while the Blues wished they could have had Robinho mesmerizing the opponent’s defenses. Too bad. Money do speak louder than words nowadays in football.

To be continued in Part 2 !!!