Part 3 Let's Get Wet

On we marched. And soon we were onto series of corridors away from the rows of shophouses. The Chow Kit wet market was actually smaller than I thought. It used to be bigger, but the back half - towards Menara Safuan had been cordoned off for development. A new market was recently opened in half of the space and these certainly looked more organised. It looked like the old market would be slowly phased out in the future, a sort of upgrading.

These are certainly fresh. Not the likes that you find at the supermarkets.Look at these maize. I could sink my teeth into them ....Going bananas!My fellow photographers getting stuck in as well ....Not sure how they taste like, but they sure smelt nice!You might wonder if the place had lost it charm with the relocation. Personally I felt that the charm had left the place some years back. There were a couple of reasons for this, first the generational change of the vendors, and secondly the people that made up the vendors now.

In the wet market, the majority of the stall owners were still locals, but they were of the newer breed. They do not run their own business anymore but rather letting the place out. As a result, the people manning the shops were no longer locals. They were Indonesian mainly, and as a result, the produce and the people actually coming to buy the produce were not locals anymore.

Let's be honest, I couldn't tell if they were bargains to be had here ....I was told that the fresher the fish, the clearer the eyes looked. These were certainly clear ....Hoofs anyone?Super fresh coconut milk!I remember that the meat and fishmongers were mainly Malays and the Chinese mainly sell fruits and vegetables. The Indian would mainly occupy the dry part - in shop rows - selling spices and the likes. Chow Kit used to be a one-stop centre where everything went and you could find anything there. Obviously time has changed. And I was left to reflect at the cafe at the exit of the market when I sat down to enjoy my breakfast with the other photographers. How time has changed …..

The entries were compiled here.

Part 2 Dry Chow Kit

Right after the group photos were taken care of, the group dispersed. Some of them lingered around the starting point figuring out the next target. Some went straight off towards Chow Kit market.

Me and my group hung around for a bit taking in some street scene before heading into the market after 15 minutes or so.

This is Idlan's favourite, mangosteen

Indonesian-style cookies. I can vouch that this is not local.The market were divided into a couple of parts, the outer dry market, and the old area which was the wet market. The wet market had been done up a few times in the past, and nowadays, it wasn't as "wet" as I used to remember it to be. When I was at school, a trip to the Chow Kit wet market would mean getting your slippers wet in the semi-muddy corridors. Not anymore now.

The dry area was dominated by Indonesian vendor. And this was reflected by the products on sale. Amongst the wares I noticed, two stuck into my mind. The dry snacks - which were originally Indonesian and the gold-plating business, located towards the entrance to the wet market.

The Indonesian invasion was certainly a sad development to the traditional market especially since the market was located near Kampung Baru which was staunchingly Malay in their values. They were prickly when it came to the Chinese, but Indonesian? Meh!

More Indonesian-styled titbitsFancy some bling-bling?There is science behind all this. Check out the batteries!This man certainly know his trade. And he promised to give some mean discounts!And onwards we moved towards the wet marketThe gold-plating business was certainly big here. I counted at least ten stores doing plating using electrolysis. Proper secondary school science fare here. And it seemed to work. The vendors had quite a story to tell as well ..... I wonder if the place got robbed from time to time, with all those belongs around .....

We spent a good 20 minutes wondering around here before venturing further in into the belly of Chow Kit. The Wet Market! Here we come!

The write-ups about the walk here.

Bad Week

This couple of days had been rather hard for Anita. The school changed the assessment criteria and as a result, the students had to submit project by the end of next week and two-weeks notice. And between the two boys, there were 26 projects needing to be passed in.

And to make matters worst, those projects would form 30% of the final marks. All this was down to the recent - I meant a month ago - change in Principal. A new headmistress from Australia I think.

Determining to cause a stir, I thought she tried to make these sweeping changes to prove a point. As a result, the children - or in our case - the parents suffer. Both of our boys had taken ill with high temperature over the weekend. Irfan was back to school today, but Idlan was at home.

The whole situation had put our proposed Kota Bharu trip in jeopardy.

We have yet to make the final decision about the trip, but we would know by Friday where we would be celebrating the Raya next week.

Past Midnight

All afternoon I was feeling sleepy. Luckily the clinic was pretty light and I had only a couple of patients to see in Day Care, plus a procedure. Once that was done, I was ready to call it the day.

The walk on Saturday plus the day of driving and rushing on Sunday was taking its toll I guessed. I decided to take a nap as soon as I reached home. But the next thing I knew, it was close to 10 pm. I haven't showered yet, not had dinner.

So, it was past is night now, and I just couldn't sleep. Damn! I'm stuck now. Time for more blog entries I guessed.

More Walkies

Just after the ward round last Sunday morning, I set off to Low Yat to get hold of a new cover for my Nexus 7 tablet. The old one was getting rugged and the front film cover needed replacing after almost a year.

It seemed that the Low Yat stopover was not the main highlight but rather the nice weather that afternoon. So, with the new iPhone, I set about getting more snaps.

I thought I was getting the hang of the limitations and was now starting to get better photographs. The nice sunny weather helped as well .....