Qurban Ready

Early start as the prayers and Qurban would begin by about 8, and I had to go along with my father-in-law and uncles to the mosque and have a look at the cattle for Qurban later.

It seemed that all had been organised, in terms of cooks and other manpower. We didn't have to do much except to pay for their services.

It all started with the Raya PrayersPrayers done. Most of the folks went home to change.A quick discussion with my father-in-law before the ceremony begunTen cows - not all were ours - would be slaughtered later this morning. It was raining in the early hours but now the sun was out.

We were just done with the prayers and now waiting for the Imam to get things organised. Looked like the children on the kampung was already excited touting the cows. Good fun for them really.

The rounding up process beginThe children were told what to expect, so that there won't be any drama laterThe cows were then tied up and felledAnd the Qurban was doneFor the rest of my friends, colleagues and readers, Selamat Hari Raya Qurban.

More links on the trip here.

Grumpy Raya

Grumpy boys strikes again at Anita's Aunt's place. They were settled already for the day when we dragged them out into town. No wonder they had been up to their old tricks now and driving Anita up the wall. They refused to eat their dinner as well.

It looked like we had to stop for some McDonald's on the way back. Hopefully they were still opened as it's Aidil Adha tomorrow.

As for me, food was nice. I was happy. Selamat Hari Raya.

More entries on the KB trip here.

It's Hover Time Again

Our trip to Kota Bharu wouldn't be complete without visits to a couple of restaurant. And these were restaurants we wanted to visit a specific reasons.

The first was called Restoran Hover. A couple of attractions here. The main waiter who does the cheque at the end of the meal and the fact that they have fresh turtle eggs here.

You must understand how the system works here at Hover. The waiters would bring all the available items onto the table with rice as soon as you parked yourselves at the table.

You then picked the items you wanted to eat, and leave the rest. When you asked for the cheque, this elderly Malay chap will then come around and mumbled while counting up your bill. I put the video of how it was done at the bottom of the page.

When Anita was carrying Idlan, she craved for the turtle eggs. She didn't know that she was pregnant and we happened to be at Kota Bharu at the time. She kept on asking me to drive her to Hover, and while there, she gulped down ten eggs in one go! The calorie count must have caused her trainer to have a heart attack now!

When we told Idlan about this, he said that this was the reason that he did things slowly. Like a turtle! Cheeky boy!

The second restaurant was Sun Two - or affectionately pronounced "soon-too" by the locals. The attraction? Boiled cow tongue. I wasn't joking. I never developed a taste for it. But Anita can go banana on this. Even today, she wanted to go to Sun Two this evening. But it looked like we would be having dinner at one of her aunt's. Sun Two and the tongue would have to wait .....

More thoughts on this trip here.

Choo Chin Hin

I didn't know much about this bakery. But the facade was inviting. If I was in a group, I would have lingered around, talk to the manager and possibly took picture of the bakery in action. As it was, I didn't even carry the local accent. No chance of me slipping in. I was really keen to find out a bit more.

The bakery and the store sat next door to each otherEverything was freshly baked

Maybe when I returned to the hotel, I would Google the bakery. As for then, I went in, baught a loaf and snapped some picture. They didn't seem to mind.

* Ed - Googling done. Apparently the place has been up since after the war, and one of Tun Mahathir's favourite bakery. And he went on to start The Loaf chain. So, go figure!

The bakery looked like it was a throwback from the 70s. Even before noon, the place was already packed and some of the items were already sold out.

This lady sells fresh wet noodles at the shop

The half dozen slice of bread was already in my tummy now .......

More entries on the trip here.

A Walk in Town

The weather was nice and I have a couple of hours to kill. 10 am on a Monday morning and in was on leave. My camera was with me and Pasar Siti Khadijah was only 10 minutes away by foot.

Off I went without much hesitation.

The traffic in the morning was quite happy. I walked past the bus terminal, made a right turn and before I knew it, I was already at one of the entrances of the unmistakeable facade of the market.

It was the day before Aidil Adha, and I wasn't expecting the place to be crowded. But minis the crowd, I felt that place lost some of its photogenicity. I managed to squeeze out some decent photographs but ,in us the crowd people were aware that in was snapping at them.

I hung around for about half an hour, before deciding to head put to Bazaar Buluh Kubu next door. Again, my timing was bad. I was too early.

It was around 11 and only a handful of the shops were opened. Colourful, but again minus the crowd, I couldn't slip in to take photographs.

The sun was really high by now, and I took some time taking in the cityscape. They still have plenty of old buildings built after the war at the city center. Mostly built with art deco influence most needed refurbishments. The area around the bus terminal caught my eyes. And one particular bakery was calling me in.

More about the bakery later. As for now, let's just enjoy the snap and the ambiance.

Link to the photowalk slideshow can be seen here. More write-ups from the whole trip here.