#RiuhRaya Part II

From part 1 ...

Exiting the first hall, we entered another one just behind. This one had a few stores selling Raya cookies. One of my firned noted to me later that the cookies here were gorgeous. We did our buying already at Bangsar Village prior and since we did not plan to buy here, we just had some quick looks. Most of the stalls here use scan codes and online banking. Therefore, you didn’t have to bring along plenty of cash. We ended up buying some fish skin snacks here instead!

Now for some kueh raya ...But we ended up buying some fish skin snackFancy learning how to make ketupat?The place was still packed at this hour and we moved on to another hall. This one was similar to the first one, mainly selling clothing items. There was one selling Raya Cards but the queue was just too long. More browsing ...

Almost an hour passed. The live band was still playing, and there were children playing with bubbles. A great sight. We could have sat down and have more drinks but it was approaching 11 pm already. Rather than call the Grab at the entrance, we decided to walk down Jalan Riong to the main road and pick one from there. Less crowded and less chance of getting stuck in a jam. Sure enough, we were back home 10 minutes later.

Sitting down for a quick snackThe late shoppers ....A quick look at the program ...All in all, it was a great event. Don’t get me wrong, Riuh had always been fun but after a while, it tended to get repetitive. Having a Raya theme helped this time around and it exposed us to more vendors and judging from the number of business cards Anita picked up, it was great for the local business. Some of the stuff here were quite difficult to get anywhere else. A win-win situation ...

The children having a bubbling good time ...If you ask me, making own cards looked too tediousNice sketches ...Time to go ... Good Night!Riuh is a monthly event held at APW Bangsar at Jalan Riong. At the other times, APW also has a selection of restaurants and cafe which were worth a visit ... a definite instagram-worthy spot!

#RiuhRaya Part I

The last Riuh was held just before the election with the ex-PM Najib in attendance with his grandchild to entice the younger voters. Clearly it did not work out well for him!

Suffice to say that he did not turn up for the next one ...

And the next one took place last weekend, smack in the middle of Ramadhan with the organisers opening the doors at 4 pm and the party went on until midnight. There were breaks during berbuka, Maghrib and Tarawikh prayers, all held inside the venue.

Let's first sample the vibeThe live band called Jumero was excellentWe went there on the Saturday evening, after my quick stop at the hospital. We initially drove there but could not manage to get a parking spot. We were lucky that we were not caught in any major queue. We promptly left the car at the apartment and got into a Grab car sending us back and forth.

It was around 10 pm when we arrived and the event was in full swing. The prayers had just finished and the music had started. The first course of action was to get something to drink. Most of the food stalls and food truck were done for the day. There were not much left, although we still managed to get some killer latte from an outlet called The Flavourist.

There were plenty of stalls but most of them were done for the dayBut this one was good though ... oh the killer latte!The venue could be divided into four areas. The first one as we entered were where the food stalls were, with a stage at one end for the live music. This was right next to restaurants and cafe with some space to sit down. The next one were where the main vendor stalls and pop-up stores were located.

This area were filled with Baju Raya selections and other clothing items. We bought some Raya money pouches there and by this time Anita was already nuts! There were so many things to see. There was this stall which sold colourful kerongsang for Baju Raya, a real novelty. Some of Anita favourite brands were also there, but since she had done her shopping, she decided against buying anything else then. When Idlan and Irfan were growing up, getting traditional clothes for Raya for them was not that easy. Here, they were everywhere. The kebaya and baju melayu for kids were aplenty. Costs a bomb though ...

Entering the first hall. Mainly clothes.The "in" patternWhere we got our duit raya pouches fromFor the kiddies ...This one was Anita's favourite. Kerongsang from Werks and Wit.Continued here ...

That Giant Ketupat

Suria KLCC had always use the area just by the fountain entrance to erect monuments. It ranged from Xmas tree to giant lantern for Chinese New Year. This time around for Aidilfitri, it was almost the same as last year, a giant ketupat!

Not exactly original but there you have it.

At the central foyer, there had a stage and a stalls, all around an old kampung house. There was a traditional troupe playing when I visited, popular with the tourist.

As usual, we are obsessed with building tall structures and breaking records. The tall ketupat was recorded as the tallest ever built in Malaysia, with a sign proclaiming so ...

Pasar Seloka Raya

Anita read somewhere that there was a bazaar going on at Publika. She wanted to buy some items there and asked if I can drive her there.

Being a public holiday, getting a parking spot could be tricky. But it turned out that there were plenty of pace at the lower levels. Once there, you just needed to climb on the escalator to get to the shopping floors. Quite convenient.

And the bazaar was great. After half an hour, Anita could not make up her mind about what to buy. There were too many optins and since the place was packed, it was difficilt to get any service. Maybe she should come back during work days when there were not too many people.

The bazaar mainly sell clothes. It was a great place to get Raya clothes for children, The dresses were damn cute, so were the baju melayu. There were also ornaments and cosmetics. The one stall which attracted my attention actually belonged to the singer, Amy Search.

I ended up buying some lights for the balcony for Raya decorations. All battery operated and portable. Definitely a great place to spend an afternoon shopping with plenty of cafe and restaurants - alas, it was Ramadhan. Great place to hang around ...

Starting to Wind Down

With Raya only a couple of weeks away, the motivation to grind down to do the work had somehow gone down. I still have another call to do next weekend before I would be off for a week this coming Raya.

We decided to stay in KL this time around, shelving the original plan to return to Penang. With Anita’s father still weak and my Mum’s decision not to travel, the final decision was pretty straight forward. The boys also only had a couple of days off school. So travelling did not sound like an attractive option.

We will be spending much of the Raya at Bukit Antarabangsa. I would probably be relaxing, venturing on a photo walk or two. I was sure there would be plenty of visitors over those few days, which would keep Anita occupied.

I have at least four Berbuka event next week. And come Friday would be the last on call for Ramadhan - I had a total of four. My last clinic would be on the Wednesday before Raya. Hopefully things would be quiet by next week.