Aidilfitri 2018

It was a quiet one this time around as we were just staying at home during the break. The initial plan to travel to Penang was shelved as the travel would be too much as the boys would be back to school on Monday - Raya was on Friday.

My father-in-law was also in not the best of health and my Sister was in Melaka with her husband’s family this time around. Just a few trips here and there but most of the time, my Mother had visitors coming. The house was never empty.

And then there was the small matter of the World Cup kicking off the night before Raya which meant sleepless nights and naps in front of the TV after plenty of food ....

My Father-in-law was a bit worse for wear when on one of the evening he was dehydrated and nearly fainted. A slight change of medications saw to that. Food was plenty though and I was sure I must have put on at least a couple of kilos, despite losing some during the fasting month.

I had a few days off after the festivities just to chill out - and do plenty of photography. For those travelling, drive safe and enjoy the time on the road ...

Pasar Ramadhan

This time of the year, it tended to rain in the afternoons. And when I meant rain, I meant pouring down! That made trips to pasar ramadhan tricky. In fact, coupled with the herrendous traffic, it was no fun!

The nearest pasar ramadhan to our place was at Kerinchi, which happened to be on my route home. I stopped there last weak to look for some goodies, and I ended up with these fried crabs! Not exactly healthy, but oh my, aren’t they delicious!

The food there were reasonable but parking was tricky even though I was there super early. The murtabak stall were just about to open when I arrived, but the queue was at least 20 long! I decided to give that a miss since it had already started to rain. Only the hardcore stood in line!

Might drop by there during weekends when the traffic would be better though ...

Back to Melawati

Its a tradition for us. Every year, our local Pasar Ramadhan would be the one at Taman Melawati. Over the years it had gone through plenary of changes, in terms of location and appearance. It used to be in a large car park, four rows of shops, well spaced out. Plenty of stalls and food to choose from. A real go to spot when it came to shopping for berbuka.

For the last three years, the venue had changed and with that, the charm had disappeared. Many good stalls had decided to go elsewhere. My favourite drink joint was nowhere to be seen. What was left were pretty basic while some were downright mediocre.

I only went there because I was curious. Definitely not there because I wanted the food. And don't get me started about the traffic.

The new Pasar Ramadhan spot was located along one of the back row, on a smaller car park. Three rows of shops and parking meant leaving your car by the roadside of a busy main road. It was both a nightmare manouvering in and out of the place. Avenue you were late, forget it. You might end up in your car longer than the actual shopping.

I was there on the second day of Ramadhan. Definitely not a fan but if you must look for food for Berbuka, you may not have much of a choice.

At Keramat

Another Sunday, and another trip to Pasar Ramadhan in search for food of course. And again, we bought too much and would struggle to finish everything tonight.

The search today brought us to Keramat around AU2. It was a spur of the moment thing as we went there in the past years.

Part of nasi kerabu sauceYummy!

The place wasn't really big, just a row of stalls on the side of the road, but it has everything we were looking for.

The important couple of things for me was the drinks - more specifically a local fruit called "Air Mata Kuching" - and murtabak. Apparently the ones they had there were killers. Parking was straight forward as we were early, and the place was wide open compared to the cramped area around Melawati.

Smoky!This should be gorgeous!They are kinda colourfulDefinitely worth coming again but only only weekends as traffic were bad during weekdays.

More Photos

I just realised that I took tons of photos during the party. I used combination of three cameras, the main one being the Sony Alpha 7R mk II with the Zeiss 24-70 lens with a flash. The other two were the wide angle Leica Q and the X-pro 1 coupled with the 35mm f1.4.

You can never have too many balloons ...The boys helping out with the preparationsMaking sure that the game consoles working just fine ...Yes, the mask fitsAll lined up ...The combination worked a treat and as I only had the flash for a couple of days, it worked much better than expected. I would be employing the setup for the upcoming MSH meeting in late April as I would be tasked with taking the photos again.

The drinks are readyThe mini pizza was a hit ....... and so were the sausages ...The labels were up ...The robot was on-lineSo, in the end I must have taken more than 200 shots ...