Hari Raya Holiday - Day 01

KLCC Night Walk 6, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Yes! The holidays already started, but unfortunately without a bang. As those who followed my tweets had learned, Idlan had high temperature last night and had to be taken care of. He seems to have been better during the day and started playing his Wii again. That's a good sign.

Lat's artwork in perspectiveI had plenty lined up to do. To start off, I sent the car for service as we are planning to use it for our trip to Penang after Raya. Then I took Irfan to his Pingu School while Anita had her manicure and pedicure. Bak home, we ran a few errands, going to the bank to transfer our maids' money back home. We then headed out to buy some groceries before it started raining heavily. I have yet to do my own shopping, so I decided to do it after iftar. I set of alone to KLCC.

I had the opportunity to observe Lat's artwork close-up that evening, and it was mesmerising. Simply breath-taking, true to form. Lat s a famous cartoonist and I grown up with his comic as staple. He takes a very dry view of current affairs and hit home with his drawing. He takes no prisoners, and regularly lampoon famous public figures and normal boring daily routines alike. I find his drawing funny and touching, but the best of all was his series on kampung life. If you grow up in kampung, you can't help but smile every time you read it. And this is no exception.

The life-size mock-up of a kampung houseThe Ghazal trope on showIn the main foyer in Suria KLCC, are life-size work of his 'Kampung Boy' series, with all its stereotypical characters, complete with a full-size kampung house. When I arrived there, there were also traditional ghazal troupe playing, and tourists were taking the opportunity snapping away. Let's start with the positives, the artwork was classy, and very well presented. The troupe played very well, excellent sound system and acoustics at the foyer. The vantage points and access was great. I spent almost 20 minutes looking at all that was on offer. Next to them are stalls selling gifts and cookies, all themed similar to the artwork. Very neat indeed.

What is ashamed was there was no guidance for the tourist. It's fair for us who are familiar with firstly Lat's work, but more importantly the selling of the kampung concept to the visiting tourists. There were no tourist guides explaining the goings on, what the exhibits are, not even pamphlets for them to read. I can't help but to realise that there is an opportunity missed here. Worst still, the only access to staff for information were in the form of security personnel, and they were all non-Malaysian! Alamak! Imagine if a tourist ask what was the guitar-like instrument the troupe was playing, I would offered to run around naked at the foyer if the Nepalis 'Pak Guard' can say 'gambus'. If you hear in the news that a naked streaker was cought in KLCC, you have yourself an exclusive on who it was and why.

After doing my shopping, I headed for some food. Unfortunately, most of the food were sold out at the stalls since there was a rush earlier for iftar. Even O'Brien ran out of white bread for sandwiches, and they only sell sandwiches. Had some nasi ayam, then off for some coffee at Starbucks before a quick stroll. There were still plenty of people at Suria at 9.30 last night, by the time I headed home. It was a pleasant walk in the end. At home, the boys were helping their Mummy and Grandma baking some cookies for the Eid. The smell was nice. Idlan's fever was also down by then. Alhamdulillah.

You can see the Twin Towers through the roof