A Day in Alor Setar City

Update on **25 June 2017**

I was here, at the bus stop, off to Alor Setar City.

One way bus ticket, RM 5.70. I only spend RM 5.70 for 1 1/2 hour bus rode journey.  Budget and economical way for relaxation. 

Once I saw this red  bridge, I knew Aman Central shopping mall was not far from me anymore. I reached there approximately 5 minutes. 

Passing through the back yard of a house decorated with the sea shells. It brought me back to the beach and seaside. 

Seeing Alor Setar Tower countless times this semester. It was in my strangers list but now it changed to acquaintances list.

Almost a decade not consumed Chinese foods and immediate took action. Wishing to have ginger pork rices but it was not available in menu. I ended up ordered pineapple fried rice. 

I regretted for not probing the kopitiam assistant after I saw a middle aged man ordered ginger pork rice. 

The kopitiam so generous in giving 3 pieces of fried chickens, which contradicted to previous pineapple fried rice. 

Peeping the surroundings of the kopitiam. Youngsters were the main customers. They wore jeans, T-shirt and played phones. 

Hokkien language filled the air. A sense of familiarity was there. Not much differences between here and my home town, I believed.

"You don't teach me how to use this noodle machine".

"I have no time to teach you"

A learner eager to learn but the owner not allocate his precious times for teaching. 

If Jiu Jiu (舅舅） was the owner, he will say "don't play here, I'm doing business, going upstairs watching drama or buying ice creams". 

Lol.....

Dinner-Hai Top's mee hoon kueh, RM 5.00. I loved it. The soup was incredible tasty, while the mee hoon kueh so chewy. 

Another best part? mee hoon kueh not oily, fulfilled my diet requirement. 

Self-pampering time, food massage. Food masseur was a Sabahan. He lived in Keningau,Sabah.

He followed his friends to earn a living in here. Nothing was easy, right?

I surprisingly felt 亲切感。He had the similar feelings by giving the wide smiles while he learnt that I was a Sarawakian. 

We all had frustration in terms of Sabah and Sarawak's development. It was the huge equality between Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. 

Because of underdevelopment, Sabah and Sarawakian always being looked down by Peninsular Malaysia fellows. Only Sabahans and Sarawakians had been gone through will understood the feelings. 

At the end, I had learnt that:

"No matter where the world took Sabahans and Sarawakians, their hearts never left Borneo land. The feeling treated like stepchild never ever forgot"

One Day Outing

Bazaar of the central atrium with many traditional outfits

I spent my afternoon at Aman Central shopping mall at last Thursday. I was with my two dorm room neighbors.

But one neighbor left for settling her ad hoc matters. In spite of that, I’m not in the shopping spree with another neighbor.

My desire for trend outfits was gone. On top of that, I had zero fashion sense. I hardly met anyone almost every day. I didn’t need the trend outfits at the current moment.

Even said so, I observed the activities and surroundings of the shopping mall. Giant Hari Raya lanterns hanged from floors to floors.

White and blue colors mosques backdrop and palm trees decorated the central atrium.

Shoppers either couples, families and friends took photos with the white and blue colors mosques.

Selfie sticks or the helps of other shoppers came together as they could post in the social media channels.

Shopping malls’ security guards monitored the crowds in front of white and blue colors mosques backdrop.

Not only that, bazaar booths that offered many varieties of Hari Raya goodies ranged from traditional outfits, cookies, carpets, jewellery and hair accessories.

In line with the season, Hari Raya festive songs kept on playing loudly.

All these created and lived up Hari Raya moods.

Muslims shoppers busied themselves in stocking up baju raya, kuih raya and household items. Everyone looked so happy.

Other shoppers on the other hand in the food and entertainment establishments such as McDonald, KFC and cinema.

I overheard youngsters discussed the new menu of McDonald, which was Foldover. They also dilemma in choosing their movies.

Innocent and energetic toddlers run here and there at McDonald.

I couldn’t recall last times I went out to observe the people doing different things and listen to their interesting conversations.

Truth to be told, I just can’t enjoy, sometimes.

It was liked I’m in the field of flowers which symbolized as lots of people. I had seen all the flowers, but I didn’t want to smell and pick them.

That’s the best description I could think of. New people, new environment, new places and new things were not easy for me.

The change of environment made me not secure at all. I overwhelmed by the crowds and loud noises.

I scared and wanted to leave. I never knew that I disliked the crowded places so much.

I had been confined in the room when I wrote the thesis and read the articles almost 3 years. I restricted the social activities.

I satisfied and enjoyed the lonely times. Quiet and silence were beautiful.

I felt better after several hours when I told myself I must adapt to the crowds and noises. This negative mentality held me down and stopped to view the things from the positive perspectives.  

I have gained deeper insight of myself in the outing day.  All I can advise myself was came out from the shell, and mixed with the people.

I was glad to say that the outing was very encouraging.

Bazaar Ramadhan: What Did I Saw

Update on **10 Jun 2017**

I checked out Bazaar Ramadhan, Changloon. It was scotching hot weather. Though I had an umbrella, I still felt the strong UV rays.

I nearly sweated a bucket and headache while hunting for foods in Bazaar Ramadhan. I completely impressed with the Muslim vendors who able to stand under the sun without drinks especially. 

The smells of barbeques and other  foods came around. Which foods should I bought?

Luckily still had walking spaces, perhaps I reached there at the early times, around 5pm. 

Anyone interested in the blue color drink?

 Gulai, a common dish in Northen part Peninsular Malaysia 

 Katira water, originated from Johor Bharu. A mixture of evaporated milks, basil seeds waters that it's good for cooling the body. 

Kelantan's food, Akok had distinctively sweet taste and contained less oils.  

These were Kelantan's foods too, Nasi Kerabu (left) and Nasi Dagang (right). 

No matter how many times I had Nasi Kerabu, it didn't gain my liking. I couldn't stand for the Ulam (i.e raw) vegetables that went with herbs and chilies. 

Nasi Dagang made up with glutinous rices with fish curry.

 Left top- Ketupat Palas; Right top and bottom-lepat liat

 Sata, a Kelantan food-grilled fish in banana leaves.

 Many cakes with different flavors 

 The signature of sup gear boxes vendor was huge cow bones. But I never ever tried it since I didn't take beef. 

Coconut Sago, a dessert that worth to try  

 Fresh milks 

Popia basah was steamed spring rolls with sengkuang and bean sprouts. It always topped with chili sauces

Google image of the Popia basah's close up 

This Bazaar Ramadhan fulled with Kelantanese foods. 

I bought less foods and drinks. However, I enjoyed the times I spent at the Bazaar Ramadhan. It only could seen once a year. 

Sometimes away from the room for a while made me felt fresh and energetic. Stress level was quite high particularly stay in the room entire day. 

So, make use the current moments!. 

Back to Regular Routine

"Celebrating Ordinary Days"

The Dayrean that really resonated with me.

Here it’s:

Story was that, I had learnt to document my life in the blog. Whatever made me happy, brought me down, whom I met, what I ate, where I travelled, musings and raw thoughts, I just wanted to pen down everything.

I felt like I’m alive. I’m the ordinary people with happiness, sadness, musings and worries. Ordinary days didn’t have to be perfect or beautiful.

As an example, I couldn’t afford to eat exorbitant foods. What I afford was hawker food that offered reasonable prices.

Even do so, I still enjoyed ordinary days that bring simple joy of life that will stick to me forever. 

"Publishing Articles in Scopus Index is the Only Hope for Getting University's Academic Post"

“I only want your publications”

 “If you have 1 refereed and 1 Scopus article, I’ll say thank you for coming. And I’ll contact you next time”

“If you have 7 Scopus articles, I’ll take you in anytime”

“If you’ve few articles but under reviewed by the Scopus, it’s not count to grant an academic post”

“If Scopus has accepted your few articles, the academic post is definitely filled by you”

Words couldn’t describe the loss of hope for granting the academic post when Dean of the school announced it.   

"Losing Appetite as a Patient"

 clinic counter

I ate McDonald’s foldover chicken for breakfast and lunch. I didn’t feel hungry and no desire for foods.

Was this what Mama said "只有生病的人才不会吃”. I no longer thought what I should eat for my lunch and dinner but I hoped recovering very soon.

To recover fast, I seek the help from the private clinic for fever relieves injection.

Who knew I could be so desperate to find the injection rather than medicines. 

"Son's regrets after Discovering Ageing Parents"

 Episode 4, 飞短流长父子兵/Trimming Success

我内疚不止是因为我的车子和吉普车不适合他们

而是我发觉原来在我的生活中，我从没有为他们的需要着想

一直以来我买车一定要外表漂亮

灯光要够强，车厢要用真皮

但我没准备给爸爸妈妈乘坐

我卖了爸爸的房子开设飞短流长

我曾经一个月赚过二十多万，我带全部伙计去庆祝

但我没有叫他们和我去分享

我搬到外面住，我从没有叫他们上我家吃饭

在我所有计划中都没有他们的份儿

但我介意，我一直以来都以为自己很孝顺，每月按时过账给他们作家用，每隔两三个星期通一次电话，每逢佳节就匆忙回来和他们吃顿饭，以为这样就可以了

这件事之后，我发觉他们老了很多，爸爸骂人也没像以前这么大声，以前家里一切事务都是妈妈办妥，但这次看见她好像惊慌失措 

"Anchovies Obsessions"

Anchovies fried with any vegetables being the best meal ever. 

"Starting to Heat Up"

Don’t get me wrong. I mean the weather getting hot. Literally I had to shower 4 times each day. I drank 3 or 3.5 Liter per day. I changed to short pants since legs sweated very much.

I’ll escape the heat by flying to somewhere else in one day. Of course, beach holidays were not the first choice though blue skies, crystal clear waters and sea breezes calmed the souls. 

The cat was there during the times I wanted to feed the birds. I asked the cat to shift away. Most interestingly, it remained there and changed its posture from tummy display to stand still.

"Naughty Cat"

It stared at me for few minutes after all. I got its’ body language: I waited my breakfast, birds. Why you disallow?

I answered in my heart “I had reared these birds for almost 3 years; I wouldn’t let anyone to hurt them”. “It was the moment they should take breakfast, they were famished”.

The cats seemed understood and left. I saw the birds immediately ate the uncooked rice after I gave them. Poor birds, have late breakfast this morning. 

"Cherry Tomatoes"

The cherry tomatoes were quite sweet, tasted exactly liked fruits. Very amazing. I could finished whole packet when browsing Instagram.

of Fat Days and Weeks

It’s going to be fat days and weeks during fasting month. FAT FAT FAT.

Majority campus cafeterias closed in the morning but they started operating on 3pm. Basically, I relied on canned foods, potatoes, dried mushrooms, black fungus for my 2 daily meals--breakfast and lunch.

Yeo’s canned curry always became my priorities. Rich, fragrance and aromatic curry sauce stimulated my appetite and increased my rice consumption.

Why you so delicious, Yeo’s canned curry??? I’m easily gained weight because of this. T___T

At the meantime, cafeteria sold wide varieties of fried “Kuih-muih”. All of them pretty crispy, crunchy but carried along with extra fats.

I imagined while I munched on the delicious, shiny and greasy fried kuih muih, actually my calories being added up.

But I told myself, it’s fine to have more foods as campus cafeterias turned to quiet and peaceful on 3^rd week of fasting month. It was the long semester break.

Only Subaidah, mamak restaurant will be remained open as usual during long semester break. Me and peers considered Subaidah was our best friend. Subaidah was my “guardian angel” too.

Whether Subaidah’s foods delicious or not, I had to eat. I have no other choices and options.

Eventually this positive mentality and perceptions make me stayed curious on the northen part Western Malaysia kuih muih that I could not found in my hometown.

I took time to learn northen part Western Malaysia kuih muih by googling and asked the locals. That’s how positive mentality and perceptions had widened my vision.

Sharing some northern part Western Malaysia kuih muih here! What do you think above northern part Western Malaysia kuih muih?

#1- Kuih qasidar. 

It looked like my favorite food, steam yam or pumpkin cakes in Sarawak.

But totally two different things. Kuih qasidar was made with flour and tasteless. But it was rich with fried shallots aroma and fragrance.

On top of that, kuih qasidar was distinctly soft almost pudding like but firm structure. 

#2- Pickled red onions. 

Surprisingly discovered pickled red onions went with martabak ayam or daging. Chili sauce was the only condiments that I ate with martabak ayam or daging. 

N.E.W.S.E.E.D image #3-Cucur badak- with spicy coconut fillings.

N.E.W.S.E.E.D image #4- Kuih Nona manis

I was told that it was the current trend of Ramadan bazaar this year. It seems correct as it appeared in every stall.

#5- Lompat tikam 

N.E.W.S.E.E.D image #6 Popiah with chili sauce

Learning those northern part Western Malaysia kuih muih was so enjoyable and fun. I had learned so much.

There’s no doubt that, when I embraced positive mentality and perceptions, I had no missed out all the delicious northen part Western Malaysia kuih muih and other related cultures and norms too.

That's all.