Lost In Translation

Home, sweet home.
It really is good to be back on home soil. Yes, the weather may be terrible, with hot sweat breaking at every first step we take outside. The streets may be filthy with rats alongside drains of coffeeshops. The nights may be infested with mozzies hungry for fresh blood. But for some reason I can't quite capture myself, my heart goes out for this nation. For the people. The cities. All the way to the little towns.
Especially the little towns.

Oh well. That's a story for another day. The one on the past few days is the one I really should be raving about.
The one on Yuchun & Sophia's wedding. lah.

For the first four days since our arrival in Malaysia, Esther and I had been staying in Damansara with Jon. The dude was so kind to open up his (magnificient) home to us throughout the duration of the wedding 'season'. It was then when we got to witness the whole (well, not whole... but quite a bit of it. lah) commotion and the busyness in preparing for the couple's wedding. Especially on the practices for Yuchun's surprise performance for Sophia - an a capella of N'Sync's This I Promise You with the JAG feat. the Man himself, Mr. Ashley Ang.

The JAG with Ashley. Whom can also be referred to as JAGA.

Cue: Wwwwwuuuuyyooooooooooooo! So romantic!
But really, it was romantic. Sophia must've had a hard time getting up to her feet after being swept off like that.

The day of the wedding itself was mesmerising. This has got to be the grandest wedding I've ever been to. With the ceremony kicking off in the morning at the Holiday Villa in SJ, the procession was of perfection. What I found particularly annoying, though, was the sheer number of photographers surrounding the couple at all time! It was like the freakin' paparazzi, I tell you! One could barely see Yuchun's hair, let alone Sophia's gown.

Where's Wally?

But when one could capture a glance or two of the couple, he could tell that no matter what, nothing was gonna stop those two from enjoying the moment.
The Y was making history.

The couple during more breathable moments.

The dinner was huge. Held at the Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel's Grand Ballroom, all I can say that the adjective used to describe the ballroom is understating it. The ballroom was so posh, grand, rich, big, and so and so forth, someone should invent a new word for it. There were over 100+ tables that night, breaking a new record in any wedding either me or my family has been to. I felt like an ant in a field. I felt so jakun. lah.
The night was so much fun. The food awesome. The company warm. And the couple was simply breathtaking. It felt so good to be dining with them. It felt so good to be celebrating the occasion together. Among friends.
It felt good.

...........................

Congratulations, Yuchun & Sophia. I know it's gonna be nothing short of greatness in your journey together this coming days. Years. Decades. And your marriage will be one to be an example of to the many younger couples to come. Like Alex (amen) and Jono (amen), perhaps. ;)

And Greg, it was a real pleasure to meet and hang out with you. Our intimate sessions will never be forgotten and I can't wait to share a bed with you again in the near future. We are a match made in heaven, buddy. LoL!

If Kluang were ever famous at all, it would definitely be for one thing only.

Coffee.

The Kluang Railway Station Coffee Shop was first opened in 1939 and has since been serving what has been said to be the best coffee in Malaysia. Old yet solid wood hold the small shop - barely noticable except for its routine crowd - like a fort just next to the railway lines. It only takes a step out of your car from the carpark and already you'd be basking in the fragrance of homemade coffee powder, rich to the grain, roasted with charcoal-fire by none other than Uncle Jack (above picture) himself - owner of the business since his grandfather the founder.

Neslo - a combination of Nescafe and Milo, or what angmohs call 'Mocha'.

Coffee aside, the shop serves a wide variety of food as well, as per normal a coffee shop in Malaysia. Among its better known accomplices would be the toasted bread with butter and kaya. Soft and warm on the inside with the most delicate touch of crisp on the outside; each slice of the toasts is filmed with rich homemade kaya and melting butter. And if that isn't mouth-watering enough, dip it in half-boiled eggs with pepper and soy sauce, and what you get is a choir of angels conducting a symphony in your mouth.

Toasted buns is one of the few types of bread you can choose from.

A small yet satisfying addition to that above would have to be the little packets of nasi lemak wrapped in pandan leaves and newspaper. These 50c packets maybe small in size, but don't let that fool you. Upon adding some sambal and ikan bilis provided in its packet, they become what Esther has described to be 'lethal to the taste buds'. And being so affordable at that, you could eat as many packets as you want, amounting to a mere RM2.50 with five glorious packets.

My personal favourite, especially when covered with its rich, spicy sambal.

So as you may have guessed, life back here in Kluang has been pretty good. The Kluang Railway Coffee Shop is only one of the many affordable yet enticing places to eat in town. I haven't even mentioned the rare Kuey Teow Kia - where fine rice noodles is cooked in an exotic herbal soup with dishes. Neither have I mentioned the riverside Bah Kut Teh stall or the small Fuchow-style restaurant in Kluang Baru. There are only so many great places to eat here in Kluang and won't the prices blow you away with that.

What are you waiting for? I'll be in town for the next week or so. Give me a call. It'll be a pleasure to take you around.

I swear I've never woken up so early in my lifetime as I did this morning, solely for breakfast with my friends. Heck, I've never even done it for my family or anyone else. But when the alarm woke me up at 6:30a.m this morning, I knew I was in for it big time.

Lack of sleep is one thing. It was friggin' dark outside. My parents weren't even up yet (my mum usually wakes up early to turn off the house alarm). Groggily I stumbled my way to washing up and then waking my mum up to get the carkeys. I was merely a minute out of my house and was already wondering what was wrong with traffic. It was 6:45a.m and traffic was heavy.

And then it struck me.

School buses. MPVs. And cars with kids in their backseats.
Kids were going to school. Heck! Was I that early?! This was definitely a first-timer. But oh well. The things I'd do to hang out for a few moments with my buddies.

The story starts when Yvonne and another 106 students from Taylors' Hospitality team happen to be in town for a resort valuation thingy they're assigned to do here in lil' ol' Kluang. Of all places. What happens is, as I got the gist of, that Taylors throw a bunch of them students in this baby resort located at the foot of Gunung Lambak (which seriously looks more like 3 sorry huts and the tiniest water park you've ever seen in your lifetime), and they're supposed to evaluate its conditions and facilities to help improve its standards. So when we both jumped to the idea of going out for breakfast while she's around, I thought it'd be cool. The only thing was - she had to be back there by 8:00a.m.

The things I'd do to hang out for a few moments with my buddies.

Well, I guess it wasn't really as bad as it sounds. She brought 3 of her friends along the ride and we had bah kut teh in Kluang Baru, second after Uncle Jack's coffee shop which we realised only a bit later that it's closed on Thursdays. Which is another thing to rave about, by the way. The bah kut teh there absolutely rocks! And all we had to spend was about 6 bucks for each person. Fulamak!

After breakfast, the guys had to run some errands for their other collegemates still stuck in the resorts. 'Supplies' had to be stocked up, apparently. So we headed over to a nearby kiosk to buy what seemed to be a whole carton of 100Pluses except that they didn't sell them in cartons so we had to take them all one-by-one off the refridgerator. And when there weren't any left in the refridgerator, we found more on the shelf. You should've seen the look on the cashier's face when they swept them all away. They also packed a some candy, water, and some ciggies for 'em dying smokers back there.

It was while I was browsing through the shelves when I noticed this.

Waitaminute. Does that say 7Up Lice???
What the heck?! Talk about poor design, man. How do they market these sorta stuff? I mean... imagine the billboards.

7Up Lice Perisa Baru Yang Segar Dan Sedap (Tasty and New Refreshing Taste)

Kkk. I'm exaggerating, I know. Oh well. Had some fun myself there.

Anyways, Yvonne tells me that they have all got to take a dip in the water park in the afternoon as part of the evaluation process. Note that it is compulsory for work's purposes. I think I just might drop by there again later then.
Think about it. 3 busloads of up to 107 students in a 'pool' that's barely the size of a typical bungalow lot. Oh, and the water's just slightly above knee-high.

Think I might bring along my camera at that too.

Some things change.

Yet some things just don't.

It was good to be home. And now I'm away again.
I'll miss you all.