Finally I'm back after a dreadful week of revision and studying for tests.
Ya, T.E.S.T. is just so unbelievably time wasting.
CNY celebrations haven't really ended yet as we, me the Chinese celebrate it for 15 days.
It's already the 18th of February 2008 and 3 more days we'll have day 15th.
We call the 15th day:
元宵节 (Yuánxiāo jié)
And my mom just told me that we (my family) will be having a dinner on Wednesday to celebrate day 15th (even though Wednesday is supposed to be day 14th).
As the title of this blog entry suggests, I'll head towards my last part of the CNY trip.
******
Just as you thought that 2nd day Malacca trip was fun...
Introducing
MING SATE HUT
Who's the owner?
Ans: My dad's cousin sister and her husband
What's so special about the food?
1. Price: not very cheap but not expensive at all.
Variety of "meat" stick
My favourite fried BBQ intestines sate (salivating :p)
3. Sweet+Sour+Not Spicy chili gravy with bootylicious rice cubes (ketupat) and cooling, refreshing cucumba!
4. Refillable chili gravay for the gravy lovers :D
5. Thirst-quenching, satisfying carrot milk juice (of course there are other choices of beverages :p)
What more can you ask for? *Surprised*
So how's the "damage" like for each visit to Ming Sate Hut?
Bowls and bowls that have to be washed
Dozens of "empty" sate sticks on show
*Note: Left 15 sticks (Me Kelvay :p); Middle 22 sticks (Lanvin my bro); Right 20 (Alvin my bro)
And of course $$ka-ching$$.
Well, the meal was satisfying and it certainly marked "the end" of my Malacca journey.
It was short I know, but fulfilling and meaningful enough for me to produce 2 blog entries about it.
Anyway, since the end of CNY celebrations is near, I take this opportunity to thank all my friends who've at least made the effort to visit me house and family.
It's been a while since don't know when that my family started the idea to travel to Malacca on the 2nd day of CNY.
Solid proof that I went to Malacca
But it proves to be an okay idea for now since most of my mom's family members have passed away.
Malacca trip?
EXCELLENT and FRUITFUL!
As I promise, picture galore can be anticipated.
First of all, let's ponder upon the next few pictures for a while.
Comments anybody? Post it on my comments box :D
Introducing Jayden, my cute little nephew.
Just imagine me being an uncle since 8 years ago.
I've to admit that I'm old :(
This cute little fella has a pair of HUGEEEEEE eyes, which are quite scary at times.
The first stop of my Malacca trip was my Auntie's house whereby my auntie is little Jayden's grandmom.
And imagine how beautiful Jayden's mom is (she's my cousin sister).
Jayden's mom and dad
Getting back to the trip, my family started the journey from JB at around 10 am and we reached Malacca at about 1.30 pm.
As I've said, our first stop was my auntie's house.
As we chatted with my auntie and her family, usually my cousin bro (my auntie's son) would also bring his family over as my cousin bro is my dad's favourite nephew.
Introducing another young handsome fella, Wei Yan.
Wei Yan's dad is my cousin.
Ain't Wei Yan handsome?
Kids nowadays look like westerners :(
According to Wei Yan's parents, he doesn't touch meat, well, not exactly 100% but he doesn't really like meat (other than fried chicken).
When me and my dad heard that, we were like "is he the descendant of Tripitaka?"
*Note: Tripitaka is a monk who is the lead character in 西遊記 or Journey To The West, which is one of the 4 main classical chinese epic stories.
Wei Yan is definitely fair enough to become a monk. :D
Even me thinks that he looks like one.
Wei Yan, his dad and my dad
Lotsa chatting and eating in my auntie's house till it's very unbelievable that I've produced the following picture.
Cookie Monster or Boredom Killer?
After hours of chatting, we headed to our accomodation to check in.
Just listen to the name of the hotel... Semabuk Inn.
The sound of the word makes me feel drunk :D..
Mabuk means drunk in Malay while se- is a prefix which means "same" or "as (insert adjective) as".
Weird names for places in Malaysia for sure. *Insert shifty eye emoticon*
Our 2nd visiting spot was my grand auntie's house.
Well we missed the annual lion dance show in my grand auntie's house as the troupe just left my grand auntie's place as we headed towards there.
Nevertheless, we still got the chance to meet her and other relatives as well.
Lotsa chatting and stuff too.
Oh ya, this is the group picture that had been taken. It was my idea though *Grins*
Good memories to be brought back from Malacca.
Last stop was my uncle's house (my dad's bro's place).
The same old thing: chatting and eating.
That's what CNY is all about, especially the red packets or angpows. :D
2nd day was purely visiting and chatting and eating BUT there were lots of eye candy stuff such as Jayden and Wei Yan.
I love the atmosphere in Malacca in a way that Malacca is just full of CNY mood wherever you go.
There are pretty awful lots of Singaporeans whose relatives are in Malacca.
It's also worth noting that in Malacca, people also speak a lot of English and Mandarin most likely because most of them have lived in KL or JB or even Singapore for quite some time already.
“Most importantly, the first day of Chinese New Year is a time when families visit the oldest and most senior members of their extended family, usually their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents.
Some families may invite a lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Lunar New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. Members of the family who are married also give red packets containing cash to junior members of the family, mostly children and teenagers.
While fireworks and firecrackers are traditionally very popular, some regions have banned them due to concerns over fire hazards, which have resulted in increased number of fires around New Years and challenged municipal fire departments' work capacity. For this reason, various city governments (e.g., Hong Kong, and Beijing, for a number of years) issued bans over fireworks and firecrackers in certain premises of the city. As a substitute, large-scale fireworks have been launched by governments in cities like Hong Kong to offer citizens the experience.”
That’s what wikipedia says about the first day of Chinese New Year.
Well, my version is almost similar, and I’ve already told you about the firecrackers part.
Basically, the first day of my CNY celebration was in Johor Bahru and thus it tends to be a bit boring.
Why?
Easy. Many Chinese in Johor Bahru are basically not from Johor Bahru.
Most of my friends aren’t even in J.B. for CNY celebrations.
So there were only a few things that can be done:
Eat, drink, watch TV, gamble, and of course, play mahjong *Evil Grin*
Fortunately, I’ve a guest on the first day of CNY.
Thanx to Jin Chong for remembering me! :D
He visited me and we chatted and watched a few Hong Kong movies while checking out for timeslots for movies in cinemas.
To bad I can’t go in the last minute as I had to go to the temple to pray.
Temple trip = must go for me.
And that was around 8 something at night.
The temple is still so beautiful and sophisticated, and is definitely a place where peace really exists.
I pray for basically everyone whom I really cherish such as my family, my godsister (Tong), my friends and of course me.
I just really wish from KuanYin Goddess that my problems such as hair loss and constipation would be better in the new year.
Well, after that, it’s the infamous “Lye Family Mahjong Battle”.
We played mahjong before and after we went to temple for prayers and the scoreline was basically as follows (subject to changes):
Dad won 8 games; Kelvin and Lanvin won 6 games; and Benjamin (my cousin) won 3 games.
Take a look at how the “Lye Family Mahjong Battle” went.
Oh well, that’s about it.
I know it might not be as interesting as it should be, but hey.. at least there was peace and harmony. :D
Next up, CNY Celebration: The 2nd Day with picture galore. :D
A Malaysian Chinese living in the capital of the utmost southern region of Malaysia, Johor Bahru. An Internet freako with a weird taste of surfing (which includes multiple refreshing pages in a second). An insane supporter of rock music and the Arsenal! Mind you, the Kel would kill you if you take those away from him!
Stop there and let me correct it I wanna live a life from a new perspective You come along because I love your face And I'll admire your expensive taste And who cares divine intervention I wanna be praised from a new perspective But leaving now would be a good idea So catch me up on getting out of here
