mujitaiping: Two More Kenduris Near Taiping

This Christmas Weekend, there were two wedding kenduri invitations that I needed to attend. Both invites were from my schoolmates - Rozi and Rahman. Both venues were near Taiping. One at Bukit Gantang and the other at Kamunting.

View of mountains faraway, from my hotel window.

I began my journey on Friday with the purpose to avoid the expected heavy traffic on that Saturday. I left KL at 11.10 AM. The North-bound traffic was not that heavy and the flow was smooth. However, upon reaching Slim River interchange, I saw the illuminated signage that said the traffic was slow moving until Bidor. So, exited the Expressway via Slim River and drove along the country road instead. There was little traffic along the way. I continued using the country road until Tapah. Here, I resumed my journey via the PLUS Expressway until I reached Ipoh by 4.00 PM.

At Ipoh, I checked in at the Excelsior Hotel. I was quite hungry and I saw the hi-tea being promoted at the hotel's restaurant. The price was very reasonable at RM29.90. So, I had my makan there. There was fried rice and noodles, chicken satay, gado-gado (indonesian style salad) and various cakes and local kuih. After the meal, I went to my room to rest.

Tunch (or hi tea) at Excelsior's restaurant.

5.00 PM, I got a call from old schoolmate, Dzulhanan. He said he will come over to pick me up by 6.00 PM to go for dinner. Dzul arrived slight past 6.00 PM. We headed to the famous Nasi Lemak Ayam Kampung located near Jalan Yang Kalsom. Several customers were already there when we arrived. We sat down and made our orders. The fried chicken was still hot when served. It was quite crispy too. By 7.00 PM, Dzul sent me back to the hotel and he went home to Chemor.

Nice nasi lemak with hot, crispy fried chicken.

Wow! I was stuffed. So, after taking my medicines I fell asleep.

Saturday morning, I left the hotel after breakfast. The plan was to reach Bukit Gantang by 12.00 noon. The PLUS Expressway was heavy with traffic, I decided to use the country road from Chemor to Taiping. I enjoyed the view via the country road. Because of the speed limits passing through the small towns, I reached Bukit Gantang past 1.00 PM.

Rozi with his band.

Rimos 1978 with Rozi.

At the venue of Rozi's son's wedding, Shaheri, Hanafiah, Dzul and Asri were already there. We were joined by several other Rimos afterwards - Ramli Baie, Ramli Yusof, Mas Kamarulzaman, Karunamurthy, Roslan Aris, Ishak and Mohamad Akhir. Apart from the lovely local dishes for lunch, we were entertained by the live band, which Rozi was one of the lead singers. By 3.00 PM we bade our farewell to head to another wedding. A few of us made a stop at Asri's orhard along the way.

At Asri's orchard near Changkat Jering.

Asri's orchard was near Kampung Paya, Changkat Jering. We had to drive very carefully via a narrow grassy road to the orchard. We were treated with several durians by Asri. By 3.45PM, we left the orchard and headed to Kamunting.

We arrived at Rahman's daughter's wedding venue by 4.30PM. We were the among the last group to arrive. There was still some food, kuih and tea but that was not important. It was our presence that count. Several of our Rimo friends were still there - Hanafiah, Dzulhanan, Mas Kamarulzaman and Ramli Yusof. We joined their table and continued our chit-chat. By 5.15 PM, we bade our farewells.