Wednesday 27 May 2015

Gwyneddian in KL!!!

Gwynedd is the name of our boarding house back in Atlantic College, UK. The house witnessed the start of our friendship. We fond to each other and had each other's back. Noon and I. Two Asians girl that stayed, laughed, cried and made memories together in the house of Gwynedd. (Oh, please pronounce it as Gwyneth, it's Welsh after all).


At first, I thought I could not make it. Luckily Noon sent her flight schedule on whatsapp, so I knew I could still welcome her on Sunday afternoon. And the good news was later added when Dr Sonny (MSc Drilling Engineering program manager) announced that we would not have classes until Tuesday. That would give me pretty solid time to spend with Noon. Yeayyy, Alhamdulillah.

Sunday

Since I am not from KL and rarely tour around as a tourist in my own country, I don't have a definite plan for the day. Last time, when Yuki came, I was with Azhar and he drove a car. We went to the National Mosque, Islamic Art Museum, cendol stall, night market and Putrajaya. For Noon, I have to make a walking tour. Idea? Could not think much of Central Market which I doubted to be that fancy to be visited. LOL. So, worst come to worst, I could still depend on the tourist information centre, that was what I thought when I was in KTM to meet Noon at KL Sentral. So, I met her at KFC, grabbed a touristy map of KL and started our tour.


We first head to Masjid Jamek. Masjid Jamek is the first mosque built in KL, so it becomes the oldest mosque of KL built by a British architect. I was not sure what should I explain to Noon when we came to the mosque, but I felt hurt when there was a so-called angelic volunteer condemning me on not explaining anything to Noon. It is not like Noon is a complete foreigner that does not know anything about Muslim's life. She even watched me praying and we had some chats on some religious matter back in AC. Yeah, I admit I should have said something for 'you' to see, right? Condemning people in a mosque, is that a good Islamic practice that you are trying to show? Hell, no! But, yeah thanks to 'you', you opened my eye that such people do exist in real world and thanks to you, I survive in making poker face that do not resemble my anger inside. Then, you get a condemn from Noon outside the mosque area, asking on why were you that serious. You mentioned nothing new to her, she admitted.


We walked to nowhere and arrived at Jakel Mall just to get air-conditioned. Apparently, there was a promotion going on, but I could not still afford it. LOL. A student is still a student after all. Haha. we had chicken biryani for lunch and surprisingly walked passing through Jalan TAR. We later arrived in Merdeka Square with guidance of google map. It was my first time arriving at the square by foot. Usually, I will be in a car passing through that area. So, it was quite a new experience for me to be there too.


We both stopped by at Panggung Bandaraya and decided to watch the MudKL theatre showing at 3 pm. MudKL is the longest theatre ever shown in Malaysia. It is shown twice i.e. at 3 pm and 830 pm daily. The price is RM 45 for Mykad holder and RM 60 to non-Mykad holder. The shows is about the history of Kuala Lumpur. We wondered around Merdeka Square just to kill our time before the show started, and realised that there was quite a carnival going on there. It was 'Hari Unesco Sedunia' and they were all waiting for the Deputy Prime Minister to officiate the ceremony.


Later, when we finished watching and even being on theatre stage for a dance, we went to KL Gallery. We paid RM 5 to see a 7 minutes show illustrating building models of current and future KL city. The ticket is actually a voucher for visitors to spend at the cafe or even to buy gifts from the shop.

We walked to Central Market and Noon bought two hippies pants for RM 60. I do not know if it is a good bargain or not. Never, even in a dream, dared to buy that kind of pants. Haha.

Tuesday

We planned to meet for lunch. It was Asyraf's birthday. We bought banana chocolate cake for him. We supposed to surprise him with that, but since we came later than him, the surprise was not truly a surprise. But.......


We ate, laughed and shared stories, updating about our current life so far. Someone is getting married very soon, someone is happy with works, some are still struggling with studies, but life is good, overall. The portion of food served at Madam Kwans' was pretty big, even for a man. I had nasi lemak, and struggled to finish the whole plate, could not even eat the banana fritters that were served after.


So... Madam Kwans' staff brought the cake and sang the song out loud. We joined singing awkwardly and when the cake was served, everyone laughed. The cake was half sized. Hahahahha. To our defence, since we are celebrating a 25th birthday, which is half way to 50, we give you a half sized cake. Later, when you are 50, we will surely buy you a whole sized cake. Hahahaha.


KLCC is a pretty tall building with 452 meters height. Since we had nothing much and nowhere else to go, we decided to bring Noon to the skybridge at level 41 and observation deck at 86th floor. The view is scenic. We can see KL with 360 degree view. It was my third time at skybridge and first time at the observation desk. 86th floor is just two floor lower than the top 88th floor, which means we are pretty at the top of the once tallest building in the world. I took a photo of the president's office with the tip point of the tower.


Enough seeing the top view of KL, we went to Tasik Titiwangsa to see the lateral view of KL city. Actually we did not know what to do and just sat at the bench by the lake and chatted for a while. Azhar was so funny that he wanted to post his first ever instagram post but did not know how to do it. Novice, we say. Hahaha. We even met his nephew, Anas just to kill some time before picking up Aliff at Dato' Keramat LRT station for dinner. Luckily it was raining, so we did not stop for durian tasting. I do not like durian that much, I admit.


We went to NZ curry house in front of Wangsa Walk to introduce Noon to murtabak, roti naan and chicken tandoori and lamb soup. Chit chat was continued until Azhar drove us to KL Sentral. I hate to be parted again with Noon, but it has to be done.


I assume, by the time this gets posted, Noon is already in Thailand. I love you, Noon. Thanks for making times to come all the way to Malaysia. I truly appreciate your presence here. Sorry for not being able to go to Thailand. I guess, I should blame political stability in both countries for that. Hahaha. Jk. So, whatever you want to do, do it right. Good luck for your future endeavour. Lets see each other soon!




1 comment:

  1. Salaam. I encountered ur blog while browsing and Im so sorry to hear about your experience at the mosque. Im also one of the volunteers and Im not sure whether I was the one that you encountered before (the one that you described up there) or probably it was some other volunteers.. But let me apologize for whatever happened last time. After looking at the picture, I might recall you but I might be wrong either because you literally see all sorts of different people everyday. But anyhow, an apology is still an apology. When we as volunteers ( Sometimes I do that) do that, it is really meant as a joke and to tease you. It diesnt befit us to do this in a mosque and say something improper. I hope you understand that. I have no qualms in saying this and trust me we would never ever try to hurt our visitors feelings but sometimes itys understandable when people might take it differently. In your case, you see it as condemning you. Thank you for bringing your freind to the mosque. We really appreciate that. Allahu 'alam.

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