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!

Instep: Ku sangka kau gah, tapi rupanya kau biasa.

Tepat jam 8.30 pagi, tayar bas zulkama pon bergolek meninggalkan kampus pendidikan UTP. Sepatutnya gerak pukul 8 pagi, tapi ada la segelintir manusia yang cakap dulang paku serpih, mengata orang dia yang lebih. Eh??? Sesuaikah peribahasa tu? Apa-apa je la kan. Haha.

Perjalanan mengambil masa lebih kurang 9 jam termasuk waktu berhenti rehat dan makan tengahari. Sepanjang perjalanan tu, kadang-kadang karaoke, kadang-kadang tengok movie. Tapi, most of the time, TIDUR. Apa nak buat kan? bangun-tidur-bangun-tidur, tak sampai-sampai. Kalau naik flight, dah boleh sampai Mekah dah aku rasa. Sempat juga aku menyuarakan pendapat serba kaya, untuk UTP ada helikopter sendiri or charter yang boleh transfer at least 30 penumpang untuk ke Terengganu. LOL.

Sesampainya di Merang Suria Resort, aku pon kejarkan toilet dulu. Haha. Sanggup tak minum air banyak, sebab tahu RnR bahagian pantai timur tak berapa nak sedap hidung membau. LOL. The boys terus bersukan kat depan bilik, main bola tampar. Aku? Tengok je la. Lepas tu kutip bola sekali sekala. Then, the girls pergi pantai untuk bergambar. Melompat-lompat. Agak tak senonoh la untuk calon mak mertua nak tengok. Tapi, sebab mak mertua tak de lagi kan, who cares? Hahaha.

Hari kedua trip ni diteruskan dengan lawatan ke instep. Tapi, macam ada miscommunication here and there, our visit were not welcomed that well. Ramai sangat yang sepatutnya ada, tak de plak at last minute. Tak pe la, harapkan Kak Ain je la untuk showed us around. 

We first entered the simulation room yang ada stand pipe, choke manifold, BOP control, driller joystick and a few screens yang tunjukkan readings of everything la. Maybe we are quite a large group to be handled by only a person, macam kelam kabut sket la. Ada certain yang betul2 dengar, ada yang main2 dengan manifold etc. Nak try simulate a situation pon tak lepas. Such a waste.

Habis berlindung dalam control room yang air-conditioned, kitorang gerak ke drilling land rig. Mula-mula macam amaze gila la tengok BOP besar gabak, tapi lepas tu gerimis mengundang pulak... Kak Ain tried her best to explain everything starting with circulating system. She switched on the system, pastu dengar la bunyi bising machine kan. We were not allowed to take photos there due to safety reason. Tapi, kalau dah namanya degil, degil juga la kan. Kadang-kadang kitorang curi-curi gak.

We climbed up to see the mast, drilling hole, dog house etc. Sempat pulak la diorang ni buat jokes nak masukkan aku dalam BOP plak. Ceit. Naga 100 rig ni okay la. Not bad. Tapi, kalau semua machine tu switched on, sure macam real lagi. Boleh nampak exactly how it works kan. Tak pe, youtube ada. Youtube tu lecturer bagus kot. Tak payah nak hire lecturer ribu riban.

Our tour ended at 1130 am. Kitorang disajikan dengan sedikit kudapan oleh pihak instep. Balik je resort, semua lena. Tak mampu nak tahan mata dah. Bilik masing-masing air-conditioned pulak tu, lagi best la tarik selimut, Sharp at 3 pm, we headed to warung poknong untuk makan sotong goreng tepung. Apparently, warung ni pernah disinggahi team Jalan-jalan Cari Makan TV3. So, memang agak popular la. Warung bukak pukul 330 pm, kitorang sampai 340 pm, line beratur panjang gila. 

Selesai makan-makan, kitorang lepak tepi pantai. Dyaa, housemate aku kat Newcastle pon join. Tetiba, drilling crew terlebih sebatang mawar pulak. Haha. Aku dan Dyaa jalan-jalan Paya Bunga Square just untuk cari Chicken Cottage restaurant, tapi TAK JUMPAAA!! Tapi dalam google map, wujud kot. Pelik gila. Last-last, makan kat Tappers je. 

Kuala Terengganu ni ada sungai. Kalau dia buat banyak lagi pokok yang ada lampu warna warni macam dekat i-city Shah Alam tu, confirm cantik gila. Sempat la aku ambil gambar kat Kampung Cina dalam sambil-sambil jalan-jalan cari makan tu. Though it was a short hangout, terlepas la rindu borak-borak dengan Dyaa ni. Lama gila kot tak jumpa. Masing-masing update pasal life masing-masing.

Hari ke-3? Tak yah cerita la. Kitorang balik UTP je pon. Beli keropok lekor sampai dua kedai, masuk je bas, tidur tak bangun-bangun. Semua GONE. Sampai je UTP, semua terus bersiap-siap nak balik rumah. Report? Hantar hari rabu, kan? So, lets ENJOY!!