Best CNY. Period - Part I

Alrighty then... Now that I've got majority of the pictures, I can start this thing. Let's see.. A little back story first of all. Due to bad planning, bad timing and basically, bad luck, these guys didn't manage to get bus tickets to Ipoh. Hence, the horror stories that my grandma and mother were telling me weeks prior to this (regarding CNY bus tickets) were true.

The people that I invited were more than sufficient to flood the whole Casuarina private room which we got at the last minute, due to the bumbling incompetence of their staff. I expected just Shakir, Piumi, Rushdi, Taqi and Saad to come but in the end, it was a bit altered. Saad caught some virus ‘cause he drank TAP WATER in Indahvilla. The smart lad, he is. So, he went back to Pakistan for treatment. It seems that he’s pretty much okay now. Altaf was a last minute addition although I did want him to come but I expected him to be back late February. Turns out he landed on the 5th! Excellent…

The 6th came along, and being the eve of Chinese New Year, people were rushing back to their hometowns to have the compulsory reunion dinner. Man… I’m telling you, Ipoh had become KL and KL had become Ipoh. The traffic here was horrendous. You look left and right from your car and you can see number plates starting with the letters W, B, J and P all over the place. It’s like everyone converges in on the state in between!

In the end, the plan was to split up. Rushdi, Taqi and Altaf were to come to Ipoh via a friend of Rushdi’s, Hafiz. They were to pay RM 200 for the trip, toll included, of course. It seems that Hafiz drove them here in a van. I picked them up and then took them around Ipoh a bit and brought them to their “hotel”. Why the bunny ears, you say? Here’s why.

They staying at the Y-M-C-A...

It doesn’t count as a hotel. All the non-seedy and convenient places are packed with chinks coming back to visit families. Oddly enough, YMCA was quite empty. These guys took it to their advantage as soon as they entered the room and started a faux sex scene loud enough to wake up the dead.

The first day was pretty much uneventful. I took them to the bus station to get their bus tickets and later brought them to have a late lunch at the Old Town Kopitiam behind Jusco. We went to Tesco later because Altaf supposedly needed a brighter top for the CNY annual buffet the next day. We spared no expense in poking fun at him, asking him to try on some really girly clothes. We poked fun from baldness to chest hair accessories. Yeah, I didn’t mistype that. Chest hair accessories.

I had to go home soon so I dropped them at their place and told them to go have dinner at a nearby mamak. Lazy buggers decided to order McDonalds anyways. I sent off a few dozen SMS-es wishing people and in the morning I received 20-odd replies. Aw, you nice people. Amongst the 20-odd messages was bad news. It seems that the change in weather was too much for them SL-ians. Piumi fell sick and of course, it would be wrong for Shakir to leave her like that and Rikaz of course took this opportunity to skip the trip altogether. Bastard.

Sooo… It was CNY with just 3 of these guys and it was tight! I dropped by after lunch, thinking they were all awake and ready to go. Well, awake, yes, ready, no.

Rushdi half-awake



Taqi trying to shove the phone away

You gotta say, the view is pretty amazing from their place.

The Riverside Go-Kart track



Forgot the name of the cave...

I think Rikaz intentionally poisoned Piumi ‘cause he didn’t get to come to Ipoh HIS way. Now, Rikaz isn’t that petty, is he? Heh heh heh… I took them to my place to uh, what’s the term again… “pai lin”, was it? Since tonight was the annual buffet thing, I took them for a light lunch. Most restaurants were closed as this was the 1st day of the lunar new year. So, I stopped by this Malay joint called “Laksamana Cheng Ho”. Told them how the chinks of old were castrated by the emperor because he feared the male subordinates would fiddle with his countless wives, mistresses and concubines. Not the best lunch story, that’s for sure.

We went to the Polo Ground after lunch. The British supposedly played polo on those grounds while they were still around in the past. We couldn’t resist doing some nutty things as we were there.

Altaf and Taqi enjoying the view



Me enjoying the view



Havin' a swinging good time

Time was running a tad short so I sent these guys back to YMCA to get ready for the buffet dinner. I didn’t have much time to take pictures while we were there but these guys were fooling around in their room and caught this.

Pretty much the only evidence of them attending the buffet

The turnout for my table was disappointing but nevertheless it was still jovial. The guests that were missing were Jin Ken, Min Jer, Shakir, Piumi and Rikaz, of course. The last three had pretty much legit reasons but the 1st two… I don’t wanna say anything but it seems that the lack of transport seems like an extremely lame excuse. Eugene came an hour late but that’s his usual style.

I didn’t manage to grab any pictures but this was definitely the best annual buffet by far as there was this band that came over and did songs that we requested. They sang old songs. The melodious kinds that become the staple of such bands.

Part II will be mostly photos of what happened the next day. So, a Happy Chinese New Year once again and peace out y’all.