WEDDING IN KEROPOK LAND

I was whisked away last weekend to Kuala Terengganu (KT), the Land of Turtles and Keropoks, to attend WY’s younger sister, WM’s wedding.

We went in two cars to KT from Kuala Lumpur. There were 7 of us. The journey to KT had been quite pleasant, apart from Mr Grumpy (my driver – WY’s elder sister, WP’s boyfriend), who thought the road is an F1 circuit or maybe each occupant in his car has nine lives. I thanked my lucky stars I am still alive to blog this.

Scenic Picnic Spot at Rantau Abang

If you were to go to Terengganu, I suggest you to take the coastline. (As if you have a choice!) The scenery is scenic and breath-taking. We stopped by one of the spots along the coastline to have a lunch picnic of lemang, serunding (Malay: Beef floss) and sata, somewhere near Rantau Abang. Sata is something like otak otak – but instead of being shaped rectangular, sata is triangular and the fillings is as delicious, if not better than conventional otak otak. And it costs only 20 sen per piece!

On the way, there were many sightings to see. Small little huts by the seaside, swaying coconut trees, rows and rows of lemang sellers, air nira, sweet corns, etc. The most intriguing is probably this picture. I was quite disturbed by the sight of a giant sotong humping a giant prawn while being watched by some kerangs somewhere in Marang. As it was situated at the side of the traffic light, I could managed only to snap the two gigantic thingy in action and not pics of the kerangs. Talk about being a reserved and conservative state. I will never look at seafood the same way again. Mr Grumpy commented that only I would think of such things.

Giant sotong and giant prawn in action

The monsoon season is here, at this time of the year. I was quite surprised that it was sunny in Terengganu. I text my sister, Ann and Ed to tell them about the sunny weather and that I had reached Terengganu safely, albeit traumatized. And boy! Was I wrong! Immediately after I text them, the rain began to pour like cats and dogs!

Primular Beach Resort and Moonlight at Night

We stayed at Grand Continental while the bride and bridegroom stayed in Primula Beach Resort in the executive suite. It was a nice hotel by a small town standard. KT is such a dead town. It reminds me of my stay in Swiss Garden in Kedah, with my ex colleagues in the research line. We finished work one day in advance, we decided to go to our supervisor’s hometown and splurge the last night on a luxury hotel. There was a built-in Jacuzzi – so we had a few rounds of soaking! He he. Also, I went swimming the first thing before the break of dawn in the swimming pool. I was alone and tempted to do skinny dipping instead. Heh! Those were the good old days.

WM had been a tremendously generous host during my stay in Singapore early this year. She proves to be an equally generous, if not more, this time round when we go to KT. It is simply amazing she planned her wedding together with her husband, all by themselves. Every detail was not spared – from the decoration of their wedded bliss room to the minute details of the corsages for the bride and bridegroom’s families. If I were to recommend to friends to hire a wedding planner, she would be the first person that appears in my mind. But she is not in this business! I say, she should start thinking of being a wedding planner!

Oh yes. How did they meet? WM and TW had been together for the past 10 years. They first met while working as part time promoters during a semester break. WY had told me many times of the story before but I wanted to listen to it again and again.

WM was punching in her attendance card by the staircase while her husband, TW was walking down the stairs. She cast her eyes on him and their eyes met. The rest was history. It was love at first sight. Auww….

In a Chinese wedding, the girl would be staying at her parents’ place for the night and both bride and groom cannot meet each other on the night before the wedding. Early in the morning, depending on the date of the Lunar calendar, there is an auspicious time to come for the hand in marriage.

I still couldn’t comprehend the need to hold the door and extort money from the groom before he claims the bride though. Well, we were not prepared to play tricks on the groom before he came to claim his bride, we cooked up something silly impromptu like forcing the groom to drink two packets of black coffee and eat one whole red chilli. We even made him do something mushy like declaring his love out loud for his future bride.

We dismissed the request to produce us a piece of red underwear after the groom threaten to teach us a lesson (Read: obscene boozing) for playing too many pranks on him. Heh! Kidding! He was sporting enough to give in to our whims and fancy and to top it all, we got a collectively RM399 ang pow for opening the door. WAH LAU YEH! But our happiness were short lived when we realized we need to share it with 2 others who didn’t even lift a finger to shield the door.. sigh.. But WY and I got a small hamper of Body Shop toiletries as a token of appreciation for providing the “bouncer” service!

Usually, there would be a toddler, preferably a boy, to roll on the bed of the newly wed as it said to bring descendant luck to the couple. The designated toddler didn’t show up due to rain so, they got JJ instead, to roll on the bed. Ha ha ha. It was hilarious to watch a grown man rolling and jumping like a monkey on the bed. Ha ha ha ha! Man! I simply couldn’t get over it!! Ha Ha Ha!

I was pretty much drained towards the end of the late afternoon – the bouncer job at the door, tea ceremony, snapping pics, congratulating aunties and uncles again and again, cracking some jokes there and then, laughing at JJ rolling on the bed and had buffet lunch of the famous nasi dagang, nasi minyak, steamed keropok, etc (it was a very muhibbah wedding – with choices of Malay and Chinese food). I didn’t go out to check out KT town and preferred to catch some winks of sleep before the wedding dinner.

Sleepy KT Town

The wedding dinner went on without a hitch despite the rain. Everyone was on time – it is such a small town with zero traffic jam! We were surprised that everyone turn up by 7 pm sharp and started dinner by 7.30 pm, and finished the 9-course dinner by 9.30 pm! Instead of having the cliché shark fin soup – we had something similar to the most expensive soup – Buddha Jump Over the Wall – with abalone, sea cucumer, shark fin, oysters, and other unidentified seafood. The picture of the humping giant sotong and prawn suddenly smogged my mind. I quickly dismissed the thoughts.

Kuala Terengganu at Night

The night ended with some informal booze party in the Executive Suite in Primula Beach. It was good to catch up with old friends from Singapore. Sharing happiness with Ong, being a new dad to a 4 months’ old Sing Yee, Lau Chaur getting hitched next year, Foo Seong being happily married to his lovely wife, Pei Ling, and See Thiam Teng found the love of his life. Some of the gang didn’t turn up as they had to attend to their cousins’ weddings or exams, etc. Nevertheless, they were pretty much missed. We made it a point to see them again whenever we pop by Singapore for a visit.

A Scenic Spot when we stopped to buy corn

I didn’t get to capture as much scenic pictures as I would love to, as I was traveling with other people. On my way home, I came across a few missed nice shots : a picture of two small children running to the beach hand-in-hand, passing by two fishing boats washed at the shore and a couple sitting in a wooden hut overlooking the sea. The pictures would now remained vividly in my mind. Sigh. They could have made very picturesque black and white shots.

Hai Peng's Famous Vietnamese Coffee and Stuffed Crabs at Tong Juan

We stopped by to have authentic Vietnamese coffee at Hai Peng, Kemaman and had stuffed crabs in Cukai before making our way home to KL. It was a long, long weekend, but undeniably a fantastic one. It was like going on a free holiday: you don’t need to plan a single thing, your accommodation, transportation and food are well taken care of, and all you need is to pack your bags, just go there and have fun… which I immensely did!

I quote Rumi, "Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along."

When I see WM and TW together, I couldn't agree more.