Teluk Intan Souls

All Souls Day, swiped from williamnyk on Flickr.

Took leave on Friday to visit my late-dad's grave in conjunction with All Soul's Day. There was actually a senior management presentation on that day for my module, but I said "f*ck it" and left things in the able hands of my colleagues. Haha. Woke up at an ungodly hour of 4:30am to get ready. Left the house with Sis and BIL at about 5:15am. The roads were super clear of course. Reached Teluk Intan in record time. Just slept the whole way. First oder of business, breakfast at the market. Had the yummy Kam Kee glutinous rice. The yellow variety is best with curry, while the white is eaten with sweet charsiew. The noodles that we had were quite lousy really. A random choice. Too bad the lai fun was not open. BIL also bought some apam balik and fried cruellers (the worst and saltiest I had ever eaten from a Chinese stall, but my nephew loved it). And what's a trip to Teluk Intan without eating its famous chu cheong fun? By 8:30am we were already at the cemetery. Did some cleaning up, put the flowers, lit some candles and prayed the rosary. Actually our first time visiting on the exact day. Mass was going on at St. Anthony's Church nearby.



The second reason we went to Teluk Intan was to meet the lawyer. Mum did some conveyancing and was supposed to collect the land title for her house in Bercham. Had to wait a while as they weren't open yet. After settling that, we gave our paternal aunt a call. Couldn't get through, so we went up to the house. Found everything shut tight, so we surmised that she went on a holiday or something. As usual, we went to Sin Joo Heong to stock up on heong peah, kacang tumbuk and mee suah. The caramel filling in the biscuits no longer attract me. Too sweet. The signs of ageing.



Our next stop was to visit my maternal uncle. Never visited his new place before. My cousins bought the place for MYR150k and it was definitely a big upgrade from the place at Immigrants Lane. Still recovering from his triple bypass, my uncle had not started working yet. Still a little breathless at times. But he confessed that he wasn't used to such a sedentary lifestyle. Was bored out of his skull and itching to start working again (he's a baker). Ate lunch there. My aunt slaved for hours in the kitchen preparing stir-fried chicken with kam cham, stewed roasted pork bones, stir-fried kailan, watercress soup with anchovies, chicken and pork and sambal brinjal. Stuffed! The kids slept for a long time. At about 3:00pm, we made a move. I took over the wheel from BIL.



During the whole drive home, it rained and rained and rained. By the time we reached KL, it was 6:00pm and still raining. Conclusion, the traffic was horrible. I avoided the snarl on the LDP by using SPRINT and later Templer, but boy, we were stuck at the Othman roundabout for twenty minutes. Decided to turn in to KhunThai for dinner and wait the traffic out. The place was quite desserted for a Friday night. Ordered steamed fish, green curry chicken, papaya salad, otak-otak and stir-fried kale. Compared to my first visit, the food was crap. When the fish arrived, it was lukewarm. The chicken was too soft. The otak-otak had no shape and the prawns were big but tasteless. And lastly, the vegetable was damn old. Bah. At least there was some twinky eye candy sitting outside. By the time we paid the bill, traffic was much better. Oh my bed, how I've missed you!