Kahwin Karak I: Dengue Dinner

Recently (in the context of this blog), my maternal cousin tied the knot with a lass from Karak. Since mum us closest with this uncle of mine, we were invited to both wedding banquets. The bride's function was a week before the groom's and was held at Bentong, a twenty minute drive from Karak. In the morning, I went to tidy up my unruly hair and mum got her's washed and styled. By the time we finished lunching at Nam Heong and got home, we only had a short time to get ready and drive to Bentong. My stylist who is a Bentong boy warned me that wedding banquets there start on the dot. Our drive there took ninety minutes and lots of highway tolls. Arrived with fifteen minutes to spare, but sad to say, the dinner started ninety minutes late. Guess the KL virus got to them. The venue was Grand Court Restaurant and was obviously pretty new. It had it is own compound and the interior decoration was pretty posh. Interestingly, the groom was warded at the Bentong Hospital for dengue fever (platelet count: 28). He checked himself out for a few hours. Luckily he did not faint halfway through.  Food was interesting with some different offerings but it was hits and misses. The dishes came out with an efficiency of a production line. The dinner ended by 9PM.









The plan was to stay the night since there was a homestay prepared. But the night was still young, so we went to the newly organised Bentong Cultural Walk near the Chinese Town Hall. By the time we got everyone organized and changed out of their evening gowns, it was already 10:00PM. The street was already quiet with a few stragglers who had not packed up for the night. Just an over-hyped night market with nothing cultural that I can tell. Didn't take us long to walk the whole length of it. Mum just bought some famous Bentong ginger from one of the stalls. On our way out, even caught sight of their beloved MP, Dato' Sri Liow Tiong Lai. His face is already plastered all over town on buntings and billboards and I had to see him there in the flesh. Drove to Karak after that, which was just twenty minutes away. However, it was quite a challenge trying to locate the homestay which was in a new village with dark single lane alleys. Waze failed me, but luckily Google Maps found it. Secured a place to park and quickly showered. Nothing much to shout about in terms of facilities. I'm just happy that they provided clean towels. Sleep didn't come easy with the thin mattress and blankets...