al-fatihah to uncle sabree

thanx to twitter, i tweet about this earlier before hand. it was kinda easy-peasy; as i just forwarded a text that i received from a dad's friend, pak pian.

uncle sabree passed away this morning around 1 am. our condolence to his family, and may he rest in peace...

uncle sabree was well known to kualè and the surrounded area, with his kind of songs on kualè of course. check-out the song of 'masa kecilku di kampung karai' (my childhood life in karai village) — its all well mentioned in the song, of his way of life.

in his life, uncle sabree not just performed at weddings but also at corporate functions, not forgetting at istana iskandariah too. he also performed in my school many years ago for some functions. a dad's friend even brought him to australia for his son's wedding!

i know, uncle sabree will be missed by kualè people indeed. RIP.

and now, let me leave you people with another song by uncle sabree~ 'jangan dok mengata orang'. enjoy!...

lantern festival celebration

according to wikipedia: the lantern festival 元宵节 is a chinese festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar year in the chinese calendar. it is not to be confused with the mid-autumn festival, which is also sometimes known as the "lantern festival" in locations such as singapore, malaysia. during the lantern festival, children go out at night to temples carrying paper lanterns 兔子灯 and solve riddles on the lanterns 猜灯谜. it officially ends the chinese new year. read more here.

kuE' note: this blog post supposed to be posted a week already. but i don't care ler... its better late than nothing or never hor? i updated my twitter anyway :)

ever since i joined my line dance group, my life kinda hectic with other activities too. sometimes i was asked to perform with them in functions or events here. i remembered that my first experience was for a mother & father's day celebration organized by a chinese community. it has been attended by local umno leaders. so i had to do a zapin number and some other line dances to english tunes erm... layan je ler. to tell you the truth, of course i lurve english numbers more especially all those fast tracks.

then there was this function organized by umno people quite some time ago. it was radically damnnnnn delayed i tell you. i stressed out the word damn because it was really late by 2 hours!!! blerk!... pity the kids who followed us. we don't have choice but to stay as we had to do some performances. if you could see my chinese friends, they were all crazy like mad. what to do. anyhow you can view one of my performances that has been recorded by megat here.

so basically my performances last saturday was obviously my third one! it was for a lantern festival celebration held here in kualè. unfortunately i didn't manage to take lotsa pics as usual though as my oly was running out of battery huhuu... now i dunno whether to blame myself for not charging my oly's battery beforehand; or my friend-cum-translator ms tung who didn't explain to me about the function properly. never mind lor... ms tung, no sweat ok?

lesson learned: every night before bedtime, i will ensure that i fully charged my oly's battery before the next day turned up, no matter whether i have anything going on or not! ;)

the function started with everyone singing the national song; as soon as the guest of honour, minister in the prime minister's department datuk seri mohamed nazri abdul aziz arrived.

there were variety of music and drums and of course the chinese lion dances and firecrackers.

children carry their lanterns around the village and families come together to eat sweet rice balls for good fortune and family unity. chinese lanterns were traditionally made of silk, paper and even glass. although the most common is the typical red balloon lantern, nowadays chinese Lanterns come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. there are lanterns in shapes of boxes, lotus flowers, dragons, butterflies and all sorts of animals. they range from the small lanterns carried by hand made of paper by school children to gigantic floats shaped in the chinese zodiac animal for that year made by teams of craftsmen. lion dances came to the main stage then along with these group of people. i knew that they have some kind stories and meaning behind the lion dance performances.

towards the end of the performance, both "the lions" tried to peel out the mandarin oranges skin. they then presented the oranges to datuk nazri, who is also the mp of padang rengas.

i tell you what people. i could say that the function that night was really celebrated with 1malaysia spirit although it was meant for a chinese festivity. there were dance performances of all sorts of cultures like malay, chinese and indian, not forgetting shuffle dance by kualè youth itself.

my performance was the first one. i didn't get to ask anyone to capture a video of it though. none of our kids followed anyway as the function was at night, and we afraid that it would be dragged till late. i should have asked bebudak shuffle tu to record a video of mine kan kan... :)

the function wrapped up with lucky draws. looks like people were already looking forward with it from the beginning, as prizes offered were not bad i.e. hampers, bicycles, electrical items like blender, stand fans, and tvs too! but we didn't wait till the function ended though, as we knew it that there must be jammed if everyone were to go back together. from what i understood, since the function happened to be during syawal, datuk nazri also gave away raya money packets to all children who came that night.

and before i sign off this blog post, i am so glad to present you part of the performances held during that night... enjoy!

lantern festival celebration from kuE on vimeo

so how's the lantern festival at your places celebrated. care to share them with me?

see... when i blog, i really blog away *phew*

• coming up: more delayed blog post and sponsored blog post.


• coming up as well: the most bloggers' events talk of the blogosphere! can you guess of what is it? tungguuuuuuuuu... (wait) *winks*


• besides that, i am also waiting for ms tung to pass me a china press newspaper cut-out about the function. they actually have a pic of me there you know. i wonder whether any of you people realized it ;)

"pasar minggu" in kuale...

this entry is specially dedicated for lina. she posted about her 'pasar malam' (night market) trip nearby her place somewhere in klang valley about 1+ weeks ago. i told her that 'pasar minggu' (sunday market) in kuale is the best mainly because its located by the 'tepi sungei' (river side)... ahhh!... so blissful... besides that i guess its the huge one i have ever know. it has lotsa stalls selling many things like fabs, ready-made clothes, food stuff, ready-made food and many more.

pasar minggu won't be an excuse for me at all to skip my weekend mornings routine— 6 rounds walk up and down the hill of 'bukit residen' (resident's hill) for about an hour non-stop. the only thing is we will normally go for it a bit late on sunday if we wanna go to the pasar minggu because if we were there too early then we won't join the crowd to feel the environment hehee... owh... you know what i mean? so since we wanted to go to the pasar minggu right after our walks, we just parked the car there, by the tepi sungei. its easier then. if not by the time we finished our walks it would not be easy to get one.

caution: this post is with lots of pictures. its somehow or rather just like a show and tell kind of thingy, so enjoy!...

'pasar minggu' in the making...

this is one of the old shop houses lot in town, still stands as its original. if i am not mistaken an artist painted this one for a postcard. nonetheless some of them have been renovated to modern types of shop houses.

so since we have already parked the car at the pasar minggu area, we walked thru this bridge to get to the other side.

we had to pass along the children's playground...

and walked on to the other side of the road for us to start our usual walk at the 'bukit residen' (resident's hill).

this pic has been taken on my 6th rounds, at around 8.15 am. owh... how can i resist of not taking at least one or two pics of my beloved school.

well if you could see clearly from the above pic, there are 4 dates written on some of the steps. its to show the dates of the most critical flood levels that happened to kuale then. i am afraid that i am not sure of the levels. maybe i can find out for you, and for my general knowledge too :~)

fyi these were the dates, from number 1 being the highest—
1) 30 december 1926
2) 28 december 1897
3) 7 december 1931
4) 15 december 1947

so after we completed the walk, this time we walked thru 'laman budaya' to go back to the pasar minggu area.

we used the other bridge instead...

see people... i told you... if we don't park here in the first place, i am sure it was hard to find a parking space then.

i think 'pasar minggu' in kuale is the best than any other place *winks*
actually people its not really a matter for us whether we go there to buy something or not. its a pleasure for us to just stroll and have a wonderful time there... i like!

sometimes we dropped by this shop for a good breakfast yummyyy!!!... i wallop everything in my curry mee bowl lol... :) its located at the tepi sungei along the pasar minggu road.

like i said earlier since the pasar minggu is huge, we make it a practice that only three or four stalls are a must for us. if we are to cover all of them, i guess it will take hours i tell you...

one of the stalls that we must drop-by is this indian lady' who sells antique stuff, old coins and anything old. we didn't buy anything here though, just browsing the stuff that she has and chit-chatting with her ;)

we also buy sunday papers (lots of them, except chinese and indian papers of course). take note that we don't buy any on other days.

this apam balik stall is a must too. we won't buy apam balik at any other place, except for this one as its THE best i tell you...

take note that i snapped the above pic when we were already at the 'jam besor' (big clock tower) on our way back home.

"ma... you are driving but still can take pictures!", megat was mumbling at me hehee...

so i told him, "ya... this last bit is to complete my pasar minggu picture album, specially for my online friends hehee... to show them of how really big kuale's pasar minggu is *winks*"

of heading a healthy lifestyle in kuale...

despite the havoc in kuale last week, i decided to still go for my normal mornings routine on that weekend, but just a lil' bit late around 7.30 am. i would normally reached 'bukit residen' (resident's hill) by 6.45 am, accompanied by megat. i could see the truth kuale people heading their healthy lifestyle as usual. we did this from the first weekends of 2009 until to-date.

so for this week, i only went this morning because megat has to go to school yesterday to replace the cny holidays. i didn't bring my oly this time. all the pics here are part of the pics that i have taken on a saturday, last two weeks instead. there's not much difference with last saturday's scenario though. so enjoy...

we started our first round walking up and down the 'bukit residen' as early as 6:55 am. we saw my auntie yan, walking so fast than anyone else...

some of the scenery that we could see along our way is my beloved high school, the one of ever famous among kuale schools other than mckk and clifford *big grin*

see how wonderful my weekend mornings routines from the following pics—

the first pic above showed the view on my 6th rounds. normally i took about an hour to complete the 6 rounds of walking up and down the hill of bukit residen. but today, i managed to made a self record of 55 minutes! then down to the 'tepi sungei' (river side) we went... can you see the poles on the third pic? that's one of the games people played during 'sukan ayor' (water sports) on the sultan's birthday every year. you could also see the sayong bridge on forth and fifth pic. on the last pic above, there's an area at the tepi sungei called 'laman budaya' where you could see a group of woman folks of kuale doing line dance, and on the left under the gazebo was another group of people doing falun dafa (falun gong).

falun gong (法輪功) is a spiritual discipline founded in china by li hongzhi (李洪志) in 1992. it has five sets of meditation exercises and teaches the principles truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance (真，善，忍), as set out in the main books falun gong and zhuan falun (轉法輪). the teachings deal with issues such as "cultivation of virtue and character", "moral standards for different levels", and "salvation of all sentient beings." the books, lectures, and exercise materials have been translated into over 40 languages and are available on the internet free of charge.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

here in kuale, you can join falun gong free-of-charge on every saturday morning from 7 to 9am. the teacher who teach falun gong in kuale, is also a teacher in smjk(c) tsung wah.

for the line dance group, they meet on saturday mornings as well. they dance to many types of tunes from cha-cha, joget, chinese songs, pocho-pocho and many more.

by the way there was another group of old folks doing an exercise (refer third pic above). but i am not sure of what is it called. they carried a small stick each. is there any of you people who can help me here?

and as usual, bloggers are ain't called bloggers if we didn't cam whore right? hehee... so here's some pics of me (trying hard to do yoga pose') —

and look who i met during my usual morning walks last two weeks— mrs wong who taught us english. she is now 70+, staying with her husband in talang. it seems her son asked mrs wong to stay with them in penang. but mrs wong and husband prefer to stay in this peaceful kuale... so her son just make do to come and visit her once in a while :)

so what do you think people? ain't life in kuale good enough? i wonder of where else you can get this type of a healthy lifestyle with very nice people around you.

an open letter from a true kuale residence

to all people of the world,

what happened and what you saw on tv about kuale yesterday really make us ashamed. where else kuale people in reality are not like that. go here to read some of my blog postings on "people of kuale". in fact there are more to come. kuale people are so bond with each other like family, no matter who we are and where we live i.e. kota lama, bukit chandan, jalan baru, talang etc.

like my junior in school' parents said, bukit chandan people stayed and locked themselves at home. same with other places. i had to go out just because of the kids' activities. other than that, i was not interested to go out at all. even megat was so scared to see so many people in town, especially at the 'jam beso' (big clock tower) area :(

i just wanna say one thing: please do not disturb kuale. let us live in peace... tq. amin.

kat kopitiam

we have been part of kat kopitiam's regular customers here in kuale ever since they opened quite some time ago. i can't seems to remember of when was that ler plak... but i know i have mentioned about it few times in this blog. megat speaks mandarin with them whenever we go there. good for megat! as he could practice his mandarin skills with them very well. some of the customers would be stunned you know, seeing a malay boy spoke mandarin with the kat' fluently hehee...

most of the food served are western style, and kat is very good on that. its not strange as kat learned and further his f&b studies in kolej (college) syuen or better known as syuen hotel and catering institute, a member of the syuen group hotels. i also understand that he worked with a hotel in singapore for few years before he moved back here to manage his own kopitiam. he cooked most of the orders himself with some great help of his mother.

we had lunch there, just the three of us today. as usual, the food were marvelous! hmm... yummy...


and these are the nice and friendly people behind kat kopitiam—



so if you people feels like having nice western food whenever you are here, do drop by kat kopitiam! make sure you tell them that megat's mom recommended you... hah! :~)

kat kopitiam
8, jalan kangsar
33000 kuala kangsar
tel. : +605—7767318




disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are entirely based on my personal taste buds and may vary for others. the reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

hoo optical

mama was in need of two pairs of new glasses, including an extra one for spare. so i was really looking forward for this trip to a local optometrist, Hoo Optical; especially since my last blog post about 'people of kuale' was sometime in august. thank god the Hoo' were very co-operative, thus with the result of the good pics that i managed to snap *big grin* Mrs Hoo did ask me whether i am a journalist wohooo!!!... i shook my head hmm... at the same time i was wondering whether i should just told her that i am a blogger. but the thing is mother dunno about it (of me being a blogger) at all wheeeee...

as you could see it's a family business since 1970 with some help of a few staff. the business was first operated at jalan (road) dato' sagor or better known as low road by local people. they moved to bandar baru fasa 3 in kuale town many years back. Mr & Mrs Hoo Foo Won (70 and 62 years old respectively) are very lucky to have a 30 years old son who had the same interest with them. Dr Hoo Chee Hoe is their resident optometrist. he graduated from university of bradford with diploma of higher education (opthalmic dispensing with management) and bachelor of science, second class honours second division in optometry.


most of the Hoo' generations customers are very regular with them from the first they opened its door, including mama; not forgetting the perak royal family from the past. in other words, most of the local people knows them very well too.

i could see why. there was a-datin-kind-of-lady customer when we arrived this morning. she wanted to have another pair of glasses. Mrs Hoo and one of their staff really looked happy helping her to choose the correct and suitable glasses. there were no sign of complaints at all. i could also see of how sincere they were towards their customers. besides that, their product prices are also very reasonable. they treat everyone the same, with no discrimination of type of customers they served i.e. whether you are poor or rich. isn't that how business people supposed to treat their customers right.


hoo optical
13 bandar baru fasa 3
33000 kuala kangsar
tel. : +605—776 1406
fax : +605—776 3134
email : cheehoe@rocketmail.com

putu mayum (suri)

putu mayum is one of the famous food here in kuale (kangsor). its a sweet dish of rice noodles with coconut and jaggery as main ingredients. sometimes i like to eat it with brown sugar. the process-- mix rice flour or idiyappam flour with water and/or coconut milk, and pressing the dough through a sieve to make vermicelli-like noodles. these are steamed, usually with the addition of juice from the aromatic pandan leaf (screwpine) as flavouring. go here to find out more about putu mayum. i found a recipe here, but i am so sorry that i can't comment anything because i haven't try to make it myself :)



uncle suryarao is 55 years old and has been selling putu mayum for more than 24 years. he carried his putu mayum and its stuff in a stainless steel box container placed on his motor bike. according to him, he specially bought it on a made-to-order basis at +/- RM100 only. but now with the drastic economy changes, i am sure the price is kinda bomb!

uncle suryarao would normally be under a tree near the wet market, not far from the bus station; in the mornings except on sunday. as you could see from his appearance, he looks deligantly presentable-- he wears white apron with cap, and also an identity for "pengesahan suntikan typhim" from the local health office. no doubt everyone like to buy his putu mayum, besides of the great taste of course. well people, if ever you dropped-by here, make sure not to miss to try the putu mayum ya... its only priced at RM1.00 for 4 pieces ;)

kuE's note:
go here to know more about other 'people of kuale' ;)

introducing... uncle goh the fruit seller

we were at uncle goh's (kok seng) fruit stall when i suddenly remember that i wanna take his pics for my 'people of kuale' project hehee... he was surprised though because as long as he could think of +/- 40 years in the business, no one would approach him to take pics! we also have been one of his regular customers ever since then.

the stall is located right infront of bank pertanian, near the bus station. that actually has been his 4th location. the first one was in the local market. then the town council moved the fruit stalls to the middle of the town. they have been moved again then to a spots seems specially for fruit seller near the perak river. lastly now at the current location. let's just hope that they won't be moved anywhere else after this. i am sooo sick seeing what's the town council people were up to right, so easily instructing people to move here and there. make up your mind dude!

the pic showed uncle goh's stall (right) and another one is of him with his son (left).

megat's haircut

we visited the barber yesterday--



and witnessed the transformation of the new megat!!! ;)

we were at yut loy earlier soon after picked up megat from his scouts activity. i was kinda surprised though when megat agreed to my suggestion to cut his hair at number 2 (the barber usually used razor blade number 2 for a 'crook cut' type hair)! i guess the last time megat had that type of hair when he was in the kindergarten.

our visit to the barber this time saw uncle rajendran alone without his older brother (pic here) who died because of high attack on 9 may 2008. they run the business together since 1975. go here and here to know more about them. anyhow uncle rajendran is lucky that an indian friend from penang came to give a helping hand.

kuE's note:
this blog post is a part of 'people of kuale' series :P

the coconut seller

when aunt janagi saw me taking pics of her this morning, she quickly asked, "why ler kuE... are you going abroad ar?"

"hehe... no lar aunt. i wanna write about people of kuale, that's why", i told her.

"oh that's good of you to write a book", she said.

owh... i was like *glurp* i just do not wanna tell them that i love to write in my blog.

aunt janagi has been selling coconuts at the local market for more than 30 years. her children used to help her at the stall. but now after they all have grown up and lead their own life, she's keep selling coconuts with the husband and an indonesian helper.

normally there would be a long queue at her stall during festive seasons like chinese new year, hari raya or deepavali etc. especially on the eve of festive holidays. she will then can only go back until late afternoon.

aunt janagi is a very nice lady. she will say hi to me first whenever i bumped in to her :) go here to meet more people of kuale.