Friday
My dear wife was walking on her graduation day! Although the dude did not pronounce her name correctly, she managed to shake the older dude's hand and then raised her arms to show victory to her parents sitting among the crowd! As you know, no other students would even dare to do that. The would only bow to the guests and that's it! Yes, my wife is always full of life and joy. It was the day that marked another beginning of her life: a professional life as an Urban Designer! I recalled the day when she first came to NUS when we were living at the HDB flat. It was a bit hard for her to adjust to life in Singapore as compared to Hawaii, but after we managed to get a place for ourselves her energy skyrocketed. It's amazing how much she has improved in her professionalism. ConGRADUATION to you, dear MicroWife!
PS: The commencement ceremony at NUS did not seem sacred. In fact, it looked very mechanical and different from most ceremonies. Rani's dad was annoyed when he heard Majulah Singapura only played halfway! He said, "It was a big day for students, why not just play it until it finished, rather than sampling it?"
Saturday
We took a bus trip to Melaka with Hasry Delima Express Bus from Lavender-Kallang intersection. It costs SGD11 one way per head, relatively cheap knowing that it will take us halfway between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. We arrived at 13:00 at the Melaka bus terminal and hired a taxi for RM10 to take us to Baba House on Tun Tan Cheng Lock Street. Baba House is a historical shop house with 60 rooms inside a 200-year old structure. We managed to get one deluxe room for Rani's parents and one standard room for us lovebirds. I really have so much to say about Melaka so why don't you just click here or here to get a gist of it!
There will always be festival market going on Jalan Hang Jebat on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. You could get putu, grilled dried sotong, sugar cane juice, at half the cost you would have to pay in Singapore (while the taste quality will be doubled on every food you eat here!).
Sunday
We woke up around 0800 and ate breakfast at the Baba House hotel, free breakfast if you danced Macarena just before you checked-in. After we checked-out, we took a river boat tour (private boat tour, that is, at RM 50 for one hour!). Oh, you gotta see it to believe it! The government of Melaka has done an excellent job revitalizing the riverfront as well as the preservation of the key landmarks. After boat tour, we hired a taxi to eat at Bibik Neo, an original peranakan restaurant with an excellent array of "asam pedas". Make sure you come here and order the kangkong belacan as well as three orders to Kerapu Asam Pedas. It ended up only costing us less than RM9 per person for such a friendly service. Oh by the way, we asked the Indian taxi driver to eat with us but he was full already and sat down to watch us eat the delicacies while having a modest lime juice.
We then took Metrobus Ekspres bus to Kuala Lumpur, leaving at 1230 and arriving at Hentian Pudu around 1600 (the last 1/2 kilometer took us about 30 minutes to finish because the parking arrangement inside the basement was awkward, not allowing our 45 seater bus to zip in through quickly!). We then took a taxi for RM20 (what a rip off!) to get to KLCC where Danny and Sisca Tobing had been waiting for us the outdoor terrace of Dome cafe. For your information, Danny and Sisca just got married in May 2003 and now Sisca is 2 month pregnant. I have known Sisca for over 15 years - went to the same middle and high schools). Danny was a charter pilot who took over a business from his father dealing in marine and offshore drilling services. They both just moved to KL from Indonesia/Singapore and have loved every minute of it! Rani and I felt that they made an excellent choice of making a nice home in Ampang, on top a hill overlooking the Petronas tower from about 5 km away.
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