Taiping has always been close to my heart. This is one of the locations that I went to with my late father-in-law when I first got married. About 2 weeks after I got married, my father in law asked me to accompany him to a trip to Perak, just the 2 of us. Can you imagine traveling with your father in law whom you have not met before you got married? My father in law was brought up in Setiawan where his father was a Mufti. So he had lots of friends all over Perak and I was supposed to accompany him to meet all his friends. I was thinking to myself why is he showing off his latest son-in-law to all his friends and relatives. Sorry, I digress but that is another story, for another time.
Anyway, we managed to "force" our Saluki friends in Taiping to organise our get together. There were only 3 of them in Taiping, Ron/Midah; Asmah and Ani. Just after we decided to have it in Taiping, Ron got promoted and transferred to Seremban so I guess Asmah and Ani had to do most of the work but I guess Ron/Midah had done their share before that.
We left our house at about 11:30am though we had planned to leave by 9:00 and spend some time at the famed Taiping lake. It was a smooth drive and we arrived at Bukit Gantang R&R at around 2:00. We performed our Zohor prayers and had something to eat. We finally arrived at Sri Malaysia around 3:00 where I met Dr Rahman and family at the check-in counter. I called Anwar but he was still at the golf course apparently trying to give out some money to Sle and Shariff.
After checking in we went straight looking for Asmah's house and we found it without much trouble. Taiping is a small town after all. Almost everybody were already at Asmah's. We were supposed to have a durian feast but Asmah had lontong and capati ready for us. This was to be the start of a 24-hour food fiesta for all of us. I started opening the durian. They were good. Before we could even finished what were there, Ani and hubby, Pian, brought some more durians. It was really a feast. Apparently they were quite expensive as they are not really in season yet.
We left Asma's at about 6:00pm. A few of us decided to head for the rather small pool at Sri Malaysia. I decided to catch a few minutes of sleep. When I got up and had my bath we were about ready for dinner. I met Bistaman at the lobby who told us that Chan and a few others had just left for Casuarina Inn. My son Afiq and daughter Hani had ran to follow the group. I remembered Anwar telling me that the place is to the left of the prison but we are now heading to its right but I just followed them. How wrong I was. We had to walk almost 25 minutes to reach the place that should have taken us less than 5 minutes. Next time I must remember to be careful about following Hassan's direction. But we sure worked up a good appetite. Dinner was a relaxed affair with good food and company. We managed to give a short introduction of our family members while waiting for the food to be ready.
After dinner (around 10:00pm) a few of us decided to experience the Taiping Zoo night safari. My family decided to skip this as we had been there not too long ago. So we stayed in the room and watch tv before falling asleep.
The next morning, after breakfast, all of us headed towards Maxwell Hill. Ani's hubby, Pian had arranged for the trip up the hill. But because we were late (the first jeep left at 8:00am) we had to make 2 trips. I took the second trip after having to wait for about one hour after the first trip had left. I had expected the weather to be much cooler up the hill but apparently it is not. We completed the hill climb and reach the hotel around 12:00 noon, just in time to check out.
I checked out at 1:00pm and headed straight towards Casuarina Inn for lunch. After the hill trip we were all quite hungry. Lunch was typical Perak food which include gulai tempoyak. The food was definitely well received by all, though at the back of our minds there will be another food fest at Kak Ani's shortly after that.
After lunch the whole group decided to convoy to Masjid Taiping for Zohor prayers which was led by Sdra Ruslan Salikan. Then we proceeded to Ani's house which was just a short distance from the mosque. Upon my arrival I started with the rambutans which were good. By this time the rest had started with the variety of food available. Apparently Ani had her whole family helping out with the food. Its all a family affair. Whatever, the food were good. This was after taking into account the heavy lunch that we had hardly an hour earlier.
We stayed for about 2 hours. Sle and Anwar managed to get the rain to fall with their karaoke session. At the end, we were really full. I managed to tah pau some of Kak Ani's kueh teow power which the kids had for dinner.
The drive back was slow as traffic was heavy and rain at a few locations. Along the way, I had to pass the steering to my son as I was getting sleepy. We finally reached Shah Alam (we had taken the Guthrie highway) at about 8:30pm.
It was tiring but well worth it. Thanks to all of you guys from Taiping for the hard work and congratulations on a job very well done. Heres looking forward to the next get together.
HBO
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