1st Day in Ipoh

Sorry for not posting anything for so long. I had exams last month, final and IELTS, so I was busy studying. I don’t think I did well for final, can’t finish a few papers. But IELTS was ok…I guess
Anyway, it’s my living rule not to think about exams after I did them and before I get the results, so I’m trying very hard to enjoy myself right now. I couldn’t wait to watch Harry Potter right after IELTS, I wanted to watch it so much. But the problem is everybody seemed to have watched it already. Luckily, Teo haven’t watched it yet so we’re going to watch together next week. I was counting the days eagerly when suddenly, on one very fine Wednesday, Teo messaged me and told me he just watched the movie! That BLOODY B………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fortunately, he still agreed to go with me. But he’ll be watching another movie…
So that Saturday, as planned, we went to KLCC. Even though it was only 12 when we went to buy the tickets, the next few screenings for Harry Potter were already sold out. I have to watch the 5.15pm one. After buying tickets, we went to the pc fair in KL Convention Centre. It was so crowded. Spent quite some time there.
For lunch, Teo said he wants to try Madam Kwan’s, so we went there. It was full; we had to wait outside for a few minutes before we were served. I ordered chicken mushroom noodles and sprite. Guess how much it cost? RM18. But never mind, I just got my jpa money...
After that we went to kinokuniya and saw Brandon working there. We just looked around until the time for movie. The movie was not bad, but maybe because I anticipated it so much it didn’t quite live up to my expectation.

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Before the holiday, we planned to go to Genting. (We being Yeam, Yee Hong, Christine(Tan), Jia Huei and myself.) The initial plan was that Yeam and I will go to Yee Hong’s house in Ipoh for a few days and he, Christine and Jia Huei will show us around(the 2 girls live in Ipoh also). After that, we shall go to genting together and Yeam and I will come back to KL straight away. However, the girls later said they couldn’t go, but Yeam and I decided to carry on with our Ipoh trip anyway. The trip would be from Saturday, 10 December till Monday,12 December. Here’s a brief account of my Ipoh trip:-

Saturday, 10 December
I woke up early at 9.15am to get ready (yes, 9.15 is considered very early for me during the holidays). I bought the ticket for a 10.30 Transnasional bus but just to be safe I got up so much earlier to get ready. My father drove me to the LRT station which train I took to Puduraya. Wow, it’s been so long since I’d been to Puduraya, I’d forgotten how it’s like in there. I mean, I’d been around the area a lot (believe me, really a lot) but the last time I actually went into Puduraya was when I was just a kid. I really couldn’t believe how long it’s been. I reached there at 10.15 and immediately went in search of the Transnasional booth to check the platform number of my bus and its plat number. It wasn’t hard; they had a big one in the middle while others only had counters along the wall. Oh great, my bus wasn’t here yet. I knew I shouldn’t have come so early. Ok just kidding, I was actually feeling a bit guilty for arriving so late.
So now I have nothing to do but to wait for my bus’s arrival. I moved aside to lean on the wall and killed time by rating other people’s clothes. After 10 min, the booth finally announced the arrival of my much-anticipated bus. As I got on the bus, and waited for it to move, I wondered who will sit beside me. I hope it’ll be a girl. A teenage girl(beautiful) that is traveling to Ipoh alone like me. When she wants to put her luggage into the bag compartment on top I will quickly stand up and very gentlemanly help her. Then she’ll smile at me and I’ll smile back, just a small and polite smile. Then we’ll both sit down. I’ll say hi and she’ll say hi back, and then I’ll ask her if she’s traveling alone(rubbish, but it’s necessary to start a conversation) and she’ll say yes and ask me back how about me?(also rubbish but necessary coz it’s polite) I’ll pretend to be very surprised and answered, “Really, me too…..
I was rudely awakened from my daydream when someone sat down beside me. I eagerly turned my head around and….
Oh great, it’s a middle-aged man. A balding middle-aged man.
Wearing a perfume that smelled like rotten egg. Oh well, at least it’ll repel mosquitoes…
So at 1pm that day, I arrived at Medan Gopeng bus station safely and without mosquitoe bites. I had nasi goreng Cina for lunch at 1 of the malay stalls at the bus station(so afterwards, when Yee Hong asked me if I had Chinese food or Malay food for lunch, I really don’t know how to answer him) before Yee Hong came with his father to pick me up.Yeam’s bus got delayed and will be arriving later.
Yee Hong lives in a condo at the 11th floor of the 14 floors Prima Condo that is a few minutes’ drive from Ipoh town area. I rested in his house for a while before we went to fetch Yeam. Yee Hong’s mom then drove us around Ipoh for sight-seeing. Ipoh town is separated by a river into 2, the New Town and the Old Town, with 2 bridges connecting them. The roads are quite wide. The buildings are quite old (sorry, I’m not very good in describing things). Yee Hong’s mom is quite beautiful, very friendly and capable, and nothing like what I’d pictured her to be (I thought she’ll be fierce, for some unknown reasons)
Then in the evening, we swam in the condo’s swimming pool. Christine arrived at 5.30pm with her sister, Joyce. She drove here and, amazingly, did not crash into anything! Wow! Then all of us helped Yee Hong prepare dinner. It was quite a disaster. I suspected it was the girls’ first cooking experience-Christine even cut and burned her finger. And Yee Hong wasn’t a pro either. Luckily, the food turned out fine. Oh, and Jia Huei came before dinner. We had spaghetti, meat loaf (which meat I minced with knife and not blender), lemon chicken, and baked potato. After that, we went downstairs and toured the condo’s ground for lack of better things to do.
At 10pm, Jia Huei’s parents came to bring us to supper. Her mom is exactly like what she said – strict-, but treated us very politely. Her father is very nice. They drove us to the Old Town to eat the famous Tauge Chicken, which was quite good.
Then Yeam and I went back to Yee Hong’s house (together with Yee Hong, of course) and watched ‘The Village’ before we sleep.