A holiday Part 1

Last week was a festival event for all Muslims around the world.
Its their New Year also know as Hari Raya Puasa. During the period of this month, they will have to "fast", meaning that they have to eat before the sun rise and dine in when the sun sets. In between the period they are not supposed to eat or drink. Before they break their"fast"in the evening, they have to perform their prayer in the Mosque and eat a "preserved" date before they proceed for their meal.
This is also the period that we get a chance to see them wear their traditional costumes. Somethings you will see families wearing the same colours of their traditional costumes while others will be of different colours or shades of the same colours.During the Hari Raya Puasa, they will go house visiting as what the chinese will do, they also give our 'green packet' like that to the 'Ang Pows' of chinese which we give out during the New Year. For the Muslims, they will have 2 New Years within a year.
During the 19 - 21st of this month, which is also the long holiday for the rest, went for a short holiday at Genting Highland. It was quite a last min booking through a friend who finally help to make a hotel booking for me. Was looking forward for the holiday at Genting as it has been ages since I last visited it. Its was during my kindergarten times when I visited there. Looking back at the old, sepia photographs kinda bring me back to the period that I was still the small little chubby boy. 19th came and woke up quite early in the morning to catch the 0645am bus from Lavendar to Genting. Missed the first train and so have to take the next one which is about 6mins interval. Reach Lavendar at 0630am, which was abit late and Iris was there already. The moment I saw her, somehow it warms my heart in the cold morning station. Then we proceed to check in to get the coach number and then proceed to board the coach. The coach was already quite packed with families and individuals going to the same destination as us. @ 0650am, the coach closed the door and our journey begins. First we headed towards 2nd link while picking up a few passengers at Jurong East. All was smooth and fast going on the track to 2nd link and once we crossed the check point, we were on the bridge that links to the Malaysian checkpoint. As its the festive season, having a traffic jam seems quite normal. This is the first time that Iris has been in a traffic jam like this. All those of you who has been to JB and back must have experience the traffic jam like non other. The movement was slow and that we saw passengers from private cars stepping out and taking a walk up and down the stretch of noisy engines. And suddenly, Iris, pointed out to me that she saw a lady suddenly tripped and fell while walking the stretch. During the wait, we chatted and laugh while she listen to the mp3.
Soon we reached the Malaysian Custom, alighted and proceed to the queue where we will have our passport chopped and signed. During the wait(yes another wait), we saw the other coach which ferried an excursion team from the local oversea school scout group. Once the door open, different ages of young boys alighted and carried their "Battle Order" bag pack and among the fine young boys was a young lady. Now who say that young girls are different from boys. After observing them for a while, it was our turn to "chopped and Scan" our passports. Then its off to the bus, but before that is 1 stop to answer the call of nature. And since we are in the Malaysia Territory, the toilets standard are similar to that of the environment. Iris din know that, went in and came out to tell me that the standard of the toilet has the ability to compete with that of the village back in China.
After the custom, the journey begins with 3 stops interval for toilet breaks and some refreshments.
Throughout the journey, we were watching movies and there are so many movies that is not released in Singapore. About 7hrs later, we reached the foot of the highland. We brace ourself for the thrilling ride up the steep and winding road up. As we ascend, the temperature dropped. The turning and winding road made me coach sick, maybe is due to the fact that i did not take enough food. Reached the summit and went straight to queue up again to get the check in number from the check in koisk. At the "lobi" Malaysia pronunciation of lobby, was packed with families and ppl from all around the region. Since there is still an hour or so before our queue number will be called, we proceed to the satisfy our grumbling tummy with Wanton Mee which is an expensive one even if one convert the currency back to sing dollars.