A Merdeka Outing

It is the 31st August 2014, so a very resolute 57th year of Merdeka! 'Di sini bermula sebuah cinta'.

So much for making plans to be at Dataran Merdeka to watch the parade in the morning. We were up late the night before so there was no way it would be an early morning the next day. So for the umpteenth time now I had to watch the parade on TV. Sheesh!

But anyway, I was adamant about making it a memorable day. So when M suggested we go to KLCC by bus from Ampang, I thought what the heck, why not? Let's leave the car behind and take public transport. The bus fare is only RM1 to, but as we discovered later, RM2 fro. Did that sentence come out correct?

We walked to the bus stand and caught a RapidKL bus to (Suria) KLCC. In the bus the passengers were mostly loud Arab women and their more subdued men.  When we got there we headed for the Aquaria but there was a long queue so we ruled it out. So also the Petronas twin towers observation deck because it was fully booked for the day. So we chose to ... lepak. We lepak-d with a very cosmopolitan crowd in front of the Symphony Lake of the KLCC Park. People-watching here was fun because it seemed like the whole world has converged on to Kuala Lumpur and spending this Sunday evening here. In between the lepak-ing, we browsed the bookshop*, had tea/coffee at Dome, and later a light dinner of my favourite Caesar salad at Chinoz on the Park before going back.

We wanted to take a taxi but instead hopped onto a rickety, old Metro bus (because it beckoned!) to get back to our destination. In the bus it felt like one was in Indonesia, because nearly all the passengers were Indonesians. In fact one (Indonesian) passenger also took it upon himself to shout out destinations as we went along. Somehow I couldn't help feeling 'foreign' in the bus. Anyway its great to be hoi polloi "the many" in a very cosmopolitan Malaysia. Merdeka!

*At Kinokuniya I bought the only copy of Nigel Slater's Toast that they held, a sweet and 'warm' memento of 31st August 2014.