I’ve never had a proper small town kopitiam brekkie, which meant the next morning saw us going to Yut Loy yet again. It was still shut when we arrived at nine, much to our dismay. I asked one of the staff of the neighbouring restoran mamak, who was kind enough to go to the backdoor of Yut Loy making enquiries. I doubt you’d find this level of courtesy in KL. We were the first customers of the day and had our breakfast made by Ah Loke himself. My dad loved the kopi – in his opinion, the best kopi he’s ever had in his years of trying the Hainanese stuff. Both of us wished that we had ordered more roti bakar with kaya, though. We were there for a good hour and a bit, savouring the slow pace of a Kuala morning. I could do this all day, really. None of this fast-paced hypertension-inducing crap that you get back home.
It was a beautiful sunny morning and we headed back to Chandan for our postponed ziarah. I remembered that the mausoleum wasn’t as neat as it is now. We knew where to head for despite the absence of signage – which hopefully will be set up when the time comes.
It was fortuitous to have met a few distant cousins in the short span of time we had in the morning. One came all the way from Ipoh and two others met up with us at the mausoleum. I just wished I had more time to labun/sogheh and there were a few more people that I would loved to have met. It’s just my nature that I don’t feel right just going up to one’s door and go, “Hey, you don’t know me but we are related”, even though I have been reassured many times that it wouldn’t be much of a hassle. We drove around Jalan Istana and Jalan Raja Muda, finding it bizarre that I knew the main landmarks despite not being a resident, thanks to my involvement at SembangKuala. Well, unless someone takes the trouble of repainting the houses (they go by the names of Rumah Merah/Kuning/Hitam etc!).
Whilst we may have covered the sites that I wanted to see, two days ain’t enough to soak it all in. A return visit appears inevitable.
