That lil nice Town/Village/Community Seremban

Over CNY this year, I went to Seremban.

It's not near Taliban ok. No relation whatsoever. This is the friendly liddle town/village Mr Gan came from. Eversince then, I have been calling him kampung boy. He He He..

Mr Gan grew up in this nice little neighbourhood.

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His humble abode.

Serembanese are very jovial, friendly and the society seems close-knitted. It's one of those towns where you almost kinda know one another.

You also here the householders gossiping :" Oh you know, the uncle three doors down is buying a new car for his son.."

"Oh.. you know the auntie at the next few blocks, the one who openned the veggie shop.. her daughter is getting married for the 5th time you know.."

Well, you know.. something like that. Very gossipy little place but people are generally nice. I am actually shocked at how ang-moh, banana, sophisticated (rather), fun, modern yuppie Mr Gan became. Because the place he grew up in is just a very small, comfy town with nice people. No tinge of new-age-ness at all. I was shocked he grew up watching Bay Watch all these.. I mean I thought maybe Mat Yoyo and Asia Bagus.

I grew up in Singapore and England and those places are pretty happening leh.. (Ok, some England kampungs are rather backward actually...sheep and sheep shit all around..) However.... I still didn't watch Bay Watch! I watched Ali G and the Ch 8 Drama Series (Li Nan Xing! Thomas Ong!!.. Terence Cao!! muahs muahs -- when I was 12 lah)

But apparently Serembanese are clever. A lot of them grew up, studied well and became lawyer/doctor, etc in Singapore. Malaysia boleh, heh?

Anyway, funny place Malaysia. It's the land of Protons.

As you know, Proton and Perodua sell the cheapest cars in Malaysia due to its no-govt tax advantage. Cause they are of local productions. At least up 'til recent times.

So Malaysians rather got the Protonzzz cause it's way cheaper than Toyota/Honda or ..BMW lagi worse. Forget it... The govt tax all these imported cars crazily... to of course push the sales of their own car production lah..

SOOOOOOOOO...

Welcome to the roads of Seremban.. in fact, anywhere in Malaysia should look like this..

I see Proton..

Proton..Wira

Proton.. Satria

Proton.. Saga..

Oh.. Kancil..

Perodua..

Proton...

AH... Proton...

Protonzzzz galoreee..

I wonder if the bus also Proton one...

By the way, I am also sitting inside a Proton...

And gasp!

When I happen to find a Toyota or Honda.. like even Vios.. 'I'd be like:" WOW!!"

They look like beemers in Malaysia.. among the swarms of Protons.

And when you really find a beemer or Merz...

I'd go.."Damn....Think today can buy 4D"

Buying a Proton is like having a lucky dip. If you're lucky.. you get a pretty OK product, if you're not lucky, you get a crap one.. So... I mean, it's cheap.. so.. you better be lucky.

Recently, due to AFTA- Asian Free Trade Agreement, Proton no longer has this ' low tax - cheap-pricing' priviledge.

Toyotas and Hondas and whatnots have gone down in price by loads. Because the government can no longer tax them as much as their asses like.

So now more people are buying Japanese cars and less Protons.. So.. yeah.. Protons and their company motto of "CORRUPTION Boleh" may not survive this phase. They tried tying up with a few giants like Peugeot lah.. VW lah.. but please... if Protons are not gonna let go of their management, noone is gonna work with them and their wonderful "EVERYTHING BOLEH" business strategies..

Och Well...Am I gonna get into trouble for blogging about public secrets? Och Och...

Enough about Protons, they were such sore sights already.. and the protons were so old.. amazing they can still be driven around.... really not used to the scene, cause in Singapore, we are spoiled with views of such new nice cars and very little old-beat-up cars...

CNY at Grandma's...

For the first day, we drove down to Kuala Pilah, a place that is smaller, lesser known and less developed than Seremban itself. Forget the scenery lah. But it's family gathering time. Meeting them after a long year is all that matterred.

The Gans, whom I also call THe Guns...

Dear, you son of a gan.. =) He would nod and go :" Yeapp.. True.."

Check it out!

A KFC leh!!!!!!!!!

His grandma's house is humongous with 10 rooms.

Got swing..

Got chickens...

Got abundance of food... home cooked traditional Hokkien CNY pot luck!

There were almost 10 aunties and 10 uncles and dozens of cousins sorrounding me.
Goodness me...


















These are Alice, his cousin, Suyin his sister and me, his mistresssss




















Below is Trilogy.. apparently...

Gasp!


NUMBER 1 CLUB in Seremban!

It's small but it's not too bad actually, they played prety up-to-date RnB/Hip hop stuffs.

Lidat also impressed me liao!

This is Suyin and Keane, Gan's best man. The coolest AH BENG Ever.

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So we sat around a for awhile, spending our angpao money... on beers....
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The next day we went Church with the Gans.

I used to think that the primary problem me and Gan will ever have is our stark religious differences.

I was worried that he was a Christian. Thank Goodness he belongs to the open-minded, respectful to others, non-evangelistic, non-preaching Christians. Else I would have left long ago.

But we kinda talked it out. He even stood up for me in front of his family. He understood that we need to respect each other. I respect his roots and he does mine.

My family to his and his family to mine.

So we are drawing a line in the middle. And we agreed that they should all wash their hands off when it comes to raising our own kids.

This was the view outside the cosy little church we went to.

CNY Mee-Suah..

Below is a vegetarian mee suah, apparently it's a tradition in Seremban to eat this during CNY.
It's unique but rather too bland for me.

The home made Achar is SHIOK! Eat with the small krupuks...

Ah... we tried this too... Ostrich food... eh salah!.....Ostrich meat. taste a bit like beef, a bit like duck.

We went down for Karaoke later on at night and blimey..

I met or I saw.. Sin Huey's poster outside the KTV.

My friend really getting very famous ley....

Everywhere I go, I see her face.... Ah.. she's gone a long way =)

We also checked out this pub along ERA walk which is supposed to be a trendier, newer hangout area.




















We saw one resembling Mdm Wong. It was called Mdm Leong.

The owner apparently was involved in several night spot projects in Singapore including Cafe Del Mar and MOS. We played Chinese Chess there, over beer and I beat Mr Gan's ass hand down. He's lousssyyyyyyyyyy.........=p
Mdm Leong had nice lanterns and apparently they cost a bomb.























This is Keane and me. Keane is coming down to Singapore this weekend.

We are all going for a wedding dinner. I am there to grab/fight for the bouquet. Heh Heh.

And that was Seremban...
I spent about 4 days there. There was an air of homeliness all around. You would miss it almost afetr you leave the place.



Next in line was Jakarta. Gan and me were flying off the next morning.

Jakarta is a whole different story. Jakarta is a slumpolitan.

Heh hehz....

OKi dokie.. I am gonna have lunch with a stock broker now, to check how strong his heart is. It may turn into a chicken and duck conversation but hey.. I am here to learn.

I shall blog Jakarta soon.

Ta..