Congratulations to newly WED couple !!

It took the whole journey approximately 3 hours+ from Puchong to Labis, Johor. It was under my sis request to capture below snapshots as she would be including them into her wedding slide show which entitle:

"my journey back to kampung for registration".

And so.......dun get bored, k?

My promised comparison will start here. Actually in order to arrive Labis, one must get through Tangkak first from the highway, then through Bukit Serampang before finally arriving at this 'wild' suburb call Labis. So from Plus Highway, the only exit to take was the Tangkak exit which then leads you to those 'kampung' roads which were super narrow.

Once we exited at Tangkak junction, below were the 2 scenes that flashed by our eyes for nearly an hour. Now I know what Labis & Tangkak are famous for !!!!

Palm Oil estate.

Rubber estate (i didn't even know what's these until my dad told us so)

The unexpected & horrible part of the drive started here. The 'kampung' road was extremely narrow & dangerous.........for those who can't imagine this, they were much much narrower & curvier than those heading to Kuantan & Trengganu (for a comparison)!! Hence my conclusion, it was no doubt that the journey to Labis was more challenging, so .....................

Verdict no. 1: the journey to Labis is more 'kampung' in this sense (as compared to the journey back to Kuala Kedah)!!

Despite the challenges, we finally arrived Labis ard 5pm !

The suburb looks as normal & as equal to other suburbs in Pahang, Kedah & Trengganu!

Verdict no. 2 = tie breaker

We were brought to 'checked into' this double storey terrace house that was booked for our 1 nite stay. We were quite impressive with the clean & neat environment of this house that has 5 rooms. So everyone has a good night sleep..........even our maid has a room ALL by herself, u say lar!! There were extra room bcoz my elder sis didn't make it to the trip as all 3 of her kids were down with sickness!
Check out below pic:........ 'kampung' was well famous & typical with this type of accommodation for outstation guest! It costs RM350 for the entire house i.e. RM75 per room with air-cond, huge fully furnished living & dining hall, fully equipped kitchen, heated bathroom plus ASTRO full channels ahh !!! Everyone took some rest before heading to the wedding party.

Next was the groom's house........it was a corner single storey terrace (size a bit like bungalow)........ looks to me the renovation was done not long ago so the house definitely doesn't qualified as a 'kampung' house.

Verdict no.3 = huby's hometown house was much more 'kampung' indeed, hehehe!!

Below are the 2 host.....the bride & groom. Notice the corsages.....the only indicator that identify the groom, bride & their respective parents coz there were no formal bridal attire!! It was such an amusement that we laughed & made fun of my sis:

ooi, u dressed like that already a "san leong"(/bride) ahh, bwahahaha????? again 'kampung' style!!!

Scot & ..............

Buffet Catering style of wedding dinner..........self-service!

When I was talking about a wed. dinner in a village with an uncle, he commented:

"that the fowl that you will be eating for tea(i.e. dinner) is fresh as it was wandering around under your feet one hour ago"

But too bad, it wasn't such a case at all............nope, no fresh seafood. It was just an ordinary buffet meal like those we used to have in a party (fried mee hoon, fried rice, fish ball, sausages, curry chicken & blablabla)

On the other hand, we were treated with a few exceptionally delicious & lip-smacking salads. We were lucky as Angus (my BIL)'s 2nd elder brother was a chef in KL Shangri-La hotel. He cooks for an Italian restaurant and so... you could well imagine the specialities of those salads. Below was one of them......apply walnut (those in brown) salad. There was another salad & bacon garlic toast which my sis reported were "award winning dishes".............walau ehh, u say we lucky or not??

Thai style salad but photos not doing well

OK, Done with food review, next proceed to entertainment.

I guess it was pretty norm or rather a culture to have a 'karaoke' session in a dinner hosted in any of the suburbs around our country! And the host didn't made an exception. Coincidentally my mom is a "super fan" of singing karaoke. She had & was still attending singing lesson with those "lou see"/singing teacher & participated in various singing competition. So that nite, she was thrilled to be able to showcase her skills.

Her "chan kar" (Angus's mom) was another sociable lady, accompanied my mom during d singing session.

You see, she even initiated the dance session while my mom sang, isn't it fun to have such sporting mom???

Unfortunately, I must mentioned that this culture of karaoke session in wedding dinner has been sort of "banned" in KL wedding dinner especially those held in 5 stars hotel as it was alleged to have deteriorates the "standards/class" of the entire reception which was purportedly to be a "posh" event instead!!

Even my own sis also has d same thinking & will ban this in the reception to be held in KL Concorde Hotel.

But since the 'kampung' style allowed that, the young ones did not hesitate to sing their lungs out. The married couple had a bunch of uni buddies that travelled all the way to celebrate their event in Labis.......just lucky to have such good buddies ehh??

Fortunately, the traditional "yam seng"/toasting session was still practised...................

But I was surprise there wasn't any tea ceremony with the groom's side of relatives. I guess it was merely a dinner treat for the neighbourhood along with an annoucement that their son has steal my sis as his wife! I was made to understood that event 'ang pow' given by guests were rejected by the host......now this is what i called "sincere" treat ehh, u agree?? As for the relatives of the groom, my sis said they will all be "transported" up to KL when the actual full chinese ceremony is held. So that tea offerings would have to wait another 2 months.........

The next morning after the dinner was the primary event i.e. marriage registration. It was done in a Segamat Hakka Association Centre as early as 8:30 in d morning, gosh !!

NICE????

I think the buddies made these for them......fun ehh?

"sure no regret??" "irreversible wan??"

swearing

signing d paper

ring exchange

The memorable event concluded with the bride throwing her hand bouquet !

After my task was done i.e. signing as the "witness" on behalf of my sis, all the guests were treated to the most famous 'bak kut teh' in Segamat!! It was after the brunch, that we left for KL..........

We headed to Melaka for a stop over...........supposingly for a snack/tea! Huby suggested the below place.........it maybe familiar to many coz apparently this place despite not outstanding, was crowded with both tourists & locals!!

Here are my review:

my thirst for this "cendol" was so fulfilled on that hot sunday !!

dissapointed "rojak"

yummillicious "asam fish", my mom loves this so so so much!!

Finally, the "nyonya laksa" was another 'sure to come back' meal..................

As much as we had only wanted some light snack, we just couldn't resist these wonderful delicacies of Melaka..........ooh my stomach, pity you'd worked hard!!

After the 'heavy meal', as it was only abt 1-2pm & we weren't in a rush to head home, we took a stroll at the new Pahlawan Shopping Mall!

Despite a short trip, it was hectic and memorable most importantly! So I ended this long-winded update with "my sweeties" handsome faces..........blek blek :P !!!

more photos are available at flikr !