my visit to Padang

hello i have returned from my hometown- Padang! wew. so many things happened even though it was just a 3-days visit only. i am happy to be able to blog it because some of them are quite funny.

on the 12th, mum and i arrived at night, around 9 or so. dad came to fetch us back and before we went home, dad brought us to eat satay near a mesjid. mosque. for a roadside stall, it should be awarded a five-star award! tasted even better than the ones at Harum Manis. mum and dad ate all the gravy, with the help of some crackers. as for me, i used a teaspoon to sip the gravy. it's THAT good. yum.
every night at Padang, i almost suffered because the room was stuffy, to me and mami. also, we had to use the blanket because the mosquitoes are always hungry for blood in Padang. but papi refused to lower the temperature because he felt that it's freezing already.
=.=

the following day, 13th, mum and i went to church, together with ako. i am surprised to see that the condition of the church place has much improved than the last time i been there. instead of a small area with crowded chairs and few people taking up the front seats, there was double of that area with double the chairs and triple the people. many of the congregation are not chinese. supposedly muslim. still, they were present then at a christian ceremony. so glad to see God moving in Padang! Hallelujah! but i noticed that my Mickey Mouse watch was missing at that time! Noooooo!
after church, we went to eat at Harum Manis. the being reason is not to eat actually. but the toilet. well, ako needed to go. i ordered Sate Desi only because early in the morning, i had eaten Indomie.
when we finished, i went to Yanie Salon to cut and curl my hair. digital perm. Rp 250,000.00 How cheap is that! that is why i always go to Yi-yi Beng-Wah. the process took me 4 long hours. while waiting for my hair to set, i continued reading 'Kite Runner'. it was nice.
before returning home, mami suggested that we buy durians. well, she did. 2. was she happy!
something happened while we almost reached home. we witnessed an accident, involving a motorcycle and a car. of course, the motorcycle had the most injuries. not only was his bike overturned, the bread that he carried scattered on the ground. he was not spared either, thrown onto the floor. almost instantly, people from all kinds of direction came rushing towards him and carried him into the car, while others helped to pick up the packets of bread on the road. all three of us uttered words of shock inside our own car.
at night, papi bought for us Nasi Goreng Petai. delicious delicious. made my mouth water with every bite that i take. if you haven't tried it, don't claim you know Padang well.
that night, i couldn't sleep well again.

on the 14th, we ate at Harum Manis. this time i ordered Mie Pangsit. maybe it's because i had not eaten it for a long time, but it tasted so superb! man, i should have eaten more of this last time.
then, mum brought me to the market. again, people claimed that my mum looked like my sister. many were shocked that i had grown so big. not big as in fat, but mature. it was raining so we rushed through the market. the one good thing about going to Pasar Tanah Kongsi is that since many people knew my mum there and she could speak minang well, they were making lovely and funny conversations with my mum. i remained silent because most of the time, i was still trying to find out what they were talking about.
=.=
something happened too at the market. it was when mum and i were selecting some terung pirus. i was squatting down to rest and choose when suddenly, a motorcycle zoomed behind us and crashed. we quickly turned around and were shocked to see a woman on the ground. many helped her up. thankfully, she could stand up on her own. she said that she was trying to pick up her money that had dropped onto the ground. but because the degree that the motorcycle had turned was more than it should have, the whole thing went out of hand. the stall that it crashed to was one of my mum's friend's. he is a fruit-seller and has quite a charming smile. both mum and him always teased one another in a funny and friendly way. i wondered whether mum has developed any special feelings for him or not. i hope not. the small accident caused the motorcycle to lose its plate number. so that fruit seller held it up above the head and told everyone to buy lucky-draw tickets that has the numbers on the plate. that sent everyone roaring with laughter.
then om pian fetched us from the market. strange thing. i didn't see on kenek during my stay. i heard from papi that he wasn't happy working with us anymore. disappointing. anyway, mum bought fishes near the Padang beach. we drove along the beaches and i was happy to see that the road along the beach had extended by twice the before.
for lunch, we ate at Samudera Jaya. we ordered its famous curry fish, black pepper crab and kangkong terasi. i had the most wonderful time eating it. also, i met my long lost friend Friska. she had grown fatter than the last time i saw her. taller though. we also promised to keep in touch.
for dinner, we ate at Apollo. since we were still full from the meal before, we ordered little. mum and i shared one rice portion. in addition, we also ordered sup kepiting, ikan belado and sabu-sabu tahu. it turned out that we ordered the wrong kind of tahu as expected. well, we ate it anyways.
that night, i had more mosquito bites.

the last day of my visit, i woke up after mum and dad left the house for breakfast. i already asked them to buy for me Mie Pangsit before they left and then, i fell asleep again.
when i woke up, i ate and packed the luggage.
after bathing, mum and i went to buy food to bring to S'pore. first we stopped at Cik Elok to buy their jaring and then, we ate at Sederhana. dad came later than us. when i tried the food, i was surprised at how good their ayam kelio is. mum and dad told me that this restaurant has the best of it. yummm. i also tried the ayam pop there. it tasted funny though. unlike the normal ones. mum said it's because of the oil that they used.
after that, i visited the saloon again. this time to colour my hair. it took me two and a half hour altogether. again, i read my storybook. the story was getting more and more interesting with every page i turned.
mum came to fetch me and made payments. then, we went to buy food at Martabak Kubang and Martabak Manis. the chocolate and cheese martabak always tastes good!
then Nasi Kapau at Semalam Suntuk.
then, we visited En-Kim in her shop. she was gift-wrapping for these two girls. she knew their names well and were making friendly conversations. i guess they were her frequent customers. mum said that she was pregnant, in her fourth month now. i noticed that her tummy has bulged, bigger than before. thinking of it, i think to myself. woah, oma has gained herself another grandchild! how happy she must have been! then, mum and i unloaded plastics of fruits and old clothes from our home for En Kim's children to use. unfortunately, there were no more baby clothes since all of them have been given to other people. minutes after we chatted, Tian came back home from school. he was so shy and had become more handsome than before. he looks so much like his father, including the bunny teeth.
and then we returned home and get ready for departure, back to S'pore, my second home.