Taiping revisited

On Deepavali day, 02 November 2013 was the beginning of an eventful month where my calendar is full of engagement ceremonies and wedding invitations. I have not been travelling by road northbound for many years and this time I am just a passenger seated next to the driver, where my brother was at the steering wheel. Since the day was the start of a long weekend which began on a saturday and another public holiday falling on the following tuesday, thus the highway was rather congested even though  we left at about ten o'clock in the morning from Kelana Jaya.
                      We stopped for a short break at Tapah rest area at about one o'clock and then had another stop at Kuala Kangsar for lunch. Fortunately it was not raining all the way and we checked in at hotel Seri Malaysia Taiping by 4.30 pm. Since we were quite tired after the long journey, we were contented to have dinner at the hotel's restaurant and furthermore the town was crowded with holiday makers and there was also a gathering of big motor bikers going on for the weekend.
                  The purpose of my trip to Taiping was to be the spokesperson on behalf of my brother for the bethrotal of my nephew to a girl from Changkat Jering, Taiping. So on that sunday 03 November began the hectic calendar of events for me in attending to family and friend's invitations either for engagements ceremony or weddings.The morning sun was quite bright as I looked out of the room window on the ground-floor and I had breakfast by the time the restaurant opened at 7.30 am. My brother and sister-in-law was already at their table enjoying their breakfast. Later on my sisters, brother-in-law and nephew came from their hotel in the middle of the town to join us for breakfast. We had a good tete-a-tete at the breakfast table amidst the growing number of guests streaming into the restaurant. I must say, Seri Malaysia hotel do have a reasonable spread to choose for breakfast. We checked out from the hotel at about 11.45 am, and other relatives of my sister-in-law who came from Kuala Lumpur and other places also assembled at the hotel for the group to depart to Kg. Changkat Jering, about 7 kilometres from Taiping town. We stopped at Masjid Jamek Kg. Changkat Jering to gather all the family members from my nephew's side for the engagement ceremony.
                 The negotiation for the engagement ceremony  went smoothly and without fuss because the spokesperson from the other side coincidentally is the imam of the mosque of Changkat Jering and presumably he wanted to get over it quickly in time for zohor prayer which is just slightly after 1.00 o'clock. After the function was over followed by a kenduri, there was a heavy downpour and we stopped at the Changkat Jering mosque for zohor prayer, as it is not far from the girl's house. By the time the rain began to slow down, we left for home, but as my brother needed a cup of coffee as he was feeling drowsy, we stopped at Kuala Kangsar for a break. The town seemed to be teeming with visitor's judging from the number of tour buses coming to the food-court near the riverside where the jetty for the Perak river cruise is situated. It was quite a feat to find a parking bay near the river front.
                By 5.30 pm we began to leave Kuala Kangsar and entered the North-South highway again. All throughout the drive, there was an endless stream of vehicles going back to the Federal capital and  we stopped at Ladang Bikam lay-by for a short rest. As all the other rest areas were very congested with vehicles, we decided to drive straight home and arrived in Kelana Jaya at about 9.30 pm.