Loving the Roost: July 2008

Petaling Street... always a scrabble of human activity

By the time we were ready to leave last Saturday morning, my friend Brenda had taught Jeshan to say "Chinatown".

We were heading to Petaling Street - Jasmin, Bren, myself and Jeshan - each for their own reasons.

Jas and Bren were merely entertaining my fancy I suppose. I wanted to see if Petaling Street had changed much from over 18 years ago when I used to take the bus from Rawang after school to Pudu Raya (a good hour in a rattling old bus) and then walk to the tuition centre opposite the Klang Bus Stand for extra drilling in the subject of Economics.

I remember how most of us would sleep off in the bus, our mouths agape, and some dripping saliva out of the corners...

From Puduraya, we would have to walk past the stalls in Petaling Street to our destination, always stopping in the hot Friday afternoon for a long cool drink of "Air Mata Kuching".

I wanted to take some shots and just experience the place again - it's been a long time since I ventured there.

The closest I've got in recent years is Peter Hoe's (wonderful place for gifts) which is at the corner opposite Central Market and to the huge flower wholesalers a few blocks down, to look for sweet peas and purple roses for my wedding flower arrangements.

This morning, Jeshan was coming along because he loved going wherever his mummy would take him, and Aunty Brenda had regaled him some fine stories about carts and wheeled stalls selling fruits and flowers and things with lots of colours.

Our first agenda was to find a palatable place to sit and eat. We found a noisy Chinese Coffee Shop in some corner and almost everything we savoured was delicious.

Jeshan had quite a lot of fish balls all to himself, and managed a few bites of ee chak kueh too.
The wanton soup was really nice - the wanton contained prawns and mushrooms - as was the wanton mee and the char siew pau.

Tummies no longer rumbling, we meandered through the heavy traffic of humans, moving stalls, and men carrying racks of shoes on their back.

Petaling Street has not changed much.

Same old, same old.

Only the people manning the stalls are different - more foreigners.

One fella will sell you a Polo t shirt for RM20, another will ask for RM25 for the same one, but if you tell him that the other fella sold it to you for RM18, he will give it to you at RM18 too.

Same old crooks...

The Mata Kuching lady was not there. Too early in the morning I suppose.

Jeshan was all excited as we ventured out into what was new territory for him. He ooohed and aahed at this and that.

He was particularly interested in why little bears were sitting prettily in bouquests of flowers.

He spent some time counting them one by one... he got as far as ten.

Bren happily entertained him, while mum played with her shutters.

We found a pet shop on the way back to the car, much to Jeshan's delight.

He got to see up close and personal all the creatures he was first introduced to in one of those delightful children's VCD's called Kipper - Hamsters, Guinea Pigs and Rabbits.

One of the birds kept saying "Hi" to us, but we couldn't tell which one.

Seeking, exploring, experiencing... what a nice way to spend a Saturday morning.

Flowers