Raya Haji in Kota Bharu with lots of eating!

For the recent Hari Raya Aidil Adha, we celebrated it in Kota Bharu with my mum, my sister, Chik, and my brother, Ayis. My sister, Lin, decided to celebrate this raya in Kuala Lumpur instead. My brother, Azan, couldn’t get away from college as he had exams to prepare for right after the raya.

For the trip back to Kota Bharu this time around, we flew Air Asia. I had bought the tickets some two months ago in order to get the cheaper fare. The flight was at 7.30am, and since we have not flown Air Asia for a very long time, we were a little bit anxious for a number of reasons.

One, the distance to travel to LCCT was further than the main terminal at KLIA. We weren’t sure whether to take the cab or drive and park there. I was worried that the taxi might be late picking us up (I had that happening to me once, and I ended up having to drive to the airport at the last minute in panic!) since it would have to pick us up at the wee hours of the morning in order for us to be in time to catch the flight. In the end, we decided to drive and park.

Two, we were concerned as to how early we needed to be at the airport to check in on time knowing how long the queues were at LCCT. That concern, however,  was solved for us by Air Asia themselves when they introduced web check-in in November. Though I was nervous, I checked-in online without much of a hassle two days before the trip. Now I needed to find out how we were going to check-in our baggage as nothing was mentioned at the Air Asia site as to how to go about checking-in your baggage once you have checked-in online.

Luckily a friend, Sabariah, who travels on Air Asia almost every other month, told me that there is a drop baggage counter to check-in the baggage for those who have checked-in online. True enough, at the airport, the drop baggage counter was shorter and faster than the check-in counter, and things went through smoothly, but we did get to the airport very early as we just did not want to take any risks as we weren’t familiar with the new system.

We got into the departure lounge with enough time to have breakfast, a very expensive breakfast, I might add, even though it was just two packets of Nasi Lemak, 2 pieces of muffins, 2 cups of very strong black coffee and one cup of milo.

Air Asia is really charging us left and right for every single thing possible! I bet if they can charge us for the stools we sat on by the minute, they would! LOL!

When we arrived in Kota Bharu, my mum took us for another round of breakfast at this Hover Restaurant for Nasi Dagang and Nasi Berlauk.

It was nice, but I still prefer my mum’s Nasi Berlauk anytime!

Anyway, thanks, Ma, for the breakfast!

Before heading back to my mum’s place, we dropped by KENARI VILLA, my mum’s guest house.

It’s all so nicely done up.

She even sewed some of the curtains herself, and there were these two comforters that had a fleece blanket for a backing to give the comforters more cosiness.

I just love the motifs for both the comforters. They make the room look so comfy and welcoming.

While we were there, we helped her get the bed ready for one of the rooms as my mum was expecting a guest to come in on the 18th of November.

As soon as we got to my mum’s house, with the exception of my son who had a cousin to play PSP with, my hubby and I immediately hit the pillows as we were really sleepy from getting up in the wee hours of the morning, and not sleeping well the night before for fear that we might oversleep! LOL!

For lunch, my mum brought us to this tourist place which serves food kampong style complete with ulam-ulam and budu.

It was yummy, but it still can’t beat my mum’s cooking, even the simplest ones!

The evening was spent helping my mum preparing some raya food to serve for the next day.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant just below my mum’s condo.

I don’t know if I had made a wrong choice in the food, but my order of Mee Bandung looked nothing like the Mee Bandung I am familiar with. Instead of the gravy being thick and kind of curry like in colour and texture, this particular Mee Bandung had light pink gravy which can easily be mistaken for plain water with some pink colouring.

I know I like pink, but pink gravy? This is simply ridiculous!

The taste was, err.....definitely nothing Mee Bandung like. But, as I was hungry, I just dived in, and tried to enjoy the meal. But, when I accidentally bit on a Cili Api, that did it for me! I simply lost my appetite to eat further, not that I had an appetite to begin with when I saw the pink gravy. LOL! Never before in my life have I eaten Mee Bandung with Cili Api! Where in the world did this chef learn his cooking from! LOL!

Even my hubby’s order of Cantonese Fried Mee was nothing like the usual Cantonese Mee we were used to.

It was more like Mee Hailam instead. Did the chef got all his recipes mixed up? LOL!

The next day, for Raya, my mum served Satay, Nasi Impit, Kuah Kacang, Gulai Ayam, Roti Jala, and Ketupat. Yummy!

My contribution was a Carrot Cake flown all the way from Kuala Lumpur.

We had this meal all day that day. *grin*

My sister came over with her family and we had a great time talking about the future of our kids!

The next day, my brother, Ayis, left for early for his drive back to Kuala Lumpur.

We, in turn, went over for a morning tea/late breakfast (we had our breakfast at my mum’s place already) at my sister’s house.

She served us English breakfast of oatmeal scones which was really nice, especially since they were freshly taken out of the oven. Yummy!

We came back to my mum’s place to have lunch of Gulai Ayam, Fried Kangkong, Ikan Singgang, Jeruk Mame’, beef rendang, ulam-ulam and Budu! Yummier!

Soon, before we know it, it was time for us to start packing our bags for our trip back to Kuala Lumpur.

We had a great time celebrating raya with my mum, sister, brother, nieces and nephews. We just love the food and just can’t seem to have enough of my mum’s cooking.

Thanks, Ma, for everything! Hugs!