THE Rest Stop

Hakam and I travelled back home to KL this morning, with me picking him up at about 7am.  I had wanted to leave earlier but he was a little late; he's currently serving as a policeman and had to respond to a call that came in just near the end of his duties.  Much as I would like to get irritated with us commencing our journey later, I can hardly do so when he's serving the country, with me having also gone through National Service myself and knowing.

What was really irritating was the rest stop along the NS Highway that we broke for our breakfast.  I remember Dad (in-law) telling me rest stops have returned to their roots, of sorts. Back when there was no omnibus highway linking Malaysia from the south all through to the north, rest stops along the main trunk roads were stops where little bazaars were held, local produce sold.  Dad even said you could buy pottery at some of them.

When the NS Highway was built, rest stops along the way became a necessity and were clinical in function.  In recent years, I can see they have been spruced up, and even substantially renovated.  The one at Ayer Keroh also had a Ramadan bazaar recently.  We came to this one for our breakfast:

Really looks impressive from the outside, and within as well - air-conditioned food court, escalators, down-lights.  But wait...

What was not to be was the food here.  We were both hungry and were looking forward to a substantive meal.  Ignoring the Malay stalls (don't know why though), we went to a Indian Muslim stall selling roti canai (or roti prata as the Sporeans would call it).  We asked for rice and paired it with a piece of fried chicken each.  When we asked what else was available (ie what were the vegetable dishes available..) there were none.  So it was mutton in thick curry.  As we sat and ate, Hakam said his portion of mutton had not been de-furred properly.  I did not know whether to laugh but he certainly did.  I was having problems with my mutton as well because the cook had tried to mask the inability to whip up a tasty dish with a large dose of curry powder.  This wasn't the last of things because there were flies swarming all around the food court at this rest stop - something that ought never to happen in an air-conditioned environment.  Hakam and I concluded this was probably the worst rest stop experience in all our years of travel along the NS Highway.

I was so caught up with the whole experience that I left my coin pouch behind in our haste to depart.  Walking out, Hakam fished out his smokes and I had half a mind to ask for one as well, just to get rid of the taste of the awful food we just had.

We promptly called home as our car was pulling out of the rest stop, not to report about the adventure but to ask what Mom was cooking this afternoon.  Absolutely nothing beats that.