Malaysia 2006: Day 4
The immediate families are busy preparing for the reception that night at the Westin. Quick breakfast-- both dry kaoy teow and soup kaoy teow noodles, plus some other stuff-- then Kean's extended family and Jianhui's family were left with the driver, Sophia, and myself, at the Bird Park. Lots of stuff to see, lots of fun. The collection of peacocks and mccaws was particularly impressive, especially seeing so many of them flying (relatively) free. It's a bit hard to describe properly-- suffice it to say, the Bird Park is divided into something like 5 large areas and houses a fairly impressive collection.
The driver and a hired taxi then took us to KL Tower, which offers the best view of Kuala Lumpur-- the observation deck is around 335 meters high, which is considerably higher than the sky bridge (the highest tourists are allowed to go) on Petronas Towers. Sophia has an excellent series of shots from KL Tower in every direction-- and each window has signs pointing out major objects of interest when you are looking through it. Find a clear day and the view would probably be amazing. The audio tour of KL Tower is well done in almost a dozen languages, although it was odd wandering around with everyone in sight wearing headphones and a video monitor.
Another taxi was hired, then the taxi and the driver took all of us to Kean's dad's work. The taxi was dismissed, and upon discovering that we had not had lunch yet, Kean's mom and dad (2 cars!) took us back to Cheras for a Cantonese-style lunch at a local restaurant, then took Sophia and I back to downtown KL to meet Kean and Jianhui in the bridal suite to prepare for the wedding. (important side note, lunch was extremely familiar to what I've eaten many times. I'd have to say it was fairly authentic... boiled lettuce, gai lan, roast chicken, roast duck... Sophia said it was very different than what she's used to.)
Once we arrived-- an hour late, oops!-- Sophia and Cassandra began frantic finishing touches on their program for the reception, everyone showered, the make-up artists arrived, and things really began to buckle down and get serious. The rest of the family was left behind with Kean's mom and dad-- when they arrived an hour later, things got really busy. Turns out Kean forgot his tux shirt, one of his sisters forgot her shoes, and a slew of last-minute purchases had to be made. My supply of sour gummi worms also got decimated by hungry people in the process.
Just minutes before 8:00pm, we rushed down to the ballroom to being the reception/banquet. Much running-around ensured, last-minute table seating changes had to be made, and then things got started.
The introduction to the meal was done in dramatic fashion, with the lights dimmed, the music going, and the servers "appearing" next to each table as the lights came back on. Felt kind of like a science-fiction or mystery movie.
Food was tasty but not terribly memorable compared to what we had been eating from street vendors, but the presentaton and service were excellent-- waaaaay better than a cheap plastic plate on a plastic table outside! *grins* Too bad we had so little time to eat our food-- everytime a new course came, they took your old plate, and if you were off doing a toast or taking pictures, too bad! *stomach growls* The champange pouring ceremony was marred by difficulties with the corks, the cake-cutting was only simulated (!), the live music was good, and the speeches and speakers were quite entertaining. Kean's friends had a ton of fun-- particularly with singing on stage-- while, well, I wish I could retell everything that was going on! In a 360 person wedding it was difficult enough to keep track of what was happening at the main table, let alone the rest of the wedding.
Evidently some of Kean's friends hadn't seen each other in a long time, as we did quite a bit of seating and table shuffling as the night progressed. They clarified quite a bit of what was going on for me, at least, so I didn't feel as lost. =) There were a pair of projectors displaying pictures-- some as recent as the day before-- on the walls, which further added to the enjoyment.
More pictures were taken as the night went on, and alcohol continued to flow. As the reception closed, those left (family and friends, maybe 20 or 30?) moved up to the bridal suite, where the fun continued. Before the end of the night, we discovered Kean had requested part of the banquet saved and brought up as room service. I think we were unusually impressed by that. (ok, maybe it was just me?