Meeting #teammalaysia 跟馬來西亞朋友線下聚會

Some of you may know that I blog on another platform called Steemit.  Normally, I like to keep platform specific posts separate as they don’t mean much to followers on the other platform.  I’m going to make an exception with this post, as I want to share with my WordPress followers, how online friends can develop into real life friends.  I would love for this to happen on WordPress as well.

Steemit is a platform that rewards content creators for posting, and currently there is a plugin called Steempress that automatically posts from WordPress to Steemit which makes it even more convenient.  If you want to find out more about Steemit, you can check out my profile here or feel free to drop me a comment.

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One of the highlight of my recent KL trip was to meet up with some of the #teammalaysia members. In fact, I had not one, but two meetups while I was there.

上星期去馬來西亞旅行，其中一個亮點是跟馬來西亞的Steemians見面。 而亮亮點是跟另外兩位@ladiesofasia的朋友@Elizacheng 和 @jrvacation 的 J 見面。 從聚會中我完全可以感受到#teammalaysia們的團結，融洽和歡樂， 非常有幸能夠參與他們的活動。

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The first one was a lunch catch up with @elizacheng @kaerpediem and @khimgoh. I first came across the two latter ladies when I was invited by Team MY recently to go on their weekly radio show to talk about my latest project LadiesOfAsia. The girls had arranged to meet up for lunch already and @elizacheng ask if I wanted to join. I couldn’t think of a reason not to. The point with meeting up for lunch is that you can sense the friendship that has developed between the girls, from an online virtual relationship to a real life “hey lets catch up for lunch next week” bond. You don’t need a reason for a Steemit meet up. In fact, I could also sense the effort they made. @kaerpediem worked nearby but walked something like ten minutes in the hot scorching summer mid day. @elizacheng drove over in the rather notorious Friday traffic. And @khimgoh’s company was moving office that day, everything was a bit chaotic as you can imagine. She was busy trying to sort out everything and was a bit late, but she still came, because … well I guess that’s what friends do. I’m so privileged to be part of your little lunch catch up ladies, and thank you for treating me.

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The main meetup was the following evening, arranged by @elizacheng and @zord189. I was really looking forward to this as @jrvacation was coming over from Singapore as well. J from @jrvacation, @elizacheng and myself are all part of @LadiesOfAsia (there’s 8 of us in total) so we were going to have our mini LOA meetup!!!  Here’s @elizacheng, myself, and @J from @jrvacation.

At 7pm @elizacheng messaged me and said she’d arrived and was waiting for a table. I immediately went into panic mode. Wasn’t dinner at 7.30pm?? Did I misread the message? Now I’m going to be late meeting my new friends!! How embarrassing!! Then she told me the restaurant didn’t take reservations so she arrived a bit earlier to get a large table and order the food for us. Phew! And how thoughtful of her.

When I arrived, @elizacheng was there was her eldest @halleyleow who look just like a mini @elizacheng.  Then she introduced me to Isaac but didn’t mention who Isaac was,  maybe her husband? But I thought she said he wasn’t coming. Then I realized he was @zord189!!! How was I supposed to know!! Anyway, it was great meeting him at last, as I already knew him from before #teammalaysia and he’s the only person I have spoken to on Discord. Then the rest of the gang arrived, @littlenewthings, @jrvacation (they’re actually two in one if you don’t know them), and @orangila, @aaronleang and @joannewong later on.

Dinner was at a local claypot rice restaurant somewhere.  I’m told this is quite a rough and old area of town, yet this is where you get the best claypot rice in KL.  This is the outside of the restaurant and all the claypot rice is cooked on these charcoal stoves.  Just look at the sparks from the charcoal stoves crackling away.

You have the option of chicken and/or preserved meat as the topping. The yummy topping and the cooking method is what makes the rice so yummylicious (I stole this word off @elizacheng,  just love it). Each pot of rice takes about half an hour to cook and takes a lot of skill to perfect. You need to make sure all the rice is cooked thorougly but the outer layer lining the pot isn’t burnt or too dry. Since @elizacheng got there a bit earlier, she had ordered the rice already, and by the time everyone had arrived and we had done with pleasantries and group photo, the rice was just ready. Perfect timing.

As we lifted the lid off the pots we could immediately smell the aroma from the contents that came with a bit of charcoal fragrant. As usual the mobile phones and camera gets the first taste of the food. Then normal dinner etiquette with new friends flew out of the window and we all dug into the yummy food, chatting happily with one another.

The restaurant was very busy on the Saturday evening. Although the owner was very friendly, she started to give us subtle hints to leave once we were finished as the queue was building up outside. We were fine with that as we had plans for our next stop – dessert.

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Dessert was about 5 minutes drive away at an old dessert shop that specializes in traditional Chinese desserts such as sesame paste, peanut paste almond paste. These ingredients are grounded into a paste and then cooked under low heat. The consistency is like a thick milkshake and can be quite filling.

The shop is in its fourth generation now, they’re so confident of their products that according to their menu, you don’t have to pay if you’re not satisfied. They call themselves the King of Chi Ma Wu (the Chinese name for sesame paste) and although I’m not normally a fan of sesame paste, I thought there’s no way I’m going to pass on this. It was a thumbs up from me.

 

 

A couple of the others ordered a mixture of two paste and when they were served, we all whipped out our phones and camera again. We’ve all seen latte art, but dessert paste art was definitely a first for many of us!!

Before I went to Malaysia, I’ve heard of the famous meetups that #teammalaysia have.  The multiple rounds of yummylicious food, the fun and banter and the great time they have.  I’m so glad that I was able to join one of their gatherings. I think this photo sums up the great time we had that evening.  Thanks #teammalaysia for your wonderful hospitality!!

Unless stated, all photos are taken by myself.