Restoran Wadi Hadramawt

If you drive along Jalan Ampang from KLCC towards Ampang, you will notice a restaurant decorated with colourful stained glass windows on your left side. This restaurant is Restoran Wadi Hadramawt. Wadi hadramawt or Wadi Hadhramawt is a region near the southern coast of the Arab peninsular stretching from Yemen proper to Oman.  The region now is part of the Republic of Yemen. So, obviously this is a Yemeni restaurant.

The name Wadi Hadhramawt does not sound very auspicious.  Mawt or maut means death in the Arabic and Malay language. Hadhramawt (حضرموت) literally means "Death has come!". Wadi (وادي) means valley. One theory is that the region is named after a nickname of Amar bin Qahtan, meaning "death has come", the reason being that whenever he entered a battle, there were always many people who died.

The people of Hadhramaut are called Hadhramis. The Hadhramis live in densely built towns centered on traditional watering stations along the wadis. Since the early 19th century, large-scale Hadhramaut migration has established sizable Hadhrami minorities in South and South East Asia, namely Hyderabad, Bhatkal, Malabar, Java, Sumatra, Malacca and Singapore. The Hadhramis' visible legacies in Johor Bahru are the Arabic names of places such as Wadi Hana and Wadi Hassan in areas populated by this Arab community. This Arab community yielded significant influence on the culture of Johor which apparent in art performances like Zapin and Hamdolok, musical instruments like gambus.

Several Indonesian ministers, including former Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and former Finance Minister Mari'e Muhammad are of Hadhrami descent, as is the former Prime Minister of East Timor Marí Alkatiri. Hadhramis have also settled along the East African coast, and two former ministers in Kenya, Shariff Nasser and Najib Balala, are of Hadhrami descent.

We usually associate stained glass with windows of Christian churches. In fact, coloured glass has been produced since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at the manufacture of small coloured glass objects. Stained glass was also used by Islamic architects in Southwest Asia by the 8th century. Buildings with stained glass looks colourful especially at night.

The restaurant was decorated with Arabic furnishing and pictures of various cities in Wadi Hadramawt. From the windows, I could see many Sheesha smoke pipe too.

When we heard of Yemen, we always have an impression that Yemen is a poor country located in the Middle East with little oil. However, Yemen was once a culturally and technologically advanced place.

Al Mukalla is the capital city of the Hadramaut coastal region in the southern part of Yemen on the Gulf of Aden.

The Old Walled City of Shibam in Wadi Hadhramaut, inscribed by UNESCO in 1982, two years after Yemen joined the world heritage organisation, is nicknamed "Manhattan of the Desert", because of its "skyscrapers". Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city is one of the oldest examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. As the world's oldest skyscraper city, Shibam has been in existence for almost 1,700 years. More photo of Shibam here :- http://www.traveladventures.org/continents/asia/shibam.shtml.

The ancient Old City of Sanaa at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet has been inhabited for over two and a half millennia and was inscribed in 1986 by UNESCO as world heritage site. Sanaa became a major Islamic centre in the 7th Century and the 103 mosques, 14 hammams (traditional bath houses) and more than 6,000 houses that survive all date from before the 11th Century.

On the wall of the restaurant, there is also a phot of the restaurant owner, who is an Yemen citizen with Malaysia's former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former prime minister of Malaysia visited Wadi Hadramawt during his visit to the Republic of Yemen, in recognition of the prominent role played by the people of Hadramowt in the dissemination of the Islamic religion in the State of Malaysia and other countries in South-East Asia.

The menu of this Yemeni restaurant is not much different from other Arab restaurants you find in Malaysia.

This dish is called Teboulah, not much different from hummus that you will find in most Arab restaurants. The bread is a bit different from Lebanese bread though.

Tea as usual is served in a small glass like most Middle East restaurant. However, the tea is different from our teh tarik. Spices were added into the tea.

One of the Arab dish I like most is Lamb Mandy. The lamb has been pressure-cooked to the extent that it taste like pork rib. But there was no more Lamb Mandy, but Lamb Haneez and Lamb Madghout were still available. So, I ordered Lamb Haneez. What are the difference between Mandy, Haneez and Madghout? There were all long grain Basmatti rice cooked with saffron and raisins.

My friend Azam ordered Chicken Mandy. See! There do not seem to be any difference in the rice served. The chicken was also pressure-cooked I guess. It was really soft. Most Arab restaurant roast their chicken instead. But both taste good.

Dip for the meat.

Lentil soup. We ordered some Baqlawa as dessert. Some Arab restaurant serve extremely sweet Baqlawa, but this one is just nice. Not too sweet. All these came up to about RM54. Not really expensive I would say. If you are thinking of having Arab food, this is one restaurant that I would highly recommend.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Last Monday, I took part in the team building activity organized by the School of EEE to climb the Bukit Timah hill. We met in T12 car park at 8:00 am. To be frank, climbing a hill on a Monday morning was really a great way to start the week. Breakfast was provided. Sorry, no buffet. It was only a piece of sandwich, a piece of cake, biscuits and banana. Each of us was provided a bottle of plain water and a bottle of pocari.sweat.

We started the journey at 8:30am and arrived in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve at 9:00am. My good friend Mike Wong was sitting next to me. Mike Wong is our official camera man. I heard that he joined another group the week before and had problem climbing to the summit. Mike Wong and Lim Yuen Siong thought that I would not be able to climb to the summit. Ms Shen even said "I really wonder how you could climb to the top". Well! Thank you very much for their encouragements.

After arriving, everybody was busy snapping photo and looking around at the entrance. The few people who jogged there look at our group in amazement. We were blocking the entrance and people could not even get pass our group. With ninety of us entering the forest, I guess the monkeys really had to go into hiding that day. Really, I did not see a single monkey throughout the trip.

There is a visitor centre at the entrance of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. There is an information counter and exhibition of the history, flora and fauna of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

The last tiger was shot in 1930s. So, you can be sure that there is no more tiger in the hill.

Kai Meng and Mrs Lau led the way. We were going to climb to the top using the toughest trail. Lim Yuen Siong was laughing. In his mind, I won't be able to climb to the summit even on paved road.

My skinny friend Dr Zhou Yi really climbed with ease. He did not even sweat. Look at the smile on his face.

Seriously, it was not easy. There are many steep steps in the trail. Not good for the ankle. I needed a break half way. Well, I was not the only one.

I was panting heavily.

Up the hill, down the hill, why they choose such a torturous trail.

Three quarter of the way, I began to get tired. Strength wise I was okay. My leg muscle was still strong but I was running out of breath. Not enough aerobic exercise.

I needed to take a break.

Guess what I found. Baby linzhi!

Mushrooms. It looked edible and quite delicious too.

and a snake. How about snake soup or snake kabayaki?

Pauline was not feeling well. Her face has gone pale.

Well! I was almost there.

Mrs Tan and Zhou Yi were already at the summit. Both of them called me to check how I was doing. It was really though to talk while you are breathing heavily. Anyway, it is heartening to know that you have friends who are concerned.

I caught up with Mak Lin Seng and Peter Mowe who were resting.

The last lapse to the summit was an endless flight of stairs. Pauline seemed to have recover. She was calling us to continue.

Sorry, I really needed to rest in the middle. Er Ling was looking after me I guess. He did not say so, just busy taking photo.

Finally, I reached the summit. Well, it was only 163 meter. Not really that high. I have climbed the hill in Menglembu which is much higher than this.

After reaching the summit, I really wanted to take a nap.

But we moved on to look around. From the cliff above, you can see a quarry lake below the hill.

There is a telecommunication tower on top of the hill too.

We climbed down using the paved road. The road is quite steep and there is a sign that advise you not to run. I really had to balance myself at each step. Some people walked in reverse with their back facing the foot hill. It is easier to walk down in this manner. But you got to be careful not to hit another person. When I tried walking in reverse, Mike Wong and Mrs Lau all walked to the edge to avoid me. Haha!

The Battle for Bukit Timah was finally over. My shirt was soaked in sweat. It was a wonderful trip anyway. Good exercise. By the way, we got the afternoon off for the day.