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Terengganu Hari Raya Haji -- Part 2

by prudence on 28-Oct-2012
Yesterday, in the late afternoon, we set off for Pantai Batu Buruk, our local beach. It's a great time to go. By then the beach is shaded from the setting sun by the double avenue of casuarinas. So it's popular -- very popular -- with local families.

We picked up some fried keropok lekor, which is totally the thing to have up here. Now I might not be getting this completely right, because it's a complicated business, but keropok (related, of course, to the kerupuk beloved of the Indonesians) is made of pounded fish, sago, and salt. The result is then rolled into small "sausages" and fried, or rolled into bigger tubes, sliced, sun-dried, and sold in big bags to be taken home and fried. The latter are the keropok keping that we've been seeing everywhere. The former will knock you back two ringgit for a generous eight sticks plus chilli dipping sauce, and are best eaten sitting on the sand, staring out to sea, and surrounded by innumerable other little groups of contentedly munching Malaysians.

Fish consumed, we headed to the pasar malam for large pink Bandungs. And then we wandered on up the beach, past surfers, paddlers, and kite-flyers; past families in pony-carts, littlies on pony-back, and would-be racers of all ages trying out their moves on the ATVs.

As we neared the end of our lap, the call to prayer was rising gently over the trees to landward, while the regular pulse of the waves kept up its unhurried but insistent beat to seaward. Very peaceful, very atmospheric.