Headaches in Taiping

The trip to Taiping was not as smooth as it was in the past.

First was this…

The parking compound ticket was sticking out on my wipers when I returned back from breakfast. There used to be parking meters along the spot where I parked but there was none when I parked. Only after I got the parking compound, I realised that the Majlis Perbandaran Taiping had changed the parking payment system from parking meters to parking coupons. As the compound was only RM10.00, I did not complaint much but it was certainly not a good start for my 4 days stay in Taiping.

Second was the heat…

Surprisingly the weather in Taiping was worse than in the Klang Valley. Despite the fact that Taiping is one of the wettest areas in Malaysia, we had little rain in the 4 days when we were in Taiping. It was hot staying in my in-law’s house and my son was crying most of the time due to the sweat and heat. He was at the in-law’s house wearing nothing but his diapers. Luckily for us, we had booked a room at Legend Inn, so we were spared the trouble of getting my son to sleep at night. With the air conditioner on, he slept like a baby all the time. The heat had little impact on us when we were in Taiping as we stayed in the hotel. But when we returned to KL, it created havoc. All of us had sore-throat and my son had a slight fever.

Third was the car…

This one, I blame it on myself. It is a standard practice for me that whenever I am in Taiping, I will hop over to the car wash centre to get my car clean. Once in a while, I will even go for a good polish. This time around, I overdid it. I opted for a car wash, engine wash and a change of water in the radiator – all at one go. The engine wash was the mistake that I did. After the car wash, everything was fine but after couple of hours later, I ran into a problem. I had problem starting the car. After several times trying, I managed to start the car and drive to the car wash centre to check. The guys opened the bonnet and blow air into it to ensure it is completely dry. The car managed to start well after that.

Everything was fine then – so I thought. After dinner, we wanted to return to the hotel. It was late and we were tired. Guess what? The car did not start. After an almost 30 minutes trying on the ignition & checking under the bonnet, I managed to get the car started. The next morning was even worse. The car just refused to start at all and after almost 1 hour, I gave up. With the help of the hotel staff, I called in a tow truck and tow it to the workshop. The mechanic did a quick check and found the problem. The relay malfunctioned – the guys at the car wash centre must have sprayed water on the device and damaged it. So, he changed it and the car started without any problem.

The cost: Relay connector – RM10, Tow Truck service – RM60 and time spend under the hot sun on the parking lots trying to restart the car with 1 or 2 curious bystanders asking “hello thambi, car got problem ah?” – priceless.

Despite the problems, not all was lost…

We celebrated our son’s 2^nd birthday in Taiping – my in-laws throw in a birthday party for him, attended by some 35 people (family & friends). The food and the venue were sponsored by my son’s grandparents. My son was cool as usual until the time it came to cut the cake. He wanted to leave the place and want to go and see his kiddie’s shows. I held him until we had cut the cake and I let him to go watch his shows.

Here he is, just before we left the hotel for his birthday party

He got almost one bag of new clothes from a lot of people, very big “ang-pow” and couple of toys (which I helped myself playing when he was asleep).

Since he celebrated his 2^nd birthday in Taiping with grandparents (from my wife’s side), my parents in KL have set another birthday party this week for him – more toys for me him!

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