Final Part - From Minus 33 To Plus 33

degrees centigrade i.e.

After lunch at a nearby hotel, we sent Yerlan and Zhanara, a young couple from Kazakhstan, to their hotel in KL where Yerlan would be attending a conference. The drive there was without incident, except for one small weird thing - hubby's other car, a bright red, shining, new second-hand sporty make had an attitude and decided not to co-operate with us. So what was the problem? The air-con again! And 33 degrees outside. Time to put things into perspective, I thought. "Yerlan", said I, "this is not hot yet. Remember, on the day of days, the sun will be not one fist away from our heads". Hubby chuckled at his wife's preaching. For us, there is nothing left to do but to just sit back and enjoy the ride, with the windows down. Hubby was in his element nipping in and out of traffic, which happens whenever he drives that car, anyway - like having a second wind in a mid-life crisis!

We saw Yerlan and Zhanara again 3 days later, this time to take them to the KL Tower and then to KLIA for their flight home. In the 3 days, they had been to Low Yat Plaza and bought a Toshiba lap-top, also to Templers Park where they picnicked at the waterfall and were fascinated by the monkeys. They had also been to KLCC and visited the Aquaria, which according to Zhanara, is exactly like the one in Astana, down to the fish themselves. Additionally, they had attended Friday prayers at the Wilayah mosque. Apparently the women's solat area upstairs was open and available for use by Zhanara.

We had a very nice buffet dinner at the Seri Angkasa revolving restaurant up in the tower. Only my second time there, understandably. The night-time view of KL and KLCC was quite astounding, but the photographs didn't turn out good enough to be posted here. There was live piano music and at one point we were entertained to a hale and hearty rendition of "New York, New York" by a gang of Americans three tables away.

For the drive to KLIA, we used the new Maju Expressway. It took us only about 3o minutes to get to the airport. Not bad. Along the way, on the darker stretches of the road, hubby told us stories of his encounters with jinns when he was dabbling in some form of silat (a Malay martial art) right after Form 5. He said that jinns know your greatest fear and because of their ability to take on different forms, will appear to you in the form you fear the most, just to test your mental strength. Anyhow, that was a very long time ago and he dropped the silat after realising that these things are not to be messed with and especially after getting a major scolding from his parents. We were quite tickled by Yerlan's whispered tone as he translated the stories to Zhanara.

It was time to say our good-byes. I would say that the limited time we had spent together with Yerlan and Zhanara had been very memorable, indeed. Plus Zhanara's lingering hug and loving peck on my cheek made it all so worthwhile.

Some facts we gleaned from snippets of conversation with Yerlan:

1. Kazakhstan has plenty of natural resources. In fact they have all the elements that are represented in the Periodic Table.
   
2. Kazakhs are mainly descendants of Genghis Khan and are very proud of their warrior qualities. There is a tribe / race of Russian stock who are "warrior pretenders" and they call themselves Qazaqs. The pronounciation is different.
3. Kazakh Muslims are of the Hanafi school. After Friday jemaah prayers, they do 4 rakaats of sunah with 2 salams.
4. No religious study was taught in schools and universities during the Soviet era. Only Leninism, Stalinism, Marxism, Capitalistic Materialism.
   
5. Yerlan has done his Hajj. In Mekah, he observed that the Malaysian "contingent" were given the choiciest places to stay. He marvels at the function and organisation of Tabung Haji.
6. Yerlan and hubby use an endearment when they refer to one another. This is by adding -ke (pronounced as in "day") to the first syllable of each other's names i.e Yer-ke and A-ke (assuming hubby's name is Ali).
7. Every Friday, Yerlan rings his father to remind him to attend Friday jemaah payers. Older Kazakhs are less keen about Islam than the younger generation.
   
8. Yerlan speaks 5 languages - Kazakh, Russian, German, English and a litle Arabic.
9. Putrajaya is a very small version of Astana!

I hope you enjoyed your stay in KL, Yerlan and Zhanara. Rahmet!