On the morning after the Atrocious Snorings, all of us changed rooms. There were various reasons for this, some of which I shall not disclose, but the general agreement was that it would aid in synchronisation (for want of a better word). These new rooms, 3 and 4, were extremely spacious, 10 beds each and two bathrooms, so all boys took room 3 and the girls went into 4. Any communication between us would pass through faster this way, rather than having to relay messages between four rooms previously.
I also saw for the first time the Mama Indias! Not one, but three of them! They looked exactly like what I imagined: bright floral blouses and dresses, and a sarong around their waists. The Mama Indias were engaged in animated conversation, seated on a bench outside room 10 waiting for us to clear our rooms so they could do housekeeping.
The Malay lady in charge of the rooms was chattering away, reprimanding some of us for sleeping in the corridor. Well, we were guarding the corridor, in case anything untoward happened. She mentioned that she had not heard of any unusual event in all her years working there.
(At that point I remembered the other man's warning about not being too happy at night and wondered if she was wrong.)
In any case, after moving away from the inauspicious rooms (and corridor), we hoped for the better. We got dressed and went down for brunch at Kancil Restaurant.
The first thing I saw there was a sign proclaiming the sale of Roti Prata (or Canai):
"Attantion! Roti Canai ada dijual di sini!"
It led us to wonder about the sort of food sold there, whether it was as bad as the spelling.
Then there was the absurd impossibility of having "no plain pratas but got egg pratas". 17 egg pratas left, to be exact. Some of us chose to eat pratas, whilst the rest went to the rice buffet table.
Brief uproar over Cricket lighters. These are the ones that come in many different bright and solid colours, with exchangeable heads in also as many colours. Hadis had gone off in search of them, and returned with 10 or 15 lighters! Jihad saw one that he liked and a heated exchange of words ensued as to where they were found and whether he could buy one from Hadis instead, with the others joining in.
Our pratas came. They were Very Good! We ate to our hearts' content.
Brunch finished, and we headed to Stor Teater. Someone remarked that I looked very much like Hadis in my sunglasses, which led the others to agree. Photos were snapped for comparison, and yes, we looked quite alike in shades! It looked as if we were brothers! We all delighted in this amusing fact.
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