Yemeni reunion

Killing the morning

I was worried how I’d fill the day today.  I only “have” to meet some Yemeni friends for dinner and go to the Petronas Twin Towers to see their Christmas décor.

With the unexpected personal crisis that surfaced last night, I spent most of the morning in the room working through it.  Suddenly, it was lunch time.  Half the day was gone.

I went to an Indonesian shop in the nearby mall for lunch.  It was a place I had liked.  But today I realised that the Empal Penyet is expensive and the portion small.  If there’s a next time, it will be a different item from the menu that is better value.

Christmas at Suria KLCC

At Suria KLCC, the mall at the base of Petronas Twin Towers, I realised the Christmas setup wasn’t as flash as last night’s at Pavilion.  But they did have a decent tree outside.

I grabbed some Nyonya cakes and returned to my room for afternoon tea in bed and waited for instructions from about my Yemeni dinner appointment.

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Meeting with my Yemeni friends

Abdul Qader, whom I know from my student days in Sana’a, had organised dinner at Yahala Restaurant in Ampang, for around 1930 to 2000.

It was a 45 min ride by Grab costing over MYR30.  With time on my hands, I took a train for a fraction of that price to Jelatek where I had intended to order a Grab car to the restaurant.  But as it was only a 15 min walk in pleasant weather, I walked.  However, most of the path was messy, along the construction site for a new flyover.

Getting there at 1930, I had to wait for about 30 mins before Abdul Qader turned up, having been held up by the KL traffic.  He had along with him Osman and Adnan.  We had a nice dinner together before heading upstairs to the shisha lounge to meet up with his brother Abdul Jaleel.

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I hadn’t known Abdul Jaleel while in Yemen but I wish I had.  He had a good sense of humour and was very chatty.  Between Abdul Qader, Abdul Jaleel and myself, we reminisced a lot about their homeland and how special it was.

Brother Jameel who was the principal at my first school (CALES) is still back there.  Abdul Jaleel taught there and later set up my second school (YIAL).

Both brothers are here on somewhat of a humanitarian visa processed through the Yemeni embassy annually.  They both work in business and have reasonable insight into Malaysia.  They know that certain import licenses are only given to some segments of the community who then subcontract them to others to do the hard work, while the license-holder take the cream off the top.

I never imagined back in 2006 when I first when to Yemen, that the people at my schools would one day call my country my temporary home.  It was an amazing catch up!

Abdul Qader and friends dropped me off around midnight.  The streets of KL were very quiet by now.  I’m sure it never used to be this quiet pre-Covid.