Meeting Two New Friends

It was the end of a hectic day for me and my wife Fatthiyah after the day was spent attending kenduris. Six in all with four of them in Pasir Mas and two in Kota Bharu. Add to that my cousin's husband died that night in Gunung, Bachok and we were on our way back from Bachok when I received a call from Pak Adib. Pak Adib who is from Beris Kubur Besar and often use his nick Berisman, was back in Kelantan for a holiday. He suggested that we meet up for breakfast somewhere the next day at the White House to which I agreed immediately since I will be sending my son Azuan and his wife Ijjah to the KB Airport for his flight home to KL in the morning and will be free after that.

On the way to the airport the next morning I purposely took the route along Jalan Pos Office lama to show Azuan and Ijjah the new yet to be opened Pelangi Mall and the already opened Ridel Hotel which belongs to a friend of mine by the name of Dr. Mazlan Abdullah which I have yet to meet. Upon reaching the intersection to Desa Sri Chemerlang I saw this new Kopitiam by the name of Hayaki Kopitiam. This joint is a new place and I have read about it since someone has featured about it in the Star sometime earlier. The joint was owned and operated by a local chinese.

After my son had entered the departure lounge I called Pak Adib telling him that I was proceeding to The White House and he agreed to do the same immediately and we should be able to meet up at the white house sometime about 9 AM. I wanted to change the meeting place but i feared that Pak Adib being more of a KLite than a Kelantanese may not be able to find the kopitiam since it was new and yet to be popular among the locals.

When Pak Adib arrived at the White House, I had already managed to secure a table for four and waited for his arrival. The place was so popular that there were always people waiting to be seated. There were long tables where you can share with other people but I prefer that we have a table of our own.

Luck was on his side and he managed to find a parking lot right in front of the White House. Recognizing me from my picture he held up one hand to indicate that he had noticed me while he was still inside his gleaming black Myvi. I know Pak Adib is a successful business man and he could have driven any of his big expensive cars but I guess driving a smaller car in Kota Bharu during a school holiday was a better choice since a bumper to bumper crawl on a road in town was a normal thing during such times.

His wife whom he called Na came with him. She looks young and beautiful. Being an engineer he must have secured himself a prized catch for a wife. She came from this area near the White House.
Pak Adib with his wife. The White House kopitiam was full on that day.

We ordered some coffee, toast ala White House (the bread is slit on the side for the cheese to be inserted inside it) with kaya and cheese, half boiled eggs tuck in our breakfast. Pak Adib had an extra nasi berlauk.

Before long our topic of conversation shifted to photography and we brought out each others toy. He brought both his compact Ixus and EOS 400D both of which are from Canon. Seeing the 400D reminds me of KBguy who uses the same camera. Whatmore do you expect will happen? Some photo shoot in the crowded coffee shop of course! I was anxious to catch the ambience of the crowded and famous White House coffee shop, famous for all those things that we ardered.

The place was so crowded and noisy that I could hardly hear what Pak Adib was talking about. My clogged up ear channel may have contributed to the problem but I guess it was more due to the noise. I told Pak Adib since we have finished our breakfast and there are people waiting around to be seated, we should be making a move and suggested that the next time we meet we do it at a new kopitiam with free wifi. At the mention of wifi, Pak Adib being a technical man and so used to have such technologies around, was all ears to the suggestion. He suggested that we took a ride in his Savvy has as he had something to show me. He asked me to take the front passenger seat so that I could show him the way which I did though I can't describe exactly where the place was located. The gadget that he wanted to show me was a GPS based unit which will show almost exactly the location we were at that time to the accuracy of plus or minus 5 meters, I think it was more minus than plus. The GPS was a Garmin Nuvi 200. A very small gadget costing RM1300 but packed with so much features that will put to shame any earlier older models. This gadget could do more than show your coordinates.

Garmin Nuvi 200 in Pak Adib's car infront of Ridel Hotel Kota Bharu. Ridel Hotel can now be located on the Garmin system.

Since we were passing by Ridel Hotel which is a new hotel, Pak Adib tried to see if it was already added to the system. It wasn't and so he added it and later he would share it with all Garmin users. He tried to locate the Kopitiam that we were going to but I made the mistake of pronouncing the name as Hikaya and not Hayaki as the correct name. When we reached Hayaki there it was shown on his Garmin that we were parked on ground zero. Hayaki was noted on his Garmin as Kopitiam with wifi. A look at Hayaki and we knew that this will be the place for bloggers to meet. Just bring your toys with wifi connectivity and you will be connected to the world.
I forgot to take a picture of Hayaki Kopitiam so I will add the picture later when I have it.

My car was parked near the White House and to show the prowess of his Garmin, Pak Adib set the location to go to as the White House. We were led to the White Hose and since the data was not updated to the latest road closure, we were directed to take turns to closed road. Of course we ignored the instruction and later instructions were spot on. We reached the White House and we said goodbye.

I have often spoken on the phone to Dr. Mazlan Abdullah, the owner of Ridel Hotel which I have mentioned in one of my blogs on Kota Bharu in Pictures but we have never met. Since I was already in the area, I gave him a call and he immediately returned to Ridel Hotel from his clinic in Tanjung Chat, a place on the way to Pengkalan Chepa.
Dr. Mazlan. Together with his wife they own Ridel Hotel, Kota Bharu.

So if this is the young enterpreneur who owns this 77 rooms spankingly new Ridel Hotel. Dr. Mazlan has often travelled all over the world and he knows what sort of room and price will sell in Kota Bharu. I don't think he was wrong. in his vision. This young man will be an entrepreneur to watch. To see more of the hotel or even to book a room, please click on Ridel Hotel on my side bar somewhere on this page. I saw the room myself and I am quite happy with it. My only complain is that the guests don't exit the lift to enter the hotel lobby for checkout as often is the case in a hotel. He may have his reasons for that.



Excusing myself I returned home happy that I have met two new friends.


While typing this blog, Hilmi Hamzah, another new aquaintance I was suposed to meet for the first time called to say that he coudn't make it as he would be leaving that very night for Scudai where he works. Otherwise I would have met three new friends. Well there is always another time.