Another Story of Jalan-Jalan

I guess the longer I live outside of Malaysia, the more patriotic I will become. Nowadays, I will jump happily whenever, wherever I see anything that associated with Malaysia. I spotted this advert on the glass wall of a travel agent on my way to the city centre to meet Noris and his family.

I wonder why they just mention Langkawi Beach, without any indication of Malaysia or the Kedah state. Does this mean Langkawi is quite well-known to foreigners (at least people in Manchester) that without mentioning Malaysia, people already know where it is. If this is the case, "Bravo, Tourism Malaysia!" I guess you guys have done a wonderful job in promoting Langkawi as an international destination.

Now, we have at least three well-know places i.e. Kuala Lumpur, Penang and the latest addition - Langkawi (Langkawi Beach?).

Actually, we have another two famous destinations i.e. Sabah and Sarawak but from my personal experiences with some of the foreigners that have visited these two states, most of the time they referred Sabah and Sarawak as Borneo. Anyhow, these two states are quite well-known with among of my of course mates. Some of them even have went to Mulu!

I really hope other states' tourism agencies will try to emulate some of the successful marketing strategies employed by their counterparts in Penang, Langkawi, Sabah and Sarawak in promoting their states as the preferred destination.

Well, enough said about local tourism. Lets continue with Noris' trip to Manchester.

Noris, his mother and his little sister arrived in Manchester on Tuesday evening but I was unable to greet them at the Victoria Coach Station because I had a tutorial to attend to.

Instead, we made plan to meet on Wednesday, immediately after my Microfinance class. By the time I met them at the HardRock Cafe at about 1.00 p.m., they had done a lot of shopping. As I would expected, most of the purchase were sport-related items (please read: jersey). Unfortunately, Noris cannot find the official jersey for South Africa's rugby team. Hey, since when you are into rugby, Noris!!! Hmmm...

It is quite difficult to be a good tourist guide in Manchester, especially if you are not a sport fanatic or art enthusiastic. And I am also have a bad taste in fashion, therefore, you cannot trust me to assist you in your shopping outing in Manchester, which according to a couple of my coursemates, has a wide range of choices - from high street to ready-to-wear to mass market; from British fashion design to Afro-Carribean.

But thank God, my "tourists" is not as demanding as previous group. They are quite satisfied if we can cover, at least, the Manchester United Football Stadium, which situated in Old Trafford. The last time I have been there was in 2000, when I brought Amir Imran around Manchester, during his two-week UK Tour.

I totally agree with Noris' mother when she said that the stadium is not as grand as what she had expected. We started with a visit to the Museum, before proceeding with a brief stadium tour. We took lots of pictures and I cannot wait for Noris to upload the pictures on his blog. It is quite funny that the two of us are not a football fan but we were very excited every time I saw anything Manchester United. hehehe.

We left the stadium at about 4.30 pm. On the way to the nearest Metrolink station, we stopped for another photo session at the Lancashire Old Trafford Cricket Ground.

The return journey to the city centre by tram took us about 15 minutes. Since all of them were a bit exhausted, they decided not to continue with the tour. Instead, Noris suggested that we have dinner at Ning Restaurant. I personally never been there but I heard a couple of good reviews from my Malaysian friends. Since I only have a rough idea on its location, I was a bit struggling to find it at the first place. And by the time we found it, oh my God.... it was closed!

With much frustration, we walked back to the Piccaddilly Gardens and had our dinner at the Rice. Noris got a last minute appointment with his ex university mate. At first, we were supposed to meet him in Rusholme, but due to unforeseen circumstances, we met him at the city centre instead.

He arrived there quite late and but by that time I think Noris' mother was too tired to accept Hadee's invitation to his house. She politely declined the generous offer and informed him that they need to wake up early the next day to catch an early bus to Reading. Then, Hadee and I walked our guests to the Royal Exchange Theatre to get them a cab to their hotel. Initially, they were supposed to take their bus here, but unfortunately the bus did not stop at this bus stop after 11.00 am!

Surprise, surprise... Hadee and I took the same bus because we live quite near to each other. We had a quite intestering conversation, among others, we talked about his family, my job in Kuala Lumpur, life as a student and of course, Manchester.

Before going home, this guy of Saudi-Pakistani parentage asked for my number and promised to keep in touch.