Buka Puasa at Bayview Hotel, Melaka

It's the month of Ramadhan once again, when our Muslim brothers and sisters observe fasting for the duration of this holy month. And so throughout the entire month, there are many restaurants and eateries with special offers for dinner to break fast with family / friends.

As Hari Raya was just around the corner, everyone was busy, but still we managed to find some time to go out together for this auspicious time of the year. This year, we chose to meet at the Bayview Hotel in Melaka town. As it turned out, there was a 10% discount offer (which some of our Facebook-savvy friends quickly discovered). Actually, we only decided on the venue less than 1 day beforehand - that's a sample of our just-in-time modus operandi for you....! :)

I arrived on the scene at ~7.00pm, as the actual time for breaking fast today was 7.22pm. Not so good to arrive late and leave everyone waiting, especially those who have been fasting. Just as I arrived, and was just about to step into the elevator, there was a sudden power trip. The hallways went dark, lit only by the emergency lighting. Hotel staff wasted no time to restore power, which came up again shortly. Lucky I was not inside the elevator when that happened, though it was not clear to me if anyone was indeed trapped inside during this brief episode.

I met up with our group at the restaurant on the 4th floor, where they were already prepared to break fast. It was good to sit down with Azuddin (and wife), Yan, Masitah, Desmond, Lay Peng, Asri and Chiang (a testament to our multi-racial culture in Malaysia). Unfortunately, Nurbayah could not make it, so we'll have to catch her some other day. I'll not comment much on the food, as for me, the most important aspect was to have to opportunity to sit down together with friends in a comfortable environment, free from the nerve-wrecking issues of daily office work.

Interesting enough, there was a brief power trip again while we were dining - I'm not sure if this was localized to the hotel, or if the surrounding buildings were similarly affected.

We ate and talked, and generally had a good time, and it was only in the end that we realized that we were the only ones left in the restaurant (all the other tables were empty - everyone else had left).

Well, another successful happy outing - let's all wait and see where's we have our next group gathering.