Bidayuh Wedding

I am sick!!! Been sick since Monday and today is Wednesday and still sick. Thank God the doctor @ kotaraya had some sense to give me 2 days sick leave because I cant imagine myself sitting the office today handling all the daily work and pressure and decision making. But I guess if need to be, I can force myself to be there!! Anyway, this posting is not to tell you how sick I am but to share a wedding with you.Church blessing was on Saturday (15 Dec) @ St Joseph and the dinner reception at Merdeka Palace in the evening on the same day.

Flowers decorating the church and Merdeka Palace

Church starts at 9.30am and guess what..we arrived at 9.30am on the dot just as the the bride was walking down the altar. Kinda embarrassing but the groom's sister was rather sporting. She quietly pull the 2 of us aside and enter the church to our seats via the side aisle. The services lasted one hour as it was a full service. But it did not feel like normal traditional church wedding ceremony where it can get pretty tedious with the standing, bowing and kneeling. The Father was actually rather funny and joked alot. First time I see people laugh and actually enjoyed the ceremony. The bride & groom was of course blushing from the being teased by the Father.

When the service is over, we head right over to bak kut teh (direct translation: pork bone soup) at Pending. My babe been craving for it for the past six months and he say those in Klang does not measure up to the one at Pending. The bak kut teh here is abit less herb-ie as the spices are not so strong. But it is rather sweet because the tau keh (boss) somehow push cooked minced pork through strainer. The super fine minced pork is almost diluted into the soup making it very tasty without much preservatives.

The dinner reception @ Merdeka Palace was simple and yet grand. Simple in the sense that it gives a relaxing atmosphere but you can see that quality is not forgotten here. The reception counter was at a alcove above and overlooking the dinner hall itself. Guests register themselves and mingle with others while having their first drink. Something rather unique I think. A 'stand-up' kind of thing while waiting for other guests to arrive. Rather clever and unique.

Then all the guests are then invited to come down to the dinner hall and to the assigned tables. Our table was number 24, nearest to the bar (for the thirsty drinkers on my table) and door (for those that require 'oxygen' every few dishes). Soon after, the bride & groom enter the dining hall. And immediately after, the MC announce that there will be cultural performance by dancers from Sarawak Cultural Village to introduce our unique heritage to guests from overseas that was present.

This was immediately follow by the first dish, cold dish. The cold dish was rather dissappointing in term of taste as I expect more from Merdeka Palace but I cant fault the portion though. In fact, most of the food that night seems to have large portion. There were a total of 8 dishes including dessert, i.e. hot & sour soup, brocolli with mince chic, pineapple savoury rice, pepper lamb and so forth but I (unfortunately) forgotten all about taking pictures of the dishes once I start to have fun (guess I am still not a true blogger at heart)

The moment the dinner starts, we can see the hardworking waiter and waitresses at the bar starts to pour cans and cans of beer into jug and bringing mugs around. If this is your first Dayak wedding, please do not panic. You did not attend the wrong function.Like all Dayak wedding, a wedding will not be a wedding if the wedding did not have crates and crates of beers and top off with liquor. Normally, for Chinese dinner reception, we will never complaint that there is not enough alcoholic beverages. Instead, we remember more on the food, services and events itself. But don't be surprised to hear someone judge how good the wedding reception was by saying ' Aiyuuhhh, that wedding ah? I didn't even get tipsy'......

So, Yes, yes, yes..I admit, I drank more vodka lime than I should. It taste sooo innocent. Soooo yummy, sweet and sour but I guess it was more vodka than I know. (Luckily I have my prince charming there to take care of me, bluek!!!!).

I have NEVER been drunk in my whole life. HONEST! And judging from how I feel the day after and now being sick, I can tell you, I would never ever want to be drunk again! Luckily I was not drunk enough to go on the stage and start singing & dancing.

The last dish, dessert, was served at around 10pm. By then, most of the guests are starting to fill up with enough drinks to sink the titanic. By the way, did I mention that there is a band and singer? hhmm..guess I must have forgotten to say it at the beginning. One thing about the Dayaks, they really can sing and love singing and on top of that, absolutely love PARTYING! As you can see from the pictures, it was a really fun night!

p.s. By the way, when you are at a Dayak wedding reception, don't expect the dinner to end at 10pm like traditional chinese wedding do. This is a warning to the guests as well as caterers! hehehe..