Pasar Malam in Kuala Terenggan

By Nurunnur

The hustle and bustle of wide road along the right side and left side near by a place called “Pasar Malam or Night bazaar” was very chaos. Many queuing cars and buses were finding for parking, the car horns were beeping, and walking people were crossing the road. On the left side at an oblique angle to the night bazaar stood a white mosque with a very beautiful decorated garden. Every single square inch of the garden can be very gorgeous scenes for taking photographs. On the right side, the night bazaar, an open-air market, was located. Many market stalls were laid out in rows and organized into various zones- similar to those found at other night bazaars. It offered such all things from secondhand dress, fashion wares and accessories to Malay cake (kuih), delicious fresh fruit and food, especially ‘kerepok lekor’; a kind of fish sausage served with chili sauce. There were very crowded with sellers and people who came to buy something or just for spending their evening. The sellers were calling for shoppers, while some just preparing their shops and the others were selling. In the opposite way, some shoppers were bargaining or buying something; while the others just walking for taking a look. Involuntarily, the sun had gone and colorful night-light came instead.

As soon as we stepped off from a comfortable Malay coach, we paid more attention to the charming garden more than the night bazaar. We rushed to the attractive garden for nothing except taking photographs. At that moment, it might be because we could not touch the smell of various foods in the bazaar yet; but, the second we ambled out from the garden to the bazaar, the more we got nearer, the more food smell salivated us. Hence, we quickened our pace to buy some food. 

Kerepok lekor, a well-known Terengganu food, was the one that we could find in almost every food shops. We decided to buy it. We were so sorry that buying it not much because it was so delicious even we ate without its chili sauce. Besides, we bought other local food that we were not sure what was it called. Within limited time, we could not walk to all zones for window-shopping. Nevertheless, we were proud; at least we had sufficient time to learn the local lives that in every aspects of their life are not much different from Melayu people in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand.