What do you do when all your muslim friends “balik kampung” for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, and there are no cars on the busy streets of KL? You look up the newspapers to check and see who’s organizing open house for the public during the first day of raya.

When we reach our first destination, the place is packed. You have the whole traffic police squad manning the highway, coordinating parkings, and stopping the 3-lane highways (both directions) for people to cross the road. Within these gates (which I think is open for public on this day only), they have the police & security guards with guns, walkie-talkies blazing about, and metal detectors. Even the guy wearing a pair of ugly slippers in front of us is stopped and questioned.

Once we’re in, it was a 40 minutes ordeal waiting in line under the hot/humid/drizzling weather. Sometimes I wonder why did I even subject myself to Ryna’s idea of enjoying the holidays. We saw VIPs jumping queues and head on straight in, ambassadors with their families in charming Malay costumes leaving from the back gate, and here we are the “regulars” standing in line being watched by swarms of security guards as we all each take turns to meet the one guy who’s name is near impossible to remember:

Yes, it is the Hari Raya Open ‘Palace’ – the one event which regular joes like us with no political connections or influences or even remotely linked to a government agency except just paying taxes ever thought of doing. Meeting the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, Permaisuri Agong, and their kids were interesting – their canned greetings has the tone of tireness lingering in them as we took turns to shake their royal hands. Must be the millions of guests they have greeted before our arrival which explains it. And yes, he’s the one dressed in flamboyant pink. Have to be careful with my camera and actions because his majesty’s royal guards are anticipating for any sudden moves. So I had to take my pictures from afar without risking spending my holidays in lockup.

Once after the brief greetings, here we are back in line again heading towards the goodie-bag buffet & dining area at the palace’s front lawn. Managed to take a few more snaps before leaving.

Here’s what they have in the goodie bag:

Lots of kuihs & cakes, a ketupat, a curry chicken wing, and a cup of sealed mineral water. The food is very cold – feels like they just came out from the fridge. It’s no surprise if you have so much food to give away to people and the time taken to prepare them in bulk a few days earlier. The best thing that ever came out from this visiting is, we get free yellow-colored lunchboxes with the picture of our king and queen printed on the lid.

Sweet – it even have their names printed on as well, and I’m sure I won’t ever forget this (I mean their names lah).