Working hours were not shortened like back home. We worked from 7.30am until 4.30pm with an hour of lunch break. Most people used the one-hour lunch break to take naps. For a person who relied a lot on caffeine to survive the day, it was really difficult to survive those fasting days. Thus the one-hour lunch break became one of the highlights of the day.
Breaking fast and bersahur became 'loner' events. I normally went out to the gerai to get something to sungkai with. There were 3 main places of gerai ramadhan here; the biggest one was the old airport, right on the now defunct runway of the old airport (oh, they also used the runway to race their kapcais!). The hotel also provided sungkai buffet which cost RM35 per person, but I was not a big fan of buffet. There were sahur spread at 3am, but I prefered my sahur to be sent to my room. So every night at about 11pm, I would get my sahur delivered in a nice bento box, complete with starters and desserts. And they all cost just an extra RM8. So I would have my late supper at 11pm and wake up at 4am, to have some water and kurma. Speaking of kurma, every Muslim staff was given a box of Iranian kurma from the company, which was a nice gesture.
Gerai Ramadhan at the Old Airport
Some examples of my Sahur boxes
There were no public holidays for the start of Ramadhan and Nuzul Al-Quran (or the Anniversary of the revelation of Al-Quran), which were celebrated with public holidays back home. Also, there was no Israk Mekraj holiday here either.
Celebrated Raya back at home; took the whole week off. Raya was a low-key affair; it was the first Raya without my dear mother who passed away last year. Hence, no gerai-styled open house this year. Sorry guys!! Spent most of Raya at home, but spent one day visiting relatives' houses in Bandar, which was really unplanned.
On lighter note, this was seen in one department store in Bandar. This really took the piss out of the warning not to increase price of goods during the recent BGS!
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