 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Pasar Malam - The Night Marketby Josephine and Joanne Kua If you visit Malaysia and your local friend happens to mention 'pasar malam', don't start smacking your lips and think that it's something edible because its not. 'Pasar' means market and 'malam' means night. When translated into English it means night market. ('pasar malam' is a Malay word). Pasar malam is usually held once a week and business starts early in the evenings. There are many stalls or laid out mats that sell a variety of things such as fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, hair ornaments, toys, cassettes, clothes, pets and local delicacies. If you are a good at bargaining, this is definitely the place for you as most of the thing here can be bargained at a lower price. That is if you dare to haggle with the seller. Unfortunately, haggling isn't one of my better traits though I watch my mother do it everytime. My mother always tells me, "Daughter, don't behave so 'lembik-lembik' (like a weakling) or else the seller might sense it and you will not get away with a good buy." I do admire my mother's ability to haggle for good buy now, though sad to say when I was younger I'd run and hide elsewhere or pretend to look at something else when my mother and the seller started arguing over the prices. I thought my mother was just being stubborn. Paying the seller a few cents wouldn't kill us. Luckily, I changed my opinion as I grew older because I realized that some sellers purposely overcharge their customers and it is only our rights to haggle the price with them. Consumer's rights as my mother would put it. My mother is a very strict and strong woman. I assure you that she goes to every pasar malam with the determination to buy her money's worth. Once she went to a nearby pasar malam to buy durians. (a type of thorny fruit with creamy yellow flesh inside.) The competition among the many durian stalls was great and so the sellers had to use different tactics to attract customers. My mother went from one stall to another to check out the quality of the durian as well as the prices first. There was a certain stall that she came to which the seller tried to force her into buying his durians - which in my mother's opinion was not a good buy. The brave seller, promptly hopped in front of my mother with his arms wide open like a flying bat, trying to convince my mother that his durians were the best bargain in the world. My mother took no notice of the silly man and tried to walk away anyhow. This didn't work because the 'giant jabbering bat' refuse to back off and let mother through. What was there left to do but to yell at the person. Startled, the durian seller backed down immediately. Despite the incident above, because this doesn't usually happen everyday, pasar malams are really interesting places. So if you are planning to visit Malaysia be sure to put pasar malam on your list. You can reach Joanne and Josephine by email at: sofin@pl.jaring.my All content © Foreign Correspondent 1996 - 2007 |
