Mr. Khairul in Tripoli, Libya

it's travel-time with mr. khairul yet again!

remember he bought our anniversary present in libya? so there he was, flying 6 hours from dubai to tripoli, the capital of libya. woah, libya? ape ade kat libya?

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this building, the dath el emad towers are used for commercial purposes has a somewhat precarious design! just look at the bottom of the tall building - it narrows downwards, like an upside down water bottle, according to mr. khairul.


tak terbalik ke bangunan tu?

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tripoli, libya is - believe it or not - just an hour or so from italy. an HOUR! that's like driving from ipoh to taiping! i've already warned mr. khairul not to go to italy without me. hihi.

anyways, since it's very close to italy, the food has the italian influence all around. pizza parlour can be found here, there and everywhere. macam kedai mamak kat msia kot. merata ade.


this particular one served its pizza on a legged wooden board, which they put on top of another if you order more than one. save space, eh?

nyummy!

mr. khairul said their pizza may be the unknown 'branch' but it tastes as good, if not better than domino's or pizza hut!

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ulp! when i first saw this picture, i was like, "kubur ke?" and it's actually a house! there's a stairway from above, leading down towards the opening in the ground.

agak scary pulak kan?

it's supposed to be a traditional libyan house, set especially for tourists. there is one long narrow room inside, displaying pinggan mangkuk and furnitures as well as the setting of an old libyan house.

mr. khairul said it's really cool once you get inside the 'house' eventhough the weather was very hot! natural air-conditioned!

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ikan bakar libya? yes, there is!


looking at this picture, i asked mr. khairul - "ape you buat kat pasar?"

but it's really a seafood restaurant just like in malaysia - mr. khairul picked a fish fresh from the display, the libyan dude cut 'em up and grilled it there and then.


the grilled fish is served with creamy, spicy seafood soup and bread. mr. khairul ordered rice to along with the fish but it did not taste good. period. it was too bland, with all the wrong spices.

the grilled fish, however, was excellent, he said.

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mr. khairul said this is as far as shopping mall goes for them. no 'libya mall', 'mall of tripoli' or such! this is IT.


erk. macam pasar bulat ipoh je. or kompleks yik foong. so malaysians, be thankful for our one utama, pavillion, mega mall and suria klcc!

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now this is pretty interesting. air kacang. literally.


mr. khairul described it as tea plus a nutty entity that tasted like kacang rebus, with mint. owh. ingatkan air bawang putih ke ape tadi! and mr. khairul thought the same thing when he first saw this funny drink.

he said the tea was super-pekat, like a tea-bag that's been sitting in a cup for too long. nevertheless it was sweet and actually rather delicious!

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i was looking at these pictures and thought they looked suspiciously like malay dishes. memang pun!


mr. khairul met up with a fellow mckk old boy who's working in tripoli. he invited him for dinner at his home, which explains all the malay lauk i saw.

and it's not just one old boy, but two of them! so abah, if you go to libya, ade mckk boys sana ok. ish, merata-rata diorang ni!


mr. khairul said that he was told it was very rare to have malaysian visitors to libya - so, his presence was really a big hoopla! hihi.

furthermore, unlike in dubai (yang ramai malaysians), over there in tripoli there is only a small group of them. and unlike dubai, there's absolutely no entertainment - no cinema, no big malls, no hoo-ha.

so again - the fact that mr. khairul came was really appreciated by the malaysians in libya!

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where to, next mr. khairul?