Ha... Time for some reading after a meal at Yiling's place. Her mum makes the best home-cooked food. Well... I'm not exactly a good judge for that since my mum doesn't cook but I guess it would be on par if she does.
Now... back to what I have read. Since I am about to travel to Mt Ophir this coming Friday, I decided to do some reading up and goodness, the stuff I found is absolutely mesmerizing. Gunung Ledang (Mt Ophir) is said to be the home of the legendary Princess, Puteri Gunung Ledang, loosely translated as the Princess of Mt Ophir in English (Hmmm... Time does amazing things to Details...). Well, legend has it that she was an overwhelmingly pretty and clever lady (I wonder) and was wooed by the Sultan of Melaka.
But she didn't really want to marry him and was too paiseh to reject him, so she decided to send him to perform impossible tasks to try and win her hand... not a task, mind you, but quite a number:
1. Build 2 Bridges, one out of Gold and the other Silver, linking the Palace in Melaka to the Mountain (that's like miles away, not to mention elevation issues)
2. Collect 7 Jars of Young Betel Nut Juice (FYI Betel Nuts ain't got juice)
3. Collect 7 Trays of Mosquito Hearts (no comments)
4. Collect a Jar of Virgin's Tears
5. Collect a bowl of the Sultan's Blood
6. Collect a bowl of the Sultan's Son's Blood
One word:
CHEK AK
Anyway... as the legend has it, the Sultan failed (no surprise, though I would have loved to see 7 trays of mosquito hearts) but she eventually got married to a Nakhoda Ragam, a hero of the time.
But then, this Ragam was very fond of tickling the princess in the ribs and it also goes that the princess has some rage issues. Well, it turns out to be a deadly combination. One day, in an uncontrollable burst of anger, she stabbed a needle she was handling in her husband's breast and killed him. Either the needle was damn big or her husband was just ultimately sweh...
Anyway, I would like to reiterate:
CHEK AK
And the legend ends when she returned to the mountain and vowed never to set eyes on another man... Thank goodness for mankind.
Apparently, the legend is so amazing that someone decided to make a film out of it, aptly named Puteri Gunung Ledang. Will it never end???
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