It was a dreadful Monday morning. Ever get that sensation of waking up just knowing that a bunch of lectures, tutorials and assignments (Yay) await your “return” for the week? Yeah, me too. As I sluggishly stepped into the campus, my nose already picked up the scent of lab reports, essays, and… fried chicken? There was no mistake, this was the scent of chicken, deep fried, beautifully seasoned, drizzled with honey and spices. Turns out, the Monash Entrepreneurship Club Bazaar was live on campus! The campus-wide bazaar was a 2-day long bazaar held on the 27th and 28th of August, which was mainly organised by the Monash Entrepreneurship Club (MEC) in conjunction with their Asean Entrepreneurship Week.

As early as 7am, stalls were already busy being set up by owners who were ready to bring fellow Monashians the full bazaar experience. In front of the foyer were mainly stalls selling accessories such as necklaces, decors and etc, whereas the area near the Monash field were mostly dedicated to food stalls, which makes sense taking into consideration the potential mess that could be made with all that food going around (if you ever wondered why it wasn’t at the foyer instead). Stalls selling clothes could be found throughout both connecting areas.

The major highlight of the bazaar was definitely the popular desserts and delicacies present such as Jeuk Sing Café, Ujicha and Hot Wings (Yum!). “I never expected that I would find stuff like Hot Wings during this bazaar. I thought it would have been like normal everyday hawker food. This definitely helps lighten the “uni-stress” mood, as well as increase my chances of diabetes.” was what Alyssa, a first-year business student had to comment about the bazaar. For the international students studying in Monash Malaysia, they got the chance to experience some local delicacies such as Lo Bak Gou (fried carrot cake), Nasi Lemak and traditional Chinese Dim Sum and dumplings. The entire event might not have been that big of a deal to the seniors, but it was certainly a real eye opener for newer intakes for they had the opportunity to experience a portion of what thrill and fun Monash had to offer.

Let’s not forget about the clothes, books and accessories, shall we? The bazaar offered an ocean wide of varieties in terms of clothing. On your left you could easily find your typical hipster streetwear, take a quick glance to your right and you’ll see the cutest collection of We Bare Bears T-shirts. From earrings to travel bags, the bazaar had it all. Did I mention that Artic Hunter was present as well? For those of you who are not familiar, Artic Hunter is a brand renowned for their remarkable quality of bags (highly popular among both men and women). They brought with them some major discounts in regards to the bags they were selling, customers walking away from the stall were all smiles while admiring the bags they just bought and we can’t blame them, the discounts were exquisite!

If you have friends that are total bookworms, you would definitely find them near the old cafeteria area, where most of the stalls selling books were at, indulging themselves with their favorite content. The genre of books available was ridiculous, spanning from classical romance to modern sci-fi, you would be as pleased with the books as you would be with the food, book-alicious!

To summarize it all, the bazaar was obviously a major hit amongst students. The response was so overwhelming that MEC decided to extend the duration of the bazaar all the way till the 30th of August, right before National Day! (check out MEC’s facebook page for the past updates!) The fact that the bazaar got extended goes to show how successful it was. Thus, I sincerely hoped you guys had a wonderful experience with the event and make sure to keep your eyes peeled for more similar events to come in the near future!

Article by Lee Kah Hoe (Charles)

Photos by Daniel Sim and Nicholas Khoo