It was drizzling when I woke up on the second morning. Still, knowing that the rain would be intermittent I decided to go for a ride. I rolled off out of the resort at almost the same time as yesterday. I turned left also just like yesterday but I have no intention of cycling to TC. Instead I wanted to explore the inner life of Kg Balok. As soon I got to the junction pointing to the most promising route I entered and started cycling inwards. The rain got a little bit heavy for awhile and stopped as I cycled further in. Judging from the position of the kampung road I deduced that it was parallel with the main road going further up east. My mental calculation of the distance and direction was indicating to me that I would ended at Balok town itself and I was right. The route was not that difficult and I cycled at a medium pace. As much as I was trying to avoid the rain I was also trying very hard to explore and enjoy the kampung. It was not really a kampung like it once was. Instead of the old stilt kampung houses now many of the houses are modern exclusive bungalows or houses built, obviously, and owned by outsiders. I used to remember as well that part of Balok was actually a low wetland which now being reclaimed for the obvious reason. Once I reached Balok town I decided to turn back and use the Balok beach road going back.
It started to rain again when I was admiring Balok beach I cycled back to the Balok beach recreation centre office to take shelter there. When I explored the place I realised that it was a place where Azmi had his camping retreat recently and instantaneously gave me an idea. So I looked around to gather as much information as possible about the place. It was suitable for our Putra Terrace outing. Once the rain stopped I got on my bike and cycled back to the resort.
Once in the room no one is committed of anything to do. My lovely wife was still in the midst of her record breaking feat, Mar was her usual energetic self, and kakak and kakcik asleep. So I decided to take a nap before we check out.
The night before I decided to stay another night in Kuantan and of course we had to find another place to stay. Since I did not want to go far I decided to check the availability of rooms at the resorts exactly next to Duta Village. We were lucky there was actually a family room for us available at Swiss-Garden. So after we checked out of Duta Village we just lingered around Balok before we checked in again at Swiss-Garden. We have stayed there before so we knew what to expect.
Once in the room once again nobody wants to go anywhere so we just stayed in either sleeping or reading. Later Kakcik and Mar decided to hit the pool. When I woke up from my nap I decided to join them. As planned, for dinner, we went to visit my cousin. Frankly, thinking about it our third day in Kuantan was because I just did not wish to go home yet. Back from my cousin’s place we just hit the sacks. We checked out the next day thinking it would be just it would be a straight forward thing.
When I drove the car to the lobby to pick up everyone and our luggage I daughter exclaimed to me as I got down, ‘ Abah tayar pancit!’. Well, another thing to dela with. I put on my glove and changed the tayar he he he. Then stopped at the first tyre shop the we came to and had the puncture fixed. Because of that we decided to go to Tg Lumpur to have our lunch at the same palce we had out evening tea the day before.
Two and a half hours later we were safely home. He he he while they were sleeping I floored the accelerator.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Small Town Pahang, Stesen Keretapi, Holiday and Me, Dec 12-15, 2009 - Day 2
Cycling Alone, Dec 13, 2009
My wife could not cycle so I decided to go on alone. I woke up with a little drizzle but I went down all the same to start to prepare myself. My intended route that morning was Federal Route 2 (Jalan Beserah) going south from Duta Village to Teluk Chempedak (TC to the locals) via Jalan Tengku Muhammad and Alor Akar. There was a little bit of darkness when I rolled out of the Duta Village. As usual I was not bothered with the distance and enough to have at least two major climbs before I’ll get to Teluk Chempedak. I pedaled hard and fast as I was trying to avoid the morning traffic and sun during my climb. The best part of cycling in the east coast or early in the morning in a small town or kampung is that you got to see how life comes alive in the morning. It never failed to provoke the nice feeling in me, at times sense of deja vu. So I was cycling accompanied by that nice feeling through the village, passing Batu Hitam, Sekolah Menangah Kebangsaan Beserah and Pusat Sumber Pendidikan Negeri Pahang on my right until I arrived at my first long climb just after the small Beserah town. I knew I could do it but if you asked any cyclist not a single one of them would say they would like to do climbing alone. I am certainly not one of them as I prefer to maintain my own pace as well as not pressured by the speed of others. My only fear of doing it alone is being too hard on myself and forgetting my limits. On this one I sat a comfortable cadence and not pushing too hard up. The gradient was not steep but long. I was basically already climbing the range making up the whole Bukit Pelindung. When I reached the peak I was still full of energy and came down fast to the main traffic light junction. At the junction I turned left to start to climb towards Alor Akar. Cycling up and along Jalan Tengku Muhammad and Alor Akar area was really nostalgic for me. Especially when I passed the old Alor Akar Field Force Camp where we used to live for a short while before the whole camp moved to the then new Bukit Galing Camp. I was cycling while at the same time tracing back the sweet memories associated with the area. The orphanage opposite the Camp reminded me of my old primary school mates who lived there. I could not even remember any of their names. If I am not mistaken one of them was Adnan, a footballer. At the end of both the Camp and Orphanage started what still known as the school zone or areas, as along the road there were and are at least 4 schools beginning with Sekolah Teknik Alor Akar, followed by Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Alor Akar, both Sekolah Rendah and Menengah Kebangsaan Tengku Afzan, MRSM and Assunta Convent Girl School. My old puppy love went to Assunta.
One other most significant thing was of course the entrance of the climb to Bukit Pelindung. Where the trees and bush started are now filled with rows of exclusive homes. I could not remember how many times I climbed to the top of Bukit Pelindung but one occasion that I can remember clearly was our Scouts trekking exercise to the top. With our uniform drenched from our sweat we scrambled slowly next to the gate of the Telekom tower signified as the peak. I still remember I used to have a black an white photo of that and I do not know where it is now. I continued to cycle dictated by how fast my brain was tracing my memory bank for old stories and images to be superimposed by the new images I was experiencing.
Of course TC has changed. I even made a mistake of entering it wrongly through the McDonald’s drive in. To maintain certain order the authority had transformed the front of the main beach area into a boardwalk environment. So it was a no entry zone for all types of vehicles. Visitors to the beach have to park on the left side and walk to the beach from there. On a bicycle it posed no problem to me as I just swung my bicycle around and jumped onto the curb to cycle between two stalls to be on the beach front. Once on the beach front I cycled slowly to the end until I saw a boardwalk, wide enough for me to cycle on without being a nuisance to others, going over to the other side of TC, really on the other side of Bukit Pelindung. It was a discovery for me as in my many years in Kuantan I have never been to the other side of TC as it was then well known as lovers den. When I got to the other side I found out that the beach was beautiful. Not a lagoon but it was as nice as one. There was a big group of students camping in the beach. It was almost 0800 when I was there and the sun is beginning to take a peep of the world in the horizon. I stayed for awhile enjoying the atmosphere.
Grudgingly I got onto my bike and started cycling back on the boardwalk back to the main beach area. I had to, as I wanted to beat the heat to cycle back to Balok. Nevertheless, I stopped next to the downhill wooden ramp built for the recent Kuantan Enduro Downhill Race. I had to tip my hat off to those participated as looking at the ramp either your have to really know your stuff or your are missing a nut or two from your head to be doing the downhill. One wrong move you’ll smash onto the rocks below.
I cycled to the nearest stall to buy a drink as when I was on the boardwalk I realised I left my water behind. Trying to relax a bit I took a few shots of the place and while pushing my bike I thought I should capture myself for the record. I was lucky when I was there a saw a guy walking with his wife carrying a camera bag holding a Nikon. I requested him to take my photo with the Trek. I found out he was a MTB rider of sort as well and came from Shah Alam. After the ‘photo session’ I thanked the guy and cycled back, and the journey to Balok was no fun. The sun was already up by then and I had to do two major climbs immediately before I could cruise home. Just after the Pusat Sumber Pendidikan Pahang I crossed the road to cycled through Batu Hitam beach area instead of climbing through on the main road. It was around 0904 by then and I could not delay anymore or I would be trapped under the hot sun. Pushing hard ten minutes later I was already at the resort. I saw my water bottle sitting pretty on the back fender of the Ranger.
On my way to TC I saw a stall at Beserah selling variety of kueh and other foods so as soon I I had packed the bike inside the Ranger I drove out towards Kuantan again to buy some breakfast. When I was back at the room on Mar was interested in eating. Well, nowadays she always interested in eating. She is the girl version of Baqir growing up.
Mar and I were back in the pool again after we had breakfast and just like yesterday the pool was packed with holiday makers. Even the second pool was quite packed and kids jumping in. They’d never learn apparently that jumping could be dangerous, if not for them, for others in the pool. We just find our own space. I did a couple of strokes before I decided to just stand at the edge of the pool to watch on Mar. While standing there I got a muscle cramp on my right leg and I was mad with myself. Painful and I just could not move but to stand there until my muscles relaxed for me to be able to move slowly out of the water. The cycling before must have taken loads of salts from my system. I let Mar enjoyed the pool a little bit longer until I called for us to leave.
Lunch, dinner and the rest of the day were nothing to shout about. In fact we spent most of our times exploring the new mall.
My wife could not cycle so I decided to go on alone. I woke up with a little drizzle but I went down all the same to start to prepare myself. My intended route that morning was Federal Route 2 (Jalan Beserah) going south from Duta Village to Teluk Chempedak (TC to the locals) via Jalan Tengku Muhammad and Alor Akar. There was a little bit of darkness when I rolled out of the Duta Village. As usual I was not bothered with the distance and enough to have at least two major climbs before I’ll get to Teluk Chempedak. I pedaled hard and fast as I was trying to avoid the morning traffic and sun during my climb. The best part of cycling in the east coast or early in the morning in a small town or kampung is that you got to see how life comes alive in the morning. It never failed to provoke the nice feeling in me, at times sense of deja vu. So I was cycling accompanied by that nice feeling through the village, passing Batu Hitam, Sekolah Menangah Kebangsaan Beserah and Pusat Sumber Pendidikan Negeri Pahang on my right until I arrived at my first long climb just after the small Beserah town. I knew I could do it but if you asked any cyclist not a single one of them would say they would like to do climbing alone. I am certainly not one of them as I prefer to maintain my own pace as well as not pressured by the speed of others. My only fear of doing it alone is being too hard on myself and forgetting my limits. On this one I sat a comfortable cadence and not pushing too hard up. The gradient was not steep but long. I was basically already climbing the range making up the whole Bukit Pelindung. When I reached the peak I was still full of energy and came down fast to the main traffic light junction. At the junction I turned left to start to climb towards Alor Akar. Cycling up and along Jalan Tengku Muhammad and Alor Akar area was really nostalgic for me. Especially when I passed the old Alor Akar Field Force Camp where we used to live for a short while before the whole camp moved to the then new Bukit Galing Camp. I was cycling while at the same time tracing back the sweet memories associated with the area. The orphanage opposite the Camp reminded me of my old primary school mates who lived there. I could not even remember any of their names. If I am not mistaken one of them was Adnan, a footballer. At the end of both the Camp and Orphanage started what still known as the school zone or areas, as along the road there were and are at least 4 schools beginning with Sekolah Teknik Alor Akar, followed by Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Alor Akar, both Sekolah Rendah and Menengah Kebangsaan Tengku Afzan, MRSM and Assunta Convent Girl School. My old puppy love went to Assunta.
One other most significant thing was of course the entrance of the climb to Bukit Pelindung. Where the trees and bush started are now filled with rows of exclusive homes. I could not remember how many times I climbed to the top of Bukit Pelindung but one occasion that I can remember clearly was our Scouts trekking exercise to the top. With our uniform drenched from our sweat we scrambled slowly next to the gate of the Telekom tower signified as the peak. I still remember I used to have a black an white photo of that and I do not know where it is now. I continued to cycle dictated by how fast my brain was tracing my memory bank for old stories and images to be superimposed by the new images I was experiencing.
Of course TC has changed. I even made a mistake of entering it wrongly through the McDonald’s drive in. To maintain certain order the authority had transformed the front of the main beach area into a boardwalk environment. So it was a no entry zone for all types of vehicles. Visitors to the beach have to park on the left side and walk to the beach from there. On a bicycle it posed no problem to me as I just swung my bicycle around and jumped onto the curb to cycle between two stalls to be on the beach front. Once on the beach front I cycled slowly to the end until I saw a boardwalk, wide enough for me to cycle on without being a nuisance to others, going over to the other side of TC, really on the other side of Bukit Pelindung. It was a discovery for me as in my many years in Kuantan I have never been to the other side of TC as it was then well known as lovers den. When I got to the other side I found out that the beach was beautiful. Not a lagoon but it was as nice as one. There was a big group of students camping in the beach. It was almost 0800 when I was there and the sun is beginning to take a peep of the world in the horizon. I stayed for awhile enjoying the atmosphere.
Grudgingly I got onto my bike and started cycling back on the boardwalk back to the main beach area. I had to, as I wanted to beat the heat to cycle back to Balok. Nevertheless, I stopped next to the downhill wooden ramp built for the recent Kuantan Enduro Downhill Race. I had to tip my hat off to those participated as looking at the ramp either your have to really know your stuff or your are missing a nut or two from your head to be doing the downhill. One wrong move you’ll smash onto the rocks below.
I cycled to the nearest stall to buy a drink as when I was on the boardwalk I realised I left my water behind. Trying to relax a bit I took a few shots of the place and while pushing my bike I thought I should capture myself for the record. I was lucky when I was there a saw a guy walking with his wife carrying a camera bag holding a Nikon. I requested him to take my photo with the Trek. I found out he was a MTB rider of sort as well and came from Shah Alam. After the ‘photo session’ I thanked the guy and cycled back, and the journey to Balok was no fun. The sun was already up by then and I had to do two major climbs immediately before I could cruise home. Just after the Pusat Sumber Pendidikan Pahang I crossed the road to cycled through Batu Hitam beach area instead of climbing through on the main road. It was around 0904 by then and I could not delay anymore or I would be trapped under the hot sun. Pushing hard ten minutes later I was already at the resort. I saw my water bottle sitting pretty on the back fender of the Ranger.
On my way to TC I saw a stall at Beserah selling variety of kueh and other foods so as soon I I had packed the bike inside the Ranger I drove out towards Kuantan again to buy some breakfast. When I was back at the room on Mar was interested in eating. Well, nowadays she always interested in eating. She is the girl version of Baqir growing up.
Mar and I were back in the pool again after we had breakfast and just like yesterday the pool was packed with holiday makers. Even the second pool was quite packed and kids jumping in. They’d never learn apparently that jumping could be dangerous, if not for them, for others in the pool. We just find our own space. I did a couple of strokes before I decided to just stand at the edge of the pool to watch on Mar. While standing there I got a muscle cramp on my right leg and I was mad with myself. Painful and I just could not move but to stand there until my muscles relaxed for me to be able to move slowly out of the water. The cycling before must have taken loads of salts from my system. I let Mar enjoyed the pool a little bit longer until I called for us to leave.
Lunch, dinner and the rest of the day were nothing to shout about. In fact we spent most of our times exploring the new mall.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Small Town Pahang, Stesen Keretapi, Holiday and Me, Dec 12-15, 2009
It was the weekend when we supposed to be at Yan, Kedah for Mamat’s wedding. But the injury to the bride in an accident changed the whole thing. The wedding was postponed to 2010. With so many vacation days left I applied for an extra two days over the weekend and decided to use part of my vacation points at Duta Village Kuantan. We have been to Kuantan so many times already and it was even frequent when Kakak started to enroll at UiTM KT. The plan in Kuantan was just to hit the pool and be beach bump. Just to make sure I would have a good time I brought along both the Trek and the Bianchi.
Along and Baqir decided to miss this one as they preferred to play futsal everyday and night. Everyone else was dreading the journey to Kuantan and I could understand why. So I announced to them that I would be taking the back road and would depart early in the morning. With that rough plan we set out on the early morning of Dec 12, 2009.
Departure
As usual I was up at 0600. As soon as I’d said my Suboh prayers I yelled everyone up to get ready. I already loaded both the Trek and Bianchi the night before so I just needed to make sure everything else was in place. I did not want to miss anything now and spoilt my already potentially boring holiday. I directed the Ranger towards Semenyih with ease in the early Saturday morning. With no intention to stop for breakfast I steered left outside of Semenyih towards Broga. As we approached Broga I mentioned to my wife about the now walkers and climbers most visited Broga Hill. Sam was amazed to see so many cars already parked by the roadside so early in the morning. I told her they were there early to watch the first daybreak. Of course I talked about our Broga mountain bike trail as well. Soon we passed Ulu Lenggeng and cruised nicely to Kuala Klawang via Lenggeng Forest Reserve and Bukit Tangga. I spoke about the route that we were taking was a popular route for road bikers on Saturday. Indeed we met two groups of roadies along the way to Kuala Klawang. I suggested to Sam that we should do it on our mountain bikes one day. Of course my wife thought I got one or two screws loose up inside my head.
Jelebu, Simpang Pertang, Serting Ulu
Bukit Tangga Waterfall was at the end of the descend and I thought of stopping but when I asked aloud I received no answer and to my dismay I knew why. The girls were soundly asleep at the back. That prompted me to press hard on the pedal and zigzagged through Kuala Klawang town and the rest of Jelebu to turn towards Kuala Pilah at Simpang Pertang around 0900. My planned route was to turn left at Kg Serting to pass Serting Ulu and come out at the Ayer Hitam junction to turn left upwards towards Temerloh. I did not share all these with the rest as I wanted to amuse them with the things that they were not familiar about. So after Simpang Pertang knowing the tarmac would be decent and straight I floored the accelerator. Once I turned into Serting it was a new experience for me as well as I have never taken the route before. Now we were basically passing through ‘tanah rancangan’ most of the time which means the road would be small, straight and undulating according to the contour of the hills. Apart from overtaking lorries laden with either rubber or palm it was a smooth fast drive.
Ayer Hitam, Kemayan and Triang
From the digital map that I studied for this trip I would be coming out at Ayer Hitam to take Route 10 to Temerloh. Also at Ayer Hitam would be the first small train station in Pahang from Gemas. I planned to be there and all the train stations along the route. My nostalgic fool juice was working overtime by then. Apart from capturing and experiencing all the small towns that we would be passing through in Pahang I would also like to relive my childhood experience taking and being on the train home. But now experiencing it from the other side in broad daylight. I planned to stop at every station along the way to absorb the atmosphere as well as taking a lot of photographs.
When we arrived at Ayer Hitam I was anxious looking for a sign of a railway station but as I entered route 10 thinking the station would be somewhere further ahead. I did not see any and I knew I missed it totally. Since we were moving further out of Ayer Hitam already and in quiet a heavy traffic I decided not to turn back but to continue towards Kemayan where I knew would be another station. To my dismay when I looked back inside the Ranger the girls were still soundly sleeping. So when we cruised into Kemayan town I pull over at the first gas station that I saw and walked out to the restroom to ease myself. I also knew based on experience whenever I stop and the Ranger not moving the girls would be awake. I was right again as I walked back to the Ranger I saw the three of them were awake and Mar asked me where we were. I said there should look around and find out for themselves. The gas station was next to the Ubuddiah Mosque which architecturally was from an old design. With my camera I walked over and took few shots. While I was shooting off the main road I realized that the actual town was actually a bit further in across the road. I walked back to the Ranger and turned it around to enter the town. As I was driving in my dear wife remarked on the sign stating Kemayan Railway Station on our left. I stopped the Ranger nearby, got out and walked over to the railway station with my camera. My family knew the drill already.
I have never realized that the Kemayan station was also a crossing station. In my days on the train plying the route, even at the early hour in the morning, I did not see those tracks. That day I did and there were three tracks for freight train to wait and other trains to cross each other. I spent some times admiring and looking around at the station. So nostalgic and so wonderful. How do I describe how I felt? It was like if you were at a place that you connected most and absorbing the atmosphere. That’s was how I felt.
After I was satisfied I walked back to the Ranger. Thinking about it now I should have stayed longer.
Using the zoom lens I stood at the edge of the town and started to capture what I like. Through my view finder my eyes darted all over trying to find a good shot and while doing that I somehow could feel how living in a small town like Kemayan would be like. One street town was my life while we were living at Rantau Panjang, Bertam Ulu, Telemong and Tras. I guess with that experiences gave me certain authority to make that assessment. I could see one of the pulses of the town would be the railway station. The other would be one major sundry shop and one mamak eating place. Kemayan is more an agricultural town and you could see the terrain and the ecology of the town was a blend of the open space, green uniform formation of trees and certain gait of being laid back. I would be contented living in places like Kemayan. I stood with my camera ready to shoot long enough but I was not able to find my ‘great’ shot of the town.
I cruised through the town and entered the main road towards Triang. Triang was always a town that I associated with my friend Awie and I have never been to the town before. The strong pull to be there was not so much of it being historical or of any prominent but just because I have seen it in the darkness of early morning on every trip back home from the train. Each time Awie disembarked at the Triang railway station another layer was embedded to my permanent interest to be there and know more about the town. I knew Triang was not that far away from Kemayan so I drove cautiously. Within half an hour the sign indicated that we were approaching Triang already. I turned left at a junction and I saw the roofs of Triang town straight away. The first stop before the town for me was the traffic light. I waited patiently and as the light turned green I instinctively turned right into, what I guess as, Triang town. I was right. The buildings were as old as the buildings in the old Raub town. Nothing exciting to see immediately but it was enough to spark my interest even more. However, a business of gastronomy in nature had to be the first order of our day in Triang. We had not had our proper breakfast yet so my first objective was to find a place to eat. I saw a sign of gerai makan at the Pasar Triang but on closer look most of the proprietors were Chinese. I swung the truck around and proceeded further out and immediately saw a kedai mamak. It was a sure and safe bet so we went there. Where ever you go mamak is still the same mamak so we ordered our favourite. For me two chapattis ha ha ha. We sat there enjoying our food and couldn’t careless what time we should be leaving. While eating I had decided to backtrack and explore the town properly and one of the things that I must do was to be at Triang train station.
Since we were in need of a couple of RMs I drove in to find ‘My Friend’. As we drove in before I saw the yellow tiger sign somewhere near the wet market so I headed there. After I withdrew some money I walked along the corridor where I met a young man to ask the direction to the train station and was told not that far from where we stood. With the information I headed back to the Ranger and drove towards the direction. My wife remarked ‘ dah jumpa dah?’ referring to my search for the railway station. Smiling at myself I said yes.
I have written about Triang Railway station before and its significance with my life. Being there in broad daylight gave me a better perspective of the place from seeing it from the train in the darkness of very early morning. I was amazed at the size of the station and how well kept it was. In the end it made sense as the station is one of the main stations and major stops along the east coast line. I picked my shots carefully and walked around to make sure I had enough. When I stood looking around the place I just could not pinpoint my exact feeling for the place. One thing for sure I fulfilled my wish to be there during the day and not on a train. I was glad that the station remained as it was from the days I used to pass by on my way home or back to school during my school days. I dreaded to think what would going to happen to it in the future. Knowing KTMB I would not be surprised if they demolish the structure to build a new one. For once I wish KTMB would not progress. Satisfied with myself I walked back to my family waiting in the Ranger. Then a slow drive out of Triang.
After Triang was the town of Bera by then the rest of the journey was just another journey for me as I had passed by recently on the way to my wife’s nephew’s engagement. My intention was to just fly by and to get onto the Kuantan highway as soon as possible. But then my wife reminded me of another station that I thought I had captured before. When I saw the sign Mengkarak Station at a junction on my left I swung the Ranger left straight away and pushed in as fast as I could anticipating just a small place. I was surprised to be greeted by quite a big town and residential area. As we approached the small town I could see and imagine the kind of people living there. Most of them were planters and palm oil estate workers. Just inside the town we crossed the railway track and only then I realised the station was really a small one where it used to be a small wooden station that now was a container cabin makeshift transformed to be a station. I could guess the station was hardly used and probably mostly be used for crossing as well as freight train to stop. Nevertheless it was a good learning experience for me. Now I understand about the place even more. In the old days the station must be an important hub and gathering place for the people as well as a mean to transport their farm products out. Still I went through the same routine that I did for the past two stations.
Temerloh and Kuantan
The route taking us to Temerloh town was a coastal road along the bank of Pahang river. Along the way we could see several entrepreneurial locals selling fish like patin, keli and talapia. It was obvious to us that these fish came from their own caged fish farm along the Pahang river. A normal sight to me maybe but if you a first time I recommend you to drive slowly to enjoy the scenery a little bit. For me that day unless I see and of the roadside stalls selling cendol I would not stop.
Once we entered Temerloh our main objective became to reach Kuantan as soon as possible. I floored the accelerator and entered the East Coast highway. At around 1330 I entered the Kuantan tol plaza and cruised into Kuantan. I took the usual route to Beserah and at 1410 arrived at the usual medan selara as you entered Beserah for lunch. As if everyone was waiting for the main event lunch was just another activity to accomplish for the day. The truth was we have been doing similar thing for at least three times in our lives already and the whole thing was just another motion for us. Being in Kuantan that day was just a destination to doing nothing. For me especially the journey itself was the main event. Reaching Kuantan and staying at the same place we have stayed couple of times before was one event in the whole sequence. I got three days in Kuantan and the first two at Duta Village and the third a bonus for any possibility. As in any longer trip we had our bikes with us and we intended to cycle in Kuantan.
We checked in as soon as we arrived at Duta Village and the order of the day for me and Mar was to hit the pool. As it was in the middle of a long school holidays the place was fully booked and being the usual late with my planning me I only managed to secure a studio room. It was not too bad. The pool was also almost at capacity where we were only saved by the strict attire ruling for the second pool. The only thing was I forgot to bring my goggle and I was limited in what I could do. Nevertheless both Mar and I enjoyed our swim in the pool. We tried the beach later but we did not like it so we retreated to the pool.
Except for my dear wife, who was on a personal record breaking attempt to finish three novels in two days, the rest of the party was fast asleep when we got back to the room. I announced that I was going to a take a short nap and then go out for dinner or whatever. After asking the rest I realised eating options slowly were limited for us in Kuantan. The variety of food and taste actually were the two main limiting factors. As the easiest was for me to go to Tg Lumpur we ended just having a simple seafood dinner there.
Some of the photos are here
Along and Baqir decided to miss this one as they preferred to play futsal everyday and night. Everyone else was dreading the journey to Kuantan and I could understand why. So I announced to them that I would be taking the back road and would depart early in the morning. With that rough plan we set out on the early morning of Dec 12, 2009.
Departure
As usual I was up at 0600. As soon as I’d said my Suboh prayers I yelled everyone up to get ready. I already loaded both the Trek and Bianchi the night before so I just needed to make sure everything else was in place. I did not want to miss anything now and spoilt my already potentially boring holiday. I directed the Ranger towards Semenyih with ease in the early Saturday morning. With no intention to stop for breakfast I steered left outside of Semenyih towards Broga. As we approached Broga I mentioned to my wife about the now walkers and climbers most visited Broga Hill. Sam was amazed to see so many cars already parked by the roadside so early in the morning. I told her they were there early to watch the first daybreak. Of course I talked about our Broga mountain bike trail as well. Soon we passed Ulu Lenggeng and cruised nicely to Kuala Klawang via Lenggeng Forest Reserve and Bukit Tangga. I spoke about the route that we were taking was a popular route for road bikers on Saturday. Indeed we met two groups of roadies along the way to Kuala Klawang. I suggested to Sam that we should do it on our mountain bikes one day. Of course my wife thought I got one or two screws loose up inside my head.
Jelebu, Simpang Pertang, Serting Ulu
Bukit Tangga Waterfall was at the end of the descend and I thought of stopping but when I asked aloud I received no answer and to my dismay I knew why. The girls were soundly asleep at the back. That prompted me to press hard on the pedal and zigzagged through Kuala Klawang town and the rest of Jelebu to turn towards Kuala Pilah at Simpang Pertang around 0900. My planned route was to turn left at Kg Serting to pass Serting Ulu and come out at the Ayer Hitam junction to turn left upwards towards Temerloh. I did not share all these with the rest as I wanted to amuse them with the things that they were not familiar about. So after Simpang Pertang knowing the tarmac would be decent and straight I floored the accelerator. Once I turned into Serting it was a new experience for me as well as I have never taken the route before. Now we were basically passing through ‘tanah rancangan’ most of the time which means the road would be small, straight and undulating according to the contour of the hills. Apart from overtaking lorries laden with either rubber or palm it was a smooth fast drive.
Ayer Hitam, Kemayan and Triang
From the digital map that I studied for this trip I would be coming out at Ayer Hitam to take Route 10 to Temerloh. Also at Ayer Hitam would be the first small train station in Pahang from Gemas. I planned to be there and all the train stations along the route. My nostalgic fool juice was working overtime by then. Apart from capturing and experiencing all the small towns that we would be passing through in Pahang I would also like to relive my childhood experience taking and being on the train home. But now experiencing it from the other side in broad daylight. I planned to stop at every station along the way to absorb the atmosphere as well as taking a lot of photographs.
When we arrived at Ayer Hitam I was anxious looking for a sign of a railway station but as I entered route 10 thinking the station would be somewhere further ahead. I did not see any and I knew I missed it totally. Since we were moving further out of Ayer Hitam already and in quiet a heavy traffic I decided not to turn back but to continue towards Kemayan where I knew would be another station. To my dismay when I looked back inside the Ranger the girls were still soundly sleeping. So when we cruised into Kemayan town I pull over at the first gas station that I saw and walked out to the restroom to ease myself. I also knew based on experience whenever I stop and the Ranger not moving the girls would be awake. I was right again as I walked back to the Ranger I saw the three of them were awake and Mar asked me where we were. I said there should look around and find out for themselves. The gas station was next to the Ubuddiah Mosque which architecturally was from an old design. With my camera I walked over and took few shots. While I was shooting off the main road I realized that the actual town was actually a bit further in across the road. I walked back to the Ranger and turned it around to enter the town. As I was driving in my dear wife remarked on the sign stating Kemayan Railway Station on our left. I stopped the Ranger nearby, got out and walked over to the railway station with my camera. My family knew the drill already.
I have never realized that the Kemayan station was also a crossing station. In my days on the train plying the route, even at the early hour in the morning, I did not see those tracks. That day I did and there were three tracks for freight train to wait and other trains to cross each other. I spent some times admiring and looking around at the station. So nostalgic and so wonderful. How do I describe how I felt? It was like if you were at a place that you connected most and absorbing the atmosphere. That’s was how I felt.
After I was satisfied I walked back to the Ranger. Thinking about it now I should have stayed longer.
Using the zoom lens I stood at the edge of the town and started to capture what I like. Through my view finder my eyes darted all over trying to find a good shot and while doing that I somehow could feel how living in a small town like Kemayan would be like. One street town was my life while we were living at Rantau Panjang, Bertam Ulu, Telemong and Tras. I guess with that experiences gave me certain authority to make that assessment. I could see one of the pulses of the town would be the railway station. The other would be one major sundry shop and one mamak eating place. Kemayan is more an agricultural town and you could see the terrain and the ecology of the town was a blend of the open space, green uniform formation of trees and certain gait of being laid back. I would be contented living in places like Kemayan. I stood with my camera ready to shoot long enough but I was not able to find my ‘great’ shot of the town.
I cruised through the town and entered the main road towards Triang. Triang was always a town that I associated with my friend Awie and I have never been to the town before. The strong pull to be there was not so much of it being historical or of any prominent but just because I have seen it in the darkness of early morning on every trip back home from the train. Each time Awie disembarked at the Triang railway station another layer was embedded to my permanent interest to be there and know more about the town. I knew Triang was not that far away from Kemayan so I drove cautiously. Within half an hour the sign indicated that we were approaching Triang already. I turned left at a junction and I saw the roofs of Triang town straight away. The first stop before the town for me was the traffic light. I waited patiently and as the light turned green I instinctively turned right into, what I guess as, Triang town. I was right. The buildings were as old as the buildings in the old Raub town. Nothing exciting to see immediately but it was enough to spark my interest even more. However, a business of gastronomy in nature had to be the first order of our day in Triang. We had not had our proper breakfast yet so my first objective was to find a place to eat. I saw a sign of gerai makan at the Pasar Triang but on closer look most of the proprietors were Chinese. I swung the truck around and proceeded further out and immediately saw a kedai mamak. It was a sure and safe bet so we went there. Where ever you go mamak is still the same mamak so we ordered our favourite. For me two chapattis ha ha ha. We sat there enjoying our food and couldn’t careless what time we should be leaving. While eating I had decided to backtrack and explore the town properly and one of the things that I must do was to be at Triang train station.
Since we were in need of a couple of RMs I drove in to find ‘My Friend’. As we drove in before I saw the yellow tiger sign somewhere near the wet market so I headed there. After I withdrew some money I walked along the corridor where I met a young man to ask the direction to the train station and was told not that far from where we stood. With the information I headed back to the Ranger and drove towards the direction. My wife remarked ‘ dah jumpa dah?’ referring to my search for the railway station. Smiling at myself I said yes.
I have written about Triang Railway station before and its significance with my life. Being there in broad daylight gave me a better perspective of the place from seeing it from the train in the darkness of very early morning. I was amazed at the size of the station and how well kept it was. In the end it made sense as the station is one of the main stations and major stops along the east coast line. I picked my shots carefully and walked around to make sure I had enough. When I stood looking around the place I just could not pinpoint my exact feeling for the place. One thing for sure I fulfilled my wish to be there during the day and not on a train. I was glad that the station remained as it was from the days I used to pass by on my way home or back to school during my school days. I dreaded to think what would going to happen to it in the future. Knowing KTMB I would not be surprised if they demolish the structure to build a new one. For once I wish KTMB would not progress. Satisfied with myself I walked back to my family waiting in the Ranger. Then a slow drive out of Triang.
After Triang was the town of Bera by then the rest of the journey was just another journey for me as I had passed by recently on the way to my wife’s nephew’s engagement. My intention was to just fly by and to get onto the Kuantan highway as soon as possible. But then my wife reminded me of another station that I thought I had captured before. When I saw the sign Mengkarak Station at a junction on my left I swung the Ranger left straight away and pushed in as fast as I could anticipating just a small place. I was surprised to be greeted by quite a big town and residential area. As we approached the small town I could see and imagine the kind of people living there. Most of them were planters and palm oil estate workers. Just inside the town we crossed the railway track and only then I realised the station was really a small one where it used to be a small wooden station that now was a container cabin makeshift transformed to be a station. I could guess the station was hardly used and probably mostly be used for crossing as well as freight train to stop. Nevertheless it was a good learning experience for me. Now I understand about the place even more. In the old days the station must be an important hub and gathering place for the people as well as a mean to transport their farm products out. Still I went through the same routine that I did for the past two stations.
Temerloh and Kuantan
The route taking us to Temerloh town was a coastal road along the bank of Pahang river. Along the way we could see several entrepreneurial locals selling fish like patin, keli and talapia. It was obvious to us that these fish came from their own caged fish farm along the Pahang river. A normal sight to me maybe but if you a first time I recommend you to drive slowly to enjoy the scenery a little bit. For me that day unless I see and of the roadside stalls selling cendol I would not stop.
Once we entered Temerloh our main objective became to reach Kuantan as soon as possible. I floored the accelerator and entered the East Coast highway. At around 1330 I entered the Kuantan tol plaza and cruised into Kuantan. I took the usual route to Beserah and at 1410 arrived at the usual medan selara as you entered Beserah for lunch. As if everyone was waiting for the main event lunch was just another activity to accomplish for the day. The truth was we have been doing similar thing for at least three times in our lives already and the whole thing was just another motion for us. Being in Kuantan that day was just a destination to doing nothing. For me especially the journey itself was the main event. Reaching Kuantan and staying at the same place we have stayed couple of times before was one event in the whole sequence. I got three days in Kuantan and the first two at Duta Village and the third a bonus for any possibility. As in any longer trip we had our bikes with us and we intended to cycle in Kuantan.
We checked in as soon as we arrived at Duta Village and the order of the day for me and Mar was to hit the pool. As it was in the middle of a long school holidays the place was fully booked and being the usual late with my planning me I only managed to secure a studio room. It was not too bad. The pool was also almost at capacity where we were only saved by the strict attire ruling for the second pool. The only thing was I forgot to bring my goggle and I was limited in what I could do. Nevertheless both Mar and I enjoyed our swim in the pool. We tried the beach later but we did not like it so we retreated to the pool.
Except for my dear wife, who was on a personal record breaking attempt to finish three novels in two days, the rest of the party was fast asleep when we got back to the room. I announced that I was going to a take a short nap and then go out for dinner or whatever. After asking the rest I realised eating options slowly were limited for us in Kuantan. The variety of food and taste actually were the two main limiting factors. As the easiest was for me to go to Tg Lumpur we ended just having a simple seafood dinner there.
Some of the photos are here
Thursday, March 18, 2010
On The Train, Mar 18, 2010
No I have not stop blogging. In fact I am writing four pieces of travelogue at the moment. Getting to finish one of them is really a challenge to me now. Ideas simply stopped flowing and making my writing to be straight forward and monotonous. Today while writing I sense a happy mood on the train. Everybody seems to be happy with something which was a change from yesterday when everyone of us could not help to feel like a crushed ikan sadin. Indeed it is a school holidays but most of the commuters were not of school going age group. One of my friends said by next year the train service would improve. I said, ‘ahmm lets see.’
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
@ The KL Bird Park, Jan 16, 2010
Luckily I got about 20 minutes of power nap while waiting for Kak Cik at her school if not I would be too tired to take Mar to the KL Bird Park I had cycled to UKM that morning and had pushed myself a bit. Fresh after the nap I asked Mar to get ready and by 1400 we were on the highway speeding towards the bird park. I was mindful that if we were to arrive too early it would be too hot to walk around. So I timed and planned it as such we could have a quick lunch first before we entered the park. At the same time getting our body to get use to the heat.
We walked into the park at around 1445 and be greeted by the birds. Instinctively Mar asked what time was the show. I was not sure whether there would be one so we check our map and schedule. True enough there was one schedule at the amphitheater at 1530. The amphitheater was at Zone ? which was at the other end. I proposed to Mar a path that would take us there on time. As we turned onto the path a small crowd excitedly was gathering around a beautiful bird. A male peacock was in full glory trying to protect his territory. All of us with camera were clicking away trying to capture the best part of the bird. After awhile, from my view finder, I realized the bird was not actually trying to protect his territory being in the park too long and having a lot of visitors giving him enough attention was actually showing off big time. What can I say, peacock will be peacock he he he. After awhile we had enough of the peacock and started to walk further in the direction of the amphitheatre.
After a short walk we came to a place where two attendants were sitting around waiting and inviting visitors to their photos with the birds perched on manmade branches within the area. The invitation was of course tagged with you departing with some of your beloved RMs. All of the birds were exotic birds like kite, parrots, and macaw. They were sitting confident and pretty like cabaret dancers waiting for someone to come over to ask for a dance. I thought I wanted to take their digital equivalent but then I decided not to. Primarily because it was not natural. Secondly, I really thought all the birds there were vainly snobs and too proud of themselves. We moved on to our left to the birds of prey area. Obviously being what they are they were caged within a cage. Our KL Bird Parks has good collections of the close family of kites, hawks, eagles and owls. To our naked eyes they were really were beautiful and exciting birds but to my digital camera the small grid wire mesh was a complete deterrent for good photography. We moved on to be presented with the parrots and its kind sanctuary. Once were inside it was worth all the RMs I paid to enter. Some of them were left free outside their cages within their own enclosure. So we could get really close to them and being too familiar with human they were not afraid to come to you or even to pose majestically for you.
I could not stay too long at one place as being hyperactive Mar would like to move along quickly. She kept asking me to hurry up to proceed for her bird show and I kept telling her do not worry we had enough time. Well I am used to that. To occupy her time and to keep her mind away from the bird show I cajoled her into becoming my fulltime model. She obliged of course. We walked on and both enjoyed the surrounding as much the birds. If the birds, at least most of them in the confinement of the park, were free to roam we were even free with our demeanors. A father and daughter quality times together. As we walked closer down to amphitheater we saw there was already a bit of visitors sitting waiting and seeing that Mar got impatient. She ran and ignored my yelling to wait for me.
Once seated she was still like a worm under a hot sun. She just could not keep still a moment. Eventually the show started and the first comment that came out of Mar’s mouth was. ‘Ala! ni dah tengok dah’. She was obviously referring to the same routine that we saw a week before at the Zoo Negara. I quieten her saying there should be something different after the first one. Not much. She enjoyed the show nevertheless after that.
After the show we started to continue to walk at the point where we left off. The inner sanctuary was very interesting and luck had it while we were there the keeper came out to feed the birds, especially the herons and flamingos with fish. We stayed there watching the antics of the birds. We were closed enough to them that we could touch them. In fact some of them came even closer. But then Mar got a little bit scared to touch them. One thing that we were told during the bird show was that most of the herons and white flamingos that we saw flying around freely outside at the open area were squatters that came from places like the Zoo Negara for free meals. Not only that we could also see a lot of macaques were loitering around.
While walking and photographing in the inner sanctuary something unexpected came into my view finder. I thought I was seeing a reflection but when I took off my eyes of the view finder and look over true enough that it was a solitary black swan swimming in the pond.
The rest of the walk was just making our round around the park to make sure we covered every corner of the place. Nothing was out of the ordinary except that we found out there were a lot of peacocks in the park. They were like everywhere. I guess they were very productive and easy to breed. But then seeing too many of them at every interval was really an anti climax. Towards the end of our visit they became just another birds.
You can experience our digital journey here.
We walked into the park at around 1445 and be greeted by the birds. Instinctively Mar asked what time was the show. I was not sure whether there would be one so we check our map and schedule. True enough there was one schedule at the amphitheater at 1530. The amphitheater was at Zone ? which was at the other end. I proposed to Mar a path that would take us there on time. As we turned onto the path a small crowd excitedly was gathering around a beautiful bird. A male peacock was in full glory trying to protect his territory. All of us with camera were clicking away trying to capture the best part of the bird. After awhile, from my view finder, I realized the bird was not actually trying to protect his territory being in the park too long and having a lot of visitors giving him enough attention was actually showing off big time. What can I say, peacock will be peacock he he he. After awhile we had enough of the peacock and started to walk further in the direction of the amphitheatre.
After a short walk we came to a place where two attendants were sitting around waiting and inviting visitors to their photos with the birds perched on manmade branches within the area. The invitation was of course tagged with you departing with some of your beloved RMs. All of the birds were exotic birds like kite, parrots, and macaw. They were sitting confident and pretty like cabaret dancers waiting for someone to come over to ask for a dance. I thought I wanted to take their digital equivalent but then I decided not to. Primarily because it was not natural. Secondly, I really thought all the birds there were vainly snobs and too proud of themselves. We moved on to our left to the birds of prey area. Obviously being what they are they were caged within a cage. Our KL Bird Parks has good collections of the close family of kites, hawks, eagles and owls. To our naked eyes they were really were beautiful and exciting birds but to my digital camera the small grid wire mesh was a complete deterrent for good photography. We moved on to be presented with the parrots and its kind sanctuary. Once were inside it was worth all the RMs I paid to enter. Some of them were left free outside their cages within their own enclosure. So we could get really close to them and being too familiar with human they were not afraid to come to you or even to pose majestically for you.
I could not stay too long at one place as being hyperactive Mar would like to move along quickly. She kept asking me to hurry up to proceed for her bird show and I kept telling her do not worry we had enough time. Well I am used to that. To occupy her time and to keep her mind away from the bird show I cajoled her into becoming my fulltime model. She obliged of course. We walked on and both enjoyed the surrounding as much the birds. If the birds, at least most of them in the confinement of the park, were free to roam we were even free with our demeanors. A father and daughter quality times together. As we walked closer down to amphitheater we saw there was already a bit of visitors sitting waiting and seeing that Mar got impatient. She ran and ignored my yelling to wait for me.
Once seated she was still like a worm under a hot sun. She just could not keep still a moment. Eventually the show started and the first comment that came out of Mar’s mouth was. ‘Ala! ni dah tengok dah’. She was obviously referring to the same routine that we saw a week before at the Zoo Negara. I quieten her saying there should be something different after the first one. Not much. She enjoyed the show nevertheless after that.
After the show we started to continue to walk at the point where we left off. The inner sanctuary was very interesting and luck had it while we were there the keeper came out to feed the birds, especially the herons and flamingos with fish. We stayed there watching the antics of the birds. We were closed enough to them that we could touch them. In fact some of them came even closer. But then Mar got a little bit scared to touch them. One thing that we were told during the bird show was that most of the herons and white flamingos that we saw flying around freely outside at the open area were squatters that came from places like the Zoo Negara for free meals. Not only that we could also see a lot of macaques were loitering around.
While walking and photographing in the inner sanctuary something unexpected came into my view finder. I thought I was seeing a reflection but when I took off my eyes of the view finder and look over true enough that it was a solitary black swan swimming in the pond.
The rest of the walk was just making our round around the park to make sure we covered every corner of the place. Nothing was out of the ordinary except that we found out there were a lot of peacocks in the park. They were like everywhere. I guess they were very productive and easy to breed. But then seeing too many of them at every interval was really an anti climax. Towards the end of our visit they became just another birds.
You can experience our digital journey here.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Seminar KM: Reality or Myth, Feb 10, 2010, UMP Kuantan, Pahang
The opening went short and sweet as it should be. We know Malaysians tend to overdoing things to be too ceremonial.
Morning Session
Dato Pak Ray kicked off the morning session. Being the ‘old’ usual Pak Ray he flew away with his ever funny and impromptu punchlines. He touches on the basic framework and issues on KM. Of the 8 key focus of knowledge management practice. measuring knowledge is the most difficult and challenging Then following his Cik Cek Rosnah Ngah from UMT shared her perspective of her early research on the subject. Both papers gave a good perspective of KM to those new to the subject. both agreed that it is not a myth but something very real that the library community need to look at very seriously. To me the participants need to understand properly what KM is and what it means to them and their profession. If we are very serious about it more frequent get together and knowledge sharing need to take place. Especially on the realignment of the new development in the subject area. Opportunity for KMC @ SK to develop a program in this direction.
Evening Session
Prof Madya Dr Wan Maseri started the evening session with her perspective and experience on Knowledge Management System. Conceptually she covered most what it should be with her latest project with MKM as a case study. Listening to her and looking at the templates she used brought a sense of deja vu to me. They were all seems very familiar to me. My presentations and works in the early days came in full cycle. It was a nice feeling. I ended the day program by sharing our KBO journey and experience. At the end of it everybody were a bit quiet. I am not sure whether they understood what I said or confused. I’d like it to be positive and it was the former.
Overall to me the one day seminar was a success and something that we should od more often now.
Morning Session
Dato Pak Ray kicked off the morning session. Being the ‘old’ usual Pak Ray he flew away with his ever funny and impromptu punchlines. He touches on the basic framework and issues on KM. Of the 8 key focus of knowledge management practice. measuring knowledge is the most difficult and challenging Then following his Cik Cek Rosnah Ngah from UMT shared her perspective of her early research on the subject. Both papers gave a good perspective of KM to those new to the subject. both agreed that it is not a myth but something very real that the library community need to look at very seriously. To me the participants need to understand properly what KM is and what it means to them and their profession. If we are very serious about it more frequent get together and knowledge sharing need to take place. Especially on the realignment of the new development in the subject area. Opportunity for KMC @ SK to develop a program in this direction.
Evening Session
Prof Madya Dr Wan Maseri started the evening session with her perspective and experience on Knowledge Management System. Conceptually she covered most what it should be with her latest project with MKM as a case study. Listening to her and looking at the templates she used brought a sense of deja vu to me. They were all seems very familiar to me. My presentations and works in the early days came in full cycle. It was a nice feeling. I ended the day program by sharing our KBO journey and experience. At the end of it everybody were a bit quiet. I am not sure whether they understood what I said or confused. I’d like it to be positive and it was the former.
Overall to me the one day seminar was a success and something that we should od more often now.
Monday, January 18, 2010
@ the Zoo Negara, Jan 10, 2010
I was uploading our pictures at the Zoo yesterday when Mar came over and said, ‘ Abah, tulis la cerita kita pergi zoo tadi baru best.’ So here it is.
I woke up early as usual but chose to lie down after I’ve said my prayers. It was, of course, a mistake as at 0730 my phone buzzed and it was Rudi’s phone, passing it to Aizam, to ask whether I was coming down for our weekly cycling or not? Because it was late already for them to wait for me I said no. Zam tried to persuade me but I said no still as I really did not want them to wait for me. That said I thought I could go back to dreamland. A few minutes later there was a knock on our door and I knew it would be Mar. When I let her in I asked her would she want to go to the zoo. She replied ‘suka hati Abah la.’ So I asked her back. ’do you want to go to the zoo or not?’ Since I was awake already and that could be the only opportunity that we have I decided to go. I really love to go as well. Zoo is our thing.
We arrived at the entrance of the Zoo just after 0900 and we were that early our Ranger was one of the first fives to be parked there. When we entered it was a wonderful early morning at the zoo. The first order of the day was to get a cap for Mar. I did not want her to be more tan than she already was he he he. We bought one at the gift shop on the left as we entered the zoo. The second order of the day was to have our breakfast. I wanted to ask whether the eating place was already open for business so we walked to the Information Kiosk. We were told apart from the one in front of us the others should be opened already and the person indicated the direction. He also suggested for us to buy the map which was RM3. I just paid as I knew I was contributing to the upkeep of the zoo.
I ordered ‘egg burger’ and black Nescafe for myself and when I asked Mar she said nothing. Wow! Mar said no to food! But I forced her to eat something and she asked for orange juice and a bag of popcorn. We sat nearby to eat our breakfast. As we sat eating we saw visitors started to trickle in at the entrance. Mar started to scrutinize the map and all she asked and talked about were the butterflies and elephants. I said they were all there and we will visit every inch of the zoo. But we needed to strategise. Normally when we were at the zoo we would immediately turn left to see the giraffe and the elephant first and circumvent the zoo that direction but today since Mar wanted to watch the animal show at 1100 I suggested to her we go right first as it was nearer to the aquarium. Since it was still almost three hours to go we walked slowly to enjoy everything. With my longest lens on the Nikon, I shot everything from a distance. It works very well as I could catch Mar being herself. Well, I succeeded once or twice as she had the knack to suddenly turn around when I was about to press the shutter release and modelled for me. Instead of just a peace sign, her repertoires included outstretching hands now.
If you turn to your right as you entered the zoo the first thing that you’ll come to would be, as Mar said Baqir’s friends’ the monkey’s cages. Well, there were a couple of birds but mainly monkeys. We continued to walk ahead and I indicated to Mar where the show was going to be. She insisted to check it out despite after I said a few times the place was empty. When she was satisfied we walked to look at the hippos. When we walked on the bridge on our right was the African hippos and on the left the pygmy hippo. Both buried themselves in the water. Nothing much to see but we waited anyway. In the end, the African hippos stirred in the water and emerged slowly. I told Mar that hippos were basically nocturnal animals so it was normal for them to be sleeping and happy to be just in the water. The pygmy hippos decided to do just that the whole day we were there. Submerged in the water like an immobilized submarine.
We walked pass the hippo and entered the so called Bee Museum. Well, there was a nice display of anything to do with bees but also almost half of the area was occupied by bottled honey for sale. You guess right that a specific bee farm was sponsoring most if not all of the ‘museum’. Actually, the zoo needs such company coming in to do that to ensure the Zoo Negara is still in place for people like Mar and me to keep coming back to. We tasted a few rounds of honey and walked around the display. Mar was asking a lot of questions and seemed interested to know more. I was eager to explain but then she said ‘I want to see the butterfly and the elephants.’ I said later as both were in the middle and at the end of our route around the zoo. If we were to go there we would not have time to come back to see the animal show at 1100.
The Indian Seladangs were just lazying in the morning sun, the sunbears were still deciding to come out or not and the otters were really crying for their late breakfast. To kill more time we stopped at the gifts shop nearby to window shop and be caressed by the cool air blowing from the aircon. You should know better that there is no such thing as just browsing if it is about souvenir t-shirts for me. We bought one each he he he. After awhile we walked out of the shop and backtracked towards the show area next to the aquarium. The pigmy hippo was still in the water not moving where as her African cousins were out in the pen now. I waited for a while for a good shot.
The show was still 20 minutes away and to pass the times I suggested to Mar to visit the aquarium. No matter what we still enjoyed the fish. Mar kept her face close to the glass most of the time while I was trying very hard to play around with the camera settings to try to capture a good scene. I failed miserably I am yet to master the D80 fully. As I was fiddling with my camera and trying to capture Mar a gentleman on my right was watching me. Once I look up he said hi and said,’ I knew you look familiar.’ It was Fadzil Abd Aziz, my old colleague from my MDC days. He was there with his two boys. Fazlyn was at work he told me and we talked and asked a bit about each other. He is now working in Ipoh while Fazlyn is toying of moving over to Cyberview. I somehow in our conversation mentioned about my cycling activities and he exclaimed that he was into mountain biking as well. So we promised to get in touch if we were planning for a ride around each other areas.
We did not finish the aquarium properly and rushed out to the amphitheatre for the animal show. Mar really ran towards the place and my yelling did not matter at all. I had to search for her when I got there. In the end, she spotted and called me to the second row from the stage. We sat there waiting for a while until eventually, the first show began. It was the bird show that we have seen so many times before. I sat there waiting for a great shot but none came or maybe I was not that observant. Still, Mar enjoyed the whole same old bird routine. Next came out the seal, I could not remember his name, and the show got better with interesting routine. The last one was the sea lion, again I forgot his name, show. This big guy cooperated in the beginning with all the routines until towards the end he decided he has had enough and left his trainer standing mumbling about him being sick. Well, that’s how it is with animals, nothing guaranteed. With that, the show ended prematurely and I was disappointed and Mar disgusted.
As we agreed when we entered in the morning we would walk the zoo, off we went walking towards the Savannah. Little of the Savananh interest Mar except for an ice cream vendor nearby. She bought two big scoops while I settled for a Cornetto. What can I say we were fed Cornetto every week when I was in school and the habit stuck. She sat next to the Camel’s pen and took her time to finish her ice cream. I gulped mine.
Since we were just about a few meters from the orang utans I suggested we walked up a bit before we walked back down. She kept asking about the butterfly and I told her it was just down below and we will pass through. Only then she got up to follow me to see both the orang utans and chimpanzees. The orang utans already tired being a model zoo citizen when we got there. The chief, I presumed as he was big, slumbered on a slab just of the ground with his eyes dreary looking into space. The rest of the support crew either perched on the platform built for show or just on their back counting non-existence stars. The amount of food on the ground indicated to us no extra amount of food would move them now. The chimpanzees behaved no better. One oldtimer actually sat on a decline like a nelayan sitting under his hut on a beachfront looking out waiting for nothing. I do not mean to be rude here but that was the impression that I got. If indeed the chimpanzee had a sarong on his demeanour would not be very far from reality. Mar just stood there at the edge waiting for something to happen while the others were just relaxing and talking to each other. Now, I did not know who was looking at whom? Maybe the orang utans were so pissed they rather watched the people there behaved. Mar asked me whether she could feed both the orang utans and chimpanzees but I told her both were not hungry and it would be just a waste of food and money. We stayed a bit longer there just to rest and then walked back down towards the butterfly area.
The young male Caucasian of European origin, I guess German, stopped us at the entrance of the butterfly park to request to see our handtag. Upon seeing ours he advised us that we have to pay an extra RM5 and RM3 respectively to enter the place. I jokingly asked Mar whether she wanted to go in. Immediately once inside was a display of anything to do with butterfly and insects. But Mar was not really interested in that. So we did the display as fast as we could and entered the butterfly compounds. It was already a bit hot and most of the butterflies were not really that active. Still, a lot was flying searching for nectars. The compound was not that big so I allowed Mar to explore by herself and I concentrated on taking photographs of the butterflies. I would think we were there just around 5 minutes when Mar already complained loudly that we should be going already. Being a very hyperactive girl I would expect something like that to happen but not that fast. She was the one who wanted to be there in the first place. I was still intense photographing the butterflies. What irked me I could not get the kinds of shot that I was craving for. Still, it was a precious moment to be there with her to enjoy the place. Come to think of it, it was not the zoo or butterflies. It was being together just the two of us. Mar being the last has about many years age difference with her brothers and sisters. She did not get the experience of going through thick and thin with me growing up. Her brothers and sisters may think I am playing favourites with her but it is actually not. They had gained a lot through the experience whereas Mar I had to create that for her.
We continued to circumvent the zoo against the natural flow of the visitors beginning with the tigers and lions. When we were about to pass their dens Mar showed the first sign of being tired. She officially requested for us to rest at the bench overlooking the lion den. I was a bit tired too thus we sat there admiring the ‘Lion King’ perched on his platform posting proudly for the crowds.
We were sitting for about five minutes and we realized that none of us would want to move any longer. Both of us were thirsty and tired already but I reminded Mar of her elephants. We dragged ourselves up and walked slowly. By now anything small was interesting as long as it would give us the inspiration to move along. A stork that decided to join us on the path, the crowds that were feeding the hungry deer and even fish in the murky pond. As we threaded along I still tried to capture the surrounding. Suddenly, Mar saw the elephants and the sight reenergized her to almost run towards the animal. I picked up my pace to catch-up with her but she was there first. When I got to her I put up a proposal to her for us to go to the nearby kiosk first to cool off as well as to rejuvenate. She agreed and we emptied a bottle of 100 plus each as soon as I paid for it. Aware that any more sudden surge of cold drink would be too much for our tonsils I walked towards the elephants. By then Mar was already pestering me to feed the elephants with the sugarcane on sale. So I gave her RM10 to buy only one first, a foot long sugar cane was RM3, to see if she could reach the elephant. The bull elephant was the only one active so she jostled her way among the crowd. I just watched her from a far. When she put out the cane for the bull I thought it would not reach him. I guess both wanted it to really happen. Both tried their best to reach further and they succeed. With that experience naturally Mar asked for more and I gave her RM6 to buy another two. This time I was really ready with my camera and I caught them both on camera. The giraffe was next but to the dismay of the giraffe, Mar paid just passing interest. I thought we were ready to go home.
Wrong!!!! ‘Abah, l want to see the buaya.’ She said and off we went to the mammal zone not just to see the buaya but the snakes, local as well as the Galapagos turtles. Only then it was really the end of our day at the zoo. So we thought.
)) somehow sub-consciously both of us tried our best to stay longer and mouthed a couple of reasons to that effect. Like we parked ourselves at the carp pond at the entrance/exit area as well as going into the gift shop that we had been before just to make sure we did not miss anything. In the end, both of us had to admit it is the end and we walked out of the zoo to go home.
Click HERE for our photos.
I woke up early as usual but chose to lie down after I’ve said my prayers. It was, of course, a mistake as at 0730 my phone buzzed and it was Rudi’s phone, passing it to Aizam, to ask whether I was coming down for our weekly cycling or not? Because it was late already for them to wait for me I said no. Zam tried to persuade me but I said no still as I really did not want them to wait for me. That said I thought I could go back to dreamland. A few minutes later there was a knock on our door and I knew it would be Mar. When I let her in I asked her would she want to go to the zoo. She replied ‘suka hati Abah la.’ So I asked her back. ’do you want to go to the zoo or not?’ Since I was awake already and that could be the only opportunity that we have I decided to go. I really love to go as well. Zoo is our thing.
We arrived at the entrance of the Zoo just after 0900 and we were that early our Ranger was one of the first fives to be parked there. When we entered it was a wonderful early morning at the zoo. The first order of the day was to get a cap for Mar. I did not want her to be more tan than she already was he he he. We bought one at the gift shop on the left as we entered the zoo. The second order of the day was to have our breakfast. I wanted to ask whether the eating place was already open for business so we walked to the Information Kiosk. We were told apart from the one in front of us the others should be opened already and the person indicated the direction. He also suggested for us to buy the map which was RM3. I just paid as I knew I was contributing to the upkeep of the zoo.
I ordered ‘egg burger’ and black Nescafe for myself and when I asked Mar she said nothing. Wow! Mar said no to food! But I forced her to eat something and she asked for orange juice and a bag of popcorn. We sat nearby to eat our breakfast. As we sat eating we saw visitors started to trickle in at the entrance. Mar started to scrutinize the map and all she asked and talked about were the butterflies and elephants. I said they were all there and we will visit every inch of the zoo. But we needed to strategise. Normally when we were at the zoo we would immediately turn left to see the giraffe and the elephant first and circumvent the zoo that direction but today since Mar wanted to watch the animal show at 1100 I suggested to her we go right first as it was nearer to the aquarium. Since it was still almost three hours to go we walked slowly to enjoy everything. With my longest lens on the Nikon, I shot everything from a distance. It works very well as I could catch Mar being herself. Well, I succeeded once or twice as she had the knack to suddenly turn around when I was about to press the shutter release and modelled for me. Instead of just a peace sign, her repertoires included outstretching hands now.
If you turn to your right as you entered the zoo the first thing that you’ll come to would be, as Mar said Baqir’s friends’ the monkey’s cages. Well, there were a couple of birds but mainly monkeys. We continued to walk ahead and I indicated to Mar where the show was going to be. She insisted to check it out despite after I said a few times the place was empty. When she was satisfied we walked to look at the hippos. When we walked on the bridge on our right was the African hippos and on the left the pygmy hippo. Both buried themselves in the water. Nothing much to see but we waited anyway. In the end, the African hippos stirred in the water and emerged slowly. I told Mar that hippos were basically nocturnal animals so it was normal for them to be sleeping and happy to be just in the water. The pygmy hippos decided to do just that the whole day we were there. Submerged in the water like an immobilized submarine.
We walked pass the hippo and entered the so called Bee Museum. Well, there was a nice display of anything to do with bees but also almost half of the area was occupied by bottled honey for sale. You guess right that a specific bee farm was sponsoring most if not all of the ‘museum’. Actually, the zoo needs such company coming in to do that to ensure the Zoo Negara is still in place for people like Mar and me to keep coming back to. We tasted a few rounds of honey and walked around the display. Mar was asking a lot of questions and seemed interested to know more. I was eager to explain but then she said ‘I want to see the butterfly and the elephants.’ I said later as both were in the middle and at the end of our route around the zoo. If we were to go there we would not have time to come back to see the animal show at 1100.
The Indian Seladangs were just lazying in the morning sun, the sunbears were still deciding to come out or not and the otters were really crying for their late breakfast. To kill more time we stopped at the gifts shop nearby to window shop and be caressed by the cool air blowing from the aircon. You should know better that there is no such thing as just browsing if it is about souvenir t-shirts for me. We bought one each he he he. After awhile we walked out of the shop and backtracked towards the show area next to the aquarium. The pigmy hippo was still in the water not moving where as her African cousins were out in the pen now. I waited for a while for a good shot.
The show was still 20 minutes away and to pass the times I suggested to Mar to visit the aquarium. No matter what we still enjoyed the fish. Mar kept her face close to the glass most of the time while I was trying very hard to play around with the camera settings to try to capture a good scene. I failed miserably I am yet to master the D80 fully. As I was fiddling with my camera and trying to capture Mar a gentleman on my right was watching me. Once I look up he said hi and said,’ I knew you look familiar.’ It was Fadzil Abd Aziz, my old colleague from my MDC days. He was there with his two boys. Fazlyn was at work he told me and we talked and asked a bit about each other. He is now working in Ipoh while Fazlyn is toying of moving over to Cyberview. I somehow in our conversation mentioned about my cycling activities and he exclaimed that he was into mountain biking as well. So we promised to get in touch if we were planning for a ride around each other areas.
We did not finish the aquarium properly and rushed out to the amphitheatre for the animal show. Mar really ran towards the place and my yelling did not matter at all. I had to search for her when I got there. In the end, she spotted and called me to the second row from the stage. We sat there waiting for a while until eventually, the first show began. It was the bird show that we have seen so many times before. I sat there waiting for a great shot but none came or maybe I was not that observant. Still, Mar enjoyed the whole same old bird routine. Next came out the seal, I could not remember his name, and the show got better with interesting routine. The last one was the sea lion, again I forgot his name, show. This big guy cooperated in the beginning with all the routines until towards the end he decided he has had enough and left his trainer standing mumbling about him being sick. Well, that’s how it is with animals, nothing guaranteed. With that, the show ended prematurely and I was disappointed and Mar disgusted.
As we agreed when we entered in the morning we would walk the zoo, off we went walking towards the Savannah. Little of the Savananh interest Mar except for an ice cream vendor nearby. She bought two big scoops while I settled for a Cornetto. What can I say we were fed Cornetto every week when I was in school and the habit stuck. She sat next to the Camel’s pen and took her time to finish her ice cream. I gulped mine.
Since we were just about a few meters from the orang utans I suggested we walked up a bit before we walked back down. She kept asking about the butterfly and I told her it was just down below and we will pass through. Only then she got up to follow me to see both the orang utans and chimpanzees. The orang utans already tired being a model zoo citizen when we got there. The chief, I presumed as he was big, slumbered on a slab just of the ground with his eyes dreary looking into space. The rest of the support crew either perched on the platform built for show or just on their back counting non-existence stars. The amount of food on the ground indicated to us no extra amount of food would move them now. The chimpanzees behaved no better. One oldtimer actually sat on a decline like a nelayan sitting under his hut on a beachfront looking out waiting for nothing. I do not mean to be rude here but that was the impression that I got. If indeed the chimpanzee had a sarong on his demeanour would not be very far from reality. Mar just stood there at the edge waiting for something to happen while the others were just relaxing and talking to each other. Now, I did not know who was looking at whom? Maybe the orang utans were so pissed they rather watched the people there behaved. Mar asked me whether she could feed both the orang utans and chimpanzees but I told her both were not hungry and it would be just a waste of food and money. We stayed a bit longer there just to rest and then walked back down towards the butterfly area.
The young male Caucasian of European origin, I guess German, stopped us at the entrance of the butterfly park to request to see our handtag. Upon seeing ours he advised us that we have to pay an extra RM5 and RM3 respectively to enter the place. I jokingly asked Mar whether she wanted to go in. Immediately once inside was a display of anything to do with butterfly and insects. But Mar was not really interested in that. So we did the display as fast as we could and entered the butterfly compounds. It was already a bit hot and most of the butterflies were not really that active. Still, a lot was flying searching for nectars. The compound was not that big so I allowed Mar to explore by herself and I concentrated on taking photographs of the butterflies. I would think we were there just around 5 minutes when Mar already complained loudly that we should be going already. Being a very hyperactive girl I would expect something like that to happen but not that fast. She was the one who wanted to be there in the first place. I was still intense photographing the butterflies. What irked me I could not get the kinds of shot that I was craving for. Still, it was a precious moment to be there with her to enjoy the place. Come to think of it, it was not the zoo or butterflies. It was being together just the two of us. Mar being the last has about many years age difference with her brothers and sisters. She did not get the experience of going through thick and thin with me growing up. Her brothers and sisters may think I am playing favourites with her but it is actually not. They had gained a lot through the experience whereas Mar I had to create that for her.
We continued to circumvent the zoo against the natural flow of the visitors beginning with the tigers and lions. When we were about to pass their dens Mar showed the first sign of being tired. She officially requested for us to rest at the bench overlooking the lion den. I was a bit tired too thus we sat there admiring the ‘Lion King’ perched on his platform posting proudly for the crowds.
We were sitting for about five minutes and we realized that none of us would want to move any longer. Both of us were thirsty and tired already but I reminded Mar of her elephants. We dragged ourselves up and walked slowly. By now anything small was interesting as long as it would give us the inspiration to move along. A stork that decided to join us on the path, the crowds that were feeding the hungry deer and even fish in the murky pond. As we threaded along I still tried to capture the surrounding. Suddenly, Mar saw the elephants and the sight reenergized her to almost run towards the animal. I picked up my pace to catch-up with her but she was there first. When I got to her I put up a proposal to her for us to go to the nearby kiosk first to cool off as well as to rejuvenate. She agreed and we emptied a bottle of 100 plus each as soon as I paid for it. Aware that any more sudden surge of cold drink would be too much for our tonsils I walked towards the elephants. By then Mar was already pestering me to feed the elephants with the sugarcane on sale. So I gave her RM10 to buy only one first, a foot long sugar cane was RM3, to see if she could reach the elephant. The bull elephant was the only one active so she jostled her way among the crowd. I just watched her from a far. When she put out the cane for the bull I thought it would not reach him. I guess both wanted it to really happen. Both tried their best to reach further and they succeed. With that experience naturally Mar asked for more and I gave her RM6 to buy another two. This time I was really ready with my camera and I caught them both on camera. The giraffe was next but to the dismay of the giraffe, Mar paid just passing interest. I thought we were ready to go home.
Wrong!!!! ‘Abah, l want to see the buaya.’ She said and off we went to the mammal zone not just to see the buaya but the snakes, local as well as the Galapagos turtles. Only then it was really the end of our day at the zoo. So we thought.
)) somehow sub-consciously both of us tried our best to stay longer and mouthed a couple of reasons to that effect. Like we parked ourselves at the carp pond at the entrance/exit area as well as going into the gift shop that we had been before just to make sure we did not miss anything. In the end, both of us had to admit it is the end and we walked out of the zoo to go home.
Click HERE for our photos.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Malaysian Holidays, Langkawi, June 10, 2009, Wednesday, Day 3.
I woke up as usual and after I said my Suboh I sat down to think what the best thing to do that morning was. Obviously we had to check out from Awana Porto Malai and check in into the other resort. The problem was in between that we were limited by time and distance as to what we can effectively do. To go to somewhere far meant we had to rush back to check out and waited for about two to three hours before we could check in into that other resort. My options were firstly to ask for a late checkout say around 2pm so that I could do a bit more things and we could check in immediately after we check out. Or just go out now and risk it and hoping that we cold check in into the other resort earlier. So I called the reception to ask for a late check out and it was denied conclusively as they were expecting a capacity that day. With that it was option two for us. I woke everyone up to get ready to go out. Having had the breakfast at the hotel yesterday we decided we had enough and went out straight away to have a Langkawi breakfast at the stall on the way out to Cenang. On the way out I called the resort to enquire if the bungalow was ready for us to check in and if not what time we could do it. I was told by the keeper around 1300. So it was not too bad which meant I had just few hours to kill before we could check in.
Nothing special about the breakfast, only that in the whole of Pantai Cenang at least the price of nasi lemak bungkus was standardized to RM1.00 with standard codes written on the bungkusan to indicate what kind of nasi lemak it is. SB would mean Sambal Bilis, SU for sambal udang, SS for sambal sotong and so on. I ordered omelet just to see what I would be served with. What came was our normal telur dadar goreng like we normally have at home.
We left as soon as we had finished our breakfast and drove towards Padang Mat Sirat. My intention was to visit and check out all the art and batik outlets within the vicinity. If I could not find that many I also wanted to explore the area to see what else were there we could enjoy. Despite driving the beat-up Wira I was within the Mat Sirat area within minutes. I drove towards Pisang Art Village first but it was still not opened when we arrived there. Taking a cue from that I drove ahead passing the already harvested paddy fields. It was nice scenery of Langkawi farming area so I stopped the car to take few photographs. To kill time I drove further around the area until in the end I decided to explore the area near Pantai Kok fishing village. As I was passing through I could see one batik shop was opening and made a mental note to stop there on the way out. As we had plan to go to the cable car the next day I stopped halfway to turn back to shoot some of the fishermen’s boats harbored there. I have always a soft spot for that kind of scenery.
As I intended we stopped at the just opened Batik Shop. When we were at the entrance they were just about to get ready and advised us to come in a few minutes. So I told them if that was the case we would not be coming at all as we had limited time. With that answer they relented and allowed us to come in to browse. The reason for me to be there was for just one thing, the batik paintings. The others were left to explore the shop on their own. In the end I settled for a medium piece batik painting. Satisfied, we proceeded back to Pisang Art Village.
Pisang Art Village was worth the wait. We explored the arts and enjoyed ourselves there. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for my wife there wasn’t any art that I like enough to buy. But Mar, I was paying of course, bought small pieces of batik chanting, according to her, as presents for her teachers and Fatah. We were at the place long enough until there wasn’t anymore interesting things to see or observe. I drove towards Cenang and decided to have our lunch along the way.
The bungalow was huge there were 5 rooms and each room was designed and equipped like a hotel business suite. Baqir and Kak Cik took one room each on the ground floor, Kakak and Mar the second room on the upper floor and of course Sam and I the master bedroom leaving one room at the ground floor unoccupied. The living and kitchen were huge as well so much so the three days we were there we did not know what to do with the entire space. We relaxed a bit to enjoy the place and then went out again. This time we drove towards Cultural and Craft Centre at Teluk Yu. The reason was that Sam saw a banner that there was something going on there. We were there in no time and indeed they have a sale fair or something there and we explored the placed. All the local crafts were there on sale as well as a number of demonstrations to local games, cooking as well as crafts. Truthfully, we have been there before and we have seen most of them but in the hope to be surprised we went with the flow. Most of us got excited with the bargain, Mar with the games and arts demonstrations and me the batik painting. In the end I came out of the place with three pieces of canting batik painting. I was lucky as they were at bargain prices. My advice to everyone is that if you want to buy batik painting at a cheaper price checkout this place first.
At around 1730 we left the place with no specific direction in mind. I just drove on towards Padang Mat Sirat hoping to stumble into something interesting to stop and see. Unfortunately it was ‘been there and done that’ for all of us and with that my instinct maneuvered me to the direction of Kuah Town where there would be a Pasar Malam that evening. Since there was still a bit of daylight when we arrived we window shopped a bit. We bought few things, chocolates and stuff just not to be too time consuming the last two days shopping in Langkawi. There wasn’t much to buy anyway. Once the sun started to set and with the early night started to creep in I parked the car closer to the Pasar Malam area and we walked there. Judging from what we could see Kuah Town Pasar Malam was the main Pasar Malam in the island.
We walked the length of the Pasar Malam identifying the food of our choice along the way when we turned back we started to stop at each places to buy them. It was like any other Pasar Malam albeit slightly different kind of food. With everyone’s favourite purchased we decided to head back to the resort. Once back we unpacked our food and had a feast down at the big dining table. The resort was at Cenang Beach and we had planned the day before to check out the night life on Cenang road as we saw it was quiet a ‘happening’ place at night. After we have taken our bath we were out with the intention to walk the length of Cenang Road. Being a tourist there was easy and the attraction was not bad. However I was a bit sad. I was sad to see the beach front properties were turned into something like the Ferringhi Beach in Penang and became too commercialize with the only consideration was to get everyone visiting their places to have the ‘baddest’ party or drinking session. I knew 100% of the beach fronts properties were used to be owned by the Malays of Langkawi. Luckily it was not a total lost though and I sincerely hope the land owners would preserve certain novelty about the beach area. Change they must but please do not forget our values.
Halfway through Mar started to complain that she was tired and asked me to carry her. I knew she was and sleepy too but I refuse to carry her and forced her to walk. Hey, I was not being cruel to my daughter. I just wanted her to see a bit more and then walk back to the resort. In the end all of us had had a long day and ready to rest. After we bought a couple of bottled water we walked back. Baqir was not happy though as he could not find any bootleg DVD on the Island.
With the huge space for everyone we retracted quietly into our own wonderland.
Our photos for day there are here.
Nothing special about the breakfast, only that in the whole of Pantai Cenang at least the price of nasi lemak bungkus was standardized to RM1.00 with standard codes written on the bungkusan to indicate what kind of nasi lemak it is. SB would mean Sambal Bilis, SU for sambal udang, SS for sambal sotong and so on. I ordered omelet just to see what I would be served with. What came was our normal telur dadar goreng like we normally have at home.
We left as soon as we had finished our breakfast and drove towards Padang Mat Sirat. My intention was to visit and check out all the art and batik outlets within the vicinity. If I could not find that many I also wanted to explore the area to see what else were there we could enjoy. Despite driving the beat-up Wira I was within the Mat Sirat area within minutes. I drove towards Pisang Art Village first but it was still not opened when we arrived there. Taking a cue from that I drove ahead passing the already harvested paddy fields. It was nice scenery of Langkawi farming area so I stopped the car to take few photographs. To kill time I drove further around the area until in the end I decided to explore the area near Pantai Kok fishing village. As I was passing through I could see one batik shop was opening and made a mental note to stop there on the way out. As we had plan to go to the cable car the next day I stopped halfway to turn back to shoot some of the fishermen’s boats harbored there. I have always a soft spot for that kind of scenery.
As I intended we stopped at the just opened Batik Shop. When we were at the entrance they were just about to get ready and advised us to come in a few minutes. So I told them if that was the case we would not be coming at all as we had limited time. With that answer they relented and allowed us to come in to browse. The reason for me to be there was for just one thing, the batik paintings. The others were left to explore the shop on their own. In the end I settled for a medium piece batik painting. Satisfied, we proceeded back to Pisang Art Village.
Pisang Art Village was worth the wait. We explored the arts and enjoyed ourselves there. Unfortunately for me and fortunately for my wife there wasn’t any art that I like enough to buy. But Mar, I was paying of course, bought small pieces of batik chanting, according to her, as presents for her teachers and Fatah. We were at the place long enough until there wasn’t anymore interesting things to see or observe. I drove towards Cenang and decided to have our lunch along the way.
The bungalow was huge there were 5 rooms and each room was designed and equipped like a hotel business suite. Baqir and Kak Cik took one room each on the ground floor, Kakak and Mar the second room on the upper floor and of course Sam and I the master bedroom leaving one room at the ground floor unoccupied. The living and kitchen were huge as well so much so the three days we were there we did not know what to do with the entire space. We relaxed a bit to enjoy the place and then went out again. This time we drove towards Cultural and Craft Centre at Teluk Yu. The reason was that Sam saw a banner that there was something going on there. We were there in no time and indeed they have a sale fair or something there and we explored the placed. All the local crafts were there on sale as well as a number of demonstrations to local games, cooking as well as crafts. Truthfully, we have been there before and we have seen most of them but in the hope to be surprised we went with the flow. Most of us got excited with the bargain, Mar with the games and arts demonstrations and me the batik painting. In the end I came out of the place with three pieces of canting batik painting. I was lucky as they were at bargain prices. My advice to everyone is that if you want to buy batik painting at a cheaper price checkout this place first.
At around 1730 we left the place with no specific direction in mind. I just drove on towards Padang Mat Sirat hoping to stumble into something interesting to stop and see. Unfortunately it was ‘been there and done that’ for all of us and with that my instinct maneuvered me to the direction of Kuah Town where there would be a Pasar Malam that evening. Since there was still a bit of daylight when we arrived we window shopped a bit. We bought few things, chocolates and stuff just not to be too time consuming the last two days shopping in Langkawi. There wasn’t much to buy anyway. Once the sun started to set and with the early night started to creep in I parked the car closer to the Pasar Malam area and we walked there. Judging from what we could see Kuah Town Pasar Malam was the main Pasar Malam in the island.
We walked the length of the Pasar Malam identifying the food of our choice along the way when we turned back we started to stop at each places to buy them. It was like any other Pasar Malam albeit slightly different kind of food. With everyone’s favourite purchased we decided to head back to the resort. Once back we unpacked our food and had a feast down at the big dining table. The resort was at Cenang Beach and we had planned the day before to check out the night life on Cenang road as we saw it was quiet a ‘happening’ place at night. After we have taken our bath we were out with the intention to walk the length of Cenang Road. Being a tourist there was easy and the attraction was not bad. However I was a bit sad. I was sad to see the beach front properties were turned into something like the Ferringhi Beach in Penang and became too commercialize with the only consideration was to get everyone visiting their places to have the ‘baddest’ party or drinking session. I knew 100% of the beach fronts properties were used to be owned by the Malays of Langkawi. Luckily it was not a total lost though and I sincerely hope the land owners would preserve certain novelty about the beach area. Change they must but please do not forget our values.
Halfway through Mar started to complain that she was tired and asked me to carry her. I knew she was and sleepy too but I refuse to carry her and forced her to walk. Hey, I was not being cruel to my daughter. I just wanted her to see a bit more and then walk back to the resort. In the end all of us had had a long day and ready to rest. After we bought a couple of bottled water we walked back. Baqir was not happy though as he could not find any bootleg DVD on the Island.
With the huge space for everyone we retracted quietly into our own wonderland.
Our photos for day there are here.
Friday, January 8, 2010
On the Train (Selamat Jalan) , Jan 7, 2009
On Monday, Jan 4, 2009 after coming back from Hajj with flu and cough my Uncle Abdullah Omar passed away after few days at Putrajaya Hospital. It was really unexpected and sudden for us in the family. Allahyarham was my arwah Abah’s cousin and we have met couple of times at Faisal’s house at BSP.
Yesterday, my very good friend Tam sent me a message that his beloved Kak Teh was in a very critical condition at Seremabn Hospital after a experiencing a stroke there days before. She had been in come since then and at around 1340 the same day I received another message from Tam bearing the sad news of the passing of Kak Teh. Kak Teh was dear to all of us that stayed at Tam’s place at Kuala Klawang for at least a week, I stayed almost a month, to help to organize her grand wedding. The wedding was one of the best that I had ever involved in. You could see all the kompung folks came together to help out with kayu basah, clearing the place, cooking and arranging for all sorts of cultural and religious events. If I were at any wedding and remember this best wedding definitely would remind and connect me to Kak Teh.
I would be the first person to admit that I am never good at accepting and dealing with death. For both deaths I was just numbed hearing and thinking about them. I just do not know how to react. When I called Tam words, let alone proper words, hardly came out from my mouth. I was not there to send both Pak Cik Omar and Kak The ‘off’. Even if I were I would not know how to deal with it. But deep down inside I know I did a proper one for both of them. My own way. May Allah Bless both of you and place you together with the soul that is loved by Allah.
What I have learned with this experience is that deep profound feeling towards something will immediately create certain connection and context to some of the deepest knowledge within you.
Yesterday, my very good friend Tam sent me a message that his beloved Kak Teh was in a very critical condition at Seremabn Hospital after a experiencing a stroke there days before. She had been in come since then and at around 1340 the same day I received another message from Tam bearing the sad news of the passing of Kak Teh. Kak Teh was dear to all of us that stayed at Tam’s place at Kuala Klawang for at least a week, I stayed almost a month, to help to organize her grand wedding. The wedding was one of the best that I had ever involved in. You could see all the kompung folks came together to help out with kayu basah, clearing the place, cooking and arranging for all sorts of cultural and religious events. If I were at any wedding and remember this best wedding definitely would remind and connect me to Kak Teh.
I would be the first person to admit that I am never good at accepting and dealing with death. For both deaths I was just numbed hearing and thinking about them. I just do not know how to react. When I called Tam words, let alone proper words, hardly came out from my mouth. I was not there to send both Pak Cik Omar and Kak The ‘off’. Even if I were I would not know how to deal with it. But deep down inside I know I did a proper one for both of them. My own way. May Allah Bless both of you and place you together with the soul that is loved by Allah.
What I have learned with this experience is that deep profound feeling towards something will immediately create certain connection and context to some of the deepest knowledge within you.
Monday, January 4, 2010
On The Train, Dec 24, 2009
I have been away most weekends in December and tomorrow will be the longest until year end. My days on the train have been somewhat different as well. Much more thinking and photo editing. I was just not in the mood to write anything and nothing could push me to do so. I just felt I was brain tired, lucky not brain dead, and rather spend my times creating different kinds of dopamines.
A lot of new things that I have learned though. The reality of KM and the state of my understanding change with it. Nevertheless I am on more firm ground now. My new understanding provokes me to want to go out to talk to people again. As if reading my brain invitations came in after one another. I’ll try my best to honor them. That means 2010 will see the old Ghaz preaching new improved thinking with more vigor and passion.
Tomorrow means it has been a year since I broke my clavicle cycling at FRIM. I won’t be going back there tomorrow but to drive home.
A lot of new things that I have learned though. The reality of KM and the state of my understanding change with it. Nevertheless I am on more firm ground now. My new understanding provokes me to want to go out to talk to people again. As if reading my brain invitations came in after one another. I’ll try my best to honor them. That means 2010 will see the old Ghaz preaching new improved thinking with more vigor and passion.
Tomorrow means it has been a year since I broke my clavicle cycling at FRIM. I won’t be going back there tomorrow but to drive home.
On The Train (Neuroscience), Dec10, 2009
The advance in neuroscience enables us to understand about out brain better. The last three days I was introduced to some of the most amazing discoveries and realizations. The things that I have read about Intuition, Decision Making and Naturalistic ways of doing things both came together ‘fixed’ by the understanding of the basic components and working of our BRAIN. To develop and nurture our brain we have to exercise it by getting it to experience either a lot of different things at different intensity or doing while learning from mistakes on everything that we do. This way we’ll develop and create a lot of dopamines
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