LAISI

A Trip Down Memory Lane - Gunung Jerai and Bukit Bendera Pulau Pinang

2011-08-08T07:50:00.000+08:00

This is my final post on my Trip Down Memory Lane series. I will be going easy by using pictures to tell my story.
We left Kuala Perlis early after breakfast so that we will arrive in Gurun before noon to be able to perform my Friday prayers there. We had promised our friend Haji Zakaria that we would stop over at his place in Gurun on our way down to Penang. As Gurun is along the way, it was very convenient.
We took the old route from Kuala Perlis as we prefer to see life along the way rather than drive along the mundane North - South Highway. Driving on highways is a boring thing to do unless you are in a hurry. The problem with our road signage is most signages will try to lead you to the highway negating my very intent in the first place.
It was in Alor Star that I had a bit of problem when I took the wrong turn which would take me away from my direction to Gurun. A good samaritan told me to back track and he was intent on my getting the right direction and made me repeat after him all the numbers of traffic lights and the turns I need to take to go the correct way. Alor Setar has changed that much since I was last there in 1981.
Tuan Haji Zakaria's house was easy to locate as it was close to the Gurun Mosque.

One for the album with him and his wife at his residence.

He has another new bungalow located not far away from his present home. His daughter and family lives in the new bungalow.

The fruit of his labor, a durian tree laden with delicious fruits. We were lucky as a solitary fruit had fallen on that day and we were given the honour to eat it.
After performing the solat Jumaat at the mosque near his home where he is also the treasurer, we decided to ride up Gunung Jerai as I wanted to see how Gunung Jerai is now since my last trip was in 1980. Tuan Haji told me there has been many changes since a private company has taken over the management of the rest houses on top of the hill. His daughter who has never been to the summit tagged along. Imagine after living for about 20 years in the vicinity of the hill this is her first time there!
As we don't want to unnecessarily stress up our cars to ride up the steep incline, we hired a van which plies the route daily for a fee of RM50.00 for the five of us. It was a fair price indeed and he promised us to take us to the Resort which is out of bound to non paying guests.

The entrance to the foothill of Gunung Jerai from inside looking out.

Abd. Wahab Aminurahman aka Pak Long whose van was hired to take us up Gunung Jerai. Pak Long has a lot of stories to tell and can be contacted on his HP 012 4137341 for reservation.

Click to enlarge to read some information about Gunung Jerai.

The Regency Gunung Jerai Resort as it is now known after extensive makeover.

The Forest Museum and Gallery belonging to The Forestry Department near the summit of Gunung Jerai. We didn't get to see the inside though.

The Restaurant and Reception of Regency Gunung Jerai Resort.

Room rates ranges from RM240 to RM600. Pretty steep price but definitely worth every sen of it.

That is the elevation where the resort is located.

At the time of our visit the Grammatophyllum sp. was in full blooms. This is one of the biggest orchid species in the world.

Another one for the album. Pak Long took the picture for us.

We didn't stay too long at the summit. After returning to the base we drove back to Tuan Haji Zakaria's home for a delicious treat of 'pulut durian' (Durian with glutenous rice and coconut milk sweetened with grated palm sugar).
We had to decline his invitation to stay for the night at his place as we did not want to change our itinerary so we took our leave and drove onward to Seberang Prai via the North - South Highway as we need to reach Prai before dark as I was not familiar with the route to my sister in law's place.
True enough we had to call her assistance to come and lead us to her home as I was clueless on how to get to her place despite her giving instructions via the phone. Fortunately for us, we were not really very far from her place.
The next day we drove to Pulau Pinang via the Penang Bridge. My sister in law tagged along to be our guide. We had no specific itinerary and we will just go with the flow of the traffic. We headed for Tanjung Buggah and halfway we found the road to Bukit Bendera so we just turned towards it.

Driving on the Penang Bridge.

At the end of the road we saw the entrance to the Hill Railway with a brand new but yet serviceable multilevel car park beside it. Parking was definitely a problem and we paid RM3 to a parking tout to park along the side lane leading to a temple.

This entrance is for the residents of Penang Hill and VIPs.

Being tourists we had to buy tickets. Foreign tourists have to pay a higher rate and locals will have to show their mykad to enjoy a lower rate. The guy at the ticket counter noted our age and charged us a child's rate of RM4 each. The privilege of being a 'warga emas' hehehehe.

Scale sized first generation and second generation railway cabs and other paraphernalia relating to the old railway operation on display along the way to the embarkation point.

Rushing to board the brand new train

The inside of the new air conditoned cabin which is much larger and faster.

If I remember it right this is Andrew and his spouse from Yorkshire England. When I told him this was my second trip after 30 years, he shocked me that it was his second trip after 50 yrs ago when he was living in Singapore. Learnt a lesson today: Never brag in front of complete strangers.

From the top station we just walked to the summit.

Midway we saw a little girl having 'inai' painting on her hand.

If you are unable to walk around or just love to see more, the services of electrically operated buggies are available for a fee.

The first generation train cabin on display.

The food court and souvenir shop is under extensive renovation.

Fatthiyah found her fridge magnets that brought her so much joy to cram up the outside of our two large refrigerators back home.

A short flight up brought us to a Hindu Temple.

Another flight of stairs brought us to the mosque.

A young boy training his cannon on his enemies in the city below.

The City of Penang as seen from the top of Bukit Bendera.

On a stage you can be photographed with an albino python, for a fee of course.

I group of mountain bikers arrive at the summit. We wondered which route they took.

We descended Bukit bendera and drove over to The Botanical Garden. We had visited this place once with our children when they were small.

This was the entrance to the Botanical Garden and the track to the top of the hill is on the left of this entrance. Now we know where the bikers started their climb.

With the above signs, you shouldn't be lost in the botanical garden.

We were tired so we took the mini train ride around the garden.

Along the way we saw two visitors photographing a monkey with the male partner doing all sort of antics to coax the monkey to give his/her best pose.

This is how my mini train would look if I were to be photographed from afar.

A stream listlessly flowing through the garden. During our first visit, our children bathed in a section of the dammed up stream. Now a sigboard clearly advised people from bathing in the stream. That shows how contaminated the stream is nowadays.

Having done with the botanical garden we drove on on to Tanjung Bugah where we once had fun bathing in the sea. We couldn't find a parking place and could revisit the spot but still managed to find a spot to photograph the sea at high tide.

A stop at a floating mosque in Tanjung Bungah where we did the combined solat Zohor and Asar.

Driving along Gurney Drive.

Stopping by at Fort Cornwallis.

The entrance to the Fort. Entrance fee must be paid inside the entrance.

A statue of Sir Francis Light was relocated to this fort from a round about outside the fort. Sir Francis Light managed to find Penang even after the natives have found the island several hundred years ahead of him.

Yours truly being photographed with the British soldiers.

Sir Mohamad Zawawi with My Lady who had to stand on some raised slabs just to make her face visible in the face slot.

Hey we did the same thing as the other tourists did.

A canon with a missing wheels. Unlike the stolen wheels of the cannons in Malacca, the wooden wheel of this canon in Fort Cornwallis just disintegrated due to the relentless weather.

If you want to know about the canon, just read it up there. There was going to be a cultural show that evening but it was too long for us to wait so we just leave it for others to enjoy.

Having entered the island via the Penang Bridge it is only right that we took the ferry ride back to the mainland. This is the ultimate nostalgic feeling as there was no Penang Bridge when we came here some thirty years ago. So we proceeded to The Tun Uda Jetty just around the corner from Fort Cornwalis.

Our 7 years old Toyota Vios bearing the distinct Kelantan number plates riding the ferry to Prai.

This is how a double decker vehicle ferry look like from outside.

Leaving off the pier.

The Star Cruise ship berthed at the pier. The sight of the ship rekindled our dream to take a cruise on it one day. I guess this may not be my last visit to Penang.

The Penang Bridge as seen from the ferry. it was hazy and thus the sight isn't really discernible.
Upon disembarkation from the ferry, we proceeded to my cousin's place in Kepala Batas. My cousin Haji Rahim was not home as he and his family had gone to Gurun. Obviously he had not received my SMS that was sent from the top of Penang Hill. I found out the obvious after checking my phone. I laughed at myself. Learned another lesson that a cloned iphone4 is never good enough as the real thing.
Anyway I did stop over at his place the next morning on our way home to Kelantan.
Dear readers,
If you have reached this far, I would like to say thank you for bearing with me over this long post.

Fund Raising For A Good Cause

2011-07-21T09:03:00.000+08:00

Asrama Anak2 Yatim Pak Pin

Pak Pin the Kelantanese expatriate in Jeddah is rasing some fund for his Rumah Anak-anak Yatim dan Miskin in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. The hostel will be able to accommodate about 25 female students studying at an Islamic School nearby. Since Pak Pin has already spent a substantial sum of money on its construction, it is only right that others chip in to buy furnitures for the house which will also be the home of a live in warden to look after the students.
In his latest post on his blogsite "Bakpo~?" Pak Pin is raisng fund via selling almost all of the paintings that he bought from me since 2009. Read more of what he is offering at his blog HERE.
It is for a noble cause and for those with the extra money to spare, please chip in at the same time you will get to own one of my painting from his collection. The reward of pahala will be even bigger.

Pakpayne In Pasir Mas

2011-07-12T18:42:00.001+08:00

It is necessary for me to delay the posting of the final part of The Trip Down Memory Lane in order to accommodate this post about the visit of this illustrious son of Kelantan who is now currently working in Jeddah but came back to Malaysia for a family business and a short holiday in Singapore. They once lived there. Pakpayne as I first knew with his blog Bakpo~? is also known as Pak Pin or just Pp.
I had enticed him to come to Pasir Mas for a home cooked lunch/dinner even before he left the shore of Saudi Arabia. I have something to pass to him and it would be most convenient should he dropped in to say hello and stay on for lunch or dinner.
A message on Facebook from him inquiring whether he could drop in on 11th July 2011 was answered in the affirmative by joyous me. This generous man deserve the best treatment from me as he had been instrumental in motivating me to be a painter after Zendra of Zendra's Fascinations spurred me on with her purchase of my first painting even before it was done. How not to be motivated when Pak Pin ordered 10 paintings in one go and paid for them in cash up front even before I have completed even half the numbers? This man really had faith in me though I only became a painter sometime in August 2009.
We had known each other in the blogosphere and we met for the first time only in August 2008 when we had a mini gathering of bloggers in Kota bharu where Puteri Campbell and Family dropped by into Kota Bharu enroute home for the US after visiting her parents in Sarawak. The late Captain Yusoff Ahmad of The Ancient Mariner with three other friends and Adawwiyah Abid, who is another blogger was in attendance too.
Painting came into my life only in August 2009 about a year after we met, so I gather he doesn't have any inkling at all on how well or how bad my work can be. Back then I thought he was just being charitable because Pak Pin was buying paintings on the net at auctions. The paintings he was buying and selling cost more than USD500 each and most of them are the works by established world class artists. Well lucky me as I have him as my patron who in a way encourages me to be a painter.
In all Pak Pin has 11 paintings of mine gracing the walls of his home in Taman Melati, Gombak.
To commemorate his visit to my home I gave him a painting of Sawah Padi with a backdrop of Bukit Panau, the famous hillock that forms the benchmark for all land survey work in Kelantan. Bukit Panau is visible from the house where Pak Pin grew up in Pangkal Kalong, Kemubu with his late single mum as a young boy during his primary school days.

Pak Pin receiving 'Sawah Padi' from me as a token of my appreciation for his visit and support.

Pak Pin and his family had lunch at our place. Since we had a small dining area with just a table for six, we let them have lunch first and we hang around to serve them. As En. Sahlan the owner and driver of the vehicle that they rented had just had his brunch, he declined to take lunch. The sixth seat at the table was taken up by our cousin Kamal who had been acquainted with Pak Pin during his days in Dubai where Kamal's company was doing some business there.
For the lunch we had a simple spread comprising mainly of 'daging singgang', my signature siakap sweet sour, fried fish, 'ikan tawar bakar' to go with the budu and ulam-ulam, young mango slices, sambal durian of the hottest kind, petai masak tumis with cockle flesh, fried 'ikan gelama sungai kering' and a watermelon fruit dish. Since the table was so small and everything was in two's, the table seemed overflowing with food and we had to take some out to accommodate the serving plate. Pak Pin's family are small eaters and they didn't consume much.
Before leaving the house, this couple gave me this perfume with the delicious scent.
Now it will be my favourite perfume as it is bereft of any alcohol.

On his previous visit to kelantan Pak Pin gave us this gold plated commemorative plate of Dubai which is proudly displayed on a cabinet in our main guestroom.

Such a precious gift.

After a short rest and after Puan Aishah and her mother had done the Zohor prayers, we moved on to Kamal's house to see Kamal's yet to be completed Bali styled house. (Please don't imagine it to be anywhere near as huge as the ex-Selangor MB's house though). Kamal had built his Bali styled home using mainly recycled building materials he collected from buildings torn down at project sites that his company was rebuilding. It is not so much on saving of costs that he uses these recycled material as transportation costs bringing them over from KL was high but he had managed to lay his hand on high quality heavy hard wood to suit his design. Kamal by training is not only an architect but also a quantity surveyor.

Pak Pin with Kamal as viewed from a wooden arch in the garden.

Pak Pin was so impressed with the style and he was broaching the idea of creating a cluster of such villas with a gated community for sale to the many Kelantanese living in Kuala Lumpur who yearns for a second home in their home state and be used when returning to visit family and friends. He has friends who are willing to buy them. This idea not only excited Kamal but yours truly as well. Just imagine a cluster of 8 Bali style villas will translate in quite a market for original paintings for the market hungry painters in Kelantan including yours truly.
I had brought over some durians which Pak Pin had earlier brought to my house but we didn't have the stomach to consume them at my house because of the lunch. They were the best of durians with a rich yellow, thick and sweet flesh. Pak Pin had bought them in Pasir Mas from an old mak cik without bothering to bargain as we normally does. With that kind of quality, it was a bargain at RM10 per kg.

It is not only the king of fruits but also the king of durians.

Enjoying durian on the wakaf.

Dreaming of our own Bali styled Villa. Pak pin will realize the dream but me?

Pak pin took this picture. Dunno which is his subject, the family members or the wakaf?

One for the album. from left, my wife Fatthiyah, Kamal's wife Safiah, Puan Aishah and her mother.

We drove on to Pasir Mas as Pak Pin has something to do with ustaz Mat Zin, the owner of one of the top Malay jeweler in town. I won't be surprised if Pak Pin is going to open a jewelery outlet somewhere one day as everything this man touches seems to turn into Gold.
Pak Pin and Puan Aishah, thank you for the visit and gifts.

A Trip Down Memory Lane - Day 4

2011-07-07T12:14:00.000+08:00

FOURTH DAY

Sri Garden Hotel Kangar.

We checked out of the hotel immediately after having our breakfast of nasi lemak at the hotel. Our inquiry with the receptionist indicated that even the more expensive rooms are equipped with the same bedding materials so we have no choice but to change hotel though I like the wifi facility so much.

Our destination today is Gua Kelam along the way to Padang Besar. The place is quite easy to find with sufficient road signs to show us the way. Though we had known that Gua Kelam is closed for repair due to a severe flooding of the cave at the end of March 2011 we decided to see the place non the less. Gua Kelam is wet cave with a swiftly running stream through it coming from the other side of the limestone hillock which is part of the Nakawan Range. A wooden boardwalk had been built from one end to the other providing a lighted passageway across. The flood had damaged the wooden boardwalks and they are now under repair which should be completed soon. They are scheduled to open tomorrow! What luck! How I wish we could stay for another day to walk into the cave after it’s reopening.

The entrance to the cave is at the end of the road and the 1000 steps to the top of the hillock is on the right of it.

The entrance with a river running through the whole cave system

A peek into the darkness of the cave.

There is also a gallery displaying artifacts found in another man made cave which was formed by tin miners. A mini train used to run from the top of the gallery to about 400 meters into the cave but the service was suspended after a serious accident happened when a group of youths rode it into the caves. According to the park ranger, the youths had behaved worse than monkeys that live around the area. The loaded train was being rocked by the youth riders to scare off their fellow riders. The carriage had broken off from the front driving loco which is made of a forklift driven by an electric motor. The coaches with the full load of passengers had ran backward slowing gaining momentum along the inclined rail and the riders had no way to jump down due to the tight space between the walls. The carriages stopped only when it hit the end steel barricade with more than sufficient force to injure some of them. Though no life was lost, the accident was serious enough for the park management to suspend the service.

The coaches of the train whose services is currently suspended.

The section of the river from the cave entrance to the Gallery is well landscaped and is an ideal place for picnics. Ample and well maintained shelters with seats are available.

Fungi found growing at the base of a tree trunk.

For those agile and energetic enough can walk up the thousand steps for an exhilarating vista view from the top of the limestone outcrop. How I wish I am in my youths again to walk up those steps.

The wooden dulang found in the tin mine cave. This cave is purported to be the largest mining cave in the world.

We were told that there is a Pusat Latihan Khidmat Negara camp on the other side of the cave and we could drive over to the other side to see the opposite entrance via the camp. We were not keen to see the other entrance and decided to visit Wang Kelian instead.

Wang Kelian is another border entrance to Thailand. The road to Wang Kelian is via a torturous incline very much like the old route to Cameron Highlannds from Tapah. The only difference was it is being much shorter but much steeper accent.

Along the way we saw an uninhabited housing area which seems to be a big mistake for the developer. There is no sign to indicate who is the foolish developer. Another white elephant along the way was a bazaar with just a couple of shops being opened without a shopper in sight.

The immigration and custom checkpoint with a duty free shop beside it. We made the greatest mistake by not going beyond the check point as that was where the real Wang Kelian with it rows of shop houses is.

The white elephant with just two shops open. This bazaar may thrive occasionally when the peak tourist season that is the school holidays is on.

We returned to the main road to Padang Besar and headed straight for Padang Besar.

Just like Bukit Kayu Hitam, Padang Besar is a busy entry point to Malaysia not only for passenger vehicles but for good laden heavy vehicles.

We headed straight for the Bazaar where most outlets stock cheap goods from Thailand. Here you can find large ‘Deuter’ bag packs at below RM100. So are many other branded T shirts and shoes, all going for a song compared to the price for ‘originals’ displayed in many outlet in posh shopping complex. I doubt many of us could differentiate between the fakes and the originals and for all we know it maybe the same products.

I had a bowl of ‘pulut pauh’ glutinous rice with sweetened coconut milk accompanied by slices of sweet Thai mango at a warong beside the bazaar to tide my hunger.

Inside the main bazaar.

As is in most border towns in Malaysia, the selling items are those that depict something from Thailand. In this instance it is Hard Rock Cafe, Bangkok. Why not Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur?

Here branded 'Deuter' backpack costing below RM100 are available.

We returned to our car to drive back to Kangar. Along the way we stopped at Tasoh Resort. This resort is located on the fringe of the Timah Tasoh Reservoir, a splendid resort but in a state of degradation. I guess poor business is depriving this resort from retaining its splendour and glory. A restaurant by the lake side shows signs that it is only operational in the evening.

Passing through Kangar, we drove onward to Kuala Perlis to check on a hotel that is offering rooms at a promotional rate of RM98 per night without breakfast. We had a slight problem locating the hotel as it did not display any name on the rear of the building though it was clearly visible from the town.

Putra Berasmana Hotel, nice room with a nice view but poor wifi.

I should have checked this small hotel which claim to provide bedsheet with 280 thread count and not only wifi but wired internet. Their standard room cost only RM85 during off peak season.

The wifi connection at Putra Berasmana Hotel was bad. I couldn’t get any access at all though the wifi connection strength was OK. With that failure, I decided to rest my tired body. The lack of sleep the previous night due to poor bedding clearly showed it on the both of us.

After a shower and a nap and it was still early afternoon, we decided to visit a family friend in Arau which is about 20 kms from Kuala Perlis. Tuan Haji Shuib and Puan Latifah was on an Umrah package with us in April 2011. Tuan Haji Shuib had to be admitted to a hospital in Mecca when he vomited blood after performing the Shaie. He was suspected to be suffering from stomach ulcer. By the time we finished our Umrah, Tuan haji Shuib had recovered pretty well to travel back to Malaysia where his children took him to a private hospital in Damansara for further treatment.

We reached Arau and purposefully stopped in front of Istana Arau and called Tuan Haji Shuib. He told us to wait there as he will arrive in 14 minutes. Half an hour later we reached Haji Shuib’s residence in Taman Jejawi mere 5 kms away from Kangar! We should have contacted Tuan Haji Shuib while we were in Kangar which we didn’t. Taman Jejawi is located between Kangar and Arau in the district of Arau.

We had so much to talk about and Tuan Haji Shuib who was a former teacher and headmaster had so much to share about his teaching days.

My request to take leave to return to my hotel in Kuala Perlis was vetoed out as he wanted us to take to dinner at a nearby restaurant a short distance from his home. Puan Latipah was fasting for that day. Steamed siakap, chicken tomyam, beef soup and fried egg stuffed with some condiments was extremely delicious.

We left for our hotel immediately after dinner. Tonight we need all the rest we could get to prepare for tomorrow which will be a drive to Prai with a stopover at Tuan Haji Zakaria’s place in Gurun.

A Trip Down Memory Lane - Day 2 and 3

2011-07-05T14:07:00.001+08:00

Day 2

We booked our hotel room at Sentosa Regency Room in Alor Setar online via Agoda the hotel booking site while we were in Pasir Mas. I have come to trust Agoda as the provider of the cheapest booking site and managed to get our room at RM108 per night, inclusive of tax the total came to RM275 for two nights averaging RM137.50. So when we checked in, our room was there.

Sentosa Regency Hotel Alor Setar is within the town area and has a very large room and an equally large bathroom attached to it. They could easily halved the size of the bathroom and saved on space. I wonder why the architect didn’t think of that when they design the hotel rooms. Anyway I have no complain about the room other than that the wifi failed me on the second day. I guess there was line congestion as there was a course going on at that hotel on the second day of my stay.

Our plan for the second day in Alor Setar was to do Bukit Kayu Hitam in the morning and do the Pekan Rabu in the afternoon. Later in the evening we had a friend Tuan haji Zakaria and his wife joining us for dinner. Tuan Haji Zakaria and Kak Asmah had been with us on our European Tour sometime in 2011 and were very happy when we informed them that we will be in their state of Kedah. Though they live in Gurun further south, they were willing to come down to Alor Setar to meet us.

The visit to Bukit Kayu Hitam.

When we lived in Felda Sungai Tiang in 1980, the shortest way back to Kelantan from Kedah was via the border check point of Bukit Kayu Hitam through Thailand. After Bukit Kayu Hitam, we wiill pass by Sadao, Patani, exiting at Sungai Golok and Rantau Panjang in Kelantan is just across the river. The other way hoe was via the East West Highway and off course we had to negotiate the torturous climbs and turns before reaching the highway entrance somewhere near Grik. So the route via Thailand was more of our choice especially when we have other friend going to Kelantan to keep us company.

Present day Bukit Kayu Hitam before the immigration and custom complex.

Bukit Kayu Hitam of today is much developed. Though it wasn't really much to see there, reading about glorious duty free shopping in the local travel magazine Libur that incensed my other half into wanting to visit this border town and I was just accommodating her wish to go there.

The Bazaar Majlis Daerah Kubang Pasu.

Hardly a soul inside the bazaar. I guess we were there too early.

The Duty Free outlet.

Bought a folding mosquito net as a token purchase at an equally visitorless BazaarBukit Kayu Hitam.

Extended lorries bringing in cattles from Thailand. Such lorries must be more cost effective as only a single engine can transfer double the load.

Since it wasn’t the tourist season, we found the bazaars and duty free shops in Bukit Kayu Hitam to be deserted. In the end we didn’t buy much to justify the visit to this town. Before noon we headed back to Alor Setar for a simple lunch at Pekan Rabu and some small shopping. Here I found a mortar and pestle made of marble which I wanted to use as a decorative item.

The staircases of Pekan Rabu

Inside Pekan Rabu.

Mat Kelantan doing business in Pekan Rabu Kedah.

Our friend Haji Zakaria and spouse came to our hotel to pick us up in the afternoon. After a short drive around town we ended up at Zakaria Laksa Telok Kechai on the road to Kuala Kedah for our first taste of Kedah Laksa. The similarity in name was just coincidental. Though my friend Haji Zakaria wanted us to try the special mee udang, we just can’t wait to savour laksa Kedah since we didn’t manage to do it on the first day. I did a second helping and insisted on some cut up chilly padi as the first plate was devoid of the zing of hot chili padi that should be the real taste of laksa.The name of the eatery was just coincidental.

Tuan Haji Zakaria and Kak Asmah sandwiched between yours truly and wife Fatthiyah.

Haji Zakaria drove us back to town showing us the location of a few more tourist sites for us to visit including Rumah Tun Mahathir Mohamad along Jalan Pegawai, the new State Secretariat and the gem of all gems, Gunung Keriang where the Muzium Padi is located. Muzium padi is a must visit for anybody coming to Alor Star. Along the way we stopped at a small village where the locals collect crystal rocks from the many caves of Gunung Keriang. These lumps of crystals ranging in size from a few inches to a few feet are set up in glazed clayware as decorative pieces. Thay are beautiful and are much sought after by visitors. They range in price from a few ringgit to several hundreds depending on size and beauty. Though I dislike the idea of defacing the beautiful caves, they have constributed to the locals as a mean of earning some income from tourism. Without it, they have nothing much to gain from the tourism industry.

We stopped at this mosque along Jalan Pegawai for Asar prayers.

Pekan Melayu on the right and Pekan Cina on the left.

We entered the old Alor Setar town passing under an arch with an indication that Pekan Cina is on the left and Pekan Melayu is on the right. I didn't manage to check whether there are still Malays plying their trade in that section. Tuan haji Zakaria told me that there is a small budget hotel there belonging to a Malay.

Mesjid Zakhir in the midst of Alor Setar town.

A newspaper cutout about the crystals found at Gunung Kerian and it was displayed at one of the stalls.

Some crystals of brownish hue.

White Crystals
Crytals mounted in a flat shallow vase with crystal chippings at the base.

The Muzium Padi from afar.

When we reached Muzium Padi, it was way past the visiting hours. Given the immense size of the building and Haji Zakaria’s insistence that the place is worth a visit, we were determined to come back on our own the next day.

We parted ways with Tuan haji Zakaria and Kak Asmah after they dropped us off at our hotel with the promise that we will be calling on them at their house in Gurun on our way to Penang after doing Perlis.

We slept early on the second night at the hotel as I failed to get an internet access though I had an excellent connection with the wireless router. I guess the lines at the hotel was congested. The second posting can wait.

Day 3

We rise early for the Subuh prayers and continue with our sleep after performing the prayers. By 8.00 AM we were down for our complimentary breakfast. Breakfast was great except for the lack of fresh juice because the hotel only provided cordial drink and soya bean juice which wasn’t my choice.

By 9.00 AM we were already checked out.

While we were in Felda Sungai Tiang, Cikgu Mahathir had told us that their former headmaster at Sekolah Kebangsaan Felda Sungai Tiang is still alive and living in Alor Setar near a Chinese School along the road to Kuala Kedah. The way to locate his house is to look for a green roofed house.

True enough there were two green houses. The first one was the wrong house as the two young kids left at home by their parents couldn't recall the name of their grandparents. Unfortunately when we arrived at the second green roofed house, nobody was in the house. I was confident that it was the residence of Cikgu Hashim but he was not in. We were on the verge of walking to our car when a car drove into the house compound. We could immediately recognize it was Cikgu Hashim though he couldn't recognize any of us even after getting a hug from me.

His wife Kak Yam was away at their daughters place as the daughter is still in confinement.

Fatthiyah with her former headmaster.

Though he is already 80 years old, frail looking Cikgu hashim is in the best of health and devoid of such ailments such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease or kidney problem often associated with the elderly. His secret to good health? He lives a frugal life. Using his own words "saya makan macam orang miskin".(He eats like a pauper) He eats little and avoiding the fatty food. He will buy the freshest fish that are yet to added with preservative such as formaldehyde which is becoming a common practice among fishmongers. He will try as far as possible to eat chemical free vegetables and fruits by buying the worst looking ones in terms of pest attack for leafy vegetables and the smallest watermelon for fear that the big ones are chemical laden from the heavy use of fertilizers.

After another hug, we took leave telling him that we are heading for Kangar Perlis with a stopover Kg. Sungai Baru where Gunung Keriang and Muzium PADI is located. Cikgu Hashim specifically told us to look for Alor Janggus and take the right turn but we took an earlier turn when we saw the sign showing Gunung Keriang.

Upon reaching Gunung Keriang, we headed for the Gunung Keriang recreational park with the intention of buying some crystals which we didn't buy when we visited the place with Haji Zakaria earlier. This time we bought a piece together with a kilogram of the white crystal chippings.
Upon returning home to Pasir Mas this is how the crystal look.

Muzium Padi is on the other side of Gunung Keriang. A short drive took us there.

The spiral cavelike staircase to the top of 'Gunung Keriang'
The view from 'the top of Gunung Keriang' based on the paintings by some North Koran artists.

Padi seed samples from all over the world is displayed.

Equipments related to rice production on display.

Scenes of the rice growing areas in Kedah painted by some Koran artists.

After the muzium padi we headed to our next destination, Kangar Perlis by passing the Pusat Sains nearby the Muzium Padi.

We didn’t do any prior booking of any room in Kangar assuming that rooms in Kangar are easy to come by. Right smack in town we saw this hotel by the name of Sri Garden Hotel with a vacant parking bay right by its entrance. We booked into a room and since I irequested for a room with very strong wifi signal, I was given room 103 with the wifi router right smack opposite the room door. Connection was very good and I was very happy with it.

The Sri Garden Hotel where we stayed on the first day in Kangar.

That afternoon we decided to visit Taman Ular in Sungai Batu Pahat. The famous harum manis mango farm was also along the way so it will be like hitting two birds with one stone. Harum Manis is the best local variety of mango in term of sweetness, texture and color. Unfortunately it was past its season which ended in mid June. I can’t find a single fruit to taste and I was later told by a friend that if there is any harum manis on sale, they are not the true variety they they are being sold at an astronomical price of RM15 per kg.

On the way to Taman Ular Fatthiyah remembered Cikgu Mahathir from Sungai Tiang telling us to visit Cikgu Asmah who had opened up a Kopitiam by the name of MaiCafe. He said it was easy to find if I could locate Mesjid Putra on the right side of the road after taking the road to Padang Besar. MaiCafe was visible immediately after we made the turn to the right. Asmah and Fatthiyah had stayed together in the bachelors quarters together with another two friends during her teaching days in Felda Sungai Tiang. When I changed job and relocated to Besut, Trengganu, her transfer couldn’t be effected immediately and she had to stay on till the end of the year, while I left Sungai Tiang with the three young children.

We were invited to dinner and agreed to visit the cafe by 7.00 PM.

Upon reaching Taman Ular, we were quite surprised to see quite a sizable number of visitors there given that it wasn’t really the tourist season and it was a Wednesday. Some minor renovations were going on with a covered walkway with concrete paving being constructed. This is something good really. We did the gallery and were amazed at both the living and preserved specimen on display. With excellent write up, we learn more about these reptiles and thus recommend to all visitors as a must see on anybody’s visit list to Perlis.

The entrance to Taman Ular.

Preserved specimen in the gallery.

Live specimen of an albino python

Live King Cobra in their hut.

A beautiful lansdsape pond with a few kois in pool.

It was 6.45 PM when we left the hotel for MaiCafe located near Mesjid Putra.

Asmah was there to greet us. It was a sight to see as old friends get to meet again after 30 years. Cikgu Mahathir had told us that Asmah had been asking about Fatthiyah and this visit was just like an answer to her callings.

Two old friends meeting again after 30 years.

MaiCafe is tastefully decorated. The owner had traveled extensively to find ideas for the décor of the place. The husband did much of the décor himself had saved MaiCafe with lots of expenses. Though the café is an open air café, an air-conditioned section is available for those who wants privacy. With 2 experienced chefs working with her and a total work force of 21 staffs, MaiCafe is in serious business in the food business. One of the chefs is an ex Sheraton chain of hotels who prefer to work in Kangar than the world capitals even at lower pay, MaiCafe can only prosper. Their prices are way below the price of the same if they were to be served in the five star hotels. Even the Perlis Royalties who incidentally own the premise dines at MaiCafe which serve authentic western dishes using the finest china and cutlery. The chef had insisted that only the premise and price can be different but the food and presentation must be the same as those that are served at any Sheraton Hotels. So there you are, the best at less than half the price.

Unique interior decoration for MaiCafe.

The chicken dish recconmended by Asmah for Fatthiyah while I dug in my delicious lamb chop in black pepper sauce.

Khairul Syafic is the manager while the younger brother is the assistant. Both are graduates but prefer to be in business rather than be stuck to a 9 to 5 jobs.

For reservations please call the manager Khairul Syafic bin Baharudin at 012-4199772 who incidentally is Puan Asmah’s son together with another brother who chose to work there immediately after their graduation from courses in Accountancy and the other in Business Management.

Cikgu Asmah, thanks for the dinner.

We didn’t have a good rest at the hotel that night. The stiff spring bed didn’t help as the covering material was too thin and we could feel the steel spring on our body. We decided to change hotels the next day.

The Painting For Mr. Dominic Singh

2011-07-04T17:15:00.003+08:00

I have been requested to do a painting of some Japanese kois for a Mr. Dominic Singh from Bank Negara Malaysia via my son Azuan who works with him. Mr. Dominic Singh, your painting is now framed and ready for delivery. In the mean time just enjoy the picture of it.

A Trip Down Memory Lane - Day 1

2011-06-29T18:03:00.001+08:00

Meeting an old friend again after 39 years. Ahmad Saffian and me having dinner at a food court in Alor Setar.

Thirty years ago I was the manager of a Felda settlement known as Felda Sungai Tiang located some 30 km from Pendang, Kedah. It was one of the early land schemes by Felda as it was opened in 1960 with about 520 settlers covering an area of approximately 4,000 acres planted with rubber. When I first set foot in the land scheme, I was just 30 years old while the majority of the settlers were already in their mid fifties and some of the settlers had already passed away.
I left the job for greener pasture in 1981 and relocated my family of three young children with my teacher wife to Besut, Treangganu where my family increase by another one member with the birth of another daughter. At the time of leaving Felda Sungai Tiang, the rubber trees belonging to the settlers had reached the end of it's economic life and there were not much bark left for the trees to be tapped. Some lots have lost their stand due to diseases or fire which is a normal hazard during the dry period and the dry leaves that gathered at the base of the trees were tinder dry and all it take was a careless act of throwing a lighted cigarette to start a fire and scorch the base of the trees. The fire may not kill the trees immediately but the weakened trees will be exposed to attack by other diseases that attack the roots or the branches and by pest such as termites.
Replanting is a time of hardship for the settlers as their source of income will be severely reduced. Those who have the foresight to plant their 2 acres of orchards with rubber had a buffer during the 6 years gestation period before the replanted trees could be tapped and provide a new income for the family.
Now 30 years on, I came back to Felda Sungai Tiang to witness another similar cycle of the need to replant since the replanted trees had come to the end of their economic life again. Another time of hardship awaits them. This time it was the turn of the second generation settlers as most of the original settlers had passed on.
We had left Pasir Mas around 9 AM in our more than 7 years old Toyota Vios to visit the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia. This is probably our last drive to the states of Kedah, Perlis and Penang as health wise driving such long distance may not be suitable for people like me whose birthday cakes will be lit with 6 large candles plus a few of the smaller ones. So I will have to make the most of this trip.
The trip from Pasir Mas was quite uneventful until when we passed Jeli and had begun the climb on the Titiwangsa Range. A car overtaking a long heavy leaden lorry both moving downhill at a dangerous corner had swerved into my path. Fortunately for me I was driving quite slowly and managed to swerve to the road shoulder to avoid a direct head on collision. Some drivers are just careless.
We stopped at Banding Island to break journey. The place I used to know as Banding Island Resort is no more there. Either a new management has taken over or they have renamed the place.

Looking up I saw this name below.

Could Emkay be the new owner?

The rest of the journey was uneventful. Our only problem was in identifying the routes to be taken to reach our destination. As is normal with Malaysian road system, road signages are very sparse. When you see a road sign at a junction, it could be the last sign and missing a junction can only mean a u turn is necessary.
Roads to the west coast have improved tremendously over the past thirty years. They are much more straighter, level, wider and better surfaced and thus driving was quite a pleasure.
We had a sumptous lunch of Kelantanese dish at an R n R after by passing Grik as the road to Alor Setar need not go through Grik. It was a Kelantanese fare replete with budu, ikan tawar and ulam which both of us took it with gusto. My wife had an extra dish of her favourite boiled cockles while mine was another plate of angled loofah with pumpkin cooked in coconut milk.
Our next destination was Jeniang. After Jeniang we took the Kalai junction to reach Felda Sungai Tiang.
Heavy rain accompanied us to Sungai Tiang all the way from Kalai. It was unabated and we reached our friend Cikgu Mahathir's house. It was easy to locate his house as we were told to look for the biggest bungalow next to a bridal saloon. After giving numerous unanswered 'salams', I was on the verge of giving up when I saw movement from within the unlit house. My lucky day as at least one of them is home since I can guess for sure Cikgu Mahathir was not in. Cikgu Umi Kalsom the wife of Cikgu Mahathir, came to the door and after telling her my wife's name who was her colleague when teaching together in Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Tiang, the door was opened wide for us to enter the spacious house.
True enough, Cikgu Mahathir was not in as he was in Alor Setar over a business. A quick call confirmed that he was on the way back and should reach the house in a while. Five mintes later, I was hugging Cikgu Mahathir, a man I had not seen since I last left Felda Sungai Tiang.

Cikgu Mahathir was the local youth movement leader when I was in Sungai Tiang and we had the same idealism to improve the lot of the people there with me on the authority's side and him on the people's side. Unfortunately my tenure with Felda was short lived and I left Sungai Tiang with just a minute but indelible impression.
There was so much to talk with Cikgu Mahathir as we updated each other and relived some of the old memories we had in Sungai Tiang. He is now as he was before, a very active person in politics and now contemplating standing up for election as a candidate for the state constituency in the coming General Election though his wife Umi was not really happy with the idea. I believe she was happy enough as they are but a man will do what a man wants to do and my guess is he will pursue his dream to be The Yang Berhormat as he will be leaving to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with a certain Federal leader.
The rain had abated and I left his home to visit a settler who was close to me when I was serving in Felda Sungai Tiang. His name was Haji Wan Ee and at 66 years Haji Wan Ee can be considered as very healthy. He attributed his health is maintained by constant activities working in his rubber plot and enjoyed his sea fishing which he did regularly.

I will forever be indebted to Haji Wan Ee as during my tenure at Felda Sungai Tiang, I had left my .38 Smith & Wesson Revolver in the restroom after doing an urgent call by nature at my office. Haji Wan Ee had entered the restroom and saw the revolver which he knew was mine and took it to me in my office. I just can't imagine how much trouble I would get if the gun had fallen into the wrong hand.
After some light snack and extremely delicious home brewed black coffee, we bid our good bye to his family and toured the village of Felda Sungai Tiang. Though many houses had been well renovated depending on how well the family of the settler is, some remain decrepit or left entirely unmaintained.
A typical Malay Kedah house on stilt after being renovate. Some had been renovated into a brick building.

A vacant house left to rot.

A rubber plot at the end of their economic life. The tree is being slaughter tapped to maximize income due to the high price of rubber. There is not much bark left to be tapped.

Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Tiang where my wife had taught before. Cikgu Mahathir had been promoted to the post of Headmaster before his posting to the State Education office and finally reached his retirement age.

We made a final stop at the mosque in Sungai Tiang. At the time that I left Felda Sungai Tiang in 1981, the fund to build this mosque was just started and many of the settlers had pledge a certain amount each for the fund and later I was told they had managed to collect more than RM200,000 from among themselves. The cost of the mosque was estimated at RM500,000 at the time.
Some settlers had just performed their Asar prayers at that time and I shook the hands of many of them.
After performing my prayers I left Felda Sungai Tiang for Alor Star with a heavy heart as this land scheme had been dear to me. I had fond memories of the place though I was there only for about two years.
The hotel in Alor Setar had been booked online for two nights while I was in Pasir Mas. The Sentosa Regency Hotel is comfortable enough for me to saty in. Above all it has wifi which is a necessity for me to be incontact with my family and friends and also to make postings in this blog.
That night an old classmate by the name of Ahmad Saffian Mohd Nor came to the hotel to take us to dinner. Ahmad Saffian was my group mate during my study at Kolej Pertanian Malaya and since we parted after graduation in 1972, this is the first time we are meeting up.
Ahmad Saffian had not changed much in look and I could recognize him anytime. Ahmad Saffian I am so happy to meet you again.

New Zeal And Enthusiasm For Painting

2011-06-20T17:04:00.001+08:00

The Perahu Nelayan Traditional for Pak Pin.

2010 was a very lean year as far as my painting goes. For the whole of the year only one painting was done and it was upon the request of my wife Fatthiyah who wanted to give it to her school as a farewell gift upon retirement at the end of the year. Since it was done on a small canvass, the painting of a field of tulips did not have an impact and she had to buy another memento to replace it. Since it was her choice to do it on that size, I can't be blamed.
The above picture is my painting done for Tuan Haji Ariffin Mamat aka Pak Pin an avid collector of my paintings. So far ten of my paintings are among his collection in his home in Taman Melati, Kuala Lumpur. Pak Pin is a Malaysian Kelantanese residing in Jeddah. Pak Pin had asked me to paint another painting of the same boat that I did for Dato' Jaffar Lamri but from another angle. For this painting I had made another visit to the fish landing jetty in Pulau Gajah, Pantai Sabak, Kota Bharu. Lucky thing for me, the boat was still moored to the jetty. I had signed the painting in 2009 but did not deliver it till recently in June 2011.
Though he had asked me to deliver the painting to his sister's house in Kelantan, I did not do so as I was not satisfied with the painting. It was only in 2011 after further touch up that I felt it is good enough to be delivered. Together with other paintings for my children, I brought the painting to Kuala Lumpur and his son Aidil was kind enough to come and collect from me at Taman Amanputra while I was visiting my daughter. Sorry Aidil, uncle forgot to take a picture of you to be included in this blog. I promise that it will be included when I visit your home in KL.
Among my children, my youngest daughter was one of the earliest to have a painting done for her. The triptych was a slight deviation from the black and white that she had earlier requested which I failed to come up with something worthwhile. It was actually my first attempt at an abstract painting. It was named as Cantuman Kasih 1 as suggested by Pak Pin.
Cantuman Kasih 1 as see on the wall of my daughter's home in Kerteh, Terengganu.

Since the painting for my eldest daughter Azura was based on the same concept I as the one for Azini, I am naming it Cantuman Kasih 2. I even helped her to hang it on her wall. From the look on her face, she doesn't seem too happy with it especially after she had seen the one for my son Azrin and also the one for Pak Pin. I guess an abstract is not for her and I promise her to do another one or two.

Cantuman Kasih 2 on the wall of Azura's home in Taman Amanputra, Puchong.

For my son Azrin I did a painting of The Bird of Paradise flower and it was on a bigger canvass as he had a large wall to cover. In fact he had asked of a 3' x 5' which I was not willing to attempt. Anyway the 30" x 34" unframed canvass took up another bigger dimension after framing and had to be carried in the passenger section of my cousin's car when taking it to KL.

Azrin is seen here drilling the holes to hold the painting.

Space enough for some smaller frames to keep Bird of Paradise some company.

Azrin with his wife Yani and baby Ilham posing with the painting.

The whole clan including yours truly wanted to be in too.

Right now I am working with another three paintings. One is for Aleef Muhamad who had given me a picture of the paddy field near her home in Kelantan. Another is for a certain collector from Jeddah who maybe visiting my home in Pasir Mas. It will be a gift to him.
The third painting is a new request from a friend of my son Azuan by the name of Dominic Singh of Bank Negara KL. It is a painting of some Japanese kois and in its final stages of completion.

Hopefully 2011 will be a bumper year for me and my zeal and enthusiasm to paint will continue so that I will be able to cope with the few more paintings that was long overdue to some people.

Mok Su Retires As A Teacher.

2011-06-17T15:39:00.001+08:00

Mok Su with Ayah Su.

If you are a teacher in Kelantan and after about about 35 years of service, you will be feted to a grand send off upon retirement. The send off will be much grander if you are a headmaster and has taught in several schools around Kelantan. That was what happened to our Mok Su.
Yesterday Thursday 16th June 2011 was the last day for our auntie whom we call Mok Su as she is married to our uncle Ayah Su, the youngest surviving uncle on my wife's side.
She retired as a Headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaan Mahligai in the district of Gua Musang. Before the posting to this school, she had been teaching in such schools as Sekolah Kebangsaan Banggol Chicha, Sekolah Kebangsaan Bunut Susu and Sekolah Kebangsaan Pangkal Kala all in the district of Pasir Mas, initially as an ordinary teacher and later as a Senior Assistant before her promotion to a Headmaster of Sekolah Kebangsaan Mahligai where her service finally ended.
It has become a sort of tradition among teachers in Kelantan that almost the whole school teachers and some pupils will escort the retiring teacher from the school to the teachers home. Since Sekolah kebangsaan Mahligai is more than 150 kms away not everyone was able to send her off but the majority of the teachers did.
The entourage was scheduled to leave Mahligai very early to reach Bunut Susu at about 1 PM which is the lunch hour but due to constant arrival of parents from around the school who came to say thank you and goodbye to this Mok Su of ours, the entourage was only able to leave at about 11.00 and on the way way had to detour via Pangkal Kala as the shool had linep up the pupils as well as the teachers who wanted to bid farewell too. After passing through, the teachers from this school joined the entourage moving to Mok Su's home in Bunut Susu.
At her home the entourage was greeted by teachers from other schools who had arrived earlier.
The following pictures tell it's own story of how great the reception was.

A silat performance upon the entourage's arrival

The msic ensemble accompanying the silat performance.

Mok Su giving a final thank you speech.

Guests going for the late lunch.

The male guests having their lunch.

Goody bags for all the guests.

Anak-anak sepupu Nur Qamarina and Nur Shafikak asked to be photographed and asked their pic to be uploaded to Facebook.

When my wife Fatthiyah retired on 18th December 2010 after 37 years of service as a teacher, she was accorded the same treatment but on a modest scale as we don't have the capacity to handle such a big entourage. Never the less it was a send off albeit from just one school.

I FEEL HUMBLED BY THESE FRIENDLY ACTS

2011-06-13T11:13:00.002+08:00

I would have walked or even crawled from Pasir Mas, Kelantan to Kuala Lumpur if I had known that WA Hulaimi aka Awang Goneng of Growing Up In Trengganu (GUIT) fame would mention me in his latest book A Map of Terengganu (AMoT). The ocassion then was the book signing ceremony of AMoT by the author which I had to miss. In AMoT I was mentioned not just once but TWICE. The first mention was in his introduction as a word of thanks together with several other prominent people who had in some way or other contributed to AMoT, and later on page 56 under the topic of A Long Way From the Shore.
Awang Goneng had personally invited me to attend the first signing session at RA Galeri at Solaris Bangsar which was open to invited guests and his close relatives only. The occasion was scheduled on 30th April 2011. Oh dear, I just returned to Pasir Mas from KL after my Umrah and the next trip to KL was only scheduled for end of May together with my wife. There was no way for a poor pensioner like me to make an unscheduled trip to KL. So I had to pass the occasion as well as the next signing occasion at Borders on May 8.
Fortunately for me, my lamenting of helplessness on Facebook and blog post by Awang Goneng in his Kecek-Kecek to get a signed copy of AMoT caught the sight of another blogger friend Fathil who goes by the blog name of Oldstock in his blog Just Observations. Fathil not only volunteered to get me a copy but to get it signed by Awang Goneng at the next signing ceremony at Borders!
When Fathil approached Awang Goneng to get the book signed for me, the author was surprised as he thought I had my copy signed already. I guess in the frenzy of his book signings, he lost track of all who came to him.
With the AMoT signed, Fathil sent me an SMS inquiring how to deliver the book to me to which I told him to keep the book till I meet him in KL when I will be visiting my daughter at the end of May 2011. Unfortunately it was only in 6th June that I was able to go to KL as I had to bring along my paintings for delivery to my children as well as a long overdue painting for Pak Pin, the prolific Kelantanese blogger residing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
While establishing contact with Fathil to arrange for a meeting, he decided to come over to my daughters place at Taman Amanputra in Puchong as he consider it as not far from his place in Bukit Jalil. Well that was very convenient for me as I had no wheels to go out during the day time to meet him in KL. The only way out was to use the bus and meet up in KL somewhere near Central Market where the bus stop is. That will mean an inconvenience for Fathil since he will have to be away from work. So he decided to come to Amanputra after Isyak.

This is Fathil aka Oldstock though he isn't that old compared to Pak Zawi. The grandchildren didn't want to be left out whenever the camera is taken out.

Fathil came over at around 10 PM and it wasn't really difficult for him to find the house even without the help of a GPS which is really a necessity in a city like KL. Over a drink and some fried kerepok, Fathil took out the A Map of Terengganu from his small backpack. He surprised me by telling me that my name was mentioned twice in the book which almost took the wind out of me. I didn't know that, I told him.

The signed copy by the author Wan Ahmad Hulaimi.

Can you see the name Pak Zawi in there?

I had promised Awang Goneng that I would be writing about the games we played using the beluru seed which he called buah gomok or buah ipir in Terengganu. Unfortunately that promise was not kept by me as my thirst for writing anything had taken a nose dive during that time and any postings made during that period was half hearted at the most.
Anyway we played almost the same way as mentioned by Awang Goneng under the chapter of The Game of Gomok on page 57 to 61 by using the toe to project the beluru seed towards a target. The only difference was the target which in my case was another beluru seed stuck sideway with the broadside facing the player. This game can only be played on smooth earthen floor which was then available around most houses in Kampong Kangkong, Pasir Mas where I grew up with my maternal grand parents as a child.
The other game we played using the beluru seed was spinning the seed which is suspended on a loop of string inserted via three holes with two holes on one side and only one hole on the other side. The momentum created not quite unlike the yo-yo will allow the player to spin the seed perpetually. I guess the description of this game can only be done by an expert story teller the like of Awang Goneng with his mastery of the English language.
After an hour of getting to know each other more, Fathil took leave and refused to accept any payment for AMoT. For that I will owe him a painting as he had purchased a painting from me before. Fathil, I will personally deliver the painting to your home in Johor as another visit to my adopted state of Johor where I had worked for 7 years is long overdue. Fathil will be moving home to Johor soon as he has a job offer as a civil engineer back home closer to his family. The best of luck to you with your new job and please enjoy the company of your family.
Fathil made a post about meeting me at his site. Please read it here.
All these acts by these two dear friends as well as many others that I didn't mention, really humbled me. Such friendship will always be cherished.

Pak Zawi enjoying AMoT while the grand children enjoyed being photographed while the eldest Lis enjoyed making faces.

Pak Idrus In Kelantan.

2011-05-28T16:45:00.000+08:00

It was on May 17th that I received a message on Facebook of Pak idrus' intention to visit Kelantan. When he confirmed his dates he asked me to book 2 rooms in Kota Bharu and the same number of rooms in Gua Musang as he intended to travel via the Kuala Lipis-Gua Musang route to Kota Bharu from Kuala Lumpur. Breaking journey in Gua Musang especially for elderly people like us who have exceeded the 10 decade marks is extremely necessary. Anyway if you know Pak Idrus, he is still young for his more than 70 years living in this world. Very often he outpace me when we walked around in KL.
This visit would be most appropriate for me to repay his kindness towards us a he had feted us to a sumptuous lunch at his place in Ampang when my wife Fatthiyah and me visited him with Akmal some years back.
The rooms in Gua Musang was booked for 24th May via an old friend living in Gua Musang. I specifically told him to book some comfortable room in Gua Musang New Town in order to surprise Pak Idrus who is a first time visitor to the modern days Gua Musang which has developed into a lovely township. Contrary to popular belief the recent development was brought about by the Majlis Daerah Gua Musang with the basic infrastructure put in place by Kelantan Selatan Development Authority (KESEDAR). Without the combined effort I doubt that the town would be like it is today.
The rooms for Gua Musang sector was easily done and I had to trust my friend Othman Hassan to get the nicest available room. The problem is for the Kota Bharu sector as my attempt to get rooms at The Royal Guesthouse on 25th May for two nights at the small cozy hotel was a failure since they had a large group on that day which will only check out on the 26th May morning. Though there are other larger hotels in town but I doubt that they will provide the kind of ambience that I want Pak Idrus and Kak Asmah to experience.
Browsing through the internet I found out that a new hotel belonging to Habib Jewel Sdn Bhd is already in operation. Knowing Habib Jewel's reputation as a seller of jewellery products of high quality, I believe they would do the same thing for their hotel. I called the hotel and was told that the required rooms were available and within the budget that Pak Idrus had given me. Take it from me that the price of the rooms are cheaper if you book via the internet. So when I confront the receptionist on duty about the lower price on the net, she agreed to give a discount.
When Pak Idrus checked into the hotel in Gua Musang, he was happy with the new hotel. His only comment was that the management should be more professional and stress more on maintainence as he had spotted some part of the wall papers peeling off. Small thing but important to discerning travelers.
On the afternoon of 25th May, we waited for Pak Idrus' and his entourage to arrive at the hotel in Jalan Maju, Kota Bharu. Pak Idrus had promised to leave Gua Musang early and I gave him three hours to reach Kota Bharu. He had brought his nephew En. Rahim along to drive for him. As a 70 plus year young man, Pak Idrus must be feeling his age when driving long distance.

Immediately after checking into the hotel we headed for Kampong Kraftangan located near the Istana Balai Besar which is beside the Royal Guesthouse where I first wanted to book for Pak Idrus. As the parking lot close to the Kampong Kraftangan were fully occupied, we had to walk a short distance to the eatery.
They had to walk a short distance to Kampung Kraftangan for lunch. From left is En Rahim, my wife Fatthiyah, Kak Asmah and Pak Idrus.

The restaurant is self service but there is an air conditioned room where it would be served albeit at a slightly higher rate. Who cares as all the tables outside were occupied since lunch is popular at this place.
We were served the ikan keli goreng (fried cat fish), ikan patin masak asam pedas, ayam goreng, an assortment of ulams fresh or boiled to be taken with either budu (fish sauce) or sambal. Even as a regular I was surprised with the whole bowl of budu that was brought to our table. They were more than enough for the five of us. In the budu not only chili padi was placed in it but also a dollop of durian which was certainly not a tempoyak since tempoyak is fermented durian. I think they may have run out of tempoyak and place the durian flesh instead of tempoyak. Anyway it is normal to do so to the Kelantanese. Now the Thai durian is in season and fresh durian is the only option. The durian season is Thailand is quite far ahead of our durian season in Kelantan. I believe lime juice has already been squeezed into the bowl of budu.
Pak Idrus dug into the ikan keli and he seemed to be the only person among the five of us who took it. I do take ikan keli but at that moment I preferred the ikan patin masak asam pedas and let Pak Idrus alone to enjoy the two large fried ikan keli.

Slightly later Chegu Hamid, the restaurant owner came to join our table for small chats. According to Chegu Hamid, even the royalties and their guests come to eat at this place. On such occasions the eatery will be closed to the public and his staff will take a rest after cooking all the food. All the servings will be done by the people from the istana who are familiar with the etiquette and only special crockery owned by the palace will be used. Today we have Pak Idrus and company using the room alas with normal crockery and served by the restaurant's own staff.
After taking them to their hotel we bid them good bye and let them paint the town of Kota Bharu red. Before leaving we invited them to dinner at our home in Pasir Mas.
It is not really easy to locate my home but knowing that Pak Idrus has a Minah Garmin GPS, I sent him my house address with the coordinates for good measure.

The above pic showed Pak Idrus holding his Minah GPS.

I guess he has yet to learn how to key in the location using coordinates instead of an address. Since the Minah GPS came from the United States of America, she has yet to know of such remote places as Jalan Pam Air KADA, Mekasar, Pasir Mas. The Minah GPS must have prompted him to key in Jalan Parit Air KADA, Pasir Mas Kelantan instead and thus led him to the other side of town in Lati instead of Mekasar. Luckily for him there was a platoon of policemen doing some sort of exercise. The sight of an important looking man in a brand new Honda Accord must have moved them to help out Pak Idrus and he was told that Mekasar is on the other side of town on the way to Kota Bharu.
He did the next sensible thing by calling me on the phone and I waited by the main road after giving some obvious landmark for him to locate.
As is anything with high technology, the output depends on the input. GIGO or garbage in and garbage out holds true for such equipments.

Here they are chatting after having dinner of nasi putih with ayam percik, telor goreng dadar with pucuk cekur manis, ikan kering and some beef curry. They all love the ikan tamban kering.
We adjourned to the living room and continued chatting till almost 11.00 PM when our tired body couldn't take it anymore. Hey old man like me sleeps early.
Pak Idrus and Kak Asmah, we were really happy to have you as our guests. Please take this post with a pinch of salt and laugh at those humorous parts as spices of life though it may bite you slightly.

OUR NEXT TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

2011-05-26T12:56:00.001+08:00

The last long distance flight to Mecca to perform our Umrah via Amman Jordan with a stop in Bangkok has put us off from making another trip to another destination longer than 6 hours. So for now we will take a break from long flights, limiting ourselves to just regional destinations or just Asean destinations. We have in mind such destinations as Chiang Mai and Phuket in Thailand, Jogjakarta, Indonesia, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Shanghai and Hongkong in China.
The spate of promotions by AirAsia has made it possible for retirees with a small pension like us to travel. They have benefited us immensely. The cheap fares to Kuala Lumpur is something we will always grab. Even if we are not going to travel beyond KL, we can always use the cheap fares to visit our children in KL.
We did secure such low promotional fares on 22nd November when the basic fare was just at RM10 each way per person. The total fare inclusive of airport taxes, convenience fees came to RM142.00 averaging to about RM71.00 per person which cheaper than the bus fares.
The next step was the purchase of the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jogjakarta which came to a total of RM230 for two persons return but excluding the exit tax from Jogjakarta on the return flight. Hey that's just RM115 return fare per person.
For this trip we bought rooms in Jogjakarta from 22nd November to 25th November 2011 at the Malioboro Inn which cost us USD150 for the three nights. It was a mistake really as we had wanted to book the Malioboro Hotel which is located in a shopping complex and thus much more convenient. Anyway the inn is also a few minutes walk away from Malioboro Street, the heart of Jogjakarta.
For the visit to places of interest, we will just scout around at the travel agents on our first day of arrival as we are sure they can be easily done. What we have in mind is to visit The Borobodur on the second day and a day tour to Solo the next day.
We booked our KL trip for February 2012 on 16th March 2011 with AirAsia and the fare is a mere RM70 return for 2 persons. The whole fare inclusive of taxes and fees came to RM182.
A few days ago AirAsia went on another promotional blitz and advertised fares as low as RM0.10 or 10 sen on certain sectors including Siem Reap in Cambodia which had been on our wish to go to list. I was prepared to purchase the fare on the launching date which began at 12.00 noon on 23rd May 2011. On that day the AirAsia website was jammed with people trying to access the site. The jam only eased off in late afternoon and only then was I able to access the site to purchase my flight to Siem Reap on 27th February and the return on 1st March. Of course I didn't get the 10 sen fare to Seam Reap. On those dates the basic fare that I managed to get was RM50.00 per pax per sector. At this fare the total fare including taxes, fees, baggage and meals of nasi lemak for each one of us came to about RM620. This means a saving of some RM500 if I were to travel on the earlier dates of 26th Feb and return on 29th February 2012. This saving could easily offset the 10 sen return fare to Kota Bharu for the 1st of March 2012. At the basic fare of 10 sen per pax the total came up to just over RM50 when the airport tax, convenience fees and baggage was factored in.
For accommodation in Siem Reap, we chose the Soria Moria Hotel in the Wat Bo area as opposed to the earlier choice of Ta Prohm hotel in the Old Market area. Though the Soria Moria Hotel would cost us some RM200 more at USD50 per night, the close proximity to a halal restaurant known as D'Wau Malaysian Halal Restaurant was too tempting for us. Moreover, Faizal the Malaysian owner could connect us to a Cambodian free lance guide by the name of Yusof Palal. Yusof once studied at a Madrasah in Kelantan.
Should I get Yusoff's services in Siem Reap, I don't expect myself to be fleeced much of my USD and having a guide speaking in your own dialect is of course a bonus.
Before connecting with Faizal or Yusof in Cambodia, I need to connect with Cikgu Zmah who mentioned about them in her blog Ceritaku Untukmu when she visited Siem Reap with her husband sometime ago.
As long as AirAsia could provide us with cheap fares, we will be able to continue flying all over the destinations covered by Airasia. I guess it is fair that they continue getting tax exemption as long as they can provide such low fares. Don't forget foreigners are enjoying this benefit too but as long as they keep coming to Malaysia in droves, there should be an advantage to the tourism industry.
Thank you AirAsia, now everyone can fly including pensioners like me.

The Painting For Azini

2011-05-19T16:16:00.000+08:00

The painting for my youngest daughter Azini was started at the tail end of my work on the painting for my son Azuan. The first attempt of a three piece job on black and white based on her request didn't turn out well and aborted the job immediately after the first piece.
After communicating with her, she agreed with me to use a bit of color and I introduced crimson red beside black and white into the composition. This piece is considered an abstract piece which is something new to me as this is my first attempt doing an abstract.
Earlier on I had declined a request by Zaitgha of the blog Day In Day Out .... from Seremban. The reason I gave her then was that I wasn't yet an accomplished artist to be able to do an abstract. To me somebody who does an abstract must be accomplished in all categories of painting be it landscape, portrait, figures and what not that are based on realism. On second thought I will never be able to do abstract if I were to adhere to that principle. On that basis I did this piece of abstract for my daughter Azini just to test the waters.
With encouraging response from the eventual owner and a few facebook friends I was confident enough to complete it.
Initially it was a two piece painting but Azini hinted that if would look even better if it were a three piece. I guess she must have plenty of empty wall to cover in her new house in Kerteh.

Some light repair will need to be done to the newest of the three as it seems to be lighter in color.
My next project will be for my eldest daughter Azura as she too wants a piece of my work after seeing the painting for Azini.
My initial sketches for Azura is as per below. I wonder if she will be happy with the scheme.

Royal Wedding Commemorative Items

2011-05-15T15:40:00.001+08:00

Fatthiyah saw the Royal Wedding commemorative items on our national news over TV3 on the day The royal Wedding was telecast live all over the world including Malaysia and she immediately expressed her wish to have one of the mugs and a small plate to keep. Though we have no special relation or affection to the Royal couple, the chance of having a memento to remember the occasion by was overwhelming.
Immediately it came to my mind the names of friends living in London who could help us to buy one or two items. The first names that came to mind then were those of Awang Goneng and his wife Kak Teh. The problem then was that both of them were already back in Malaysia to launch Awang Goneng's latest book A Map of Trengganu. The next name that came to mind was that of Nick Habgood of Azini Capital whose company shares a common name with my daughter Azini. When we were in London on our European Tour we had the chance to meet this pleasant personality by the name of Nick.
I immediately sent Nick a message on Facebook to seek his help. At the same time I posted a message on my wall seeking help from any friend who could assist me to purchase the items. Nick immediately replied asking me to decide on which design that my wife Fatthiyah wish to have and he gave me the URL to the website selling them. They were available online and there were so many sites to choose from and the choices were stupendous! The price range from a few pounds to hundreds of pounds depending on the quality of material the item is made of. The postage and packaging charges would be 30 pound to anywhere in the world. Another friend who responded was Steven Lee a Malaysian professional photographer who resides in London. Steven asked me to state the items needed and for me to indicate my budget. Wow what great friends to have.
My own son Azrin who flies for a commercial airlines does not fly the London sector but he said he can ask his friend Mat who flies the sector to buy it for us when he next flies to London at the end of May.
Yes that was the best option as we can easily give cash to Mat and ask him to buy something and bring it back. We presume the price of things would become more affordable as many stockist would want to clear their stocks as the wedding day has long been past and maybe forgotten by many. We thanked Nick and Steven for the offer to help and we told them of our plan to get a friend to buy them. Once again I would like to thank Nick Habgood and Steven Lee.
One day out of the blue I received this message on my wall on facebook:

Pak Zawi, Azidi and I just came back from Scotland and I bought a Mug of the Royal Wedding for your wife. Can I have your add and I will pos laju to u.

The message was posted by Bariah Ishak the wife of Syed Azidi of the famous Kickdefella blog fame! Actually I have worked with Bariah and Azidi before on the Magazine project belonging to Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan magazines namely Qiadah and Kelantan Gateway. Bariah had read my appeal and since they were touring Scotland at the time, the two of them decided to surprise me with it. She only informed me of the purchase after she had come back to Malaysia.
Yesterday was Saturday 14th of May and we were not home to receive the parcel which was received by our neighbour on our behalf.. It was only after the Asar prayers that we came back to the house and the next door neighbour handed this package to us:

Upon opening it we saw these two lovely items with their respective containers:

The white porcelain mug with the picture of Kate and William came in a cardboard box which is meant for Fatthiyah. The other item was a box of White Earl Grey tea, blended exclusively to commemorate the Royal Wedding on 29th April 2001. This one is for me! The tea came in a metal container which will be kept as the commemorative item. Lucky Us to have such a friend as Bariah and Syed Azidi. They insist that the two items are a gift from them and will not accept any payment even for the courier charges.
The mug is now proudly displayed in the main living room.

A close up of the mugshot of Kate and William.

During our travel overseas we will bring home collectibles such as mugs and plates of the places we visited.

Above is our collection of mugs and below is our collection of souvenir plates from our travel and some were given to us by our friends.

Thank you Bariah and Syed Azidi.

One Down, Four or Five More To Go.

2011-05-10T17:53:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I did manage to complete one painting for my son Azrin which was long overdue since he had moved into his new house quite sometime ago. Since I started painting again I had been working diligently on that painting to ensure that it will be ready before we leave for KL on 29th May 2011. Thank you Allah the new found enthusiasm and drive has spurred me on to complete the painting in double quick time.
On my first visit to his house he had even shown me the wall where the painting would be hung. It was quite a large piece of wall immediately visible after entering the house. No mention was made as to the kind of painting that he wants other than that he wanted a big one if possible 3 feet wide and 5 feet long. Ya Allah, that is large and I have never attempted something that large!
Upon coming back to Pasir Mas I immediately started working on his painting since I already had a piece of canvass stretched on a wooden frame just the size that he wanted. It didn't turn out right and I tried painting over. Unfortunately painting over such a big piece was a tedious job and would have expended a lot of expensive oil paint should I have continued. So I left it at that. That was the reason why I stopped painting for so long. Only lately the desire to paint again came to me and I started with his painting. This time I was determined to have it completed.

The initial coat of oil paint was for the background. Look I have no studio so any open space with sufficient light will do.

Putting in more colours. Now the painting seems to be getting more interesting.

Further touch up.

My wife is the harshest critic. She said the background doesn't look nice.

Reworked on the painting. Now how does it looks? I consider it done and will sign it soon.

Immediately after feeling that the job is done, I started on the next painting for my daughter Azini who had also moved in into a new house in Kerteh, Trengganu after she and her husband were transfered there from Labuan.

Azini wanted a three piece of something in black and white. It sounds easy but do you think so?

When I did finish this job for Azini I need to start working on the painting for my son Azuan. Actually his painting of the sanserveria was already done along time ago. Unfortunately for him my dear friend the late Dalilah aka Raden Galoh of the Blog One Breast Bouncing (may her soul ret in peace) had asked for it after she had already acquired another painting of The Bird Nest Fern. Knowing the situation Dalilah was in at that time, I was so moved and had to let her take that painting too. Both Raden Galoh and husband Red Alfa came to my son Azuan's apartment in Shah Alam one evening to collect the two paintings. Hopefully the two paintings would still adorn the wall of their house and remain the token of friendship between the family and me.
I have yet to decide on what to paint for Azuan. He is a bit critical of my work as he had been exposed to some of the great paintings by the many great artists that now adorned the wall of Bank Negara Malaysia, where he works. Azuan will often criticize on the lack of depth on some of my paintings. I believe in him and often reworked on the painting he so commented.
Of course my eldest daughter Azura wanted a piece of my painting too. Sincerely, I believe my children must keep at least one of my paintings in their respective houses. That is one way for them to remember me when I am gone.
Only after all of my children has got hold of what is due to them, ten only will I be able to start work on the many other paintings that I still owe my blogger friends. These blogger friends are still waiting for their pieces:
HJ Angus of Malaysia Watch, Kerp of Lets Go Land, Shah of My Neverland and a certain En. Zainal from JB.
Anybody else out there that I still owe a painting?
Please pray for my good health and longevity, God willing I will deliver on my promise.

Back To Blogging

2011-05-04T10:03:00.003+08:00

I have decided to continue blogging after a long layoff. My last post was on 7th. December 2010. Until this morning I thought it was the last and I would cease to post any new post and would let the site be dormant for as long as I was in no mood to continue blogging again.
There is nothing specific that made me lay off from posting a new post. The only reason that immediately comes to mind is laziness, the lack of enthusiasm, lack of interest as so many other bloggers who can be considered as my peers has passed on or has vanished from the blogosphere without any parting post. The demise of Captain Yusoff Ahmad of The Ancient Mariner, Ruby Ahmad, Dalilah Tamrin's One Breast Bouncing and now Zaharan Razak of 'I' of the Storm is lying a comatose in a hoispital somewhere in Trengganu, and several other bloggers such as Mat Salo of Borneo Blues and The Pirate of Pulau Kapas with his blog Capt's Longhouse has all gone quiet, the blogosphere that I was comfortable in becomes lonely and desolate. Slowly I too went quiet.
Now I am waking up. I have a life to live and share whatever I have to share with my family and friends via this blog. This blog will continue to be the life within me. This blog will only die when I die.
After two weeks of soul searching in the holy lands of Medina and Mecca, I thought I would come back rejuvenated. My life should have been alive on the day I set foot on Malaysian soil again. Alas it was not to be and it took me a full month to begin.
Beside making new post again, I will begin painting again. There are a couple of painting which I promised to do for my friends and family but I have yet to fulfill their request. Namely Pakpayne with the almost finished Traditional Fishing Boat, HJ Angus for his Sunrise at KB's Waterfront, a painting for my son Azrin and daughter Azini since both of them has just moved in into their new homes.
One activity which I didn't stop was gardening. I did manage to clear a small patch on the vacant land in front of my house and I planted some chilli plants, some kangkong and some angled loofah. All of them are bearing now while the kangkong has been providing me with an endless stream of fresh green vegetables.
Since the last posting in December I have been blessed with two grandsons. First to come was Razeen Ilham the son who is 4 months old and he is the fourth child for my son Azrin and Yanie while Airil Hafizi is almost two month old son of my son Azuan and Ijjah. Their coming to this world was a joyous occasion which deserved a post on my blog at least as a matter of records. Unfortunately they came at a time when I just wasn't in the mood to write anything.
With this post, I hope to be back to my normal self and continue to do what I used to do before, sharing the joy of life with my family and friends.

Taking A Break

2010-12-07T09:09:00.001+08:00

The earlier programme was for me to stay on till 20th Dec.2010 and I will only be taking the flight home from LCCT KL to Kota Bharu when my nannying duty is over. A twist of luck has given me an opening and my charges will be away for almost a week with their father. This is a much needed break for me and by noon today I will be flying home to Kota Bharu to be with my wife Fatthiyah. She had not been able to come along as my other daughter who had been recently transferred from Labuan to Kerteh, Trengganu is currently at home in Pasir Mas since her husband's attempt to find a suitable house to rent near the school where she will be transferred to has been a failure. Vacant houses in Kerteh is a rare commodity. On the waiting list for a Petronas quarters for whom the husband work, he is way down on the waiting list at number 82. The house they bought is nearing completion but being in Dungun, it will be an hour's drive from home to school. They bought the house in Dungun anticipating a transfer to the district they requested. So when the house is completed, they will have to rent it out to compensate their own rental.
I am so happy to go home to Pasir Mas even for just a few days. Looking after the three grandchildren in Puchong has changed my daily routine. I miss everything I am so used to everyday. Back home I have that small patch of vegetables plot which was providing me with fresh vegetables such as kangkong and the ladies fingers has just started to produce when I left it.
It would be OK if it was for just for a week away from home but this is a full month and this break is much needed after being here since the 21st of November which was more than two weeks already.
On the plus side I am happy to be here as I get to meet my other children and the grandchildren. Above all I am happy because while here, I have fallen in love again. I feel deeply in love with something which I intend to get my hands on. It was while on a visit to The Mines Resort that I saw it. I have yet to decide on the model but from what I heard, an Apple computer is good whih ever model that we decide on.

Never Go To MAHA On A Sunday

2010-11-29T22:56:00.000+08:00

If I could help it I wouldn't have gone to The Malaysian Agriculture Horticulture & Agrotourism (MAHA) International Show yesterday as it was a Sunday and I was expecting a big crowd. The Sua Rasa event by TV9 was held at the site too adding to the attraction for those who are more interested in The Sua Rasa more than the MAHA show to draw the crowd. Unfortunately I had no choice since the son who could provide the conveyance was only free on Sunday. He made the mistake of waking up late and coming to pick me up late at his sister's Taman Amanputra hom from his Shah Alam home despite his friend's warning that he must go early due to congestion at the car park. It was only after we saw the traffic jam on the highway near the expo ground that we realized the folly of coming there late. The crawl began from almost two kilometers away to the ground.
After seeing others parking their cars at the road side on both sides of the highway, we decided to do the same and walk the distance as the traffic was crawling at a pace slower than our leisurely walking speed.
Some people had brought young kids along and some even have babies. I really feel sorry for these kids and babies. Even though the sun wasn't blazing hot as it normally does, the walking activities still made us sweat profusely. The cloudy sky was definitely a blessing in disguise.
There was so much to see and I couldn't cover the whole exhibition. By 1.00 PM I had to call it quit as my legs just refuse to obey orders. As I had bought a few kgs of bananas, the prospect of walking 2 kms back to the car really made me want to conserve some energy. So we decided to go home after covering about one fifth of the whole show.
I wouldn't want to burden you all with a long write up so just see the pictures that I have taken to learn a bit of what I saw from part of the extensive exposition.
If you intend to go to MAHA, please do so on a weekday as there will be less crowd. Avoid bringing babies or even young kids even though it is very educational for the kids.
If I could get the chance, I would love to go again to cover the other sections that I have yet to cover before the exhibitions ends on the 5th of December. This time it will never be on a Sunday.

My son's kancil was crawling with other cars four abreast on the highway on the way to Mardi Serdang.

Ahead of us there more cars. This signage gave us the impression that the expo wasn't faraway.

This pretty little girl was so excited seeing me taking photographs of the traffic. The mother rolled down the window to allow me to take a clearer shot of her baby.

We were on the Litrak Highway to Kajang from Puchong. Exit 5 to the expo ground must be pretty near.

There two entrances to the expo ground. The nearest was of course Entrance 2.

It was still a distance from the parking area yet we saw this Parking full sign.

Many visitors parked their cars by the road side and walk to the site. My son Azuan did carry an umbrella just in case the weather may turn either too hot or too wet.

The no parking area and the threat of being towed away. Nobody heeded the sign.

Now you know what MAEPS stand for.

Another Parking Penuh sign and yet people are still driving into the parking area. Do they really mean it that the parking area is full?

The owner of this van was using the ruse that his van is 'Rosak' (broke dowo parking) to avoid being towed away or summoned for parking in a no parking zone. I wonder if this ruse worked for him all the time.

Upon entering the exhibition area we saw orchid and ornamental plants stalls. Sua Rasa is on our left.

The signage says the stall is 50 meters away but actually it was just beside it.

The jackfruit was cut up so you don't have to buy a whole fruit

The Orchid Society participated in MAHA.

A Rhyncostylis spp in bloom. I have a similar plant back home and it had bloomed once.

The Catleyas bear beautiful colorful flowers.

Vandas are beautiful too.

I can't resist the temptation of having my photograph taken with the blooming orchids.

Shuttle busses are provided to transport visitors to the other distant part of the show area.

Who says Malaysians don't know how to queue up?

While waiting for the shuttle buses, you can always watch the goings on around the park on the big screen near the second entrance.

Juicy roasted mutton. My full stomach due to a heavy breakfast before coming to the expo prevented me from enjoy it.

A precious Boer Stud.

An even more expensive bull to be used for breeding.

Stalls selling several varietiges of food product from mutton to beef and eggs. Satay arnab was available too.
Saw this oil palm harvester at the machinery expo by various government agencies.

The Deputy Prime Minister came to the machinery display site while I was there. I took a few shots of him and his entourage. Included in his entourage was Tan Sri Mohamad Nor Ismail whom I had served for a short while when I was in Kumpulan Fima Sdn Bhd.

Thank You Facebook

2010-11-27T12:00:00.001+08:00

I must thank Facebook for it has brought me together to meet new friends. The new friends were old College mates at Serdang. The husband and wife Zahid Mohammad and Zaimi Mohd Nor were my super duper seniors at the then Serdang Agriculture College before it was transformed into Universiti Pertanian Malaysia and later Univerisity Putra Malaysia.
When I posted the message on FB that I was coming to Amanputra Puchong, Puan Zaimi responded that she was just in the neighbouring Taman Putra Perdana and suggested that we should meet. Later when her husband and me became friends on Facebook, we decided to meet after the Friday Prayers at Putra Perdana Mosque on Friday which was yesterday. This didn't materialize as Zahid couldn't be back for the Fridays prayers as he was out in KL.
Meanwhile I had received a message from another close school friend Tuan Haji Ashaari Amin who had tremendous influence on my life during my school days. He had wanted to come over from Ampang to meet me at Amanputra today. Another SMS came from Zahid suggesting for a breakfast meeting the next which I readily agreed. This is an opportune time for me to introduce Ashaari to Zahid as Ashaari was also an ex Serdang College student.
Ashaari came to Amanputra Puchong exactly at 7.45 AM on his trusted Yamaha Virago. We then proceeded to Putra Perdana to our rendezvous point at a mamak eatery at Putra Perdana at 8.00 AM. Zahid. Zahid came with his wife Zaimi exactly on time. He must be a stickler to punctuality, a rare habit among Malaysians. After a brief introduction we proceeded in seperate cars to another eatery in Bukit Puchong, a short drive away where we were told East Coast dishes are available. Zahid mentioned of the availability of pulut kuning which seemed to be his favourite.
While on the way, Ashaari mentioned that this Zahid has the exact semblance of another Zahid that he had known while studying at Lousiana State University in the US. His only doubt was that the Zahid that he knew wasn't as fair skinned as this Zahid. Somehow I was confident that this is the same Zahid and told Ashaari so. So when we reached the eatery, Ashaari immediately confirmed with Zahid by telling Zahid about the time they were in LSU. Yes it was the same Zahid.
It seemed Zahid had been transformed into a fair skinned guy by a freak accident not very different from what happened to Michael Jackson, a fire accident. The only difference is that Zahid was torched by a fire while he was tinkering with the engine of his Volkswagon whereas Michael had his while he was on stage. Since I am dark skinned too, Zahid jokingly offered to replicate the same treatment by fire on me which I of course declined.
The food at the eatery was of course very sumptuous but what was more sumptuous was the discussion that was going on between Zahid and Ashaari. Both of them were in the wellness industry. To learn more about what they are doing please visit http://www.grandsun.com.tw and http://www.mi-biotech.com or just click here and here for Zahid's and Ashaari's company respectively. Of particular note is Ashaari's involvement in early breast cancer detection which could save the life of many as by the time a lump is detected in your breast, it is already too late.
Hearing these people talk was definitely enriching to me in terms of knowledge and economic prospect. Now I know progesterone used to delay menopause in elderly ladies is produced from the lowly itchy keladi (yam) and activated carbon requires coconut shells as raw materials and certain species of bamboo are better raw materials than coconut shells.
Now don't you want to be the raw material suppliers?
Now I am toying with the idea of jumping into the business bandwagon with the so many opportunities available.

Life In Amanputra Puchong

2010-11-25T11:20:00.001+08:00

This is the third day I am at my eldest daughter's place in Taman Amanputra Puchong. Taman Amanputra used to be the last housing area at the end of the road after the older and bigger Taman Putra Perdana. It used to be pretty quiet with traffic though its actual location is just a mere 7 minutes drive to Putrajaya. Now with the unofficial access to the highway to Putrajaya, the 7 minutes drive is a reality and passing traffic increases by leaps and bounds.
I will be here for a month to nanny my grandchildren while the parents go to work. The duty will be for a month and the plane ticket home on 21st December is already bought so there will be no extension. By then my daughter should be able to resolve her problem.
Of course I miss my home. Life is never the same compared to your own home especially when you get to sleep in your own bed. The softness of the bed and body warmth of the other half is missing. Today some semblance of comfort will be restored when the workmen will replace the malfunctioning air conditioner. The present brand claiming a good life is not really good and my daughter was convinced to buy another brand by a supplier and installer from Taman Putra Perdana. He assured us that he is just a phonecall away should we need his services be it servicing or repairing of all the air conditioner units in the house. How convenient indeed.
I have established a certain routine now after having repaired the folding bike that I gave to my grandchildren. A bike ride to the shop in Putra Perdana to buy whatever is required to prepare lunch for the grandchildren will give me the chance to exercise. Breakfast is already taken care of when my daughter would have bought the breakfast from the nearby stalls. The passing traffic to Putrajaya as opened up opportunities for small time entrepreneurs to sell nasi lemak and what have you for breakfast. Otherwise I will have to prepare the breakfast or buy them at Putra Perdana.
Another routine I am trying to establish is to get the grandchildren to stick to a certain routine where a timetable will be set. They must stick to a certain time to put in some hours to study, time to eat and play. So far everything is let to their own whim and fancy which isn't healthy and develop into a bad habit. I think this is a general problem with children of working parents when they are left under the care of the maids. God willing I may succeed in this short time that I have with them to establish some sense of purpose with the free time that they have during the school holidays.
Making some adjustments to my own life seems to be necessary now that I will be away from home when my own food will be taken care of. Hey it's an opportune time for me to learn how to cook more dishes. Just last night I did prepare a fine dish of siakap masak masam manis which I am quite adept at making lately.

A Coffee Table For My Son's New House

2010-11-04T16:15:00.003+08:00

A Coffee Table For My Son's New House The completed table ready to be wrapped and sent to KL.

Azrin with his three children, Irsyad, Ayen and Syakirah

Yanie posing with a friend. The Black Merc belongs to her friend.

It was sometimes in August 2010 that my daughter in law Yanie made a posting in her Facebook that she will be moving into her new home in Subang Alam in Section 27 Shah Alam. I immediately responded by promising to give a coffee table which she could collect when she came back for the last Idulfitri. Unfortunately the table was not ready as the workshop that I commissioned to do was too busy doing other jobs including my own wakaf (gazebo).
It was only today that the final coat of white shellac was sprayed and was ready for collection.
The table top for the coffee table is a special piece of cengal wood measuring 18" x 43" carved with floral motives. This piece of wood is special in that I had purchased it some 20 odd years ago from my uncle in Kuala Lumpur. It was a surplus piece from those used to decorate the walls of the traditional houses in Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam Shah Alam. I remember paying my uncle some RM300 for that piece with a few other items made from wood. The piece had been in my keep without knowing when it will ever be used. So when we moved back from our previous home in Gua Musang, that piece of wood carving came along. Though I have never found a proper use for it, it was never the less safely tucked away in a corner. Our own furniture of mainly Indonesian Jati did not seem to allow for this gem to fit in anywhere.
The beautiful carving with a floral motif.

That was until my son bought his new house that there was space enough for a coffee table which I offered him for via Yanie's facebook posting. There was a snag though. He had ordered his new furniture in white even though they were made of Cengal, the king of Malaysian wood. He wanted furniture made of wood that will last but of white color. To me painting wood is against the spirit of wood especially when they are made of cengal whereby all the grain in the wood will be obscured.

In the case of the coffee table, I had to compromise. The body of the table will be painted with white shellac, while the table top with the floral carving will be stained with wood oil and covered with a piece of 8 mm glass. Thus the carving will remain the color of the wood with the spirit of wood intact.
The table will be delivered to my son's home when I next visit them after Yanie has delivered my ninth grandson in January 2011.
Today is Azrin's birthday. Happy birthday son.

Saving The Life of A Machine

2010-08-27T19:56:00.000+08:00

The two of us who are members of the Surau near our home was almost done with the vacuuming of the carpet in the small surau after the Friday Subuh prayers when the vacuum machine suddenly went quiet. We tried to restart the machine but it was to no avail. When I touched the body of the machine, it felt pretty hot. After letting it cool down we tried again after checking all the cables to see all the power supply was intact.We even changed the point from where the machine was plugged into. Since after such attempts were made the machine refused to come to life.
I took the machine home and told my wife that the machine ain't working anymore. It could be a burnt coil. Since we had been using the machine for several years already we thought the machine has had its day and called it quit. We decide to buy a new one the next day as we were going to Kota Bharu on Saturday. We will buy a similar model, a Panasonic by National. Since we are buying a new one, I decided to have a go with the machine and open it up to see what is wrong with it. Knowing that the worst that can happen is replacing the machine, I didn't have to worry if it will be good again or not.
There were not many visible screws to unscrew and the few that I saw were already out and yet the machine refused to be disemboweled. After further scrutiny I found a few more screws under a removable body part. Yet the machine can't be opened up. Using flat screw drivers I forced open a section of the body and suddenly I heard a small crack, indicating that a small part had given way to the force and broke up. Removing the piece I saw another single screw that needed to be opened before the whole machine can be opened. What a way to learn things by experimenting and relying on hunches.

The motor was removed and cleaned of dust.

At last I could open up the machine and was able to check the motor inside. Upon closer scrutiny, there was no visibility burning signs on the coil. That is a good sign, meaning a simple machine like a vacuum machine is not overly damaged if the coil is still intact. To confirm the coil is OK I called on my neighbour Chong who is an electrician and he confirmed my hunch that the motor is OK.
He suggested that I just clean up the dusts in the machine and fit them together again to try and start it up. Rebuilding became a bit of a problem as I had not really observed the steps I took when opening up. Since there were not many parts inside, I finally did manage to fit in all the screws and kept the wires inside intact.
It was music to my ears when upon switching it on, the motor whined. My wife grinned from ear to ear as we are saved several hundred ringgit if we were to buy a new machine. At least that expense will be delayed until much later when the machine will give up its last breath.
In our home I have managed to salvage many other electrical appliances like the electric irons, fans and vacuum cleaners because I dare to try and repair them first before throwing them away for good. Sometimes they were just mere dusts, broken wires or dry bearings that prevented them from function. Reconnecting broke wires, reapplying grease on bearings and removing dusts often bring them back to life. Not all were so easy though but some did. Those that did were really satisfying.
My sister in law's vacuum cleaner was not sucking much dust. She was contemplating buying a new one. When she told me of her problem, I opened up the dust compartment and sure enough the dust bag was choked up with years of all the things it was made to suck in. Her Electrolux vacuum cleaner is still serving her fine despite the many decades of being in service.
The moral of the story, don't rush into buying a new machine unless it is beyond repair. Such machines do need regular servicing to keep them in working condition. If it needs be, it must be brought to the service centers to have them professionally cleaned up. You will defintely be the winner

Landscape For The House

2010-08-21T07:43:00.001+08:00

The soft landscape that is the planting of flowers and shrubs around the house is my wife's domain. She will decide everything as to the choice of plants and the arrangement. Since she finds immense joy and satisfaction in doing it, I am only happy to watch. My only involvement is only for the occasional advice whenever she chooses to ask and other menial job which requires more muscular power such as re potting, moving the larger pots around and filling the larger pots with soil.
Of late I became more involved in the landscape work both the soft landscape and the hard landscape. Now I am more interested to produce some potted seedlings for sale to the local nursery. This I will dwell on in more detail in my future posts. For now I would like to share with you all some of the hard landscape projects which I did for the house.
Fatthiyah has been getting ideas for the hard landscape projects from such magazines as Laman or Anjung Seri which she buys regularly and read them from front to back. With quite a stack of sawn timber left over from our house renovation job which I have been reluctant to dispose off lest they become necessary later, Fatthiyah asked me to do something with it so as to reduce the pile from being used as rodent's nest or even worse from being used the breeding place for snakes.
The first project started off with the making of a simple fence using 2" x 2" wood as poles and nailed with 1" x 2" laterals.
To start off I will show you some of the tools I used for the job.

A Black & Decker folding bench, a Makita 7" hand held circular power saw (not really necessary for the first job but was used due to the fasting month where energy conservation is of paramount importance), a Sandvic cross cut saw, a hammer and some nails. The power drill is not in the picture but it was used to drill some holes before nailing the wood together. The wood being old and dry will split without the holes being drilled first.

This is how the wooden decorative fence look like after being given several coats of ICI's solar screen. This solarscreen product will keep the wood from rotting due to the constant exposure to water and sun.
Fatthiyah was so happy with it and pretty soon she came up with another idea albeit much more harder to do due to larger pieces of wood used. For this job I should be using at least 5" x 5" posts which I don't have. What I did was to use 2" x 5" pieces together to form a 4" x 5' blocks. For this job I am thankful that I have the hand held circular saw as it really helped me with the cutting of the larger pieces. The project is for a flower pot stand.

This is how the contraption looked like when completed. A flower pot will be placed on each posts which ranged in height from 12' to 24".

After several coats of solarscreen application, this is how it looks. So as not to waste space I placed some 2" x 2" rafters on the rack which could be used to place more pots.

The next project was my own project. It was a bench to complement the pseudo marble bench and table which I sometime use to work on my notebook whenever I want to be outdoor. Since the benches which came with the set were made of concrete, they were too heavy to move around and the distance was not conducive for working on a notebook when placed on the table.

A closer view of the wooden bench. The bench was later given a white coat of paint to ensure it will last longer and and make it aesthetically pleasing to the eye since it matches the colour of the other furniture.
The last project was another flower pot stand since I still have ample sawn timber left overs. This time it was for a three pot stand.

A flat piece to cover the post and provide a larger surface for the pots.

The rack after painting.

The three pots rack with flower pots placed on it.

With this idea why not do your own? They are really quite simple to do and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to do it. A saw, a hammer, some nails and some sawn timber are all that you need.

HEALTH IS WEALTH

2010-08-14T09:31:00.000+08:00

Being diagnosed with even a mild hypertension at an early age of 27 way back in 1977 wasn't a good prospect for my future life. Knowing it early was a blessing as I know what to do so as not to aggravate the ailment. The doctors told me to watch my diet, sleep well, watch my weight and above all exercise. All relevant points to note for all those afflicted with hypertension.
I led a pretty active life prior to 1997. Playing tennis to sweat it out was like a must in my daily life. Things changed when I became an internet junkie hooked on the internet relay chat or IRC. All those who had suffered the same malady as me will understand the situation. This addiction continued to the end of my working days that is till the end of 2005. Being a weekend husband who will only return to the family located 185 kms away provided the ultimate opportunity for me to stay online till the wee hours of the day. I know I was getting any healthier with that kind of life.
A change of lifestyle was needed. Though I can opt for another year of service, I prefer to retire just to be with my family and lead a new lifestyle.
It was time to regain my health. I need to sweat it out. My earlier investment of a step machine did not work as it was boring to work on. Fortunately I did not invest on a stationary exercise bike as it was just as boring. The mountain bike and all the other bicycles that I had just continued to collect dust.
I made a great mistake when I invested in a massage chair. Take my word that the massage chair is not the way to health. Fortunately my brother in law offered to buy the machine at a highly discounted price. Now it was time to look for another machine to help me to exercise.
Scouting the malls in Kota Bharu took me to fitness shops selling a multitude of exercise machines. The treadmills fascinated me. Nowadays only motorized treadmills are being sold so I won't be making the mistake of buying one that is not. The problem was how to make a choice. There were so many brands and specifications to choose from. Reebok, Gintel, Takashima and many others from Taiwan are available ranging in price from RM2,000 to RM6,000 which is the price range I am looking for. Some brands and models come with attractive freebies in the form of other fitness machines. The top of the line model from Gintel comes with a free massage chair.
After several look and see at the outlet, we finally decide to buy a Takashima due to the many models available with the specifications I had in mind.
Utmost in my mind is that the machine must be powered with a minimum of 2 HP motor. Anything below will not stand the vigorous use. Other specifications are the presence of built in programs for the workout, pliant board that will not stress my 60 years old feet (the heart maybe as old but you know the owner always feel it is younger than its chronological or physical age) and any other features will be a bonus.
The model we decided upon was Takashima Fitness 1 Advance series TK 551. Thanks to Fikry the sale staff who made the recommendation and put in an effort to make the sale.

Using the machine doesn't mean that I will get the look and shape of the model, but it is an inspiration to become one.

Reading the user manual helped me to understand better on how to use the machine because the sale staff may not know everything. One thing I learned is not to start the machine while you are standing on the board. Step on the board only after it has started moving as it will help the motor to have a longer life since it is not stressed. This was not told to me by the staff.

Trying out the F1 Advance at the outlet at KB Mall before making the purchase.

The sale staff with Fikry in the middle while Ramlah the KB Mall outlet head was busy preparing the necessary purchase orders.
A week later the delivery was made to my home. The delivery was within the two weeks promised.

The machine in it folded position for storage. As a comparison, the American made Reebok will just have the board folded and not the motor.
The console of the treadmill has a built in speaker and will accommodate an MP3 player or a hand phone. One of the program has a voice instruction accompanied with music. I prefer my house radio to keep me company.

The display monitor is large enough to show the time elapsed or remaining depending on the program, the speed in kmh. the distance in km, the pulse, the incline from 0 to 15 percent, the calories burned and program used.
The maximum load this machine can take is 120 kg. So if you are a fatso weighing over 120 kg, please get the Reebok which has a 3HP motor.
Thus far I have only done a maximum of 30 minutes walking a distance of 2 km. with a speed ranging fro a slow 2 kmh to a maximum of 7 kmh and an incline of 2 percent. That was more than enough to burn 70 calories off for a day and make me sweat. My maximum pulse rate is 135 beats per minute and I was told to not exceed the 150 beats being a 60 year old. They give you the chart as a guide on the maximum pulse that you should attain. A pull on the safety magnet switch will automatically switch off the machine and one end of the string to the switch must be attached to your apparel to ensure the machine will be cut off should a user fall from it.
Stretching is an important exercise to do before using the machine. The process will prepare your body for the strenuous exercise and prevent injury. Doing it after the exercise will help your body to cool down. Many people are reluctant to do this stretching exercise.

Since the exercise bike was given free, I made use of it if the wife happens to be using the treadmill at the same time. Actually we paid RM200 extra to get the bike of the model below. The one actually given free with the treadmill seemed too flimsy for our liking.

Since the doctor has advised my wife Fatthiyah to do some exercise and lose some weight, she was as eager as me to use the machine. Doing it together will definitely be more fun as the other will egg the other on to complete the programme.

The machine on its own will not do much to improve your health. Only by using it will it helps.
My aim now is to bring down my weight by 5 kg. I started off at 80 kg. With the fasting month on and a minimum of 3 times weekly 30 minutes workouts, InsyaAllah I will achieve it.

Hanafi Kasbi

2010-07-29T11:25:00.001+08:00

Although we both joined the same organization Felda after leaving the then College of Agriculture Malaya (now Universty Putra Malaysia) in 1972, our path has never crossed and thus we have never met.
Hanafi was not only a classmate in Serdang but he was also a groupmate. In Serdang term this is a group of ten person who will form the smallest unit for each year from a total of approximately 180 students. The formation was done by the College authority, Every activity will revolve around this unit for tutorials, sharefarm and many other activities within and without the college. It was a closely knit unit randomly chosen irrespective of race, sex, religion and state where we came from. A member of this group are like brothers and sisters. Even outings for satay Kajang in Kajang are made together after every disbursement of scholarship money by the College.
It was after some members namely Aziz Abu Hassan, Dato' Khalid Hassan and several others were planning a get together in August and another one in October 2010 that we started looking for all the members. Thanks to Facebook, things were made easier for us all to locate each other.
The biggest surprise came on 28th July 2010 when we were chatting on facebook and we enquired about each other's location. He dropped the bomb and told me that he had settled down in Kubang Kerian, Kota Bharu, kelantan since 2008, almost 3 years ago without any of our other classmates knowing it. Being a Selangorian, I thoght he must have settled down in Selangor at the very least. Who would have thought of him settling in Kelantan?
Since we are quite near with me staying just a across the Kelantan River, a meeting was in order and he agreed to come over to Pasir Mas at 3.00 PM.
He was supposed to come via the Tendong bridge to pick me up at my house before we proceed to an eatery famous for its Mee Udang. He came via the Jambatan Salor instead after missing the turn to the Jambatan Tendon which often happens to people not familiar with the area. If you were to follow the road sign to Pasir Mas, it will lead you to pasir Mas via the Salor Bridge.
He made a stop and called me for direction. Since the place where he stopped was close to the mee udang eatery, I told him to just stay there and give me time to meet him there.
It was impossible to talk much at the eatery as the place is located to close to the busy road. We finished our delicios plate of mee udang and proceeded to my house in Mekasar a distance of about 6 km on the other side of town.

We reminisced about old times especially about those times we were employed by Felda.
The best topic was about our classmates especially the group mates during our first year in Serdang. We recalled the other members of the group comprising of the only rose in the group Rokiah Yusoff from Terengganu, Mohd Hamzan Din from Negeri Sembilan, Taharin Shafie , Aziz Muhamad from Pahang, Sabundok Linggo from Sabah, Adzaudin bin Salleh from Kedah, Zainuddin Shamsuddin from Penang, Ali Abu Bakar and of course himself Hanafi Kasbi and myself Mohamad Zawawi Ahmad.
I related to him on how I met Sabundok Linggo in Bukit Bintang KL and after telling him who I was, we parted as complete strangers as he couldn't recall much of our time together in Serdang way back in 1969.
As to Hanafi he remarried a Kelantanese since the demise of his wife some ten years ago due to breast cancer, an incurable disease that has been inflicting the female gender. I guess Kelantan will be his home and he will settle here for good. It is normal for non Kelantanese to SKMK, Sampai Kelantan Mesti Kawin and Saya Kahwin Mek Kelantan. In Hanafi's case he married the Mek Kelantan while they were based in Kuantan where they met.

Korea - The Final Part

2010-07-23T21:48:00.001+08:00

Seoul-Ho Chi Mink City-Kuala Lumpur

This was the final night we are spending in Seoul, Korea. The hotel Stay 7 where we are putting up is located on an island which bears many similarities with Manhattan Island in USA. One similarity is it being the business district of Seoul and thus it is also known as Manhattan and there is even Manhattan hotel beside our Stay 7 Hotel.
Since we checked in at almost 9 PM at the hotel and we will be checking out very early the next day, I didn't really have much time to explore the area around the hotel and thus couldn't write much about the area.
The next day we checked out at 7 AM without any breakfast at the hotel as we usually do. Breakfast was arranged at another restaurant en route to the airport. This quite convenient it seems.

Early morning pose infront of the hotel.

Then we rode the bus to the place breakfast. Since we have collected some money among us to tip the helper Mr. Jeung, Tuan haji Shafie was elected to present the gift. I doubt anyone knows how much was collected as we just passed the plastic bag around.

It was a Korean breakfast for us mainly comprising of kimchi and seaweed which I managed to down them all. A half boiled egg and some bread brought by Lucy the tourist guide helped those who can't take the Korean original dish.

On the shelves inside the restaurants are some souvenir samples that can be bought at the shop below. Now I know why we were made to stop at this restaurant. It was the last stop where we could finish our Korean Won or US dollars that we had on us. For those who still need a few more souvenirs to take home, this is the last chance though the price marked were definitely highly marked up. This is a good tactic and Malaysia should emulate it to extract the last bit of money from travellers before they depart for their next destination.
I found this beautiful kitchen knife which was priced at a hefty USD 35.00 an amount I could easily pay for a Victorinox. Well since we have quite a bit of unspent budget, we bought it. The knife is beautiful to look at as well as very sharp.

We bought a 24 carat plated plate with the Korean symbol.

It has found a place among our collection of plates.

We landed at Ho Chi Minh City airport.

A local tourist guide took us in a bus to our hotel.

A beautiful Pagoda along the way.

Poster of what is showing at the movies. This shows the film industry in Vietnam is still thriving.

Instead of taking us direct to the hotel, we were taken to a shop selling all sort of food. The main item was coffee. I recalled reading somewhere that not all Vietnam coffee is halal because some people roasted the bean in lard. I told my other half about it but she seemed to pooh pooh what I said. I abstained from drinking the coffee and had tea instead. She loves coffee and tasted her Vietnam coffee and fortunately she did not buy any to take home seeing that I wasn't drinking it despite my love for coffee.
Later somebody told her that Vietnam coffee are like the 'kopi musang' in Indonesia where the best coffee comes through the backside of the musang. That I concurred and made her angry that i did not tell her earlier. Hey didn't I try to caution her?

There were all sort of things they tried to sell to our group but not many of us were interested as many of us had already decided on what things to buy at Ben Than market.
We checked in into our hotel.
Tan hai Long Hotel is quite close to Ben Than Market and all we need is to walk to it.
The hotel room is cosy and the internet connection is good and free.
Some of the ladies wanted to buy 'telekong' (prayer robefor ladies). For that we were taken on a very short unnecessary bus ride. I guess the tour guide wanted to mislead into thinking that the place was far from the hotel and thus we would not be able to go on our own. Going on our own will mean cutting off his commission, a real necessity for him in this business.
While waiting for the wife to buy the 'telekung', there was a sudden electrical outage in the area. Then suddenly we saw some outlets bringing out standby generators. Such power failures seems to be a normal thing in Vietnam or at leat in Ho Chi Minh City.
A 14 year old girl was accosting me to buy some beautiful fans. She was selling them at USD10 for 10. Though I didn't want to buy them, she was persistent and hang around me like a lost cat. I tried to get her to go by taking a picture of her which she avoided by opening the fan across her face.

Sensing that she could make me buy her items by letting me take her picture, she brought the fan down. Ain't she pretty?

We walked back to the hotel. on the way we stopped at Ben Than market. There are lots of things you can buy in the market. make sure you stop there when you are in Saigon. This is how the market look from afar.

Dinner that night was again at the 4 Season restaurant, a restaurant operated by the Champa Malays. Told you the food there was so so.

That night it was another round of shopping at the street market around the Ben Than market close to the hotel. Some of the stalls were at the doorsteps of the hotel at the back entrance.

Here the other half is buying some T shirts for the male family members. price are cheap and the quality acceptable though the brands are obviously fake.

Initially we bought the yellow wooden container. Later when it was almost closing time, your truly was made to rush down to buy the more colorful one to make a pair.

This is how the city look at night near the hotel.

Pretty paintings on hotel walls. How I wish I could explore the city for such art work. Saigon is city with many talented artists, only one must know where to go.

We were up quite early the next day. We were checking out after having breakfast at the hotel. While waiting for our bus to coma, we spent sometime at the free internet station available at the hotel lobby. Below Aizat and his mum were using the internet too. They almost missed the flight home as his father Mohamad Yusoff had ofted to use the safety deposit box provided in our room to keep their passport. The box refused to open up and the hotel could not assist them despite calling for an expert. They had to wait for the supplier in Bangkok to come into office to give further instruction. Later a master password was received from Bangkok and they managed to open the box. They had to take a taxi to the airport as the bus could not wait for them. Luckily they were still in time to catch the flight home.

As usual the roads in saigon is teeming with motorbikes.

The wearing of safety helmets is now mandatory in Vietnam. hence you can see them being sold by the roadside.
Coffee corners are available around the city for breakfast. locals have their breakfast there before going to work.
The parks are used for recreation and exercise by the locals.
Finally our Tour Leader Norma representing POTO Travel and Tours Sdn Bhd, thanked the group for travelling wiith the company.

Pak Zawi slouching on a bench while waiting for the flight home. Though tiring, we did enjoy this trip to Korea which included stop overs in Saigon.

Thank You Google

2010-07-23T16:40:00.000+08:00

Thank you Google for giving me back my blog LAISI.
The admin at Google believed me after I have made several more reports. They allowed me to reset my password and now I have my blog again to carry on posting new stories.
I have yet to check my Gmail and I am sure it is accessible again.
I had given up all hope and told them to just cancell both the email and the Blog. Lucky thing they are also people who feels for people like us.
You are really wonderful people at Google.
In the meantime I have already set up another blogsite also by the same name of LAISI but with a different URL. I am in the process of copying all the posts from this site to the new site. I guess i will be maintaining both sites and making posts at both sites just to be sure that should one go down again, there is the other one to be used. So dear readers, you can use either one and you will still be able to read my posts.
Now I am feeling rejuvenated and will be making new posts with much gusto.
Again I want to thank you people at Google.

Korea Part 2

2010-06-30T12:40:00.002+08:00

I haven't mentioned the mosque in Seoul. This mosque is the centre for the Moslem enclave in Seoul. For the whole of Korea there are about 35,000 Moslems. This mosque in Seoul is located near another Moslem retaurant where we came for our dinner. The mosque is perched on a small hill and we had to walk slowly past it to reach the restaurant.

For the second day our itinerary was the much waited visit to Nami Island in Gangwon Province. The island was made famous by the television series Winter Sonata. It is popular even among Malasysians.
Before the departure we had breakfast at the hotel. For the first time I tasted Korean food and I fell in love with kimchi, which is cabbage pickled with chilli. I had some cerals and toasts too for good measure.

Beside kimchi, sea weeds and mushrooms are the other ingredient that I could identify.

Tuan Haji Shafie was caught buttering his toast.

Some of the ladies will not leave the hotel without having their photograph taken in front of it.
The ride to Nami Island was a good ride. There wasn't much incline for the bus to negotiate as many tunnels were built where hills were involved.
Though subways are available at about 12 meters underground, Korea is set to be underground highways at 60 meters deep. Did you hear that?
We reached the jetty at Nami Island. Since we were on a package tour, we did not need to buy the ticket which be considered as the Visa to enter the Republic of Nami.

Since you need a Visa to get there, you have to pass the immigration checkpoint where you have to show your ticket to the staff on duty.

The ferry to Nami Island has standing room only since the ride is only less than 10 minutes. Fortunately the idea to build a bridge to the island was scrapped as it would only lead to pollution. The only vehicle allowed on the islands are electric powered vehicles or mechanical contraption that require leg muscles to propel it.

A briefing about Nami Island upon arrival. We were told that the grave of General Nami after whom the island is named, is found on the island.

Not far from the jetty we saw a group of people in traditional costumes making offerings to the dead.

They were singging while accompanied to drum beats and a few other traditional instruments.

Lucy has decided that those couples in the group must make some form of proposal to their spouse. There were 5 couples in the group but only two couples were game enough to do it. One of the two couples is of course Pak Zawi and his wife Fatthiyah. The rest of the group were witnesses to the proposal. In Pak Zawi's proposal he gave Nami Island to his wife.

There is a 6 star hotel on Nai Island. It is the only 6 star hotel without any television in the hotel. After waiting foralmost a year for it's rating from the Korean Tourism Authority without any response, the hotel management decided to award itself with a 6 star rating.

The hotel reception is set some distance away from the hotel thus guests staying at the hotel will not be bothered by people making room enquiries or when checking in.

The hotel from a distance.

There were lots of sculptures on the island. My guess is that these works of art were made from whatever remnants of construction left on it.
This one is made of wood.
While this one is made of steel plates.

The most photograph picture on the island is of course of the actor Bae Yong Jun and actress Choi Ji Woo. Most people would sit on the bench and be photographed against the backdrop of the actor and actresses.
In real life Bae Yong Jun was once a little Mafia terrorising the neighbourhood children. He changed his ways after gaining popularity as an actor. As a form of repentece, he employed the very people that he had bullied during his youth.

If you can't afford the 6 star hotel on Nami Island, you can always sleep in this thached igloo like huts available not far from Nami Island Hotel.

Beside electric bicycles and tri cycles available for hire on the island, there are also quadcycles available. See how eco friendly is tourism in this Republic.

By noon we were done with Nami Island. While waiting for the ferry ride to the mainland, we did or Zohor and Asar prayers near the jetty.
A short bus ride took us to a Korean Restaurant for lunch. It was authentic Korean lunch and instead of grilled chicken we were served grilled fish with rice to ensure a truly halal meal. The restaurant owner and our local guide was so happy since we enjoyed the food served there. The restaurant owner was overjoyed when I mentioned in Korean 'Ma Sit Sum Ni Da' meaning 'It is delicious' some Korean words I picked up from the travel phamplets.
After another long bus ride, we reached our hotel The Songtan Tourist Hotel loacated in Gyonggi-do Pyeongtaek City.

I like this hotel as it is quite comfortable with free internet connection. If you have no broadband cable, you can ask from the counter with a 3000 won returnable deposit. From now onward, I will not forget to bring along such a cable when I have my laptop with me on my travel.

For dinner, Lucy Kim the local guide had arranged for us the Japanese seafood restaurant.

This is what we had, some crabs, cuttle fish and whatever else to be shared among the four of us sitting crosslegged around this low table. Noticeably absent is the loctopus tentacles to be swallowed live as an authentic Japanese food.

Since there was ample time before breakfast is served at 7 AM, I took a walk around the hotel area to sample part of Pyeongtaek City.

Sign of the French influence in Korea, a French bakery.

I saw workers cleaning up the streets after a street market the night before. Look, the workers had to run to keep up with the vehicles which moved ahead to the next pick up point. That way no time is lost for the workers to hitch on the vehicle since it was a short distance away.

les Vity taxis waiting for customers. Luxurious Koreans vehicles were used.

This street was a busy street market in the evening.

Hang Ten, the brand that I used to wear when I was living in Labis Johor in the 70's. The material is of a very good quality.

Free newspapers on a lamp pole.

A luxury car parked so close to the railway line. I guess this line is not in use anymore.

Branded goods.
By 7 AM I was back for breakfast at the hotel. Lucy Kim told us that in Korea labour is scarce and we have to send our used dishes after use. Non of us remembered to do that and Lucy reminded us after that.
Labour (cheap labour) is scarce in Korea. In all of Korea only about 30,ooo expatriates are available. Compare that to the millions that we have in Malaysia.

Lucy Kim, our guide and Pae Yun Jun, her assistant cum cameraman, joined us for breakfast. Pae used to work elsewhere before earning about 1.7 million Won (equivalent to RM5,000) a month which is a very low income in Korea and will not be sufficient to make ends meet.

I saw a stair leading up to the hotel rooftop so I sneaked up to shoot some photograph and video of the city from the roof top.

Before boarding the bus for our visit to Everland theme park, I saw these 3 girls from our group posing for the camera. We the elderly were perflexed as to what they were doing. They were making the heart sign as a symbol of love with their hands.
Everland, here we come! This guy was directing our bus to head for the bus parking lot quite a distance away. Only cars were allowed to be parked near the entrance to the park. From the bus parking areas, shuttle busses will take us to the entrance.

Queeing to ride the shuttle bus.

The main entrance to the park.

A huge colorful tree greeted us upon entering the main entrance. Upon checking, the tree was a synthetic tree so the colors will remain throughout the four seasons.

Any way the flowers in the planter box at the base of the tree are real flowers.
The first thing we were shown was the landmark building where we must gather at 1.30 PM at the end of the visit to the park.

We rode the cable cars to get down to the area where the action is.

The highest roller coaster as seen from the cable cars. This roller coaster is of course not recconmended for the faint hearted elderly people like me.
We took another bus ride to visit the zoo within the park compound. Unlike our Zoo Negara, the animals here are not caged up. They have ample space to roam like they do in nature. Only difference is that they are fed.

Some Siberian Tigers.
Beside the tigers we saw some bears, lions, girrafe and elephants. The most exciting was of course the ligers which was a cross between the Lion and the tiger.
Next we were taken on a water ride which simulate the raft ride on a fast flowing river of the Amazon. It was quite fun. Before we were allowed to see the rest of the park on our own, we were taken to see a 3D movie. The characters seemed to come close at us as if they were the real thing and our bodies moved in tune to the movement on the screen.It was an experience that first timers like me enjoyed immensely.

Waiting to enter the 3D cinema hall.
Then we were free to roam on our own. Since no lunch were provided, we had to survive onwhatever we carried in our lunch pack. Most of us brought along instant mee in cups where only hot water need to be added to give us instant noodles.

The cascading water wall.

The Four Seasons Garden in full bloom.
The rose garden near where we had some bread for lunch and did our Zohor and Asar prayers to the stares of passerbys.
There is alot more to see and experience in Everland but being a hot day, we now crave to be back in our air conditioned bus to head back to Seoul City.
We did not head directly to our hotel but instead we were taken to another part of Seoul for abit more shopping while waiting for an early dinner at the restaurant near to the mosque in the top picture above.
It was already dark when we checked in at our hotel. My friend David had come to the hotel earlier and the reception had told him that our group would be checking in at 9.00 PM. By a twist of fate the lift we were in didn't stop at my floor and we somehow were brought back to the lobby and when the lift door opened, there I saw David talking to the receptionist. My one wish to meet David Ritchie in person in Seoul was fullfilled. After sending my wife to our hotel room, David and me adjourned for a cup of coffee at Starbuck not far from hotel Stay Seven where we were to stay for the night.
While surfing for more information about Winter Sonata, I was shocked to learn from the internet that Park Yong-Ha another actor who shot to fame from the TV series Winter Sonata was found dead from an apparent suicide at his mothers home in Seoul some 2 hours ago.

To Whom It May Concern

2010-06-25T12:48:00.000+08:00

The banner that says 'Do you wait for a by election then only you overcome the people's problem'

The section of the road is covered with some plastic sheet.

Both ends of the road are designated as no entry but those living along the road still use it non the less. What choice have they?

On a biking ride around Pasir Mas 2 days ago I was curious to find out how bad was the part section of the road along the Kelantan River bank that caved in several months ago. I have not used that road ever since the cave in since that road was made a no entry to all vehicles. This road was a favorite for those who want to escape the jam in town during a holiday.
When I came to the section I saw the above banner that reflects the feeling of those people living along that stretch of road. Yes the helplessness of it as no remedial work was done to rebuild that section of the road to make it reusable again or at least prevent further cave in when the monsoon comes again at the end of the year.
I will not dwell on the cause of the cave in. some says it was due to the extensive sand mining going on along the length of the Kelantan river while others say the substandard work on the interlocking steel piling could be the cause. For those who doesn't know, along the length of the river, interlocking steel piles were driven into the soil and the top was set in concrete to prevent erosion to the river bank during the monsoon season. Such causes are mere speculation as no such report has been made public.
The message in Bahasa Melayu was subtle and was meant for the people in authority to do something. No specific authority was mentioned be it the local authority, the State Government or the Federal Government. From the wordings I guess anyone will do as long as it gets done. It seems that a by election is the best thing to happen as immediate allocation and approval seems to be available as happened previously in the country's recent history. A case in mind is the Sibu by election whereby more than RM37 million was promised and partly disbursed. Well it maybe a different scenario here as the one in Sibu was purported to be allocated far in advance before the by election. Maybe the authorities that be has the foresight that a by election was pending.
I guess a similar allocation should be made available for this constituency be it by the State or Federal as the people along this stretch of road must have been praying for a by election to occur as soon as possible by whatever means. Short of saying that divine intervention as most welcome, a resignation by one of the two representative be it the state or the parliament will do as fine.
Thank God no life was lost in the mishap. Must we wait for lives to be lost before something is done?

Korea Part 1

2010-06-21T10:21:00.000+08:00

The plan to tour Korea has been mooted some six months ago. We were undecided on whether to do Korea during the spring, summer, autumn or winter. All the seasons seems to be alluring with their own pluses and cons. Since the latest school holiday was in early summer and our favorite travel agent POTO Travel have scheduled a tour for the school holiday beginning on 5th June 2010, we decided to go at that time. Though we have booked our tour early, POTO Travel didn't seem to put on their priority list and we did not make to the list that was supposed to depart on the 5th of June 2010. That package was over booked. Their personnel told us there was another group going on the 6th of June but the number wasn't enough. As luck would have it, the travel company didn't manage to secure airline seats for the tour beginning on the fifth and some of the members were put on the tour that begins on the 6th of June whose airline seats was confirmed.
The change on dates from the 5th to the 6th of June scuttled my other airline flight from Kota Bharu to KL on the 5th and also the return on the 11th of June using Firefly airlines. I bought another ticket with MAS for the me and my wife leaving KB on the 5th and returning on the 11th intending to foregone the tickets purchased with Firefly Air. Again luck intervened when upon checking my purchase of airline tickets with Firefly was on pending status. They seemed to have problems charging the ticket costs to my credit card which MAS didn't seem to encounter. That saved me some money.

We were at KLIA early on the 6th of June even though our flight out via Vietnam Air was scheduled at 2.30 PM and we were advised to be at the airport at the latest by 12.00 noon. Our daughter who lives and work in Labuan was on the way home and would transit in KLIA at 10.30 AM. So we had a bit of time to meet her and her 2 year old daughter Balkis.
The tour to Korea was via Vietnam Air and we were to have a stopover in Saigon which is now known as Ho Chi Minh City. Initially we thought this was a good arrangement as we could do a short tour of HCMC which we have never done yet. It will also provide us with and opportunity to stretch our legs before the longer trip from HCMC to Incheon.
A bus picked us up at the airport upon arrival and we were whisked to a lacquerware factory where the disabled were employed. We did our bit for charity by purchasing beautiful laquerware products all tagged in USD.Here my other half did our bit for charity fearing that we may not be able to visit the place on the return trip. Since we brought along some Vietnam Dongs and some USD, making purchases was no problem.
The next stop in HCMC was at the General Post Office, an old colonial building built by the French which sits next to a cathedral built by the same colonialists and named what else but The Notre Dame to remind them of the one in Paris. On the day that we were there, there were many couples who were married there and were busy taking photographs in front of the cathedral.
The General Post Office built by the French.
This building not only function as a post office but the huge interior was used to sell souvenirs. They surely knows how to extract tourist monies.
In the midst of Saigon there are wooded parks where people come to rest and do some recreations. In our own countries such parks would be targeted for development by heartless greedy businessmen abetted by corrupt officials and politicians.

For dinner we were taken to Four Seasons Restaurant, a halal restaurant operated by some Champa Malays originally from Cambodia. The staffs there have mastered the Malay language due to either the frequency of visits by Malaysians or they may have worked in Malaysia before. I would rate their food as so,so, nothing out of the world, just good enough to placate our hunger.
Dinner at Four Seasons Saigon.

Then we proceeded to the local mosque located beside the Saigon Sheraton Hotel for our Maghrib prayers which we did together with the Isyak. So if you want to be close to the mosque and be near a halal place to eat, stay at Sheraton Hotel as the restaurant Halal@Saigon is just on the opposite side of the road. Halal@Saigon is operated by a couple from Perlis, Malaysia.
After the prayers we requested to go direct to the airport to rest and have access to better restroom facilities. Saigon was well decorated with colorful lights to make the city look beautiful at night.
When we finally boarded our flight to Korea, we were quite happy as finally we could have some rest and probably some shut eye to prepare for tomorrows tour which will start immediately after touch down at Incheon Airport.
At 4.30 AM we were woken up from much needed sleep when the cabin crew started serving breakfast. Though the food was welcome, we prefer to have more sleep.

Upon alighting from the plane we saw this huge wall picture of beautiful Korea. What a way of opening our eyes to their country.

Lucy Kim

We were met at the airport and boarded the bus. The tour guide for Korea was Lucy Kim. A very knowledgeable guide who could spew information interspersed with funny anecdotes that kept us mesmerized and ease our uneasiness over the need for a morning bath.
Some information from Lucy Kim.
1. Fifty percent of Koreans are named Kim.
2. The Incheon area has a tidal difference of 10 meters (The difference between the highest and the lowest tide). The second biggest in the world after Alaska.
3. The road to Incheon has one of the highest toll at the equivalent of RM40.00 with the aim of the prevention of vehicle congestion and also due to the road being a private financial initiative.
4. Along the way into Seould city, we were shown the garbage hill that rise to 90 meters hill after 30 years of filling. There is a chimney on it to harvest the gas produced which is used for heating and generating electricity.
After that she went into the history of how the 38th parallel became the divider between North and South Korea. From that point onward I lost my interest to jot down my notes.
Suddenly I was all ears when she mentioned the reasons why Koreans eat dog. During the difficult times Koreans had to eat clay to prevent themselves from going hungry. Due to clay consumption they had to suffer acute constipation. So to them dogs are just another animal that can provide them with much needed protein. No wonder you don't find many strays or even non stray dogs around.
Soon the Korean government will classify dog as food to prevent illegal beating to death of the animal for their meat. Once so classified, the dogs must be slaughtered in more humane ways as done with other animals for their meat.

Further more beautiful sceneries are always a distraction to me compared to the history of a place. Along the way we saw beautiful flowering plants being used as landscape. Unless I could touch them, I tend to doubt that they are real flowers but the benefit of the doubt is more on them as being real plants.
We stopped by near an imposing building with a blue roof against a backdrop of a nude hill. It is the Blue House, which is the Presidential Palace. It appears that Korean Presidents don't harbor building new expensive palaces as usually happened in some developing countries.
Actually our stop there was for toilet stop before we visit an old palace called Gyeongbokgung where the royal family used to live.

At the time of our arrival workers were replacing the flowering plants with new ones as a beautification program.

See how beautiful they are.

Before we proceed with the tour, we had a group photograph in front of this beautiful building. Climbing the steps to the building seems to be a temptation but we were too tired for such an activity. Later the tour guide commented that our group is a group who are always tired. What can I say as some of us have already breached the 50th birthday a couple of years earlier.

Pak Zawi is the one wearing the orange Firefly cap.

Inside the palace we were given a briefing by our tourist guides. The briefing was about the history of the palace. Personally I have never met a tourist guide who is as professional as Lucy Kim in Malaysia. She has all the information at her fingertip. I guess she is well trained and very experienced. Her mastery of the English language is commendable. Something our own guides lack in.

Massive wooden column that have withstood the test of time.
Is this the throne room?

Or is it this one?
The intricate design

Another imposing building in the complex.
At the end of the palace tour, our group was brought into the city proper for lunch at a halal restaurant not far from a Mosque. We were told that there are 35,000 Moslems in Korea.
I was happy with the Indian food.
Now it is time for some shopping. I can't resist the temptation of photographing this fountain in the middle of an intersection close to where we were dropped. We were given ample time to shop at two shopping areas close to each other. Or prefered choice was of course the Namdaemum Market which are made up of open air stalls along many streets in the heart of the city. These street stalls were purported to be operating for 24 hours daily.

Before splitting into smaller groups we were reminded to remember this shopping complex as the landmark to where we should gather at the end of the stipulated time. Shinsegae is a name to is known to most the 12 million inhabitants of Seoul. To help us remember, Lucy Kim told us to think of a gay sinseh and pronounce the words sinseh gay. Later I did a test and a Korean immediately pointed the way to the place.

The Shinsegae is one of the earliest shopping centers to be established in Seoul.

Along the way to the shopping areas we saw this handicapped persons busking using minus ones. I didn't contribute to him as I didn't have small change on me and wanted to do it on the return trek. We didn't come back via the same route and we missed our bit for charity.

This is just one of the streets and there are many streets like this. You could easily be carried away if you were to wander as your heart fancy. So remembering the landmark building Shinsigae is a must if you were to find your way back to the meeting point.

The stalls selling brooches and other accessories were the favourite among the mostly ladies member of the group. The minority male members had to endure the hot confined areas where the booths were set up. The ladies of course took their time to make their purchases. Most brooches cost Korean Won 5000 (approx RM15) which is definitely a bargain compared to the prices once it reaches Malaysian shores.
With the shopping finally done for the day, we boarded the bus again to get to our hotel.
After almost two days without a bath, most of us can't even bear our own smell. It is time for a good bath.

The Hotel Seoul Leisure where we stayed is located at

302-13 Bulgwang 2-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, South Korea
http://www.slhotel.co.kr/

That is the rate for breakfast at the hotel. An American breakfast is about RM30 per head.

The room alloted to me was so huge with 2 beds. The bathroom is extremely large with a jacuzzi which I didn't manage to use. Above all I like the internet connection which was free as is with most of the other hotels that we stayed in including the one in Saigon on the last day of the tour. If there is no broadband cable available in the room, you can ask for one at th.e counter and you will be given one after a refundable deposit of 3000 Korean Won is paid.
We were taken by bus for dinner to the same area near the mosque in Seoul. Some of the members opted not to go and have their own meals in their room. Most are tired.
Upon returning to the hotel, I walked some length of the street near the hotel for some window shoppings and see some street vendors that set up business at night selling T shirts and fruits.

A walk around the hotel in the morning before breakfast I caught on camera some of these sights.

A Pizza School?

New pavements with the work area properly enclosed ensuring safety to passersby which is never a criteria in our own country.

Clean sidewalks although the night before street vendors plied their trade there. In the country where I came from heaps of rubbish is the norms as a sign that street vendors had used the place earlier.

A bicycle shops displaying their wares.

More displays from the windows on the upper floors.

Only this much for the First Part. More to come later. So please come back if you like what I am writing about Korea.

Old Shop Houses Gutted By Fire In Pasir Mas

2010-06-13T17:18:00.000+08:00

The picture below was taken on 7th June 2008 and when I posted it in my blog, Tommy Yew said he love these prewar buildings as they were made of wood and have their own soul. Well last night, these shop houses were gutted by fire and they are no more there. They were a row of shops selling groceries, gold, opticals and a kopitiam.

In front of the corner shop is where traditional medicine paddlers performs to sell their products. After this, they may have to find another site to carry on as they may become out of bound to them due to danger and later maybe to give way for reconstruction work.
This picture shows us what remains.

On the night of the 12th June I pass by the area at 8.00 PM on the way to my sister's house for dinner. A while later while sitting down for dinner a part of the town had a blackout and we had to carry on the dinner with lights from the candles. Lights only came on at about 9.30 PM. By then we had finished dinner and by 10 PM we drove by again to return home. Nothing happened yet by then.
It was only the next morning that a friendly shopkeeper in town told me about the fire. So I went home to take my camera.

The above picture has the backdrop of The banguanan Serangkai Mas. This building escaped being gutted. In the olden days the building was a busy market and was gutted down by fire. A new modern market was rebuilt on the site but again it was gutted by fire and the final rebuilding based on the same basic foundation and structure, the building was converted into shopping lots and no more a market.

This brick wall with graffiti left intact is what remains of the kopitiam. The backdrop is against a block of concrete building belonging to a former classmate of mine by the name of Mr. Lee Kew Pee.
He has just added the Pana Shop adding to the list of many electronic brand names he has in his stable. The fire spread to the upper floors of his shops through air wells located at the back of the buildings. The swiflets being reared on the top floor must have perished in the fire.
Only the lowest floors were left intact but damage due to the fire brigades hoses may affect some of them.

Till noon, the firemen were still seen monitoring the situation.
It seemed that a worker who lives on the upper floor of one of the shoplots may have used candles to lit up her place when the blackout happened. It maybe the candle was the cause of the fire. Anyway the lady who lives alone on the upper floor managed to jump down with some cuts on her head and some dislocated joints. Anyway these are mere speculations.
Being able to survive such a fire is definitely a lucky thing for her.

Here we can see Mr Lee pensively looking at his worker sweeping the water and dirt from the floor. He is waiting for the adjusters to come and make the official assessment as to his loss which will be covered by his insurers. Only his loss of business till he can reopen his shops for business again will be his actual loss.
Thank God no one perished in this fire.

Korea My First Destination For This Year

2010-06-05T16:45:00.000+08:00

I am going for a short holiday to Korea. The flight from KLIA will be at 2.30 PM with a stopover in Saigon. After a few days in Korea the return flight will include an overnight stay in Saigon.
The highlight of the trip to Korea will be a meeting with my friend David in Seoul. Though it maybe just a short meeting, it will be meaningful as it will be our second meeting after David visited Kelantan sometimes last year.
Rest assured I will be blogging about the trip like I used to do for my European stint.
My apologies to all of you for not making any post after my last post which was some three weeks ago.
To my friend David, see you in Korea.

A Pergola Anyone?

2010-05-05T10:52:00.003+08:00

From reading the many local landscape magazines, we decided to have a pergola for our diminishing garden. We used to have a pretty large garden but slowly it was built up with larger car porch and awnings. Anyway there was still space for a pergola and we decided to have one.

This is how the pergola looks after being completed.

The pergola was ordered from a local wooden frame maker not far from the house. Though the order was made in November 2009, we have requested the delivery to be made in April 2010 because I was engaged in doing the other job on the house.
The pergola we ordered was of the size of 10ft x 10 ft x 6 ft from post to post. The long beam will be of 14 ft with an overhang of 2 feet on either side. The rafters are of 9 ft with an overhang of 1.5 ft. The posts are 6 in x 6 in x 8 ft cengal wood, the best heavy hardwood available while the beams are 2" x 6" x 14 ft and rafters 2" x 5" x 9 ft 'cengkawan' (merawan?) wood. This wood is as good as cengal.

The site before the stucture was erected.

When the pergola was ready, I prepared the site by making the concrete footings for the wooden posts.

The holes are filled up with concrete and a metal piece of 2" x 18" length is placed with a 6 in protrusion and left to set. Two holes of 12 mm diameter were drilled in place.
The supplier brought the materials and fixed them up. It took the 2 workers and his boss some 4 hours to fix.

This is how it looks from one end. my wife Fatthiyah has placed her flower pots around and some were hang on the beams. Soon we will be planting some grape plants to crawl on top of the rafters. I heard that there are marcotted grape seedlings available in Kota Bharu on Friday morning.
All in all it cost us less than RM2,000 to have this structure to decorate our garden.
The next project will be a wooden wakaf to sit beside the pergola. That project will come in October.
Who says pergolas are expensive to build?

Son, Thank You For The Help

2010-04-04T09:40:00.001+08:00

I would like to dedicate this blog to my son Azuan. He took a week leave just to help me with my renovation work on the house.
I have been contemplating hiring a helper to do the next phase of house renovation. The next phase involved the laying of about 40 feet of 4 in diameter UPVC pipe for the outlet of the HDPE septic tank. This pipe is important in order for the new septic tank to function. it will only function properly if the outlet is able to drain off the overflow after the WC is used. Since the water collecting pond is located at the back of the house, the pipe must be laid in a trench to be dug up in an alley barely 24 inches wide. The width of the trench is only 6 inces wide and vary in depth from 14 inces at the outlet to 24 inches at the collecting pond. Only cangkul and penggali can be used for this job.
Unfortunately a helper is hard to come by in my area. Those who are available are either too lazy or too weak to work or they are drug addicts. So I have no choice but to slog on on my own.
It was a great feeling when I saw a text message from my second son Azuan inquiring whether I need him to help with my work. Of course I do, I shot back to him and immediately called him to find when he could be back.
He had read my blog about the injury to my right knee. He said he can approach his boss for a week leave based on compassionate ground to help me to complete my job. He showed his boss my blog and his leave was approved.
The wound healed well. The sutures were later removed.

He came back and helped me with the digging of the trench.
See how cramped is the work area.

While I dug with the cangkul, Azuan will move the spoils to the other side.

Some section which was concreted had to be broken down with a jack hammer. Thanks to an influx of china made power tools, such tools are affordable and can easily last the duration of a job. For RM350 ringgit, such a tool is really worth the money spent.
Azuan back filling the trench after the UPVC pipe was laid. The pipe on the wall is a drain pipe.

The job is done and Azuan asked me to pose for this picture.

Later Azuan helped me with the work on the second restroom.

All the old fixtures were removed from the restroom including the pedestal WC.
For Azuan's benefit since he didn't get to stay back till the new restroom was completed, here are some photos of the room.
New tiles were laid. we chose this pink tiles with subtle flower motif on it.

The new look of the restroom.
The red hot wash basin.
Sticker of flowers bought at Shah Alam Pasar Tani. Since they come cheap, it doesn't matter if they won't last. I can always replace them.
Azuan, thank you for the help. Without your help, it would have taken me longer to complete the job.

God Has Answered Our Prayers!

2010-03-11T09:12:00.000+08:00

As if in answer to our prayers, it rained early this morning. When there was light enough I went out to check for the sign of rain, sure enough there were puddles of water on the road. Around 8.00 AM it rained again and I was able to snap some photos to capture the scene.
After being deprived of rain for so long, this light drizzle is bliss not only to us human beings but also to plants and animals. I can see the wet leaves which seemed to be smiling after being wet by the rain. The slight drizzle has cleaned up the leaf surface of dust thus opening up it's stomatal opening for easier intake of carbon dioxide from the air and the relese of oxygen much needed by others. The birds are singing and chirping in joy too. They too must have felt the heat of the weather.

The falling rain cascading from my awning.

Puddles of water on the road indicating the amount of rain was quite substantial.

The overcast sky indicating that there is more to come.

The look of joy on the leaves of the mango tree.
Let us hope more rain will come as the padi field in some areas in Pasir Mas as well as some of the wells in the area. Those who depends on the well for water, life must have been hard for them. Those of us who were using piped water could sense the low water pressure and was anticipating the tap to dry up soon.
Fortunately God has answered our prayers to provide us with some relief.

The New LAISI

2010-03-04T19:08:00.002+08:00

I failed to edit my posts at my old site Life As I See It... or LAISI. As such I was compelled to make a new blog to accommodate my new posts. Please click here to go to the new site.

HOPEFULLY THIS PROBLEM WILL BE TEMPORARY AND i WILL BE ABLE TO CONTINUE POSTING AT MY THE PRESENT SITE.

THE NEW LAISI

Finally It Is Done!

2010-02-28T19:00:00.000+08:00

Here it is. The fruit of my labour.

More stories to follow.

It Is Tough Job Doing A Woman's Job

2009-11-14T01:58:00.002+08:00

Take it from me it is a tough job. How do I know? I just did it for two weeks recently when I had to take care of my 3 months old grandson Adam Hakimi. Adam's mum Ijjah had to attend a compulsory 2 weeks induction course when she missed doing it earlier when she was in her late stage of pregnancy when she was carrying Adam.
His dad had to work as he had almost utilized most of his annual leave. But he will be around to help me look after Adam during the night when he is back from work. I also had the option to send Adam to his day minder in the nearby housing area of Shah Alam but the prospect of having to bundle Adam in the car to take him to the minder was too cumbersome.
The day's chore start from 5 AM or thereabout when Adam wakes up after soiling his diapers. The diaper had to be changed otherwise Adam will feel uncomfortable. After washing him up and a new change of diaper, a small bottle of milk will put him back to sleep. The problem was Adam was not fully weaned off his mother's milk and put on powdered milk. Thought he wasn't breastfed all the time, he was fed with his mother's milk which was kept in the fridge after being expressed. Adam had yet to acquire the taste of powdered milk and never suck with gusto whenever he was fed with it. It is always a game trying to get him to suckle the whole 5 oz of milk per feed. Sometimes he would even throw them up.
Should he go to sleep, I would use the available time to wash up the used bottles before sterilizing them using the recently bought sterilizer. Prior to this sterilization was done by immersing the bottles an nipples in freshly boiled water which I disagree as it was inadequate. So we bought the sterilizer from Kedai Annakku at the Giant Supermarket closeby. I was hoping to buy the smaller sterilizer which could be put into the Microwave oven and heated up. They didn't have the stock and had only this stand alone sterilizer which cost my son almost RM200. Anyway it was money well spent as the unit could sterilize 9 bottles plus all the peripherals in one go. Luckily they had received ample number of quality feeding bottles as gift so 9 bottles were available for use thus reducing the need for frequent sterilization.
While the sterilizer is doing it's work I will do my Subuh prayers. There is no need to shut off the sterilizer unit as it will automatically shut itself off.
Next on my job will be to prepare breakfast for myself as my son Azuan will have breakfast at the office. My breakfast was a simple one as I kept ample stock of bread or cereals handy. Then only will I handwash Adam's clothes which did not really require much scrubbing, followed by my own clothes which needed abit more use of the muscles. They will all be put to dry in the shade of the corridor.
Adam will usually wake up around 9 AM having wetted his diapers and perhaps soiled it too with his poo. It is time to bathe him. A small tub of warm water will be prepared and when the temperature is right, Adam really enjoyed his bath. By the way do you know how to check the water temperature in the baby's tub? Many parents including mums do not know. We use the elbow to test the water temperature so that it will never be too warm for the baby. Why the elbow and not the fingers? Try both methods and you will know the reason.
After drying Adam with his own towels, he will be rubbed with baby's oil, followed by baby's powder. A dash of Amway's baby liniment will be applied to the stomach, back, behind the ankle and soles of the feet will ensure that he will not suffer from bloat. He will be given another feed after being dressed up in fresh clothes. Adam will have another siesta and it is during this time that I will cook lunch.
Since young I was brought up with ikan singgang as 'lauk'. The ikan singgang will be heated up daily to prevent it from going bad however long you keep it. I guess the asam keping, salt, galanggal and gula Melaka in place of MSG are great preservative and the dish not only will last but also acquire a better taste. The ikan singgang can later be fried to give it a most exquisite taste. Only those who have lived on such food can tell or relate to the heavenly taste of fried ikan singgang. Make sure that not much of the gravy is left on the fish otherwise it will result in the popping of the hot frying oil from the kuali.
Should Adam feel comfortable enough and sleep longer, I will use the opportunity to paint.
When the sun is setting down and the evening heat is bearable, I will take Adam down in the pram to the ground floor from the 13th floor where we lived. Adam seemed to loved the outdoor as much and will often go to sleep at the end of the walk.
Dinner will be a simple affair too. Sometimes my son will bring home food for me eliminating the need to have dinner on ikan singgang all the time. It will now be his turn to look after his baby. I can have my rest.
So that was how I survived daily.
Midway through the stay, Adam developed nappy rash. Raw flesh was detected on his bottom. I had never experienced this before with any of my children or grandchildren. He seemed to be defecating too often too which worries me to no end. Could he be having diarhoea? It was time to take him to the clinic. When Azuan returned from work, we took Adam to a clinic somewhere in Shah Alam. A lady doctor by the name of Dr. Indra was on duty. We told her that the baby was suffering from rash and she confirmed it was nappy rash and will be giving the medication for it. The next problem of the suspected diarrhea was a bit hilarious. Dr. Indra wanted to know the frequency of the baby's daily poo and the color of the stool. Since Azuan had been leaving that part of the duty to clean his baby up to me, Azuan looked up to me for answers. When I tried to answer, Dr. Indra wanted the dad to answer as she thought he was the one looking after the baby. When told that I was the one doing it, she started questioning about the where about of Adam's mother and since the mother was not available, where is the grandmother?
Dr. Indra shook her head in disbelief after getting the answer that only the grandfather is avaialble to look after Adam as the mother and grandmother were teachers and couldn't get away from work.
As to the color of the stool, I did bring along a sample in the form of a soiled diaper for the doctor to see. It wasn't necessary as at that very moment Adam did pushed some fecal out with a small grunt. When a nurse took over Adam from his father, she couldn't help noticing and making a remark that Adam's booties didn't match.
The doctor couldn't confirm as to whether Adam was having diarhoea or not and asked us to bring him again if the frequency of stooling was too often. She must have been out of touch with babies as she couldn't tell how many times is too many times.
Anyway since Adam wasn't feeling uncomfortable with the frequent stooling, we didn't bring him back to the clinic and took them as normal.
On another occasion, Adam was having nasal congestion. His discomfort was partly eased by the application of Vicks Vapour Up which eased his discomfort somewhat only to recur after the effect wore off. It was during such times that we our self had to suffer the stress of not having enough rest and sleep.
However happy I was at having my grandson to look after, I was even happier when his mum returned from her course and I did not have to look after him more than the agreed two weeks. During that two weeks I lost 4 kg of weight. A good enough reward for me.
Doing a woman's job is indeed tough job. Just imagine if you have to conceive as well and carry the baby for 9 months!

I Need Your Contact Numbers

2009-11-12T07:12:00.003+08:00

Thief (thieves) broke into my house in the early morning of 11th November 2009. I lost my handphone and all the contact numbers in it. To all of my friends please sms me your contact numbers to my 0199125647 so that I can rebuild my phonebook. Please don't forget to include your name otherwise I may not be able to discern your name unless you include it.
We didn't lose much as the thief only took away a copper jug we bought from Mecca in 1997, my Seiko Kinetic watch, two old handphones including my Motorola and a bottle of water. Well those are the few things we could discern as missing.
Thank you.

Pahang Artists Art Exhibition @ TV3

2009-10-28T01:50:00.005+08:00

After almost a week from it's opening on 21st October 2009 that I managed to get to TV3's Sri Pentas to see the art exhibition by Pahang Artists. Since it was being organized by a fellow blogger Datin Mamasita of the famous blog Mamasita Mamamia, I felt compelled to attend the exhibition not only to lend support for her monumental effort but also to learn a thing or two about arts from the many works of the many fine artists of Pahang. I promised to attend the show on the previous day but a mini gathering of my classmates from the class of 1968 Sekolah Menenggah Sultan Ibrahim Pasir Mas at a friend's house somewhere in Ampang had consumed the better part of the afternoon leaving me with little time to visit the exhibition.
It was a blessing in disguise really as visiting the exhibition on Tuesday 27th. of October 2007 had better offerings than the previous day. For starters Datin Mamasita had promised that other fellow bloggers such as Dato' Jaffar Lamri of Jaff Points and Puteri Kamaliah of Kata Kama would be attending too. I was anxious to meet Dato' Jaffar as my last meeting with him was the first meeting at Kinokuniya KLCC where Awang Goneng had his GUiT book signing which was almost two years ago. Puteri did not attend today's event for some reasons or other, after all she had attended it earlier on the first day. Dato' Jaffar came to collect his precious Ayam Serama painting which he had purchased at his first visit on the opening day.
I was one of the early arrival for the afternoon and Dato Jaffar came shortly after. Here we posed for a photograph with Datin Mamasita being the organizer and one of the prominent artist from Pahang, Osman Limat.

From left to right: Pak Zawi, Osman Limat, Dato' Jaff and Datin Mamasita.

The lobby of Sri Pentas where the exhibition was held.

Dato' Jaff was taking his duly wrapped Ayam Serama to the car when I pleaded to see the painting before he took them home. Dato' Jaff he willingly obliged.

Such is the beauty of the painting of the pair of Ayam Serama which Dato' Jaff bought.

Another great piece at the exhibition was Melombong by Osman Limat or Pak Man as he is affectionately known.

Melombong carried a tag of RM15,000.00. It was later bought by The Malaysian Ambassador to the United States YB. Dato' Jamaluddin Jarjis.

Another exquisitely beautiful piece being displayed. I had requested another beauty from TV3 to pose beside it. See how they complemented each other.

A bit later another great painter by the name of Yusof Gajah came with his wife Puan Zakiah. We adjourned to the cafeteria for some teh tarik. I made the most of the situation to learn a thing or two from the master himself whose single painting could fetch a whopping RM100,000.00. I would be more than happy to receive one hundredth of that for my own painting, let alone RM100K!

Pak Zawi listening attentively from the master himself.

Datin Mamasita took care of Puan Zakiah, the wife of Pak Yusof Gajah. Puan Zakiah was the pillar of strength that supported Yusof Gajah's career as a painter. Read Mamasita's blog to learn more of her contribution to their success where Yusof Gajah had risen from the brink of failure.

The discussion between Dato' Jaff and Yusoff Gajah was so interesting that I had to bring myself closer to know what it was all about.

Dato' Arif Sabri of the popular Sopo blog Sakmongkol AK47 is Datin Mamasita's other half. Here he was seen holding court while Dato' Jaffar, Yussof Gajah and yours truly listened with interest. Dato' Sak as we affectionately called him was the man behind the exhibition as he was keen to help budding Pahang Artists to succeed.

My son Azrin who had been acting as my photographer had a shot of himself with such luminaries as Dato' Jaff, Dato' Sak and Yusof Gajah. Thanks to him because without him I would hardly have any pictures of myself.

At 5 PM we gathered at the entrance to the TV3 lobby to wait for the Bigspender in the form of the Malaysian Ambassador to the United States of America YB. Dato' Jamaluddin Jarjis who happened to be a close friend of Dato' Sak. They had grown up together in Pekan. It was at the invitation of Dato' Sak that Dato' JJ came to the show. Such is the influence of Dato' Sak, the man with the AK47.

Dato' JJ shaking the hand of Osman Limat, the painter of Melombong

Datin Mamasita doing her level best to get Dato' JJ to buy as many paintings as possible. She must have suggested that Dato' JJ buy the most expensive one as a gift for President Obama himself.

Azrin's hand must have trembled so much having to photograph the Malaysian Ambassador with the guests that the camera shook. He was so awed by the moment that a few other guests and even his dad were left out of frame.

Before leaving for another function at Sri Pentas, Dato' JJ mentioned about the possibility of holding a similar exhibition in the US! Wow, that will be great. That gave Datin Mamasita the idea of holding a similar exhibition for The East Coast Artists ( Pahang, Terenganu and Kelantan) in London at Malaysia Hall. Please pray for us all that it will materialize one day. We will need sponsorship from Malaysian Tourisms and other governement agencies of course.

Before I left the premise of Sri Pentas, Mat Noor, the host of Jejak Rasul passed by and I asked for a photo with him which he and his friend obliged. My wife Fatthiyah is also an avid follower of the Jejak Rasul series. Mat Nor is the host of Jejak Rasul.
I left Sri Pentas with a contented heart as on that day I had met so many fine artists from Pahang and learnt so much from Yusof Gajah, another world reknowned artist from Pahang.
The next blog will be about another visit to a private Gallery of En. Hilmi Yusoff, the son of the famous artist from Kelantan, the late Yusoff Abdullah. I had the opportunity of a lifetime to be allowed to visit the private gallery which I did on the previous Saturday in Shah Alam, courtesy of another blogger friend Wan Asmadi aka Sangkelate who is a cousin of Hilmi.