Ronda² Malaya - 1

 And so, on the 24^th at 8 am, after saying our goodbyes to the children and the cats and my plants, we left home accompanied by the warmth of the morning sun. 

see u guys soon!

Our first destination? Port Dickson, where my wife wanted to meet her best friend in varsity life, Linda. It was smooth driving all d way. Only when we were taking the KLIA expressway, I didn’t notice a lorry carrying load of paints, had drips of paints flying away from the rear. I was about thirty meters away behind it when I saw what was happening. I thought the paint would not splatter the car. Near KLIA we took the trunk road heading to Lukut. We passed by Bukit Pelandok, the infamous place for the virus Nipah back in the 90s, killing thousands of pigs. Well, I used to work as a lorry attendant sending fertilizer and animal’s food to this area before that incident took place so it was kind of nostalgic jugak laa. At 1130 we reached Linda’s place. And I saw spots of white paint all over the front of the car. Adoyai!! Lucky me because it was water-based paint, but it still took me 45 minutes to wash away the paint. Alhamdulillah. Linda prepared biriyani kambing for us, and since nobody was home (her husband Suhaimi was at work as well as her children too) we really enjoyed the food and had second helping. 

Zu n Linda

At half past two, we left her place and headed for our second destination, Malacca. I had booked a room at Jonker Street. Before going to Malacca, we stopped by at pantai Teluk Kemang @ PD for a few photos. I had planned to drive along the coastal road as much as possible, and so it felt so relaxed driving along the kampong roads and spotting rumah Melaka now and then. At 5, after getting thru the balik kerja traffic jam, we reached Malacca. I parked the car by the Stadthuys, pronounced as Stad-Haus. We checked in our stuff into our hotel room, which was situated about 100 metres from where we parked the car. Straight away we explored Malacca. After walking for a while, we were by the river and snapped pics. Then we saw a groovy kind of café: waruNK, situated by the Malacca River. It looked rustic because of its old building, and the décor inside too. We ordered mee rebus although initially we wanted to eat laksa johor. The food was not bad but the price was rather expensive, to be honest. Nevertheless, the experience of having the meal by the river watching the boats passing by was something worthwhile.

 While eating, my old friend from my USM’s days, M Nasir Wahab, came to meet us. We spent the whole evening together, walking along the river right until Kampong Morten, an old malay village situated right in the heart of Malacca, and turning back and continued walking and exploring till we reached a mamak restoran for dinner consisting of nan and tandoori. Layan.. all in all, we walked for almost 6km across the city. At 1030pm, we headed back to our room, had our shower and lena. 

Guala n M Nasir

Kg Morten

WaroNK

masjid Kg Hulu

a mechanic mending a colorful trishaw at night

The next morning, as promised, we had breakfast together with Nasir, and at 10 am left for Bukit Pasir, Muar. We reached Lon’s place around 1145 and chit chat with her( Lon is my wife’s niece actually, though they both are of the same age) and Razak for an hour before leaving for BP. We took the Parit Jawa road and along the way we encountered foreign workers dispersing from the factory for their lunch break. It was quite a sight because so many of them were on bicycles, and I felt as if I was somewhere in India. 

Razak, Lon, Zu n me

Jom balik makan!!

Goodbye Malacca!

The journey along Parit Jawa and Peserai reminded me of the trip back to Bp when I was a child since Bak used to drive along this road too. At about two, we reached BP and went to abg Z’s place where we met Adib and Fuad. They entertained us to a light meal of murtabak. Before going over to Mak Yah’s place (my dad step sister), I went to see the remains of rumah atok batu pahat. It was a sad moment for me, especially when it brought back memories of my childhood spent there. Mak Yah looked fine and so too was Nong. After spending about 45 minutes there, we left for our final destination of the second day, Kg Air Baloi, near Pontian, where Mak Teh, whom we befriended while in Kashmir a few years ago, lived. She was a widow and childless and she looked upon us as her children. Being soft spoken and of motherly nature, we couldn’t resist her invitation to stop over at her place. So there we were for the night, and Mak Teh treated us so kindly and her hospitality is unforgettable.  

Mak Teh Qilah

rumah atok BP

d remains

Guala, Fuad, Adib n Zu pekena murtabak

Mak Yah n Nong

 

I planned to go the southernmost point of Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, the next morning but cancelled it because it was closed to tourists. So, we would head for Mersing on our third day. inshaAllah.