Today

 

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.

sepetang di Tanjung Kepah

 

d irony of life n death

*Everyone who is taken by death asks for more time, while everyone who still has time makes excuses for procrastination.” Ali Ibn Abi Talib (R.A)* 

Ronda² Malaya - d prelude

 Normally, after working hard, physically and mentally, for almost a year teaching and educating my students, my wife and I would embark on a trip somewhere spending our hard-earned money hahaa.. Well, the money saved is meant for something, right? I mean, aren’t we supposed to spend it, after saving it? Bukan boleh bawak mati pun. Knnnn hahahaa

But this time around, since we are still in the midst of covid-19, we couldn’t go on a trip to a foreign land. So we decided to travel around Malaysia, at a leisurely drive, visiting our relatives and old friends along the way. Well, that was the plan lah. But it’s supposed to be just the two of us, so what about the children? Definitely they would be left at home, and not to disappoint them, I took everyone to a riverside resort at Lenggong. A prelude for our ronda Malaya trip later. It was only a one nite stay, but it was a time well spent. On the promised Saturday, we left home around half past ten and stopped at Kuala Kangsar for our lunch beside Sungai Perak. Then we headed for Muzium Lenggong but sadly it was closed, due to covid lah. I was looking forward to see the Perak man. Probably next time kot inshaAllah. We even managed to stop by at kg Luat to meet my wife’s foster family for a while. Then, half an hour later, we reached the resort. It was perfectly located: not too far from the main road, and trees, durian and others, covered the whole area, and right beside it, was the river with its clear and pristine water awaiting us. I booked two glamping sites for the children, and my wife and I stayed in a chalet. Straight away, we jumped into the water. It was so cool and refreshing, and we were in the water for almost three hours. Pehh! Layan..  Later at nite, we grilled the marinated meat: chicken, mutton and venison. Since the place had limited glamping sites, there were not many people and it seemed we had the whole place to ourselves. Grilling and eating beside the river, drinking coffee (kopi kedah yg terbaek!) while killing away the time, was totally a new experience for the children. Nothing compares to seeing the smiles on the children’s faces.

By midnite, it was boom2 time. The next morning, I went for another splash in the river, before having my breakfast. Takut terkenang.. Then at 10 we left for home, but before that, we stopped at the so called famous laksa pokok limau in Kuala Kangsar to test the dishes. My wife had been asking me to go there for quite some time, and yours truly obliged. Finally. Hahaa! 

Considering that Iliya and Lisa were having online classes, so it was not a problem for Abil, Arief n Nia to stay home together with their sisters in the event that their parents were to be gone for a while. Therefore, immediately after that, I did my homework for ronda Malaya trip. I searched for places to stop along the way, hotels to stay, roads to take, whom to visit and so on.

Initially we wanted to leave on the 23^rd of December but we had to delay for a day since my wife was having a meeting on that day. So it would be the 24^th then, inshaAllah, we would start our journey. 

berjemaah

Salam. 

solat berjemaah membawa @ memberi 27 tingkat @ ganda pahala dikatakan.

"Solat berjemaah itu lebih afdhal (baik) daripada solat bersendirian dengan 27 kali darjat" (HR Bukhari dan Muslim)

namun yang menjadi persoalan adalah, apa yang berjemaah sebenarnya?

Sekadar membawa sekujur tubuh ini pergi ke musaalla atau surau atau masjid mau pun di rumah dan solat beserta orang lain dikira sebagai berjemaah, maka itu lah dapatnya, yakni berjemaah dengan orang lain.

Tetapi kalau dikatakan berjemaah itu adalah sebenarnya pada diri sendiri, bukan bersama orang lain, bagaimana pula?

Yang dikatakan berjemaah itu adalah pada diri sendiri adalah apabila hati yang menanti nur Illahi beserta para anggota sifat yang lain iaitu sama’, basar, kalam, kudrat, iradat serta hayat dan ilmu tertumpu pada yang Satu lalu menjadi satu lillahi taala.

Itu jua yang dikatakan berjemaah maka dinaikkan darjatnya di sisi Tuhannya bilamana bersungguh menilik diri mencari redha illahi.

inshaAllah n waallahu’alam.

 

https://ku2blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/solat-berjemaah.html

Asrarul-'Arifin - Hamzah Fansuri

 

happy belated birthday to beloved zunaini @ 25th dec n arief akbar @ 1st jan