Back to where we started.
I was more awake than asleep during the early hours of Sunday, 30 March 2008. Lying on my side of the bed, I stayed up and watched cable TV. Thank goodness, whatever HBO was having that morning (night), the movies came with subtitles. Thus, I muted the TV, so as not to disturb Hubs, and was awake for at least 2 thirds of the night.
Close to 5.30am, I gingerly stepped into the bathroom and ran a hot shower. The bath was totally revitalizing, the heat of the water truly eased away all the aches and pains in my bones. I would say it was even better than back home.
I realized that Hubs was already awake and was crouching determinedly at the full length window. He was watching out for the sunset, which according to him was the most beautiful sunset scene in the entire world.
However, it was still pitch dark outside, so I urged him to get showered and ready. Little did I know that once I was done with my Subuh prayers, the sun was already beginning to peak out from the horizon.
Hubs finally did manage to capture a few breathtaking shots of one of the wonders of God’s creations. It was simply mesmerizing and for a long moment, we felt so small and dwarfed as we were being bathed in soft golden lights that no man can ever re-create.
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Shot 01 The golden streaks began to peek through the heavily clouded sky. |
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Shot 02 Almost the entire sky was now bathed in carroty, soft golden lights. |
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Shot 03 A different view from another angle. |
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Shot 04 Praise to God! The majestic sun began to reveal its prowess and incomparable beauty. It was absolutely gorgeous and truly, would make any man who witness this to feel so humble, small and dwarfed. |
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Shot 05 The sun casting an almost unbroken line of its golden lights on the beach. |
We started to get ready. Hubs was mulling over what to wear for the day, as he had brought very minimal clothing – he had intended to purchase his clothings along the way to Trengganu. On the other hand, I was already ironing my red (my favorite color!) no-frills t-shirt.
Why did I bring it up? I had purchased a similar-colored latest Manchester United football jersey for Hubs as an anniversary gift, and had planned to spring the surprise on him later.
(In my more than 10 years with Hubs, this would be the 3rd MU original football jersey that I have bought for him.)
As I was tying my hair, I told Hubs that I had a dream during the little time I was able to sleep the previous night. I told him that I dreamt that he had bought me a pearl ring, as I had once requested for earlier this month. Jokingly, I said that I dreamt he put the ring on my finger.
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To my complete surprise, Hubs turned around and from the side of his back pack, he pulled out a small gift bag. It bore the popular jeweler’s name, Poh Heng. |
I shouted in glee. I could not really believe it! Back when I had brought up the pearl ring idea, I was only half-joking – he knew that I was the least materialistic person in the entire universe. And when I dreamt about it, it was just that – a dream. Never for a single moment had I known it would come true.
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Very, very excitedly, I opened the delicate packaging and the tiny jewel box. It opened to reveal the simplest yet the most intricate, purest and most beautiful pearl ring ever. It was absolutely stunning. |
Oh Hubs!
Of course, this would be the perfect time to counter attack the move. My turn to move to my back pack and pulled out the MU jersey. As usual, as with anything that has to do with MU, he was absolutely delighted.
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That morning, we walked out from the room, both dressed in red and with an extra ring on one of my fingers. |
We headed down to breakfast, and it being the Grand Intercontinental, the breakfast was just ‘grand’. There were more choices as compared to Citiview, and of course, the ubiquitous Nasi Lemak made its appearance.
As we sat down to breakfast, we planned our itinerary for the day. As it was still early, we decided to drive around the area before heading down to Trengganu River, for the mandatory pilgrimage to the Central Market. As we were booked into the Continental Room, the checking-out time was much later than usual. We decided to check out at 3pm, and from that time onwards, we were to drive back to Singapore.
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We took a different route to Trengganu River and came to Batu Buruk Beach at about 9am. At this early hour, and Sunday being a working day there, the beach was almost deserted, save for a few cars parked along the road, under the swaying casuarinas trees. Most of these cars had their doors opened and the drivers could be seen snoring inside. At 9am on a working day. Ah well… |
The beach, while deserted, appeared clean and almost tranquil. There was a nice, slow breeze. We drove right up almost to the shore and as with the many beaches at Cherating, there were more sand here than grass. And very funnily, there were no sign of any gigantic stones, that would had at least provided some kind of reference to the name. We parked and took a quiet stroll along the beach.
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The waters of Batu Buruk Beach were usually not suitable for swimming, at almost all times of the day, due to the strong current. |
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We did something similar to what we had done during our first Langkawi trip together as man-and-wife, exactly 6 years ago. We did some writing in the sand. |
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Me leaning against the car, while soaking up the peaceful atmosphere at the beach. The beach was very quiet, at that time of the day, that I felt that time had certainly stood still at that place. |
Just beside the beach, we came to an elaborative playground area. Immediately, we were both talking about how our boys would enjoy the playground. True enough, when we were back and showed them the picture, they were already asking us to bring them there!
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Next to the playground, there was a monument (I think) which featured a clay jug with water gushing out from it. The entire set-up was not entirely new but the pots of colorful plants and flowers surrounding the feature made it appear pleasing. We looked around to see if we could find more about the history of this ‘monument’ but were unable to find to locate anything. |
We turned back to the car and began to make our way to Trengganu River. On the way, we stopped by the Maziah Palace. Initially, we were not sure we were allowed to enter the driveway leading to the Palace. But it certainly looked very quiet (perhaps too early in the morning for any activity) and deserted. When we drove in, there weren’t any guards or police officers to stop us.
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Feeling like lost spies in some B-listed movie, we quickly snapped some shots of the Palace.As you can see, it appeared quite devoid of any human presence. |
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On the way out, there was a low hill and steps leading to the top. We had wanted to get up on those stairs, but decided not to eventually - least we would be prosecuted for trespassing! |
By 11.30am, we were already parking our car alongside the Trengganu River, and very eagerly (at least, me) making our way to the Central Market. We were sucked into the splendour and were not out till about 2 hours later.
It is difficult to describe my experience at Central Market. If you have had the opportunity to soak in the ‘million and one things’ and the ‘cheapness’ of it all, you would be able to empathise with my inability to describe how crazy I went while I was there. So crazy went my mind, coupled with the stifling heat in the 2-storeyed building and the kiasu-ism of die-die-must-go-see-every-shop syndrome that hit upon me, we were unable to capture any pictures while we were there. Actually, the truth is that we were unable to pause long enough to capture any pictures. In fact, the thought of taking any pictures did not even cross our minds as we went through the endless kaleidoscope of such immersed pleasurable retail therapy.
We went back to the hotel just slightly after 2pm and lay panting on the bed. The heat in Trengganu was scorching and the therapy that we just had totally wiped out all of our energies. We rested well before getting ready to check out.
By 3pm, we were already paying the hotel charges and bade farewell to the very pleasant looking receptionist who had checked us in just the day before. Pity, I still could not understand a word she said.
We then went down to the car park, which certainly felt like being in a pressure cooker. We both put our backpacks in the boot and Hubs proceeded to the driver’s seat and turn up the air condition to the maximum level. However, this had little effect as the air in the car park was just too stifling and especially since I had the car boot door wide open.
I was busy arranging and packing the million-and-one souvenirs that we had amassed during the last 2 days. Aware that we would probably not stop anywhere long enough till we reach the checkpoint either in Johor or Singapore, I took a long time in packing and repacking things. It certainly did not help that I am, by default, a meticulous and an organized person. I was fully aware that I took a very long time to accomplish my task, and I was also aware that Hubs was sitting there patiently.
When I was done, I went to the passenger seat and saw Hubs looking at me, with a very funny expression on his face.
I blurted: Sorry, I took so long.
He continued looking at me. He was half-smiling and there was a .. a contented (?) look on his face. I had thought he would be at least impatient with me, for I took such a long time back there and he had to sweat it out at the car park.
When he continued to look at me, with that expression, I just had to ask: Why are you looking at me like that?
Reluctantly, he pulled my eyes away from my face (dare I say this?) and with his hands on the wheel and getting ready to drive off, he simply replied: Sayang ..
Aww... it could be the hot weather, or the lack of ventilation in the car park, but whatever it was, I sure melted into my seat that day!
Once again, we had forgotten about lunch and so decided to get some foods along the way. We stopped by again at the Batu Buruk Beach, where along the road, were lined several shops selling all kinds of foods – fried crabs, keropok lekor, fritters, squids on sticks, sausages – you name it, they had it. Best of all, all these were fried right on the spot, so we had our choice of having the freshest and hottest foods.
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The sign at the Batu Buruk Beach, which was a misnomer, as there was not a single 'batu' to be found! And 'buruk' was hardly accurate - the beach was one of the cleanest I've been to so far, after Sentosa. It's a pity that no information boards could be located - at least, we could know about the origin of the unique name. |
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Whilst eating, we decided to once again stroll by the beach. We came to an enclosed area where there were many kites being set up and displayed. There were also some kite-flying activities going on. The colourful scene reminded me of Khaleed Hosseini’s first book, The Kite Runner. |
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There was I, looking up to the kites and munching continuosly on the most delicious and crunchiest and freshest kerepok lekor ever. |
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The beautiful kites soaring way high up in the sky. |
We resumed our way home. Along the way, we passed by a giant coconut. Malaysia certainly has plenty of BIG, BIG things (durians, coconut etc). In this respect, I would say it’s creative.
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As we drove along a narrow road, there appeared to be some congestion due to some road works being conducted. We were stuck in a jam, bumper to bumper. Quickly, we realize that the driver in the car in front of us, whose car has a FU-YOH decal on it, would greet SALAM to each and every driver in the cars on the opposite lane. |
Ever few seconds, he would slow down even more as he said out the greeting earnestly. However, we did not mind as the entertainment that he provided was priceless.
From then on, the drive back home happened in a blur. Funny, I could not recall much, probably because my mind was already set on home and thus, many things that we passed by did not quite register. However, these are some random shots on the way back.
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There was a very long stretch of road which was flanked by big tankers, like these here. My only guess is that these contain the kelapa sawit or oil palm that Trengganu is most famous for. |
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We stopped by a petrol station for a stretching session and came to a couple of grazing cows. I thought these were buffaloes, but Hubs said these were cows. Your thoughts? (I always have this (mis)conception that cows should be white with black spots on the bodies.) |
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Sinar Mesra Seafood - This was where we stopped for dinner. It was crowded when we reached there, and the food was forgetable. What was not, however, was the service. Very mesra lah. It was also fast, and the servers were very polite. |
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We drove through Kuala Lumpur. I thought it would be a heavan idea to actually spend a night there - oh my aching body - but the thought of having to repeat the drama of locating a hotel room just for the night put me off. We drove through the heart of KL without much further ado. |
We passed through the Singapore checkpoint the following Monday, 31 March 2008 at around 3am, after almost 12 hours on the road. Hubs, admittedly, was 100% percent behind the wheels; I was struggling to keep awake, due to my 'Sleepless in Trengganu' the night before. Thank goodness Hubs enjoys what he is doing - driving, that is - he was very alert during the drive and was only hit by 'sleepitities' during the regular stops that we made along the way back.
Upon reaching Singapore, we drove straight to Jalan Kayu for a late supper of hot, piping and fresh pratas.
When we reached home, at around 6am, we were totally wiped out. So wiped out that both Hubs and I did not even notice our mobiles ringing till Hubs suddenly awaken up at near noon.
Groggily, I checked my mobile and was aghast to find that I had about 9 missed calls, with at three of them from the boys’ school. Next, I checked my sms and found one from Anom which read:
Cik, ilman vomited in sch. Having high fever. We fetched him frm sch. Cntct us asap. Tried callin u. cant get thru.
I was immediately awake. My poor, poor son. Had he missed me so much that he became ill? To this day, I would like to think so.
(UPDATE > My son recovered very fast and very well – it was a case of gastric flu, actually.)
With such news, I realised that now I was back at home, back in my own country, among the familiar things in my life and back to the routine which I had often, unknowingly, taken for granted.
What a 3-day drive trip it had been.