Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Drive to Trengaanu
















On friday last my daughter and I left penang in our little Kancil and headed for Kuala Lumpur. My son Karim had to go to school for extra classes sinse he will sitting for his exams in a month or two at least that is what I am to believe, knowing karim he would most probably be getting himself a few new DVDs and watch them again and again till he cam memorise every line in the movies. I made about seventeen thousand RM from my last solo exhibition at the Penang State Art Gallery and a few new contacts a far as buyers to my works are consern. Making the amount was a hard task but spending it was hell of alot easier! But hey, what's money if you dont know how to spen it? I have always told my children that they will never think of their father as being stingy in his life when I am dead and gone. I keep reminding them that I would get them anything within reason if I have the means to do it and when I dont have they will have to bear with me and go hungry if I have to.

On the way to KL we stop for the night at my aging auntie's house in Bukit Beruntong a few Kilometers north of KL. There I gave my cousin sister Jamie two of my mono - prints as i had promised her years ago but never got around to fulfill it. Noticing that she was very much in need I gave a thousand RM mainly so that she can change her four worn out tyres on her Kancil and the rest was for whatever she needed as she is not married and the one taking care of her mother. Needless to say I feel very sorry for her but I also love and admire her more so than all her siblings put together. May Allah constantly give her the strength and courage to persevere in her life and Allah's Willing i would help her all I can into the future. Her mother is the woman who had raised me as a child as her own.

We left Bukit Beruntong in the morning and headed for Sha Alam where my cousin Zakaria resides anf from there left in a convoy of three cars headed for Melaka. Our trip to Melaka was to send the bride( my niece) to her newly wedded husband's home. After spending a good half of the afternoon at the home of the Groom we left for the Sime Darby Kempas Resort located within an Oil Palm Plantation not too far from the gromm's house. We were joined by the rest of the Zakaria entourage, the rest of his children and grandchildren and occupied the whole resort. Zakaria is a staff member of the Golden Hope, Simedarby plantation group and is quite way up there in his position and so we were given the VIP treatment.

I did a water color painting of the fish pond facing the shalets and gave it to my niece as her wedding present. It was not half bad but was more appreciated for the capturing of the moment in time for her. We left the resort the next day and I headed for Kl that evening from Shah Alam in the effort to locate my friend Dr. Ali the Iraqy. We had been friends since we met in Trengganu where the Dr. and his family has been close friends to my family and used to do things together. However my worse nightmare of getting lost in KL at night came true and i spent the next few hours searching for a place to stay the night with my daughter. God I hated KL for this! We managed to put up at the Orkid Hotel finally and watched the movie on HBO called the Final Destination Three.

Next day I contacted my friend Hasnee a fellow artist and spent the day with him at the National Art Gallery where I paid my courtesy call upon the Director Encik Najib Dawa, the man who was supposed to have launched my Solo Exhibition at the Penang State Art gallery but failed due to more important functions. This was my first time at the New Nat. gallery and I was quite impressed by the vast collection of artworks spanning over a time period. Saw some familliar works by my former school art teachers and was captivated by the more contemporary pieces that has evolved beyond the old style of these teachers.

Hasnee has an ongoing exhibition at the New Straits Times Gallery in Bungsar but i did not attept to locate it even in the daytime as I said before I dont like KL. If i could avoid it i will but if i have to pass through it to get somewhere else I dread where i would end up. My cousin Zakaria pointed out that for a guy who has traveled some of the world's largest cities, it is strange for me to get lost in KL. Well it is not really a matter of knowing the roads so much as getting use to the negative feelings i have about the place and its people.

Hasnee my daughter and I later visited the home of an old school friend who was formerly from Trengganu and as a matter of fact he was one of our Troop leaders during our Scouting days at the Sultan Sulaiman Secondary in Kuala Terengganu. He spent most of his life as a shoe designer for BATA shoe company and a few others, but he is also a painter and has always been dabbling in art untill he retired and now plans on going into it full time. Adna Otheman was at one time an idol for the young ones growing up in K.TR. as he and his band group back in the sisties and seventies were the first and they called the 'Sonics'. He was their lead singer and had made popular a song or two in his days.

My daughter and I left Adnan's house at about 2 in the morning heading for Kuantan and then Kuala Trengganu. It was a pleasant drive all the way for me and my daughter slept fitfully in the next sit. I had alot of time to reflect my life and what is happeing and what is not, if all is moving according to plan. I missed my sons but they have their own agendas these days so I decided the hell with it call me if you need me and if you dont' well... My daughter is different, she will need me like it or not and it has always been a pleasure to travel with her and who knows she might end up being a traveller herself which i am hoping for as I cannot imagine seeing her getting married and settling down at an early age to some Malay. Not that i got anything against a Malay son in law but marryi9ng a Malay i have come to experience is marrying into a family not just a wife or a husband but the whole clan and not all of them are pleasant tobe with rest assured. Ahh! too early to bother my head with!

We arrived in K.TR. early in the morning and the sun was rising as we arrived into Kuantan area. I thought of spending the day sleeping at the resort in rantau Abang or better known as the turtle beach but when I was at the resort there was not a soul at the reception desk and so I decided that it was notr such a good idea. We drove on untll we got to my sister's house in K.Tr. and there i found my nephew asleep infront of the TV, he did not even bother to get up when I greeted him. There is alot of unsavory words i would like to write about this jerk but that would be judgemental to the extreme, so i can only sympathize with my sister and his wife. My daughter i I left after I manage to catch a few winks on the chair while my daughter did hers on the sofa and we left as soon as i caught my senses.

We ended up putting up my friend Fadzli's house in Gong Badak where his father had offered me an open invitation for me to put up at his home whenver i am Trengganu. Why do you want to stay in the hotels and so on when you have my home he said it may not be a five star but at least it is not a falling star. The house is a mansion by any standard.

I had a great time visiting my friend and spent the nights sleepless facing his computer and discussing photography, Art and religion. This was what we used to do in the past when I lived nearby and as we had done before a visit for a late supper at the Paloh coffeeshop with the guys is a must. I also visited Mohamad Rafi and his family which I never fail to do whenever i was in K.Tr. I also visited Hashim at the Duyong Heritage Marina on Pulau Duyong and got the scoop on what is going on with the Monsoon Cup business. Some things never change it is said but then most of the things in our life just take on new forms as time wears out the old and replace it with the new. One never would have noticed much of it if one had never walked away from it and take a look at it from a distance and with a sense of detachment...

To Pick the Lotus without wetting the fingers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kena belanja me la, macam ni...
I m heading back this raya and hope to see you...

Take care and enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Sorry its me ayu.... from Big Apple....hahahahaha