Short and sweet trip to K.Tr.

Last Thursday my daughter and I left Penang on the ferry as we needed to take a bus to  Manjung, Perak  where my sister was waiting for us. My sister had bought a new car and needed me to drive her and the car back to Kuala Terengganu. Taking the ferry always brought back fond memories of my younger days when my uncle used to work for the Penang Port Commission and I was given a tour of the ferry from top to bottom when they first arrived in Penang from Hong Kong where they were constructed. I remember taking a ride in the Pilot House and being explained how the Ferry works. These were the food for my childhood imagination and thanks to my uncle too Iwas taken on board ships that anchored to the Jetty loading and unloading goods from Indian and various other foreign lands. I still remember the names of Steamships like the S.S. Rajula and the State of Madras, ships that were loaded with onions and red peppers, potatoes and various kinds of spices. Just walking from one end of the ship to another was like walking inside a flour mill filled with the most aromatic smell  that mind can imagine. 

Today the channel has become shallower and less vassals are seen anchored and most of the loading and unloading of cargo are done across from the Island in Butterworth. The Weld Quay area of the Georgetown today catters more towards pleasures cruise ships and yatchs  belonging to the rich.

The ferries must be more than fifty years old by now but they are still going strong and has become an icon for most Penangites who had grown up with these boats.

It is highly doubtful that these ocean going containers would be as  full of  a sense of excitement and  surprises as the old steamships used to be for me much less spices more like the smell of paint and oil as most these vassals do.

At the Butterworth bus terminal my daughter and I took the express bus and headed for Manjung Perak which took us almost three hours which I did not mind at all as my daughter was beside me asleep on my shoulder. Moment like these are rare and will soon be a thing of my past as she grows older into her own life.

I asked my daughter to snap a shot of me sitting in meditation as iI often do whenever and wherever. This time it was at my niece's house in Manjung where my sister was house sitting. My niece and her husband at present are in Kuwait where her husband works as an engineer.  I had the opportunity to visit them while I was visiting my son in Dubai.

Friday Prayer in Kuala Terengganu with Adam and his father/

Yes what kind of  a world would I leave you behind when I am dead and gone,. What have i done that would have made the environment you will inherit be more pleasing and sustainable for you?.

I spent the Friday with  Mohd Rafi and family at his shop in Durian Burung Kuala Terengganu. Rafi is my most eldest of all my nephews and nieces and I had the opportunity to babysit him until he was replaced by his younger brother Jamal. I spent the entire Friday sketching the portrait the entire family and was promised that they would be framed and hanged on the wall.   .

Maya! The youngest. I hope you too someday will  read this blog  and  know who the Cheeseburger Buddha was. I hope too in some small way you will find a lesson or two to help you find your way through life through having read my writings. Today you look at me with trepidation wondering who this white bearded old man with a pony tail might be and that is fine too.

I stayed for only one day this time as the small voice within whispered that I should be home for one reason or another. Mostly it is because of my ongoing group show and the other being two Art Openings happening on Sunday and both that of my close friends as well as fellow artists...Patrick Lasak and Shaparrel.