Kapas, Here i Come!

 I am home at my own space again after almost a month of being away to the east Coast where i had the opportunity to spend three weeks on the island of Pulau Kapas which is located off the coast of marang, in Terengganu. I am no9w listening to Eastas Tonnes "Spirit of Time, "on You tube while letting my fingers ramble on my post for the trip to the East Coast for some sort of spiritual retreat and healing or simply to get away from this City and my two Kids, it is also a trip to find a cheaper way of getting my hernia operation taken care of without too much cost and dependence upon others for their charitable hearts. I have become an elegant beggar late in my but i am willing to do what it takes to live this life to the best of my ability and explore all possibilities out there where i am still an entity to be dealt with like it of not. I have been away for more than a month now from this seat where i make my posy and what a month it had been. I left with the high hopes of being able to spend sometime on the island of Kapas and perhaps even spent the monsoon season there to just experience the wrath of the monsoon wind and rain, to watch and feel the the raw strength of mother nature unleashing before my eyes in the South China Seas, but that was what I envisioned before I left. southchinasea

Second day was spent with my friend Mohammad Rafi visiting Pulau Duyong where we spent some time with Hashim the model boat maker the younger brother of the late Awie, 'Yellow House,' owner and a very close friend. Hashim was still Hashim with no major changes in character or spirit. He is however doing very well with his model boat making while teaching young adults in the art of model making. #pulaudyong 

He has at least kept the boat making tradition alive as Pulau Duyong is most well known for traditional boat building. Although it is a dying art it is still being kept alive the very few who has the know how and the dedication to keep the tradition alive.
 

These days one rarely see a traditionally built vessel that were at one time littered along the river used for fishing and general transportation, today it is mostly fiber glass in place of wood which incidentally has become very expensive and difficult to get for boat building. 

I also spent some time with my nephews and nieces and introduced them to my guitar to get  them interested in making music of their own.

After taking the eight hour long bus ride on the "Adik Beradik" Terengganu East Wast Highway Bus Express I got to Kuala Terengganu bust station where on of my nephews came to pick me up and delivered me to his home the "Bakery" or Kedai Roti Mohammad Rafi where I spent the day hanging out with my nephews and nieces showing off my guitar skills while sharing their latest stage in life, college, school, work, and what ever else. There are two Mohammad Rafi involved in my story, one, my nephew and the other my good longtime friend a retired Coast Maritime officer who was originally from Penang and settled down in Kuala Terengganu. The next day my friend Mohammad Rafi or better known as Pok Pi, drove me to Marang where at the jetty I was able to take a boat to Kapas. Owner of the  Suria Link Boat Service was a guy by the name of Zakaria or better known among locals as Zach. He is married to a lady from the Yugoslavia and they have three young boys. As soon as we landed on the beach Zach pointed out to me his father in law who was visiting them and who I later found out was going to have an open heart surgery as soon as he returned to his country. I tried to communicate with him throughout my stay while he was around but he did not speak English, so that made it hard or perhaps it was for the best as we got along reaching out to each other via facial expressions and simple gestures and at time his daughter would interpret whatever we had to say. It took about ten to fifteen minutes to get to the Island from the Marang jetty by speedboat and the ride was smooth as the ocean was calm like a lake almost. Quite strange in essence as October is the beginning of the monsoon season along the Coastal areas of the South China Seas, perhaps the calm before the storm. #monsoonseason

 My close friend, Rafi dropped me off at the Marang Jetty where I caught a speed boat ride out to the island or Pulau Kapas which took about twenty minutes or less as the sea was relatively calm. It took us a little over fifteen minutes to reach the Island.