- To beat the 7am restriction, our lil weekend Mazda left home at abt 5.45am. Fetched my in-laws...lalala at the checkpoint... and we were already having breakfast at a coffeeshop in JB around 7.30am. How...ever, my dearest brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew-and-nieces-in-law came at 9am. *gggrrrrr*
- Drive up by the "old" road i.e: The pantai timur route. By 3pm, we were at Pekan in Pahang. Went to visit FIL aka Abah's relatives. Along the way, Abah explained his family extensions; who's who, whys, wheres and whens. I am impressed by his powerful memory, considering that he is 80+.
- Lil Mazda got hit!!!! We were leaving this 3rd house we visited. Just as the car cruise out the narrow road, suddenly I saw an object flying from my right and hit the car. It gave out a loud wham-bang sound. Dear saw his door's visor broken in pieces. We knew we got hit. We stopped the car, came out and investigate. The whole episode was traumatizing. I mean, what if, our windows were down? Rushda was sleeping at that time. It broke my heart to see Dear's reaction. He was devastated. There's nothing we could do. Don't even think about making police reports. Orang kampung said, the one who hailed the piece of wood could be an addict/hooligan youth/Cambodian immigrants who has a hideout there. I was mad. But Abah was calm and composed. "Syukur pada Allah. Ini semua kudrat dan iradatNya. Kita harus bersyukur yang kita selamat. Jangan salahkan takdir". Dear was upset at that time, and suggested we just head to Kg New Zealand, but Abah has 2 more houses to go...
- We visited one Datuk Syamsiah. She is married to the son of Sultan Pahang. She really carries herself like a royalty - with her rings, manicured nails and bedroom slippers, and not forgetting the Persian cat. But her house.... seriously needs a scrub.
- We reached kampung at around 11.30pm. At first, I felt very very uncomfortable. Isnt there any hotel around here? Soon, we were all in bed. I got the girls' room. Just me and Rushda. It was cold at around 5am. I heard the roosters crowing and azan from a nearby mosque.
- Host was Abah's younger sister- Chu (81yrs) and her husband, Pak Long. Along with them lives their 2 daughters- Kak Kama and Kak Midah. The latter is married to Abang Man, and they have 5 kids. All of them are well-mannered. The girls are friendly while the teenage twin boys and the youngest are quiet and shy.
- Abah talked about his past - his dad and ancestors were working for the Pahang King in the 19th century. Very interesting.
- Mosquitoes are of acceptable range.
- Water supply depends on the main channel for the kampung area. Someone needs to 'pam air', to reach to the taps.
- Town is 1.5hours away.
There's more too that of course. The experience of living in that humble home will truly be unforgettable. I want Rushda to enjoy the kampung life as much as Hadi, Hanaa, Eema and Nadhrah did.
*photos coming up*
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