Cucu Pompuan.

Yg dua di kanan ni sekali tengok dah tau tapi yg tiga d kiri tu tak berapa kenal. Ha ha

Ulu Sungai, Raub.

This is Kg Ulu Sungai in Batu Talam, Raub. I was here for some work in Pusat Diversity, Technology Park Malaysia.

This used to be a Kelah territory but no more.

We met this Tok Batin while we went exploring the river.

Menantu Hj Jantan

I was asked by my wife why I never feature the ladies in the blog. So I look around & found this photo. All are very sweet.

Syukur.

Ustaz bercerita;
Rasulullah sembahyang tahajjud sampai bengkak kaki baginda. Ini kerana baginda membaca surah yg panjang. Lalu isteri baginda, Aishah r.a bertanya kenapa sampai begitu sedangkan segala kesalahan baginda, baik yg lepas atau yg mendatang telah diampunkan Allah swt . Baginda menjawab; Salahkah aku menjadi hamba yg bersyukur?

Physically kita tahu kehidupan di zaman baginda bukanlah sesenang kehidupan kita sekarang. Zaman kita dah senang banyak. Kadangkala baginda berbuka hanya dengan kurma dan air zam zam. Naik kereta tak sama dengan naik kuda.

Adakah ini membuat kita lebih syukur?
Atau kita rasa apa yg kita dapat hari ini adalah hasil usaha kita tanpa kurnia Allah swt?

Apa argument nya?

Kita boleh berusaha sebab kita di berikan "kehendak" oleh Allah swt. Kalu dunia ini di terajui oleh malaikat nescaya dunia kita tak berubah dari dahulu sampai sekarang. Penuh dengan hutan dan binatang. Malaikat tiada kehendak dan nafsu. Malaikat hanya beribadat kpd Allah semata.

Kemudian manusia diberikan "keupayaan". Kita berupaya utk berfikir dan berusaha. Allah mengurniakan kita akal fikiran untuk capai kehendak dan menyelesaikan apa jua masalah kita.
Oleh kerana kita ada akal dan nafsu maka Allah swt berikan kita panduan hidup iaitu Quran dan Sunnah.

Nafsu dan akal adalah kombinasi yg sangat berkuasa dan berbahaya. Tambah lagi dengan adanya bisikan Syaitan. Syaitan akan bisik utk buat jahat. Dia kata takpe, sikit je, sekali je. Tapi sekali akan jadi dua dan seterusnya.

Kita pernah melihat insan yg tidak di kurniakan anugerah ini. Org gila adalah org yg Allah pilih utk menjadi contoh. Harus di ingat org gila tak de dosa. Ha ha :)

Janganlah kita sombong dan mengatakan apa yg kita dapat adalah hasil usaha dan pemikiran kita saja dan bukan kurniaan Allah swt.
Badan yg sihat, pemikiran yg sihat membolehkan kita berusaha. Jangan lupa pada nikmat Allah dan selalu syukur. Syukur jadikan kita org yg lebih baik.

Bagaimana nak syukur?

Selamat hari Merdeka Tok. Tanya lah Tok.

Selamat Hari Merdeka Tok.
Tanyalah Tok apa ertinya berjuang melawan bahaya Komunis sebelum dan selepas Merdeka.

Tok meninggalkan kampong semasa berumur 16tahun untuk mencari kehidupan yg lebih baik bagi dirinya dan keluarga. Dia, abang dia, Tok Teh dan beberapa lagi pemuda kampong dimasa itu telah menyertai Askar Melayu.

Tok tak tahu apa yg bakal yg akan ditempuh sepanjang careernya sebagai Askar Melayu dan kemudian sebagai Askar Wataniah.
Dia tak menjangka yg dia akan menggalas peluru & senjata, mendaki bukit dan menurun lembah, hujan dan panas utk menghapuskan ancaman komunis. Banyak kawan Tok yg terkorban oleh senjata komunis. Tapi Allah swt lindungi Tok & dapat jumpa kita semua.
Tanyalah Tok bagaimana kehidupan sebagai seorang Askar Melayu di tahun 50an dan 60an. (Nanti Hari Raya ucapkan terima kasih kpd Tok kerana memberikan kita kemerdekaan).

Di zaman selepas Perang Dunia ke 2, Komunis sedang hebat memperjuangkan sebuah perjuangan bersenjata menentang Malaya di bawah kerajaan British dan Malaysia selepas merdeka. Ada theory mengatakan mereka memperjuangkan kemerdekaan tapi ada juga Domino Theory.

Akibat perjuangan dan pengorbanan org org seperti Tok, kita hari ini mempunyai kebebasan. Kebebasan utk menentukan berugama, beribadat, belajar dimana, apa nak jadi bila dah besar nanti.
Hanya cita cita dan usaha yg perlu bagi menzahirkan apa yg di idamkan. Tak perlu dapat kebenaran komunis, org British atau org Amerika.
Berapa banyak kita nak makan malam nanti, kita tak perlu menyorok beras macam tok nenek kita di zaman Jepun atau seludup makanan dari Mesir macam sedara kita di Palestin.
Kita bole makan sebanyak mana asalkan kita boleh membeli apa yg kita idamkan itu.

Ertinya kita bole tentukan halatuju kehidupan kita sendiri. Kita lah the master of our destiny?
Jangan lupa the master of our destiny ialah Pencipta kita Allah swt. Hanya dia yg layak jadi master kita bukan British, Amerika atau Jepun dan lain lain nya.

Tapi penjajahan tetap akan berlaku. Ini ialah proses yg hanya berubah bentuk, bukan niat. Negara kuat akan cuba menjajah negara lemah. Mungkin bukan menggunakan senjata tapi dalam bentuk yg lain. Ibarat kata kata dalam filem Godfather, "finance is gun & politic is when to pull the trigger".
Apa yg kita bole buat?

En Manja

Manja of Bt 3 Segari. Dear friend from my years in Malayan Flour Mills. He was a full time boat pilot & part time fisherman then. Now he is fulltime fisherman & part time employee at the flour mill.

I didn't know that he is a sought after chef. Maybe one day we can sample his specialities.

Manja knows a few tukuns around Segari waters & Pangkor if u want to wet ur line.

Trip to Royal Blum

This is the luxury boat u take when u go to Royal Blum. Floating 4star resort.
4 rooms with double single beds is the lazy men idea of going into the wild. Shower & wc on board. Heated pools(believe me the water is warm early in the morning). All u have to do is strip & take ur plunge. Don't forget the float if u forget to swim.
If the fish is not biting u can sing along the Siamese songs at midnight karaoke. Endless round of coffee & tea on the house.

We were blessed when Zul & Bobo, magnificient chefs disguised as policemen joined us. Their steamed baung with tauchu were heaven. Even lowly toman rose to the occasion under their hands.

Fish? There were fishes alright. But the question if we're smart enough to fool them to take ur bait.

City slickers who go fishing according to the books(or magazine) are frustrated lot when fishes are around & none are taking the baits. Their shiny new reels still smelled of plastic.
Lucky the boatman who called his middle age & overweight guests as ayam daging, has few aces up his sleeves.

Suka2 Resort(somewhere in Cenderoh)

School breaks always bring the urge that you need to be somewhere.
City existence is tough on ur soul. U don't really relate to it like u relate to ur kampong. It's cold & impersonal. It's competitive enviroment. Ur in combat mood.
U just need the city to make a living & it's conveniences.

Enjoy it? Mostly no.

That's why you need to be somewhere to get in touch with ur inner self, to unwind, when & wherever u can.

Chance upon Suka2 in the newspaper.
Aznir Malik, self appointed PR guy for the resort wrote a fishy story about the resort & I swallow it hook, line & sinker. Diehard fisho always falls for fishy stories. Me no exception.

Somewhere deep in Cenderoh lake lies a magnificient resort for fisho. You can walk a few steps from your rooms & cast ur baits & have ur catch.

Hj Azlan Bank Muamalat

Sometime in 2003 I had the opportunity to visit Baitullah & Madinah.

I was blessed when Hj Azlan, a Muamalat bank officer, joined our stag party as our guide. He did his haji the previous season & he said he missed Mekah. I guessed it was no coincidence. I was a lost traveler & I need a guide. Allah was great to send someone as nice as Hj Azlan to be my free guide. He did voluntarily. He Offered his services without me asking.

My past

This is Pak Karim of Kg Bkt Tembok, Pasir Panjang, Port Dickson.

The year was 1983. I was an Airforce cadet officer in the nearby Kem Sebatang Karah.
And I was wondering why I was there.
After some soul searching, I packed my bags & left the camp on CNY eve with another cadet, Hamid Karim.

We went AWOL
Hamid also an exUTM. The obvious destination for us was his father house in Pasir Panjang. So I followed him bcos I had nowhere to go. We get to the house just b4 subuh after walking for about 10km.
Pak Karim didn't ask much why we're there early in that morning. Hardly a rest after some food. the MPs arrived with the CO. He told us he's willing to forget the incident if we get back into the truck & follow him back to camp. We declined his offer. He said he was coming back with proper warrant. That would be fine with us.

Pak Karim never asked me why I left the military life.
He didn't lecture me on what a complete ass I had made of myself.
He still didn't until the day I bid him goodbye to get on with my life.
I stayed in his house, eat his food & helped him in his paddy field for three month.
He never asked me why.

I did visit him sometime in 2006 with my family.
He was as happy as I ever saw him & he didn't ask me why I left.

Last week I visited him again on the way back from Melaka.
His eyesight is failing. He didn't recognize me.
Yet he still entertained me & borak with me & told me ada kawan Hamid, nama dia Azman, pernah datang bawa family, jumpa dia.
I was touched.

Thanks God. I met so many great people during my travel.

Maybe 7 years ago

This was sometimes in 2003, if I am not mistaken. Cheap camera does not give fancy pic. Well, we were ready for Aidil Fitri prayer

Tg Sepat beach

You can bring your big kite & do a showoff.
The beach is big enough for a football match.

The fatal Tg Sepat lunch.

We locate a stall by the road & stand in queue, to quell the hunger & thirst,after a day in Tg Sepat beach.

You can tell we are famished.

However, nightime, we spent most of the night, in the loo.

Fabulous couple

Let me introduce you to Shafiq & his wife, Fatimah.
They owned Amansari Resort, a beach resort in Sungai Soi, near Tg Lumpur.

Still haven't got any clue?
It's near Kuantan.

A nice & quiet place by the beach, where you can sit down quietly and figure out the meaning of life.

The catch

Though Pulau Ketam is for poor sportfisherman but the catch is ok.
Not bad at all according to my lowly standard.

Cos you can't compare with the double digit kilos catches somewhere else but the fun factor easily compensate the extra kilos.

You'd suprise at the variety of fishes around the island.

My first boat?

Its not a boat but a sampan. Bought when the fishing bug really had me by the throat. A couple of grand in late nineties.

A boat, an explorer fibreglass boat & a 15hp motor will enable me & gang to explore Pulau Ketam & its vicinity.

Pulau Ketam is the heaven for poor sportfisherman looking for their fishing fix in those days. There are few islands crisscrossed by inland rivers. You can take cover in the small rivers when the weather is not favorable or you can dart across the wider water when the weather is ok.

Kg Ketapang, Pekan

Ini ialah Kg Ketapang, Pekan Pahang.
Tak ingat tahun bila menetap di sini, tapi peristiwa semasa tinggal disini amat jelas dalam ingatan.

Masa tu agaknya tak sekolah lagi. Tak ingat pun memori ttg sekolah. Shall ask Tok about that.

Yg paling ingat main lastik gelang getah. Dulu panggil tagan getah. Loads of getah gelang was placed on top on discarded milk cans or empty bottles. A line was drawn about 15 feet away. Everybody will stand behind the line & take turn to hit the cans or the bottles with slingshot. It's not that easy you know.

The challenge is to hit the can or the bottle & pocket the booty, rubber band or getah gelang. The winner will slides the booty up his arms.
The boy with his arm covered the most will be the undisputed champion. He will strut around until his mom caught up with him for not taking his bath on time.
Berbilur...
That's the word to describe the red marks on your calf after being hit by batang ubi kayu.
Ha ha champion kena rotan. The rest cepat2 pegi mandi.
What a fantastic life.

Dulu banyak lori tanah besar like those in mining pit, parking tepi jalan di waktu petang. Tanahnya warna merah. Its not tanah but boxite.

D'ya remember?

Do you remember this house?
This place? Ayah A would, I guess.

I was in Darjah 6, which meant he was in Darjah 3? What school? I can't recall.
This is the very house we call home
back in 73. Was it called Kg Benggali?

I wasn't expecting to see this place still exist. Smack in the heart of town.

Like being in time warp, minus the people. 30 odd years and it is still there?
Waiting for me to see it for myself?
Maybe it's waiting for Ayah A too.


Still remember konda kondi games? The paperboat race during rains.

Tok colleague, Syed Dollah, fellow from Tekal, rent a house a little further down the road. His son, Syed Badri, I still remember.

The house under the bamboo trees was occupied by a single teacher from my school too. Can't remember his name.

The house( with the public phone attached?) is the landlord's.
A lady with a beautiful daughter.
She sold those ice cream malaysia(those syrup drink frozen in plastic tube) in those hot afternoon.

Alma mater

Recent CNY I'd been to Kuantan, when someone offered my wife free lodging at her resort in Sg Soi, near Tg Lumpur.
An opportunity opened up to do stuff I'd been meaning to do for quite sometimes. Trace my places of personal history in Kuantan, after 30 odd years.

We moved a lot during primary school years as Tok was an Askar Wataniah instructor, teaching villagers the rudimentary of civil defence.

That was in 72 & 73 if I weren't mistaken. The first house we moved to was high up in Bkt Sekilau.

Went to to a town school called Sek Keb Teruntum. Spent 2 years in that school. One of the best years of my primary lives. I was good, the school was good & the teachers were super.

The headmaster was a fellow from Kerdau named Cikgu Ariffin. Cikgu Ariffin went on to become my cousin when he married Embong Waimah, anak Mak Andak Miah in later years. He passed away a couple of years ago. Cikgu Ariffin was the handsome guy in dark suit you see in the pic.
The other is my best teacher, Cikgu Malik.
Really wish to see him.