Legacy

I don’t listen to Malay songs apart and the only Malay songs I know are those Eid songs and some Sheila Majid and the late Sudirman songs. Of those Sudirman songs that I know, I do love some of them and even used to hum to them. I think it’s somewhat apt and fitting that one of the songs chosen for this year’s Independence Day celebration is Sudirman’s Warisan song and I’m only surprised it took the organising committee this long to realise how apt the song is.

Malaysia will be celebrating its 57^th year of independence this year (OK, some will argue it’s Malaysia’s 51^st year of independence because it only came into being when Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963) and yet, I feel depressed sometimes when I look around me. I don’t know if we Malaysians really know how to be good Malaysians. It’s a fact that not everyone has a good command of the official language, heck, some can’t even speak it (and yet the foreign workers speak it fluently!). Shame on those of you who call yourselves Malaysians but can’t even converse in the official language. We look down upon the language, we corrupt it, we bastardise it, we make fun of it – in short, we have no respect for it. We’re almost ashamed of it. We will never be able to be like Indonesia whose people speak Bahasa Indonesia fluently and proudly. Sure, they have many dialects and Bahasa Indonesia is the one language uniting them. But what about us? We are too ashamed to speak Bahasa Melayu so how can it unite us? And what about the principles of Malaysia (Rukunegara)? I doubt if everyone knows it. I dare say there are some who don’t even know the words to Rukunegara, what more understand and try instilling those principles within themselves.

Look around you, you see litter everywhere. On the field, on the road, at the bus stop, outside the shopping malls, in the bus, it’s everywhere! I get tired of seeing all the rubbish. I get angry at the litterbugs. Don’t you have pride in yourself? Don’t you love the city and the country? Don’t you care about the environment? Or do you just think ‘it’s OK, there are always those who will clean up after me?’ What selfish pathetic twisted mind can think like that? But believe me, there are many Malaysians who think that.

And what about respect? Respect for your neighbours, for the elders, for the young, for pedestrians, for the environment (no littering), for the buildings (no graffiti, no destruction of old buildings which can be conserved)... the list goes on. There is seldom any courtesy accorded to pedestrians: who cares if they have to cross the road, let’s run the light! Who cares about this pedestrian walkway, let’s ride the motorbike here as it serves as a shortcut and saves our trip! That building looks like it needs a paint, hey, we might as well decorate it with graffiti! The boss is on leave today, let’s go for an early lunch! We don’t stop to think how the others view us as long as we derive satisfaction from it no matter how perverse or twisted it is.

Then there are those who don’t care if the country is gone to the dogs in the pursuit of their political ambition. Who cares about the state of education system? Who cares if our universities rank so low in the world? Who cares about we can’t prepare the future generation to lead the country? Who cares if we don’t nurture sportsmen? Who cares about the ranking of our football/hockey teams?

It would be simply depressing to go on. I would like to think I’m wrong except that I see the above failures every day and I don’t see them stopping any time soon.

Anyway. Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia. I love you very much and that’s why it pains me greatly to see our failures even after all these years.

16.5 Hours In Singapore

I was in SG for 8 hours in mid-June to check out the GSS (well, not really). We took First Coach departing from Bangsar first thing in the morning and reached Novena at 12:30. After collecting the ticket for the return leg, we rode the MRT to Marina Bay and walked to Marina Bay Sands before walking to City Hall. Took the MRT to Orchard and spent the rest of the day there before returning to Novena for our coach ride back.

I hadn’t planned on returning to SG again so soon but there was an online coach offer for RM28 return (!) (RM55 for two and RM100 for 4 persons travelling together) and it looked so good that I bought it specifying 20 September as my travel date. I then scoured for online tickets to the Universal Studios Singapore and finally bought it at RM158.42 each after a further 11% discount by MyDeal. I only noticed in the terms and conditions that the tickets were only valid until 31 August 2014 (which meant I couldn’t go on the coach as my chosen travel date is 20 September) so I quickly bought return train tickets (lower berth) for 23 August 2014. I had to go and collect the USS tickets in person and it was then when I saw that the tickets were valid until early December 2014 after all. Well, what do you know, even online terms and conditions are not accurate. I decided to still utilise my train tickets (the train ticket cost RM46 one way or RM92 return and I’d rather burn the coach tickets than the train tickets).

So we left on Friday evening, the train pulling out of KL Sentral at 23:00. I couldn’t sleep well but must say I slept better than on my previous Senandung Sutera rides. I got up at 5 am to use the bathroom and perform ablutions. We arrived at JB Sentral shortly after I finished my morning prayers. We now have to get down at JB Sentral to clear immigration; before JB Sentral came into being, we needn’t leave the train as it was the immigration officers who came on board to inspect our passports. Clearing the immigration at JB Sentral was a short simple efficient process though as I used the autogate.

We pulled into Woodlands barely five minutes after leaving JB Sentral and joined the queue to clear SG immigration. After that, we walked out and walked to Marsiling MRT station (a bloody local woman decided to start a fight with me and that really riled me up). We rode the MRT to Harbourfront, changing at Jurong East and Buona Vista. From Harbourfront, we took the RWS8 bus to Sentosa. You need to pay the exact fare of SGD2 for the bus as no change is given.

We changed and freshened up at Resort World before having breakfast. After breakfast, we walked over to USS. The queue was already considerable then. We rode the very mild Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase at New York then Revenge of The Mummy at Ancient Egypt. As it’s a high-speed rollercoaster in the dark, you must store your belongings and loose items (hats, sunglasses, handphones etc) in the lockers provided nearby. The rental is free for 45 minutes (when we returned later, the rental was free for 55 minutes, I guess to take into account the larger crowd and longer queue). We had a good laugh at the photo hahahaha!

After Ancient Egypt, we headed to Lost World for the 11:15 WaterWorld show but as we still had some time, we detoured briefly to Far Far Away to ride the Enchanted Airways. After WaterWorld, we headed back to Far Far Away for the 12 noon Shrek 4-D Adventure. It was getting almighty and unbearably hot by then so the air-conditioned theatre was a welcome. After the show, I browsed the Fairy Godmother’s Potion Shop and bought two kids’ t-shirts for SGD19.90 and a magnet for SGD4.90. That was the only store with kids’ t-shirt offers; other stores had offers like buy two adult t-shirts and get the third for either SGD9 or SGD10 (and of course adult t-shirts cost more than kids’).

When we exited the theatre, the large clouds above had turned somewhat darker. There was supposed to be a 13:15 Madagascar Boogie! but the show was postponed because of the weather so we walked around before heading to the prayer room between Sci-Fi City and Ancient Egypt. It was a good thing we arrived when we did because barely five minutes later, a lot of people descended upon the prayer room too!

We snacked in between and debated if we should ride the Canopy Flyer back at Lost World. The queue was long though and it looked like we would need to queue for close to an hour so we returned instead to Ancient Eqypt. The queue was very long this time and we had queued for more than 30 minutes when there was an announcement informing of delays. The line moved after ten minutes but it turned out it was because people were abandoning the queue and not because the ride was already fixed. The announcement as we left informed that the problem had not yet been rectified and that it would take some more time.

We then joined another frustratingly tiring super long queue for TRANSFORMERS The Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle at Sci-Fi City. Just when we thought we had neared the end, the queue snaked behind corners and into another room. The ride was at least enjoyable although it is simply ridiculous to have to queue for 45 minutes for a five-minute ride.

Next, we checked out Lights, Camera, Action! at New York before settling in to watch the parade.

This was my second time to USS; the first one was in February 2011. This time around, I was not as impressed as I was then. I took much fewer pictures for sure and I felt slightly disappointed – of the long queue which amounted to nothing and of the cancelled shows. The Battlestar Galactica ride is currently not available and even though it’s not likely that I’d ride it, it’d be fun to watch others brave it out. And I think the parade sucked big time. It looked half-hearted to me.

I guess I won’t be heading back to USS in a hurry...

We left around 5 and took the coach back to VivoCity. We were not charged this time. We headed to the food court at B2. There’s a halal section at the food court and even though I don’t normally buy chicken rice, I had that and some vegetables for early dinner.

We then rode the MRT back to Marsiling and walked to An-Nur Mosque to perform prayers. It rained while we were riding the train but had stopped when we reached Marsiling. It started drizzling again as we left the mosque. We went to the hawker stalls at Woodlands Centre Road and had some drinks and supper. We walked to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint and waited until 23:00 when the ‘gate’ opened for us to clear immigration before boarding the train. You clear both the Singaporean and Malaysian immigration at Woodlands, which means you don’t need to get down at JB Sentral. A good thing too as the Senandung Sutera train from Woodlands depart at 23:30. And yes, somehow 30 minutes are enough to clear both sides of immigration and find your berth/seat on the train.

I still haven’t decided if I would burn my coach tickets for 20 September. I might just go ahead and then take the MRT from the Harbourfront to central. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can transfer the tickets to other people as I’ve already emailed the coach company a copy of my passport as requested.

Cherating - In Pictures

Some pictures of Cherating

 View from our room

 At dusk on the first evening

 Pool area early in the morning before it was overran by kids

 Pristine white sand - it looked like waves

 High tide

Day break

Full moon on the second night

39 Hours In The East Coast

I was in the East Coast during the weekend. Took half-day leave on Friday and drove to Cherating. We reached The Legend Resort Cherating after three hours and fifteen minutes on the road (including a fifteen-minute break at Temerloh rest area). The highway was thankfully clear with the occasional heavy vehicles which stuck to their left lane. We checked in and after showering and freshening ourselves up, we walked along the beach until it turned dusk before checking out the hotel surroundings. My last visit was some four years ago, just weeks before Mummy’s passing.

After evening prayers, we drove out to find dinner. We eventually settled on a restaurant across the street from the mosque about a km away. We returned at almost 10 and spent the evening playing Scrabble before retiring just after midnight.

On Saturday, we woke up to catch the sunrise before returning to our room to resume our Scrabble game. As a result, we left quite late and had a late breakfast of nasi dagang at Tropika Café en route to Kemaman. We found a parking and walked to Kemaman Centre Point and the block of shops behind. I spotted a shop that provided blood cupping services and we went to check it out. So glad we did because it only cost RM60 for females! And to think I paid RM200 for the service in Kota Kinabalu!!! We were told not to partake any heavy meal for at least an hour after the treatment.

We went back to Kemaman Centre Point and wandered around. It was disappointing to say the least. We didn’t spend long here and walked to the mosque to perform prayers. We then drove and parked outside A&W and had a rootbeer double-scoop float each. We then drove to check out the food court near the Geliga bus station but they were mainly selling rice and we’d already had that for our late breakfast. Spotting a turn for Kuala Kemaman, we took the turn and found some stalls selling keropok lekor, otak-otak and satar. We bought some to bring back to the hotel.

We drove back to Cherating and even stopped by Cherating Beach. It was too hot however to venture too far so we turned back and drove back to our hotel to have our late lunch of keropok lekor, satar and otak-otak. I must say I was disappointed with the keropok lekor though. The heat made us drowsy and exhausted so we had an afternoon nap before venturing out to the beach just before sunset.

That evening, we drove out to check the local night market. There were not many traders – I’m not sure if it’s because it was almost 9 pm or if the traders still hadn’t started trading after the Eid break. We had dinner at the same restaurant we ate the evening before but my meal tasted a lot more spicier and nowhere as good.

We returned to the hotel and spent the rest of the evening playing Scrabble. Both of us had really awful crappy tiles though.

On Sunday, we checked out and left the hotel just before 9 a.m. Neither of us liked driving when the sun is already up and the day is already too hot. We had a late breakfast at Temerloh rest area and I decided to try some patin fish cooked in tempoyak gravy. It was somewhat spicy but the fish tasted really good so I didn’t mind the spiciness.

We drove on and reached KL at 1245. Oh I had a bad case of insect/bug bites especially on my left leg that left patches of angry red spots all over. They were very itchy and the unbearable itchiness even woke me up on Sunday night. I decided not to scratch them even though the itch was so unbearable that I wanted to cry out from having to control myself.

Hope you had a good weekend too that didn’t end up with you feeling itchy (except for any travel bug itch...!)

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Arsenal beat Nasri and co on Sunday in the Community Shield. Woohoo! Santi and Rambo scored in the first half with Sanogo involved in both build-up, and Giroud scored a screamer in the second half. And our World Cup German trio winners are finally back too.

Are You Gonna Go My Way

Following the Gaza crisis which started in Ramadan, there have been talks of late of boycotting products from certain companies owned/controlled by Jews and Americans (who clearly support Israel in the crisis). And of course there have been divided opinions as to whether a boycott is necessary or even effective, what objects it could achieve and so on and so forth.

It’s up to an individual if s/he chooses to boycott any one company or not. Personally, as you may already know, I have been boycotting McDonald’s, Levi’s and a few other American brands since 2001 when the US invaded Iraq (I hate Coach and Michael Kors bags and don’t patronise Star*ucks). Alhamdulillah, thus far, I don’t feel my life any deprived, any less enriching or poorer in these 13 years than before my personal boycott. To me, it’s just a small sacrifice on my part compared to the hardship suffered by the Iraqis and others affected by the US’ policies of invasion and politics against the Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians etc. I can only hope that my small (insignificant to some) acts can be likened to the little bird which helped Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) (I have blogged about this before but thought I’d reproduce it here):

The story about the little bird, the fire and Prophet Ibrahim: When Prophet Ibrahim [peace be upon him] was thrown into a fire that filled up two valleys by the evil ruler Namrod, some birds were flying overhead. Some of the larger birds saw this little bird that kept on flying to the ocean to scoop up some water, bring the water in its tiny beak and then flying back to drop the water onto the fire. After seeing the small bird going back and forth a few times, the larger birds made fun of it and asked him why he was doing that, as such tiny drops of water could not possibly put out such a large fire. The small bird replied that it wanted to do its share so that on the Day of Judgement it could go before Allah with a clear conscience, because on the Day of Judgement, God would ask him what he did when Ibrahim was in the fire, and he wanted to be able to answer that he did everything within his ability to extinguish the fire. Wallahu’alam.

I share you with the following quote again: ‘I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.’ ~Edward Everett Hale

Do what you think is right by your conscience and personal principles. If you want to boycott, do it in a respectable and admirable way. No need to insult and offend those who still choose to patronise the establishment or the employees. We are all given brains and faculties by God anyway. If you don’t want to boycott, it’s your choice and preference. But it’s a small sacrifice and surely your personal comfort is not worth more than the hardship suffered by those affected? It’s jihad in a way anyway. Even the little bird could play its part in the fight against evil, gifted as it was with a clear conscience. Can we say the same about ourselves? Or are we still intent on being selfish and refuse to think beyond ourselves?