Tuesday, August 04, 2020

Port Dickson Trip


I told my sister at the beginning of the year that we should go on a trip in July, our birthday month, just the two of us. What with COVID-19 and her family, it ended up being a family trip. We were dithering between Janda Baik, Pengkalan Balak and Port Dickson, and the first option was struck off pretty quickly. And while there are plenty of affordable chalets around Pengkalan Balak, it proved hard to find one that suited our needs in terms of location, comfort and appeal (we were put off by those nightmarish cheap-looking bedlinen and curtains which seem to be the preferred choice of many chalet/homestay operators). Finally, we settled on Port Dickson. I quickly found four Airbnb with superhost ratings and presented them to my sister and finally we agreed on one of them.

We set off on Friday afternoon, 24 July 2020. My nieces came to fetch dad and myself and we left at 14:45. The drive was supposed to take 90 minutes but there was a bad crawl just before exiting the toll plaza so in the end, we arrived at our Airbnb apartment at Laguna Condo Resort. After settling in, we rested. Later in the afternoon, my nieces and I decided to take a walk by the beach. We could see the sea from our apartment but because of the SOP, we couldn’t use the gate near to our block and had to walk out to the main road before turning left into a road that led to Pantai Purnama. The girls waded into the sea while I walked along the beach. There’s a lovely elevated path along the beach and I walked along it before turning back. The beach was fairly deserted then. We then walked back to the apartment but I told the girls to go ahead while I walked on. I was making my way back when my nephew drove by and I got into their car.






We stayed in that evening. My brother-in-law ordered some food delivered by Grab and my sister cooked rice and fried an omelette. Then we watched some horror movies chosen by my nieces.

On Saturday morning, we drove to the beach. My sister and I then went on a walk up to Thistle Port Dickson before turning back (the elevated paved path stretched only a few hundred metres). My brother-in-law then picked us up and we went back to the apartment for breakfast.












We left before 11:00 and drove to Pengkalan Balak. We had early lunch at AsamPedas Zink and my sister also bought some food to go that we could have for dinner. After that, we drove to the beach. Funny that I never really associated Melaka with beaches even though I know it has a coastline (and the Straits of Malacca was named after the state after all!). We sat for about 40 minutes before driving back.





My sister and I went to the beach again that evening and there were a lot of people at the beach, some just about to leave, some setting up barbecues, a few in the sea, and others sitting on the beach. We stayed until sunset (there was even a full rainbow which disappeared shortly after I sighted it) before returning to the apartment. We stayed in again and this time, we had fresh crabs as one of the dishes. Yummy!!! Even dad forgot he was supposed to be watching his diet (what else is new!). Our evening was marred by the racket from the unit above us which started from 15:00 (and lasted until well past 03:00 early the next morning). I even informed the guard at the gate but he said he could not do anything as they were, in his words, ‘homestay guests’. I even informed our Airbnb host who had her brother drive down to check up and request the noisy party to turn down their volume – all to no avail. They kept on dragging the furniture around, laughing, talking ever so loudly, listening to the music, repeat. This is one of the things I hate about my fellow Malaysians: they can be so bloody thoughtless and inconsiderate of others. They want to enjoy nature as much as everyone else but think nothing of littering and causing inconvenience to others. They want to have a good time and think nothing about disturbing others. Seriously, how hard is it for us to learn from our travels, from observing how others live and taking the good lessons, learning from and not repeating the bad lessons, and generally being considerate thoughtful citizens?





 



On Sunday morning, we went to the beach again as my niece wanted to bathe in the sea. Sister and I went for a walk up to Thistle Port Dickson again. We got back, bathed, had breakfast and finished packing. There was some problem with the lift in that you need to call for it from the ground floor so someone had to go down, call for the lift and go up to your respective floor before the others could get down in the same lift. Before leaving, as usual, we cleared up and cleaned up the apartment and left it as we found it. It didn’t take much effort and a small gesture of appreciation to the host for allowing us to stay there. Sure we didn’t stay for free but it doesn’t cost to be civilised guests either. I guess it’s just drummed into us by our parents. We’re never going to be those who trash their hotel rooms, vandalise public or private property, make off with things that don’t belong to us. And I’m sure most of us were not raised to cause public disturbance, create havoc, destroy and vandalise properties. Just because we pay to stay somewhere doesn’t mean we have to leave our hotel/homestay units like a car crash.




My nephew drove us back this time. There was a crawl one km before we entered the highway. It turned out there were two young cows on the road running between the lanes. After a while, some motorcyclists drove slowly by them as if guiding them to stay in the emergency lane in the left. The young cows had somehow escaped from somewhere. The poor beasts must be bewildered and at a loss as to what to do. It was good that this time, the motorists were civilised enough to respect them and not mow them down. But it was also somewhat funny and so unlikely that you couldn’t make it up. What? Two cows on a highway? Heh. It did cross my mind if they were escapees from the qurban ritual due to take place a few days later but they looked young enough to me to be identified as qurban candidates.

We reached Ampang before 13:00 and stopped to have lunch before going back. Alhamdulillah, for the rezeki and time that Allah granted us to enable us to have this little getaway and here’s hoping there’ll be many more to come, insyaAllah. Three trips in July alone for me, Alhamdulilah.