From Bangkok to Kuala Lipis

Just as we were leaving Bangkok for KL, my sister texted to say another sister masuk hospital kena dengue. Wow, my Kak De tak pernah masuk hospital. She selalu sembunyi her illness so hearing this made me sad.

We sampai rumah malam. Besoknya planned to travel ke Raub but by noon were told she was rushed to hospital in Kuala Lipis where the doktor2 pakar were. We rushed ke Kuala Lipis with a pending Xmas dinner at Medan Dsara with my two American friends leaving besoknya. I fikir tak payah cancel, sempat balik ke KL by 8.30 pm.

What a long journey. Org Xmas, jam berjam2.We got to the hospital almost visiting time (the hosp is very strict with visiting hours esp with ICU patients). 4.30 I masuk. My sister antara sedar and tidak. She started nak bangun buat minum petang for me and Nik. I sedih tengok. But that is her. Always menghidang makanan to her siblings every time we visit.So proud of us and our achievements. Antara sedar and tak tu, she sempat flaunt me to her misi: ini adik saya yang pi Bangkok tu.Walhal she tengah memengsan demam. That's her. Ever since I was young, my mom put her and my eldest sister in charge looking after adik2 di bawah mereka.All her life. Even when I was about to get married, yang paling sibuk beli itu ini, cat rumah etc was her (by then my dad dah meninggal). It was her hubby who became my guarantor when I went to NZ. She paksa. I pray to God that she will survive this ordeal. At 60 something, she just need to be strong. I pray to God, that time is on her side although semalam she told me aruah2 family members visited her and smiling down on her.My mom and aruah Mek all told me the same thing weeks or days before they passed on.

Please doa. 

Bangkok

So we took time off to bond with Z. We thought Bangkok would be a good city to unwind. Unwind la sgt, trapped in traffic jam for hours.Dah le berjerebu. Never ever bercuti ke Bangkok unless you are crazy on shopping Sg Wang style. Haiyo. Staying in the city isn't cheap also. Over RM1K per night, OK? Next time we won't think twice paying for RM700 or RM800 per night room in KL. Cheh.

But the hotel we were at had a good station of fruit juices at breakfast. I always looked forward to doing my own mix: ginger + apple + carrot juice. Syok. Boleh ambik banyak kali. Every time I would try new mix. Haha. But that was about it. Porridge dia pun tak mcm Chinese porridge in Msia. Yang lain tak halal except seafood dim sums dan yang seangkatan (vegetarian).

Taxi pun suka tipu. Dah terpampang kat meter 97 baht. Bila tanya, berapa (kita pun satu..bayar je le..buat apa nak tanya2 lagi), taxi driver said 200 baht. Nik ckp meter says 97. oh okay okay 97. Lawak, dak?

Then when hotel booked us a taxi for 200 baht to go to Asiatique..dlm taxi, driver minta 400 baht. Takda nak layan, OK? Kau ngomel le sorang2. But we gave him 50 baht extra sebab mmg jam terok.

Then susah nak dapat Grab ke Grub ke. We went looking for kedai Usman halal naik Tuk Tuk which pecut mcm Ferari. Jauh pulak tu. Our TukTuk seemed to be the only TukTuk on the highway. Balik we took a taxi. Tak berani balik naik TukTuk dah. Gila lajunya.

We think KL ni banyak sangat mallsnya. Try Bangkok. Bersepah2 malls. You want low end, high end..semua ada.Boring, OK? Orang2 kedai dia rude sbb kita Muslim. Dia ingat kita southern Thai ke? But towkay jual emas yang Poh Kong dok beli from them tu baik pulak, He biasa dpt clients from Malaysia. They sold Thai silk also. They knew cantik untuk buat baju kurung. Haha. I pun beli le.

Of cos' Thai trip means spa and massage. Weii..hari2 we went foot massage, body massage OK?
But that was about it. Don't expect clean riverfront or nature in the city. Pokok pun tak banyak.

I suka hotel we were at je. It felt like a holiday inside. :D

 lobster at Asiatique (tak sedap)

 hotel lama that still goes strong

 bigger than KL definitely (from our room)

 walking is faster

 naik TukTuk

 We think Bangkok overdid its Xmas celebration

the pool

end of year

Makin nak tutup tahun, makin busy. 2 nights ago Afif brought in 2 friends to learn English from me.Afif is like that. If he has something, he will share. So we stayed all night to go through their EPT English tests: speaking, writing and reading. I dah lama tak ngajar language proficiency macam ni but I shared what I had from bridging course at Waikato in the 80s. Mrs Burn taught us many things. I gave them those. Budak2 tu mcm improved la pulak. If technique betul, semua mudah. I guess.

Z is back and we would talk endlessly about Nazir Idris. He is now so funny. Macam2 helah nak ambik phone from the parents. Very clever now.Cheeky.

At work: non-stop meeting.We took time out to meet Z when she arrived in Spore for her meeting. Nik dah tak sabar nak jumpa anak dia. Then we went back a day early from her. Bukan jumpa lama sgt pun cos she was busy meeting all day, balik nak tidur je. So we spent time pi shopping kat Mustafa and Arab Street beli baju raya. Haha. Nmpk sgt takda hala tuju.

Today I feel good talking to international student leaders who appreciated the leadership series I organised for them a few weeks ago (but I had to go to Tganu) and looks like we are going to have a busy year together, InshaAllah.

As we close the year, I nak rakam my rasa sedih over Adib's death as the whole nation mourns too. There must be a lot of wrong if manusia behaved like animals sampai ada orang mati macam tu. May we learn from the tragedy and that aruah ditempatkan di syurga firdaus.

Death

I was still on AKEPT's leadership programme in Kuala Trengganu on Sunday when Prof Amir texted me about a young Chinese girl's death at Mahallah Halimah. I found out later that she came in Sept only to die in early Dec in Malaysia (buried di perkuburan Islam near IIUM sama dgn Tan Sri Ahmad Ibrahim and lain2 scholars Islam UIA. MashaAllah Tabarakallah!)

When I returned back to work on Wedn, Prof Dawood and I had an appointment to meet Duta Kuwait (we are doing our duta rounds. We did Saudi last week), Kaossar rang to say jenazah masih di hospital Selayang so off we went to vist and meet the family yang baru sampai from China.

The mother terus peluk I and nangis. It was very sad for us all. Anak dia tu the eldest of two. Not knowing how to express how we felt, we just hugged there in tears for a long time. I need to pass my strength to her and try to comfort her in her grieving. Memang sedihlah.

Then we spoke to the pegawai penyiasat who I wish could have been kinder but I could see how stressful his job was, stationed at rumah mayat.

Kawan2 from kull international unit were kind enough to attend the solat jenazah at the mosque around Maghrib time. May Allah reward them accordingly (I dah balik awal not knowing bila siap proses pelepasan jenazah cos' the Kedutaan wasn't that helpful initially but in the end, facilitated).