mission : pekan 2008

3rd year running - that's my (proud?) record for entering the oil palm estates & forest fringes for a bout of brotherly sacrifice. met up at church friday morning...
to load stuff into the 2 vehicles. after praying for guidance & journey mercy......

we started off at 8am & broke journey at segamat for breakfast...
then, it's off to our 1st stop just outside of rompin. the orang asli's (OAs) were already waiting at the community hall even as we arrived..

while others took their own sweet time...

all the kids got a dose of a dewormer & multivitamin syrup to take-away....

some appeared unsure of our presence...

....while others were openly protesting.....


the dentist fired up the portable gas stove ......
..to sterilise his instruments...

& the villagers know he meant business when they have their backs to the wall...



ah...a satisfied customer!!

at the end of the day, it's on to kuantan to unpack at our host MY's home. a short walk away was the same restaurant we have our dinner each time we're in
kuantan.

of course, it helped when MY is a regular customer, as we're assured of the goodstuff at fair prices...

...fresh fish, wild boar meat, roast pork, squid, towfu
& veggies...

no wonder the plates were polished off with impunity!! all for RM145 for 11pax.

the next day, we're off to the oil palm estates around pekan/tasik cini area.
the 4-wheel-drive sure came in handy.

this was where the abject poor live, staying in wooden shacks without electricity or piped water


it's no wonder malnourishment &......

skin ailments were common, but they looked contented
with their lot.

hmm...i wonder if their assemblyman/MP....

....are aware of their plight?? after all, there's no doubt where their loyalty lies...

a late lunch was served alfresco-style at the cafe de palma tropika...

thanks to MY who had cooked up a storm earlier in the morning..


all work & no play....well, you know the cliche. we rounded off the day with a boat ride in tasik cini....

& shoot some darts...

....bull's eye!!


worshipped with the locals on sunday morning....



then it's home after that. made a little detour highly recommended by a local...
this was on the road from rompin to muadzam shah. the reason was this - fresh ikan tapah, from the net...

to the table...


the udang galah...er...suffered the same fate...


CS Lewis once asked : is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?

there's no fire here but i think this comes close...

i'm already looking forward to next year. any takers??

new arrival

remember i mentioned my 4-plus-yr-old digicam failed on my recent vacation? well, i finally got down to getting a replacement today. i don't ask for much, so this is what i got....

it's not just the 9.1MP with Leica lens plus 10X optical zoom & wide-angle capabilities that impressed me.....

.....it's also a whole host of anti-blurr, anti-shake & anti-red eyes thrown in as well. actually, my personal preference would have been a dSLR but since the family needed to use one as well, i settled for a compact. my daughter wanted a sony T2, in pink of course, so this is somewhat a compromise.

but she said she wouldn't be caught carrying this (humongous) case.

hmm....doesn't she know that while in Rome, do as the Romans do??

PS. i needed a camera as i will be going for our annual pilgrimage to the orang asli settlements this weekend.

bangkok #2 - feeling at home

we're BACK & each in ONE PIECE!!

it was only yesterday when we read in the papers that Phuket & Krabi airports had been closed by anti-govt protesters on friday (since reopened on sunday) .....

& when we landed in KL this afternoon, we heard on the radio that a state of emergency has just been imposed in Thailand. phew - talk about a close shave.
or Divine Providence.

how were we supposed to know all that unrest was going on when we were greeted like this on arrival......??


& Chinatown was thronged like business as usual....


& we were having a thai feast.....




would you believe at this point my digicam malfunctioned? the shutter release button lost its "springy" feel & wouldn't click. so for the rest of this post, you'll just have to believe me.

no holiday in bangkok would be complete without a visit to ...

a ride on the.......

....a traditional massage or two, and SHOPPING. (yup, been there, done that!)

for me, i think there's only 2 places on the must-shop list - the weekend market/bazaar at.....

Chatuchak, where you can get garage-sale stuff at bargain prices & .....

downtown MBK centre where you can buy anything under one roof in air-con comfort. the best part was that these & most malls can be accessed by just 3 lines of the Mass Rapid Transport system.


we didn't feel that we were on foreign land at all, as there were many reminders of home - traffic snarls, tourist touts & taxi drivers waiting to make a few fast bahts. why, we can even identify with this cartoon...


ah yes, we felt right at home in bangkok!!