Durian oh durian

Semalam telah pulang ke kampung sebelah emak setelah berkali-kali makcik Tijah menelefon, "Kome balik la, amik deroyan banyak ni". Begitu bersemangat makcik. Makcik Tijah pemilik tanah bersebelahan dusun emak. Jadi setiap kali musim buah, dia akan tolong mengutip buah-buah durian yang gugur. Kalau sedikit, biasanya emak sedekahkan saja pada dia. Musim kali ini, agak lebat pula. Makcik Tijah pun dah tak larat makan. Maka, semalam bersemangat la kami balik ke kampung di Parit untuk mengutip durian.

Pergi ke dusun rasa macam buat 'workout' pula. Untuk ke dusun emak, kena merentas dusun Makcik Tijah dulu. Aduh, jauh juga berjalan. Mana nak mengelak selut, kerengga dan pacat lagi. Makcik Tijah 'the leader' berjalan punya laju. Sambil bawa parang lagi untuk membelah durian nanti. Sempoi pakai kain batik dengan baju kurung kedah saja. Saya bertanya umurnya. Sudah 72 tahun! Tapi cergasnya, masyaAllah. Tabik betul dengan Makcik Tijah. Orang sudah biasa kerja kuat, malah boleh nampak urat-urat di kaki dan tangan. Rasanya memang tiada lemak malas langsung di badannya.

Hasil kutipan durian kami, dapat dalam 15 biji. Excellent! Di rumah adik Makcik Tijah pula ada beberapa balang tempoyak hasil dari durian dusun emak juga. Wah, sakan. Hehe. Nampaknya kena pakai mask sepanjang minggu ini. Kalau tak, kesian patient kena ambil bau nanti. Haha=p

ooh la la~

Siapa yang tidak suka durian? Ish2, ruginya. It's the king of fruits guys! Sesungguhnya saya tidak faham orang yang suka makan ikan patin masak tempoyak, suka makan cucur durian, suka makan kuah durian cicah dengan roti paun (nyum, lazatnya=p) tetapi tidak suka makan buah durian. Duh, sama je kan.

Anyway, ada banyak fakta menarik mengenai durian sebenarnya. Typhoon durian pun ada tau. Sila lah baca di sini, di sini dan di sini. Saya malas mahu kumpul dan rumuskan. Mahu pergi makan durian la. Hehe=p

~Kuching revisited 2

And here comes the third day! What a delayed entry. Hehe. The plan was to go to Sarawak Cultural Village for a taste of Sarawak’s custom and culture. SCV is after all claimed as Sarawak Living Museum. So, after a delicious breakfast of roti canai telur, we set forth. Thankfully the weather was fine and clear just like the previous days.

Sarawak Cultural Village was officially opened in 1990. It was a beautiful serene place built of landscaped tropical forest and a man-made lake. Located about 40 minutes drive from Kuching, here is where tourists can see for themselves the cultures and attributes of various major ethnic living in the whole state of Sarawak. I’m so excited to be able to climb onto every unique longhouse and the staffs are very friendly too. All of them wore traditional costumes and they’ll even give you a welcome dance at some houses. There’s a stamp and inkpad provided at each ethnic house to stamp your passport book (given at the main entrance) as a proof that you’ve been there. Each stamp resembles each ethnic and they’re very nice. Another added feature that makes me excited=p

At some of the houses, you can watch how some fine artworks are made from materials like bamboo to make water storage or beads to make colourful clothes. Wow, they were amazing. Also, a cultural performance is performed twice daily here and you wouldn’t want to miss it. They were great and entertaining. I really enjoyed it. So if you want to come here, make sure to plan your visit to enjoy the cultural dances of the many ethnic tribes.

I must say that SCV is a must visit to everyone who set foot in Kuching. The entrance fee is quite expensive though except for locals, students and those who work in Sarawak. Unless you want to cheat and produce an old yellowish student card (I’m sorry but that’s what I did=p)

By the time we’ve finished touring SCV, it was already past one o’clock and we had to rush back to check out from our hotel. After that, we had lunch to satisfy our grumbling stomach. I had pece lele, another version of ayam penyet dish except that the chicken is replaced with catfish. The rest of the evening then was spent shopping for souvenirs at waterfront. Our flight was at 830pm and it was bothering me and my shopping. How time flew so fast. My heart was sad at the thought of leaving him but out of the blue he said something that makes my heart fluttered and happy. Something that I don’t quite know how to respond to. Hee~

Well, we had so much fun in Kuching and I’m glad I get to treat my sister to a vacation here. Looking forward to another amazing trip! =)

:: Craving for yummy mee kolok and ayam penyet=p

Just being alive is such a lovely and wonderful feeling

~Aya Kitou

Huhu. Indeed I cried 1 litre of tears watching this drama.

I just finished it today. Suddenly I’m more grateful with my life, especially my healthy body! Such simple things to us, talking, walking, eating even breathing could be really difficult for someone else. This drama is based on the true story of a girl, Aya Kitou who suffered spinocerebellar degeneration disease. It’s a rare, progressive, degenerative disease which affects the nervous system that control movement. Initially patient will experience failure of muscle controls in their arms and legs resulting in lack of balance and clumsiness. Slowly, patient will lose control of other fine motor skills such as speech and eye movements. Usually a patient with this disease will end up needing to use a wheelchair and will need assistance to perform daily tasks. The age of onset and progression of the disease varies between each patient but generally patient retains their full mental capacity as they lose control over their body. So, this disease somehow is like a prison.

Currently there is no known cure for this disease.

Aya was diagnosed with the disease when she was 15 years old. At her doctor’s suggestion, she wrote a diary of her experience with the disease, recording every day how the disease was affecting her daily life. This was a way for her doctor to monitor the progression of the disease. But later as the disease progressed, it became an outlet for her to pour out her intense feelings and her struggles in coping, adapting and trying to survive her disease. She kept writing until she could no longer hold a pen. The diary was published two years before her death and it inspired many people. It was based on this diary that the drama was made.

The published diary

Aya Ikeuchi in the drama was an active normal teenager who excels in her studies and active in sports. She was only beginning the most exciting phase of her life. It was really painful and difficult for her at first to accept the disease. To slowly lose her ability to do things she love, to let go of her social life and to become more dependent on others. The drama successfully depicts the pain Aya goes through because of the disease. It must be really frustrating to not be able to move your body as you want it to even when you've tried your very best. But she stays strong till the end and it was really heart wrenching to see her trying her best to get on with life. There is not a single episode that I do not cry. And so excessively that my eyes are swollen right now T______T

This blogger has written a review of the drama which I feel described it best. Please read here. Please watch this great drama too. Seriously, it’s good.

Working in a hospital environment also has got this effect on me. When I met those unfortunate patients especially young children with rare, incurable eye disease. Or babies with developmental delay or other syndromes that came for eye assessment. Every time I became more grateful that I may not have so many things that I want but at least I am healthy and living this beautiful live. With that I should be happy and be more appreciative towards many other things that I have. Let’s cherish this life more people!

I am so emotional right now. Huuu..

p/s: Tisu Tesco sangat fragile, tidak memuaskan. Sila gunakan jenama Kleenex atau Scott untuk lebih efektif semasa menonton drama ini=p

~Kuching revisited

OMG. Can’t believe that my vacation is over. Now I’m back to work with the usual routine. I went to Kuching for 3 days and had a blast! It’s my 3rd trip there and this time I try to focus more on sightseeing rather than shopping. But that doesn’t stop me from coming home with one extra backpack. Hee~

I went with my sister and my best friend Mar with her husband Miju. Fazrul booked the tickets (MAS) in February and it was only RM180 two ways per person. Cheap huh? We arrived on Friday noon and as we can only check in at our hotel at 2pm, we went to his house first to sit back and relax as he and Miju went for Friday prayer. It was around 3pm when we finally checked in at the Pinnacles Lodge. The rooms are very nice, comfortable enough for two pax with spacious bathroom. They smelled nice too and it was a thumbs up for RM99 per night. I seriously recommend it. The evening was spent cruising around Kuching town, buy a new pair of sandals for my sis and had a scrumptious tuna sandwich and lime lychee ice at Kaya n Toast.

Later that night, we head to dinner at a restaurant across the river of waterfront at Barok @ the Village and we went there with a ‘sampan’ just for fun. Since we were all so hungry and besides the eatery lighting is so dim and romantic, no picts of the yummy foods are available. We were busy stuffing ourselves full. To top the night, we decided to go and watch Transformers. And of course no early tickets are available. But determined as we were, we bought the 1245pm ticket! I could just imagine myself falling asleep in the cinema. Needless to say, the movie was great and I really love to see the detailed transformation phase of each robot. Really cool. My favourite is Bumblebee of course. He’s so cute especially in the beginning when he gets mad and sulky at Sam. Also because I really adore the yellow Camaro he is. And he can cry too! Haha.

On Saturday morning, we head to Serikin for a little shopping spree. We team up with Ashrul and his family who’s also here in Kuching on holiday. Ashrul is an audiologist and was in my batch in UKM. Despite the lack of sleep, we were much in the spirit. For breakfast, I had mee kolok (one of Sarawak’s famous delicacy) and they were really really delicious. After we were done in Serikin, we head back to Kuching, had yummy lunch at Serapi and stop by at his house to pray. Then we proceeded to Bako National Park. Yeay! It was almost 530pm and the jetty was already closed but luckily he knew one of the pakcik who operated the boat there. It was perfect time too as we could catch the sunset in a beautiful place.

The famous hulu keris-like stone at Bako

How lovely the wind felt on my face as we set sail. We head out to the open sea and much to our excitement, a dolphin was swimming past by! However we had the most unforgettable experience at the first stop about 10 minutes later. There was a wooden bridge crossing the mangroves and the place was full with monkeys. We the girls were just enjoying the scenic forest while Fazrul and Miju were busy taking photographs of the monkey. Out of a sudden, we heard loud screeching and lo and behold! The monkeys were screeching at us, scampering up the bridge and chasing after us furiously. We ran like mad and it was a really long way to reach our boat. I felt like I’m in a 200m sprint. I did turn around once to find that the monkeys still not giving up the chase. I remember running as fast as I can holding to Mar who’s three months pregnant all the while wondering what the hell? Turns out that while the boys were clicking away, one of the baby monkey screamed for his mom and probably the mom and dad and all of its relatives thought that they were trying to hurt the baby and that send them chasing wildly after us. They are wild animals after all. Stupid monkeys. But after that we couldn’t stop laughing especially remembering the look of terror on the boy’s face as they were the most behind, just inches from the monkey’s grasp. Haha. Even the pakcik boat laughed at us=p

Debush! Kaco monyet2 tu lagi=p

We continued the adventure at the next stop. There we had to climb up a small hill and Subhanallah, the view from up there was breathtaking. The sun is almost set and we were just enjoying the moment. But we had to leave as it was getting darker. We reached the jetty back at 730pm, exhausted but happy. Dinner was great too. I had ayam penyet at a restaurant that claimed itself as Raja Ayam Penyet. Finally I get to taste the tasty chicken that Fazrul is always bragging to me about. The chicken's sambal is just phenomenal. Hehe.

Sunset at Bako. Enjoying the view up the hill.




The great troop

Well, there you go for the first two amazing days. I'll continue later with the third day adventure. Adios! (^_^)

:: More picts will be uploaded in Facebook