Trengganu

The Masjid Kristal


Penarik, wild periwinkle with tall coconut trees

From Pasir Mas back to Putrajaya we have to take the coastal route to visit the new masjid, Masjid Kristal. Masjid Kristal was opened by the King and Queen Of Trengganu (I'm hopeless at remembering their titles) on Feb 8, 2008.

After a beautiful breakfast prepared by Mr. Darma's wife of nasi lemak and tapai nasi, we packed and head for the sea, leaving behind Kota Bharu, Pasir Putih, Jertih and straight into Trengganu. As we cruised, from Permaisuri onwards, I noticed every 3-4 km on the main road, were huge and beautiful masjid. Every masjid I passed, my heart ached and I doa that the people of Okinawa would get a masjid one day, even a small masjid will do for us. This luxury of beautiful masjid in Trengganu is the greatest gift of this coastal country.

We stopped at a sleepy fishing village in Penarik and saw the local cottage industry. Rows of ikan bilis, ikan tamban being dried up in the sun. There were some cats wondering around but they don't bother the fishes in the sun. I was told that those cats don't prefer those dried up fishes, its too common for them, they prefer those wet and flashy catches from the sea.

We passed Sitiu and then we saw the Masjid Kristal from the highway. We had to make a big turn going towards the masjid ground.

Its more like painted glasses and most of the building are glassess.

We can do solat in this masjid and the neighbouring land is called Pusat Tamadun Islam where there are miniature copy of famous masjids of the world.

Kuala Abang beach
We saw a beach at Kuala Abang that is exactly like the beach in Okinawa. Clean, clear water, beautiful rocky beach stones and deserted, noone is around.

Real Kelantan food

After a beautiful spread of food for breakfast, we made our way to Pantai Cinta Berahi, which has changed to Pantai Cahaya Bulan recently. There were rows of small stalls selling coconut water. We sat by the beach and slowly sipped the coconut water with the South China breeze blowing from the sea.
We popped in the Bazaar Buluh Kubu but I didn't buy anything at all. I saw some tudung bawal but the materials for the scarf are too transparent and thin. I am worried, with the uncultured way I fashion my scarf, some part of this hair would show in the see-through material.

Then, I stepped in Pasar Siti Khadijah, which to me is like any wet market, only the things sold are quite new to me, like pickled sukun fruits and turtle eggs. I couldn'd stay long at the market because the most sensitive part of my body is my nose.

I had to run out of the market, practically. From there we went to Rantau Panjang, took some beautiful pictures at the Customs Point but I am too tired to upload now.



This is the lunch that Mr. Darma Mohammad's wife prepared for us.
Nasi kerabu with solok petola and lada, celur buah beko (very new to me). Buah beko reminds me of snake, with flat body, a head and a tail.

This is something we had for dinner, pulut durian and rice tapai and some keropok lekur. I can feel the heat building up in my body as I wrote this entry. If unavoidable, maybe I need to take a little shower before going to bed to night.

After the rest and the good lunch, we head to Kampung Geting. Mr. Darma said this village is designated officially as the cottage industry of dried fish like ikan bilis and salted fish. We saw rows of ikan selar kuning being dried in the salty air and sea breeze.

Dangar, Pasir Mas.

Pasir Mas

Sakura and I made our way to Putrajaya sentral early to avoid the early morning rush hour to be in time for our express bus that depart at 8.30 in the morning.

We needed to change to another bus at Hentian Putra in KL and at 9.30, we were on our way to Pasir Mas.

Our journey took us to Bentong, Raub, Gua Musang, Kuala Krai, Machang, Tanah Merah and at last Pasir Mas. Stopping for lunch at a deserted nowhere in the world sort of place named Merapoh for 45 mins.
The stop was good for my legs, we sat for 4 hours in the bus and walking during this lunch break was a relieve for me.
Anyway, after the rest we had to sit for another 3 hours to complete the journey.
Mr Darma was already there to meet us at the station and we were all taken to his house.
He has such beautiful home. First thing I did was to go around the house to pick some ilang-ilang blooming (bunga kenanga), some cempaka telur and some limau purut. He has many varieties of flowers and fruit trees growing all around the house.
For the first time in my life, I took burung puyuh(quail) for dinner, fried version.
Maybe the people here take burung puyuh like us in Japan take chicken everyday.
While we were at the taxi station, taking our luggage out, I saw something so beautiful. There was tamarine tree, (pohon asam jawa) and on the main dividing branch of the tree, grows a small variety of white, wild orchid.
Very white and small, fully bloom hanging down, spreading like an umbrella.
Have to finish up this entry now , its late at Mr. Darma's Resident.

Pasir Mas, Kelantan

Ziarah Putrajaya

Maafkan saya, saya sekarang berada di salah sebuah sibercafe di Putrajaya - Pusat Siber JFAI. Rumah teman yang saya menumpang tidur sekarang tidak punyai laptop dan rasanya dah lama benar tak menjenguk blog sendiri.

Rindu pada teman-teman siber sangat kuat sampaikan saya paksa kawan ini bawa ke tempat ini.
Terima kasih pada semua komen-komen dan maaf sekali lagi sebab saya tidak dapat membalasnya.

Saya sampai di KL dengan KTM dari Singapore pada Jun 16, 2007.

Malamnya saya menghadiri majlis perjumpaan dengan dua orang pendaki FUJI (MBA dan Aahar), selainnya yang datang ialah ahli-ahli forum BashoHut. Mereka ialah sdr ep dan isteri,
sdr Darma Mohammad, sdr TabirAlam, sdr sakura, sdr teratai dan sdr erisya.

Hari kedua (Jun 17, 2007) di Putrajaya, saya memziarah ITNM (Institut terjemahan) untuk sesuatu tugas rasmi dan terserempak sdr Wan A. Rafar, seorang penulis dari Pasir Mas. Sempat juga kami bergambar.

Hari ketiga (Jun 18, 2007), saya dibawa ke DBP untuk pertemuan dengan salah seorang pegawai di sana atas urusan peribadi. Sempat juga kami bergambar lagi. Tapi gambar-gambar itu saya tidak dapat upload sekarang.

Esok, mungkin saya akan adakan perbincangan haiku dengan salah seorang ahli di Putrajaya.
Di sebelah malamnya, saya akan bertolak bersama 4 orang teman lagi menuju ke Kelantan.
Hari Jumaat, Sabtu, Ahad (Jun 21-23, 2008), saya menziarah tempat-tempat indah di Kelantan dan Masjid Kristal.
Kami juga dijemput menziarah keluarga sdr Darma Mohammad di Pasir Mas.

InsyaAllah, saya balik semula ke PUtrajaya dan hari isnin (Jun 24, 2008) saya akan bertentang mata dengan Mak Andeh dan Kak Yan buat pertama kali sesudah beberapa tahun mengenali mereka dalam blog.

Slot untuk hari selasa dah penuh dan saya balik ke Spore pada hari Rabu. Tapi cerita di KL belum habis lagi, saya akan kembali ke KL buat kali kedua, insyaAllah.

Some pictures http://mba.fotopages.com/

Presint 9, Putrajaya, Pusat Siber JFAI.
Jun 19, 2008

Thumb print

Had to cross over to JB today to update some stuff, to activate some cards. My brother-in-law didn't want to send me since the filling up on gasoline at Johor stand is not worth anymore. I took the JB-Spore taxi. Getting in, I immediately asked for the "white card" and to my surprise, no more white card is needed.

Ini semua pasal itu satu orang sudah lari keluar jail, the driver tried to explain. What orang?
what jail?
apasal dia sudah lari?
that were my questions.
Kakak, apa pasat lu tak dengar kah? Kakak mana mari?
I kept quite, don't want to tell anything but the talkative driver still carried on talking.

Then at the immigration point, the thumb print scanner was passed around in the car for each of us to scan. Well, I like this thumb print thing, at least I don't have to scribble on that white card and sometimes misplaced it on the return trip.

The driver dropped us at some designated drop-off-point and immediately I took the local taxi. Its about 1km away to my designation but the driver told me the fare is rm10 and the meter is broken. Suka hati engkaulah.
He overshoot the bank front entrance and told me he didn't realized it...hey brader, you are the local driver, don't shit me.
Maaf ye, saya tak perasan tadi...
malas aku nak layan...
get out and bang the door.

During some fund-transferring at RHB, this counter girl, sweetly tell me.
Kakak boleh tak tulis cepat sikit, saya nak keluar makan!

I, too with my sweet voice told her,
"awak nak makan, pergilah makan, takkan orang lain tak boleh ganti"?
I cannot even swallow this situation...a bank counter girl telling me, the bank customer to hasten the form writing.
Of course, nothing would change my life and when I turned to the counter again, I still see her there.
With some sarcasm, "kata nak keluar makan, kenapa ada lagi"?
Feeling guilty, she said, "saya tunggu kakak habis"...
tahu pun-tolol!

I observed and I am happy to have the chance to compare, only after comparing do I know how beautiful the other side of midnight is.

Taman Pelangi, Menara Pelangi, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Ho Fan, Rojak Mamak.

Hari ini, Ahad, seperti biasa, anak dara dua orang itu menghadiri kelas ugama di Darul Arqam. Selepas kelas itu, kami berjalan menuju ke kedai makan Teh Tarik, sebuah kedai makan yang diiktirafkan oleh MUIS (Majlis Ugama Islam Spura) sebagai kedai menyediakan makanan halal.
Ho fun, ho fun...apakah ho fan itu saya berfikir sebab kedua-dua anak ini sibuk mengatakan saya mesti merasa hidangan ini.
Bila ho fan dihantarkan dan saya rasa. Kuih teow goreng berkuah kicap dan dulu-dulu mereka panggil dengan nama mi Hong Kong.
Ada juga saya terlihat keropok lekur panjang. Dapat juga rasa lekur dari Spore.
Sepinggan ho fan sudah cukup untuk menyegahkan perut ini sampai ke malam masih kekenyangan juga.
Ada satu lagi yg baru. Air batu dengan sepihan buah durian belanda bercampur sea-coconut (kelapa laut). Apa benda sea-coconut itu saya tak pasti tapi selepas makanan yg berminyak, rasanya air batu durian belanda diperah dengan limau kasturi, rasakan membersihkan tekak.
Ini no handset di spore 94295176.
Saya jarang buka laptop ini sebab banyak urusan luar yg perlu dilakukan.

Hari ini dapat juga rasa rojak mamak, yang berbagai fish cake, sotong, telur bercecahkan kuah merah secawan. Kuahnya tidaklah berapa sedap sangat. Saya masih ingat masa kecil, setahun adalah sekali dua, bapa bawa balik rojak ini. Saya suka sangat dengan kuahnya sampai esok harinya saya campurkan dengan nasi. Tapi tadi pagi kuah rojak itu rasanya macam boleh masuk longkang.

Yang saya rasa pelik, masa makan itu ada berbagai orang datang meminta duit menjual ayat-ayat suci. Yang pertama datang, saya belilah dalam satu dua keping tapi selepasnya yang lain datang berturut-turut minta duit.

Bukannya apa, bila masukkan ho fan dalam mulut, tengah menunduk dan mulut penuh, mereka datang. Maka apabila saya mengangkat muka waktu-waktu begini, semuanya dalam mulut bertempias ke muka yang cantik bermekap. Nak marah pun tak boleh sebab makanan penuh di mulut. Nak layan bercakap, saya tengah sedap menikmati makanan, jadi terpinga-pinga juga dibuatnya dan terputuslah rasa kesedapan makanan di meja.
Nak marah pun ye, rasa kasihan pun ye, meluat pun ye...berbagai rasa dalam satu pandangan.

Rupanya tandas di spore ini memang sudah bersih. Orang awam pandai tekan butang selepas menggunakannya tapi mana datang bau yang rasanya boleh melekat ke pakaian. Saya perhatikan bersih tapi bau yang pekat masih ada lagi. Lagi pun mereka pakai air dan air itu melimpah-limpah ke lantai, sepatutnya disebabkan air itu membersihkan lantai, hilanglah bau pekat tapi masih sepekat-pekatnya.
Inilah yg saya tak sanggup.
Sejak saya sampai sini, hari ini sudah masuk 5 hari. Cuacanya dingin dan mendung. Sungguh sedap seperti awal summer di Okinawa.

Kalau buat panggilan itu, berilah tau nama dan kenalkanlah diri. Kad prepaid ini saya tak gunakan lagi selepas saya kembali ke Jepun, itulah sebabnya saya rasa tidak perlu untuk merahsiakan no itu.

Geylang Serai, Darul Arqam, Teh Tarik, Spore.

Nangka sulung

Inilah lada hijau dan lada merah yang berhasil di kebunku.

Nangka perantau
semaian benih itu
terhasil sulung
nikmat manisannya
kanku sabar menunggu.

*********

(Ini tanka, sejenis puisi Jepun.)

*********

Inilah nangka yang mengeluarkan hasil pertama.

Ia akan dijaga dengan kasih sehingga kukembali, insyaAllah.