Be Amazed with Kuala Lipis (Part 2)

I guess my last line in the previous post was a total lie. It wasn’t a moment at all. Days to be precise. I need to become a thief of time for today’s post. Ah yes, one thing I didn’t lie is about to tell you the beauty of Kuala Lipis—a town where I constantly mocking it. Well, that’s the beauty of criticizing. You can argue from every angle to any perspective.

Straight to the point, the beauty of Kuala Lipis, is, its people. They are wonderful creature. Hospitality is best suit to describe the people of this town. I do not really know the exact dialect used by the people here because Pahang is one big state and it contains lots of culture in the perspective of the Malay culture itself. Either you may know or may not, Pahang has a lot of dialects. I mean, for example, people from Temerloh speak, pronounce, and construct sentence structure slightly different from people from other part of this state. However, people of Kuala Lipis switch their tongues to speak with me (a complete stranger and a fat Kelantanese boy) just to build the comfort and trust of the conversation. They were trying to speak Kelantanese dialect even it didn’t sound quite right but who cares. They showed me a great honor, modesty and respect. Usually, people who come from other places need to suit with the environment but it seemed here, in Kuala Lipis, that’s not a case. Unlike the old saying, here, you do not really to uphold the sky from the earth you stepped into.You can speak your mother tongue freely. Amazing.

Look at this picture below. What a place! Yes, it may look hollow and deserted but it was during daytime—where people rushing to fetch their children or crawling away from schools. Rush doesn’t exist here. People are cruising through the town without any hesitation. To me, this is a place where you can run from hustle and bustle of city life without throwing yourselves into some tiger and elephant infested jungle. Your mind will be as empty as blank paper.

The last beauty of Kuala Lipis perhaps the most beautiful of all was I hang out with my father. Is that a beauty moment? I guess yes, if you have a father like mine. We do talks, discuss, joke and laugh together but to lepak with your father only, and no one else, is a very rare occasion. World Cup is just a mere platform and excuse for him to get along with me—something he never did since my mother brought me to this God forsaken earth. I was astonished. Having just a simple lepak, with two glasses of iced tea, watching the greatest tournament in the world was simply marvelous. I can feel his acceptance as an adult and not a young boy. We talk nothing but criticizing the game and the projector. It was plain and ordinary daily conversation but it meant a world to me—an acceptance towards adulthood.

Kuala Lipis truly is an amazing town!!

Be Amazed with Kuala Lipis (Part 1)

..What is Kerambit anyway?? Nice name, I like it though..

Some people find it very easy to amaze to certain things. Things amazed to one but ordinary to other. It actually depends to one’s perspective and internal cognitive thinking ability. Honestly, I don’t run very fast to catch up with amazing things but to tell you the truth Kuala Lipis is one literally amazing place. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to promote this hollow town but only to share my experience here and what this little town has done to make me amazed.

Well, if you haven’t heard this town before, you may google it but it’s just a small town that once the state capital of Pahang before they moved it to Kuantan. In fact, Siti Nurhaliza, Malaysian’s most adorable and well known singer came from here. Yes, Kuala Lipis is a historic town with all those ‘ancient’ landmarks and civilizations. Nonetheless, I rather doubt that UNESCO would choose this town as a world heritage. Enough said.

I went there with my family to send my little brother to his school. I have been there before several times for the same purpose (I don’t see other reason to be here). Let’s start with the basic need of life—the need to feed! I must say this place provides with a lots of un-scrumptious food. I’ve tried so many restaurants and countless of kedai makan and amazingly, none I repeat NONE of these food-provider outlet give something I can even eat of. I’m not really fastidious when it comes to food. I’m not Anthony Bourdain but rather Andrew Zimmern. He always said, “If it good, eats it”. Hell yes, but, I’m afraid the foods look not pretty let alone to be tasty. I know Kuala Lipis is geographically located in the middle of peninsular Malaysia, but it’s a rubbish excuse if you said you are lack of salt or salt shortage. Sugar shortage is common but salt? Come on! If you know where’s the best soup, or famous chicken rice, or crunchy turmeric grasshopper or anything that is good to eat, please let me know. I really mean it. I guess you will not find something to eat to your heart’s content here!

Honestly, my visit to Kuala Lipis is one hell of rare incident. Fever of Fifa World Cup is like a virus crawling through your vein; it affects your daily life. Your family, your work, your lives come to a stand halt because of this once-in-four-year-tournament. No, I will write about World Cup after it ends but not today. But here, World Cup doesn’t change anything. It’s like it doesn’t even exist! Weird, very weird indeed. I tried with my father looking all over this town to find a restaurant that has tv to show world cup matches—the hotel doesn’t provide my room with Astro. In desperately need of tv, we looked, we searched, we find the right spot. Yes, there are restaurants with tv but no Astro installed. Un-believe-able-ly, there is a kedai makan with 40’’ LCD tv with Astro installed to it, but amazingly, there’s no sport package! Hell yes that is one hell good marketing strategy if you ask me! No sport package! To add to my amazing moment’s list, we found a group of young men, around 20’, lepaking in bus stand, during the football match. Mengumpat pasal anak jiran Meon, Tipah, that her boobs are getting bigger, and talk about how to upgrade their motors when the pocket is kosong. I don’t know about your places, but, in my place, that is one rare moment. Finally, after all those hard works, we found it. Even it needs to look obtuse to see the match like when you go to pawnshop for mortgage. At least we made it to watch it.

I think I must stop now; the next part will be in a moment. I promise the next part would be the beauty of Kuala Lipis. Amazing!

A Waiter’s Life

Yeah, life of a waiter … Like it sounds, it doesn’t the best job in the world or any planet you ever visited. The job is done for one reason only: to sniff the paycheck. I don’t think one’s soul to become a waiter as his or her ambition. Honestly, when you were a child, playing sand or biting your classmates’ flesh, did you ever come across someone told your teacher that he or she wanted to be a waiter?

Actually, it is not my intention whatsoever to insult or to underestimate the job of a waiter. It’s good and most importantly it’s much better than begging and stealing. I was a waiter before—way years back. I have a lot of experience dealing with all walks of life. That’s the reason why this post is posted—as a reminder to us whenever we’re dealing with waiter. Another reason is I was triggered by my friend, Brother Bear, who wrote his experiences working with fast-food outlet.

Well, there were so much painful, agonizing, tiring experiences while I was working as a waiter in one of the most famous restaurant in my small town. Yet, it was a memorable experience when I found the beauty of a waiter. I guess that’s why they call it as bittersweet. But, for today, I would like to tell you, my dear readers about funny moments of when I was a waiter. Please allow me to write the events in both Malay and English.

Scene 1

Customer A came with his girlfriend I guess (Customer B).

Me: Nak makan ape bang?
A: Erm….saya nak western dua kurang pedas…bungkus eh western tu!
B: ……………..
Me: (Jawab dalam hati) Ape kau cakap ni setan!! Aku tau la awek kau hodoh, tapi tak payah nak bajet stylo ngan aku..Kau datang kampong mane eh jakun sangat ni?
Me: Errr…..western eh bang? Kita ade chicken chop, lamb chop, t-bone steak dan macam macam lagi lah..Nak yang mane satu?
A: Kan saya da cakap saya nak western kurang pedas 2 bungkus…
Me: Ye la bang….(Dalam hati: ko ni bodoh ke atau memang bangsat nak marah aku. Haish..belajar bertingkat tingkat tapi bodoh macam tongkat)
B: …………… (Bisu agaknya)

Scene 2

C: Dik, bagi kak chopstick 1..kuah nak black pepper.
Me: Haaaa…..???
C: Chopstick kuah black pepper..Cepat sikit tau..

Sesungguhnya wujud manusia sedemikian pada zaman ini..

Scene 3

A man with his wife and his son

Wife: Adik nak makan ape?
Son: Adik nak makan chicken chop….
Wife: Ooo, nak chicken chop..nak chicken chop tu nak yang ayam ke daging?
Me: Watta hell? (dalam hati; mak cik dulu belajar inggeris ngan cikgu jepun ke)
Son: Ayam…
Man: (Dalam hati berfikir macam mana aku nak bunuh diri)

Scene 4

G: Dik, tolong potong kicap pastu tuang lada..
Me: Ape la ko nak berbelit cakap ni, cili potong la.. Ko ingat aku ni bebal sangat ke sampai tak paham cili potong . Confuse abang!

Scene 5

Awek: Kat sini ade rojak ape ek?
Me: Semua ada kat sini, rojak ayam, rojak buah, rojak jemput jemput, rojak udang…. (kemain lagi aku promote)
Awek: Erm…nak rojak awak, bley x?
Me: Rojak saya tak de la (malu malu)
Awek: Alaaa…nak rojak awak jugak..
Me: (dalam hati; eh awak ni, saya bagi betul rojak saya, kang menangis plak)

It’s freaking funny. Believe me, when you are working in a place when you can meet all kind of people under one roof, it is very weird how human can be. Well, there were many other interesting encounters with these kinds of people. You need a very good mental and great public relationship for you to qualify to become a waiter. See, it’s not easy as it looks a job of a waiter. As an ex-experienced waiter, I suggest you, to treat waiter with respect because they too, a human being who deserves respect and dignity. Every time you go to mamak or other restaurant, it is easy to comfort the waiter by simply saying thank you or terima kasih or whatever appreciation utterances that suit with the waiter. They will feel much respected and appreciated by you. If you throw them shit, they will put that shit into your cup of tea. Just a piece of advice from a citizen of humanity.

Pressing the Play Button from Pause/Stop Button

First and foremost, I would like to thank Valen for literally pushing me, to write or continue what I left before—to write blog. Honestly, I’m not always fond of writing things plus I’m not a good writer. Apparently, I just write it. To my own utter shock, some people really follow my blog. Nevertheless, with all the requirements of the world wants me to be, I end up pausing this blog from moving on. It almost one year now since I started blogging. Well, I must say after few blogs I wrote, the exuberance is running away and left me behind with a swollen brain.

Yes, I know writing blog is like writing a diary but to me writing blog is about expressing yourself in words. While diary is for personal secrecy, blog on the other hand, is telling other what is in your mind. I do read many blogs way before I jump into the pit of blog and so far I have quite a number of blogs I always read almost on regular basis. Thus, I create my own favorite list of blogs. From politics, foods, places to travel, to daily life experiences written by my friends and others.

I have so many things to share all this while, it’s just my spirit to write is shrunk but I will try my best to write many things that cross my mind before, now, and future. As a starter, I just write this ‘brief’ post as a sign to come back in the field of writing blog. True, like Valen said, it’s freaking long since I last updated the blog. Mesmerized.

2009 is a year of death...

death is part of biological entity..everything that live eventually will die.nothing will last forever.death is whispering to ear in the nameless fear. there's nothing in this universe as certain as death. my father always said this~

" There are two things u can't run from; death and taxes"

we can be so happy today, can smoke, can sing, can see but if our time come, you will be six feet under..perhaps, if God wants to take your lives, you will be dead before u can read the next sentence in this post..when your soul is saying good bye, you will suffer the pain and agony..we always told to be ready to face the Angel of Death but are we ready for him? or are we not?



well, back on the title of this post, i think the Angel of Death is very busy this year. yeah, it is his job to take life. erm, let's make thing short, today, the head of the nasyid group,Rabbani to be precise, Asri Ibrahim died early this morning due to heart attack..he was one of the founder in the occupation of nasyid in Malaysia. actually, i don't really like nasyid group because i think they are bunch of hypocrites. well, i guess i can an exception for Rabbani and Raihan..their songs was once a pandemic to Malaysia citizen..he really spreading the the teaching of Islam and the good deeds to human kind through nasyid..may Allah laid him in peace..

erm.. i list down only some of the great name in local and international that died in this year...



1- Michael Jackson: i think his death is the longest and unacceptable by most of the Earth citizen.. he tried to change the world during his lifetime, but he transform the world after his death..enough said..


2- Farah Fawcett: she is one of the Charlie's Angel character in the series. she is so damn famous and she traveled to whole world to promote and gave speeches to help cancer patient to be strong because she also had cancer.. she died on the same day of Michael Jackson's death..the media is not giving too much attention to her..


3- Yasmin Ahmad: i like her so much..her movies and commercial advertisements really gave impact to the Malaysian. she filled the cinema screen with her masterpiece unlike razak moheidin, yusof haslam, ahmad idham who make rubbish movies that served to retarded malaysian...i even did not capitalize their name.. bastards do not reserve for that..

Malaysian political member:

4- Dato' Mohd Hamdan Abd Rahman: he was Pas state assemblyman in Penang..also a great man.

5- Ismail Yaacob: he was also state assemblyman in Manik Urai.. a noble man..

6- Razali Ismail: member of parliment of Kuala Terengganu..he was deputy of minister of education.

so many other politician died, even the exco of Selangor was dead too..well, Nordin Mat Top live long enough to die at another day..the raid in Yogjakarta few days ago allegedly killed him but after DNA result proven the man died in the raid is not Nordin Mat Top..

that's all for now...thanks for reading this quite heavy post..

Into the Sleepless Nights....

they got word for this..it's called insomnia..and i got this disorder since form two..it means i can't sleep well or in my situation, sleeping is something hard to achieve and u need to work hard just to sleep..pretty weird huh?? i know people love to sleep. some spend half of their life by sleeping all days and nights..there was a story told by my father that one of his friends can't sleep for days but once he shuts his eyelids, he can go sleeping not just for a half damn day but can last up to 2 to 3 days without even waking up...if you ask me, that's not just a compliment,~it's an achievement..







i love to sleep but i need at LEAST one hour to close my eyes..but, most of the time, it takes more than that..the disorder is killing me..i can't sleep at night when others are hugging their wives and husbands and teddy bear. mathematic and algebra require balancing~~when u hard to sleep, u hard to wake up..ironically, i am gifted with morning classes which i find another difficulties in my already difficult life..crawling from the bed that chains me, bind me, glued to me is something that my previous, current, and upcoming house mates punch their faces twice. it's like a victory to them when they are successfully wake me up..damn it~






amazingly, when the eye of heaven (Shakespeare W., Sonnet 18) touches the teeth of horizon, my eyes are dragging to close the shop.. once i fall to sleep, i will be haunted with dreams..i never missed not a single night, not even a moment of sleeping, without the attendance of dreams..its make me tired and my head is heavy..either the dream is good or pleasant or scary, it is part of my life..i hate dreaming of running..running from dinosaurs, monsters, demons and anything u can hardly imagine. these bastards are chasing me, of course, in my dream and i damn fucking sick of it. honestly, i hate running even in conscious situation..

i tried so many tips to make me fall asleep easily..when i consult the doctor, he said he can't give me the sleeping pills for a reason of the evidence: death of Heath Ledger and Marilyn Monroe~~~drug overdose..i ain't drug addict and perhaps for that particular reason they can't give me the pills..well, even it's hard, but i accept it because they are who-know-why people..the thing is, don't let yourself been spoon feed with bullshits just because of they are doctors and they consume their tremendous time learning all those stuff..well, mark my word, they are a bunch of people, who, like us, can make mistake too.. judge it with your own rationality..

my parents know my rusty problem and they throw me the tips, which are:

1- SLEEP EARLY...my explanation: i tried but failed..

2- SHEEP COUNTING...my explanation: this is ridiculous. i was once count it up to 3000 sheeps crossing the damn wooden gate but it also failed. i'll bet if count the sheeps or even the pink pigs using scientific calculator, it will also failed..i wonder where this so-called sleeping aid idea comes from at the first place? whoever the person is,he or she is a bastard..spreading the useless-technique to the world is something i hardly to accept it..

3- SELAWAT KE ATAS RASULLAH DAN BERZIKIR KEPADA ALLAH BANYAK2....my explanation: i am convinced this method is going to work and it does work..only me is not religious enough to practice it...ya Allah, berikanlah kekuatan iman pada hambaMu yang hina ini..

4- READ BOOKS...my explanation: it's plausible..

5- BREATH IT RIGHT...my explanation: even i use oxygen tank, it also failed..

p/s: there are more tips from my parents but i couldn't remember it..
p/s: have any better idea or tips to overcome my problem?
p/s: writing this post on wee-hour as one of the experiment to make me feel sleepy, unfortunately, as i thought, is another failure...

why tickets always gone??

malaysia is gifted with a lot of holidays. i love it~~one (or maybe the only) of the good things to live in malaysia..useless to mention it because we are all aware of it..the anticipation of these holidays means a thing: people hysterically rushing to their hometown with madness..put aside the responsibilities, tasks, assignments, jobs for one thing people love the most~holiday..

they don't give a shit about that, not even about the money, time, and energy just to get themselves be at home..furthermore, they are willingly to jeopardize their own life..you can read in every newspaper, heard in every radio station, seen in every television channel about death on the road during the festive season..perhaps, when foreign people see how lunatic the malaysian people really are, they will be either laughing or slapping their faces twice..




i experienced with own body and soul stuck in this madness. a journey where usually takes about 6 hours can become a half-damn-day journey. it is not a myth where big cities like KL becoming a hollow dead town during festive season..some say you can even have a picnic on the highway where during normal days it is a hell on earth..

in this madness, who are going to make the most profit? it definitely without doubt is going to petrol station, bus owner, and tony fernandes..make it simple, tickets are all gone and sold out right after the counter is open..then, comes the government to so-called rescue by saying there will be enough bus for the festive and what not. the reality is, there always not enough bus. the price of every public transportation will skyrocket to the sky..see below..






well, tickets are always gone in a blink of an eye..

khutbah tabligh authorized....

while i was writing "when death accepted as sacrifice"....and that where the story begins..allow me to tell you in BM and DK(dialect kelate) since these two languages were used during the drama....

TEMPAT: rumah teres no.66 jalan tukas 18/34, seksyen 18, shah alam

MASA: pukul 8 malam,

CUACA: agak gelap dan suram cahayanya

WATAK-WATAK(...ini bukan nama sebenar demi menjaga sensitiviti dan privasi watak watak... ):

1-karim
2-bob
3-kalil
4-tabligh01
5-tabligh02
6-tabligh03

****************************************************************************

karim sedang sibuk menaip blognya, lalu bob datang ke bilik karim dengan segulung akhbar lama dan expresi muka cuak dan macam kencing xpuas..

bob: wei, ado sek tabligh la luwa,
karim:..................................
bob: pahtu,gano ni??mu tubek etek r, gi sale lah dulu nga sek2 dio
karim: wei, aku paka boxer jah ni, cekak no g sepa taye perut dio,ermmmm.....mu tu paka boxer sajo guano kiro nok g jupo nga sek tabligh,
bob: mu tubek r deh g jupo meta pown xpo...
karim: ho lah, aku tubek r..nok smaye meta (cross finger)
bob: aku nok g toilet ni meta,sakik peruk gilo make kuwe ti yau abe ning takdi
karim: ikut mu la..

bob pown keluar dari bilik karim dengan hati hampa kerana tahu karim xkan keluar.karim mengunci biliknya.

bob: kalil, mu g r dulu tubek sbb aku sakik peruk ni
kalil: ok2, tp cepat sket r

bob mengambil masa yg lama utk keluar. eventually, dia keluar jgk dengan memakai kopiah dan berkain pelikat sambil membilang biji tasbih dari neneknya..

bob: assalamualaikum
tabligh1,2,3: waalaikummusalam wbt..

meraka berbincang-bincang tentang tabligh..

****************************************************

karim duduk dalam bilik sambil memakan chicken floss yg enak..bob mengetuk pintu..

bob: bakpo mu tubek?eiii,nate nih, aku redah piyak nga woh sebbeh ni bari reti baso taik ni...
karim: doh nok wak gano kawe dok make floss aye ni cekak nok tubek bagi 5 ore nah..

****************************************************

moral of the story, jgn anggap bob tidak boleh menjadi seorang tabligh..pintu taubat sentiasa terbuka kecuali orang-orang sesat yang cuba menutup pintu itu.....renung renungkanlah...

when death accepted as sacrifice...

sacrifice is a culture, tradition and custom in almost every religion practice by the human beings..there's no need to tell that Islam has sacrifice culture which is Qurban, where the Muslims slaughtered four-legged animals during Hari Raya Qurban...

nevertheless, death of the cows, camels, goats, and buffaloes are for religious purposes..well, that is not the case this post meant to be..when death accepted as norm, the life, literally, means valueless..i'm not talking about HIV, AIDS, dengue, swine flu but......ROAD ACCIDENTS........

we are living in age where life get killed in the road is nothing..accidents happen almost every minutes..wait, before i write any further, this topic is discussed countless time before. i'll bet you all know about it but just suddenly triggered to write about this abnormal accepted as normal environment..

i don't know about you, but i have seen more than 10 people died on road accident well of course i watched it live..it wasn't interesting experience but rather nightmare hunted me down at night..honestly, with these bloody experiences taught me how road, symbolizes as connection, people's facilities, to move from one to another, is ironically, kills almost 7000 lives every single year and it's rising every year...those lives value more than anything than this world rather than end up their lives on the damn road...

let's talk about number here..approximately, 18 people die everyday, and those people are not even in the news unless there a freak and terrible accident..as years move by, people are using more cars and sadly to say most malaysian driver are the worst driver on the planet..everybody can drive but not everyone can drive well..

there's something wrong about this country..i'll tell you what, this country need to be restructured from basic..improve public transport, practical and no bureaucracy + corruption in getting a license...well, i let you all think this from your own perspective..

p/s: irony of this post, i have driven both car and motorcycles since form 3 through peninsular,from south to north,west to east, but, i have no valid license...weird??
p/s: this post is critical-thinking...don't just read but think
p/s: click to this link for more interesting story..

http://oopsmytongueslipped.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-hate-these-kinds-of-driver.html
http://oopsmytongueslipped.blogspot.com/2009/05/now-we-know-why.html

raise your hands to the God, my brothers

i must confess, two months of enjoyable holiday was tremendously peaceful. i don't have internet connectivity, for heaven sake..as a matter of fact, my father used my laptop ever since on the very first day i back home..

naaaahhhh.....

basically, talking about my holiday or your holiday is absolutely bored to ear..but, during the holiday, ideas were popping from my brain desperate to put in the blog..pity..nevertheless, it is quite strange when my hands start to dance on the face of the black keyboard, the idea-less mind consumes the brain~~rusty old brain~~as always. making my fingers fall before it starts to dance..bangun jariku, bangunlah wahai jari ku...

back on running on the same damn business......

frankly speaking, my house was entered by the so-called desparado and guess what, with billions of dollar worth of equipment, they (because this was not a job for a single man) took without the dignity my dvd player and a 21 inches tv..damn it for crying out loud! the culprits were totally un-pro and in a bit rush~~based on Detective Conan's perspective..i curse them since they were born in this world..






the meaning of the title is not asking you to pray to God asking for revenge blows to the culprits but rather asking for protection and rahmat put towards us..told to my heart to accept this with an open heart~~redha..blessing in disguise..






oh wait...i need to tell you this, bear it in minds..the black bruises on my forehead are the sign of the true servant of God and not, i repeat not because of terhantuk kepala pada meja..ok, i hope that is clear enough. stop asking about my bruises!

p/s: so much for blessing in disguise after all....haha
p/s: did not satisfied with this ridiculous post...