Mere 3 days, 2 nights
It was end of the year, with some vacation leave to clear, my friend sugested I follow her back to her hometown in Malaysia for the vacation. We took the night bus for the journey to and back. Did I mention I would stay away from Malaysia if I could help it? Its the same reason I wouldnt settle down in Australia even though I was there for 3 years. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of being the minority. All it takes is a different skin tone and language to set u apart from the rest. Throw in a history of hostility between the two countries, and u wouldnt go around flashing that bright red passport of urs. Once crossed the border, I feIt vulnerable and I could say I was afraid. I dont have the power of language. They dont speak English. Ask me anything, I would appear like a dumb duck. I depended on my friend and she gladly took charge. It was 4am when we reached Trengannu. We were the only 2 to alight as the bus's final destination is furthur up. The plan was to reach and call her dad who's at home expecting our call. 4 public phones- 3 not working with the last only for emergency calls.Great. 4am in the dimly lit canteen with not many pple around - malays and looking at us. We comtemplated waiting till her dad came but that could be another hour or so. She decided to ask the driver for his mobile and made the call.
Her suburb's at Kemaman. At daybreak, her brother brought us around. Had breakfast at this small scale hawker centre. If there's any rating of cleanliness like they do in Singapore, I would think most stalls there would display a 'D' or 'E' rating. But it's ok cos I ate and there was nothing wrong.
Being in a small town, everybody knoes each other. We would travel around and she'll see friends walking around doing their thing. As we eat, she'll tell me stories about the hawkers or customers whom she'll have heard stories from. It's nice in a way having pple who knoes of ur existence but like she say, once u do something wrong, the whole town would know of it.
Tmr the pics would be developed and I'll try putting some up in this blog and blog my journey through.