You've still got the Mangroove...

Aha I'm still talking about mangroves...and yup, the mis-spell is intentional - a reference to my good ol' mangrove campsite - Bakaugruv in Morib that I first visited in Standard 4 as my first ever 2 nights-away-from-home outdoor trip. I guess they wanted to tell that mangroves (bakau) are groovy - hence Bakau-gruv. Make sense? I'm only kidding there - "BAKA” which means seeds can be translated as “the gene – a gift”. BAKA started as a research project in the Faculty of Education University Malaya in 1980 to develop screening tests for children with special mental abilities. It has since progressed into a full-pledged programme to develop intellectual potentials.

The school trip was organized by our very wonderful and favourite teacher - Cikgu Nasa. He always wore the NASA logo bearing t-shirt. He was a very sporting teacher. He was the hockey coach, he also introduced us softball - which wasn't (and still isn't) a really popular sport.

Back then, us 10-year-old kids went kayaking (my first kayaking too!) and trekking at the mangrove forest leading to the Straits of Malacca. I remember taking the IQ test too (with no pressure of course)- I didn't pass it though, not smart enough lol! We stayed in the triangular huts (dangau) where there were only pillows & mattresses. The bathroom & toilets are at a separate area near the dining hall. It was sure tough for me as a (spoilt) kid. I remember the boys telling about snakes and the mangrove creatures - mud skipper particularly - cos I remember mishearing it - I heard something like "Mat Selipar" & I thought the friend was only kidding lol! We didn't dare to venture out after lights off and stayed put in our huts - not even for call of nature.

Fast forward to 21 years later (eeeek do not start counting)- Bakaugruv is still standing. The dangau huts are still there with the addition of dormitory accommodation with attached bathrooms. They also organize trainings, mangrove trekking (you have to pre-book a guide) & can kayak for free at the river surrounding the camp, but you have to set up & clean up /return the kayak yourself. We didn't do any of the activities, as it was already noon, plus we didn't bring any spare clothes with us. So we had lunch instead - kampung style. Yes, you can enjoy kampung style cooking here. We ordered asam pedas - it was cheap, but the taste was so-so only. They also have ramadhan buffet during fasting month, if you're interested.

After Bakaugruv, we stopped by at the nearby Morib beach for drinks. It was really hot, so don't forget to bring your shades & cap. Nothing much here, just food and souvenir stalls and a kids' playground. Don't think the sea is swimmable here.

Read more about Bakaugruv here.

Enjoy the pix!


You can kayak here




the dangau


the nearby morib sea

Updates...

sorry....i haven't done much updating since the last 6 months or so! thanks zm for the reminder!

so in short, these happened:

1. short road trip to Cameron end July '11 before puasa. with liza, zairul, amin, iris, razeif, isal & manto. stayed at century pines, which was just so-so. but raju's ice cream was (borrowing hindi movie expression) mind blowing. hehe.



2. moved department in Aug '11 (boring fact ;-p)

3. secret life of nora. not bad. loved adibah noor & tony eusuff ;) Oct '11



4. first nephew (or anak saudara) was delivered in Nov '11, a boy named Irfan


5. Also met up w/ the girls - iris, liz & farah at 1world hotel for hi tea buffet at cinnamon cafe which was not so bad at RM60++
Plus we saw screaming girls (& boys) as Super Junior passed by. Yup that K-pop group was staying there. We had no idea it was them, we just kaypoh-ed & played along hehe.
donowhat la his name hehe

6. reunited with my good friend, nurul. haven't seen her in ages, which is my bad. had lovely (but healthy) korean dishes. (Believe me this has nothing to do with K pop OK. I just wanted to try it) bibimbab. dec '11

Reminiscing Jakarta Part 2

Ahh...the shopping malls. I remember dad taking us to Blok M, where there is a huge handicraft centre at the uppermost level. We spent hours there looking for souvenirs, and it was all beautiful!

Public transportation is by Bis Angkutan Kota (bus) or Blue Bird Taxi. The Blue Bird group range of vehicle rentals are all based on “Bird types” e.g. taxis for high market (Silver Bird), car rentals (Golden Bird), charter buses (Big Bird) and container trucks (Iron Bird). Cute!

Oh, there's also the bajaj (pronounced bajai) which is like a motorised trishaw.

The roads in Jakarta were always jammed (macet), you can imagine there are 9.6 million of people in the city alone! At that time, there were already elevated expressways where you can choose between the tolled or non-tolled routes to get around in Jakarta.

OK here are some photographic evidence ;-)

Ibu Sumami wears the tudung actually, please forgive me for posting this Ibu, but this is the only picture I found of her....Aha see the Khong Guan biscuit tin there, I'm not lying you know ;-)

Me and Yana. OMG I was so gede (fat) :-p
This was on the way to Puncak on 07/12/96
Good thing I wrote a note behind the pix ;-)
According to the note, Yana was in Jakarta from 30/11 - 8/12/96

Me and Nazli. At Tangkuban Prahu, Bandung on 26/12/97
It was windy

Lomba makan btwn my uncle and my brother :-p
At Restoran Rindu Alam, Puncak. This was during the first school holiday of 1996 (May or June probably)
Love love the ikan gurame and air alpokat

At Coolibah II Resthouse, Puncak 8/11/95
OMG this bungalow is sooo beautiful, with a swimming pool, and it even has a fireplace!
It was so serene, surrounded by the cool air of Puncak and the fir trees
I somehow remember the caretakers of the house were Nasir and Ella

Kangen pada Jakarta

Longing for Jakarta...

Barrack Obama's recent visit to his childhood playground spurred me to write this. It was really sweet when he told his Indonesian audience that he was back: "Pulang kampung nih"

I've never blogged about my other 'kampung' – Jakarta. So here I'll try to collect the memories the best I can

My dad was based there between 1994-1998 so we visited him twice a year during the school hols.

We had fond memories there. House was Mampang Arkadia Apartment, Jl. Loka Indah , Warung Buncit, South Jakarta. It's still there! :D It's so spacious, with 3 bedrooms, we loved it there! Back then, we didn't have Astro yet in M'sia, so going back to kampung gave me a chance to watch satellite TV :-D

Mampang Arkadia (taken from web)

Love our helper – Ibu Sumami, she's so strong, she can lift a 20 litre mineral water bottle dispenser (over there mineral water is called aqua i.e. the most popular mineral water brand name, like we call Milo for chocolate milk here). Water supply from the tap is contaminated with E. Coli or fecal coliforms and other pathogens. Hence, the buying of bottled mineral water.

A 20l Aqua bottle

Missed her so much, such a sweet lady, how can I find her? She's probably in her 70s now. She earned extra money by cooking mee segera for the Satpam (security guards) at our apartment. She lived with us (there was an indoor extension to a tiny bedroom and a tiny bathroom through the wet kitchen)

Will scan and post her pix later

My father did his weekly grocery shopping at Golden Truly. The building was burnt during the 1998 riots, which mainly targetted ethnic Chinese Indonesians and their premises (possibly the mall was owned by an ethnic Chinese) as a consequence of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

But the mall still exists – based on the website, but it's probably at a different location.

Mom learnt to cook the Rawon dish from Ibu Sumami, at first she bought the bumbu, but later on, she prepared the ingredients all by herself. Me? I just eat lah hehe..

Rawon Sapi (beef) dish

Bumbu Rawon

Ibu Sumami also loved to bake us cookies every time we came and she would fry the delicious krupuk udang :-D She would store them in a Khong Guan red biscuit tin (tin = kaleng) I did help with cooking too, but just vegetable dishes. I would bang the sudip thrice against the frying pan to signal when I was done, and Ibu Sumami would burst out laughing. I loved doing it ;-p I remember cooking/eating with kecap Cap Bango or Cap ABC. I loved those thick sweet soysauce!

Kaleng merah biskut Khong Guan

Kecap Cap Bango

I brought 2 school friends to spend the holidays there – Elyana and Nazli (but at different times though). Brought them to the Taman Bunga Nusantara in Bogor and Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (like Mini M'sia in Melaka). Nazli even followed us to Bandung.

Oh, we also went to Taman Safari in Bogor, during our very first trip to Jakarta. The next day, a visitor was attacked by a white tiger after taking a picture with it.

I'll probably write more as I remember more things. Will have to dig up the old albums.

Heart heart heart Jakarta ;-)

A farewell and some stories

Ahh...had a pleasant meet up cum farewell for Liz just now. Iris, Faz, Farah & her hubby was there too. She's going to further her studies in Birmingham, leaving on Raya day.. Will be missing her loads sob sob... Gave her a Nick Hornby book - How To Be Good as a parting gift, for her to read on the plane

Reminisced about our gig experiences together. Talked about future gigging plans (in Japan maybe? Loads of saving to be done for sure)

This then came to Iris' experience of how she had to overcome all sorts of challenges. She is from a poor family, from a small town. She had to work immediately after finishing her SPM, then her STPM. She never took money from her parents (they couldn't afford to), instead she contributed to them. She took study loans to finance her studies, and it was during the economic downturn, and the interest rate was 12.75% Crazy or what?! That was really sky high. And it was a twinning program, with a year study in the UK. It was really tough for her. And all that while, she was also working, to pay back the loans. She ensured she didn't flunk any papers as that would mean more money to burn to repeat the papers.

I wrote about a similar experience from a girl I met on the bus one day back in 2006 here. It's a lengthy conversation, but do read it. You'll feel how lucky you are and be more thankful of the things you already have, but others can only dream about. (Reminder to self too)

Post terharu: Loyal teachers

It's always a pleasure to perform the Tarawih at my school's surau. It has been more than a decade since I left my high school! The surau is much bigger now, it has its own building. Last time it was just 2 classrooms converted into a surau for the girls. The boys' surau was a simple hut near the bicycle shed.

A few of my teachers are still teaching there. I get to meet them here.

Ustaz Ahmad doesn't seem to have aged a day- still youthful and handsome (ahem) and with the same moustache and the same humour. Only now he drives a Honda, last time he rode a big motorbike to school! Girls would swoon over him, he was really nice. And he was still single! He's happily married now though (which is a good thing of course) :D

Then there is my cikgu fizik yang garang - Pn Nurhana. She's a Muslim convert of Serani descent. Her maiden surname was Bates. She has hazel eyes. She was a really good Physics teacher, we were always paying attention to her in the lab.

Another teacher is Ustazah Norlida- also very garang. She would cubit the naughty students/those who didn't memorize the surah2 that we should be memorizing for our PAFA last time. Some girls would pretend they were uzur to escape the wrath of Ustazah Norlida hehe..But of course, she only did it for the love of her students.

I'm not sure about the other teachers. Perhaps they have already retired. Or they have moved on. But these 3 teachers still remain loyal here at my alma mater,SMTTDI. Terharu pulak rasa...