Spent the first day visiting the main bunch of uncles,aunties and cousins-most with new stories,or old ones with recent developments.There's always sadness here up north,where modern technology hasn't quite arrived yet and the locals are predominantly conventional with pretty much everything.But they still manage to remain cheerful somehow,laughing all the time and moving on with their daily lives-chatting about their seemingly endless predicaments over meals,in the car on a journey to somewhere-when they're idle and their minds restless.
Second night onwards we put up at an auntie's resort in Tok Bali,a place about an hour away from Kota Bharu with a relatively small population,widely dispersed across vast fields of paddy,tobacco and all sorts of plants.It's quiet there,all day hardly a noise is heard aside from the constant cooing of cows,insects and the woosh-ing of waves as they approach the pleasant shore,where kampung children come in groups in the evening to run,play and roll around.
And oh,someone got murdered on the second day we were there!Thankfully noone we knew,but a man who lived a couple kilometers away in a tiny,single-level shack with his family.We got the news after breakfast,all of us shocked-in a place as peaceful and uncorrupted as this,there are hardly any crimes and things like murder and rape are rarely heard off (or do they go unreported?) so Auntie Siti (fellow resort owner) sent a gang of man-eating cronies (really they were her workers,one a gardener and the other a cook I think-but let's play along and set her up as the Tok Bali Mafia Queen-a post that sounds dangerous but also irresistibly cute),to investigate the matter-which was laid out to us before dinner,as I distractedly watched the sun settle on the horizon and the untouchable night gently crawling out to us.Apparently drugs were involved (they seldom say drugs here,rubbing fingers to connote cocaine) and the deceased (gah,what a morbid word) owed some money or something so a few men brought him out and smashed his head open on a rock by the nearby river.
The problem about a life too peaceful,too clean and innocent,is that the dangers swim below and go unnoticed-drugs and unplanned pregnancies are rampant in Kelantan,locals too often to helpless to fight the circumstances-with a government that looks down upon such things,that seeking help would bring disgrace so the victim's left powerless,alone and without much restrain,the strong grow stronger and the weak,weaker.
But,er,it was a good trip anyways.I'm relieved to be home again.Altho I wish Badawi would be a bit more assertive-the man 's often seen on the evening news,giving some speech about how kita sebagai rakyat have to do this and appreciate this and I'm starring at the screen munching on samosa's nodding cooperatively feeling all fired up and patriotic as he talks on and we're all Malaysia's So Bloody Terrific.
It is,isn't it?
Pictoors.
Look,this baby has a beer belly!Nah,she's probably bloating up her stomach for this pic to look cute.What a genius.
As usual,this and a whole lot more at muh DEVIANTART.
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