Up North to the Border.

As I was having my normal black coffee at the usual stall, my friend, Haji Zaaba called me that he was somewhere in the vicinity. I invited him to join me and we were chatting about the latest addition in Pakatan Rakyat by an Assemblyman from my paternal kampong, the constituency of BOTA. I told him how brave he was to do such a stunt and I am proud of the right decision he had made. I am also proud that my ancestors were from Bota, Padang Tenggala to be exact.

Haji Zaaba told me he had to collect some document from his daughter in Kulim Kedah and also to deliver some household goods to his friend in Kodiang Kedah on 1st February 2009. He invited me to accompany him and I gladly accepted. The plan was, we were to put up a night at Danok Thailand, the border town up north and reminded me to bring along my passport.

We left Port Klang at about 0900 hours with two other friends, Nasir and Pak Long Tapa. The old Pajero was very comfortable for four of us but at times for those seated at the rear seats was a bit bumpy. Our first hit was Kulim at around 1330 hours to rendezvous with Haji Zaaba’s daughter. We had lunch at Penanti and stopped for our zohor prayer at the R&R surau. Pak Long was brought up in Perlis and his northern slang is still very thick. We were laughing when he said “kita pi, patah balik mai”. We arrived at Kodiang town at around 1600 hours to drop and left Pak Long Tapa with his relatives. The three of us adjourned to Cikgu Norbi’s house to deliver the goods. We had tea and the famous “pesembul kodiang” for snack. I was fascinated with his house, a beautiful set up bungalow right in a middle of a paddy field and a limestone caves at his backyard. I stood at the patio and was enjoying the beautiful breeze from the open paddy field. Few young guys were playing with the kites, typical paddy field scenery. I love paddy field because at the kampong where I was brought up, I was surrounded with rumbia and rubber trees. Cikgu Norbi invited me to visit him in a couple of month’s time during the mango season and insyaalah I would come.

We proceeded to Bukit Kayu Hitam and parked the Pajero at the Duty Free Shopping Complex. We traveled light and we walked to the Thailand Immigration checkpoint. Being Sunday, there was no crowd entering Thailand and it was the other way round that the cars were queuing to reenter Malaysia. We checked into Grand River Palace Hotel, a walking distance, only about 100 meters from the checkpoint. We were now in Danok Thailand. The room rate was only RM 65, well equip with TV, mini fridge and hot water.

Danok…..to be honest is a sin city. However not all the people who come to Danok are sinners? It’s a heaven for men who are looking for fun, dirty or clean. They have women for a night stand; they have karaoke with young beautiful GRO, discos aplenty, massage parlors everywhere and Tiger shows if you have the correct connections. Danok once a very quiet town had transformed into the bright neon light after the Thai Malaysian border extended the closing time to midnight Thailand time and 0100 hours Malaysian. It gave the fun seekers enough time to sneak back to Malaysia without staying overnight. The town is normally alive from Thursday to Sunday. For those who spend their holidays further north in Hatnyai would make a stopover in Danok before reentering Malaysia. Malaysians are the major contributor to the economic well being of Danok. It is not recommended for a family with children to stay in Danok. There is a special channel at the room television which is adult rating. Left unsupervised you get red-faced.

I was watching the TV3 news bulletin at 2000 hrs Malaysian Time and was surprised that the Perak Assembly Speaker had declared that two Perak Parti Keadilan Assemblymen had tendered their resignation. That was sensational news because Perak Government under Pakatan Rakyaat was in a shaky position and there would be a bye election. Perak is my birth home state and I was equally concerned. Never mind, I would get the latest news at TV3 Nightline Bulletin at midnight and decided to adjourn for seafood dinner. We went to the best Muslim Seafood Restaurant in town and for RM 43 we really had a good dinner for three of us. It was pretty cheap for the varieties of dishes.

Back in the Hotel room, we tuned TV3 Nightline for the latest development in Perak. Then we quickly switched to the ESPN Sports channel for the Liverpool Chelsea game at Anfield Stadium. This game interests me and I was hoping the score would be a draw, an advantage to my favorite Manchester United. The result was disappointing where Liverpool won by two goals to nil. However I felt that the Referee was utter rubbish when he red carded Frank Lampard, the Chelsea midfielder.

We had breakfast at 0900 hours and I like the “roti canai telor” prepared by the Thais. Unlike at our Malaysian Mamak shop, the Thais evenly spread the egg at the roti canai. Haji Zaaba had glutinous rice with fried fish which I totally avoided. Both ingredients are not good for my blood pressure, too strong compared with roti canai. As I was packing, Pak Long called and I told him to meet us at Changloon Coffee Shop as agreed earlier at about an hour’s time.

We walked back to the Thai Immigration checkpoint and it was a very smooth crossing, only three of us at the Immigration booth. We collected the Pajero, paid the parking fees and proceeded to the Malaysian Immigration and Custom checkpoint. There was no hassle too. We stopped for a few minutes at Bukit kayu Hitam Bazzar as I wanted to get some tamarind. Next stop was Changloon for coffee break and picked up Pak Long Tapa.

We hit the PLUS Highway and broke journey for lunch, refueling and zohor prayer at Simpang Pulai R&R. The journey home was smooth except for a stretch of heavy downpour. We reached Port Klang at 1730 hours.