Wanderlust Diary – Page 37 – Peter Tan

An Unlikely Day

Today was a special day of sorts. In the afternoon just now, I was going to apply for the MyKad. As usual, when going out, my hair would be pulled back and fastened into a pony tail with an elastic band. To make sure that it did not get dishevelled, I gelled the front firm. Satisfied that I looked good enough to be photographed for an identity card, off I went with Peter to the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) branch at Sungai Ara. It was packed to the brim when we arrived. Not wanting to wait in the heat, we decided to try our luck at the Balik Pulau branch. It was equally as packed. We figured that everybody must be taking the opportunity to get their MyKad done during this school holidays. I told Peter that I will get it done after the school term begins next year to avoid the crowd.

The kampung road at Permatang Pasir.
(Photo taken during an earlier trip there on March 16, 2004.)

The kampung house where Peter bought the air nira.

We then went to Sungai Pinang to fetch Peter?s parents. His father is Mum?s younger brother. On the way, we made a detour to Permatang Pasir to buy nipah palm toddy, also called the air nira. It is hard to find air nira in Penang as many mangrove swamps have been reclaimed for development. To get the air nira, the inflorescence of the nipah palm is cut and the sap allowed to drip into a container. The sap is collected twice a day, once in the morning and again in the mid-afternoon. It takes many inflorescences to produce 1 litre of air nira which looks cloudy. It ferments fast unless refrigerated. The air nira is slightly pungent but sweet.

Peter talking to the pakcik.
Nipah palms are in the background.

We had to traverse a narrow tarred path to reach the kampong house that sold the air nira. It was RM15 for a 5 litre bottle. Peter paid for one bottle and booked another. As he did not want the air nira to ferment, he left it there and told the makcik there that he would return to collect both bottles after we picked up his parents. On our way out of the kampong, we happened to bump into the pakcik who had just finished harvesting the air nira for the mid-afternoon and also told him that we would be back to collect both bottles later.

Titi Kerawang.

Petai tree.

There used to be a stream beside the clump of bamboo.

Century old durian tree towering above all.

One has to climb down steps made from rocks stacked into the hillslope to reach my uncle?s house. While Peter went to fetch his parents, I waited by the roadside and took some photos. There was the towering 50-foot petai tree by the roadside and an old durian tree that is more than 100 years old and reaching almost 200 feet into the sky and is still fruiting. There was what used to be a stream by the roadside which was cemented up when the road was widened. I used to catch little fresh water crabs and fishes there. Now, it is just a big longkang.

Fragrant leaves.

Air nira @ nipah palm toddy.

I specifically asked Peter to pluck some fragrant leaves for me. I do not know what it is called. Mum used to add these leaves with the bedak sejuk that she made to make it nice smelling. I will be leaving them all over the apartment. These leaves will still give off its nice fragrance many months later when it is all dried up and shrivelled. When I reached home, I got Peter to fill the air nira into a 500ml mineral water plastic bottle for me. I took a sniff of it and was put off by the pungence. In the end, I returned all of it to him without drinking any. I did not manage to apply for the MyKad but I am satisfied that I have some nice photos to show for a pleasant day out. It was not a day wasted despite the circumstances.

Gurney Drive Escapade – Day 3

It was about five in the morning. My coughing woke us both up. We could not sleep anymore and lazed in bed for a while. The room window looked out to the east and we hoped to catch the sunrise that we missed the morning before. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy. The rising sun was hidden from view. We got up to get ready for breakfast. After getting all dressed up, we looked out the window to find the sea was bathed in a shimmering reflection of the sun that had risen about thirty degrees from the horizon, still partially obscured by the clouds.

The Evergreen Laurel Hotel is located just beside the Gurney Hotel. We dropped in to check on the breakfast menu and decided that RM29 per person for a buffet breakfast was a tad too expensive. Our next choice was Khaleel Nasi Kandar which was further up the road. There is only one nasi kandar shop in the entire stretch of Gurney Drive. Half-boiled eggs and toasts are not a Mamak’s speciality. It was a mistake ordering those. We would have had a heartier breakfast had we ordered roti canai or thosai instead.

We did not linger at the seafront although the weather was just right. We wanted to go back and pack up and then rest a while before checking-out. Wuan is always on the lookout for photo opportunities of pretty flowers. At the driveway to the Evergreen Laurel Hotel, some vines hanging down from the wall were blooming. Although it was not the prettiest of flowers, the morning sun gave it an unusual glow that made it an interesting subject.

Checking-out was simple. Wuan just returned the keycards and retrieved the credit card slip from the receptionist. The slip was printed out when she was requested to pay for room for the first night. We had booked a taxi to come fetch us. While waiting, Wuan went out and took more images. We did not enjoy this mini-vacation much due to my relentless coughing, food that was below par and irretrievably spoilt by the messed-up room reservation.

Gurney Drive Escapade – Day 2

We were awoken by Wuan’s phone ringing. It was her colleague calling to find out about our room booking mix-up. Wuan explained that apart from not having the room that was booked, we had to pay for the room that we were staying in now. She advised us not to pay anything and that we could move to the two-room suite immediately. It was a hassle having to pack and lug our belongings to another room but we were elated when we saw how spacious and luxurious the other room was. The master bedroom had an attached bathroom with a Jacuzzi that looked out to the entire Gurney Drive. We could actually be soaking in the tub and watch people walking by below. How sexy! There was a kitchenette with a washing machine and a microwave oven. In the living room was a sofa bed, a sofa and a dining table.

We did not spend much time enjoying our room as our tummies were rumbling in protest. We had a look at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf menu. It is located just beside the Gurney Hotel. That was convenient but we did not like what they were serving for breakfast. So on we went to Gurney Plaza again. We had actually planned to have breakfast there anyway. The heat of the morning sun on my skin was a refreshing change. I seldom get to bask in morning sunlight as I tend to wake up late most of the time.

Wuan and I never had Domino’s Pizza before and she had heard that it is better most of the others. We ordered the Value Meal which came with one regular-sized hand-tossed Chicken Classic pizza, breadstix and two cans of Coca Cola. We agreed that the pizza was “different” from the others but we liked the breadstix better. Having had our fill, we went scampering around the shopping complex. As it was still early, the place was rather deserted.

As classy as it may look, Gurney Plaza’s disabled toilets gets a one star rating out of five. One was too small; one without a wash basin and another was under repair. I have never been to a shopping complex with toilets that I cannot use except here. I had no choice but to put my diaper’s absorbency to the test. This is one of the complexes that I will not be frequenting often.

The battery life of my mobile phone was nearing its end. When we passed by a phone shop, Wuan dragged me in and made me choose one as an early birthday present. I liked the Nokia 3120 for its simple functions and nice shape. The shop accepted a trade-in of my old phone for a miserable RM80. We left the shop with a spanking new phone that will hopefully last longer than the two years I had with the previous one. We did not bring the charger for the old phone along. Wuan had to walk back to the hotel to get it as that was part of the trade-in deal.

After what felt like hours, Wuan came back with the charger for the shop. She had stopped halfway on the walk back to the hotel to snap some shots of a docked cruise ship that was visible from Gurney Drive. On her way back, she was distracted by a monitor lizard scuttling by the rocks. It had probably swam along the coast looking for food.

We had dinner at the basement food court where we shared a bowl of Taiwanese-style rice with salted vegetable, minced chicken and lotus root soup. I did not have a good appetite then as I was still coughing. We had wanted to go back after the dinner but were hampered by heavy rain. Unable to go back and too lazy for another round of window shopping again, we waited for the rain to stop while sharing a glass of hot chocolate. When the rain finally stopped, we quickly made our way back. They sky was still dark and threatened to pour again soon.

When we thought we could get a good rest upon arriving back at the room, one of the lamps blew a bulb and we had to wait for one hour before the technician came replace the bulb. In the darkness, we watched the replay of the Copa America finals between Brazil and Argentina while eating the leftover pizza from breakfast. That was not my idea of a relaxing holiday, eating scrap in the darkness. We had intended to have a nice dinner in a romantic setting but we too pooped out. We did not sleep well again that night with my persistent coughing every few hours.