A reunion which lasted well into the wee hours...

Time 5:11 am of 12 Sept. I've just finished loading 19 pictures on-line. Am in front of Kajang's Kentucky Fried Chicken hitching a ride on the wi-fi which turned out to come from the adjacent Pizza Hut after returning from a reunion with college friends which lasted well into the wee hours.

As I'm already on the way outstation I am not able to properly provide stories for the pictures. So let me just present it as it is until I have time to do a proper article ya. Good night! :]

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Time 1.21 am of 14 Sept. Just got back home from my wife's kampung at Tanjung Sepat plus detours at Kelana Jaya and Ikea Damansara. So I shall try to fill in the blanks...

Back to the little reunion we had in time for buka puasa, Friday 11th September. Time then was about 7 pm I think. Or was it earlier? Still we have at least a good 20 minutes or so before berbuka...

In the pix are (clockwise from right): Nam, Mumbra, his wife Wan H, Bad, John @ Johan Aris (there's a number of Johns from the A-Level days right? And don't even start with the toilet John, hehe...) and my dear wifey...

We were then waiting for a few others to show up. As I understand then, those who said they would come but have yet to show their faces were Maizarul (that's your right spelling kan?), Fifi, Kawi and from Nam's e-mail, Hilmi... I think this is the person we remember as John Softball, heh! (Remember what I said earlier above the number of John's from the A Level days?)

It seems this restaurant recommended by a number of our guys (who couldn't make it for this buka puasa session) is quite popular. As far as I could see, all the tables have been pre-booked and most by people who are Kelantanese or sounded like Kelantanese...

Then again what do you expect? It is after all a Kelantanese restaurant. FYI, the Darul Naim after MZ as shown on the signage refers to Kelantan Darul Naim.

Anyway as it turned out me and wife were the first to arrive, sometime just before 6.30 pm... after having succesfully avoided bad traffic from Jalan Ipoh by taking the DUKE highway and then cutting through PULAPOL leading to Tasik Titiwangsa and then on to Kampung Baru. John @ Johan (hmm... I think it's easier to use his real name to avoid confusion among the many Johns) arrived minutes later from Shah Alam. Just as we were exchanging greetings, Nam who made the booking for the buka puasa solemnly appeared...

Food are nice and affordable. And I understand it is tasty too, a testimonial which I could only agree later after the berbuka. As for the name of the dishes, let the pulun experts have their say. You could use the comments section below...

Apart from the taste and affordability, this restaurant was highly recommended because it is very close to Masjid Pakistan. Thus we could do our Maghrib prayers in time...



One for the road. Just to show the inside of the mosque which tends to be frequented by tabhliq followers.


Then we returned to the tables to continue from where we left off. By then Fifi (furthest right) and Maizarul (furtherst left in the same row) were already in the picture...




Oh. Forgot to mention. Zuhairi, the guy sitting on Johan's left has also arrived. So there's already 10 of us including yours truly who likes to remain invisible being the unofficial cameraman who also runs 3 regular blogspots.

Actually all throughout this session so far, the only other person I thought would come but has yet to show his face was Kawi. I didn't know then that John Softball was in the list...


Whatever, I understand that Kawi would definitely come. But where is he? We waited and waited until the restaurant was closed just before 9! So we have to continue our little gathering at a foodstall outside...




OK. This is actually a better version of the previous picture. I decided to show the previous along with this one because it has a certain ghostly (or is it ghastly?) character to it, hehe. No, no malice intended. Just nice effects I think because the long exposure resulting from night pictures tends to make moving objects (or person) blurry...




Sometime later Kawi showed up. It seems that he indeed have to take the ferry to Kuala Kedah before driving off to KL for this meet. It seems so because then, he was actually stationed just somewhere near Taman Melati. Maybe he had to row a sampan through Sungai Gombak on to Sungai Kelang and out to the Straits of Melaka and back to his native Langkawi. And from there take a ferry to Kuala Kedah before driving to KL. Who knows? For this guy can spin quite a yarn I understand! :]



So there we are. Final tally, 11 of us... well 10 if you count out my wife who is 5 years younger and not from our A Level group, each one well-equipped to spin our own yarns...




Later the total number was reduced to 6 as the rest each have their own commitments to return to. Never mind, perhaps we were luckier in that we have put our houses in order earlier and thus able to spend more time out, perhaps... what's a few more hours to spend with friends you hardly meet or never ever met in the last 20 years or so?

Thank God there's a nice Malay-owned restaurant which remains open late just 100 metres from Masjid Kampung Baru offering very affordable western food and in fair portions too. It is a nice cosy place with a real 20-30 feet-long boat stationed inside as if it has been washed in from the Tsunami of 26th December 2004! We continued our little meet there not expecting that it would last well into 3 am or so, the time the restaurant is closed on weekends. I guess certain old memories are indeed very rejuvenating, sort of lending strength from our much more younger days!

Why, I remember Mumbra and Wan H looking rather sleepy at 1 am. But the moment the conversation unintendly veered towards some old friends and their past characters compared to current ones, their eyes immediately gleamed up! It did look like the conversation could well last till Subuh... if not for the fact that some of us have to Sahur with the kids or families at home...


We soon parted ways. That's when Mumbra and me along with our wives decided to head for the nearby Masjid Kampung Baru. As it turned out the mosque was opened 24 hours, maybe for the last 10 days of Ramadhan to allow everyone to partake of the blessed nights. The quiet plus the aura was very soothing. Those who have spent some time in mosques at such hours alone with little or no disturbance would be able to understand...



Anyway, chances are we would immediately pengsan upon reaching home after our long meet. Hey, we are not that young anymore OK, we are all approaching 40, some of us already are if you count the years in Hijriah. Some have kids which are as old as we ourselves when we first met 20 years ago. So might as well do our prayers, Isyak, Tarawikh and all before really calling it quits.



A picture of the mosque as me and wife left. By then we have parted ways with Mumbra and wife...


Spontaneously we decided to check out Chow Kit. As it turned out some of the stalls were still open because of the coming festive season and we were able to get some stuff which we earlier thought we would only get right after the meet. Little that we know the meet (at least for us) would only end in the wee hours. When the clock went past 1 am, naturally it's time to forget any shop...

For the sake of friendship, we forsaked our plan to buy the said goods. After all, it is already hard enough to get us guys to meet up. As for the goods, there could be other days although in this case the goods we had in mind were actually ordered by our kith and kins. You see me and wife were scheduled to return to my wife's kampung at Tanjung Sepat later that day and the place is more than 100 km away.

For the sake of friendship, we let Allah decide if we could get the goods later. Alhamdulillah, our dear Lord never forsake us. We got what we wanted although the time then was way pass 3 am. And with that I end this little article. Good night! :]

Enjoying Aceh traditional dance by crashing a private function...

The title should be explanatory enough. After me and wife returned from our leisurely rounds as shown in the article A leisurely afternoon in Banda Aceh and reflections on its socio-political conditions... we saw a troupe of traditional dancers sitting at the hotel lobby. Now, since we stepped down the plane upon reaching Aceh we always wanted to have a good look at the traditional dances. There was a troupe performing at the arrival hall of the airport but we weren't able to enjoy it because we have to rush to the immigration check-point and all.

Thank God, 4 days later we accidently came across the troupe at the hotel. We were told that there would performances inside our hotel! It's just we have to practically gate-crash a private function. So without much further ado, let me present video clips taken at the function ya.

The opening dance... by a group of university students I was told... good-looking ones too...




There's also a reading of the Quran...




Time for the kiddies to show their mettle...




The ladies who opened the session came back to show more...

It's the turn of a younger group of ladies to prove their worth...




Well. I guess they could beat the seniors fair and square as they were given more stage room and were practically the main course... as in the main traditional dance performers of course. I hope you have enjoyed the videos. Good night! :]

A leisurely afternoon in Banda Aceh and reflections on its socio-political conditions...

Peace be upon you all! The article From Perlak to Geudong, seat of the powerful twin ancient kingdoms of Samudera and Pasai! practically ends the Aceh activities for Thursday. We then returned to Banda Aceh and arrived early morning Friday... time to start a new round of activities...

After a brief sleep at the hotel, it's time to wake up for the compulsory Friday congregational prayers. Although being on long travel, Muslims have the right to replace it with the obligatory (in turn) afternoon prayer of Zuhur which could be done in private, I would not want to miss the Friday prayers this time. After all, I was going to pray at the famous Baitur Rahman mosque. It is not an experience to be missed! No sir...

Oh, I went to the mosque with my driver who picked me up from the hotel. The roads were rather quiet because Fridays are public holiday in Aceh.

Luckily there was a shoe mender available at work. Shortly before Friday prayers, I found my sandals torn at one side maybe from all the travel and walk. Hmm... now I remember why I took some time to reach the mosque after taking ablution at the designated place some 200 metres outside. It was my torned sandals which slowed me down so much that I have to miss the first raka'at (set of movements) for the prayers. Refer to the article Bersolat Jumaat di Masjid Baitur Rahman... which I earlier did at the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU...

Here's a view of what used to be the bustling Pasar (market of) Aceh from the place where the shoe mender sat at. After the tsunami of 26th December 2004 ravaged Aceh, the market is relegated to just being a shadow of its former glorious past.

This is the Kreung (Acehnese for river) Aceh flowing across the city seen from another part of town. The Baitur Rahman mosque is situated near the tower seen in the background.

At this juncture I was already walking around a kilometre I think with wife accompanied by the driver. After my shoes were repaired, we went to the hotel to pick up my wife and then went to Kak Ann's office. We wanted to try public transport. So the driver accompanied us up on the vans which moves the people around. Besides he wanted to show the way to a certain ground...

After having lunch we decided to walk across town. Our main destination next was somewhere a distance behind the tower. Thank God I got a strong and resilient wife able to keep up despite the fact she was then 6-months pregnant with a big-looking stomach!

The route we took passed the main bank, Bank Indonesia which is the central bank I think. While I believe most Acehnese would like the country to be an independent state answering to no central authority except their own, the fact remains legally they are still part of the much larger Indonesia controlled from its capital Jakarta which lies on the island of Java.

It is an open fact that the Indonesian central authorities are Java-centric. It is an open secret that much of Java's development, Jakarta included are financed by wealth extracted from the lands of Aceh. In fact the first two airplanes ever owned by Indonesia were financed by the Acehnese! It is due to their magnamity that enough gold were voluntarily handed from their private possessions to make purchase of the planes possible. This is for the leaders to go the Netherlands to negotiate for independence.


Soon, we were close to Baitur Rahman mosque.




I think the time then was about 4 pm. Traffic around has picked up slightly since after Friday prayers...





In Aceh there's not much business on Fridays but that's OK. In Islam that's the way it should be. Friday to Muslims is like Sundays to Christians. It's a day to be respected with the congregational prayers, supplications and remembrance to Allah. It is also a day to relax and mingle with friends and family.





We walked through the mosque compound and observed a congregation of young school children singing some sort of anthem in line... or was it some nasyid or religious songs?





Apart from being an interesting place by itself, the mosque's compound is the short-cut for us to reach the other side where one could see the remains of a rather historical building.




Or rather, this is where a place of much historical significance used to stand strong. For this is the place where lies Hotel Aceh, the hotel where Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia stayed at while negotiating with Aceh leaders to get assistance to work for Indonesia's independence.

I don't remember what actually happened to the building. If whatever little memory I have serves me right, the hotel then was rotting from old age when the tsunami of 2004 totally brought it down!




This is a rather interesting water tower seen as we walked towards our main destination for the day...





Just under 1 km or so from the mosque, the destination in mind is situated at the city centre's main lungs...




... which is a park just like Taman Tasik Perdana in Kuala Lumpur or Hyde Park in London.




This one has the distinction of being the site of a royal garden which used to be a pride of Aceh 400 years ago! Why is that? I'll let you readers find out for yourself. Suffice to say it was a garden erected by Aceh's most famous king Sultan Iskandar Muda (ruled 1607-1636 AD). We went here because there is an important historical monument which we missed the last time we were around. It's called the Pintu Khop which used to be the gates marking the boundaries between the royal palace compound and the royal garden. I will highlight it at my bilingual blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) afterwards.





We then returned towards the Baitur Rahman mosque's surroundings to visit the modern version of Pasar Aceh, a spanking new shopping complex which I understand was completed only a year or two ago...



It was a while before we walked rather far back to the area where we started this little Friday walk. Refer to paragraph below the fifth picture here, the one showing the Aceh river. Oh by the way, the driver has left after showing the way to the park. I asked him to go as I wanted to have a nice time alone with the wife.


We stopped at a food-stall to rest and have some drinks. By then I have grown rather fond of a kind of drink I've just discovered in Aceh, I forgot the name but it is made from a sort of fruit or vegetable which I have never seen before.

Above is an interesting poster I saw at the stall. This is the first time I saw it anywhere. It features a number of outstanding deceased personalites mainly of religious and saintly nature who still remain a pride of Aceh.




After the drinks we decided to take a motorised rickshaw... by then my wife has become very weary. After all we have walked at least 3 km if not more 5 km!

While I do believe I still have the strength and energy to go on, I must remember that my wife is carrying extra load (she still is a I wrote this!). Besides we wanted to try the public transport right? And motorised rickshaws are one of the main moods of travel here.






Here's a north-wards view or so as we crossed the Aceh river from the closest and nearby bridge. Seen here is the mosque looming over the market district of Peunayong. Refer to the earlier article titled From Syiah Kuala to Kreung Aceh...




At the opposite you could see THE tower which is the tallest building in Banda Aceh, THE tower which lies just outside to compounds of the Baitur Rahman mosque. Got the idea how far we have walked? Remember, we went to the mosque, on to the park and back to where we started which is just around this bridge. So the distance we actually walked should be two to three times the distance from this bridge to the tower!

Oh. Just checked using Google Earth. The route we took passed the mosque to the park is about 1.63 km long while the return route which went through Pasar Aceh before veering to another part of town is about 1.96 km. That totals up to almost 3.6 km on foot, nothing to shout about for fitness buffs but something for an almost 40 year-old guy like me with a 6-months pregnant wife in tow!

I've decide to recreate the path taken using a satellite map of Banda Aceh created from Google Earth. So that should give some idea the path we took on foot...



Back to the rickshaw ride. It is refreshing to the see the city from inside one. The last time I took a rickshaw to explore a city was more than 10 years ago in Pulau Pinang.





It is interesting to note that in Aceh womanfolk can travel around freely on bikes with handbags slung around the shoulder without any fear or worry of being robbed or molested much less raped. I understand crime is low, practically non-existent since the authorities decided to implement the Syariah Hudud laws (the strict enforcement of Islamic laws) which are considered archaic by some but actually works to prevent situations of lawlessness.


At least this is true after the tsunami attack of 2004 pushed both leaders of Aceh and central Indonesia to negotiate for proper peace. Aceh is given the autonomy to implement the religious laws indepently while the rest of Indonesia persist under Western-made civil laws plus the traditional military authority. This is far cry from the pre-tsunami days where Acehnese lived under constant fear due to emergency rule under the Indonesia national army.

It was a period where outsiders, journalists especially were forbidden from entering Aceh. I understand that it was normal for families to be killed and their women raped using the excuse that the men were supporters of the separatist group GAM (Aceh Freedom Movement), or involved in its cause however vauge. Under this notion genocide were practically carried out. This what many Acehnese have to say...




Nowadays the sun smiles much brightly on Aceh. While the tsunami has taken more than 200,000 lives in the war-torn country, it did brought up the way for proper peace. I was around when Indonesia was about to face a presidential election. It is normal to see flags like this in support of candidates especially the incumbent Susilo who is credited for bringing peace to Aceh.

As we passed the governor's office on the way back to the office, the good change is duly noted. Once, Aceh was practically ruled by a military commander who receives instructions for Jakarta. Now they have an elected governor who was once a member of the separatist group GAM. With that I end this leisurely article and reflections. After this I will make an article featuring videos of Aceh traditional dances. Cheers!

Something on the Hijrah...

Having finished a set of stories on Aceh which practically talked about the events of Wednesday 17th June 2009 extending on to Thursday 18th June, I feel I must do another voluntary translation from http://www.shiar-islam.com/ before presenting more Aceh stories. So here's the next translation which I did just now. Here goes nothing...

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CELEBRATING THE HIJRIAH OR HIJRAH NEW YEAR

By Ustaz Syed Hasan Alatas
http://www.shiar-islam.com/

Translation by Radzi Sapiee

The Hijrah, Prophet Muhammad SAW’s migration to the city of Madinah, formerly known as Yathrib was very instrumental to the spread of Islam. The Prophet’s Hijrah has managed to consolidate all available strengthsw, starting with the peace made between the local tribes Aus and Khazraj who have been at odds with each other for hundreds of years.

The Prophet SAW also managed to unify the strength of the Muhajirins, those who migrated with him to Madinah along with that of the Ansaars, the welcoming local populace by making them brothers with each other. Thus the Hijrah resulted in the consolidatioon of all tribes and races, some from different religions . Then the Prophet created the Madinah Accord where all of them regardless of religion agreed to work together under ther his leadership in protecting Madinah from any enemy attack. Under the accord all are free to practice their respective religions.

Soon enough Islam began to spread wide on to Mecca where the Prophet was born before extending its light to the whole of Arabia and the rest of the world. Preaching would meet success and Islam accepted in good faith as long as we are able to prove that those who practice Islam could be made the best examples in all field.

Allah said in the Quran: "Your are the best of communities, born for mankind, advocating righteousness while forbidding wrongs, and believe in Allah."

Spreading the religion is a duty for all Muslims according to their respective abilities and capabilties. Those who have knowledge spread it through knowledge, those with riches contribute a portion of their possessions for Islam. Likewise those who have energy contribute some for the cause. The momentous event that is the Hijrah has shown that by virtue of working together along with the sacrifies made by Muslims of that time, all difficulties could be dealt with together and the Muslims indeed became a foremost community which should be emulated by all.

All the related events which makes up the Hijrah could be used as examples to improve the condition of the Muslims today and on until we become the exemplary community of choice again. For this to happen all parties must work together hard and continously until the best becomes a reality.

From Perlak to Geudong, seat of the powerful twin ancient kingdoms of Samudera and Pasai!

Continued from Rural Perlak, the seat of a powerful ancient Islamic kingdom!

We went out of the small town of Perlak and stopped somewhere at the north fringe...

After the visit to the tomb of Sultan Sayyid Maulana Abdul Aziz Shah, we deserved to have a good session of tea or rather coffee... with rojak, a mish-mash of fruits with special hot sauce...

The journey was soon continued. If I remember correctly this plot of land is where Kak Ann would build a new mosque along with certain facilities...

A few kilometres later we stopped again at the roadside...

This time to say hi to a few of Kak Ann's friends who run the district police headquarters...

Then only do we continue to our next destination, the town of Idi which should be about 2o km north of Perlak...

We went here to a honour a request by an elderly person in Malaysia who originated from these parts of Aceh. He wanted me to meet his relatives here. So have to take the whole crew with me I guess...

Praise be to Allah, we found the relatives' place near the old mosque of Idi. After doing our prayers here, we enquired about their whereabout from the congregation and found their house just about 200 metres or so from the mosque.

The journey up north, or rather north-east was continued after 8.30 pm or so...

Our destination, the main place we wanted to go since the day before, that is Wednesday before the journey got prolonged (refer again to the explanation in Thursday morning trip from Langsa to Perlak and reminiscing what goes on before... ) should be about 90 km or so from Idi...

Ah... almost there. But have to take a certain junction from the small town of Geudong to the coastal areas...

And here we are at our main destination, tomb of the founder of the ancient kingdoms of Samudera and Pasai, the venerable saintly ruler Sultan Malikus Salih, deceased 1297 AD! For more information you could refer to the article Makam (tomb of) Sultan Malikus Salih! in the bilingual blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) . In fact you could just use Google as the Sultan is a very famous and important personality in the Malay world. After this I would do a piece on the ruler and his tomb at my Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU ya. So enough story-telling here for the moment... take care!