PD birthday party.

Monday 23 April 2018.

Yesterday, Sunday, members of the Ujang-Banun clan, or most of them, gathered at Telok Kemang, Port Dickson, to celebrate the 80th. birthdays of Klemot and Kak Munah ( I call her Omputih). The surprise attendee was Pin's wife. The organizers also took the opportunity to declare a celebration for  the coming of Ramadan, only 3+ weeks away.

I had to sacrifice my golf match with Tok Sleman for this. So we left for PD early, although our event would not start before Zohor prayers. There were just the two of us - Dekna had spent the night at Haniff's parents' place and were to drive from there. Since we were early, I made a detour to PD town and we stopped for mee curry at a seemingly popular restaurant at one of the roundabouts in town, all festooned with PAS and BN flags, the GE campaigning having unofficially already started nationwide.

We didn't know the exact location of the chosen venue, but given the name of the place at Telok Kemang, I just drove slowly, keeping our eyes peeled. Although it was Sunday, and this is a resort town, traffic was suprisingly light. So when we sighted the place, we casually turned into the compound, and with no difficulty secured a parking spot.

Since no one from our group was seen, I left Idah in the foyer and took the longish walk to the beach, through the swimming pool area filled with frolicking children, around the footpath at the back of the apartment blocks, on to beach itself. This spot, I realized, is right at the end of the Batu 8 Telok Kemang picnic area towards the Tanjung Tuan lighthouse. I'm familiar with this area. I went to school here in 1961, for about 6 months. RMC  was further back towards Batu 4. This was all sea front and a long, empty beach, then. And cleaner.

I remember speaking in the Dewan Undangan Negeri about the need to manage the development in PD in 1995-99 period. I'd said that when Phuket in Thailand was still a tin-mining and rubber planting area, PD was already established as a resort town. To-day Phuket easily outclasses PD as holiday destination. The one main difference, I said in the Dewan, was how the Thai Government took care to build on the landward side of the sea front, leaving their God-given beautiful beaches unscathed by any construction. In PD they have built their hotels right down to the water, even flushing raw sewage right into it, and the authorities don't seem to care. Whatever I said in the Dewan ( you can check the Hansards ) was lightly treated by the MB as a joke.

Our gathering went successfully. There were serious moments for prayers, but mostly it was a fun family day. Mak Di even managed to make it although she'd just returned from Turkey, and she gave us some Turkish delights to prove it. There was the usual karaoke session, dominated by Ari, who wanted to be part of all presentations, also as usual. As always he's game, even if not entirely musical.

We broke up at about 6, as planned, although some had started leaving  from 5. I think everyone enjoyed the party, and Mastura and Kak Long made sure all got their kurma from Iran, Tunisia and Palestine. I took back one extra box snatched from Mak Di's bag. The best dates were the Jericho dates from Palestine.

So, next gathering is at Hari Raya Puasa. Insyaallah.

.....................................................................................