Nyaleh III

 Sun 6.2.22

Today I made it to Nyaleh for the third time. This time besides Hank, there was Jimmy Ong, and Tajuddin Yahya. Borkhan had also invited the wives. So Tajuddin came with his wife. I came without mine. Hank's wife has passed away. And Jimmy is still trying to find one.

Borkhan expected us at 11 a.m. In spite of Hank's delayed leave from the house, I was able to pick up Jimmy and reached the farmstead on the dot. Tajuddin came later, from KL.

This time Borkhan gave a tour of his new "kelulut" enclosure and his strawberry greenhouse. He also showed-off his electric fencing, to protect his precious kelulut from marauding monkeys. There was his itek pond, several types of flowering plants for his kelulut, and the chicken yard. The VCO production is still on - all 4 of us bought some. His  agricultural enterprise continues to amaze me. How he can find the time and energy  confounds me. The financial costs must also be very substantial, and it frightens me.

Borkhan suggested that we all start our own kelulut farming, with one stump to start on. That'll cost RM 1,600. Borkhan said he has 37 now. I suggested that Borkhan get Hank to start first. "If he's ok, then we can all start with ours." Hank was impassive.

Borkhan had prepared lamb soup for lunch. "I had 41 goats yesterday. I have 40 today." Hank was impassive. 

"Have some mangoes now" he said after the soup was finished. "Hank brought them from his farm." Hank  failed to correct Borkhan that I bought the mangoes. He remained impassive.

Clearly Borkhan has done some "spring cleaning".  There's a new room in front. For religious study, he said. Later we were the first 2 to use the room for prayers, Hank and I. Last visit, with Halim, we prayed inside. Today that space was filled with stuff being sorted out. I noticed that the kitchen floor had been redone nicely.

The visit was still short at about 3 hours, when we had to leave and not stretch our welcome. The hosts remained pleased with the visit, however, and even asked that we come again. He's arranging to invite the others, he said, when we told him that Hamdan Derus had called us in the car when we were on the way here.

There was supposed to be 4 of us budak boys today, but Jimmy said the missing one felt indisposed, although he was the one suggesting today's visit date.

We came via Simpang Ampat, but returned to Seremban via Masjid Tanah, after sending back Jimmy home. I anticipated a big jam on the Plus highway, this being the last day of the extended holidays. Masjid Tanah is a longer route, but going to PD would avoid the nightmare on the highway. We don't know the real situation on the Plus highway, but we reached Hank's car at about 7,  some 11 hours after we had left for Nyaleh at 8.30 a.m.

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