A Fire At Bukit Kecil

There was a fire in Bukit Kecil (Small Hill) in Kuala Terengganu burning down more than 19 hectares of the forest. Bernama said that the fire started at about 2pm yesterday but was extinguished at night when there was a heavy rainfall. However, the forest was reignited earlier this afternoon due to the hot and windy weather.

For rest of the news, read below :

TERENGGANU, 7 Feb (Bernama)– Lebih 19 hektar kawasan hutan di Bukit Kecil di sini musnah dalam kebakaran yang bermula petang semalam, bagaimanapun keadaan kebakaran kini terkawal dengan beberapa kawasan masih mengalami kebakaran kecil.

Penolong Penguasa Bomba Kuala Terengganu Mohd Khairul Anuar berkata Isnin, lebih 100 anggota dan pegawai bomba termasuk pelatih dari Akademi Bomba Wakaf Tapai dan Bomba Sukarela Kuala Nerus Manir bertungkus lumus 24 jam untuk mengawal kebakaran itu.

Katanya kebakaran bermula kira-kira 2 petang semalam dan hujan lebat tengah malam telah membantu memadamkannya, bagaimanapun kebakaran itu merebak semula tengah hari ini akibat keadaan berangin dan cuaca panas.

Setakat pukul 4 petang ini, anggota bomba masih lagi menjalankan operasi pengawalan api dan beberapa kawasan di hutan itu masih mengalami kebakaran kecil.

“Sebaik menerima panggilan kecemasan, kita telah menghantar jentera dan anggota bomba untuk mengawal kebakaran daripada merebak ke kawasan kediaman dan beberapa bangunan milik kerajaan yang terletak berhampiran kawasan kejadian,” katanya kepada Bernama.

Antaranya bangunan Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri Kuala Terengganu, Jabatan Kimia, Radio Televisyen Malaysia Bukit Pak Apil dan Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Chong Hwa Wei Sin.

Mohd Khairul berkata bomba masih menyiasat punca sebenar kejadian kebakaran hutan tersebut.

— BERNAMA

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An evening at Pantai Rhu Sepuloh… With Uncle Nisar!

We took a trip to Kuala Terengganu on 24th of December, 2010 together with Uncle Nisar. That was his first trip to the east coast of West Malaysia and we were very excited to take him around our hometown.

On the evening of the 26th of December, we went to Pantai Rhu Sepuloh (Rhu Sepuloh Beach – near Bari). According to Uncle Fauzan who is my father’s good friend, there is a special place at the beach where we can buy fresh fishes and other seafood along the beach.

Walking along the sandy beach

After buying some fresh fishes and some tasty big prawns, dad drove us to a stall selling delicious ‘ikang celuk ttepung’ served with ‘air lada’ for tea. Of course they do have other food in their menu but the ‘ikang celuk ttepung’ is probably their most popular dish since their fishes were freshly caught. We also had some prawns, squids and fried noodle. The seafood were so fresh and tasty and not like the ones that we usually buy from the markets. After that we each had a refreshing glass of coconut drink.

Enjoying our ikang celuk ttepung

After tea, we took a walk along the beautiful sandy beach. We found a shipwreck and mum suggested that it may be Captain Jack Sparrow’s ship, ‘The Black Pearl’. Uncle Nisar told us that Captain Jack Sparrow was so popular in the USA that people would dress up as the captain to the cinema to watch the movie!

Is this all that is left of The Black Pearl?

Then we came to an area where the fishermen dock their boats. We met a fisherman who showed us some fish traps. I still could not figure out how the trap works; I really hope that Uncle Azahar can help me 😉

We went to see the fishing boats

Examining a fish trap

Finally we walked back to the car and started our journey back home.

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• Uncle Nisar (aimanamani.wordpress.com)

Bedil Hunting

I came back to Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday after a two weeks Eid holidays in Kuala Terengganu. I had a wonderful holiday, doing lots of interesting and even ‘adventurous’ activities; among which were ‘Bedil Huntings‘.

On the 5th day of Syawal, my father drove my mum, sisters (Aeshah and Anisah) and brother (Ahmad Ali) to Bukit Pak Apil. All of us were provided with a camera each to try and snap the best bedil photos.

We arrived at the site rather early and since the view from the top of the hill was breathtaking, I spend the time snapping beautiful photos of it. After a while a ‘bedil’ contractor staff arrived accompanied by a policeman. Since ‘bedil’ is explosive, a policeman is needed to escort the contractor and to supervise the operation of ‘bedil’ shooting.

The contractor staff walking up to the site with a policeman escorting him.

The kind policeman told us about the safety procedures during ‘bedil’ shootings and then directed us to the safe site (just in case the ‘bedil’ did not shoot high up in the air as it was supposed to be; but instead explodes on the ground). He also told us that if that happens the flying debris from the explosion could reach as far as 100m away. There were a few unfortunate accidents in the ‘bedil’ shooting history in Kuala Terengganu. So we went to the ‘safe site’ and waited there excitedly.

The contractor staff walking up to the 'bedil shooting base'.

A few minutes to Maghrib, all of us were busy focusing our cameras towards the blue sky, trying to guess the right location of the ‘bedil’. We were really excited. Then, there was a thunderous ‘explosion’ as the bedil shot up to the sky. It was an amazing sight of a beautiful fiery light shooting up in the dusk sky. I managed to snap a photo of it and so did Aeshah.

The beautiful fiery light shot up in the dusk sky

The fire shot up so high up and went directly above our heads as it exploded into a huge firework display like a gigantic colourful umbrella stretching above us, with an amazing display of colourul lights ‘raining’ down as it faded and vanished into the darkening sky. I was too amazed by its size and beauty and was taken by surprise that I forgot to click on the shutter release. So I missed the shot of the climax! It was just like a dream; it all happened as fast as it ended and left us glaring into the sky speechlessly.

Although I missed the shot of the climax, I managed to get this: the smoky remain

We went back to the Bukit Pak Apil for the next two days until the 7th day of Eid which mark the last bedil shooting of this Shawal. On the second day, the only shot I managed to get was a cloud of smoke after the fireworks display ended and on the last day, I managed to snap a photo of the fireworks before it fully expanded. Anyway, during those ‘bedil’ huntings my dad and my little brother managed to snap beautiful photos of blooming fireworks at its peak.

It was an exciting and adventurous experience for all of us. It was something that when the accuracy of the location and timing is vitally important. Just a split seconds makes the whole difference; we may ended up missing the action and snapping photos of fading smoke in the darkening sky instead of an amazing colourful display of lights in the evening sky!

It was a nice experience to go bedil hunting and I hope that we could go back up there again next year to hunt for more bedil photos.

Say “NO” to the plan to demolish a heritage row in Kuala Terengganu

Over a hundred years ago, my great, great grandfather, Abdullah Al-Yunani came to Kuala Terengganu from China and decided to stay there. He opened a bookstore named Abdullah Al-Yunani or better known to the locals as ‘Keda Buku Pok Loh Yunang’. Ask a person who was brought up in Kuala Terengganu, most of them would know the bookstore and they might even tell you that the shop was where they bought their schoolbooks long, long time ago. [Read what Awang Goneng wrote about it here]

Over a century, the business grew from a simple bookstore selling newspapers, a few kitabs (religious books) and some other books to a fully air-conditioned modern bookstore offering WiFi service. In the 1970s the bookstore was renamed Kedai Buku Ahmad Omar and later to Alam Akademik Sdn Bhd.

My grandfather, Ahmad Omar bought the shophouse more than 30 years ago but was forced to surrender the  land to the state government for only RM200, 000 (because of land acquisition)! Did we agree to such a low price for the freehold prime land right by the very main street of the town? Of course we did not; in fact my grandfather had never ever wanted to sell the shophouse for what ever price for the shophouse means so much to him. But what choice did he has when it came to land acquisition by the state government?

My grandparents complained the matter to the Terengganu Chief Minister (at the time), Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Ahmad and he promised that the shophouses’ owners will be offered to buy new shophouses at a very special price (as part of the deal) to compensate our lost, as the RM200,000 paid to us was far below the market price at the time. He also promised us that the government will let us stay in the building until they provide us a new place in the area. Trusting that Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar’s words as official promises by the Terengganu state government, my grandfather did not make any further official complain. Furthermore as a strong UMNO supporter, my grandfather trusted the Barisan Nasional state government fully and never ever imagine that UMNO will disown their promises even though it was not made on paper!

My grandfather used to work overseas for the first Malaysian Prime Minister YM Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj as a diplomat with minister’s status and later joined the politics as a state assemblyman and also as the political secretary to the (then) Chief Minister, Tan Sri Ibrahim Fikri. And for the sake of UMNO my grandfather had no choice but to accept the offer without making a legal complain.

On the 19th July, 2009, 34 shopkeepers in Jalan Bandar and Jalan Banggol, Kuala Terengganu (including Alam Akademik) received a notice from the Lembaga Tabung Amanah Warisan Negari Terengganu to vacate the shophouses before 13th August, 2009. [Read about it in my previous posting here] When we questioned the notice and the promises made by the state government years ago at the time we were forced to surrender our land to the state government for a mere RM200,000; they said that they are not responsible of providing us a place to move to and have the right to force us out since the land is now theirs. What happened to all of the sweet promises they made before?

The sad news was that the LTAWNT or the ‘supposedly’  heritage board of the state of Terengganu  is planning to demolish the heritage row to widen the road and to build new building in the name of modernisation. Isn’t it odd that the heritage board do not seems to understand the value of heritage? When the other states of Malaysia such as Melaka, Pulau Pinang (Penang) and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur are proud to restore their heritage buildings, the Terengganu heritage board looked at the heritage building as an eye sore. How sad…..Who can we trust to protect our heritage then? The heritage row is still standing strong and beautiful; and still fit for business. And what about the historical value of the building?

As Uncle Awang Goneng wrote in his blog ‘Kecek Kecek‘, ‘Now they are planning to pull down a row of shophouses in Kedai Payang, buildings that are more than a hundred years old that are still fit for purpose and need, at most, a tender loving touch and a coat of colour. Thus our history can be saved.’

The Terengganu state government had already destroyed lots of heritage  historical buildings to make way for new buildings. They claimed that they are building a modern ‘city’ and they do not want ‘old and shabby’ buildings in the city of Terengganu. If they are trying to say that the shophouses looked old and shabby, think again. It does NOT look shabby at all, in fact its quality is even better than the new ‘modern’ buildings which are facing problems (including those that collapsed) as we can see day after day. The state government should instead use the fund to restore and beautify the heritage row and protect the heritage historical building for its invaluable historical value to the people of Terengganu.

The reason why the government cannot see all these is because they are all money-driven. They are greedy and materialistic, all they think of is money, money, money. [see various comments on Kecek-kecek’s Mabuk Kepayang]  And not even one assemblyman nor their representatives (except one from the opposition party) came to visit us. It was reported in the newspaper that the Chief Minister Y.A.B. Dato’ Ahmad bin Said visited some villages and helped them to fix roofs and did all kinds of other things. But why can’t he meet us even once? asked CikguFauzi of MAMPAT (view here on Youtube as reported by http://buletinonline.net/ or as reported by NTV7)

“He is a coward” said one of the shopowners during the many protests held. “Is he afraid of what people may think of him? He knew it was wrong of him to do what he is doing but who cares? He’ll get the money and it’s not him who will suffer… it’s us“. To all those out there who care enough for the heritage and history, please help us to preserve the place. You could ask help from organisations, NGOs or perhaps inform this to a person you know. The least you can do is perhaps to write about it and spread the message. You’ll never know how powerful words can be.

Read news and articles on “Selamatkan Warisan Sejarah Trengganu – Save Our Historical Heritage“

‘Kenduri’

Now is the mid-year school holidays in Malaysia and it means a ‘wedding season’ for us – Malaysians in Malaysia. We received wedding invitations here and there from both relatives and friends; sometimes we  attended a few wedding receptions  in a day!

Today we attended two wedding celebrations, first in Keramat and after that at the Dewan Merak Kayangan in Jalan Semarak. And after sending us home, dad attended another wedding reception close to our house.

We arrived at Uncle Anuar Ibrahim’s house at about 12 o’ clock. Uncle Anuar and his wife, Aunty Salamah are  close friends of my parents. In fact Uncle Anuar’s father and my mum’s father are close friends too!

As usual, everything is always beautiful at Uncle Anuar’s and Aunty Sal’s party. And the food are always good too. Aunty Sal is a great cook and she bakes the nicest cookies and cakes. And for today’s wedding reception, she baked delicious cupcakes and decorated them with beautiful pink butter cream roses. They are just so beautiful that I wish to take each of them. My little brother Ahmad Ali ate lots of them!

Ahmad Ali eating his fourth cupcake and he still has lots more on his plate and the best part is… he finished them all 😀

Ahmad Ali really enjoys the cupcakes.

This is the top part of the tower. I stood on tiptoes to snap this photo 😀

There are lots more different type of cupcake but they were all decorated with roses

These are the tiny cupcakes. They look just as nice… infact, Ahmad Ali loves these small ones. He described them as ‘Cute’. Indeed they are…

Guess you know why Ahmad Ali keep taking more and more 😉 .

Look! Aren’t they lovely?

The tower of beautifully decorated cupcakes

*Note: Please click on the photos

Dad met lots of his old schoolmate at the reception. One of them is Uncle Apo or Uncle Abdul Ghaffar Mohd Nor who has been reading my blog… Thank you for visiting my blog, Uncle Apo. Please drop a line or two in my blog if Uncle Apo can find a free time; its is always nice to receive comments… something like receiving a letter. 😀

A photo of dad and his old schoolmates. From left to right: Uncle Apo, Ami Ma (my uncle - dad's elder brother), Uncle Bukhori, Uncle Anuar and A Karim Omar (dad). Photo taken from http://sulaimanian.wordpress.com . Photo snapped by... ME! 😀

Anyway I’m sad to hear that Uncle Anuar’s father is not in good health. Insya Allah we’ll be visiting him together with my grandmother in Kuala Terengganu this weekend. And before we left, Uncle Anuar’s sister in-law took us to Kak Norjie’s room. Kak Norjie, the beautiful and charming bride was dressed in  red and she looked so marvellous in her wedding attire…

“A Moment With English – Enjoying English” @ SK Padang Hiliran

Last Sunday, Alam Akademik Sdn. Bhd. (my grandmother’s bookstore which is also known as Keda Pok Loh Yunang) organized a program at Sekolah Kebangsaan Padang Hiliran in Kuala Terengganu. The program started at 9 a.m. and ended at 11.20 a.m. It was held at the school hall. The program was attended by students from Year 3,4,5 and 6.

The kids listening to our little presentations

We hope to share our experiences in Public Speaking with all of our friends at Sekolah Kebangsaan Padang Hiliran. We had a real good time at the school. The students are really brave and smart. They came forward to read and answer questions. I’m so proud of them. We hope our friends in Sekolah Kebangsaan Padang Hiliran will enjoy learning English for we need to learn other languages to be smart and knowledgeable.

Syazaliana, the first person brave enough to raise up her hand.

I did a book reading and spoke about ‘The Creation Of Universe’ based on the book by the same tittle written by Prof Muhammad Al-Mahdi. I read a chapter of Growing Up In Terengganu by Awang Goneng titled ‘Budu Spell’ which is very interesting and funny at the same time. My little sister Aeshah did what she does best… STORYTELLING!!! And Anisah sang a butterfly song. My little blogging brother Ahmad Ali, read a post from his famous blog entitled ‘Swine Flu’.

A photo of me delivering my speech

We ended the program by singing the Khalifah Song and Guantanamera. Guantanamera is the most popular song in Cuba and is an unofficial national anthem of Cuba. This Spanish Song is so beautiful and I can never be tired of hearing it.

The Sandpipers singing Guantanamera

I really had a good time too. I hope we can inspire them to learn English and other languages and be good oriaters… I wish to thank the headmaster and the teachers for inviting us to the school and for the token given to us by the school. I would also like to thank Syaza and all those from SK Padang Hiliran who had been reading my blog.

My little brother, Ahmad Ali, made new friends at the school. The second boy is Izzat. The other two boys beside him are from Year 4 (if anyone know their names please inform me). The girls from left are Syazaliana, Hazirah, Adlin and Puteri. The boy in front... I don't think I need to tell you but just in case, AHMAD ALI himself!

A Visit To Aunty Moon and Uncle Kamil’s House

On our way back from Kuala Terengganu yesterday, we stopped at Zainun Nasi Ayam Satu for a brunch. Zainun Nasi Ayam Satu is a small restaurant in Kemaman that serves delicious chicken rice. Mum tried their rojak buah and rojak ayam which mum said were very tasty.

After out brunch, we visited our dearest Aunty Moon and Uncle Kamil whose house is less than 200m from the restaurant. Their beautiful bungalow was featured in Jan 2009 issue of ‘Anjung Seri’ – a popular magazine in Malaysia.

Aunty Moon’s house is surrounded by a beautiful garden. Entering the cosy living room, I saw Uncle Kamil’s collection of Shell’s model cars. From the living room we could see a long corridor that leads us to the other part of the house. On one side of the corridor there is a huge indoor fish pond with a small bridge that takes us to the dining room.

Aunty Moon handed us some bread to feed the fishes. My little blogging brother Ahmad Ali was really excited and squeled with delight whenever a fish rose to the surface to take a bite of the tiny pieces of bread that he threw into the pond. I guess the smallest fish is perhaps less than a centimetre long while the biggest might be longer than one foot long.

Aunty Moon and Uncle Kamil gave each of us a copy of Reader’s Digest book from the Select Editions Series. Each book is a compilation of four novels. I had just finished reading ‘The Broker’ by John Grisham. The other three novels in my book are Sam’s Letter To Jennifer by James Patterson, Blood Memory by Greg Iles and Mosaic by Soheir Khashoggi. What makes the books so special to all of us are the beautiful, loving words written by Aunty Moon in the each of the books to each of us.

It was raining heavily when we left the house and we giggled while running in the rain towards dad’s car. Aunty Moon wanted us to use her umbrellas but of course it is more fun to ‘play’ in the rain – after all it is not something we can do everyday!

Busy Sunday

My busy Sunday started with a trip to the market. There weren’t many people at the market as it was school holidays. Even some sellers were not there too. Later, we went to another market called ‘Pasar Pagi UO’ (UO Supermarket’s Morning Market). We bought 14 IKAN KELI (catfish)! I just love catfish and so does my sister. Mum used to buy 10 but it wasn’t enough.

After our Zuhr prayers we went out in beautiful clothes to two ‘Kenduri Kahwin’ (wedding receptions). The first was near the Taman Greenwood where my dearest Jiddah would wait for her bus everytime she went back to Kuala Terengganu. The food there was quite good. The second wedding reception was held at a mosque near Taman Melati. The food there was even better and I just love their lamb.

We went back home to perform our Asr prayers and went out again. This time dad drove us to visit a stamp exhibition. It was just a small one but we saw all kinds of beautiful stamps. Each of us got our chance to choose some stamps for ourselves and mum paid them. She also bought lots of lovely flower stamps as my birthday present and some cars and locomotive stamps as Ali’s birthday present. I had been collecting stamps since a few years ago; after admiring mum and dad’s stamp collections. Anyway I only have a small collection. So I am always very excited to be able to add more stamps to my collection.

At about 5pm, my parent’s good friend Uncle Khairul and his wife Aunty Shida came to our house together with Aunty Intan and  Uncle Bad. After performing our Mahrib prayers, we took them to Pak Ya’s Corner for dinner.They really enjoyed their food.

After dinner, we went back to my house. Uncle Khairul, Uncle Bad, mum and dad were discussing something while Auntie Shida and Auntie Intan watched the television series ‘Merlin’ with me and my siblings. We all had a great time and they went home at about 10:30pm. It was indeed a very busy day but it was really fun.

Nasi Ayam

Traveling back to Kuala Lumpur after our Eid holidays in Kuala Terengganu last year, we made a stop in Kemaman to visit our dearest Aunty Moon.

They own a beautiful and charming house with a huge fish pond inside the house. My wonderful Aunty Moon served us delicious chicken rice (nasi ayam) and rojak petis for lunch which she brought from a restaurant just a stone throw away from her house. Since then, we always drop by at the restaurant on our way to Kuala Terengganu or to KL if we happen to be there at around lunch time.

There is nothing special neither about the outlook nor the interior of this small restaurant. Moreover it is situated far away from the main road which connects Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Terengganu. Anyway their chicken rice and rojak petis are really delicious and worth the journey away from the main road.

The ‘Zainun Nasi Ayam Satu’ restaurant is located in Kampung Mak Cili in Kemaman. Among others it serves chicken rice, chicken porridge, rojak petis, rojak ayam and laksa.  So far we’ve only tried their delicious chicken rice and rojak petis. Generous in the   serving of both rice and chicken, their chicken rice is tastier than those served at those very popular chicken rice restaurants in Kuala Lumpur; and at a fraction of the price too! Even the rice itself is well flavoured and tasty.

Their service is also very good and their staffs are really nice and friendly especially the gentleman whom I think is closely related to the owner. So now we do not have to face the headache of wondering where to stop for lunch on our way to Kuala Terengganu or   Kuala Lumpur anymore. Our thanks to Aunty Moon and Uncle Kamil for solving this problem; especially now that we have to travel home to Kuala Terengganu more often.

Terrengganu By-Election (Results)

PAS candidate Mohd Abdul Wahid bin Endut has been declared the winner of the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat by-election for a majority of 2631 votes. The results are as written below:

Mohd Abdul Wahid bin Endut (PAS candidate) – 32, 883 votes.

Wan Ahmad Farid bin Wan Salleh (BN candidate) – 30, 252 votes.

Azharuddin bin Mamat (Independent candidate) – 193 votes.

A total of 63, 993 out of 80, 229 voters cast their votes in the by-election.