Teluk Lipat dalam kenangan?

I certainly hope that it is not the end of Teluk Lipat.

I saw in the news last night on the severity of the erosion at Teluk Lipat caused by the relentless monsoon winds and waves. It didn't surprise me at all. I have seen it all before - the winds and the waves, that is; but to be honest, I have not seen such erosion when I made Dungun my town.

In hindsight, I must say I have seen it coming over the years when I was there, but surprisingly no one had done anything to mitigate it. Obviously as an armchair critic, it is easy for me to say, but for a state flushed with wang ihsan, I am sure they can find the money to mitigate the erosion.

Teluk Lipat holds many memories for me. It is the place I normally went for my jogging in Dungun. It is my favourite place, despite the fact that it is tough to sweat while jogging at Teluk Lipat due to its windy condition. But then again, it is to be expected since road is just next to the South China Sea, so you tend to get constant breeze from the sea cooling you down.

I had never complained about it. It would not make sense anyway. After jogging for a couple of kilometres, I would only need to sit inside the car, wound up the windows and definitely you would be sweating inside the car. It didn't bother me then that it would probably leave the car smelling with my own sweat. It is a 13 year old dad's car anyway. I am sure by then it would have more than the family's share of sweat!

Sorry I digress.

Actually, then I thought the benefits of jogging would be in the sweat. I love the feel of it when I get the whole shirt wet in my own sweat. It is a great feeling; so when I didn't get while jogging at Teluk Lipat, I thought something was missing.

But I found a way to get me sweating and hence continue to make Teluk Lipat my jogging track.

Until much later I was told that the benefit of jogging (or exercise) is to raise your heart beat, rather than the sweating. Aaah, well. I was bad in biology I guess.

Sorry I digress again.

After many minutes inside the car, catching my breath and sweating, I would then walk to the stalls nearby at Teluk Lipat and enjoy my share of that Terengganuan delicacy. With the wind caressing your face and hair - piping hot keropok leko in your (right) hand, and a glass of teh tarik in your left hand, fronting the sea and occasionally the Ganu meks or ITM gals passing by as sweet candies for the eyes, what else could you ask for?

At times I do wonder what I was doing in the land of keropok leko, away from my favourite hometown of Taiping, but surely that descriptions in the previous paragraphs would alleviate any home sickness that I may have felt during those years.

No, I was not jogging when I took the pic. I must have just returned from work - I was
still in my office attire, and wifey and I must have decided to enjoy the breeze at Teluk Lipat.
When you were in such a small town like Dungun, and living just next door to the
beautiful beaches of Terengganu, would you be visiting the malls or the beaches.
 Ooops, sorry. there were no malls then in Dungun!

Then I had lived only 2-3 minutes by car from Teluk Lipat, though our kampung house did not face the relentless monsoon winds - not directly anyway, but another good friend of mine Zai aka Zainuddin Rahim (a former school classmates and house mate in Perth) had a nice (wooden) government bungalow in the vicinity of Teluk Lipat. I had always been envious of him to get that privilege. 

I wish it was mine.

I love slow driving at Teluk Lipat from one end to another. It is at least 5 km in length; even then it was a tad too far for me to jog. Just wind down the windows - forget about air-conditioning. And don't worry about driving below speed limit. You can just act local; everybody does that there in Dungun. They will not honk at you for driving at jogger's pace. 

Life is like that; when you live near the sea.

Teluk Lipat dalam kenangan. It started at POint A and ended up at the ITM campus.
The road is called Jalan Pantai Sura. I am not sure how they got to name it Teluk Lipat.
Lipat, Lepat, I dont know; the road is a straight road anyway. On the other hand, if you were to cross
Sg Dungun, soon you will arrive at the most beautiful beach in Malaysia - Pantai Teluk Bidara,
immortalized by Kopratasa in their classic Keronchong song.

Condolence to Aya

A dear friend of mine lost her mom last night.

I had met her mom only once; and that too during a Raya visit to their home in Assam Kumbang Taiping. I thought she was a very soft-spoken and friendly lady, not unlike her daughter(s), I guess.

While I can still visualize her on that Raya day, inviting us to eat at the table and chit-chatting with us, I don't remember any specific. Years must have passed since that visit and typically I would have forgotten about it. But for some reasons, she is someone I would remember - not necessarily from that Raya visit, but more through her daughter actually.

From my interaction with her daughter, whenever the subjects of parents would appear in our conversations, and whenever I would relate the story of my own father, she would be able to tell me on how my father would walk from Taiping train station to our house on the night before he passed away. That story is an urban legend for our family; but we had never thought that someone outside the family would also know.

And especially her.

And how would she know (since she herself was away in the US when it happened)?

Her mom, of course.

Her mom obviously had related the story to her for her to remember that. I was surprised to be honest; but it was a pleasant surprised. Pleasant since her mom knew the story too.

I am sure she has many other good traits; perhaps not unlike our moms and other moms in the world. And knowing how she turned out, I am sure her mom would have done a great job with great.

When I invited her to visit a dear teacher of ours who was battling cancer a month ago, she responded by saying that she only has weekend to go visiting, and that all her time after office hours during the weekdays were occupied with visiting her mom daily.

I honestly did not realize the severity of her mom's conditions then, but she still volunteered to visit Cikgu Wari during weekend. The going back and forth between work, home and hospital (on a daily basis, and during peak hours of KL traffic), I would say, reflected her commitment and love for her mom. She did all that without fail, so I am told by another friend, and I guess she was there until the very end last night.

I am not sure I would have her strength do it for months, to be honest.

Good on you, Aya. I am sure your mom is lucky to have you as a daughter, then again, I don't think she was simply lucky. She had done a good job bringing you up too.

Moga Allah mencucuri rahmatNya keatas ruh ibunda tersayang dan dimasukkan kedalam golongan orang-orang yang beramal solleh.

Alfatihah.