Then all too suddenly, we were visited upon by relatives from back in the Klang Valley, specifically Irfan’s cousins Aiman and Zara and their family. It was the first time they visited Perlis.
Zara appears
As per the standard operating procedure, we took them around the state – the smallest in the country – starting with the bustling, tourist-filled bazaars of Padang Besar. Zara bought new a toy there. Ain brought them to her vendors of choice.
Padang Besar crew
The duty-free store at the Thai border is also a tourist favourite. Just as it was 25 years ago, I still wished Padang Besar had a decent book store, but I guess visitors here are more concerned with getting a good deal for wares rather than books. In any case, Zara got to ride in a duty-free shopping cart.
Young shoppers
The standard operating procedure ensured that we next visited Gua Kelam, where they appeared to have fixed the lights that had been broken in our last visit. There was even a camera crew from some TV studio in the caves.
I know how The Descent ends
Breaking through to the far end of the cave, we came to the picnic and camp ground, but seeing that it’s way past noon we figured this would be a very brief stop to enjoy the greenery before we headed back through the cave. A video of the walk back to the car park can be viewed here!
Under the sunlight
Much later in the afternoon we went to Kuala Perlis to watch the sunset. Irfan and Aiman watched mudskippers and poked at crab holes in the low tide.
Kuala Perlis
The weekend went by fast and they had to drive back to Pulau Pinang to catch a flight home the following day. We hope they would stay longer so we could do more activities together here in Perlis.
