For Aidiladha, we returned to Sitiawan where Ain made nasi minyak and ayam masak biryani. Here are some photos of the first day of Raya in Sitiawan. Click on them to expand. After taking photos, we went for a drive to Lumut. For the first time in a long while we pulled over and walked at the promenade (See photos). It was peculiar. Vacation season, but not a lot of humans at the pier as it usually is. Because of a medical emergency, we could not go visit the folks I wanted to visit this time around. We spent the second day of Raya at the Manjung Hospital. It was physically and mentally exhausting. In any case, we got to speak to the Middletown team via Discord early on the second day – which also wears away at my somewhat weary soul. So long since we were able to meet […]
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Hari Raya Puasa 1444H
We departed home evening two days before Raya, and travelled our usual route over the mountains. We stopped for dinner at the Gurun rest stop. The food was not bad. Then Irfan pointed the car east and headed towards the mountains. We took our time. Irfan carefully manoeuvred us around a traffic accident site near Baling, then we stopped for a shut eye for at least over an hour at the Gerik junction rest stop. After sleeping I got some coffee and roti telur and took over from Irfan at around 3 am. We ignored the Panglima Bayu junction and headed for Tanah Merah. It was almost dawn, so we pulled over after the new elevated road for sahur. After that, Ain drove us all the way to Pondok Lubok Tapah. Then Raya happened – among other things.
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Aidiladha in Selangor
It was Hari Raya Aidiladha. We drove down south towards Salak Tinggi to Anya’s house even though they were spending their first few days in Kelantan. They would return home when we were still there. For the first few days, we were at their place with Cik Su F as company. On the third day of our visit, I went to call on Shide at his office/events space Area 27 Events and Co-working Space in Bandar Baru Seri Petaling . Then, then next day I met up with my former student Aidil to plan for the MAHSA University meeting. Here are the pictures of the first few days in Selangor. The next day, we visited MAHSA University.
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An Aidilfitri in Sitiawan
Hari Raya Aidilfitri was a couple of days ago as we rolled into the month of Shawwal in the year 1443. We were in Sitiawan for the holidays and here are some pics from our time there! Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir & Batin, everyone.
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Old School Mates in Lumut
Not only is it Labour Day here in Malaysia, but it’s also Hari Raya Aidilfitri! It is very rare for our old school mates to meet up when we return home for the holidays. So it was a welcome pleasure to have met up with these dudes in Lumut. We talked about the future of the county, old times, lost friends and growing old. Never thought we would be talking about things like that.
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Second Pandemic Eid of 2021
Sure, we had Aidilfitri a couple of months ago. Before long Aidiladha was before us. As usual we stayed at home. I imamed the Aidiladha prayers for Ain & Irfan. Ain made laksa johor with the help of my colleague Azreen’s pre-packaged spice. Ultimately we stayed at home and watched TV. (I put on The Empire Strikes Back for the most part.) And that was how we spent our second Aidiladha during the pandemic.
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The Outbreak Aidilfitri II
Previously, on “The Outbreak Aidilfitri”… It has been 12 lunar months since the last Hari Raya and now Eid has returned, just in time for another nationwide lockdown. So that means we are unable to balik kampung again during the festive season. We had actually planned to spend Eid at a hotel but I decided against it for safety’s sake. For both days of Eid, we went for drives all around the state, staying away from crowds and other humans in generals. Day One On the First Day of Hari Raya, we went to nearby locations taking family photos. We stopped near Irfan’s history teacher’s house because of the greening bendang padi there. The riceplants were starting to sprout at their tapak semaian turning their nursery plots green after a month or so of being mud brown. We also went to the Grape Farm at Sungai Batu Pahat. But we […]
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Aidilfitri After The Lockdown
During hari raya, we were unable to cross state borders to balik kampung thanks to the COVID-19 quarantine. It was not the first time for us. As the MCO downgraded because of the reduced infection rate, we discovered that we were able to travel back to Sitiawan to meet up with Atok and Opah. We thought it would be good to celebrate Aidilfitri with them, and we could check up on them after the months of relative isolation. The first morning, we took our late family hari raya photos. The sun shone brightly. Later that day, the sun decided to call it quits. Suddenly it rained There was a torrential downpour in town. According to later reports, it submerged parts of the streets downtown. It never rained this hard in recent decades here in Sitiawan, so this must have been a freak rainstorm. Because a construction crew was building a […]
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The Outbreak Aidilfitri
And so it came to pass that Hari Raya Aidilfitri was held during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were forbidden to cross state lines, nor be in a gathering of souls that numbered more than a prescribed number. Thus we stayed at home during the first day of Eid. Ain made nasi dagang which was delicious. We packed some in takeaway packs and sent them to a number of neighbours later. But before that we held our first home bound Eid prayers. Shortly after, we had a Google Meet call with Atok and Opah and Sila’s family. Even Anya showed up for a while. During the day, I played Star Wars: A New Hope on TV, though I did not really pay attention to it. Later than night, as a family movie we watched Alien. That’s two Charles Lippincott movies in a day! As the sun dipped lower on the second […]
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Aidiladha 2019 in Sitiawan
This year, it was Sitiawan’s turn for balik kampung raya haji. We saw Gnana and Iskandar there. Here is a photojournal of the vacation. I have included captions. Any questions, please write below in the comments. Thank you. You’re welcome.
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The Place Where He Grew Up
The day after Aidiladha we thought we would head into the city to check out the borough of Pandan Indah where Irfan grew up. It would literally be a balik kampung for him even though the kampung was Kuala Lumpur. Born less than 10 klicks away as the crow flies in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, he knew no other home other than Pandan Indah before we moved to Perlis nearly four years ago. From Nia’s house all the way south, we travelled up north via the MEX and inserted ourselves into the MRR2. We thought we would visit Wan Cik who took care of Irfan from when he was 1 year old until he enrolled in pre-school. It was Nia’s first time at Wan Cik’s house too. Wan Cik had expanded her house since the last time we were there. Irfan caught up with Afzan who is actually his uncle. Soon […]
Continue readingThe Botanical Garden Expedition
We had to balik kampung this Aidiladha holidays. The kampung we returned to was neither Ain’s nor mine. It was Irfan’s.
On Saturday, after my Research Method class and my colleague Anis’ sister’s wedding, we drove from Perlis all the way to Nia’s house. Nia was happy that we came. We also met Aiman, Zara and family there.
The plan was that the next day, Sunday, we would all rendezvous at the Botanical Gardens at Shah Alam. Ain and I have not been there since before we were married. This was the children’s first time visiting it.
There were flowers. There was a rope bridge. There was archery. There was even a troupe of monkeys.
Irfan and his cousins entered the bunny farm where Nia became superlatively elated. According to Irfan, she even fearlessly fed a large goat by hand. There were no photos of the goat, but we do have other photos.
Botanical Gardens
I posted on Twitter videos of Irfan shooting arrows at orcs a bullseye:
The 16yo tried his hand in archery too today. pic.twitter.com/yyPq1PAXWT
— Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) August 19, 2018
He didn’t do too bad with the bow all things considered. pic.twitter.com/JNiVecZvpK
— Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) August 19, 2018
We were having lots of fun and it was only the second day in the Klang Valley.
Some Salam Lebaran From Sitiawan
For Eid, we were at Sitiawan taking photos with Atok and Opah. We also visited Marina Island near Lumut to see what the artificial island was like these days. Sometimes friends visited us. Sometimes we visited friends. We also took a trip to Ipoh to visit Wan Cu’s family.
Check out the photos in the following gallery:
Some Salam Lebaran From Sitiawan
Before long it was time to head home.
Pre-Aidilfitri in Pasir Mas
After our journey through Thailand to get to Pasir Mas, we finally arrived just in time for buka puasa at the dinner table with the family there. Nia and family were already there to greet us.
Here are some photos of the fun times over the days before we drove to Sitiawan for Aidilfitri!
Pre-Aidilfitri in Pasir Mas
Perak beckons.
A Sad Raya Haji in Sitiawan
Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha from the whole lot of us in Sitiawan… …or something. It was Eid and it was Sitiawan’s turn this year. The trip to Sitiawan was not stressful for traffic was more than manageable. After nearly three years, I am still getting used to raya traffic being bad in the opposite direction. Irfan and I performed solat Aidiladha at the temporary masjid in town as a new one was under construction at the site of the old. Before long it was time to head home. A sad footnote:The day we before we travelled to Sitiawan I had heard that an old family friend – my parents’ good friend and my former classmates’ dad – had been hospitalised. We visited him the next day and were met by his entire family, people I have known since I could remember and rarely meet these days. Sadly the next […]
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Nia Nia’s Hari Raya in Kedah
En route back to Perlis, we stopped in Kedah where Nia Nia and family were celebrating Aidilfitri this year. Also present were Nia’s cousins Nawal and Adenin. Nia of course was a busy little girl with a lot of self-appointed assignments and jobs to complete. (Usually with toys.)
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