Monday, July 13, 2009

when the fish went to meet the monger....

such was the traffic crawl to Kampong Peria in Manik Urai never experienced by the folks who later told me upon arrival from Kota Bahru....stretched for miles to gather for the mother of all ceremahs........the ceremah "perdana".(pic. below)
....past the ever present posters along the way.....and once I got down to meeting the local folks....after a cuppa I knew I was in the thick of things......ahhh....that familiar old feeling....yes !

this gentleman on the right Mohamad Shaary swears as a "penyokong setia" to his spiritual leader "Tok Guru".....and insists I take a picture of him beside his favorite banner ! He even promised in his Kelante'-speak (almost Greek to me !) he'd check my blog to make sure I put it up(a very "friendly" threat ?)....otherwise I'm sure he'd he will be waiting for me tomorrow.....see it will be easy to spot me here in remote Kg. Peria ! I stick out like a "nigga-in-china" coupled with my dashing good looks to boot ! So there you go, Shaary, done it !

I also met the family of this plucky and adorable Wee Chin Leong, age 9, who was just so friendly and hyper, accompanying his mum, Chuah Chai Chye (3rd. from left) and dad Wee Chee Chai (2nd. from left) who claims to be also the "penghulu tanpa daerah" from Kok Lanas with his uncle Eyu Kee,(5th. from left) age 85, presumebly the oldest man I met today.....hmmm....then again maybe not, when you see the other photos, later !.....and another "penghulu" friend of Pulai Chondong, Machang, Koh Ah Wang (far left). Seems every Chinese here is a "penghulu" of somewhere ! And there are only 56 of them in MU !

....well, like I said, isn't this a brave young fellow ? Even dared to sit on el zorro's lap ! Which got this grumpy old terror "melting", as he too took to this kid readily ! Little Wee Chin Leong is a name I will remember for a long time, long after Manik Urai !

Well that was my first night out here in "Greeky" Kelante' since 1982.....and will post with photos of the 'ceramah perdana' itself later today when I wake up from my much needed beauty sleep......yaaaaaaawn.....it's almost 4:30am now. Yaaaawn !
Goodnight......or what ever's left of it !
Cheers !

4 comments:

SFGEMS said...

Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

From the Land of Hang Tuah said...

Ya the Kelantan slang which is the easiet to understand is those that ends with 'an' in normal BM will be pronouced ending 'e'.. for example, 'makan' will be pronounced as 'mak-e' instead... he he.

But they have their own set of vocabs which is totally different than normal BM and thats where the Greek comes in.. ha ha

Anyway, keep up the good job & keep us posted !!

Starmandala said...

Tipping my cap to you guys and two thumbs up, SF! :-)

pua kang kang said...

Great job bro..looking forward for more..and make sure you have that "sleep"