The end of Eid

I am back in Sabak Bernam at the café.  Vas is still groaning and gasping at his computer as he plays chess and I am writing to you yet again and listening to the traffic, which is still crazy, as everyone heads home after a week off work. 

It was a good week for me.  I am glad I got away to Langkawi for a few days.  Already my sunburn has faded and I have begun preparation for the upcoming workshops.

The ferry was better on the way back than it was on the trip there. This one had emergency exits, the air conditioning wasn't set to 'freeze their asses off', and we got to sit together. 


They did play the same crazy Malayan video as we travelled both directions -  some sort of Malayan comedy/horror.  I struggled to get the humour part of it, partially I expect because it was in Malay, but the families, especially the kids, thought it was great.  It is a passenger ferry: you can send your car by barge, but it takes an extra day to get there and back and you can't go with it.  Everyone has to take this hour and a half ferry ride.  

It was fine for me, but one of the ladies we travelled with was just recuperating from food poisoning as we made the return trip, I am not sure she enjoyed it too much.  She felt good enough to hop on board the motor bike when the fellow came to take us to our car though.  Can't turn down a ride on the back of a Malaysian motor cycle! 

Then ferry was full and the highway bumper to bumper along the Expressway as we made our way back south.  It is a toll road, cost us about 40MR for the journey, but it is really the only way to go.  The police were out.. we heard there had been over 200 deaths on the highways over the holiday, but no one seemed to care. There are some crazy drivers out there. 

But as I sit here now, listening to the heavy traffic going by on our little dual carriage-way: highway 54, I am glad we went and even happier that we are all back home, safe and sound. 

 

We had left Ipoh at 3, not 5 as Silka had me believe, when we left her place on Saturday morning.  She wanted to miss the traffic.. And it was still quiet when I stole away on Thursday: the sun just coming up over the mountains that surround Ipoh. 

Now it is back to work.. two and a half months to go!