In Rememberance

Last Friday, I did something which I'd not done for a long time - go to church. Over the years, I've somehow lost the desire to go to church and I really don't know why. I do believe. I just can't practise the habit of going to church every Sunday morning.

As I remember Jesus' sacrifice on Good Friday, I can't help but remember my beloved grandparents who were also Christians. Grandma especially, was a faithful believer and I used to admire her habit of going to church every Sunday morning; even when she was very old.

I go back to my dad's hometown every year for Ching Ming and re-unite with my relatives but this year was special. Somehow, my family managed to convince my dad to follow us back to Tanjung Malim. He doesn't like to travel long distances because of his illness and he's not been back to his hometown for 5 years. So, it's especially meaningful that he went back this year.

Borrowing from my student, Jia Yin's trademark phrase on her blog, "Let the photos do the talking."

I drove my family back to my dad's hometown late Saturday morning as we wanted to avoid the crowd. This is the grand overhead bridge at Sabak Bernam, just before turning into Tanjung Malim.

One thing I love about going back to Tanjung Malim is the grand view of mountains and beautiful cloud-filled sky. It gives me that authentic 'kampung' feeling and the breath of fresh air, away from polluted city air.

My grandparents' not so 'kampung' house. It's actually a nice old-fashioned semi-d house with a huge open balcony on the upper floor. We used to shoot 'rockets' into the sky from the balcony during Chinese New Year.

Standing in the garden of my grandparents' house. These were planted by my grandma many years ago.

The neighbourhood playground which my cousins and I used to play at, all those years ago... it looks so empty and quiet now without us.

At the cemetery, preparing to clean and decorate grandpa and grandma's graves with sunflowers and daisies.

My grandparents' graves are among the handful of Christian graves in the cemetery.

Helping to cut the flower stems to make them shorter so the flowers will fit nicely into the vases.

A stalk of daisies on grandpa's grave, laid with our memories and thanksgiving prayers.

After a sun-soaked afternoon at the cemetery, my uncle took us to this new restaurant which serves pretty good dishes. Here you can see, (clockwise from the top) sweet and sour wine vinegar pork ribs, pork with yam and 'kangkung belacan'. The tom yam steamed fish and steamed tofu arrived later.

After lunch, we rested at our grandparents' house. By evening, my uncle and I drove my cousins and siblings to nearby Proton City to visit the beautiful man-made lake.

The Ho cousins 'bai leng-ing' on the bridge over the man-made lake at Proton City.

On our way back to town from the lake, we passed by the famous Yik Mun pau restaurant. The pau here became famous many years ago (some said even the sultan used to buy pau from here). However, that was many, many years ago. Today, Yik Mun paus are no longer as good as they were before. Since they stopped hand-making them and used machines, the pau quality has dropped. Strangely enough, Malays still love to eat the pau here as they are halal, although they are made by a Chinese!

Once we reached the old town, my cousins and I headed for the night market. I haven't visited the 'pasar malam' in Tanjung Malim for many, many years and was surprised to see the modernisation of the stalls. Just check out the pizza oven here operated by a Malay pizza stall!

Check out the modern kebab-grilling machine. Canggih betul sial! The Malay pizza stall I mentioned earlier is behind me, complete with the Italian national colours on their menu.

I found this hilarious! 'KENAPA TAK PERCAYA'! I bought 5 pieces of my favourite crispy 'apam balik' and told the Malay girl, "Saya percaya." Then she laughed! Haha!

My brother noticed this strange phenomenon and pointed it out to me. It seems the people in Tanjung Malim like to throw rubbish just like every other Malaysian but amazingly, they like to arrange the rubbish neatly by the roadside! We should learn from them! Wakakaka!

I couldn't help buying my favourite fruit - mangoes! Here, they were selling them for only RM 5 for 2 kg. That's cheap man!

My cousins and I made one last stop at the 'pisang goreng' stall before going home. You can see how happy we were with all the food we bought. I hope it's this fun every time I go back to Tanjung Malim.

(All photos courtesy of Timothy)