Kota Bharu and I

It is not my working Monday morning at 2.16am and we are in M.S Garden Hotel, Kuantan. Both Harris and Dew are asleep while I am still wide awake. Must be the hot shower or could be the jumping jacks on hotel bed with Dew earlier that made my eyes wouldn’t want to rest as yet.
We are on our way back to KL after a short trip to beloved home town. I persuaded Harris for a night stay over here with me giving reason that he has to attend for a site inspection. Co-incidentally, he has an ongoing project in Kuantan. Yea..yea…yea… I am always his unofficial boss what !
Well in a more serious mode, he really needs a follow-up inspection after last Thursday’s inspection anyway. I just made it more assured.

I had been postponing for my balik kampong trip since 2 months back. There were always matter(s) that came up which didn’t allow me to do so. Not until last week and after long fought with my boss.
Dew and I took a flight on Wednesday night which later was followed by Harris the next day after his site visit, yes,, here in Kuantan.

My mami’s house is merely 10minutes away from Kota Bharu Airport and I was supposed to contact any of my family members to fetch us once we arrived. I didn’t and instead, decided to opt for a cab to ferry us home from airport. No..no..no, of course I didn’t tell Harris until I did so. Kalau tak.. sure tak boleh punya. Kalau dah buat, then he has nothing to say… except to accept that he has a stubborn wife. Whee hee hee.

It has been long since the last event that I hop on a cab in KB. I always have this uneasy feeling of KB cab drivers. Please don’t get me wrong especially those whom are associated with cab drivers, be it you are the cab driver, or your father or mother or brother or anyone you know, I do not mean bad.

Those days, when I was small and at the time I accompanied my mami to town, we would take a cab or we call it kegheto sewo. The drivers that I encountered always wanting to know and had a gelenya way of asking my mami whom is a single parent if she had a husband like :

“Bakpo la che’ abe tok maghi ambik” means : Why is your husband not fetching you?

or

“Come-come ni che’ abe bui ko naik kegheto sewo” means : You are beautiful… does your husband allows you to hitch a cab?

I may be was a young kid but I did understand and was able to read between the lines. I detested the gelenyaness for ever! Like, for your own sake… Do you have to ask the questions?... I don’t remember my mami answering any of those.

Here now, Nada and I experiencing the cab ride the way my mami and I did years ago. Two females with no male guardian. I swear if I ever being asked the question, I’m gonna switch on my hand phone recorder, record the ‘conversation’ and make a police report for sexual harassment case!

Allahamdulillah, my ‘fear’ was groundless may be at least to KB Airport cab drivers. May be also I am not as beautiful as my mami.

The man was polite to me. I gave him the ticket indicating my destination and he requested me if I could help to fold Dew’s pushchair for he’s not familiar with it. Yeah, I don’t mind. He asked me if we were on a ‘balik kampong’ trip and I answered with a short one. He seemed to understand and respected that I didn’t want for any long conversation. The cab is clean and smell fresh. Better than our own sedan. It was a safe ride home……, only then I realized why was I really wanting to hitch a cab.

I want to face my ‘fear’ and hoping for my daughter not to have to go through the bad experience I had.

oh... how i love this cutie pie.

That’s a little sour experience of mine, I carried for so long……… I just want to share.

On the other hand, I also want to share this wonderful activity for many Kelantanese, especially whom reside in KB, I witnessed ever since I was a small child. I want to believe whoever that had gone trough the cupid love phase of their life in KB, surely had experienced this activity for a date. I did !

…. Lepak tepi pagar airport tengok kapal terbang turun dan naik. Muakakakakakakaaka. It is so festive, isn’t it?

You can judge by the numbers of cars being parked by the roadside. :) LOL.