Happy Aidilfitri

Hari Raya celebration for my immediate family has not changed for years and years. I can close my eyes and replay every detail of packing, loading the car, the traffic jam, the hotel we will stay in, how the hotel room looks like, aunts’, uncles’ and Toks’ houses we will visit, from day one of Raya leaving home to day four driving back home.

Day one is travelling down to Kluang. We normally leave home near noon and every year, all of us packed in the car would comment “We should leave earlier la.” Every year, same thing and every year, we still leave around noon. The mandatory stuck in traffic from Sungai Besi to Seremban of approximately one and half hours – the worse we ever encountered was 2 hours – and then smooth sailing from Negri Sembilan onwards. Our only stop along the highway is Pagoh. Arriving in Kluang about 2 hours later, we’ll check in to our hotel, lounge a bit, clean up, get dressed and off we’ll go to visit Mom’s older sister and then younger brother. First day always end close to 1am.

Day two begins with breakfast from heaven. This hotel’s breakfast porridge is famous all over Kluang. Absolutely yummy! It’s something we all look forward to yearly. And it’s the primary reason why we choose this hotel from newer ones in town. With stomachs all happy, we make way down to Johor Bahru to my Moyang’s house and then to one Toks’ house. Actually the Moyang we visit is really my step-Moyang. She’s the second wife of my late maternal great-grandfather. My late grandmother was from his first wife. My Moyang is most unfortunately senile. During the years when she was still healthy, a visit to her house would mean a mean lunch of Briyani Gam – the best I’ve tasted then and still. The rice moist and as you scoop it up from the pot, out comes succulent pieces of lamb and served with all the necessary condiments. I’ve not found anywhere with that quality. I suppose love really does add flavour to food. There we’ll meet several Toks who are children of my step-Moyang. Though they are my Toks, they are younger than my parents and their children - my aunts and uncles – are younger than me! One of my Toks’ wives is the lady responsible of bringing many joys to us – well, at least to me – for she is our reliable and frequent supplier of tickets to shows at Istana Budaya - she being a director there. Aaah, the power of connections! J The Tok that we visit after Moyang’s house is my grandmother’s younger brother’s house. We call them Tok Uda. In our family, Tok Uda’s house is known as the Tok’s house without dust and lots of flowers, fake flowers. Their house is spotless. With the exorbitant number of ornaments in their house, Tok Uda perempuan must be doing nothing else but cleaning. It is quite amazing how dustless the house it. Boggles the mind actually! It becomes a little game of us to find some dust spots in her house. Haha... We head back to Kluang around 5pm and arrive at the hotel near 7pm; just in time to order room service for dinner. Being second day of Raya, the kitchen of this no-star hotel closes at 8.30pm. Can you believe it? Hmph... Only in small towns...

Day three is all about Batu Pahat to visit two Toks – Tok Long and Tok Anjang. Tok Long lelaki is my grandmother’s older brother but he passed away several years ago. So we visit Tok Long perempuan at her house. Tok Anjang perempuan is my grandmother’s younger sister. She is strong and healthy but her husband passed away years ago. I lost both my maternal grandparents when I was very young. I have very limited memories of my maternal grandfather and no memories of my grandmother at all. I only know her from photos. Raya for me has always been about visiting other people’s grandparents. If I could wish for grandparents, I want mine like the Tok we visit on day three – Tok Anjang. She looks like my grandmother and the homeliness of her house and her welcome of our visit yearly makes me wish that she was mine.

Day four is about repacking and travelling home. The end.

The predictability of my trip for Raya is sometimes seen as plain boring, so very predictable but in retrospect, if there were any changes, it could possible mean an old folk would have made his one-way trip to the after-world.

There were several things different this year. For one thing, for all the years travelling down to Kluang, I’ve never driven my family. Yes, I'm a little princess. This year, however, all driving was on me.

Another is that this year, our beloved addition, baby Hana Balqis, made the trip in her sixth month being in the family. Everywhere we went was centred on baby Hana.
Why?
GOD!! She's adorable!