Man, I haven’t been to this space in AGES. What with a
gazillion hospital visits ( I’m alive and well peeps!) and with the mounting
pressure at work, it hasn’t been easy to get a breather to just let my thoughts
flow here.
It’s during this downtime, I tend to appreciate a lot of
things. Like the sea, for one. I think, with my super fear of all things aqua(
looking at you Aquaman!) , I haven’t had the chance to be thankful for the body
of water that surrounds our little haven in the world. So when my wound healing
got more positive, I dragged Pbear out to PD.
Now , let’s be honest here. There are only a handful of
people that actually APPRECIATE PD. I don’t think I did that much, but some of
my most wonderful memories were carved at this little seaside town. See, I had
the opportunity (if I may call it that) to see my tough-in-your -face best friend
turn into a (shudder) meek “rabbit” , had tons of picnics with my extended
family, here is also where I learnt how to steal a Mazda , how to swim in a
pool like a turtle with a frog for a shell (thanks to my cousin), and I got to learn how to eat while flies buzz
around your head. The trick is- look
them in the eye(s)! If the flies see no fear in your eyes, they will leave you
well alone.
So while I do like the tiny town, the mush in the sea always
deterred me away. Though, speaking honestly, in my previous 2 visits, I noted
that the sea seemed cleaner, and the beaches whiter. And I really actually enjoyed my
stay.
If only they remained that way..
Unfortunately, things went a little awry from the time we
arrived at Lukut. We had lunch at a chicken rice stall near the Jetty, and
though I had the same food here last year, poor Pbear found something akin to a
cicak poop on his plate. And It didn’t look delicious. Even the flies didn’t
want to go near it. So we left the stall, disgruntled, and headed out to the waterfront.
It was a far cry from a year ago when the walkways were
clean and there were plenty of tiny sampans docked nearby. It had just rained
and though the wind was nice, there was a lot of rubbish on the sidewalk and
cars were parked on WALKways. The cars didn’t have any feet, so I’m not sure
why they were there. Disgruntled yet again, we stayed for less than half an
hour before heading off to our hotel.
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| Managed a pitstop to have ABC with Pigeons. Only in PD! |
This time I stayed next to The Grand Lexis. The glory beach
resort is a “well-seasoned” hotel. It has its own beach, a small petting zoo(with
mainly rabbits), lots of turtle hatchery and ponds, and there is almost always
an ice cream man present somewhere. The hotel comes with a adult pool and a
kids pool. And if one is up for it, there is also archery and rabbit feeding at
certain times of the day. The beach is very useful, especially if you have
kids. Plenty of sand to go around into their pants and hair (kidding, mommies),
I saw the kids having the time of their lives making sandcastles and sandworms.
I believe the Sandworms were attacking the sandcastles.
But the water. Not, let me rephrase that. But the muddy
scented oily slick of liquid. Urgh. We
thought maybe the neighboring beach would be better, but the water quality
there was worse. One dip in, and your mother would not be able to differentiate
between you and the swamp thing. Flies might mistake you for a lump of poop, no
point with the eye contact then.
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| See the brown beach just north of the white sand? That one looked cleaner from afar, but its all a mirage |
Being at the seaside and all, we decided to look for ikan
bakar that night. Found this place by chance, were happy that our order of ikan kembongs turned out to be very fresh and yummy. Surprisingly no
flies were at the shop. But fate is cruel. We were instead bombarded with ants
and fat cats. Eye contact don’t work with this species. Trust me. I tried. More
noteworthy though, was the drive to the Ikan Bakar restaurant - PD roads are mostly just 2 lanes and I wasn’t
driving fast. And though I never expected it, I got run off the lanes a couple
of times because some drivers( all with Wxx number plates!) just couldn’t wait
to get to their tomyum and nasi goreng joints. I felt like I was back in SK with
the honks, flashing and cucuk-king. Pbear is much calmer with all this and I
think next time, I’ll just hand him the wheel. (I consider myself a suburban
now: slow drive, empty roads, greet hello to my neighbours)
The meteor shower was happening that night, so we stayed up
trying to catch that mystical streak in the skies. But the moon was happily
shining and the clouds were happily rolling so though we didn’t catch sight of
them, Pbear did manage to get
beautiful shots of the lightning and the moon. At least me losing sleep wasn’t totally
wasted. And our friendly neighbor said hello to us. Ok, to be fair he was
actually shouting the hello out to the world from his balcony, but since we
were the only 2 people awake at that hour, I guess it counts.
I may have visited the same town and the same shops, but I find
that everytime I go again somewhere, I experience different things. But then
again, maybe I, and the people around me, am different today too.
If only the flies were different too. Swat!
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| Dont be fooled at how pretty it looks, thats pretty mucky |
