The fly swatter- Port Dickson Aug17

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.

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.

See the brown beach just north of the white sand? That one looked cleaner from afar, but its all a mirage

We had paid for a one bedroom apartment but were given the 3 bedroom. The master suite was upstairs with 2 rooms downstairs, and with only 2 of us, we barely went upstairs. Though I could swear that I had heard a man coughing and someone coming down the stairs, so maybe there was actually 3 of us staying there.

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!

Dont be fooled at how pretty it looks, thats pretty mucky