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Dated: 2013 Mar 2 Sat
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Previous Unloads: 2013 Mar 2: The Lagoon of Merang 2012 Dec 31: The Band Has One Last Song to Play 2012 Dec 3: Degree Conferment in Dec 2012 Jun 23: To Bogor Again 2011 Oct 7: Southern Flight to Bogor 2011 Jul 20: Minding the Innocent Creatures 2011 Jun 20: Seeing the Birds in Medan 2011 Mar 5: A Hop to Chiang Mai University 2010 Apr 25: Receding From the Sea 2010 Mar 28: To the Bornean Land Below the Breeze 2010 Feb 28: On the Beach of Kijal 2010 Jan 17: To the Bornean Land of the Hornbill 2009 Nov 10: Dedicated to My Teacher, CheGu Ghazali Hanafiah 2009 Jul 25: A Bridge to Bayan Lepas 2009 Jul 16: UDM Maiden Degree Conferement 2009 Jul 1: The Tanjong at the Muara of Terengganu River 2008 Dec 28: The 2008 Year Event 2008 Aug 12: Kenyir Re-Visited 2008 Aug 08: Taken to the Memory Lane - UKM 1970 in 2008 2008 Jun: Bukit Besar - The Last Bastion 2008 May: An Old Man and the Sea 2008 Apr: Drifted from the Past 2007 Nov: Ke Tepian Sang Seluang Melaut 2007 Mar: Duku - The Fruit of Terengganu 2006 Oct: The Faces of Ramadan 2006 Aug: Convocation UKM #34 2006 2006 Jun: Bidong Revisited 2006 May: Kenyir, Here I Come 2005 Nov: Jalan Hale Revisited 2005 Apr: In the Backyard (and Frontyard) 2005 Jan: Seri Puteri Eventually Visited 2005 Jan: SAS Re-Revisited 2004 Jul: In the Heart of Two Cities 2004 May: Cameron Highland Revisited 2003 Nov: Reunion of Class of 66 2002 Sep: A Consequential Events from Feb 2002 2001 Dec: Digging Deep Into the Root: SKBT Revisited 2001 Jul: 29th Covocation of UKM 2000 Dec: Just An Unlucky Day 2000 Jul: A MiniReunion of Class of 66 1999 Dec: Study Tour to Taiwan 1999 Sep 23: A Week on Leave 1999 Sep: The Officiation of Smart Technology Centre, UKM 1998 Apr MOU and Launching of Chito-Chem (M) Sdn Bhd 1997 Dec: Rally Nationwide Vision 1995 Dec: SAS Revisited 1994 May: First Asia Pacific Chitin and Chitosan Symposium (APCCS) 1991 Aug: Study tour to Medan, Indonesia 1991 May: A Visit to Langkawi, the Land of Mahsuri |
 A house that was a home in Mengabang Panjang that refuses to fall. The coconut trees the house owner planted when he was a lad had even been cut down. The house is an icon of once upon a time, life in Mengabang Panjang was a happy natural life, which modern time dwellers percieved as a tale in a neverland, but could only dream a taste of it. |
Driving, after Batu Rakit (where Azizah was born, and then raised in Paya Datu), it is Pengkalan Atap, then Pagar Besi, Mengabang Bakong, Mengabang Panjang, Ru Tapai, and finally Merang, among few places my mother took me to when I was a child. She was born in Mengabang Panjang, and grew up as an orphan in Mengabang Telong until she was married to my father, and since then moved to Pengkalan Arang, where I was born. All were fishermen land-residential of their heavens. Bidong and Rxdang, before the 'development' era.
At Merang T-junction, straight on is to the Lagoon. To the left is to Penarik. The drive from Merang to Penarik is almost a copy of a drive from Batu Rakit to Merang, only that to Penarik it is a bit further. Merang and Penarik are identical twins, like that of Bidong island (Bidong Laut) and Bidong hill (Bidong Darat). There is a folk tale of the two identical peaks of Bidong Laut and Bidong Darat, but it's too folkloric to tell.
Merang used to be very rich in coastal life in the 60-s, and obviously before, but never flourished on the civilisation scale, because of the lack of logistic, which reached only Batu Rakit from Kuala Terengganu. And to date it is just a sleezy, breezy, occasionally very windy residential area of a beach-life, ironically, with a tag of rocketing cost of living. But that configuration of social variables had made the 'indigeneous' live on a leisurely happiness. Almost in presureless vacuum, seiving the incomers. The beach of Merang is less attracted than the beach of Tok Jembal, or Ketapang, or even Pengkalan Maras. But the lagoon is superb. Never dried-up even in hot season, or tsunamic in monsoon season. The water, salty though, is always calm and cool. Before it was snatched off.
