Day 27: Third Quarter of East OCT...

~9th April 2014~

After we had breakfast buffet served by the hotel, we took some photos from the outside of the hotel. We chose this hotel because of the fake waterfall and another reason was because it was inside the theme park.

We started our journey, walking everywhere. There weather was good and a few schools have their field trip at the theme park. We counted at least 5 different schools and different grades. They were as young as kindergarten students. While Malaysian students are stuck in the classroom, banging more facts into their brains only to get low marks during exam, the students in first world countries have their students running around the zoos and theme parks. Parents in Malaysia will say the Education Department is crazy to allow any form of learning in theme parks but parents are gravely wrong. The students in other countries are faring better in examinations even with their students running around taking rides after rides and screaming at the top of their voices. They learn more indirectly. They are not such frogs under under the coconut shell, never seen roller coasters before. Yeah, some teenagers actually never seen one or been on one before, so sad right?

We queued like the rest of the teenagers to wait for the Wooden Coaster ride. Yeah, I was really scared, seriously don't know where has my daring ability disappeared to. I don't trust the wood support, don't have faith on them at all. While standing in line, that was where we met stupid young adults who jumped queue all the way to the front. The person in-charge of handling the queue had nothing to say, well they were hooligans and nobody wants to create unwanted scenes or any untoward incidents such as fighting and more fighting.

We continued with our exploration and walked straight into a walk-through aviary. Some of the birds were in cages, though. I just hoped those flying around will not have their shit landed on our heads. We have no spare change of clothes and we definitely did not have anything to clean ourselves. The peacock refused to open up its tail to show-off. I saw an orange-brown fox which I really like. And there were turkeys, chickens and rabbits running around in an open enclosure. Open Enclosure... what an irony.... it's an open space but with perimeter fencing.... ugh~!

We took the funicular tram to the French city. I can't recall much of this trip as it was so many years back... hah... it's 2.5 years back. No, it's not a funicular tram, that was the previous ride earlier in the morning. We took a train, yes, a train which ran through the expensive looking town. Where are there towns in a theme park? Who's going to stay there? The bungalows have private pools. I wish I have a bungalow with in-house pool and a huge garden outside with gym equipment. I am a dreamer and I'm good in dreaming. I want a farm of my own with donkeys and chickens. I prefer donkeys than horses. 

It was a scenic train ride. We soaked in the view of luxury living and thinking when we will ever live in one. And then we thought about who's going to help us clean up the entire house as my travel buddy and I are quite similar in the ways we live. We are too busy to clean up the house because we are not housewives. Even if we are housewives, we will find better things to do rather than to be the slave of cleaning. In the end, we decide to live in small houses but none of us manage to live as minimalists, owning less than 100 items in a house. On the other hand, after looking at some of these photos, I do wish that I'm a better photographer but I just do not have any patience to be a better one.

Day 26: Second Half of East OCT...

~8th April 2014~

We continued with our exploration around East OCT. The developer of this place really thinks much for the patrons, due to the massive size of the entire area, an escalator was installed in the middle of nowhere so that walking is easier. 

We came upon a curvaceous red bridge and on this rare occasion, we have the whole bridge to ourselves so we took some 'passport' photos with the thick fog as the background and we just stood and stared into the faraway land not knowing that the next day we would be walking around those French-inspired buildings. 

There was ropeway ride which we took. I do not enjoy hiking and walking up on staircase. There was no queue at all so we thought that we really made a good date to come to this place. We walked through the splash ride because it looked exactly like the splash ride that we took in Taiwan. This time round we were not interested to get ourselves wet. As I looked back, I wondered why we never made the trip to 4000 miles to Earth center. 

Before we entered into Seafield Town, we saw this building with a signage screaming about Jellyfish. I enjoyed looking at jellyfish swimming around especially those which reflect on the lighting in the aquarium. I stood there for quite a long time just taking photos and be mesmerized. There was no one else to block our view. Imagine if the whole place was filled with visitors, there would be humans as the background of jellyfish shots.

Seafield Town was quite beautiful. We spend most of the time sitting on the bench gazing towards the sky LED-graphic ceiling with seasonal display of sorts. It was so beautiful and we have such modern thinking that we did not mind enjoying the 'view' through computer-controlled ceiling. *sigh* We crawled back to the hotel after that to have a good rest.

Day 26: First Quarter of East OCT - Peak Restaurant...

~ 8th April 2014~

After having some breakfast, we packed our suitcase to head off to East OCT for a night's stay at the hotel that we've booked. It's a newly opened place suitable for tourists like us. We chose weekdays because we wanted to avoid any form of crowd. We took the public bus but Pinky took us to Timbuktu as she could not remember where the bus depot was. We walked to God knows where then she decided to call home to ask. We walked back to the house because the bus depot was actually near the house. Okay, we wasted an hour walking back and forth.

When we boarded the bus, I didn't know it will be a long trip. Along the journey, there were huge gigantic buildings and I started taking photos, but after three pieces of photos of mammoth-size buildings which could not even fit properly in the camera screen, I decided to sleep. It was a two-hour plus bus ride. All of us slept and none of us knew when to get down. But when you're in a public transport, somehow or other, your sixth-sense will wake you up when you arrive.

We went down and walked aimlessly. There should be a shuttle taking us to the hotels. The place was void of humans and that's no so good when we didn't where we were and we were suppose to go to our hotel. There was a bill posted on the electric pole with names of hotels printed on it. We have booked Oasis Hotel because we liked ocean view or anything which has to do with the sea and ocean life. The mist was floating and we felt that we were back in Alishan just that the temperature was a bit higher over at East OCT. 

The shuttle came when we called. Before we messed up the room, I snap some photos. We messed up the room in less than 5 minutes and we decided not to waste our time. There was no sea view or ocean view but we were looking at the theme park. It was closed because of the slight drizzle. The theme park looked like it has been abandoned. We decided to walk in the rain and explore the place. Of course we could not finish the entire place but we would cover as much as possible. 

It was so misty that visibility was really poor. We took the tram and there were only three of us in such spacious coach. While walking, our stomach started rumbling. We ended up searching for restaurants and we found one, the Peak Restaurant. It was in service even though there were no visitors. We thought about the price how our pockets would be hurt, but since our stomach was more hurting, we forget about the price and ordered something to eat. While waiting for the food, the mist gave way to the clear blue sky. I thought the clear blue sky would stay on so I did not run out to take photos to have a clearer view of the valley down below. 

The blue sky view stayed on for us to watch while eating the most delicious simple food of glass noodles and rice with some meat. They were simply the best and actually we planned to have lunch the next day at the same place but we were off to another part of the park that we couldn't make our way back here. Such a pity or else we would have tried other dishes. You should go to Peak Restaurant for your every meal.

The mist came back when we were done eating. No more clear blue sky and clear valley view for us anymore but we continued walking since we have our energy replenished.

Luahan Hatiku Kepadamu Pemandu Proton WCW 498...

Hari ini sudah genap sebulan engkau melanggarku lepas itu engkau berangkat begitu sahaja. Ingat lagi ke pada 31 Mei 2016. jam 10:45 pagi. Masa itu kereta pun tidak banyak, lampu isyarat di persimpangan Jalan Sultan Azlan Syah yang membelok kanan ke arah Jalan Tengah, baharu sahaja bertukar menjadi hijau. Kita berdua pun bukannya kereta yang berada di barisan pertama tetapi dalam baris keempat atau kelima. Lampu hijau, kalau nak bawa laju-laju pun tidak boleh.

Memang engkau ada di lorong yang paling kanan untuk membelok kanan. Aku pula ada di lorong tengah, juga untuk membelok kanan. Tatkala aku sedang membelok, aku terdengar bunyi tin kosong diremukkan. Macam ada orang yang sedang marah terhadap tin kosong Coca-Cola lalu dicacatkan dalam genggaman tangan. Aku terlihat kepala kereta engkau yang putih semerbak, bagai mata pedang yang terhunus, mencium terus punggung keretaku yang kelabu. Maklumlah aku sedang membelok, terpekik terlolong ibuku denganku dalam kereta. Kita tidak sehaluan, ya. Aku sudah berada di tengah jalan, kalau aku berhenti nanti padahnya lagi buruk apabila lampu bertukar hijau untuk lorong di seberang jalan. Engkau berhenti tidak sampai 10 saat tapi pada masa itu, malaikat yang melindungi kami membolehkan aku melihat nombor plat kereta engkau yang jelas terpampang, WCW 498. Pada mulanya, aku ingatkan WCW493, digit terakhir aku tidak dapat lihat dengan jelas sebab engkau tekan minyak, terus engkau meluru, nak berkejar ke neraka ke? Nasib baik tuan polis memeriksa dengan teliti untuk mendapatkan nombor plat yang sahih.

Hari itu ialah hari terakhir kami duduk di kawasan itu setelah lebih 3 dekad. Aku membesar di kawasan itu. Dari menjadi tanah terbiar selepas pesawah padi tidak mahu berkhidmat kepada tanah lagi, sehingga perubahan hari ini, perlukah engkau meninggalkan kenangan pahit buat hari terakhir kami duduk di situ? Anak panah yang sebesar pokok nyiur yang tumbang ada tercat dengan warna putih. Lorong tengah dan lorong kanan untuk belok kanan, tetapi kenapa engkau mesti memandu terus dan terus engkau menghentam keretaku. Di mana perginya kemanusiaan engkau?

Polis sudah hantar dua pucuk surat untuk memintamu membuat laporan polis tetapi engkau buat bodoh ya? Saman pun sudah dikeluarkan. Sekarang masih bulan Ramadhan, bulan yang mulia, tapi engkau perlakukan aku sebegini. Engkau langgar aku, engkau pun tidak memohon maaf pun engkau langsung tidak mahu bayar ganti rugi. Cacat keretaku dengan warna putih cat kereta engkau melekap di atasnya. Bagaikan kena penampar sampai tidak hilang-hilang bekas telapak tanganmu. Kenapa berpuasa sedangkan engkau tahu engkau sudah bersalah? Manusia lain tidak tahu apa yang engkau buat, tapi Tuhan itu Maha Esa, Maha Berkuasa, tidak takutkah engkau dengan Tuhan yang melihat segala-galanya? 

Syawal bakal menjelang. Bagaimana engkau boleh sambut Raya dengan gembira sedangkan engkau sudah melakukan kesalahan? Tercoret sesuatu yang gelap dan hitam dalam hatimu. Tenangkah engkau tidur pada waktu malam? Aku tidak pernah dilanggar sebegini. Bagimu ini mungkin satu perkara kecil yang tidak perlu dipedulikan, masih manusiakah engkau? Aku tidak meminta apa-apa daripadamu, aku cuma berasa tidak adil. Semasa aku di balai polis, aku bagaikan orang yang bersalah apabila disoal dengan tegas. Aku mangsa. Aku langsung tidak balik ke rumah untuk berpindah, terus aku bawa keretaku ke balai polis Bayan Lepas. Balai polis pula sudah dirobohkan tetapi nasib baik, terjumpa pula dua orang polis yang sedang mencari nasi di Kafe Cargas, terus aku berhentikan kereta untuk bertanya ke mana hilangnya balai polis itu. 

Engkau bawa kereta meluru terus pergi ke mana? Kalau naik terus ke Balik Pulau, tentu engkau nampak juga Balai Polis Balik Pulau yang tersergam indah, takkan pula balai polis itu tertutup dengan pokok durian? Susahkah engkau hendak pergi ke balai polis untuk memberitahu bahawa engkau bawa kereta silap lorong, hentam punggung kereta orang lepas itu bawa terus macam tiada hal yang berlaku. Kalaulah jantung kami tidak kuat, sudah terputus nyawa kami akibat terkejut yang teramat sangat.

Alamat rumahmu melekat di negeri Melaka. Melaka tiada balai polis untuk membuat laporan ke? Mungkin itu alamat lama engkau dan engkau yang sudah berpindah ke Pulau Pinang  tidak ditukar-tukar lagi ke alamat baharu. Sementara masih bulan Ramadhan, perbetulkan hal ini bolehlah anda beraya dengan lebih gembira. Mudah sahaja, buat laporan polis, bayar saman sebab tidak mematuhi undang-undang jalan raya dan bayar ganti rugi untuk kerosakan yang engkau lakukan. Bukannya suruh engkau meringkuk dalam penjara. Polis pun tak akan hantar orang kejar engkau. Susahkah hendak lakukan sesuatu yang betul? Aku masih percaya kepada sistem undang-undang negara ini. Aku juga percaya kepada Rukunegara Malaysia yang pertama iaitu Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan. Aku percaya Tuhan nampak segala-galanya dan kalau ada pahala dalam melakukan sesuatu, ada juga balasan yang akan bergolek datang.

Salam hormat. Selamat berpuasa dan selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Mungkin engkau akan terbaca luahan hatiku ini, mungkin juga tidak. Aku luahkan semua ini sebab engkau sudah membazir masa aku berulang-alik ke balai polis. Senangnya hidup engkau yang bersalah...