The phone rings for the third time. I finally pick it up when my boyfriend whines half asleep.
“Sorry, Jenn! I just woke up!”, apologises Ben.
Clock shows 7.30am. We are supposed to meet at 95% at 7.00am. I jump off the bed immediately.
“I just woke up, too! My god! Don’t think we can make it for the wet tour, already. How. How. How. Nevermind lah. We’ll see what we can do. Get ready NOW and see you at 95%!”
“Okay”, says Ben and puts down the phone.
I call Raaja. The Godfather theme goes on for the third time.
“Damn, Raaj! Wake up, boy!”, I said softly.
No answer. I hop into the shower.
After shower, I call the brat again. He picks up groggily.
“Raaja! Wake up! We’re all late! Get ready and go to 95% NOW!!!!”
“Uhh.. Okok.”
35 minutes later, I am sitting at the Malay restaurant where we always hang-out for food. I order a roti sardin and a glass of warm Milo. Ben reaches and orders his breakfast. I call Raaja again.
“Hey Jenn. I’m in the cab, Jenn. At Bulatan Pahang. Quite bad lah the jam. I think I’ll be reaching at 9.”
Ben and I have small talks about ourselves and we laugh over Aaron and Faizan’s antics. Raaja gets off the cab at about 9.10am with a laptop bag.
“You brought your laptop, for what?”, asks Ben.
“Oh, no no. I couldn’t find my backpack and I’m already late”, explains Raaja.
“You’re so late, Raaj. No breakfast for you. We got to go now”, I said as I think to myself – ‘NOW’ is the word of the day.
“Go buy some bread lah”, I said because I feel like I’m in charge or baby-sitting the boys today.
We all get into my car as I try to figure out how to get to the highway from Bangsar.
“Oh, my mom says use the North-South Expressway to get to Ipoh”, claims Raaja, proudly.
D’ohhhh…
We head off immediately. Along the way, Raaja, being the ‘jakun’ that he is, marvels at every tree and the clear blue sky.
Suddenly…
“WHOAAAAAAA!!!! Check out that waterfall! Man, That’s a huge one!”, Raaja is undeniably stunned with the beauty of nature as we enter Perak.
As we turn into the Gopeng exit, I tell the boys to keep a look-out for the Gua Tempurung signboard.
“There! There! 5km to Gua Tempurung! Yay! We’re here!”, exclaims Ben.
The boys and I are dressed in bermudas and worn-out sports shoes. I specifically gave them dress-code instructions as cave spelunking could be a very physical activity and we need to be very comfortably flexible and bound to get wet from head to toe from crawling in between tight cave holes and dunking in the cave pools.
We are all in a merry mood as I park the car and put everyone’s money in a plastic bag. At the ticket counter, the girl tells us that we don’t have enough people to form a wet tour group. They need at least eight. Moreover, it is Friday, and they don’t do wet tours on holy Fridays. Humbug. So much for the excitement.
We decide to take the dry tour, instead. Ben huffs and puffs as we climb hundreds of stairs leading to what the locals call ‘Top of the World’. 2 hours of climbing stairs and stalagmite-admiration later, we are out of the cave. Funny, no bats around. Apparently they only come back during the mating season, which is in October.
We are all hungry, especially Raaja. I deside that we should go drive around in the nearby town, Ipoh, maybe if we are lucky, we can have Ipoh Horfun.
“Hey, we’re 2 hours away from KL, and also 2 hours away from Penang, right. Let’s go makan in Penang lah”, pleads Ben, ever so sweetly.
“I’m not listening. I got English class later tonight lah. Sure can’t make it one”, I said.
“But I’ve never been to Penang in my life”, says Raaja, as a matter of fact.
Three hours later, we’re having laksa in Ayer Itam, Penang.
“Mmmm…” savours Ben. “Mmmm…” he goes again.
Laksa is my favourite Penang food of all time. So, I have two bowls.
“What are we going to do, now?” asks Ben.
“Well, let’s see, we’re only here for food. So let’s go hang-out at the beach and eat again later.” I said.
We head to Batu Feringghi to waste time playing in the sand. I can’t help it but feel sympathetic, yet, happy for Raaja because he’s such an ignorant city boy. This must be a whole new experience to him – a spur of the moment excursion. A roadtrip to 400km away from home.
It’s only 5pm and it’s too early for nasi kandar. The three of us don’t know what to do.
We decide to go drive around. On the way to Gurney Drive, Ben sees a building with the signboard ‘LARGEST TOY MUSEUM IN THE WORLD’. Can’t resist that, now, can we. We pay RM10 admission at the counter and boy, are we spellbound! With tens or thousands of figurines of all sorts, the three of us are in awe. We are so excited like little kids. At the ‘Chamber of Horror’, Raaja claims he saw a Chucky doll move. Honestly, Ben and I saw it, too, but we purposely tease Raaj saying we didn’t see anything and then we look at him with puzzled faces.
“IT DID!!!!!!!! I SAW IT MOVED!!!!!!!!”, he is undeniably irritated.
Two hours later, as we pass Gurney Drive, Ben wants to eat sotong bakar. So we stop for a quick snack. Raaja got himself deep-fried chicken skin. On and on, he raves about how crispy and yummy it is.
“Fuck, man. You know what, Jenn. We came all the way, so far, and I know he’s gonna go back home and all he will rave about is the chicken skin. I just know it!” blurts Ben with a sigh.
“Okay, guys. Are you still up for nasi kandar?” I ask.
“Of course!”, both of them answer in unison.
“My god-brother just called. He said he’ll take us to this place in Little India. He said it’s the best nasi kandar in Penang. Is that okay with you?” Ben ask me.
“Yah! Coz honestly, I don’t know which nasi kandar place to take you to. I’m so bad with the roads. What time should we meet him?” I say in relief.
“Erm… I can’t eat now. But I can in another half an hour…” says Ben, slightly blushing.
We meet-up with Ben’s god-brother, Ming. He’s a luxury-car salesman and an artiste.
At Hussain mamak, in Little India, Ming orders a curry fish-head and a whole lot of other dishes. I am starting to feel guilty even before I eat. I only ate half the rice. The boys slowly clear the dishes one by one.
I tell them about the phone call I got from Janet an hour earlier. It regards missing English class and my responsibility to myself. Ben keeps apologising. It’s not his fault but only my own.
1.30pm. Time to drive back to KL.
My back slightly hurts. Ben offers to drive a few times, but I am just not comfortable with young boys’ driving, especially in the highway, so I continue relentlessly.
We reach KL at about 2am. We are all so tired and stinky. I just can’t wait to get home to a warm shower. I drop the boys off and head home, immediately.
Oh, what a day!
