WH's Domain

Life's a journey....................Enjoy the RIDE!

Sunday, August 14, 2005

201. Eventful, colourful day

Woke up early today, excited about going for a drive to Ipoh, meet up with Ah Foo and gang then head up Pos Slim road to Cameron Highlands and then Gua Musang.

Got up at 5:30am eventhough only slept at 2:30am. Couldn't sleep, had the radio one, chatted on the phone. Still wide awake. Guess it might help if cuddling is allowed eh :)

Well, finally headed out of the house at 6:30am coz had to wait for the rest of the guys. We met up at the Juru rest area and left there at about 7am. Nothing's gonna stop us now........or so I thought.

A little bit after the Bukit Merah rest area, one of our friend's car caught fire. No joke. There were flames at the bottom of the car and it looked like a space shuttle on reentry. He pulled over and we rushed over with fire extinguishers and bottles of water.

Gosh, it was chaos. We had Chong spraying the fire extinguisher all over the engine bay. Unfortunately the fire was at the inner bottom side of the bay, so the fire wasn't completely out yet even after he emptied the whole can. Luckily there's the good old RM1.50 bottle of mineral water. I had 3 bottles. Emptied 2 of it and voila! No more fire. While Chong called the tow truck, we waited for it by the highway. The truck is coming from Butterworth, so we had to wait for about 2 hrs.

We passed the time doing crazy stuff and just messing around. Of course also consoling our friend la. What? U think we're insensitive pigs? Actually I'm the insensitive pig, the girls are comforting him, while we're mocking him and all :) Don't worry, as insensitive as we are, he's ok.

Oh! we have the whole fiasco on video :) Wonder if we can make pirated VCDs and cover the cost of his new engine. Kisah benar: Kereta terbakar di lebuhraya.


Chong with the fire extinguisher he emptied :)


Here's Jack posing on the floor


Ann trying to hitch a ride at KM201.1 south bound on PLUS, guess she really wants her strawberries bad! :) We'll get her some when we go Cold Storage the next time


Dark clouds moving in, but thank goodness it was only very light drizzle

After towing the car back to Penang, we decided to chill at Jack's house for a while before heading over to Kepala Batas. We're meeting Jack's brother, Tony and some of his friend's from their kampung in Chang Lun. :)

Good thing we arrived at Chong's house when we did. Right after, the roads were pretty much packed with devotees. Not too long after that, the procession of the Deity arrived. The image of the Deity was paraded across town drawned by 2 huge buffaloes to the temple in the heart of the town. This procession was in honour of the Deity's birthday.


Pictures of the procession and the carriage carrying the Deity and a devotee before and after he's put on the kavadee. It took 6 persons to lift up the kavadee onto the devotee. And he's dancing to the music played by his "posse" after he had it on. *shudders*

12
34
1. A devotee having his back pierced.....Ouch
2. Another devotee piercing his tongue
3. That's us watching from Chong's house
4. All those little thingies are attached to him by hook...yikes!!!!


It seems these people are performing this ritual because of the blessings they've received from the Deity. They may have prayed for a loved one to be healed and are now fulfilling their pledge. I'm not sure if the number of piercings reflect directly to the intensity of their answered prayers. I reckon maybe so. That's what I call devotion and faith. Christians have it "too easy" that they take it for granted.

But then again, that's always how it is. Human nature, you tend to strive to get things that are "rare", but after getting it, it sits in the throphy room. Unappreciated. I should know, I was told I'm like that. Good thing I still have some time left to work on it. :)

__________________________________

My Random Thots:

I have lotsa prayers unanswered, but if they're answered, would I pierce my body year after year for a couple of years? I think not. Lack of faith? Sanity? Insanity? Go figure.

No comments: