Sharon’s Visit to My Kampong

The moment we had been waiting for finally came on Saturday 14 March. It was the day that we had to pick Renae (Sharon’s daughter) up from the LCCT near KL International Airport. Sharon and her husband Garry had arrived 2 days earlier but they stayed at a friend’s condo in Cheras. We drove from my mom’s home in Negeri Sembilan and met them at the airport. It was so good seeing them again since our last meeting at the family reunion in Kansas in 2005. However, this is the first time we met Garry because he wasn’t at the reunion.

Since they were staying for only 5 days, we didn’t waste anytime but jumped straight into sight-seeing business. The first stop was of course Putra Jaya since it was close to the airport. Then we headed back to my mom’s home. Unfortunately, it rained so hard in Seremban so we decided to take a longer route through Tampin because we didn’t want to be trapped in Bukit Putus landslide. Poor Renae was so sleepy after a very long plane ride from Texas. She tried hard not to fall asleep but she did for a while between Seremban and Tampin. She didn’t miss much because we could hardly see anything outside due to the heavy rainfall. Renae is majoring in Wild-life and Fisheries, so she was interested to see some wild animals which cannot be found in the US. We did see a few monkeys near Kuala Pilah.

We stopped by the fruit stall in Kuala Pilah and bought some “cikus”, jackfruits, water apples (jambu air), guavas, star fruits, and bananas. We also stopped for some durians at the stall near the Ulu Bendul mosque. They were not too crazy about durians but they didn’t say anything too bad like some of the comments I heard from other foreigners who tried them.

When we arrived at my mom’s house around 6pm, she was making a traditional Malaysian cake called “cucur”. Boy, it was a hit among Sharon’s family. I like cucur my self. The next morning we let them explored my mom’s “kampong” and enjoyed some coconut juice before we took them to Sri Menanti, the Negeri Sembilan royal town. We took them to Ulu Bendul recreational park for a short while before heading back to my mom’s house so they could pack their stuff before we sent them back to Cheras.