That holiday called Honeymoon

Date: Sometime in November 1993.

Apa dia?: The newly-weds having breakfast at Merlin Inn, Fraser's Hill.

I took a three-week leave for my wedding way back in November 1993. A tad too long one might say, right? It's not that we went away pi Hawaii ka or Europe for our honeymoon. No, we didn't go anywhere that require us to use our passport. No sir.

It's just that I was entitled to that many days anyway. Afterall, I was getting married! Even after that three weeks off from workI still have lots of leave left. One of the benefits of working in big company like NSTP was punyalah banyak cuti sampai you don't have the time to take it.

In the end you simply accummulate the days which works out fine too especially when you retire or decided to resign. Extra duit, beb!

Anyway, just where exactly did we go during the first few weeks after we became woman and husband? Well, I took a week off before the wedding day (to psyche myself! he he) which effectively left us with only two weeks for our bulan madu.

In that short span of time (that two weeks), we managed to spend a few nights at both our moms' places, then off we went to visit Yan's uncle (Mak Kampar's elder brother) in Kelantan.

The uncle, which we called Ayah, was quite ill during our wedding and could not made it for the kenduri. It was indeed a wise move on our part to visit Ayah at that point of time as it was the only time and opportunity that I could meet up with him. We never crossed paths again and he passed away two years later after a long sickness. Incidentally, that was my first and still the only trip to Kelantan.

Oh Yes! We also found ourselves at Abang Lan's (Yan's brother) place somewhere in Pantai Cahaya Bulan area. Abang Lan and family also could not make it for the wedding.

After Kelantan, we went back to Perak with the intention to go and visit as many sedara-mara as possible. But once we reached Temoh, Mak told us that Shook (my colleague who's occupying a cubicle in front of me and very much married to my cousin Iza) had been trying to get in touch. I returned his call and found out that I was needed at the office like ASAP for the dreaded yearly performance appraisal session.

What to do... so we packed our bags and rushed back to KL. While in KL apart from attending the appraisal session, we managed to visit my eldest brother Chor's place in Shah Alam which turned out to be a real blessing as he presented us with gift certificate of a two night stay at Merlin Inn in Fraser's Hill. Alhamdulillah. Before that we melawat Shook's place in USJ 6 and rumah my uncle Ayah Chik in Gombak.

So we spent three days in Fraser's Hill which turned out to be a wonderful excursion untuk orang baru kahwin like us. In 1993, the cuaca is still sejuk unlime today. Bagus tu! After that we went back to Perak and masa nih Yan dah mula mabuk naik kereta. Aik apa sudah jadi da?

Anyway, the remaining holiday was spent to melawat as many uncles, aunties and cousins as possible. We managed to singgah ke rumah my uncle Ayah Anjang di Penang, rumah Kak Enon (cousin Yan) in Taiping, more cousins like Kak Encik and Kak La in Ipoh. We also visited rumah my eldest sister in-law Yong in Simpang Pulai. Of course, we spent a night at my grandmother's place in Pengkalan. Then gi lunch at Kak's place (masa tu duduk kat Bandar Baru Kampar). We also visited Yan's uncle Pak Uteh in Malim Nawar and his sons' houses (nasib baik dekat-dekat aje). And only then we angkut semua baju-baju Yan and all the hadiahs balik KL.

Sampai KL on Friday, we visited rumah Nyah (Yan's bro) di Cheras on Saturday and rumah Ayah Chu, my youngest uncle, in Shah Alam on Sunday. Before we went over to Shah Alam, we singgah kat Klinik Rosli at SS19 sebab Yan rasa macam demam. Apa daaa...

Interestingly, dah namanya "orang baru" maka we were either treated to a lunch or dinner at almost all our stops. Sedap2 belaka. Kat rumah Ayah Chu, Mak Su siap masak nasi minyak lagi sebab she could not make it for the wedding as well sebab masa tu she was menunggu hari aje to deliver Ammar.

All things said and done, I'm glad we visited as many relatives during that two weeks as it enabled us to get acquainted with each other's sedara mara, which until today feature prominently in our lives. For that we thank you.

Finally it was Monday and I went back to work. And I told my friends that morning that my wife's expecting! Already?