Kebun Bunga

I have always loved Kebun Bunga a.k.a Botanical Garden in Penang. The monkeys were a real treat. Were because where I live now, monkeys are aplenty and bountiful and they have become quite a menace actually.

Anyway, since it is a must when we were little, I want to pass on the tradition to my children. So, off we went. It was a treat because we saw other animals apart from monkeys.

First

The usual monkeys. They are the brown ones okay.

Then

Biawak. For the love of me, I can't think of biawak in English. Lizard ? Ye ke ?

Lepas tu,

Butterflies. I took their pictures because I am amazed by their size. They are huge. Bigger than the normal all white or all yellow I selalu nampak.

And finally

This very cute squirrel. Again, we were struck by the size and the colour. My colleague said maybe he is the result of an unhealthy liason between a squirrel and a monkey. I cannot le fitnah mak bapak squirrel ni kan.... But I love the colour. It is rater docile as we stared and stared and pointed at it for quite some time but he kept on nibbling on the tree bark, ignoring us.

I haven't been to Kebun Bunga for a long time. I couldn't even remember the last time I was there with my family. But Mail, he he ... he hated it when we go. The story is like this,

I was maybe 13 or 14. We went to Kebun Bunga as usual, this time with arwah Tok Cik in tow. Had a great time, blah , blah, blah and went back into the van to go to the jetty and naik ferry balik Bagan. You have to understand the sheer number of us and I take it as my responsibility to make sure that no one is left behind. Nobody ever told me to do this. I just appointed myself as the Offical Head Counter. I counted and counted and the numbers don't add up. We were missing one. But still I was quiet as I paling malas create panic. I started to call names in the order of age, when I couldn't see my chubby little brother. I remember shouting " Mana Mail ? " and I saw my parents head snapped back to look behind. Sure enough, Mail was not with us. My grandmother frantically looked around ( Mail is her favourite because he is named after my Tok Wan ) and Syafiq was already pushing us around, to make sure Mail is not beneath anybody I suppose. Confirm ! We have left Mail, our 7 of 8, our 5 - 6 year old family member behind.

Ayah made an illegal U-turn and we raced back to Kebun Bunga. Everybody was quiet. We could hear Tok's sobs but all of us had our eyes on the road. Syafiq jumped out of the van before it even stopped. We saw a crowd was already formed at the entrance and my dad were stuck at his seat, unable to move. All of us finally breathed again when we saw Syafiq carrying the very fat, chubby Mail while kissing him and hugging him at the same time.

Nobody remembered this hero ( aku le tuh ). Whenever I recounted the story to my family, they always asked " Hang ka ? " Cess......

I remember when he was enconsed again in my Mum's embrace, Mummy asked Ayah what would he have done if we were already on the ferry. Ayah said he would swim back to Penang. I pulak keep on imagining the van in the water.

That is why Mail paling menyampah pi situ. My dad would always attempt to leave him behind again.. ha ha....