What I have been up to

I love to share my experience of places I enjoyed with my love ones.  Working life had not made it possible.  Now is the time for me to retrace those places.  My first stop immediately after retirement is Perlis.  Would you believe that?  I love the landscape of the state in toto and I love the unharried life of the place.  I love the flat 'as-far-as-the-eye-can-see' green serene padi fields interrupted by the limestone hills piercing obtrusively.  I love listening to the local dialect.

Infact my love with Perlis started when I was still in school.  It was the school term holidays and instead of taking the warrant ticket for home I took one that directed me to Penang.  That was in 1970 and the island was still a free-port.  I bought my first bottle of perfume then (sweet rose scented, can't recall the brand) and an RM50 silver Citizen watch (costing me a whole month of pocket money).  I was lodging at a friend's and after a few days stay at her place we decided to venture to Perlis.  I can't recall should the trip had been pre-arranged, but I remember taking a bus right after the ferry terminal and found ourselves Perlis bound.  There was a gathering of friends.  I don't know how it was done (this is prior to the house phone era, what more the mobile).  I remember putting up at another friend's place.  We later cycled to a friend's dusun.  Would you believe a whole bunch of us girls in floral pants doing just that!  Hey, it was 1970 and floral bell-bottomed pants were the vogue.  I remember a fruit feast at the dusun and topped-up by a dip in a cool prescient, crystal clear stream.  That's my sweet memory of Perlis.

Later in my working life I had several opportunity to be in Perlis.  One was when a friend was the State Head for MARDI and I was there to visit one of our Harumanis manggo rehabilitation pilot project and the Gula Perlis project.  He was using his car and we started the morning filling the tank at the petrol station.  He put in a RM30 worth and we are supposed to be traveling the whole state.  I was alarmed and relayed my fear of being stranded in the middle of nowhere, his car drained of gas.  His comment, "This is Perlis Wan, RM30 will be enough to cover the whole state.  Don't you worry".  Reminds me of the Perlis train and football jokes.  This is a contrast when travelling in Sarawak where distance is related in number of hours!

I was once in Perlis when we were on a family holiday.  We were more of discovering Kedah and my eldest wanted to touch (literally) Bukit Kayu Hitam.  We drove all the way to BKH just for that.  She went to school in Johore Bahru and wanted so much to do the Peninsular tip-to-tip.  Mission accomplished we then deviated to Perlis.

I was lately in Perlis for our Hybrid Rice Research Station opening.  This indeed is a milestone in Malaysia rice research and our reach towards food security.  The 2008 rice shortage scare had the message imprinted on many policy makers and the establishment of this research station is one of those action plan put to reality.

More of my Perlis love later.