I flew back to my hometown, Nibong Tebal, for Lunar New Year celebration last week. No, it wasn't the week of New Year's eve / first day of Lunar New Year, but the second week of Lunar New Year. Yes, it is kind of belated but better than none.
Not that I purposely avoided the eve/first days of Lunar New Year because of fear of being caught in massive jam/human traffic (I was caught in a massive traffic jam, and ended up reaching home approaching midnight of New Year' eve once). I would love to sit around "round table", enjoying the sumptuous reunion dinner in the company of my mother and siblings during New Year's eve. The last reunion dinner was the year before my dad passed away in year 2005 (if I am not mistaken). What is holding me up then? There is this seemingly insurmountable invisible emotional hurdle making such a trip impossible at this moment. And, I am not ready to divulge it openly at this juncture.
Among my siblings, my elder sister (Lai Sim) and younger brother (Hon Seng) are still staying with my mother in our old family home in Nibong Tebal. My other sisters (Lay Fong, Nai Kam and Lay Wuan) have moved out to stay with their own families (in Nibong Tebal, Penang Island and Shen Zheng respectively). My maternal grandmother (in her 90s) has moved to stay with us over the past few years; she is quite fragile and non-ambulatory, but remains healthy, and is taken care of by a domestic helper.
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| Entrance to our home |
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| The swing @ the porch |
I took an evening flight this time round. As usual, one of my siblings (this time it was Nai Kam) picked me up from the airport and drove me home. Lay Wuan was back last week, but had flown back to ShenZheng a few days back. After dumping my hand carried luggage, Sim, Fong and Kam and I went for supper at nearby food stall - catching up on recent happenings to our lives. We had Dim Sum (the food was quite a disappointment - rather bland), followed by lunch in a restaurant in town (food was quite palatable and yet cheap) the next day.
Excluding evening on the first day, and early morning departure back to Singapore on last days, I had three full days in Nibong Tebal. It dawned on me perhaps I should bring my mom out for sightseeing!
My mom is 24 years my senior. She has difficulty in moving around by foot because of her secondary Parkinsonism (possibly from underlying vascular disease). She has been troubled by frozen and shuffling gait for quite a while. It was quite incapacitating at one stage. Fortunately, the combination of Requip and Amantadine helped to ameliorate some of her symptoms - she still shuffled a lot, and immobilized by frozen gait quite frequently - but she could manage some independent walking with walking aid. When her gait is disabling, she may use wheelchair to move around the house. Because of her gait disorder, she hardly go outside the house, except to visit doctor and for acupuncture treatment. She was literally "trapped" at home most of the time.
I am not entirely sure how handicapped friendly the tourist spots in Penang are. I was also quite worry of how to help my mother to attend to her toilet needs during the journey. But what the hack, I will tackle all nuances when they occur! I enlisted my brother's help, asking him to be the driver (as he is most familiar with places in Penang). He was quite obliging.
We started off on Monday morning, and reached our first stop at Kek Lok Si Temple @ Air Itam. As I feared, the Kek Lok Si temple itself was not wheelchair accessible. We then drove up to another carpark (located a higher level) within the Kek Lok Si parking compound, walked up to a souvenir shop and was told that we could take a tram from there to visit the Guangyin statue up on the slope above (it was wheelchair accessible). Yes, the tram was wheelchair accessible; but the narrow walkway at the exit of the tram was just spacious enough to let our wheelchair scraping through. Certain segments of the walkway was made more narrow by protruding pillars from the wall - my mother had to disembark from her wheelchair and walk briefly to clear the narrow hurdles). The Guangyin statue was quite majestic, but was housed in a higher platform - again need to be negotiated through several flights of steps. No, there was no elevator/lift for handicapped persons! Hence, my mom could only admire the statue from the car park lot adjacent to the statue.
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| With my mom, in front of the Guangying statue |
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| Standing at the car park in front of the Guangying Statue |
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| The roof and pillars housing the Guangying statue |
Our next stop was Penang Hill. Fortunately, the newly renovated Penang Hill station was wheelchair accessible. We had our lunch at the food court , then took a 1-km stroll up in the hill before leaving the place. Even though the temperature was cooler up in the hill, the blistering and glaring sun still made it quite scorching to the body. And yes, there is a wheelchair accessible/friendly toilet near the tram station entrance.
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| Penang Hill |
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| Waiting for the tram |
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| Up on the hill |
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| Fried koay teow for lunch; ice kacang for desert |
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| city view |
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| Mom and HonSeng |
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| Mail box - haven't seen this for a while |
We then took a driving tour around Georgetown (Unesco Heritage Site), passing by Guangyin templeand Fort Cornwallis (old Gurney Drive). Then, HonSeng drove us to new Gurney Drive, where we stopped over for short tea break - my mom and I ordered Laksa). We went to Botanic Garden thereafter.
We reached Botanic Garden at 3 pm. The weather was quite hot then, hence not many visitors at all. Surprisingly, there was no monkey around at all - definitely not the "花果山" that I used to remember from my childhood days. There used to be many monkeys loitering around, sometimes snatching food from the unsuspecting visitors.
We wanted to visit an old temple in Butterworth (but my brother does not know the way) and Mengkuang Dam (but discovered on arrival that it was not opened for public for time being because of some maintenance issues). We finally reached home around 6 pm.
It was quite a worthwhile trip. I learnt that my mom has not been visiting these tourist spots for over 20 if not 30 years. I could sense that it brings back some fond memories to her. We talked about the old days when I was lost in the Penang Carnival (PESTA Carnival) -I was walking with my elder sister, and somehow wandered off and got lost. My parents eventually managed to locate me in the police post at the carnival. I was crying and refused to acknowledge my father my he approached me in the police post - and the police was wondering whether I was truly their lost child at one stage!
