Kuala Lumpur

I just got back from KL.

I was there for about 4 days. Initially this was meant to be just a simple holiday but since I got offered to attend a scientific meeting on infectious diseases I decided that to enrol in the event was the best course of action as it allowed me to claim the plane tickets. Now I’m not so sure.

I saw some of the Bersih 3.0 people on Saturday on my way back from the ASMEIT talks. I stopped caring. I’ll vote. Then I will know that I have done my part.

The past few days have been hectic and I was not able to spend as much time at home as I would’ve liked. However, I was able to accomplish a few things:

Buy books

The KL international book fair was on at the time (and is still going on) and I managed to buy an Anaesthesia pocket book for on calls for a 10% discount. Hopefully this should be better than lugging around Morgan’s Clinical Anaesthesia, a book so big that if I were to throw it at a dog, the dog would die. I also went to Kamal to make some more directed purchases of medical books. Unfortunately it seems that Lee CY’s Manual of Anaesthesia for Medical Officers, the source of reference for Medical Officers in Anaesthesia all over Malaysia for so many years is no longer in print.

Buy a new pair of shoes

They’re hush Puppies! And they are really comfortable! And they are NOT torn!

Buy a backpack

For the time when I will ‘eventually’ go to Taman Negara

See granny

Err, I went to see my granny...

Attended ASMEIT

Some of the talks were interesting, some boring, and some just made me go “Why am I here? Is this thing really for me?”

Pesta Kaul Mukah

First of all please let me apologise for not posting anything for more than a month. I’ve been rather busy with work now that I am doing full OT calls. Add to that some miserable complications that arose from procedures that I have performed (and thus requiring extra work).

Since the last time I posted I have actually travelled to Bintulu (solo) by driving on the bumpy- suspension-suicide Sarawak road. I don’t feel like talking about Bintulu because I was scammed nearly RM8000 (well it was RM7000+) by something that is not dissimilar to a scratch and win syndicate. Everytime I think about it and look at my credit card balance I get extremely upset so let’s just pass on that.

On a more cheerful note, I went to Mukah again last Sunday (22^nd April 2012) for the Kaul Festival.

Pesta Kaul Mukah this year started last Saturday and will continue until Sunday 29^th April 2012. That’s when most of the activities most associated with Kaul will take place. However, since I am going back to KL this weekend, my only opportunity to go and see the Kaul Festival was during the weekend that had just past. Despite being post call on the Sunday, I decided against taking public transport since I was going to be working on the Monday.

However, driving while being post call poses its own hazards and some preparation was required. During the week preceding the planned date of my trip I asked around the department looking for a ‘second driver’ of sorts as I realised that I may need someone to not only keep me awake by talking to me while I was driving, but also to take over the driving duties when I got too sleepy. Andrew Tan was keen to go but he had to be on call. Andrew Yii was not interested. Brian wanted to go earlier and spend the night there. All the fellas from the Emergency Department had already planned to go on the 29^th. Heck I even asked the OT Matron if she would be interested to go there with me! I had thought of giving up the whole idea when Pauline said that she was both rather interested to go and that she can actually drive manual transmission. Hurray!

Of course when Matron heard of this her reaction was thus:

“Dr Aizat, kalau you pergi Mukah dengan Pauline saja, saya suruh Jabatan Agama tunggu kamu di sana.”

And so I had to look for another person. Ironically it was Matron who was the one to find me another person to go on the trip.

“Hafizah, are you working this weekend? No? Good, you ikut Dr Aizat pergi Mukah”

Wow, now I got two cute nurses to go with me? (Double hurray!!)

When Rose the house officer heard of this, she too was rather interested in coming along. Somehow, she also managed to convince Wei Nin, the other house officer to join us. Thus suddenly I got four girls to bring with me on my second trip to Mukah (Quadruple hurray!!!!)  

So we departed Sibu at around 10.30am on the Sunday after I pass over to next on call doctor. The journey took around 3 hours as I was reluctant to take any risk while it was raining.

 

It was drizzling when we arrived at the ‘tapak pesta kaul’. From left to right: Hafiza, Pauline, Wei Nin, Rose.

 

There were a lot of little tents with displays from all the different villages around the area. All in all there were perhaps 30 to 40 such displays – most of which were organized by each village’s JKKK

 

These fish and coconut in Nipah leaves are also called tebaloi

 

A Melanau pancake – made from coconut and sago

 

Kids playing on the tibou. The official tibou ceremony is going to take place next Sunday.

 

A sago processing depmonstration. The sago log is first shaved.

 

Trying out shaving a sago log. This is meant to be a two person job.

 

The shavings are then filtered

 

The filtrate is spun on these weaved basket like things that swerve around producing little sago pellets

 

Sago pellets

Traditional Melanau statuettes to ward off spirits that cause a variety of diseases

All in all I thought that the trip was very interesting. It’s a slight disappointment that I didn’t get to actually see the main events this weekend as I am going back to KL. However, I can somehow appreciate how festive the atmosphere will be.