Riau Diary

On the 23 November 2008,Nasimah accompanied me to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah International Airport in Subang for a sendoff to Pekanbaru. Husni, my second son drove the car as I knew that parking would be a problem as renovation works are under way at the airport. I arrived at the same time as the other members of BERKAT ( acronym of our family association) and it indicated a good start because I emphasised the importance of punctuality, especially when one is leaving by plane. I was glad that I held on the intention to fly with MAS subsidiary airline, viz; Firefly, because it's aircraft is new and the service is better. I always said that I would fly other budget carrier if given the choice, but not Air-Asia! The haste many passengers made on boarding that low-cost carrier puts me off, even though they give priority to children and senior citizens. At the airport there were many who arrived after me, those who are in our BERKAT group, 19 passengers altogether, and we were met by the travel agent's owner En. Helmi. He's a pleasant man and we got acquainted easily. When I told him that my name was incorrectly printed on the name tag for the luggage he was quick to ask his assistant to check the entry in the airline computer system and to his relief it was correct. A surprise of sorts was also discovered when my cousin Basri introduced an elderly looking person wearing a coat and a songkok to me as Prof. Suwardi from Riau also going to Pekanbaru. I have heard of him before from Basri as a historian who was on the panel that recommended Pakih Saleh @ Tuanku Tambusai as a National Hero for consideration of Jakarta. We were planning for a seminar on Tuanku Tambusai a few years ago and he was supposed to be the leading player. As fate had it, we shelved it till further notice and here's the man whom we were supposed to invite in presenting one of the papers on Tuanku Tambusai. Nasimah and Husni left before our flight which was at 1205 hrs and we proceeded to the departure gate about 1120 hrs. It was quite a walk and when we were at the departure gate, the immigration counter was yet to open.The waiting crowd were fortunately small and when the aircraft landed to take us to Pekanbaru, it was about 1145 hrs. We boarded and the flight took of at 1210 hrs and all the way the journey was smooth, thanks to the prayers of many in the group, including me of course, anxious that nothing untoward come our way on this historic journey. We landed at the Sultan Syarif Qasim II in Pekanbaru at 1210 hrs local time, as our time is ahead of Indonesia by one hour. Upon embarkation I suddenly realised that we are actually in a foreign country although everything seemed so familiar, especially the airport reminded me of Kota Bharu, Kelantan. We lined up for Immigration clearance and although it is a visit Indonesia year 2008, somehow their immigration personnel does not seem to have that ready smile or that welcoming warmth effusing from their body language. Nevertheless, we collected our luggage without hitch and went straight to the waiting travel agent's personnel already at the airport.After the introductions and a wait of about twenty minutes for the bus, we were on the road to the city. Before boarding I managed to strike a conversation with the consular official from our Malaysian Consulate based in Pekanbaru who was waiting for his plane to Jakarta for a meeting at the Embassy. As it was lunch time, we were taken to a Restaurant for lunch and it was our first taste of Riau dishes. Perhaps due to the fact that we were hungry as the on-flight refreshments only consist of a muffin and orange squash, it was a welcome change. What a noisy lot were we, and since we are mostly related by blood lineage, this is the first time such an experience of travelling in a large group as family members, the excitement was understandable. The food was good and we enjoyed the company of everyone present, which was a fine start. We then checked in at the hotel which is about two kilometres from the city centre and when we got down we were told by the tour guide, Ronaldi, that a shopping tour to Pasar Ramayana was scheduled at 1500 hrs. As I needed a rest, I stayed back with Uncle Dol before we keep up our appointment to meet Boy Dharma Subekti Tambusai at about 1630 hrs. When it was 1700 hrs and Boy DS Tambusai still did not show up, Uncle Dol and I went down to the lobby. Somehow I forgot to inform the reception that we were in the lobby in case Boy asked for us. Sure enough, we were at the lobby when he enquired at the reception for us, as I had messaged to him earlier our room number. When I decided to inform the reception, immediately I was informed that he had just left. As such the receptionist rushed out to ask the security guard to call him, since he was still in the hotel compound. We were of course elated to be able to meet in person, as I had been in correspondence with him all along since before the fasting month. He had been introduced to me by Dil Ishak, another waris Tuanku Tambusai, the grandson of Hj Tahir. His demeanour is the opposite of what I expected, because he wore a serban and jubah, but we got along as if we had known each other a long time already. As I did not bring down the family-tree chart of Tuanku Tambusai so I went up to the room to fetch it while Uncle Dol and Boy chatted. A few minutes later I came down and gave him a short brief on the chart and it showed up to only the fourth generation. I also handed him a compact disc of the video on Makam Tok Ungku. Then we invited him to the coffee-house for refreshments and continued our conversation. He told us that it was unfortunate that Dil could not come along because he first knew him through his website, but I explained that he's committed to his new job and he cannot obtain leave since he had just taken up the new appointment. After about almost maghrib time, he excused himself and invited us to visit his family's house in Pekanbaru. With a promise that we would inform him before coming, we bade him goodbye for the day. We went up to our room to perform the solat maghrib and waited for the group to return from Pasar Ramayana and dinner. We left the hotel for dinner outside and it was again another generous spread of Padang dishes. Since we would be leaving for Rokan Hulu at the following morning, the group decided to get some tidbits for the journey. So we stopped at the hypermart situated on the same road as the hotel. When Normah and others were furiously looking for " asam-boi" and I told them to ask the hypermart salespersons, the only asam they knew is "Asam-Jawa"! What a hilarious experience for many of us and I quipped that next time they should bring along packets of " Asam-boi" as part of their presents to the locals. By 2200 hrs many were already tired and had to prepare for the next day's journey to Rokan Hulu which would approximately take about five hours on our tour bus. So we returned to the hotel and that ended the first day of our arrival in Riau. I will continue the diary for the second day where we are leaving the hotel for Pasir Pangarayan, the district capital of Rokan Hulu, InshaALLAH. See you on the next instalment!