CLUB 12/68 REUNION GUILIN – YANGSHUO, CHINA – 28 MAY – 02 JUNE 2012

   

Day 5 – 01 June 2012
Club 12/68 Grand Reunion Dinner
It’s referred as a Reunion Dinner. Yes it is so. Grand was an added pronoun. To give it prominence. It’s held every year. According to Burn, for the past 27 years. It’s an occasion everybody look forward to. It’s the culmination of our reunion. Everybody dressed in their best. To quote  Apai, ‘Pakaian Untuk Membunuh’. It’s a night of food, rejoice, dances,
songs and speeches. And prizes to be won. Some were deserving – fought on the battlefields of the golf courses

 

and the rest shared by all families through the generosity of ‘sponsors’ namely Ma’e (the Presidente), Anuar, Nani, Mie and  Ma’e. Everybody should bring back something or claim it from Apai once we reached home.
The dinner was held at the Guilin Baiyue Hotel. The room was already set up for us. Complete with a karaoke and rostrum. The tables were already laid out. 8/9  to a table.



 There were 5 tables. Ample space. After a bit of meddling with the audio visual sytems we finally got the projection sytem working. Karaoke was also operational. Even then I thought ‘karaoke’ is still foreign in China. Another bourgeois influence.
It was a night preceded by :
a.    A speech by the Chairman of the Org Committee, followed by,
b.    Dinner, interspersed by karaoke songs.
c.    Gifts presentation.
d.    Prize presentation to the golfers. The results were as follows:

e.    The Presidente’s speech.

f.   cake cutting.


g. Group photography and
h.    End of the Grand Dinner.
It was a memorable night. Can’t recalled what actually was served, but, I do remember a dish of ducks. No, not the Beijing duck. More like Hotel Ambassador fried duck. Its looks palatable enough. The Chairman of the Org Comm, Rahman J spoke. More of a speech of relief I guess. Kudos to you RJ.


In between we sang. The Presidente was first


Followed by Dato Nawi, Khalid and Midah. I went through Green Green Grass of Home.
Our prize giving presentation was for all families. Each family were given a number. Once called, the rep would pull out a number that comensurate with the prize. Due to logistical strain, some of the prizes need to be collected in KL. It was an impressive event. Lots of prizes including the Presidente contribution one of which was of Crabtree Supernal Perfumery, Anuar’s Aiyshah’s jewellery, Nani’s Jarumas Fabrics and Mie’s collection of necklaces and bangles. Everybody got something. The big prize winners were Midah and Halijah. Both won the mini fridge.
We danced the poco poco. We have been doing that for years.

 
The next time round could possibly be K Pops.
The Presidente spoke.


He had this vision of the next reunion of being confined to pampering the wives. Golf would be downplayed. And he announced the next chairman of the organising committee. It would be Hj Hamdan Mohd Salleh.


Congrats Ji. We welcome that. Now the burden rest on your shoulder. Hj Hamdan spoke. With a promise to do his best. We had our group photographs. We had our handshakes and hugs. It was a night well-spent amongst friends and families.
We also reminisced the good times we had, especially during our get together prior to this.
We went to Chiengmai

 


 


 
 


 

We went to Beijing.




 

 



 


We went to Ho Chi Minh City

 
 


And we went to Guilin

Till 2013 – it wuld be:

Adios Amigos
Adios My Friend
The Road We have Travelled
Have Come To An End
(at least for that Night) 

CLUB 12/68 REUNION GUILIN – YANGSHUO, CHINA – 28 MAY – 02 JUNE 2012

Day 4 – 31 May 2012
Today we checked out from the hotel. It must be owned by a Muslim, as there were arrows in the rooms pointing the Qiblat.

Or it was just good PR for Muslim tourists.
We were supposed to travel back to Guilin. This time by road. And along the way we were supposed to stop at the local places of interests. The first stop was at the Shangrila-La Village.

 And I thought Shangrila could only be found in Tibet.

 It was interesting enough as we need not walk far. We took the boats to look around. The performances came along on the banks of the lakes as we travelled past.


Scenes like the villages, fishing along the waterways were shown. They even had their aborigines.


 It looks like the Maoris of NZ with their totem poles. Whatever. As long as it creates interest. No point asking question as our guide was a Mandarin speaking lass.






It took us about an hour to get around.


On exiting, we were led through a grocer-like outlet as an impulse-buying strategy on the management side. We found out that these type of approach was very common amongst the Chinese tourist-oriented businesses.
Lunch was taken in Guilin. Yes the same one we have been going to. A visit to the mosque, initially planned had to be aborted as early as in KL due to the bureaucracy involved. Many forms to fill.  We then went to
 the Tea Promotion Centre.


 

They demonstrated tea making covering about 10 types of tea. It tasted good. There were bitter ones too. And they got a lot of buyers from us. Apparently tea leaves are like wine. The longer they are kept the higher the value would be. Apai Marzuki and Dato Salleh apparently have their own collections. Tea-drinking buffs should make a point to call on both of them. You may get to drink the ‘Pue’. Who knows.
We then went to the Herbal Medicine Centre.




It’s a place with lots of masseuse offering foot massage service. They even had ‘doctors’ with frocks on and diagnosing some of us of their ailment. Macam jual ubat, but more professionally conducted. Again, lots of us bought their medicine. I really hope it works.
Soon we were back to the hotel for our tahlil. This was an annual ritual for us.


We were led by the pious Hj Hamdan who we called Imam. We first read the Surah Yassin, followed by a Tahlil. A tazkirah followed. We had Maghrib prayers followed by Ishak Jamak prayers.


 I was affected when names of our squads who have passed away were mentioned in the doa. Yahya Kosai, Razali Othman, Mohammed Saad, Abdullah Mohammed, Manap Saad and Raja Berema.  It was an emotional gathering. Tears were shed amongst us. Yeah. How many more names would be mentioned next year and the year after. We hugged each other. After 44 years, we were just like brothers. Our night of prayers only strengthened our relationship and a reminder that our stay in God’s World is but a temporary one.
Our group proceeded for dinner. I on my part, stayed back in the room. The mee Maggie came in handy. Later on, Helmy sent me a polystyrene pack with rice and sambal ikan bilis. Compliments from Mie. Thanks Mie. That was kind of you.