Our last journey-Part 1

Sometimes when I'm all alone, I always had this flashback memories on how our last journey with arwah. Thinking of how excited he was when I said I bought a ticket to Sydney during last MAS Travel Fair. I didnt asked him much like when you want to go etc etc, cause all that I know he wants to go travelling. He always said that when he travels, he feels much alive and he will feel better. When I was small and before I got married, I used to travel with my parents all the time. They would tag me along for their backpack trip to anywhere in the world. After few years of not travelling with my parents, I thought hey why not we go all together for a vacation. So Australia is the country or I must said Allah choose for us. The trip was from KLIA-Sydney-Melbourne-KLIA.This trip was Arwah Abah's second trip while it was our first.


I remember almost everyday, Arwah would asked me "Yan, bila kita nak pegi ni yan?Abah tak sabar nak jalan ngan e-am.." He would browse the internet all day long searching for place to stay, where to go etc etc. So everything set and on 4 March 08, we off to Sydney. And I guess on that day, was the last day he leaves our house in Taman Melawati with his last solat Mussafir. My mother recall on his doa, he pray that Allah take care of his house, harta and family. The final word of the doa was "Aku bermussafir untuk melihat kebesaranmu, Ya Allah".


We spend 4 days in Sydney and stayed in Oaks Apartment, Darling Habour. It was a good location, nice 2 rooms apartment attached with a kitchen and with a good view of Sydney city centre. It was the fanciest place I ever stayed with my parents since all this while we would go backpack and find the cheapest hotel to stay or safe cost by sleeping in a train.(owh, those are my best memories)


Me and Pojee were quite occupied entertaining E-am. We brought him to Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife. Arwah didnt want to followed us but he took his sweet time with my mom to the market. All we knew was, the food was ready when we were back. From kari ikan, sambal ikan, nasi goreng,meehoon goreng to semua yang boleh, arwah masakkan. It was more to rest and relax holiday. This seldom happened as I remembered Arwah Abah would drag me to all sorts of museum and art galleries.



From Sydney, we planned to visit my cousin in Melbourne. My cousin, Fadhli just got married last December with Ayu whom is a medic student there. I gave few options on how would we travelled there. Either by plane which is faster, or by train or by car, slower but you can enjoy the scenery. Abah obviously choose by land. We normally travelled by train but since Pojee enjoy driving so we decided to rent a car. There are two ways of driving to Melbourne. One is by Hume highway, which is faster or the princess highway(pacific ocean) which is slower but you can enjoy the pacific ocean view along the way. Me and my mom was keen on hume highway so we could reach Melbourne faster and spend more time there but on the other hand Arwah Abah and Pojee decide to use princess highway to view the scenery. Without much argument, we followed suit.


It was a longg way. We travelled for 1100km.It took us 2 days to reach Melbourne with a lot of stops and we slept in a Motel in Canns River. The view was Masyallah, so beautifull. Arwah Abah keep on praising Allahu Akbar when he saw how blue was the sky and how beautiful the scenery was.


Once we arrived Melbourne, we straight away went to the Art and Craft Market in St Kilda. Arwah Abah bought a ceramic plate for the house. I had a tough time controlling E-am excitement at that time. We then had our dinner in my cousins house in Brunswick.

On 10 March 08(Monday), we saw on the TV there was a parade in the city. We packed and straight away went there. It was extremely hot on that day. It was 42 celcius.
Arwah didnt complained much except for the hot weather. E-am was all excited to watch the parade. Not knowing this would be our last photo, we took a photo in Melbourne Bridge.



After few hours there, we went back and drop by at Coles to buy some groceries. Arwah Abah bought fish and chicken. I on the other hand got all excited when I saw so many good stuff in K mart. Arwah Abah, Fadhli and Ayu went back home first to prepare the meal. Arwah Abah last sms to me was "U all kat mana?". After had my last minute shopping(since we re leaving tomorrow), we all rushed back home to eat. When we reached home, we saw him relaxing near the couch with Fadhli while watching TV. On the table was Chicken Curry. Yummy! Abah's chicken curry never fails me. Apparently, it was the last meal he cooked for us.


We were all starving and start eating his curry . The last word that I heard from his was "Abah nak pegi semayang jap". A minute after that we all heard the loud sound. It was Arwah Abah lying down.

Allahu Akbar, selamatkanlah hambamu ini...kasihanilah dia...

to be continued...

**Please excuse my improper grammar/spelling. This story was written without any editing before its been published.