The Sunday when It Happened

The day 26th December 2004, looks like any normal Sunday. It was a day after Christmas and thus a long holiday weekend. It is also a wedding season, here. Yesterday, we attended three weddings, One in Taman Ehsan, and two in Temerloh. By about 12.30 we had readied to attend the wedding of Salihin's son, at FRIM.

I had known Salihin since I was a student at the Forestry College and Salihin had inherited the skills of Malay traditional massage from his father so many people who knew that would go to frequently visit him for a massage.

I had been one of his clients for many years since i move into frim in 1985 although not on a very regular basis. So when one receives a wedding invitation like that, one have to put it in the high priority list. That morning, all except my two daughters readied to attend the wedding.

Salihin's guests were flowing in an out. A lot of them. You dont have to be rich or famous to receive so many guest. You just need to be good to people. As we were about to leave, a taxi, stopped and the Malay driver asked if there is any problem allowing his foreigners passengers take photographs. We moved on along and then went home.

My daughter were all set for the drive to go back her school in Gopeng, Perak. She is currently doing her Science Metriculation, prior to accentance for a seat in the university. Very soon we were on the way to send the daughter, Aimi back to her hostel. With her for this is her elder sister, my wife, my son afiq and and youngest daughter, safwa and her college friend, . The two hour journey on our Rexton was quite usual and upon reaching, we drove back to Kuala Lumpur as quickly as we came.


By the time we reached home it was just in time for the prime news and there we first heard about a big wave that hit Penang. Some freak wave. Unknown to us was the next few days that we would be flooded with news that we had never imagined could happen too the region, and so close to malaysia, in our lifetime. The ASIAN TSUNAMI.