From Ngalor to Parit Lapis II With Love

My house is located about 3km from the main road heading to Pontian and Johor Bahru. There were about 15 houses located on left and right hand side of the Jalan PARIT Lapis II. It would take about 1 to 2 hours to walk from NGALOR to WETAN.



FYI, in my kampung nobody would use north, south, east and west. Instead, people use ngalor, wetan, kedol and kulon. I think this is javaness way of saying the directions. So, ngalor is where the main road from Pontian to Johor Bahru located. Wetan is the west while kulon is the east. Kidol would be the north.



My house is not really in wetan as Wetan is officially known as PARIT Mat Yakin Barat while my house is located in PARIT Lapis II. So, it is probably the north west or something.



When I was younger, during the days where there's no such thing as mobile phone or internet, where car is a luxury instead of necessity, I would be forced to walk from Ngalor to lovely home IF i do not make an appointment with my mother/brother to pick me up during school/semester break OR is the one and only public phone available broke down.



So, before school holidays, I would have to call mak to tell her that I will be going home on this date, i'll be leaving school at about this hour, I'll take that bus (usually would be the MAJU bus or SOUTH JOHOR bus) and would reach Ngalor approximately Y p.m.

Village folks during those days were also different as compared to today. Sometimes I would hitch hike to reach home if no one is not at home or the phone broke down. There was no such thing as being afraid to strangers as it's where you know everybody or they know your parents/brothers/sisters/gramdmother etc.

But then, with all those difficulties, going home is still a luxury and something that i'll alwasy look forward.