Tringgus farewell

We had a farewell party for Zahid in Tringgus last weekend! I kicked start the journey to Tringgus earlier because Zahid had to wait for Christine to pick him up just right after noon. Did the ritual of buying pig head at Mile 7 for the BBQ, although knowing very well they’d prepared pig forest meat from the hunt a few days before. Before reaching Tringgus, I detoured to Ledan Gumbang to make an essential transaction with the headman who’s known to be good in brewing the good drink. Had several glasses of ‘test shots’ with him at his house and then, he ceremoniously handed me two big bottles of langkau. In exchange for the good drink, the standard price of RM12.00 was imposed. I made my way to Tringgus. The kids saw me and led me to Roji’s place as if I didn’t know where it was. The first thing they asked me “Where’s Zahid?” I told them that he’s coming a bit later, maybe around two-ish.

Roji and I did justice to the pig head on his newly made bamboo balcony while sipping the spicy-tasting langkau. At first, it was hard to swallow because I’m not that used to his brewing, which proved to be very potent! But as the philosophy of this good drink goes, the third and proceeding sippings would be smooth.

BBQing technique

Knowing that the ‘head’ can take care of its own in the fire, we went to Pengkalan Tebang to get some Stella Artois to neutralize the langkau taste. Somehow, the taste was a bit too rough for me. Must be my sore neck. Oh, well. We continued chatting away until Zahid and Christine arrived almost 3pm. Everyone was excited to see Zahid! You can hear Zahid’s name mentioned by the kids “Zaaaheeeeeed”. He was like a celebrity.

So, we had our rounds and rounds of langkau. Went to Pengkalan Tebang again and had some more beers there, chatting away with the taukey of that tiny sundry shop till it was almost evening. Went to Ledan Gumbang again after that to get some more supplies of langkau and then, off to Tringgus.

By then, my head was already spinning. More people came into Roji’s house and by evening, the music was on — very loudly! “Gosh”, I thought to myself “This is going to be a big party! We went into the house and had our dinner. Some were already dancing. My head felt fuzzy. After a brilliant dinner, I just lie on the kitchen floor and before I knew it, I dozed off. Knocked out.

I got up at 6am. It was quiet. I realized that I was still on the floor. Apparently, someone put a blanket over me while I was asleep. I got up off the floor and went to the balcony. It was a peaceful sight and was quite misty. The morning was beautiful!

Bengoh range in a blanket of clouds

The only thing(s) that were making all the noises were the roosters. For some reason, these demented fowls had to congregate under the house and crowed away as if it was nobody’s business. Maybe it was nobody’s business.

The first person to greet me that morning was an old lady who was passing the house. She talked to me in the Tringgus language which, of course, I couldn’t understand save for few words in a sentence. Then, she gestured that move as if she was dancing and finally, I understood. “Why were you not dancing with them last night?”, she was saying. I told her in broken Malay plus a bit of Tringgus word to say that I was severely knocked out before the party started. She shook her head and left. Ooookay….

Roji’s sister woke up, suprised to see me sitting at the balcony. She asked me the same question as the old lady. I just said I was too drunk to wake up. “You had too much langkau without even having your dinner! Apart from pieces of the BBQed pig head, did you have lunch?”, she lectured me. Oooookay….

Christine woke up and filled in the stories about their dancing, drinking, dancing, drinking, chunderring, drinking, more dancing and then, sleep. Sounded like fun and I missed it! When Roji got up, he suggested that we should go to the river and have a swim. He then passed me a glass of sugar cane wine, which was good. Zahid came out of his bedroom, looking dazed and asked us, how’s everyone? And of course, they all had to fill me in with the fun they had and chronologically stated what I’ve just missed from last night’s event. Okay, just rub it in, guys!

Roji took a bottle of langkau and led us to the river. It was nice and refreshing to be in the water. I don’t think I took my bath the evening before. As the river was cold, it’s always good to have that good ‘ol langkau to warm up the body. We swam and some guys with their kids came to join us.

Swimming lessons?

As if orchestrated, they all did acrobatic stunts as soon as they entered the river! If you had seen what they did, it’d probably put our national synchronized swimming team to shame. So, we just chilled out by the river almost for that whole morning. And we finished a bottle of langkau before returning to the house.

By 2pm, and after a nice short nap, we left Tringgus. Zahid did his farewell rounds with his friends and you can see that some of them will miss that guy Zaaaaheeeed. I think he had a wonderful time in Tringgus although probably he spent most of his time there drinking langkau doing research.

Zahid, the last one to get up that morning…eh…what’s that on the floor?