Well, I haven't actually finished my story about the trip to Terengganu .... Anywayz, after we got off Merang Jetty, headed back to KT ..... and when we reached KT, we had several hours to kill before boarding the bus @ 2200hrs .....
So, my friend said that one of KT's attraction is Pasar Payang ..... In fact, I asked Bang Mat the other day what could we do while we're in KT, and he said Pasar Payang as an attraction ..... I asked him what can one find over there, and he said lots of things ..... What he failed to mention, which he actually told my friend, is that you have to be careful when you visit the market ...... And this I found out only AFTER we had visited the market .....
Anyways, the market looked unassuming enough .... It's a two-storey building which doesn't look that big on the outside ...... On the ground level, what's mostly sold there are all types of keropok, dried goods, serunding, local goodies, fruit ..... when I looked over the market on the ground level in which you could actually see the outside because it's not walled up, it didn't look that big ..... I mean, sure, you could take a while looking through all that stuff, but still I felt the perimeter of the whole market is not that wide ....
Now, you must be wondering why I'm so bothered with the size of the market ..... Well, here's where whole tale starts ....... We went upstairs ...... The first thing that greeted us at the entrance was this sign which I felt is rather strange for a greeting ......
Literally, this sign means "Be polite when using the stairs" ..... Another way of looking at it is "Be courteous when using the stairs" .... Alright, I understand that it is common courtesy to be polite to people, but why do you have to be "polite" when using the stairs? .....
At the time, it didn't really make sense to me .... Anywayz, we went inside ...... I wasn't really interested at the stuff that we saw initially ..... I thought I wanted to get a sarong, not a batik sarong, but one of those you wear at the beach where you tie around the waist, but for some reason couldn't find it ..... The stuff were mostly knick knacks, t-shirts, kain pelikat, and lots and lots of textile .....
Then, we stopped at this one shop that sold t-shirts, and I bought one ...... and that was after going thru, like, two rows of shops ...... From the end of one row to the other, it felt like it was quite a stretch ...... Then, we came by this shop that sold local handicraft stuff like tikar mengkuang, bamboo tikars, rattan stuff, mengkuang bags .... I bought a bag which is not made from mengkuang leaves, but simply rope ..... I asked the lady what sort of rope it was, and she said "Rope lah ..." .... Okay, that was helpful ....
Anywayz, our interest in the stuff there started to get more and more interesting ..... Like for example, my friend was piqued with these miniature tea sets .... I mean, come on, miniature tea sets? We're grown up women, for heaven's sake ..... but at that time, I have to admit, they looked really cute ....
Then I saw a shop that was my undoing - it sold batik of the most beautiful designs and colour ..... I'm talking about the traditional cotton batik ...... and Terengganu, if you must know, is a haven for this kind of textile (Ceh, doing my bit for Visit Malaysia 2007) .... I'm not talking about the kind of batik that your mother likes to wear at home, but the kind with the modern designs and rich colours ....... My eyes went wide looking at the selection, but in the end I only bought only a two-metre length of one design and colour .... My friend bought four pairs of kaftan, or baju kelawar, although one does not become Batman when wearing one ......
And still, every single row of shops we walked along was a different one from the last .... I started to think, hey, wait a minute, shouldn't we have end up where we started? .... And the further we went in, the more "glittery" the stuff became ...... Sparkling costume jewellery, silver/bronzeware that shine and catch the corners of the unknowing eye .... At one point, I felt that indeed, both of us were "spirited away" ....... My friend said let's find an exit, quick ...... and after we got out, I asked her, didn't you feel strange about the place? ...,
And here was when my friend said, "Don't you know this market is enchanted?" ..... I went, "Enchanted?" ....... Apparently, the people doing business there use bomoh/pawang and cast "spells" to make visitors buy more and more stuff and things like that ...... And I had to believe her ...... Only somebody who has visited this place would understand what I felt ..... Then again, the person might be a non-believer ...... but I would consider myself above believing all this hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo stuff .....
Nevertheless, I'm telling you, there is something definitely strange about that market, especially about the fact that we kept going into different rows of shops, despite that it didn't look that big on the outside .....
And after we reached KL, and I kept thinking, why haven't I bought more of the batik stuff, and I really regretted it, and felt at one point that I wanted to go back all the way to Terengganu one weekend just to get more of the material .... I told this to my friend, and she said, that's part of the enchantment, the spell that they put over us, the ignorant disbelievers ...... Only now, I finally realize that the sign over the entrance makes perfect sense .....
If you are a Muslim, before you start a journey to a new place, or enter an unfamiliar area, you must recite a few doas ...... That's what the sign means ...... Beware, stranger, be polite to the "guardians" of this place, lest you are rude and decide to take photos instead of paying respect, you would pay a whole lot more when you enter our kingdom ....... I think I read too much of Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim ........
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