urn run - final leg and the price

 

The sip of cask strength did not give us a hangover. We had awakened up early and enjoyed a good continental breakfast at the restaurant of the hotel. From nasi lemak to roti canai and fried egg; It was perfect for a good start.

We packed everything and headed to the thousand buddha temple with the help of the google map. The temple was situated around the largest cemetery in KL. The huge cemetery held over 10000+ of graves. The cemetery was separated into different part which were managed by different organizations. 

We arrived at the temple and I found out that the temple had expanded; a few more new building  were constructed around the main temple.

We found the office and was greeted by a female staff. After signing a few documents and paying up the relevant fee; she had directed us we to the old columbarium for the pickup process.

There was another young female and a foreign worker waiting for us at the praying desk with the urn. The detail on the urn was verified by us and I proceeded with the final prayer before the journey.

I had prepared 3 red packs just in case my parents wanted the prayer to be done by the monks. However my brother told me that it was not necessary. I left those red packs to the young female and asked her to share it with the foreign worker and the office lady staff.

I knew that both the female staff were orphans which was adopted by the temple as I heard the story about temple was running an orphanage and some of the orphan would stay back to serve the temple.

My brother had given me a surprise look when I placed the urn in the Ikea basket and fixed it securely with the safety belt around the backseat. I told him that I am not stupid enough to carry the urn on my lap for the whole journey. I had more than 20 years securing object on the backseat with safety belt…..

The drive was smooth and we had stopped over around the Pagoh R&R for lunch. The Malay mixed rice with the ayam masak merah was tasty and up to standard. After the brief stop we managed to arrive at Kulai around 1+pm.

We had met up with my sister in law who had arranged the cubical purchase at the P memorial park. A middle-aged male was assigned to us and we had headed to the columbarium for the relocation.

It was indeed a good spot with good view. There was this strange smell which was quite irritating during the drive from the office to the columbarium. I did not ask around but was aware that something was interfering the process, all I could do was prayed….

The position of the cubicle was just as promised, eye level and nicely located near the exit of the hall. I placed the urn and did the final ritual. The smell had gone away after the placement.

Everything was set and three of us had headed back home.

I enjoyed my dinner at a food court later that evening with my family; I discovered that nothing was below RM5; a decent meal with drinks would cost more than RM10. The price hike was steeper than I expected for the past few months.

The next day, I had driven my parents to the memorial park again after breakfast. It was time to let them see the effort we had put in for the past few months.

My parents expression told me that they were satisfied with our arrangement when they saw the final setting.

I waited for a while as they offered their chanting. I looked at the cloudy sky and flashed back what had happened many years ago. The final days of my grandfather, the funeral, the cremation….

Once, my dad had told me that he would like to move the urn to a better position if he could afford it; well, wish had come true finally…..

I had taken a flight that night from Senai airport to KLIA2 as my flight back to K city which operated by double A was scheduled at 8am the next day.

While passing the security check, the alarm rang and how careless I was to misplaced my Leatherman knife in my hand carry bag…..Worst of all, my parents had left the airport and only thing I could do was to surrender it to the Imigressen.

It had accompanied me for more than 10 years and travel with me thousands of miles across the continent. I got my final hit later when I reached KLIA2. The staff at  tune hotel at KLIA2 front desk had told me that I had wrongly booked the hotel at Aeropolis.

I mumbled the 4 letters word start with F and rebooked a room as I was too tired to move on….

While laying on bed after a refreshing hot bath, I had tried to think back what had happened; the pocket knife and room booking were the price that I had to pay for dealing with the dark side. The heavy smell was the final warning and I had ignored it and proceeded with the final ritual. There were so many obstacles during the tour; all of the tricks that aim to let my ancestor laying elsewhere was the work of the dark side.

I had fallen into Alam Bunian and awaken early after a few hours of deep sleep. I had done the final packing and headed toward KLIA2.

A smooth check in though but I did not lay my hand on the salted sesame pancake (Ham Jin Bang) as the stall was not open yet at that early hour (it had also closed early on the day of my arrival)

The rest of the journey was uneventful and I was greeted by Ving and Xian at the airport few hours later.

Apart from the money and time spent with a loss of precious belonging, I had never regret of taking a walk down the path….