Tsunami - 1. Tsu Chapter 1

For the first time since getting married to Mei Ling, a third generation Australian, who’s great grandmother comes from the Kuala Kedah area near Penang, Malaysia, I was finally able to save enough money to take Mei and our son’s to Malaysia for a holiday and give Mei a chance to visit the area where her ancestors come from.

For me, I am a fifth generation Australian, our family originated from Scotland on one side of the family and the Isle of Man on the other side, I had visited my ancestral home when I was a teenager when my parents took me for a trip to the UK, and now I wanted to give Mei the same opportunity.

Our sons – Boyden, Grady, Keegan & Rhain although they are all still very young; aged from one to five years old, I hope that this would be the first of many great travelling adventures for them all.

The trip from Perth to Singapore took 5 ½ hours, with us leaving Perth just after 6.40 in the morning, and we had a 5 hour stop over before making the trip to Penang in Malaysia, which took another 1 ½ hours, arriving there at 6.15 in the evening.

By the time we arrived at our hotel, the whole family was very tired, so Mei and I fed the boys with some hotel room service, before we put them to bed and ate a little ourselves, before we too went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up late and ate some brunch on the patio of our hotel suite, and we organised some tours of places to see and things to do on our first full day in Malaysia.

Our plan was to spend a few days being tourists, visiting as many different places as we can, then we would spend a day or two in the Kuala Kedah area, so look around and maybe find any possible relatives of Mei’s. She was not expecting to find any, as she had been told as a young child that all her relatives in Malaysia had gone.

After this we would return to Penang, where Mei and the boys would do some shopping while attended to some business, as I had been given some contacts regarding investing in business in Malaysia, that would I hope to be fruitful in the future, as a nest egg of funds for the boys.

I hoped to have my business concluded by the end of two days, which would give us the last two days to just relax and do any last-minute shopping or looking around before making the long trip home.

After three days for seeing all the tourist sites and doing some shopping, we hired a car and made the long drive north to Kuala Kedah, which was a 1 ½ hour journey, with three stops at toll booth stations, we booked into the Lotus Hotel in Alor Setar a large city just inland and east of Kuala Kedah.

Here we rested for an hour before we made our way to Mei’s ancestral hometown; we visited the fishing port, where Mei’s ancestors were once fisherman.

After several enquiries, with the help of Mei’s fluency in the Malay language, we were shown to a small shop on the edge of town, to see an old woman who knows most of the old people of the town.

When we arrived the very old lady invited our whole family indoors, and we were offered rice tea and cakes, as she began to explain to Mei the old people she knew who use to fish the river in the old ways.

When Mei asked the lady if she knew any of her ancestors, Mei was told yes that there was a family by the name of Megat, who were fishermen for many generations before her time.

Sadly, most of the family had gone, all except her dear friend Hakim Megat, who lives alone since the death of her beloved husband many years ago, the lady said that she goes to visit her friend at least once a week to deliver groceries and to have a long chat.

They talk about the old times, and she often tells the story of a lost great uncle who went away to an unknown land, never to be heard of again.

When Mei mentioned that her great grandfather comes from this area, when her family were very poor fishermen, and he went looking for work to be able to survive and ended up on a boat bound for Australia.

When the old lady heard this, she told Mei to come back again tomorrow, so she could arrange a meeting with Hakim, to see if they are related or not. As we travelled back to the hotel, Mei was silent for the whole journey, deep in thought about what she had heard, with a mixture of emotions on what she had just learnt.