Picnic, Barbeque and Family Value

On late Saturday morning, we went to my eldest brothers' family barbecue and picnic by a small river near his orchard in Sg Choh Rawang. He has been planning to organise such event for quite sometime but due to our busy schedules, it is not very easy to get everyone to be present for this important family occasion. Both of my parents have already passed away for several years and event like this is critical to us in maintaining strong family bond. Unfortunately, my elder brother Pak Ngah and his family were not able to make it due to a prior engagement. Well, as humans, we can only plan but Allah will decide the consequences.

The picnic area was nice and private located near a small bridge. Basically, we were the only people there for a picnic and setting-up the BBQ fire was completed in less than ten minutes. The river is flowing with crystal clear fresh water and basically potable.


My brother's plantation land is located at the foothill of Sg Choh's highest point. Location wise, his plot is better than mine as he has a small river flowing and easily accessible by car. In addition, he has been very hardworking and busy in planting-up a lot of fruit trees and also rearing 'ayam kampung'. Thanks for the time he has for no longer attached with any employer at the moment. He has also built a kinda shelter like a small house complete with a small kitchen and bathroom and most importantly a clean place to perform the solat.

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I also took this opportunity to try out the snapshot of 'water-flowing' effect with my Canon 350D. However, the weather was not particularly amicable for a perfect photographic experience as the cloud was still overcast. Nonetheless, I snapped few photos of the flowing water and actually did manage to capture the 'angelic' effect though not as stunning as the photos you can see in any photographic magazines.



There were abundant of food be it homemade or barbecued. My other half prepared honey-marinated chicken barbecue, a recipe which I believe she likes to prepare for occasion like this. The children really enjoyed the 'party' as they spent at least 3 hours dipping in the cool river. I was not in the mood of taking any dip in the cool water and preferred to spend my time tweaking the camera and looking for the best angle possible. Actually, I snapped close to 300 pics and still have not finished editing or even printing them.

Before we left the picnic area, my brother took us to the neighboring orchard using his 4-WD. It was only about 3-4 minute ride up the hill but the I was so surprised that actually there is an orchid rehab-garden there complete with one Indonesian gardener manning the whole thing. I took some pics of the orchids but again, not as good as any pro-photos as I have yet to get a good macro lens for this. Mr CD, how about donating me with one of you macro lens ?...:-))