New Friends From Sweden - The Cedhagens.

The Cedhagens from Sweden. L - R: Lena, Tomas, Carl and Ingrid.

Tomas pointed excitedly to a Volvo 122 parked near The Padang Bank in Kota Bharu when we passed by it in my car on our way for a look around the town of Kota Bharu with the rest of his family. He volunteered the information that his father produced some parts for the car! That was exciting news as I was once a proud owner of this classic car built in mid sixties. Mine was made in 1966. Pak Idrus whom Tomas will be meet up while in KL is a proud owner of one too.

Tomas Cedhagen is a marine biologist and came to Malaysia for a holiday with his wife Lena, a busy company director, son Carl Johan 12 and daughter Ingrid 10. They had just came over to Kota Bharu after enjoying a couple of days sojourn on the beautiful islands of Perhentian. While there Carl did his PADI licence but unfortunately Ingrid wasn't able to do that being under the permissible age for such a licence.

Malaysia is not a foreign to Tomas since many many years ago he was here once and met my friend Zaharan Razak while teaching at one of the Universities here. It was through Zaharan Razak that Tomas' impending arrival in Kelantan was made known to me. Zaharan wanted to know if I maybe interested to befriend his friend from Sweden. Why not, I said. A friend of Zaharan's is also a friend of Pak Zawi.

Tomas sent a message on Facebook to me while still on the island advising me of his estimated time of departure from the island and also the estimated time of arrival at the Riverview Hotel in Kota Bharu where he had booked a room.

I went to the hotel at five o'clock and joined them for coffee because they have yet to complete their meal.

Photograph taken by Ingrid.

At the hotel lobby I saw a copy of Qiadah, a magazine published by Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan. Pak Zawi contributed three articles to that second issue which I made Lena hold in her hands for a photograph. They will pore over the magazine when they return to their room later.

Lena holding the Magazine.

While showing them about the many places of interest in town which they could do on foot the next morning namely the War Museum, The Handicraft Village, Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah and Bazaar MPKB, we stopped at Arked Kota Bharu since Lena wanted to buy some gems.

Faizal the gems dealer showed some gems to the Cedhagens.

Due to time constrain as we were in a hurry to move on to Tumpat to see some Buddhist Temples as Carl is interested to study the various world religions. Faizal the gem dealer gave Tomas his contact number and expressed his willingness to open the stall the next day which was a Friday and a holiday in Kelantan should the Cedhagens have the intention to visit again. Faizal speaks English so he was able to communicate with them.

We proceeded to Tumpat where the Buddhist temples were located. Initially I offered them the choice of either the Reclining Buddha or the Sitting Buddha as these are the two significant ones in term of size. They prefer to let me make the choice for them to which I said I prefer both. Before making the turn into the temple compound I told the children to close their eyes. Upon stopping the car only were they allowed to open them again. The wow! that came from their mouth was stupendous.

Tomas posing in front of the reclining Buddha, purported to be the longest in South East Asia.

I saw this pomelo like fruit in the compound of the temples with numbers on it. Tomas asked me what the numbers mean. Some people must be playing cranks on punters by displaying these numbers. Who knows some punters may have made a strike by betting on these numbers?

At the tortoise pond, Tomas expertly explained to us all the various species of tortoises in the ponds and pointed out the local species against the introduced ones. He is so knowledgeable about his line of business.

Next we moved on to the Sitting Buddha further up to Tumpat. We spent sometimes at this temple. We had to start back to Kota Bharu due to the darkening sky. It rained quite heavily while we were on the way back to Kota Bharu but ceased by the time we reached the hotel.

As a token of friendship The Cedhagens gave me this beautiful key chain with a small replica of The Mermaid being the famous symbol of Coppenhagen embossed on it. Unfortunately I brought nothing to reciprocate with. We bid farewell to each other. Though it was a short acquaintance, hopefully the friendship established will last forever.

To the Cedhagens, I would like to wish you a happy stay while in Malaysia.