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Disember 2003 - Sure Pekat Pertama Hutan Lipur Terenggun, Kuala Lipis. Gua berdiri di atas pentas. Berdebar. Gitar tersandang di bahu. Jari terpacak kat fret. Gua pandang sekeliling. Semua mata bertumpu ke arah gua. Berminggu-minggu sebelum tu gua bertungkus lumus menerangkan apa sebenarnya Sure Pekat ni kepada orang ramai. Itu jam, konsep Pay To Play (P2P) memang sangat asing, apatah lagi sebuah acara muzik yang bukan pertandingan, gua hanya nak band-band tempatan kat Kuala Lipis ni, main, dan enjoy dalam satu acara muzik yang santai dan rilek. Maka bila semuanya sudah selesai, gua harus jadi band yang pertama sekali main. Sebab tiada siapapun yang tahu apa yang akan berlaku, jadi takde sapa yang nak jadi band pertama. Gua sendiri jadi band yang pertama perform, untuk Sure Pekat yang pertama sekali diadakan. "Bismillah.." kata gua dalam hati. Grenggg!!! Bunyi gitar gua menandakan bermulanya satu legasi pengurusan acara 'indie' yang pertama seumpanya dalam sejarah Kua...

The ride was never about fitness or distance—it was about healing a pain no medicine could reach. I crossed into Thailand not for escape, but for something quieter: a place where motion might soothe what words could not. On the road, the danger didn’t unsettle me—it sharpened my senses, reminded me I was still here. What stayed with me most were the encounters: the working class who spoke plainly about survival, their resilience reflecting the quiet endurance I hadn’t known I was mustering; the ruins, half-swallowed by time, standing anyway—proof that broken things could still hold beauty. Food stalls became small altars of comfort: the warmth of broth, the kindness in a vendor’s smile, the way a single bowl of Tomyam Kung could make me feel human again. And the sea, wide and indifferent, gave me a silence that didn’t demand anything from me. I never said aloud what I had lost, but in these moments, I saw it differently—not as something to run from, but something I could carry more gen...