What a beautiful day

What a beautiful day is today.  

Yousef  at the 'Pantai Cahaya Bulan' Kelantan, Malaysia (The moon-lighted beach)

It is so breezy at the Pantai Cahaya Bulan (literally translate: the moon-lighted beach) beach. The sky is blue and clear. It is a good sign that we will be assured of a nice walk and a beautiful scenes along the shores. There are nine of us in a family outings- in the extended family. This is our second visit since the last one which was 20 years back in 1991. But the last visit did not include two of my son-in-laws and the two grandchildren . They were yet to be our in-laws.


We are so happy to be here after such a long break, but, hold on, not for long.


We are so shocked looking around the area. There are many stalls selling foods and many other things including toys. Not so many people walking on the beach.


Apparently what we can see now is that so many changes had taken place. Then we could walk along the seashores and would be splashed by the 'running water'.  But now, no more small crabs can be traced on the shores, no more trees and  gone are all the birds . Now we can see a stone barrier  to separate us from the sea water. Although we can still go down nearer to the shore, this barrier makes it difficult for the kids to step on and walk down to the sea. What a pity.


We came from so far a distance in a special family outings hoping to be 'treated' nicely by the landscape. We hoped to see birds and their beautiful sounds, to enjoy the scenes of many people running and chasing after one another and of course for the kids to collect shells and play on the beach running happily. No, not anymore.


So we spent just a few minutes then back in the car after taking few shorts for our kids. We are so frustrated and say a few lirics,

"What a beautiful day is today 
No more crabs finding their way 
Trees are gone and birds no place to play".


Bye bye beach of the moon-lighted, see you no more.