WELCOME Home ❤️

Ist impressions: People are super hospitable. I never fail to notice that Malaysians are generally very accommodating and helpful. Especially when I have been away. 

After a good night's sleep we decided to take the Light Rail Transit (like a sky train in some parts) to the heart of Kuala Lumpur. 

The first episode of random kindness. 

When we boarded the train, we found 2 separate seats. Suddenly the couple and their college going  son who were sitting between us stood up. 

The father said, ' We will move so you can 

sit together!"

They were about to perform musical chairs and we immediately thanked them for their kind gesture and convinced them that it was absolutely fine to be seated apart for 45 minutes as we could look forward to an eternity of togetherness ❤️.

The second episode of random kindness. 

When the weather is great, and most people are eating alfresco, that made us think about eating as well even when it was 10pm and we were certainly not that hungry. 

So we walked to a food truck about 5 minutes from where we stay. 

I asked the chef for something that was not listed as a set dish. 

Could he just fry 2 eggs, sunny side up and fries for the man? 

Before I could even bat an eyelid, he said "boleh boleh" .(Yes! Yes!) 

I looked around and there was no vacant table available. 

Seeing my worried face, he said "Tak ape, boleh DIY." (it's OK, we can create one) 

Like a true magician, he whipped a table and 2 plastic seats out of the air.

I wanted a cup of hot coffee and a can of coke but the chef did not serve beverages, only food. He said I could go and grab them from the convenience store about 10yards away. 

So I went there dutifully and got the coke and a sachet of ready-mix coffee. 

The third episode of random kindness 

The next challenge was how to get hot water out of a kind of unfamiliar contraption. The counter boy came running and showed me how. 

I found a stirrer and just when I thought I had it done and was about to throw the stirrer away, an elderly customer who must have been watching this strange person who couldn't operate a simple hot water contraption, excitedly said,

 'No you must continue stirring, there's still a lot of goodness at the bottom of the cup that hasn't dissolved yet.'

I wanted to give her a hug. A mother watching over another mother. 😂

When we were done with the feasting, the chef's wife thanked us and said' datang lagi ye?' (please come again?)

And so we walked home. A warm night, a big bright moon and happy hearts. 

HOMEWARD BOUND

My trip home to Malaysia last month has left me with many wonderful memories of who I am and why I’m proud to call myself a Malaysian. I dreaded the 13 hour flight but when the plane landed and the pilot said 'and to all Malaysians welcome home’,  my heart missed a beat.

What is Malaysia that I call home?

It is a land that boasts of many dialects and languages. 

What fascinates me most is our own ‘brand’ of spoken English that we fondly call Malaysian English. It never fails to make me smile when I listen to the concoction of different words in a sentence that might make no sense at all to a non-Malaysian.

Take for instance a father speaking to his toddler daughter . The father was carrying the little girl as they stepped on the escalator. We were standing a few steps below them when the little girl’s slipper fell off. A lady picked it up, rushed up the escalator and gave it to the father.

So the father told the little girl, “See-lah you. Just drop your slipper like that. Good thing, the nice aunty saw it and quickly- quickly gave it to me.”

The words ‘nice aunty’ really warmed my heart. In Malaysia, any older female who is not a blood relation is a sister or an aunt.  This is a mark of respect as we don’t call people who are older than us by their first name. I must admit that I enjoyed it thoroughly when even Uber drivers called me aunty.

It is a land of hospitality and generosity.

Our  short vacation was jammed packed with activities that revolved around family and friends. We went south to Johor, my home state and then to Melaka and Kuantan.  Friends separated by time and space bothered to get together to celebrate, just because we came home. 

Primary and secondary school friends treated us to sumptuous meals and gave us presents and local delicacies to bring back to Ireland.

A friend even brought us to her orchard and it was an Eden experience to be surrounded by dragon fruit, bananas, papayas, breadfruit, passion fruit and soursop. As mosquitos were swarming round, we made sure we had a good spray of mosquito repellent. The icing of the cake was when we saw weaver bird’s nests that were so intricately woven.

We also visited Tengku Mariam Primary school where I first started my formal studies. Fences and man-made structures had replaced the lush tropical foliage that once surrounded the school. We used to play hop-scotch or tag or run on the sides of the drain but I guess millennial children do not do that anymore. I remember having to recite the Rukunegara (National Principles) before 600 children during the school assembly and it was fun re-enacting the event at the exact spot beneath the flags to an empty field.

We also visited High School Batu Pahat where I did my Form 6. One of my classmates is a teacher there and we had tea in the canteen - the difference was we sat in the room where the teachers sat and not in the student area.

When we went to Melaka, we met up with my university course mates and visited the House of Museums which threw me back to the 60s and 70s when my mother used the wood stove for cooking and set her hair in curlers under the ‘big hat’. We were also treated to wonderful meals and watched others do the waltz, the swing and the rumba to  Michael Buble’s Sway.

It is a land that boasts of friendliness among complete strangers.

After Melaka we went to  Kuantan and I wanted to visit the batik centre.. I went to the tour desk to call for a taxi but another hotel guest who overheard my request offered to give me a lift since he was going there himself. After the visit, I waited for a bus but there was no bus in-sight for a long time. Again a lovely lady with very young children stopped her car and gave me a lift back to the hotel.

It is a land where you drift seamlessly into your younger self and just let your hair down with your best friend. Michael and I went for the swings, the see saw and the slide when no one was looking and chased crabs in the sand.  

So I look forward to coming back again to the land where I was born. Being home is an indescribable feeling even though it was only for 3 weeks. Somehow I even enjoyed the sun, something I never really liked before.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NEW STRAITS TIMES MALAYSIA 8 OCT 2017 https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2017/10/288630/homeward-bound