A Visit to Dad’s Hometown

I visited my dad’s hometown from 1st March 2008 to 9th March 2008. This is an account of the 9 days I spent there.

Day 1

It has been 10 years since I last visited my dad’s hometown. Today, I am traveling back to Sarawak with my family.

At 9.15 a.m., we left our Tampines home for Kranji MRT station. When we reach there 2 hours later, we saw a long snake queue for the bus to the Causeway. Patiently, we waited and finally reached Johor at 1 p.m.

After lunch, we heard news that there may be a traffic jam which means it will take a few hours to reach Senai Airport.

At a rapid speed, we walked to the bus interchange and reached there, our legs sore and tired. Sitting comfortably in our comfy seats, we set off to Senai Airport.

Fortunately, we arrived early at Senai Airport. Unfortunately, we arrived too early i.e. 4 hours before departure. We shopped around a bit and discovered a set of comfy sofa at MerryBrown. My Aunt Irene and I sat nearby waiting for the seats to be emptied. Our buttocks hurt so much that it angered us when a Caucasian woman took one of the seats.

It ended up for my grandmother to ask for a seat. Half an hour before boarding time, we finally all sat on the comfy sofa.

I was very excited on the aeroplane. I enjoyed the feeling of the take-off and landing. The area around us grew smaller, then it looked like a model of a city, later a map and eventually a small spot that soon disappeared in the clouds.

At 7.30 p.m., we landed in Kuching Airport. We had dinner at a coffeeshop before we stayed at my cousin, Brother Hui’s house.

It has been quite a long time since I saw Aunt Lan. She has grown thinner since we last meet. I hugged her tightly.

Day 2

We toured around Kuching today. First, we rented an 8-seater van. After visiting the beach, the air-con in the van broke down. Back to the workshop for a few hours before the air-con is fixed.

Then we came to a temple. The view at the top was fantastic and breathtaking. I feel relaxed and pictures were snapped.

Shortly after, we had dinner at a restaurant and went back to Brother Hui’s house after that.

Day 3

Finally, we were going back to my Dad’s kampong. I was rather afraid, seeing a snake in the jungle on my journey there. I remembered how old and ragged the house was.

It hasn’t really changed. There were no longer any dogs (sigh, I love dogs) and cats (relief to Aunt Irene who is afraid of cats). There are, however, fighting roosters. My cousin, Brother Lai injected some kind of stimulant into 2 roosters and we watched the roosters fight with fury. If Brother Lai did not take away one of the roosters, these roosters may fight until at least one is dead.

My 2nd Uncle brought us to a riverside. My Dad said that he used to take a boat from the other end of the river (my Dad’s kampong) to this end of the river to attend school. I could see that my Dad had turned into the kampong boy he was 20 years ago on this trip.

He chatted happily with his old-time childhood friend, ate his favourite kolo mee and Kuching Laska and loitered around the house looking at the surroundings.

I believed that my Dad enjoyed the trip back to the kampong a lot.

Day 4

Today my family and I were traveling to my cousin Sister Jiang’s house.

We set off early and stopped at Sibu for kunch and wandered about the town. When we wanted to continue our journey, we discovered that there was some problem with the van’s battery.

After changing a new battery, the car technician advised us to stay in Sibu for a few days in order to repair the van. The spare parts would come in after a few days. We politely refused and decided to return back to the kampong instead.

One hour away from the kampong, the van had given up and we were stuck in the wilderness. My Dad and Aunt Irene called for help. I did not really care and continued to play my computer game. It was at that moment when I was warned about snakes around the area.

I was rather timid that I looked around the area nervously. Help finally arrived 2 hours later. The battery was recharged and we sent the van to the workshop in the nearest town.

Sigh. How come I so unlucky!

Day 5

Today my Dad went to check on the van with my 2nd Uncle.

In the afternoon, they came back for lunch and told us they need to repair the van further. They left hurriedly after their meal.

Lunch was good, as I ate porridge with luncheon meat (too bad there is shortage of luncheon meat in Singapore; I had a great deal there) and my favourite fried spring rolls (that was my weakness).

I went out with Aunt Irene to town. Besides a CD and tape (yes, people there still listen to tapes) shop, there were mini marts, supermarkets, eateries, grocery stores and so on. We had a snack at KFC, which has the cleanest and most modern toilet in the kampong and town. Meaning: Easier to relieve ourselves there.

Day 6

Today I visited my grandparents’ and Aunt Mei’s tomb at the cemetery. It was an impossible task made possible. The tombs were in the hills and full of grass and all kinds of plants (maybe there were snakes, I hope there wasn’t) and small streams of muddy river.

I have never seen my deceased grandparents and Aunt Mei. My grandparents passed away before I was born. Aunt Mei died in an accident on her way home after visiting my family in Singapore in 1988. I was 2 years old then and have no recollection about Aunt Mei. Judging from my family’s description of her, I think Aunt Mei must have doted on me a lot.

On my journey back to the modern Kuching from the kampong, I was obsessed with my GameBoy Advance. The only 2 faults were, one, I lost the cover for protecting my batteries and two, the games Pokemon Silver and Harry Potter, cannot be saved as my cousin, Akina has overworked the games. If you are reading this now, Akina, I will get my revenge soon. Ha! Ha! Ha! (Picture of me chuckling with an evil laugh)

I finally reached Kuching in the evening and by then, I have started on my games again and again for over 15 times on those 2 games.

Well, hope to visit the Cat Museum and do some shopping tomorrow.

Day 7

Today I went to the museums in Kuching. It was fascinating looking at the old artefacts and learning about the life of my ancestors. The Long House was the most memorable one, as we can experience how my ancestors had lived in the past.

I joked with Aunt Irene that there is a Long House in Singapore. She was curious and probed into it. Unfortunately, I told it was the Long House Seafood Restaurant. Correction, she told me it was the Long Beach Seafood Restaurant. Oh man, my joke is so … … lame.

Then we went shopping. My Mum bought me a Sarawak T-shirt with a Hornbill on it when I failed to find a Sarawak T-shirt with cats on it. The Hornbill T-shirt is nice, but I still want a cat T-shirt.

My Mum, Aunt Irene and I bought souvenir T-shorts for my 5 female cousins. As for Daryl Boy (my youngest cousin), we bought him a set of Batman clothes. The T-shirt has a cape attached to it.

At Sarawak Plaza (a shopping centre), I bought 2 small boxes: one is decorated with Snoopy while the other is decorated with Conan (famous detective in Japanese comics).

For dinner, I ate Singapore Chicken Rice. Delicious!

Day 8

Today I ate Kway Chap, a dish with pig intestines and other pig organs that I don’t eat. It tasted good although I prefer Singapore Kway Chap.

I had lunch at a seafood restaurant near the beach. All beaches looked the same. The food was quite nice.

Then I went with my family to a National Park. We would have to pay an entrance fee and it would take half a day to explore the park. We gave up that idea and went shopping instead.

For dinner, my uncle-in-law gave us a treat at a restaurant. The food was scrumptious and we ended up with full stomachs and lots of leftover. The meal was estimated to be around RM $400 (S$200).

Day 9

Today , my family and I went to the Sunday market. I bought a beautiful cat necklance and a few keychains.

Today was my last day in Sarawak. I would be leaving Singapore this afternoon.

So far, I had enjoyed the trip. I understood why my Dad loved the kolo mee here. It was terribly tasty that I ate it everyday until I got sick of it.

I got some nice souvenirs myself and the museums were not too bad. I also witnessed fighting roosters and drank a lot of fresh coconut juice to cool my dry throat.

I reached home around 9 p.m.