Learning to live

I have never expected to pay for a vacation to torture myself. But as it turns out, this is no ordinary trip. It all began because of AirAsia. My friend Yune and I could not resist the zero flight fare to Medan. What could go wrong? We could just fly there to take a look and it’ll be worth it! This journey is a great training for naïve people.

I went to Medan with an extremely open mind. Yet we were unprepared for the mysteriously missing hostel, the ‘becak’ uncle who slaughtered us double price of a bus fare and a hostel owner who charged us extra knowing we were desperate.There are many more instances in this trip that made me doubt any human’s gestures, but I’m glad I could look back and not feel bitterness, and instead laugh at our gullibility.

Our circumstances allowed us to meet more locals than foreigners. I’m amazed at how school children could maximize an already full bus by climbing to the roof (while it is moving!). I salute the young bus conductor who effortlessly climbed to the roof in his slippers, many times to collect fares.

It is on another bus trip that we saw a little girl of about six, traveling with her younger sister. The utterly efficient transport company placed these two girls on a makeshift seat at the front of the bus. The stuffy and rough ride would cause the younger girl to vomit, but her sister would hold a plastic bag for her, a feat made harder by the swaying bus. At times the vomit would even miss and spill on her hands, but instead of going “Ewwww!” (like I would), she just wiped it off calmly.

Glimpsing into the locals’ lives, I could understand why some of them are so desperate, some ruthless. And some, despite all these, have a heart of gold. Truly we are shaped by our environment, but into what shape, depends on ourselves.

Indonesia has been an enriching and adventurous journey, yet for the first time in a vacation, I have never been happier to return to Malaysia.