If you stood in a crowd and threw a stone, you would hit somebody whose relatives had emigrated to Australia. The Tan Family were no exception. One day, they received an email from such a relative saying that an acquaintance of his was on his way to Thailand from Singapore and would stop by in KL and could they show him around? The Tans, being hospitable like all Malaysians, immediately wrote back to say they would be happy to do so.
On the day itself, The Tans arrived bright and early outside KL Sentral station to pick up Dennis, their relative’s friend.
“Hello Lenis,” chirped Mrs Tan. “I am Mrs Tan and this is Mr Tan, Ah Boy and Ah Girl.”
“Hello,” he said, “I’m Dennis. Pleased to meet you.”
“Hello Uncle Lenis,” chorused Ah Boy and Ah Girl.
“Uh, it’s Dennis, with a D, as in Dog? And Doctor?”
“Lok?” said Ah Boy. “Loktor?” said Ah Girl.
“Uh, not quite… uh, DEN-nis.”
“TEN-nis,” said all the Tans together, as if repeating a lesson.
Dennis gave up and smiled brightly at them, “Yes, so where to now?”
“Breakfast,” said Mr Tan. “You must be hungry.”
“Absolutely.” said Dennis grinning, “Famished.”
They piled in the car and drove to the roti canai shop. Dennis was amazed by the skill of the men tossing the roti canai and aerating the teh tarik. And when the food was served, he was amazed by how delicious the food was!
During the meal, the Tans learned of Dennis’s love of butterflies, and so they took him to the Butterfly Park after breakfast. The Butterfly Park was filled with butterflies of all colours and shapes and sizes. Dennis was in the seventh heaven of delight and he took as many photos as he could. In the meantime, the rest strolled leisurely through the park, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the pretty butterflies. Mrs Tan stood out like a sore thumb however, because she inched her way along the path, ducking and dodging whenever a butterfly flew past. When one suddenly settled on her shoulder, she shrieked and clutched at Mr Tan, giving Dennis such a fright he nearly dropped his camera.
Their next destination was Crab Island. The journey to Crab Island was long and on the way Dennis managed to catch a few glimpses of Malaysian life. He loved the ease with which people of so many different colours and cultures lived and worked together; he marvelled at the highways that criss-crossed each other; he was surprised to see the number of people who swept fallen leaves into the drain; and was amused to find that what he thought was a dumping ground at first, actually had a sign hidden among the rubbish that read, “No dumping allowed. RM5000 fine”.
After some time, they reached the jetty. Crab Island could only be reached by boat, and so they climbed aboard the first ferry they saw. The journey was fairly long – 40 minutes to an hour – and so the ferry captain provided the passengers with entertainment in the form of Hokkien karaoke. Mrs Tan liked the idea. She said it was good value for money.
Before they knew it, they had arrived on the island. The first thing they noticed was the complete absence of car and motorcycle exhaust fumes. Mr Tan breathed in deeply. Dennis followed suit… and then staggered backwards, overwhelmed by the strong smell of fish. Without further ado, they proceeded to lunch at the first restaurant they saw.
The Tans wanted to give Dennis a treat, so they ordered lots of dishes; crab, prawn, fish, fish balls, local vegetables, even fried cockles! Ah Girl was in a talkative mood that day. When the fish balls came, she said, “Uncle Len… err… TEN-nis, this are call fish ball. It are ball of the fish.” Dennis misunderstood her and his face turned pale. He didn’t think he was able to stomach fish testicles, so he surreptitiously left it at the side of the plate, hidden behind the rice.
Other than that and the fried cockles, which he only took a bit of because the grey ooey-gooey-ness of it scared him away, Dennis enjoyed lunch tremendously. He especially liked the local vegetables that had been cooked so deliciously he wondered why he had ever objected to greens. He also enjoyed the crab. He had never experienced hammering away at cooked crab with pieces of shell flying everywhere. Somehow it made the crab taste better!
After lunch, they had a little walk around the village. It was a lovely little village. All the houses were on stilts and there were little walkways everywhere. There were even mini speed bumps on some of them to prevent speeding bicycles. Right at one end of the village, there was a beautiful view of mangroves. It was a tranquil sight and Dennis stood there for a while, just taking in the view. On their way back to the jetty, he noticed a skeleton of a boat in the water. “That boat is either unfinished, or quite finished!” he remarked, then laughed at his own joke. The Tans didn’t understand at all so Mr and Mrs Tan laughed politely while Ah Boy and Ah Girl carried on counting rats.
During the long journey home, Dennis told them about his travels. He had been around Indonesia before going to Singapore and he told them about how beautiful he had found the place. Unfortunately, he got cheated by the locals and even managed to witness a gang fight. He also told them about how he found Singapore impressive because it was so clean and tidy and the citizens were so law-abiding. Just then, a Singaporean car shot past them at a clearly illegal speed. As it sped off into the distance, the window came down and a ball of tissue was thrown out.
Before long, they reached Kuala Lumpur and Mr Tan drove to their residential pasar malam – the night market. There was more food! Dennis was shocked at the sheer variety of things sold there. There were vegetables and fish and fruit; clothes and shoes and knick-knacks; snacks and desserts and whole meals. The place was filled with people from every walk of life, most of them with children in pyjamas and foreign domestic helpers trailing behind. Dennis’s eye was caught by the DVD stall. The lanky youth with unnaturally yellow, spiky hair running the stall nodded at him and said, “All DVDs clear. We copy from Australia.” Then in a conspiratorial tone, “You want the special shows?” Before he could answer, Mr Tan nudged him and muttered, “Better not.”
By this time Mrs Tan had finished her weekly pasar malam shopping. She came up carrying bags of food and a packet of fried chicken for Dennis as he had mentioned in the course of the day that he liked fried chicken. Their next stop was the famous Petronas Twin Towers that Dennis had heard so much about and desired to see. He was suitably impressed by the two beautiful towers that rose to a majestic height of 452 metres and were joined by a bridge halfway up. The brilliantly lit towers standing out against the night sky made an enchanting sight that left a lasting impression on Dennis. He took plenty of photos before he reluctantly agreed that they needed to leave for the bus station.
Like all good things, Dennis’s sojourn in KL had come to an end. As he sat in the bus eating fried chicken, he thought of the lovely time he had had and the lovely people he had met. Malaysia was a great place. They had a lovely climate, a welcoming atmosphere, and the people were so generous and kind-hearted. Not once had the Tans allowed him to pay for anything, whether it was the entrance fee to the butterfly farm, the ferry ride to Crab Island, or any of the meals they ate. He leant back and sighed contentedly. He would definitely come back here again. As the bus trundled on to his next destination, Dennis fell asleep wondering why so many Malaysians wanted to leave Malaysia – it seemed quite unpatriotic of them.
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