During the recent school holidays, the Kuen Cheng Co-Ed High School Special Needs Society, of which I am honorary secretary, organised a trip to Crab Island. We met in front of the jetty at noon, when the sun was highest in the sky, and waited for the ferry.
It wasn't long before the ferry came. I watched open-mouthed as boxes upon boxes of goods and a coffin came off the boat. We all rushed to board as soon as we were allowed to, but because we were pushing each other, Xiao Ming, our president, nearly fell into the sea.
As soon as I stepped in the ferry, I began to feel claustrophobic. It was a low-ceilinged affair with cracked and tinted windows that were stained with seawater, such that only a hazy view of the outside world was permitted. I carefully sat myself down on one of the well-worn seats. It was lucky I did because the seat tipped gently to one side and I was just able to stop myself from falling off.
I shifted to the left and the chair steadied. It was then that I caught a whiff of stale urine, presumably coming from a toilet at the back of the boat. Mosquito fogging makes me itch all over, but the smell of urine doesn't. Therefore I forgot about it and the Hokkien karaoke playing at the front of the boat soon had all my attention.
It was karaoke such as I had never seen before. All the songs featured two lovely ladies, one young lady and one motherly figure. The young lady was supposed to be a young man, while the motherly figure was supposed to be a coy young woman. The motherly figure rather overdid her part and was too coy for her age though. It made me shudder.
I turned away and looked out of the murky windows. To my surprise, acres and acres of mangrove swamp was rushing past. I had always pictured Crab Island as a picturesque island shaped like a crab in the middle of a sapphire blue sea. I never realised that it was actually mangrove area. Nevertheless, mangrove is quite pretty when you come to look at it.
Just as I was thinking poetic thoughts about the scenery outwith, I was startled by a jolt that almost made me fall off the chair again. I looked behind. That stupid Xiao Ming was kicking my chair. I slapped him on the head and shouted at him. It's what we always do during Society meetings. Xiao Ming blinked at me though inch-thick horn-rimmed glasses and guffawed in a retarded manner. I joined in and promptly fell off the broken chair.
A minute later, we arrived at our destination and pushed our way off the boat. All in all it had been an excellent experience. We all felt that the 7 dollar one-way boat fare had been well worth it.
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