Saya dah tinggal di Langkawi ni selama 18 tahun. Lama tu. Dah sebati dengan kehidupan di sini. Saya dah sayang sangat dengan tempat ni. Bila keluar ke tanah besar untuk beberapa hari tengok keadaan diluar yang sibuk dengan kenderaan bertali arus dan orang ramai dimerata tempat, saya rasa sesak nafas. Bila sampai ja balik ke Langkawi rasa semua lega sangat. Semasa feri hampir sampai ke pulau ni, kita boleh nampak dah pulau-pulau di sekeliling dan suasana hijau disekeliling. Indahnya pulau ni.
Kenapa saya bercakap tentang pulau ni? Tak tahulah. Mungkin sebab dah terlalu lama disini iaitu dari pertengahan tahun 1990-an dan anak-anak masih terlalu kecil lagi waktu itu.Mungkin ini adalah masa untuk saya berpindah keluar dan menghabiskan sisa-sisa hidup di luar sana.
Waktu itu Langkawi terlalu sunyi walaupun kedua-dua anak lelaki ada bersama. Dibanding dengan Pulau Pinang yang riuh dan sibuk, Langkawi terlalu jaug bezanya. Saya menangis dan berharap suami akan berpindah balik ke Pulau Pinang. Tapi, tu lah sampai sekarang masih di sini.
Untuk menghilangkan rasa sunyi, saya mula mencari kerja dan bernasib baik apabila ditawarkan bekerja dengan syarikat pelancongan Jepun. Bila dah kerja tu, masaalah pulak siapa nak jaga anak. Akhirnya dapat jugak satu family kat seberang jalan tu yang sudi menjaga mereka. Barulah lega dan saya pun baru dapat adjust dengan kehidupan di sini.
Sekiranya kami betul betul berpindah keluar dari sini, saya pasti kami tak akan terlibat lagi dalam pelancongan. Rasanya sepanjang hayat bekerja saya ni, semuanya dalam bidang servis pelancongan. Sampaikan bila bertemu atau bercakap dengan pelancong secara automatik kami tahu apa yang patut dilakukan.
Kita kat Malaysia ni tak ada 4 musim jadi musim kita hanya hujan dan panas sajalah. Sebab tu, kat sini sekarang dah ramai betul mat salleh yang ada boat-boat besar dan yacht suka tinggal disini. Setengah tu siap jual rumah di negara depa dan beli rumah disini. Cantik-cantik pulak tu.
Saya suka dengan sikap dia orang. Kebanyakkan daripada dia orang ni dah berumur 50 tahun keatas, jadi tak banyak commitment dah dalam kehidupan depa. Jadi masa yang banyak terluang tu dia orang guna untuk buat kerja sukarela kat pulau ni. Tak kiralah apa jenis kerja sukarela. Semua dia orang ambik bahagian. Kalau hotel buat walkathon untuk mengumpul derma membantu satu famili yang daif kat sini, depa ikut, kalau hospital bagi talk tentang sakit barah, depa turut terlibat, kalau tentang pencemaran alam pun depa ikut buat.
Kalau kita memang tak ada hari nak buat macam tu kecuali di arah. Lain sungguh cara hidup depa dengan kita.
Kat pulau ni jugak dah ramai mat-mat salleh yang jadikan pulau ni tempat cari makan depa. Ramai yang bukak restaurant tak kiralah jenis restaurant apa. Ada dari Jepun, Arab, India, apatah lagi mat salleh. Ada satu hari tu, suami saya tanya kat sorang mat salleh ni kenapa dia pilih Langkawi. Jawab mat salleh tu, awak cari bagi saya satu pulau yang cantik, selamat, damai dan penduduknya yang ramah, saya akan pindah ke situ. Betul jugak kata dia, jarang kita dengar kejadian bunuh ke, rompak ke, ragut ke atau apapun bentuk jenayah kat pulau ni. Sehinggakan saya selalu biarkan enjin kereta hidup apabila masuk kedalam kedai untuk membeli barang-barang keperluan.
Semua pun tahu kan pulau ni bebas cukai. Chocolat, rokok, minuman keras semuanya pada harga yang murah. Tapi yang paling best harga kereta. Bukan calang-calang kereta pulak tu. Saya selalu ambil Sara balik sekolah dengan wira antik saya tu. Mak bapa yang lain tu, mak ai.. kereta mewah-mewah. Kadang-kadang terasa jugak segan nya bila berbaris disebelah Audi, BMW, Mercedes, jadi esoknya tu saya park jauh sikit dari tempat biasa. Dengan harapan orang tak perasan keantikan kereta saya.
Tapi saya rasa, masaalah terbesar saya sekiranya berpindah keluar ialah..ikan. Jangan gelak. Saya ni sangat suka ikan. Lauk untuk makan tengahari saya wajib ada ikan. Kalau tak ada macam tak sah set tengahari tu. Jadi saya pun berfikir, kalau nak pindah nanti, saya harus cari tempat yang dekat dengan laut dan pantai, baru boleh dapat ikan segar macam kat market di Langkawi ni. Mungkin bagi orang lain benda ni remeh ja tapi bagi saya agak penting.
Cara terbaik adalah tunggu dan lihat. Perkara begini susah nak dirancang dari awal.
Okay lah, rasanya sampai disinilah dulu kot untuk blog terkini saya. Tulis panjang-panjang sangat nanti orang baca separuh jalan je. Buat penat menulis ja kan?
Salam dari saya buat semua.
Rose 22nd.Oct '12
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Hello everyone!
Langkawi,my island..no, not really my island but an island I've lived in and learn to love for almost 18 years now. I called it my island coz that's how I feel . This legendary island is breathtakingly beautiful that you can see its beauty even before you land down from your flight. The blue green color of the ocean and the green backdrops of the mountain have made this place a heaven on earth. I sounded poetic. Don't take my word for it. Any one of you should come out here and see it for yourself.
This picture was taken at about 18:30hrs a few days ago. See what I mean. It
was relatively quiet for a week day. We are about 60% free from the fume pollution.
Why am I talking about this island all of a sudden?I don't know. Maybe we had been living here since the children were still babies and I am feeling nostalgic because maybe, maybe its time to move on. I remembered the time when we moved down here in mid nineties. Everything was so backward and quiet and a big contrast to Penang which is vibrant and lively. Even with the two boys with me, I still feel alone. No friends, no car to move around and nowhere to go. All that the island has to offer was the beach and the rice field at every turn you made. I cried for some time hoping that my husband would change his mind and move back to Penang. But it was not to happen.
If we were to move out of this island, I am certain that we will not be involve in service industry anymore. We had been too long in this industry that sometimes I think our lives revolve around tourists only. We automatically know how to react or behave when talking to them. It's in the blood.
Oh, I wanna share one funny story some time ago when I was confronted by an angry Briton.
He was supposed to go on a short trip with us but he had given his name to another agency. He must have forgotten which agency he'd booked with and assumed we were the one.
At about 10 something am, I saw one middle aged guy walked through the hotel lobby and came to my office. The first thing he said, "I assume I am in the right office as I saw your company's name written outside." I can see the outrage on his face so I softly greeted him and offer him a seat. He refused to seat and I can see trouble coming. He asked me why didn't we pick him up for the half day tour. I asked for his name. He said slowly Mr Mycock and he looked directly at me as if waiting to see my reaction, I think. But I didn't realise the strange name he had then. I asked again for the spelling and he spelled it out for me. Then and only then the name hit me. But the spelling of his name was in one word as in Mycock. It wasn't spelled My Cock. I looked down and wrote religiously on my log book without lifting my head for a few seconds afraid that he might see that I am suppressing the laughter which could erupt any time. I don't know how I contained myself from laughing out loud. I managed to put on the poker face and explained to him that we didn't have his name in our list. Later on he realised that he mistook us with another company. He apologised and walked out. The moment he left, I laughed so hard that everyone around was wondering what was going on with me. I laughed not entirely on his name alone but also the way he came charging in like he was ready for a fight. That was truly hilarious.
There was another incident. My office was located inside the building of this 5 star beach resort. One day, about four or five Australian girls walked into my office in bikinis and parios but shoe-less. I joked at one of them," Whatever happen to your shoes"? All four or five of them turned to look at me alarmed.Then one of them apologetically looked at me and mumbled a soft sorry saying she didn't know that they had to dress well before coming into the office. Silly me! They thought I meant they had to dress well since it's a five star hotel before they can enter any offices or outlets. I laughed and said I was only kidding! Poor thing.
Oh, how I would miss all these should we chose to take a different path.
This island is usually warm all year round except for Aug, September & October and some light rain during April & May. But then again the weather is always unpredictable, just like us, human. Since the weather is most of the time hot and sunny, we see many Europeans or those from the Western countries live here in their yacht. Some of them had even bought houses here. I've been to this one English lady's home and it was beautiful. There's one thing I admire about these Westerners. They keep themselves busy by doing volunteering work such as raising money for the unfortunate, keep the island clean and and many other things. They will work alongside any hotels that is funding or raising money for some organizations. We, the locals as usual don't give much thought about this kind of thing.
They love this island just like we do. We met one Australian mariner and ask him why did he choose Langkawi as a stop. His answer was if you can find me another island as beautiful and safe and quiet with people smiling all the time, tell me, then I'll move to that place. Which is true, this island is low in crime rate. If you move around the island and look closely, you can see many restaurants were own by Japanese, Indian, Arabs, British, Scottish/Irish and many more. Many islanders ended up marrying some of these westerners.
You know, this island is a duty free island. Items such as chocolates, cigarettes, liquors and a few other things are way cheaper than in mainland. The best of all is we get to buy luxury car/cars at a steal price. Young boys at the tender age of twenty three or so can afford or can be seen driving a Chevrolet Cruze or a guy at the airport counter is renting his Toyota Alphard for a minimal charge that is arguably the lowest in the country.
Every day except Fridays and Saturdays I will have to fetch Sara from school. While there, waiting inside my car, I can see lines and lines of gleaming luxury cars parked next to my good old Wira, being drove by parents to fetch their children. There were Jaguars, Beamers, Audi and most common are Mercedes. No no no..these cars don't belong to the wealthiest. They are ordinary people like me but like I said earlier since cars are way cheaper here than on mainland, almost everybody owns a car one way or the other.
If we were to move out from this island, we will have to pay the tax difference before we can transport out the vehicles that was bought here. That will be one headache.
Another headache is, where would be the best location? Me? I am a fish person. Don't laugh, this is serious. My daily diet, I must have at least one dish made of fish. Thus, I would very much love to find a place close to the ocean (again?) not because of swimming or sun bathing but because I need fresh fish for my meals everyday. You may be thinking, what a shame. She doesn't swim? Well, I can't imagine me sunbathing. Under that boiling sun? As it is, you won't be able to see me in a dark place and now I am to sit under the sun to get a tan? Thanks but no thanks. I'll stick to my present skin tone.
I better stop now before you guys get bored reading this unending blog.
Ciao for now. Until next time. Have a nice day!
Rose
22nd.Oct '12
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