It's confirmed. I'll be going back to Sabah tomorrow evening with my mother. The tickets cost my dad a bomb. RM1240. Whew...
The reason the tickets are so expensive (even though it's Air Asia) is my father only booked the tickets today. He couldn't do the bookings earlier because he wasn't sure when I'm able to finalise the process of my visa application. My medical report was completed yesterday. So we went to K.L. today to submit the forms. Thus, I'm able to go back Sabah tomorrow.
So by the time you're reading this I'll be in East Malaysia. The flight leaves tomorrow at 3:15pm for Kota Kinabalu, and I'll be returning to the Peninsular on the 19th at 8:00pm. It's been a while since I saw my hometown (or rather my mother's hometown, my birthplace), and there's a lot of people I need to visit/get acquainted/get to know. (I have a really big extended family there. There are bound to be relatives that I don't know even though I'm related to them.)
I do hope that more people here from the West will go and visit Sabah or Sarawak, and you'll see that those states are really not far behind. Kadazan people don't live on trees anymore and the Ibans don't hunt for a living. They hunt for sport. You'll see shopping complexes, skyscrapers, and races that you won't be able to differentiate. (Kadazans are mistaken for Chinese, Muruts are mistaken for Malay, Bajaus are mistake for Nyonya-Baba...) Of course, there are countrysides and cowboy towns and forests and jungles and mountains and rivers and big sandy beaches.... It's not fair to potray Sabah and Sarawak as places without civilization where people are still living like barbarians. Since all of us are Malaysians, why not take an effort to know bout other states and races?
Folks here in the Peninsular always mistaken my mother for a Chinese because most laymen don't expect to see Kadazans here. For example...
Coffeeshop boss: (calculating cost of food on the table) Wu kuai qian!! (five ringgit)
Mom: Saya bukan Cina la.. saya tak faham.. berapa ar?
Coffeeshop boss: HAR? Lu bukan Cina ar? Lu Melayu? Ini lu tak boleh makan o.. tak halal la..
Mom: Saya bukan Melayu juga...
Coffeeshop boss: Lu orang apa??
Mom: Orang Sabah..
Coffeeshop boss: SABAH???
Mom: Ya..Sabah..
Coffeeshop boss: (Scratches head...)
You'd expect my mother to at least understand a little bit of the Chinese language, considering that she's married to a Chinaman for 20 years now and has been teaching in a Chinese-based school for the past 5 years. The only chinese words she know are 'chi fan' (eat), 'shui jiao' (sleep) and all the vulgar vocabs (so that she can fire back at the students if they attempt to use such language on her.)
The main reason we're going back is because my grandma is sick. So do pray for her and hope that she'll get better and have many many many more healthy years.
