Saturday, April 07, 2007

A trip down memory lane

Fourth post.

Made a trip to Malaysia today, to visit Dad's hometown in Kluang and also pay respects to my deceased real grandparents since it's Qing Ming.

It's been a really really long time since I last went to Kluang; I think the last time was for the funeral of my real paternal grandfather. Why "real"? My father, as the story goes, was fostered to my grandfather's friend in Singapore when he was little, because his real mother was like kind of ill and had some difficulty looking after him along with his 3 elder brothers and 2 elder sisters. The whole story is kind of complex, but I'll simplify it like that. It's a bit like a cliche soap drama story, and you wouldn't be surprised if I told you his foster mother didn't like him very much and made him do all the housework and sleep in the kitchen. That's why we aren't very close to my Singapore grandmother, and in fact I don't really like her, but that's a long story for which now is not the time and place.

Anyway Kluang is kind of like a small town in Johore, a 2 hour bus ride from Johor Bahru, so we had to wake up extra early to make the trip to JB and then transfer to another bus to take us to Kluang. I like long bus rides because I can read uninterrupted haha. By the time we got to Kluang it was about 11 a.m. and we shopped around a bit and had lunch, then Dad called Third Aunt because we were a bit lost (my dad hasn't been there in many years also, and the place has changed a bit) and so Fifth Uncle came to drive us to his house. Anyway won't bore you with the details, but we also went to my grandparents' grave to 扫墓. It was kind of nice meeting my uncles and aunts again, and also finding out more about the extended family in Malaysia haha. When I saw them last it was 2 years ago in JB when First Aunt's daughter was getting married, and I can never remember their faces and what to call them. -__-;

We returned to JB just in time for dinner at the roadside stalls behind City Square - lots of yummy food. First Aunt lives in JB so we looked for her at the electronics shop she runs, then walked around City Square a bit before it closed (I went to buy a pirated computer game, but it didn't work on my comp. Cheat my 15 ringgit). At the end of the day it was back to Singapore, quite exhausted but having quite enjoyed myself even though we didn't shop a lot. I think that as I get older I start to think more about such things as my roots, and the cultural practices that my parents and their parents before them practice, because sometimes I get worried that these forms of knowledge may be lost in the modern world of today, as the younger generation see them as archaic superstitions and outdated beliefs that have no place in today's world. It's a bit strange, but the thought of knowledge being lost like this, though it's an inevitable process that has occured throughout the ages, pains me somewhat.

Avaris / 4/07/2007 11:42:00 PM

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