One up for pessimists

My wife is an incredible optimist and I am just the opposite. My elder daughter, Cheng, takes after her in this respect. I have had given in to them on many occasions just so that she could enjoy life to the fullest.

I remembered how I delayed making a decision on whether Cheng should go to Japan for one year under the Rotary International Students Exchange Programme, by leaving it to the panel of selectors. Her notable feat in Japan was to skip levels 4 and 3 and went straight into taking and passing level 2 in Japanese, against the advice of her teacher!

After her first year in the university in UK, she went to Mexico for 3 months, with permission to skip Elementary level and managed to pass her Intermediate level Spanish on her return.

Imagine my fears about her 18-hour bus ride, an illegal cross the border to Guatemala and had a dip in a pond and stories about the general lawlessness in Mexico and images of Clint Eastwood’s earlier western films.

Last summer she attended a 2-week course on Politics, organized by the Consortium for Political Research European Summer University at Grenoble, France, as well as work in a farm run by grass-smoking remnants of the hippies. After that she crossed 5 borders to meet her boyfriend in Bosnia. She had great difficulties with some immigration officials at certain borders, especially those who have never seen a Malaysian passport before.

Her recent holiday back in Malaysia was timed to coincide with her cousin’s wedding. I had my worries when she went to Langkawi with her sister and 2 cousins and a friend. All 5 of them are girls and I had to pretend that I was alright with it. Only after their return was I told that the ferry which they were on, crashed against the pier which did not have the usual old tyres to cushion the effect, and some of those sitting in the first two rows of seats were injured by the broken pieces of glass from the damaged windows.

Even the start of the journey was fraught with anxieties. The tickets showed coach supposed to leave station in Ipoh at 3 am. We actually left our house just past 1 am and picked her cousin in Ipoh en route to the station. We had some drinks while waiting. When we checked at the counter, we were told that there was an accident involving a truck at Slim River and that there will be a long delay due to the obstruction.

Just before 5 am, we were told by a man in charge that they had to take a bus to Butterworth and then catch another bus to Kuala Perlis. Fortunately, just minutes later, the counter clerk who went with that man to the main road, came back frantically, telling them to quickly board the coach. It seems the new driver did not know how to enter the station. Anyway, it was a good though anxious start. Most obvious was my daughter’s friend, Ooi, who was earlier full of enthusiasm and chatting merrily, went sullen and quiet when told of the long delay and possible cancellation of the trip.

The evening of the 10th January, we had our home-cooked dinner and the two girls did their last-minute serious packing. It was more like last hours of packing as we did not leave the house until after 11.30 pm! My wife intended to take a bus the next day to join us on our trip to KLIA. But she was persuaded by my younger daughter, Nee, to come along. So with 6 of us (including a cousin, Diane) and a boot full of luggage, we left for KL. I looked at the rear-view mirror and it was an endearing sight to see Nee cuddled by her mum like a baby, both of them dozing.

After entering NSE at Gopeng, we went past the scene of previous landslides near Gua Tempurung. We traveled some 13 kilometres and I remembered distinctly a Toyota Estima which flashed its headlights and went past in a whisk. Soon after, I heard coarse grinding noise from the car and thought it was the engine. I quickly turned the car to the emergency lane and switched on the hazard lights. I told my son to check the tyres and what I dreaded came true: tyre puncture late at night, on the NSE where there were no street lights. In a way we were fortunate that the road was sloping upwards but now and again we could see cars and trucks zooming past. Unpleasant thoughts of those fatal accidents which we used to read in the papers and seen on television, crossed my mind.

While my wife and son started walking along the road looking for Plus’s emergency phone, I remembered that our ticket carries a toll-free number and with luck, my handphone showed strong signals. I quickly called and a man answered asking which particular spot we were at, which was 310.6. I asked how soon can we expect the Ronda truck and was told within half an hour. It was after 40 minutes of waiting in the dark that we saw the welcome sight of a truck with flashing beacons but on the other side of the highway!

One of the 2 men immediately said that it was a dangerous spot and I could not agree more. So with safety in mind, one of them used his red-coloured luminous baton to wave at passing vehicles to take note of the stalled vehicle. The other man initially used a portable 2-ton jack but realized it was too low for a 4-wheel drive vehicle. By then, we had cleared the boot of all the luggage and took out the spare wheel and my son took out the car’s jack for him. We could tell that the man was really worried about his safety while changing the tyre. In the meantime, the other man started telling me about accidents that took place nearby. There was one case of a man who did something incredibly hazardous by changing tyre at the fast lane and paid for it with his life. Then another case of four persons who got killed by a vehicle while changing a tyre. There were also cases of robbery by people who pretended to offer help. He even believed that if alone, some spirits might come out from the dark forest and create trouble.

Looking back, I was pleased that we made the right decision of waiting for help instead of doing it ourselves, as the chances of accident happening were very high indeed, knowing how our drivers behave on the road.

More important was the fact that the flight was scheduled for the following night at 11.15pm. I cannot imagine how I would have felt if we did the optimist’s way by allowing just enough time to go to KLIA direct from our hometown.

While having dinner at Lake Club hosted by my sister-in-law, who happens to be my children’s godmother, I was glad that it was Cheng who reminded me that it was time to leave. When asked why, she said after what happened last night, she wouldn’t want to risk it.

So it was the usual long goodbyes that took easily 5 minutes before we rushed to the carpark and headed for KLIA. We left behind the two couples from UK, a brother-in-law and family from Australia, hostess and sister, my son and his cousins to continue with dinner and chat.

There were signs showing KLIA via Seremban highway but I took the route I was familiar with, ie. via Jalan Duta! Main reason was I knew my way, instead of looking for signs while driving to get out of KL, and also the thought of traffic jams near Midvalley.