langkau fiction

My cousin, Karen, came out of the airport entrance with a grin. A white guy was closely tailing her, walking like he would lose his way in Miri airport if he walked slower by two paces. I was waiting in the car. Oh, Asparagus was also in the car. We arrived in Miri the evening before, hitching a ride on Charlie Charles’ local-made Porche.

I asked Asparagus about Karen’s companion: “I thought you said the guy coming with Karen was a Gulfman?” He looked at me in equal puzzlement and said he thought so too. “So, who’s that?” as I pointed at the guy behind Karen. Asparagus shrugged, “Don’t know, man.”

Ok, so both of us  didn’t know who this guy was. We were about to discuss this mystery man at another pseudo-philosophical level but was cut short because Karen was already at the car’s backdoor, with a grin and announced loudly “Hey, guys! You have the same t-shirt color! How cuutttee!” Great.

Karen introduced her companion as Gustavo, from the U.S. and A. and he will be joining us on this three-day-Ba Kelalan-Bario-via-Kalimantan hike. They hopped into the car and Gustavo immediately commented on the need for another one-month immigration pass upon arrival at Miri airport, even though he’s already got a three-month visitor’s pass when he got into Kay El a month ago. Why is that, he asked. “Welcome to Sarawak, man,” I told him. This was Gustavo’s first visit to Sarawak. I told him not to worry because Miri isn’t that much different from Kay El. We have pubs with cheap beers and contraband liquors. Y’see, better than Kay El, right? Unsure with what I had just informed him, he just went “Oh…really, huh?” Yes, very the really lah, man!

As I was about to drive out of the airport, Karen leaned over to the back of my seat and asked me in Malay if we can stop at a travel agent. I thought to myself “Why does she speak Malay to me? In a funny accent some more…” Maybe she didn’t want Gustavo to know what she was going to tell me? We’re of the same species, a product of mix marriage but she spoke to me neither in her mom’s nor dad’s language, of which both languages I speak. Only later that she told me she was not fluent in her mother tongue lah. Or father’s tongue. She could always speak in tongue. Or Hebrew, or Sanskrit or something.

Anyways, I asked her “Why?” in a proper 18th-century English did she want to go to a travel agent. She continued to reply in the accented Malay that she hasn’t booked Gustavo’s flight to Lawas with us on that same afternoon. “Oh, oh…” I said. For your information, flights to places like Lawas, Bario or Ba Kelalan must be booked months in advance because December is a month when most Lun Bawang and Kelabit urbanites return to their kampung. Don’t expect to find a seat few days before Christmas. There’s a big chance that there won’t be any left.

As expected, the flights to Lawas on that day was full. No seats. I told Karen, again in my 18th-century English accent, that we should try the bus station and see if the buses do go from Miri to Lawas. Apparently, there are two bus companies – Biaramas Bus Asia and Bintang Jaya – that take passengers from Miri to KK via Brunei, and it stops in Lawas.

However, on that day one of the companies won’t leave for Lawas and KK until December 18th. The other bus company would only take as far as Limbang and then, you’re on your own to Lawas, mate! As if been struck by a hammer in the head, Karen told me with much neuron-induced enthusiasm that she’s willing to give Gustavo her flight ticket and that she’ll take the bus! Are you crazy, I asked her. “Hey, I’ve always wanted to do this! And to take a bike from Limbang to Lawas would be great!” She had that huge grin on her face.

I told her we should think about this whole spontaneous reshuffling of plan. Things could just go wrong. First, I don’t have problems with an adjusted schedule. I can do this walk any time. But Karen and Gustavo needed to be in Bario at the latest on December 21st to be able to catch the next day’s flight back to Miri and then, Kay El. The initial plan was to be in Lawas by Dec 16th, on the road to Ba Kelalan on Dec 17th, walk for two nights to Bario from Ba Kelalan starting on December 18th. So, we expect to arrive in Bario on the afternoon of December 20th. Second, I don’t think her flight ticket was transferable especially taking into account of the long line of passengers on the waiting list. Third, you need to pass through Brunei – twice! – in order to get to Lawas. Did she bring her passport with her? Nope. So, there you go.

Then, okay lah. Scrapped that bus plan and motorbike ride. We all hopped into the car and I told her that we should just go to the airport and register poor Gustavo on the waiting list in the hope that he’ll catch the next flight to Lawas from Miri on the same day. Our own flight to Lawas on that day was on the last flight at around 4.50pm. I left Karen and Gustavo at the airport as I had to meet up with the last member of this hike, my old buddy, Lippy a.k.a. Khoondiliamurutusamy.

Lippy and I went for lunch, and discussed the trip. He has not met my cousin, Karen, or Gustavo before. So, I had to brief him on the current situation. Like them, he also has to keep up to our planned schedule. “What’s the hurry anyways?” I asked him, since he lives in Miri and that he could return anytime by air or road. Then, he had to conjure up all kinds of work-related excuses such as the need to count dead leaves in the jungle where he works and see whether the forest floor actually has the ability to perspire. Or something along that line lah.

While we were discussing our plans and all, I received a call from Karen. “Guess what?” she asked, in her usual happy-go-lucky tone. In my mind, I could only imagine Gustavo actually has a special commercial pilot license and that MASWings was more than happy to let him fly the 19-seater Twin Otter to Lawas on that day, since the scheduled pilot was ill and about to die. But nope, it didn’t turn out that way. “Er…what?” I asked Karen. “Gustavo’s got the seat! He caught the flight to Lawas two hours earlier than ours!” as she sent that deafening piece of exciting news through our mobile phones. “That’s great, then!” I told her. The plan was for Gustavo to hop on that flight and wait for our arrival at Lawas airport a couple of hours later. Great.

At the Miri airport departure lounge…Lippy just have to have this bag

Lippy and I went back to our respective houses and packed our stuff. Then, we went to Miri airport and met up with Karen who had her usual doses of smiles. Lippy and Karen were introduced to each other, and we were all ready. We got into the departure hall and enthusiastically waited to board the plane. In my mind, I keep telling myself “Please, no more hiccups. We’re gonna make it! We’re gonna make it!”

The flight was right on schedule. One of the pilots was my cousin. As we flew passing Brunei, it rained. Heavily. The small 19-seater started to jiggle a bit. If you’re not used to flying on a DHC-6 Twin Otter, it’d probably scare the Freddy Kruger out of you. The airplane even had a screen wiper! A wiper, man! To wipe off the rain from the ‘windscreen’. The clouds around us became dark and we hit a couple of air pockets. The Otter had to go to higher elevation to escape the dark clouds and rain. I couldn’t see anything below. I looked around me, everyone was quiet and some just stared into nothingness. Then, it also rained at that height. The pilot announced the situation to us, that the plane had to turn back to Miri and cancel the trip to Lawas due to bad weather.

Within 15 minutes, we landed at Miri airport. That was December 16th. Gustavo was waiting in Lawas. Irony? Perhaps.