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I've seen the city, I took the next flight for Borneo.
Georgina is back in town after 2 exciting weeks in Miri, Borneo
"I was quite depressed this morning before I left. I was already feeling homesick. I've been having many mixed feelings because even though I am going to be staying with a close friend like Kim, I do not know what to expect from Miri. I've never been there before, or heard much about it. The main reason why I chose to go was so I could find some inspiration again. Experience is inspiration. Doing things and getting out."
That was an extract from my journal entry dated 28th January 2004, the day I had left for my holiday. And let me tell you, it gave me so much more than I would have ever had anticipated I do not know where to start. Stephen R. Covey suggests starting with the end in mind and so I will.
I look back at Miri everyday not so much the place, but the experience, the people I have met, friends I have made, life lessons that I've learnt. Before I went, I was off a on a real strange dream world led by my infatuation with art and Bowie (and all that other stuff I was into at the time) that I forgot about a lot of things such as the life I was supposed to be living and the people around me. Before this trip, I wished I was with different people, living a different life and that that dream life and dream people were somehow all located in New York City. After reading many books on art, music and culture, as well as having many friends there, I was really in a New York state of mind. It’s like everything I ever wanted was there. And because of that, I forgot that the world does not revolve around New York.
Miri, going to a place so small and original – that’s right, original, and so seemingly cut off from the rest of the world forced me to snap out of the life I was imagining and don’t have. In Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, big cities, I felt they all just wanted to be mini New Yorks with the shopping, city lights, tallest building competitions, mass media, materialistic people. And I guess that’s partly why I wanted to be in New York so much because I felt I was living in some imitation city that just wasn’t good enough. In Miri, it was different. It’s not an imitation and I really felt that strong sense of closeness and patriarchy in the people. That was certainly a fresh breath of air.
I've seen the city
I took the next flight
For Borneo
They say it's pretty
I like the tee shirts
In Borneo
Some wear Bob Marley
Others in Playboy
Or Duvalier
Make the last plane come
Let me rise through the cloudy above
With a book on Borneo
Strangers come and go
It's such a waste of time
Problems far behind
Another day
But even in springtime
It's a rich slice of life
So send me a letter
I'll reply with a broken spear
That dusky mulatto
In nylons and tattoos
Hot juice in coke bottles
We dance in the sand
Well, they twirl and they tumble
Yes, they twirl and they tumble
Well, I'll twirl and I'll tumble
I've been to Leon's
He's got nine daughters
And a stereo
They say that Leon
Watches from the tree tops
In Borneo
When the road is mud
Everything stops with a thud
That's the way it goes down
yonder in Borneo
Far beneath his mansion
There's an open drain
Sending all the sewage down the hill
But when the general shows movies
No one hesitates
To sneak from the jungle
They laugh and they mumble
Enjoying the show
And that dusky mulatto
Hot juice in coke bottles
In Blue Jeans and tattoos
Well, they twirl and they tumble
Yes, they twirl and they tumble
Well, I'll twirl and I'll tumble
I like the free world
They say it's pretty
This time of year
They tumble and twirl [x2]
I'll tumble and twirl
They twirl and they tumble [x2]
I like the free world [x2]
They say it's pretty
This time of year [x2]
- “Tumble and Twirl” by David Bowie
It didn’t stop me, though, from asking myself why people still wanted to live there, in such a small place, alienated, as though it was on a different planet altogether. I asked why they don’t have an urge like me to go out and see the world and that there are better places than this. Why don’t they have this sense of longing that the life they were living was simply not good enough, when I did and lived in a much bigger city like Melbourne?
From what I saw – these people were quite happy being where they are. And some of them would grow old and die doing the same thing everyday – whether it’d be running a hawker stall, being a household maid, selling fresh meat in the market or simply a housewife looking after her children – believing that that’s what’s right for them. I want to find that harmony and peace of mind. It’s not giving up on anything else and living a life you are forced to live in – it’s that contentment of knowing what you’re doing is right for you.
Or maybe this is all bullshit. I saw a lot of poverty and many of these people wouldn’t have the means to go other places. So maybe they are forced to live that way but from what I can tell, they don’t give up. I remember driving past some slums and I managed to catch a glimpse of the people living there. Their smiling faces and the way they continue to go about their own thing tell me that that is all they ever want. It places this heavy guilt on me. How could I have ever questioned the life I have? I am given the world of opportunities. I can do anything I want. I have education. I have the means that all those poor sods dream of. It was the biggest lesson I learnt during my trip – to make the most of what I have, not what I don’t have. These people may not have much in terms of opportunities, money – but they’ve taken their life by the neck and said “this is what I’ve got and I’ll see all its potentials.” Rather than siting around moping wondering why they aren’t rich or born in a rich family – which was how I felt before - moping around about my education and how I wanted to give it all up for art, which I don’t even have quite the talent for. What nonsense.
In the event that this fantastic voyage
Should turn to erosion and we never get old
Remember it's true, dignity is valuable
But our lives are valuable too
We're learning to live with somebody's depression
And I don't want to live with somebody's depression
We'll get by, I suppose
It's a very modern world, but nobody's perfect
It's a moving world, but that's no reason
Shoot some of those missiles
Think of us as fatherless scum
It won't be forgotten
'Cause we'll never say anything nice again, will we?
And the wrong words make you listen
In this criminal world
Remember it's true, loyalty is valuable
But our lives are valuable too
We're learning to live with somebody's depression
And I don't want to live with somebody's depression
We'll get by I suppose
But any sudden movement I've got to write it down
They wipe out an entire race and I've got to write it
down
But I'm still getting educated but I've got to write it down
And it won't be forgotten
'Cause I'll never say anything nice again, how can I?
- “Fantastic Voyage” by David Bowie
ANYWAYS. Ok enough of the seriousness. Down to the dancing, drinking, gambling and partying! ;) Haha. But before I go on about that, let me tell you that this is the first time that I have ever experienced the Asian culture of people my age. Being an Australian born Chinese, I have been growing up in a much westernised manner. I may have Asian friends, but they too are westernised. Just when I thought I knew my own culture, it seemed not. When I was in Miri, I went out the real Asian way, partied the Asian way…
For a start there is this great down to earth feeling with the kids there. You could easily be yourself without the fear that they will judge you or goss about you behind your back. They somehow like to speak their minds and fool around a lot which is a huge ice breaker. I found there was less tension with strangers. It’s all fun before they even start to want to get to know you. And most of them speak in Hokkien – even better!
I love the idea of eating noodles at hawker stalls at 4am after a big night out. There’s always some place open for you to eat.
I love the Asian drinking games. So simple, fun and they make you drink!
I like how kids prefer to gamble at parties rather than sit around and talk and listen to music. You’d have a table of mah-jong going on, and then another table for cards, etc. I’m not much of a gambler, but it’s just as fun watching your friends at it. And most of it goes on in Hokkien. So thank god I can speak Hokkien!!!
I like the word “Chi bai.”
The music at the clubs is very crap – nothing you could groove to. Just repetitive beats most of the time. But somehow everyone manages to dance to it (if you want to call it ‘dance’…) as if it was the best thing in the world.
I like how there are no bouncers whatsoever and you get anyone coming in to join the fun. Even the old fat guy that sells pork at the market.
I like the idea of buying a whole bottle of Chivas Regal at a club and sharing it with your friends rather than buying individual drinks.
I find it so funny how all the lakia girls flock around the Caucasians at clubs.
I like the karaoke lounges where each table gets their turn to sing 2 songs. And it doesn’t matter that the whole place can hear you sing because most of the people are drunk and sing really badly. They sung mostly Chinese songs – I felt very embarrassed because the first new nights, I was the only one singing English songs. In between songs, we’d play drinking games. So by the time it’s our turn next, we’d be gradually drunker.
I like the idea of meeting up with the friends you see every night during the day to eat rojak and ice kacang.
I like the idea of meeting the same people every night. It’s such a small place so you see the same people all the time at clubs. They become so familiar to you.
I just love the nightly routine which starts at around 10.30pm of sitting outside chatting and drinking vodka ice or sing some karaoke, then go off to a club and then maybe another club and then wrap it up with some char kueh tiaw at a hawker stall.
I like joking around in Malaysian hokkien slang with others 24/7 without sounding stupid. "Aiya! Mai ah neh kwan!" "Chi bai!" "Loo mai ka wa keh see ah!".
Even though this doesn't sound too much of a surprise, I have never done all of this before. Well, not in the same manner anyway. You won't get this in Melbourne, or anywhere else in the world. And there's so much more I could talk about but I'm getting weary of the computer!
But to wrap up my holiday to Miri – it was fantastic and I wouldn’t give it away for anything else. I am so lucky to have a friend like Kim to introduce me to all these people and their way of life. I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone because I don’t have friends who grew up all their lives in a small Malaysian town full of their own unique culture. Sure I lived in KL for 6 years, but I went to a British school – my friends were all from overseas pretty much. It was just not the same.
I told my parents about my trip and Miri is a place quite similar to Kuching, where my parents grew up in. They said it sounded just like how they spent their teenage years. I am very pleased to have experienced what my parents would have done when they were my age… and I now know what it’s all about. And that's why I see Miri as such an amazing experience - I have finally come directly in touch with my own culture and no one else's.
xx Georgina
