Report from Malaysia: From Kuala Lumpur to Surabaya

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts from Western Herald writers in Malaysia. Check this space every week for posts from Ranchithaa Anatory and Daing S. Nasir on their summer back home.

In this post, Daing S. Nasir visits Indonesia weeks after two suicide bombs exploded at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Jakarta. For more information on the bombings, check out this link from Al Jazeera English.

Map courtesy CIA Factbook, Illustration Western Herald

This week I would like to share an experience with you that came at a time when my worlds were at a crossing. Two weeks ago, two simultaneous bombings in Jakarta shocked the Indonesian people.

With just six weeks from the fall semester, I agreed to accompany my mother to a meeting in the East Java province of Indonesia in the city of Surabaya. Little did I know when I agreed to accompany my mother, that we would have to be careful of bombings and the possible comeback of terrorism. Since Surabaya is 16 hours away by car from the capital Jakarta, I figured that things would be fine as long as we didn’t go to crowded places or tourist attractions.

Being a Malaysian, it is always a privilege to visit Indonesia, much in the same way an American would go to Mexico. Being a land that was colonized by the Dutch for 350 years, the people here have never failed to show me the many simplicities of life that the dollar– or any currency for that matter– cannot provide.

An archipelago of islands, Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country, with Christian, Hindu and Buddhist followers. For the “surfer dudes” out there, if you think that Waikiki or South Beach has it all for you wait until you experience the waves of Bali.

The tropical island that is home to surfers from around the world, the Beaches of Kuta and Denpasar have been the ultimate exotic getaway for those that seek the ultimate oceanic surfing experience. Most surfers hail from nearby Australia and New Zealand.

As I walk around and take notes of the city, it suddenly hits me that I was just in New York City a few weeks earlier and now I am here, in Surabaya – an hour behind Malaysia and 13 hours behind U.S. Eastern Time.

The simple laugh of a man on his trishaw made me think how complex our lives actually are. Here a man who is working everyday for what is barely $5 a day can still break a laugh and here I am, with my iPod, worried about the latest tunes that I fear I did not download properly.

With beautiful architecture around the city and influences from Islamic and Hindu art, Surabaya is indeed an undiscovered treasure of Southeast Asia. A country that has faced poverty for a while hit me this time around with people trying to entertain taxis in a traffic jam for whatever change they might have.

I was now determined.

With all the many hardships that I have seen on this trip, I was sure that when I was to board my flight back home to Kuala Lumpur with nothing in my wallet except for my ID and my Nation City debit card. All my Ringgit Malaysia, Rupiah and U.S. Dollars would have to go. In some way or another, they had to go somewhere where they were really needed and not spent on some random and unnecessary item or on calories that I don’t really need right now.

Experiences like these humble me in so many ways that it strips me down to my core values on evaluating the true necessities of life and what we strive for each day.

I ask myself: what if I were to die tomorrow? Would it all be worth it? What have I done that has benefited the community? My religion or even my country? What have I done in this life of mine that has helped another person’s life and put a smile to their face?

Conflicts that I have never thought I would ever encounter dawned upon me that day and gave me a reality check for my “to-do list.”

Cross it all out and create “my to-do for others” list!

Daing S. Nasir, a senior, studies organizational communication and psychology at Western Michigan University.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=7013

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Aug 5 2009. Filed under Blogs, Breaking, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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