Monday, December 24, 2007

My Aunt

Her name is Minna, she used to travel with her friends to Kuching in 1960, At that time, they cannot afford a flight, nor there is any airport or plane nearby. In fact they don't even have proper documents to enter Malaysia. They just know from people in town that in the deep village in Tebas, an old guy does transport
people to Kuching using self built wooden boat. They contacted this guy and set to leave for Kuching several days
later. They leave at night and they went thru the dark ocean of storms and rains. The boat's motor went down halfway and they had to stop in a nearby island. They were not scared at all, nor her friend.my aunt is probably 17 at that time. There were hardly anyone living in that island, they were lucky a local offered them boarding and stayed there for almost 5 days until the boat got to work again. I was told afte the boat finally worked again, it went down again before they were about to reach the jetty in Kuching. They arrived in Kuching before dawn, before anyone can find out. The boat guys contact in Kuching housed them that morning and did necessary contact for them and bring them to see my aunts relative in Kuching. As a boy I saw some of her pictures taken
in Kuching. I didn't know she has to go through so much adventures just for sightseeing in Kuching. But that was her, she loved traveling and has probably travelled a lot of cities in Asia. She came to visit me last month here in Tokyo and we had a good time. That's how she got time to tell me her stories. I wish I had more time to be with my relatives. Listening to their legends has really become my cup of tea.

ax