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Sunday, January 22, 2017

Once Upon A Time In China (Part I)

I always like a relaxed conversation that starts with, "do you remember when we..." for a simple reason that by the end of the day, for all the achievements and failures that come and go, all we have are memories. I do this from time to time with my loved ones: family, friends and, of course, parents. With my parents, sometimes we do reminisce about the holiday we had in China. It was just the two of them and I, few years ago, when they were physically stronger than they are today.

When it comes to parents, I think we can all safely agree in general that they brought us up and never ask anything in return. Regardless how naughty or troublesome we were back then, it seems like bringing us up was an experience rewarding enough to them. But still, on the flip side of the coin, now that we are grown-ups, especially when some of us could have been parents ourselves by now, the question is, do we still spend enough time with our parents?

At Zhuhai train station.

To certain extent, I clearly don't (you see, that's the problems of having boys, haha). I was separated with them when I was younger, then we crossed path again few years later, and I left once I completed my degree and only managed to do a few sporadic visits throughout the years. Perhaps it was me feeling guilty subconsciously, I don't know, but that was when I decided that I would bring them for an affordable holiday. Being a son, that's the least I could do to have some quality time with them. And it had to be China, because for some strange reason that I failed to understand, they seemed to be so proud of being Chinese and surely they must have felt like going back there one day.

For that particular trip we had, we entered China from Macau. It was cold (and the worse was yet to come), especially for us who came from a tropical town situated right at the equator line. In fact, the preparation was very poor when it came to the weather as we were clearly caught by surprise. I mean, how would I know the cold air would get into the jeans and stay inside? This could be the reason why the noodles soup that we had for our first lunch tasted so delicious: it could be simply due to the fact that soup was hot enough to keep us warm under such a cold weather.

Mum and Dad at A-Ma Temple, Macau.

Macau is a small city, even smaller than Singapore, which made it easy for us to navigate around. We took the bus to go places and walked quite a bit to reach destinations such as the Ruins of St. Paul's. There was this funny moment where my Dad was genuinely surprised that he mumbled to himself about how the famous site was apparently just a wall.

Mum was more expressive. It was good to see her light up, looking very cheerful when she saw colourful flowers. She would also gleefully ask me to take pictures of her and Dad, the side of her that I never saw before until then. You see, sometimes we could have been so accustomed to the fact that the parents are Mum and Dad throughout our lives and we become oblivious to the fact that they are, too, normal human beings with feelings and emotions like us. It was really priceless and worth the while to see them enjoying the holiday.

Exploring Zhuhai. Mum surely knew where the camera was!

We went to Zhuhai on the next day, crossing the border on foot. As it was the eve of Chinese New Year, we didn't have much to do, but we did break the myth that we heard prior to the visit by witnessing the truth. Apparently shops weren't closed during Chinese New Year. Majority of them were opened and Gongbei was as busy as it got. It was there that the weather dropped even further and, much to our surprise, while the hotel looked rundown, our room actually had spare blankets. To this day, when we talk about cold weather, we would go, "do you still remember our time in Zhuhai?" Then we would laugh afterwards.

Guangzhou was our next destination. We left Zhuhai the next day, after celebrating our first day of Chinese New Year by eating a bowl of hot century eggs porridge. We took the bullet train for the first time and it was a rather amusing experience, I'd say. I was just being cheeky when I asked the station officer whether I could take the next train even though my departure time was an hour later. To my surprise, he actually took my question seriously and said yes, I could, but I might not get a seat stated on my ticket if somebody who held the ticket for that particular train showed up. To think that he actually said okay! Amusing, wasn't it? However, the departure itself was not much fun, even though it was worth remembering. Being lined up on an open platform to wait for the train under the constant cold and biting wind was very much a torture for us. We could only look at each other while trying our best to stop the teeth chattering. Luckily it didn't last long and off we went to Guangzhou...

Mum took a quick pose with the bullet train as we alighted at Guangzhou station.


Suatu Ketika Di Negeri Cina (Bagian Pertama)

Saya selalu menyukai percakapan santai yang dimulai dengan, "apakah anda masih ingat ketika kita..." karena pada akhirnya, ketika semua kesuksesan dan kegagalan berlalu, yang tersisa hanyalah kenangan. Saya kadang melihat kembali dan mengenang masa-masa ini dengan keluarga, teman dan tentu saja kedua orang tua saya. Sewaktu bersama dengan mereka, ada kalanya kita berkelakar tentang liburan kita bertiga di Cina beberapa tahun silam, saat mereka masih lebih sehat dan bugar dari hari ini. 

Berbicara tentang orang tua, saya kira kita rata-rata setuju bahwa mereka mengasuh kita dari kecil hingga dewasa tanpa meminta pamrih apa pun. Tidak peduli senakal apa pun kita dulu, sepertinya hari-hari bersama anak-anak adalah pengalaman yang berharga bagi mereka. Akan tetapi, sekarang, setelah kita sendiri dewasa dan menjadi orang tua bagi anak-anak kita, pertanyaannya adalah apakah kita masih meluangkan cukup waktu bagi orang tua kita?

Suatu hari di Macau, saat salah jalan dan arah, hehe.

Bagi saya pribadi, rasanya saya lebih cenderung sibuk sendiri. Saya berpisah dengan mereka sejak SMA dan hanya tinggal bersama lagi untuk sementara waktu setelah mereka kembali ke Pontianak bertahun-tahun kemudian. Saya lantas meninggalkan rumah begitu saya lulus kuliah dan hanya bertemu mereka dalam beberapa kunjungan singkat. Sedikit banyak mungkin saya merasa bersalah, oleh karena itu saya putuskan untuk membawa mereka liburan karena dengan demikian, saya bisa melewatkan waktu bersama mereka. Tempat tujuan kita adalah Cina karena sebagai orang Tionghoa, di hati mereka senantiasa ada keinginan untuk melihat seperti apa negeri Cina sesungguhnya. 

Rute perjalanan kita ke Cina dimulai dari Macau, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen dan akhirnya pulang melalui Hong Kong. Cuaca di bulan Januari 2012 terasa dingin (dan akan semakin menggigit nantinya), terutama bagi kita yang berasal dari daerah tropis di garis Khatulistiwa. Saya tidak menduga bahwa temperaturnya akan sedingin itu, jadi salah mengenakan kostum akhirnya. Maksud saya, bagaimana saya bisa tahu bahwa angin dingin yang bertiup masuk ke jeans akan bertahan dinginnya di dalam celana? Ini mungkin menjelaskan kenapa mie kuah yang pertama kali kita makan setelah tiba di Macau terasa begitu lezat: karena kuahnya yang hangat terasa nyaman di cuaca dingin. 

Macau adalah kota/negara yang kecil, bahkan lebih kecil dari Singapura, jadi tidak terlalu sulit untuk dijelajahi. Kita naik bis keliling kota dan juga berjalan kaki ke berbagai tujuan wisata seperti reruntuhan gereja Santo Paulus. Ada kejadian lucu dimana Papa terperangah dan bergumam sendiri, seakan tidak percaya bahwa situs terkenal ini hanyalah sebuah tembok.

Papa dan reruntuhan gereja Santo Paulus di kejauhan.

Mama jauh lebih ekspresif. Senang rasanya melihat dia begitu riang. Dia kadang meminta difoto bersama Papa. Ini sudut pandang yang menarik. Karena terbiasa dengan peran mereka sebagai orang tua sepanjang hidup saya, saya tidak pernah berpikir tentang Papa dan Mama sebagai dua insan manusia yang memiliki perasaan dan emosi seperti saya. Liburan ini membuka mata saya dan saya juga turut bergembira melihat mereka bersuka-cita dalam menikmati liburan di Cina. 

Kita berangkat ke Zhuhai keesokan harinya, menyeberang perbatasan Macau dan Cina dengan berjalan kaki. Hari itu adalah malam Tahun Baru Cina, jadi tidak banyak yang kita lakukan di Zhuhai selain berjalan-jalan di sekitar Gongbei dan menyaksikan sibuknya toko-toko di sana. Ternyata kabar bahwa toko-toko tutup saat Tahun Baru tidaklah benar. Banyak toko yang masih buka.

Selagi kita berada di Zhuhai, suhu cuaca turun lagi. Kendati kita tinggal di hotel yang terlihat tua dan kumuh, kamar kita ternyata menyediakan selimut ekstra sehingga tidur pun terasa nyaman. Pengalaman tersebut pun berkesan di benak kita sampai sekarang. Oleh sebab itu, bila kita sedang berbicara tentang dinginnya cuaca, ada kalanya kita berujar, "masih ingat saat kita berada di Zhuhai?" Kemudian kita pun tertawa saat teringat kembali tentang Zhuhai.

Di dekat perbatasan antara Macau dan Cina, di kota Zhuhai.

Kita merayakan hari pertama Tahun Baru Cina dengan menikmati sarapan bubur telur pitan yang hangat, lalu berangkat ke stasiun kereta api cepat. Saat itu saya hanya iseng bertanya kepada petugas stasiun, apakah saya bisa menaiki kereta berikutnya meskipun jadwal keberangkatan saya masih satu jam lagi. Di luar dugaan saya, petugas itu mengiyakan pertanyaan saya dengan serius sambil menambahkan bahwa saya mungkin tidak akan mendapat tempat duduk jika penumpang yang memiliki tiket kereta tersebut menaiki kereta yang sama. Ternyata peraturannya tidak sekedar yang saya bayangkan, hehe.

Saat-saat menjelang keberangkatan tidak senyaman yang saya harapkan, tetapi menarik untuk diingat. Kita diminta untuk membentuk beberapa baris di tempat tunggu terbuka untuk menanti datangnya kereta. Dinginnya angin yang bertiup benar-benar membuat gigi saling beradu! Syukurlah penantian ini tidak berlangsung lama. Setelah menaiki kereta, kita pun berangkat ke Guangzhou...


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