Travel – the informal educator

THERE is one bug which has been around since the beginning of time. It’s called TB (Travel Bug). None of the world’s scientists has discovered a cure for or the prevention of it.

The Dayak Iban of Borneo call it Bejalai. I caught it last month but I’m on the road to recovery. Or is it just a temporary relief?

As bugs go, TB is a good one. It is educational; maybe a bit expensive, but that’s something we can’t help.

Human beings have been moving from place to place since the dawn of time, for various reasons and purposes – the hunter-gatherers looked for food wherever they could find it. The Mongolian graziers moved with their animals in search of fresh grass and water.

Sometimes, people were forced to move away from their homes either by sheer necessity or by design. Moses had to flee Egypt for a better land overflowing with milk and honey. Mary and Joseph with their son Jesus had to flee to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s agents from killing their child. The Prophet Mohammed had to flee Mecca to Medina for a strategic reason; ask a Muslim scholar about this move and he will tell you that the Hijrah was the best thing that ever happened to the Prophet and his followers.

Many Christians the world over want to see the place where Jesus Christ was born; Muslims must go to Mecca as it is a religious obligation, if they can afford the trip. In fact, pilgrimage to places of religious significance could be considered the world’s original tourism!

Some unfortunate people leave their country in large numbers because there are civil wars in their own. Even if there’s no war at home, people want to emigrate to another country for better paid jobs or brighter prospects in life. Many Malaysians in Australia and other countries are doing just this for the sake of the education of their children.

These are among the reasons and rationale why people travel. For an unusual reason, my paternal great grand-uncle had resolved to leave home after the girl he had wanted to marry changed her mind at the eleventh hour! He stalked off in a huff and settled in Banjarmasin in Kalimantan; none of us ever saw him again. My trip for the past month was made in order to see my relatives in Australia and New Zealand.

The mode of travel varies from place to place and has considerably improved over the years: by sea, by land, by air and on foot.

The Syrians and the Iraqis have been using boats across the Mediterranean Sea to Greece and then on foot to Turkey en route to Germany and other European countries.

Fast planes, fast boats and fast land transport are the order of the day.

Nowadays planning a trip is much easier. No longer have you to wait for hours for your turn to buy a ticket at the counters of an airline office; no longer have you to wait for the approval of visa to enter the country of your choice as your destination or destinations. The travel agents can do all that for you. People are always curious about what is happening in other parts of the world and they want to see for themselves if possible and to observe the cultures of the inhabitants at close range, sample their food, or study their world views.

Many visitors would like to see what they cannot see in their own countries. Tourists to Kuching, for instance, must see the orang-utans because there aren’t any in their own countries. Each traveller has his or her own preferences as to what to see or do during a trip. I have my own. I went to America in 1971 because I wanted to see the rock that the American astronaut Neil Armstrong had brought down from the moon.

The journey is often the more interesting part of the travel than the destination itself. It’s what you see and encounter on the way that can last indelibly in your mind after the trip. Nowadays, you are the photo journalist. A selfie sent home pleases your friends and relatives at home. They monitor your itinerary closely. The first impression is important but as the journey rolls on, the traveller keeps on adjusting his view or opinion of place and people. What you wish to see may not be the same as you originally pictured it to be.

An account of a place particularly its historical background always fascinates me. In Armidale, the highest city in the Australian Highland in New South Wales, I read about the establishment of the Anglican Church in 1840 and at once I related this to another event of similar nature in Sarawak – the coming of the Anglican Church in 1848.

This association produces the we-feeling and to me it is an interesting part of travel. I felt I was in safe company even though I didn’t have the time to meet any of the church members. But I did so while I was in Dorrigo and it was most educational to hear a talk on the Messy Church. What the church wants is to encourage parents to take along their children or grandchildren to church regularly. Good idea; one way of luring them away from their smart phones. Small world Another interesting aspect of travel, for me anyway, is the unexpected or unplanned meeting with people who have worked in Sarawak. A pleasant surprise that always makes me happy during a trip is when I bump into friends or strangers while in another country.

At Dorrigo, I met two ladies who used to work in Sarawak – Alison Faye, teacher at a school at Mile 32 Oya Road in Sibu in 1978 and later at Kuching High School. She is well. We met through a mutual friend Rebecca Milne, by whose cattle farm I passed almost every day when I was at a farm at Deer Vale in Dorrigo.

Earlier, I had met Auntie Wendy at the Sherwood farm owned by Erika and her husband David. Wendy is from Yorkshire in England and is David’s godmother. She was a senior nurse at the Kuching General Hospital in 1965-7.

At Brisbane, I renewed friendship with Jacky Cramb and her husband Dr Robert Cramb; they were in Kuching under the Australian Volunteers scheme in 1977. To renew friendship and to make new ones is a most rewarding part of a travel. With the old there is plenty to talk about and to reminisce; with the new friends, a lot of exchanges of views of the present and the future. That, to me, is an educational aspect of a trip.

All good things will come to an end. It is time to say goodbye to everybody, nay, Au Revoir. You may be miles away from home but thanks to modern information technology, the distance is a touch away. All the time I have been in contact with what’s happening at home – the bad news about the great flood in Kuching.

There is nothing like home, come hell or high water. Home is where the heart is.

Comments can reach the writer via columnists@theborneopost. com.