Dedek: Mummy, today is Friday, so tomowoo Dedek no school?
Mummy: Yes, tomorrow is Saturday, and no school for you on Saturday and Sunday.
Dedek: Mummy, please tell Kakak (babysitter) no bekfirst for Dedek tomowoo.
Mummy: Why? Dedek don’t want to eat?
Dedek: Noh! Dedek want to eat roti chanai, (showing 3 fingers indicating he wants three pieces of roti chanai and I wrote about his love for the roti chanai in an earlier posting).
Mummy: Ok, we can go for the roti chanai tomorrow.
The next morning he was up bright and early, in anticipation of course. No hassle for the sitter to give him his bath and dress him up (when on normal days he will fret and gives the sitter a hard time to prepare him for school!!). When we reached the breakfast shop, he told his mother that he wants three roti chanai. But the mother asked, “which one you want? Plain roti chanai or roti chanai with egg”. He replied that he wants the roti chanai with egg and his mother said egg roti chanai is big, (one piece is usually filling even for an adult!!) so take one first and if not enough you can ask for some more. He smiled and replied ok. Ah ha! I thought, this little fellow has his scheme of things in his mind!! And true enough, when he finished his first egg roti chanai he asked for some more and this time he wanted roti chanai with cheese!!
Meanwhile, all of us were eating our breakfast and chatting while this little boy waited for his cheese roti chanai. He had finished his drink and yet the second order had not come. After a while he thumped his fist on the table several times. A little while later he thumped the table using his elbow. He was clearly annoyed that his second roti chanai did not come, and he usually shows his annoyance by thumping his fist or elbow. I think he had lost his mood in eating by the time the roti chanai came, hence we had it packed for take away. However it was not difficult to appease him as his mood changed as soon as we got into the car to go to the market. He ate the roti chanai in the car. Smart fellow!!
The Bintulu Market
This same little boy does not like to go into the wet market. It is “dirty and shmelly yak” he will always say. So I stayed in the car in the parking lot to be with him while everyone else goes into the market. Recently both he and his elder brother were in the habit of repeating everything that we said to them, even when we asked them to stop repeating they will still be at it and laughed at us. When we asked them questions they will repeat the questions and do not give the answers. It can be annoying. I had the opportunity to give him the same treatment when we were alone in the car. I thought I will use this reverse psychology on him. I repeated everything that he said, in his imitable child slang even. He was laughing away at me and asked me why I repeat after him and I kept on repeating him. Then he thumped his first fist thump at the seat back rest. I continued and he thumped his elbow this time. I asked him if he is angry and he replied noh noh Tok Bah, and that too I repeated him. I continued doing this all the time we were waiting for the others to return from the market. Finally when he asked me why I repeat after him I replied that I will stop if you stop doing the same to others. He agreed. Haa Ha, I managed a truce with a 4 year old!! He was even on my side reprimanding his elder brother not to repeat everything I said.
One thing I like about Bintulu market is the abundantly available local fruits and vegetables of many different types and cheap too, compared to prices
in Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya. Sea food is also much cheaper here. So, you can imagine how Ram will just pick her fancy at the market!! However these cheap products are are limited to local produce and catch. Anything imported, even from West Malaysia, will be exorbitantly priced!! Therefore, we reserve our favourite ‘taste-bud quenchers’ until our return to West Malaysia.The market place is in two separate buildings, one of which houses the wet catches and produce that are predominantly sold by Chinese traders while the other houses ethnic produce that are predominantly sold by the local ethnic Iban and Malay traders. The buildings are quite identical in design, quite modern, and a far cry from the shanty shacks that the market was, on the same site, some twenty years ago when I was working in Bintulu. In those days, one goes to the market, buy whatever is required and then get away from the place quickly. The cramped, dirty surroundings, and ‘shmelly’ too will throw one off quickly. The wet market used to be a wooden planked building that juts out on stilts over the river edge adjoining the jetty, where boats anchor to discharge their catches. Now, the place is on solid ground, of concrete, spacious, and one can browse around before deciding to make one’s purchase. Of course, this convenience comes with a price as prices of the produce are higher. You can however, still get cheaper agricultural produce from some of the roadside peddlers who sell their backyard produce. These peddlers have low overheads and do not pay rents or license, hence are able to sell cheaper than the market.
Close to the market are jetties where ferries and passenger boats or river taxis pick up passengers to cross the river or go upstream to the hinterland. There are not many of these river taxis now compared to twenty years ago.
Proper roads have been built over the last twenty years leading to the villages upstream the river. Hence demand for the river taxis dwindle while road taxis keep multiplying in number causing traffic jams in Bintulu town now. Those days, getting parking spaces in the town was easy but not now. I guess that is what progress is all about. I wonder what Bintulu will look like twenty years from now…… I wonder and ponder…..MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu
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