So, I just went to Malaysia again after half a year to bring my Mom for her follow-up check up (we were there end of last year). I still recall my previous trip, so I’ll share on these two recent trips to Malaysia.
Someone told me, ‘You keep bringing these aunties overseas for medical check ups, Jokowi (Indonesia’s president) is angry already! – Don’t we have health services here in Indonesia too?’
That’s true, many family and friends in Indo (my Mom’s generation) went to Singapore for regular health screenings and other medical needs until some years ago, when the trend moved to Malaysia instead (especially Penang, I suspect partly due to the good food!). But still overseas!
So, I used to come back home to bring my Mom (and sometimes along with other aunties) to Malaysia. Covid meant no travel for a few years. Then last Sep was the first time I brought her back for her health screenings post-Covid, and this time to Kuala Lumpur (KL) instead.
A mess of an airport! 🙀
Something I haven’t been impressed about Msia is the airport that seems to always be in a mess (I find Indo’s even better!). You’ve gotta wait to queue up to get on the train to bring you to the immigration checkpoint. This second time I was back, the train wasn’t working, so we walked a good distance to queue up to get on the bus that brings you to a different terminal where the immigration checkpoint is. The staffs looked very unhappy and one of them was scolding visitors around to move them to different queue lines. They behaved like everyone’s owing them money if you know what I mean.
I remember the baggage belt information was incorrect first and kept changing. I also recalled my auntie, Mom and myself didn’t have a good experience in finding a place to eat before we flew back to Indo last Sep.
Not an experience I recommend. Seems like a good revamp of the whole layout and floor plan of the airport would do good, and the customer service too. Of all the times I’ve flown to Msia, it’s been consistently not a good experience. Since this is KL, I thought it would be better, but all the same 🙁.
However! One thing that’s definitely good is these ‘brandless’ heong peah my cousin helped get from the local market, freshly baked. 
No kidding, it’s so yummy Mom bought 15x home this time so it’s enough to distribute around! (One of our relatives ate 10 at one go 🤨 – yes, he is crazier than this is yummy, I know)
Small steps of improvements ✅
Having said that, the last few times I have come to Malaysia, I could see there are improvements little by little – still could do better. This time we went to Sunway Medical Centre in KL. Like the Island Hospital in Penang, I never understand why they do not yet have a simple online booking system.
You had to turn up early to take a queue number and just wait, not knowing if it’s an hour or 6 hours. It hasn’t changed much, but slightly better now as they allow ‘booking’, meaning if you’ve called beforehand to ‘make an appointment’ with the specialist, they’ll give your queue a priority over those who just turned up on the day. But all the same you still have to go first thing in the morning, take a queue number, and wait. It doesn’t make sense to me why the system has not been any more efficient after all these time 🤨
But yes, the customer service has improved, people smile more, are friendlier and more helpful each time. The hotel, and the bank too. It’s Maybank (the largest bank in Malaysia?), so I expected a better service, but each time the hassles we had to go through stumped me. This visit though, they finally managed to let us have Internet Banking! It may seem like a small thing, but this is a huge improvement! So we set it up and I was very happy it would be a lot more convenient then on. But turned out their online banking service closes shop at 10pm. 😅 So I had to log in the next day when they open shop at 6am.
So, improving but still poor. Like the way with us, growing but slowly. 🐌
A picture of us all 🤕
We spent two full days in the hospital / medical centre the last time, so I got to see people coming in and out, with all sorts of limping, young and old, diseases assailing. As we waited for Grab, I was thinking this is actually a picture of us all. We’re all spiritually sick and in need of physician. Well, even worse, we’re indeed dead, in a morgue more than just a spiritual hospital.
After all the waiting and checks, they clearly still couldn’t guarantee life, could they? My auntie were called in to see the doctor, thankfully nothing serious in the results. But it reminds you things could have changed in a moment.
If not from significant illnesses, we may instead be plagued with chronic afflictions of a lesser degree. In the middle of the night, I couldn’t sleep as I had a bad reflux, so I laid on the long slanting chair in the hotel room instead (sleeping flat worsens the pain). I heard my Mom and auntie whispering to each other that I must be having another reflux when they woke up at dawn.
Auntie suggested to feed me her medicine, saying some of her peers like to take that medicine when unwell. In a louder whisper, Mom said, ‘I don’t think so, my daughter is not in a habit of taking random medicine, are you crazy?’ Yes, I do think she’s crazy, but that craziness is common here. They like to self-prescribe, recommend and give medicines / supplements to each other. 💊💊💊
Just recently I also heard Mom said over the phone, ‘Oh yes, she’s (refering to one of the aunties) not afraid of surgery, she’s used to it, when there’s nothing wrong too she’ll often go for open surgery.’ It’s something I still don’t get, the obsession with taking medicines and surgeries. If only we have the same fear and concern over our spiritual life like our physical health.
Appearance is appearance 🎭
As everything went well with the health screenings, we had an extra day spent outside of the medical centre on these trips.
We ran some errands e.g., to the bank, getting stuffs for home, etc. While it’s not a sight seeing or relaxing trip per se, it’s nice to take our time, not have to rush.
On this recent trip, we arrived early at the airport, and there were decorations and stuffs due to the recent Idul Fitri (religious celebration by the Muslims). We had the time to stroll around, have a look and take some photos.
We sent these photos to my family’s chat group and they commented, ‘looks like a great holiday with great food!’ I told my Mom, ‘except it’s not a holiday, and the food, is alright.’ Mom nodded and said it’s amazing how the photos made it look like we’re having a wonderful holiday at some lovely place when it’s just walking around in the airport. I’m glad she now knows social media / FB posts (just like photos we took) may well be very far from the truth! She used to remark how such and such people have a great life etc, simply based on what she saw on their social media posts. That’s unlikely an accurate depiction of their real life. To know what really goes on in their lives, take an interest in them, listen to and know them for real.
Life in/out of a suitcase doesn’t suit me! 😐🧳
I knew I don’t like travelling, but I’m surely feeling it more and more along the years!
It just turns out I had travel relatively quite a bit more than the others in the family, so people thought I enjoy it. I don’t, and certainly not to Msia airport 😬. And for reasons, like all the..
- queuing..
- and waiting ⏱,
- filling out forms 📑,
- carrying luggages up and down,
- and checking and scanning,
- opening and closing luggages,
- and more queuing and more waiting ⏳,
- hours on a moving / flying vehicles ✈🚍🚖,
- and packing and unpacking..
The destination better be worth it for all that (I don’t remember a place like that). It makes me feel unsettled, moving around and living out of a suitcase like that. Given a choice, I’d rather live in one place until I die.
But I know friends who love to travel, who save for years to travel, count down to their travel, travel even when they have a few very young kids, even when the kids were unwell, even during the ridiculous rules and procedures and ever changing processes during covid, etc etc. I also spoke to some who because they have recovered and can walk now, they want to travel. Or those who realise they’re getting old, before getting too ill, they want to travel.
That reminds me of death. The process to death is hard to go through, life is hard to go through, so the destination better be worth it. Thank God I know it will be because I know the God who makes sure of that, wouldn’t it be great if we all do?
