First trip outside India, a comedy of errors, and confused Malaysian officials; these are the things my 12th birthday consisted of. Rewinding a bit, it was around January in 2014 that my parents announced that we were going to Singapore, and that the dates happened to coincide with my birthday. I, obviously, was aghast. I did not want to spend my birthday far away from home and without my friends. These were the days of mom-thrown family-friendly house parties with pav-bhaji, custard, and budhani chips, and 30 of your friends. Some of these, you spoke to twice a year i.e. on their birthday and on yours. But my veto powers were non-exisTent and the idea was bulldozed through. Forward to the end of April and I find myself in Singapore. The first thing I noticed was that the house floor was wet due to the extremely high humidity on the equator. This was the weirdest and unexpected cultural shock I had ever imagined. I’ve been told on multiple separate occasions recently that floors in Singapore are not wet and my memory is failing me, but I am going to let this happy illusion remain. We went around the city, covering the usual touristy spots like Universal Studios and the Merlion fountain. My birthday, on the 5th of May, was to be celebrated on a grand cruise ship Star Cruise, which we were to board on the 3rd of May. We got to the dockyard on the morning of 3rd at 10 AM sharp, only to see the cruise sailing away in front of our eyes. Dumbfounded, we asked them what was going on. They said you’re a couple of hours late. Dumbfounded again, we checked the ticket, and obviously, the departure time was 10 AM and the arrival time was 8 AM. We gave up all hope, because the cruise only halted in Malaysia, and we did not have a Malaysian visa. A relative, hearing about our ordeal, called us and said that he remembered reading about Malaysia recently starting visa-on-arrival facilities for Indian nationals. As soon as we could confirm this, and as soon as our booking agent confirmed that he would get us on the cruise if we managed to get to the stop in time, we boarded a flight to Kuala Lumpur. Landing there, the Malaysian officials greeted us like one would greet monkeys in a wedding. We were made to sit for over 4 hours while they figured out what to do with Indians asking for visa-on-arrival. This makes me fairly certain that we were the first Indians to avail this facility in Malaysia. The last hurdle to get over was that we had landed on the opposite side of the country, so we had to drive through the breadth of the nation (which takes 4 hours only) to get to the cruise ship halt. As promised, our agent got us on the cruise and a special induction drill, complete with safety instructions and cruise tour, was organised only for the 4 of us. Finally, the on-ship band sang to me and the restaurant gave me a barbeque nation type cake. Worth the hassle and the money, I guess.
20 Apr 2023
Soham Shah
