I just got back from a week-long (inclusive of travel time) trip to Boston yesterday. The whole week leading to the trip, everyone at the office was saying that I was going home – balik kampung. It goes with the spirit of the season, I guess. Nothing much has changed at Kampung Allston anyway. While Kam did tell me before that he has sawn off the legs of my old study desk to turn it into a coffee table, I never thought much of it until I saw it, MY DESK! Other than that, it was almost as if I never left. Well, it hasn’t even been a year anyway. But the Barnes & Noble store at Downtown Crossing has been closed, as does the AMC cinema at Fenway I used to go to (almost) every Friday; now taken over by Regal.We came for a conference in Cambridge, at a venue at Harvard. Dr Shabri, on his first trip to the US, really took the opportunity to snap pictures. I didn’t take any even though I have my camera with me all the time. Somehow there is a feeling that there will be other such opportunities - that I’ll be back.
One thing for sure though, is that the United States still feels like the other side of the world to fly to. We changed planes three times at Changi, Narita, and San Francisco between KLIA and Logan one way. In total on this trip we flew on five different aircraft types – Boeings 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777. The Muslim menu on the flights, prepared in the Middle Eastern or South Asian taste, is exactly the same that we could barely touch it on the return journey.
How long will it take till we have either [1] cheap super or hyper-sonic air travel, [2] hibernation technology so that we can sleep all the way through long journeys, or [3] instantaneous teleportation à la Star Trek?
Selamat Hari Raya everybody, everywhere, whether you will be spending it at your very own kampung or not.
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