Awesome Rinjani - Day 4

If not for waterfall and World Cup, day 4 would have been a low light of the trip. The last day's walk was easier as the trail was comparatively simple up to the Pintu Senaru (The National Park, Senaru Gate). A short distance from Pintu Senaru to the pick up point was beautiful with banana, coffee and cocoa trees and colorful flowers. In summary, we have completed the journey of about 25 Km from Rijani Information Center (RIC) at Sembalun to Rinjani Trek Center (RTC) at Senaru.



A good shower at Pondok Senaru refreshed me for the rest of the day. We walked to the two waterfalls near by. It was worthwhile stretching ourselves a little more. We walked on a funny bridge which actually is a drain with very fast water flow and built high up from the valley. I wonder why the drain cover couldn't be solid. To reduce the weight of the bridge? Or to keep accessable to the drain below? Whatever reason it was, it made us dizzy while walking on it.



We walked through the stream where the water was flowing very strongly. It was crystal clear and icy cold. Both waterfalls started flowing at a very high edge. The water flow was very powerful. Water droplets generated from the water stream hitting the rocks and the ground were so dense that I felt like standing in the rain. I love the cold sensation.



I started exploring the village after coming back from the waterfalls. I went to Bayan with a motorcycle taxi to find the old couple who made local rice wine. By communicating with Machi (aunty), I learnt something. Some people are really good in explaining the job they do every day. The small house of her fermenting, settling and filling process was neat, tidy and clean. She couldn't speak a single word in English but was able to convince me that her rice wine is one of the best (if not THE best) in the region via the interpretation of the motorcycle taxi rider.

Bayan was a very small town with a crowded junction and a big field next to it. We had some satay and nasi goren at the junction. Then, we went into a compound where the locals gathered and watched World Cup. It was Portugal Vs Brazil match on that day. In fact, it didn't matter whatever match it was. All I wanted was the experience and thrill sitting in a free show where the people enjoyed the game.

Once we sat in the middle of the space in front of a big TV screen, all men and boys looked at us as if they were watching an animal show. It was really intimidating yet fun. As the people got involved in the match or rather concerned for their bet, they started to shout against the opponent of the team they supported. I didn't think they would make any harm to us but wouldn't be surprised if they broke out into fights. Yes, I admit it was a bit too much taking such a risk but I love the fun, thrill and anxiety during that 95 minutes.



We left Senaru on 26th June 2010. The awesome Rinjani was looking at us exactly the same as the day we arrived. Goodbye for now. I may meet you again.

Awesome Rinjani - Day 3

In the morning of Day 3, we are quite relaxed. The surrounding of the lake was active with porters playing their favorite past-time game and the travelers watching them. Porters carried tents, sleeping bags, food and cooking utensils and also prepared every meal for us. They were quiet but approachable and helpful.



While preparing for the day, we all heard "bommm" from Gunung Baru. I rushed out to get a photo but the mushroom of smoke coming out from the left of the cone was not well captured. The smoke is emitted every few hours but quickly disappeared. It didn't make a disturbance to us as there was no ashes spread around. After a while, my camera dived into the lake ;) so I wouldn't have beautiful photos for this post. I tried to find my last resource, my phone, but like I wrote before iPhone does not replace a camera.



Day 3 trail was exciting and challenging for most of us. First part of the trail is composed of tricky rocky climbs. Some parts of the climb are really dangerous as the support rails are damaged and the ropes are torn. I hope organizations like national park make some improvement on this. The local family (some with children) travel without guide thus they bare more risk than the foreign hikers.



The view of Crater Lake and Gunung Baru was the best while climbing the crater rim. The bank we were climbing up had full of edelweiss. We took a rest at the crater rim, take some group photos and started the down slope with loosen soil. A different skill set was required for this path. Having my hiking shoes wet as they also dived into the lake together with the camera ;) I slide downhill with my sandals.



As we approached Pos III (different from Pos III of day 1, this is on Senaru side) and entered the rain forest, it started to drizzle. Fortunately, it was just for a while. The path from Pos III to the Day 3 camp at Pos II was the heavy rain forest. We camped in the middle of heavy forest. Just like the mountains, forest also has their stories which we came to know only on the following day.

The highlight for the day was chitchat at fire made by the porters. Someone said sitting next to fire is therapeutic and I kind of agree to that statement. After a long day walk, heat from the fire helped relax the muscles. Sitting next to the fire also reminded me of the winter days during my childhood. With raisins, peanuts and friendship, the night was perfect.

Awesome Rinjani - Day 2

Nine of the group members had started their day earlier to climb up the summit but the heavy clouds, the forceful wind and the chill factor did not favor us. Only one in the group reached to the summit. Hikers from the other groups also came back without reaching the summit. Those who stayed at camp 1 were a little more favored to see the very brief sunrise.



It was so misty that we could see the seven colors of rainbow in the circles at many spots. Many monkeys appear together with the sun light. They came to grab food which was left by the people. We left Camp 1 about 9am. Since then, I stopped paying attention on "what time is it" or "how long more to reach to the next rest point". After all, we are on holiday.



The decent was so rocky and steep that we need to maintain in a group and help each other to climb down safely. Rinjani trek was so much more interesting than Mount Kinabalu because it has light walking, steep ascent on the soil, and now serious decent. I think it took us about 4 hours to reach the camp site at Lake Segara Anak.



The lake view was astonishing. Now we are in the middle of the mountain range. I am standing near the lake which was 180 degrees surrounded by the mountains except for the valley with a creek into which the water would overflow when there are heavy rains. Nature had built a dam and an overflow stream by itself.



There is a hot spring at at the tip of the creek thus we went down for bathing. We were told that water could be hot as 70 degrees Celsius at the source (before getting mixed with cold water). I guessed it may vary depending on the volcanic activities of Gunang Baru (the active volcano formed in the middle of Crater Lake).



At the small water fall and the pool, water is yellowish due to high sulphur content and nicely warm to soak in. Since that was the only water source for the whole journey, I chose to get down to the water. A warm water bath could also help to relieve muscle tension.



While crater rims were filled with energy and enthusiasm of the hikers, the lake was active with the local travelers. As it was one or two days before full-moon day, we saw groups of pilgrims who travelled far to perform rituals at the lake and shower themselves with the hot spring water.



We were briefed not to leave non-biodegradable items along the journey before it was even started. Materials like plastics are collected by the guide along the way, and burnt at each camp site. There were friendly warnings for the environmental consciousness posted (as far as I know) around the lake area.



Every mountain has its own story. Rinjani is believed to be home for the soul of Dewi Anjani, the queen of the kingdom. While browsing for the legends of Rinjani, I saw a piece of news on The Jakarta Post. I wish I could watch the film. Be it a tourist promotion film or environmental awareness promoter, I am sure the beauty of incredible Rinjani will be captured.

The night fell dark fast as it was surrounded by the mountains. I had nothing to do after the dinner. I thought of reading but couldn't resist the beauty of the lake. So, I just sat down at the lake side and did nothing. The moon was shining on me, the water in the lake reflecting the moon light and the Gunung Baru breathing heavily - I just get myself possessed by the nature.

Awsome Rinjani - Day 1

Sunset from the plane


Alang-Alang and the view of Rinjani


Cows from the village


Beautiful Butterfly


Vegetable Farm with the green houses


Our porters preparing lunch


While waiting for lunch


Day 1 Lunch


Edelweiss: A symbol of love


The sandy narrow lane to Ultimate Summit


The path behind and the sea beyond


Day 1 Camp in the setting sun


Tent for us


Other hikers around


The landmark of Capm site (Plawangan II crater rim)


Indonesia is blessed with awesome natural resources and Mount Rinjani is one of them. Starting on 22nd June, 14 of us went for a 4-Day/3-Night hiking trip with the help of our guide Full and 9 porters. The trip turned out to be a memorable one with picturesque views and beautiful people.

We were already excited before leaving Singapore's Changi airport. We wanted to have window seats hoping to see Mt Rinjani from the plane. As the seats were not fully occupied, 4 of us seated in a row had chance to see the views both on left and right of the plane by exchanging the seats. A few minutes before landing we saw a huge mountain in the clouds. Although we were not sure if that was Mt Rinjani, we happily took photos of the mountain, the clouds and the sunset. It was dusk when the plane landed at Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia. We were transferred to Senaru, the village where Rinjani trek begins.

The next morning, we have to take an arranged transport to Rinjani Information Center where we registered for the climb. The interesting ideology and operations of Rinjani trek are found on the Rinjani Trek Management Board (RTMB) web page. . Conceptually, the Rinjani trek operations are managed by partnership of National Park, tourism industry and the local community. This is a way for creating jobs and generating income by making use of natural resources, community's geographical knowledge and skills which will ultimately lead to the development of the region.

A source says "All porters are taught the importance of maintaining the environment and rest station facilities, sticking to established paths, customer service and emergency procedures". I hope the RTMB's training programs also educate the guides and the porters for safety and health concerns for themselves too. I met a porter who heavily coughed after every few steps while climbing up. Locally-made cigarettes are very cheap and easily available thus they become a temporary energy bosster for the porters.

We started the journey from Sembalun Lawang village around 9am on 22nd June 2010. The sky was so clear that we can see the summit from far. We walked through the savannah in which alang-alang grasses are about my height. I didn't see much animal lives in the savannah except the cows pasturing in the plains and butterflies hopping around the small flowers in the field.

When we looked back to Sembalun Lawang village, a large farm with green houses was seen. I wonder which kind of farm would it be and later found out the web site of the Tanzanian company Tendaji Agro which has invested in it. As the web page says, the vegetables grown in these green houses are exported to Singapore too. Who knows, some vege we consume might come from Lombok.

We walked until Pos II where we had lunch for the first day. The benefit of trekking with a big group is that the porters reach the rest point earlier and prepare food for us. The plain tea and piping hot noodle soup were perfect for lunch.

It was an easy walk until Pos III where we took a short rest. From Pos III to Day 1 camp (Plawangan II crater rim) was a tough hike in the heavy mist. The vegetaion has changed. As we approached the crater rim, we started to see more trees, mostly pine, and more flowers including edelweiss (Anaphalis viscida). Locals say these white little flowers are symbol of love. As they only grow at the altitudes of about 2000 meters and above, a man could climb up the mountain and pick these beautiful flowers to prove his love to his girl.

Around 4:30pm, we stepped on part of the crater rim with lots of penting and exhaustion. From that part of the crater rim, we could see the summit near and clear. But as our Myanmar saying "အၿမင္နီး ခရီးေ၀းတဲ႔ ေတာင္" goes, mountains are near in the sight, yet far to be reached. As we could see the summit trail closer, the sandy narrow lane became clearer. I decided not to go for it unless I woke up and felt "I am dying to go" in the next morning. The panoramic view from the rim was fascinating - the challenging summit of gigantic Rinjani right in front of me, the plain we passed through and the sea beyond partly covered by the clouds on my left and the crater lake completely hidden by the heavy clouds on the right. It was worth climbing so hard.

Soon after, we reached to the camp site for Day 1. Again, being a big group with 9 porters, the tents were already made for us. There were a few small groups of hikers staying around the single tree which serves as the marker for the camp site. It can be seen from the other side of the crater rim on the following days.

The sun had set, dinner was taken, what else to be done except a good night sleep? All the tents around were quiet. All I could hear was the sound generated by the strong wind rushing into the trees from far and slapping the small tents near me. Despite exhaustion, I just couldn't sleep. It would be probably a waste if I stayed inside the tent tossing around and forcing myself to sleep. So, I walked out of the tent.

It says "A picture tells a thousand words". But the truth is not every sight can be captured as a picture. The almost-full moon, the twinkling stars, the range of mountains, the Crater Lake and the shade of the summit - any form of art could fail to describe the beauty of the night. Standing still, I felt I was refilled with the mental energy for the next day.

24 hr away from Rinjani

Tomorrow is one of the big days for me. It is big as it a physical and mental challenge for me. I am leaving for the second hiking trip to Mt Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia. I was possessed by Mt Rinjani after seeing the picturesque crater, the crater lake known as Segara Anak ('Child of the Sea') and the small volcano inside the lake named Mount Barujari (or 'New Finger Mountain').



However, having returned from Mt Kinabalu only a moth ago, I still remember the pain in the thigh muscles. I vividly remember that I couldn't make swift movements for a few days after the trip. That part of the memory has been trying to overwhelm the moments I have enjoyed along the trail. I was on dilemma for a few days. Guest what, finally I decided to keep the promise that I have made to myself. Among all the breath-taking photos, I have chosen a modest one as my fear is still making me less ambitious. I will be satisfy if I can be there to see the view regardless the sun has just come up from the horizon or already above my head. My body is whispering me "please come back with bearable pain" so I can't push it too much.

While browsing through, I came know learn about the active volcanos. Mt Barujari is an active volcano which last erupted on 22-23 May 2010, which means just last month. As per the trust-worthy volcano site Global Volcano Program, the ashes were ejected as high as 2km, and the ash plumes drifted for 12km and caused ash falls in many areas. It also says that lava flows into the crater lake and the water gets hot upto 35 degrees Celcius. I can't deny that I have some concern for the ashes in the air. Hope it wouldn't be too much and wouldn't disturb the quality of air. The altitude sickness and chill factors cannot be underestimated too. Wiki travel says "Climbing Mount Rinjani is not to be taken lightly" probably for all these reasons.

We are taking the route
Day 1) Senaru village --> Sembalun Lawang --> Plawangan II crater rim
Day 2) Plawangan II creater rim --> Rinjani Summit --> Lake Segara Anak
Day 3) Lake Segara Anak --> Plawangan I Senaru crater rim
Day 4) Plawangan I Senaru crater rim --> Senaru village



In the picture, it started from the left hand side of the red thread, then to Post I, Post II, Post III but Plawangan II crater rim is not mentioned. I am eager to find out more about the route. Although the guide books say a lot about the rich flora and fauna, I do not expect to see much. Most likely, wewill be busy balancing between reaching to the next rest point and saving energy as much as we can.

Now, I am less than 24 hr away from Saneru. Rinjani, here I come!

FEAR - ေႀကာက္စိတ္

I have just finished reading Oh Siew May's "Scaling Walls - My Story". My heart sinked as she was going through tought times. I felt relieved when she accomplished climbing a mountain in her life. I entrapped with her in the fall walls; I escaped from it as she did. I could estimate the huge effort she put in to fight against her own fear.

At the same time, I remember a routine from So You Think You Can Dance, Season 6. The comtemporary routine with the song 2 steps away was choreographed by Stacey Tookey and performed by Kathryn and Legacy. I enjoyed every move in the routine. Sometimes, we let fear stay within us because we do not know its existance. Sometimes we just hide it under any convenient excuse. I am afraid of facing fear more than losing my own life.

When we think we are free, it just grabbed your legs to keep you right there. The moment we thought we escaped from fear, it appeared just behind and held you down. It would just jump on you. You would see the amount of energy you need to turn it away and keep yourself away from fear. My favourite was the ending of the routine. Surpress it strategically and pin it down right there, under your feet.

Enjoy the dance 2 Steps Away from SYTYCD

Siew May and all friends who are actively fighting against fear, I am sure you will always be the stars.

မလံုတဲ႔ လိပ္ၿပာ

အဲဒီခဏခဏ ပိတ္တဲ႔ ေက်ာင္းမွာေပါ႔ သူငယ္ခ်င္း ေတြရခဲ႔တာ
နယ္သူၿမိဳ ႔ေရာက္ကေလးကို ပ်ံသန္းဖို႔ အေတာင္ေတြတတ္ေပးခဲ႔တာလဲသူပဲ။

အတင္းစကား အၿငင္းပြား အခ်င္းမ်ားတဲ႔အခါ လည္းမ်ားေသး
Thermodynamic ထဲက moleculeေတြ တိုက္သေလာက္ ကေတာ႔ ပ်င္းေသးတယ္။

ေႏြးေအးမွာ မထိုင္ခ်င္ပါဘူး ဟန္ပန္ေတြႀကီးလြန္းတယ္
ကန္သာယာက စိုးၿမင္႔ေႀကာ္ စားၿပီး (ဆရာဦးစိုးလြင္ရဲ ႔) Stress Strain ေတြေၿပာႀကမယ္။

ခုေတာ႔ လူငယ္ေလးေတြကုိ အိမ္မက္ႀကီးႀကီး မက္ေစခဲ႔တာ သူမဟုတ္သလုိဘဲ
အႀကာႀကီး ေလာင္ကြ်မ္းၿပီး ကိုယ္တုိ႔ကို အလင္းေရာင္ေပးရင္း အားၿပတ္ခဲ႔ေလသလား။

သူ႔ေရွ ႔ကၿဖတ္သြားတုိင္း မလံုတဲ႔လိပ္ၿပာက ထိုးနွက္
ကိုယ္တို႔ drained brain ေလးေတြ မြန္းမြန္းႀကပ္ႀကပ္ ကူးခပ္ေနႀကတ႔ဲခ်ိန္ သူကုိယ္တို္င္ေတာ႔ drain မ်ား ၿဖစ္သြားၿပီလားလို႔ ေတြးေနရင္းေပါ႔။

ဒြိဟ

Pieces တဲ႔
ငါးနွစ္ေကာင္ အၿမီး ေခါင္းဆိုင္လို႔
ေမြးကတည္းက ဒြိဟနဲ႔ လွလွႀကီး ေတြ႔ခဲ႔တာ။

ဘ၀က တစ္ခါခါ Buffet စားသလိုပဲ
ေကာင္းတာေတြ အားလံုးကိုတစ္ထိုင္တည္း စားဖို႔ခက္တယ္။

အခုလည္း ဒြိဟက စိန္ေခၚေနၿပန္ၿပီ
ေနာက္ထပ္ေတာင္တစ္လံုးတက္ဦးမလားတဲ႔။

ဆင္ေၿခေတြ ဆင္လက္ေတြေပးႀကည္႔
ခြင္႔သိပ္မရွိေတာ႔ဘူး - အိုၿပန္လာေတာ႔ MC ေပါ႔
အလုပ္ေတြမ်ားတယ္ - ကုမၸဏီဆိုတာ အသက္စေတးစရာေနရာ မဟုတ္ဘူး
သိပ္ပင္ပန္းမွာ - ဘယ္႔နွယ္ ဒီထက္ၿမင္႔တဲ႔ ေတာင္ကို ေတာင္တက္လာၿပီးမွ။

အင္း - ဆြဲေဆာင္ခ်က္ ေတြကလည္းၿပင္း
ကိုယ္႔သက္လံုကို စမ္းသပ္ဖို႔ အေကာင္းဆံုး အခြင္႔အေရး
စိတ္ဓါတ္ခြန္အား ကုိလည္း စမ္းေသးတာ
အဆံုးထိေရာက္ေအာင္ ေမာင္းႀကည္႔လိုက္စမ္း။

ဟင္း - ဒုကၡ နဲ႔ လွလွ ေတြ႔ရၿပန္ေပါ႔
ဒီတစ္ခါ အတြင္းစိတ္နဲ႔ အၿပင္စိတ္ရဲ ႔တိုက္ပြဲ။

ေၿပာေတာ႔ၿဖင္႔ လြယ္လုိက္တာ
နွလံုးသားကုိ နားေထာင္တဲ႔
သူေၿပာတာ သိပ္တုိးေနေတာ႔ ဘယ္လုိလုပ္ရမွာတုန္း။

Yes ဘက္ကို ယိမ္းလိုက္တို္င္း No ဘက္ကိုကပ္သြား
ေခါင္းခါၿပန္ေတာ႔ (နွလံုးသားက) ဒါမဟုတ္ၿပန္ဘူး ဆိုလား။

ရွားရွားပါးပါး အခြင္႔အေရး ဆိုတိုင္း
ေတြ႔ဦးမွာပါ ငါမေသေသးပါဘူးလို႔ ေအာ္ေၿပာ။

အသံဗလံေတြ ရွုပ္ရွက္ ဗရုတ္ဗရက္နဲ႔
ခက္ေတာ႔ ခက္ေနၿပန္ ပါၿပီေကာ။

ကိုယ္႔စိတ္ကို ေအာင္နုိင္ဖို႔ အသာထား
သူေၿပာတာေတာင္ ႀကားေအာင္ နားမေထာင္နုိင္တဲ႔ ဘ၀
ကိုင္းဘယ္႔ နဲ႔လုပ္ႀကမတုန္း။

Story Telling I - Story about love and loyalty

(Disclaimer: more than 50% of the story is from Wikipedia)

It was 4 in the evening. Different from the hot and humid city, it was cool and breezy at the bottom of Mt Kinabalu. I tried to look at the summit of the gigantic mountain but no avail. All I could see were the waves of mists caressing and embracing the dark green forest. I was there standing still and feeling amazed by the touch of nature. “Why is this mountain called Kinabalu?” I asked. To answer my question, the guide told me this story.

Many years ago, there was a girl who lived at the foot of the mysterious Mt Kinabalu. She was a happy girl just like any other girls in Borneo. She lived her carefree life with her family and friends until one day she met the prince of her life. She heard that the villagers rescued a man whose ship sank in the middle of South China Sea. The villagers not only saved his life but also took care of him until he was fully recovered. Later, the whole village learned that he was a Prince of the Chinese Emperor. Getting away from the grand but certainly limited life of a prince, he enjoyed living like an ordinary person. He doesn’t have to listen to the lecture about governance or war. He doesn’t have to think about taxes and trade. He thought he would live the rest of his life in the Borneo thus he proposed the girl for marriage. They got married, had children and lived their life just like every family in the village.

Years went by, and he started to feel homesick. He started to remember his responsibility as a prince. By now his father should be old, and need to live a less tiresome life. He is a prince with duties for the country and the people. So he asked permission from his newly-found family to go back to China to visit his parents (the Emperor and Empress of China). To his wife, he promised that as soon as he was done with his family duties in China, he would come back to Borneo to take her and their children back to China.

When he made his return to China, he was given a grand welcome by his family. However, to his dismay, his parents disagreed with him about taking his Bornean wife back to China. Worse, they told him that they had already arranged his marriage to a princess of a neighboring kingdom. The prince had high respect towards his parents. Thus he obeyed the parents’ words with a heavy heart.

Meanwhile, back in Borneo, his wife grew more and more anxious. Eventually, she decided that she will wait for her husband's ship. However, since the village was situated far away from the coast, she couldn't afford to come to the shore and wait for him daily. Instead she decided to climb to the top of the highest mountain near her village, so that she could have a better view of the ships sailing in the South China Sea. Thus, she was then seen climbing up the mountain at every sunrise, returning only at night to attend to her growing children.

Eventually she fell ill, and died at the top of the cold mountain while waiting for her husband. The spirit of the mountain, having observed her for years, was extremely touched by her loyalty towards her husband. Out of admiration for this woman, the spirit of the mountain turned her into a stone. Her face was made to face the South China Sea, so that she could wait forever for her dear husband's return.
The people in her hometown who heard about this were also gravely touched by this. Thus, they decided to name the mountain "Cina Balu" in remembrance of her. Cina means Chinese and Balu means widow in the local Kadazan-Dusun language. Due to the lingual influence among the Kadazan Dusun of Sabah, the pronunciation for the word "cina" (chee-na) was changed to "Kina" (kee-na). That was the story of a wife, her royalty and the name of Mt Kinabalu.

ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ ေကာက္ရသူမ်ားနွင္႔ က်မ

အင္မတန္ နေမာ္နမဲ႔ နုိင္တဲ႔ က်မ အလုပ္တစ္ဖက္ ေက်ာင္းတက္ဖက္နဲ႔ ဗ်ာမ်ားရတဲ႔ ၂၀၀၁ ကေန ၂၀၀၃ အတြင္း ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ သံုးခါ ေပ်ာက္ပါတယ္။ ပထမဆံုးတစ္ခါက အလုပ္ ၿပီးလို႔ ေက်ာင္းသြားဖို႔ အထြက္မွာ အလုပ္လုပ္တဲ႔ ကုမၸဏီ ရွိရာ အေဆာက္အဦး က အိမ္သာမွာ ေမ႔က်န္ေနခဲ႔ တာပါ။ ေက်ာင္းတက္စဥ္ ကာလက ေက်ာင္းသားကဒ္နဲ႔ အေမရိကန္ေဒၚလာ သံုးရာပါတဲ႔ ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ဟာ အသက္တမွ် အေရးႀကီးပါတယ္။ ကားဂိတ္မွာ ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ေပ်ာက္ၿပီလို႔ သိသိခ်င္း ေခါင္းေတြထူပူၿပီး အေဆာက္အဦး ဆီကုိၿပန္ေၿပး ရပါတယ္။ ကုိယ္႔ရံုးေရာ အနီးအနားက ကုမၸဏီေတြပါ ေသာ႔ခတ္ကုန္ႀကပါၿပီ။ နွစ္ခန္းေက်ာ္ေလာက္က ဆံပင္ဆုိးေဆးေတြနဲ႔ ဆံပင္ ညွပ္ဆိုင္ေတြမွာ သံုးတဲ႔ ပရိေဘာဂေတြ ေရာင္းတဲ႔ ကုမၸဏီတစ္ခုပဲ လူရွိေတာ႔တယ္။ ဘာလုပ္ရမွန္း မသိ၊ ဘယ္သူ႔ေမးရမွန္း မသိ ၿဖစ္ေနတုန္း အမ်ိဳးသမီးတစ္ေယာက္ ရံုးခန္းထဲက ထြက္လာၿပီး "ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ေပ်ာက္လို႔လား" လုိ႔ေမးပါတယ္။ ဟုတ္ပါတယ္ ဆိုေတာ႔ အိတ္ကုိထုတ္ေပးၿပီး သန္႔ရွင္းေရး လုပ္တဲ႔ သူက လာေပးထားတာလို႔ လည္းေၿပာပါတယ္။

ကိုယ္႔ ရံုးရွိရာ အေဆာက္အဦးက အပ်ံစား အေဆာက္အဦး မဟုတ္ေလေတာ႔ သန္႔ရွင္းေရးကိုလည္း အိမ္သာေတြ အားလံုးအတြက္ ဘဂၤလားေဒ႔ (ရွ္) နိုင္ငံသား ေယာက္်ားေလး တစ္ေယာက္ပဲ ထားပါတယ္။ မ်က္မွန္းတန္းေန ေပမယ္႔ စကားေတာ႔ မေၿပာမိဘူးပါ။ ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ ၿပန္ရရခ်င္း အရင္ဆံုးသိခ်င္တာက ပိုက္ဆံေတြ အိပ္ထဲမွာ ရွိေသးရဲ႔ လားဆိုတာကိုပါ။ အဲဒီ အေတြး ေပၚလာတာနဲ႔ တစ္ၿပိဳင္နက္ ကုိယ္႔ကိုကိုယ္ လည္း နည္းနည္းေတာ႔ အၿပစ္တင္မိပါေသးတယ္။ သူယူခ်င္မွေတာ႔ အိတ္ေတာင္ ၿပန္ေပးေနစရာ မရွိဘူး မဟုတ္လား။ အိတ္ထဲက ပစၥည္းေတြ ဘာမွ လက္ရာ မယြင္းပါ။

ေနာက္ေန႔က်ေတာ႔ အဲဒီေကာင္ေလးကို ေက်းဇူးတင္စကား ေသေသခ်ာခ်ာ ေၿပာပါတယ္။ ေနာက္လည္းလမ္းမွာေတြ႔ရင္ ေသေသခ်ာခ်ာ နုတ္ဆက္ပါတယ္။ စိတ္ထဲမွာ တစ္ခုခုေလး ၀ယ္ၿပီး လက္ေဆာင္ေပးခ်င္စိတ္ လည္းခဏခဏ ေပါက္ပါတယ္။ သူ႔ကို တစ္ခုခု လက္ေဆာင္ေပးဖုိ႔ စဥ္းစားတုိင္း သူ႔ေစတနာကို တန္ဖိုးၿဖတ္ရာမ်ား က်မလားလုိ႔ ေတြးမိၿပီး သူတိတ္တဆိတ္ ေပ်ာက္ကြယ္သြား တဲ႔ အထိ ဘာမွ မေပးၿဖစ္ခဲ႔ပါ။ အလုပ္က တစ္ၿခားေနရာကို ေၿပာင္းသြားတာလား၊ သူ႔တုိင္းၿပည္ၿပန္သြားတာလား ဆိုတာေတာင္ မသိေတာ႔ေပမယ္႔ သူ႔အလုပ္ကို ဆက္လုပ္တဲ႔ အလုပ္သမား အသစ္ကေလးကို ၿမင္တုိင္း ငါ႔ဟာ ေတာ္ေတာ္ အေတြးေႀကာင္တယ္။ ေတြးလြန္းလို႔ ဘာမွကို မေပးၿဖစ္လုိက္တာလို႔ ေနာင္တရသလုိလုိ ၿဖစ္ေနတတ္တယ္။

ဒုတိယတစ္ခါကေတာ႔ ဘတ္(စ္)ကား ေပၚမွာပါ။ ေကာက္ရတဲ႔ အမ်ဴိးသမီးက ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ထဲမွာ ရွိေနတဲ႔ မိတ္ေဆြတစ္ေယာက္ရဲ႔ ဖုန္းကို ဆက္ၿပီး ေၿပာလို႔ ၿပန္ရၿပန္ပါတယ္။ ေတာ္ေတာ္ အသက္ရွည္တဲ႔ အိတ္ကေလးပါ။ ဒီတစ္ခါေတာ႔ ေနာင္တ ထပ္မရခ်င္တာနဲ႔ ေကာက္ရတဲ႔ အမ်ိဳးသမီးကိုေရာ တစ္ဆင္႔ ဆက္သြယ္ေပးတဲ႔ မိတ္ေဆြကိုပါ ေက်းဇူးတင္ပါတယ္လုိ႔ လွလွပပေရးထားတဲ႔ ကဒ္ေလးေတြ ေပးၿဖစ္ ပါတယ္။ ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ဆိုတာ ေပ်ာက္သြားရင္ ၿပန္ရတတ္တယ္လို႔ ေတာ္ေတာ္ ခုိင္ခုိင္မာမာ ယံုႀကည္မိခါမွဘဲ အိတ္ကတစ္ကယ္ အၿပီး ေပ်ာက္သြားပါေတာ႔တယ္။ ေက်ာင္းစာႀကည္႔တုိက္ မွာ စာအုပ္ရွာရင္း ေကာင္တာေပၚမွာ ေမ႔က်န္ခဲ႔တာ၊ ငါးမိနစ္ေလာက္ အခ်ိန္အတြင္း သတိရတာ ဆိုေတာ႔ ေသခ်ာေပါက္ ၿပန္ရလိမ္႔ မယ္လို႔ ထင္မိတာလည္း က်မ မလြန္ပါဘူးေနာ္။ တစ္ကယ္ပဲ ေက်ာင္းသားမ်ားသာ ၀င္ခြင္႔ ရတဲ႔ အေရွ႔ေတာင္ အာရွမွာ စာအုပ္ အစံုဆံုးပါဆုိတဲ႔ အထင္ကရ စာႀကည္႔တုိက္ႀကီးမွာ က်န္ခဲ႔ ေတာ႔မွဘဲ ၿပန္မရေတာ႔ပါ။ အိတ္ တကယ္ ေပ်ာက္သြားတဲ႔ အခ်ိန္မွာေတာ႔ အေမရိကန္ေဒၚလာ မေၿပာနဲ႔ စကၤာပူ ေဒၚလာေတာင္ ဆယ္ဂဏန္းပဲ ပါတာပါ။ ယူသြားသူက ေက်ာင္းသား ကဒ္ေလးေတာင္ ၿပန္မေပးလုိ႔ အသစ္ၿပန္လုပ္ယူရပါတယ္။

၅ နွစ္ေလာက္ ပိတ္ဆံအိတ္နဲ႔ လူနဲ႔ ၿမဲေနတဲ႔ ေဒၚစိမ္႔ တစ္ေယာက္ ဒီေန႔ ေတာ႔ အာရံုေတြ မ်ားလြန္းၿပီး ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ကို အိမ္သာထဲမွာ ေမ႔က်န္ခဲ႔ ၿပန္ပါတယ္။ ဒီတစ္ခါေတာ႔ ၿမိဳ႔လည္ေခါင္က ခမ္းခမ္းနားနား Shopping Mall ႀကီးမွာပါ။ သူငယ္ခ်င္းနဲ႔ စကားေကာင္းေနလုိ႔ နာရီ၀က္ေလာက္ ေနမွ သိပါတယ္။ SPG (သူငယ္ခ်င္း တစ္ေယာက္က ကိုယ္တုိ႔ ေမြးရာ ေရႊၿပည္ႀကီးကို ေခၚသလို လုိက္ေခၚ ႀကည္႔တာ) ကေန ေ၀းတာႀကာၿပီး SGP ဆိုတဲ႔ စကၤာပူမွာ ေနတာႀကာ ေတာ႔ ပုိက္ဆံအိတ္ က်န္ခဲ႔တဲ႔ အိမ္သာကို သြားမႀကည္႔ဘဲ Information Counter ကုိအရင္သြားပါတယ္။ လမ္းေတာ္ေတာ္ ေလွ်ာက္၊ ေကာင္တာ နွစ္ခုကုိေရာက္ စာရြက္ ေသးေသးတစ္ခု ႀကီးႀကီး တစ္ခုကို ၿဖည္႔၊ တစ္ေယာက္ေယာက္ လာေပးရင္ ဆက္သြယ္လုိက္ ပါ႔မယ္ဆုိတာေတြကုိ နာခံၿပီးေတာ႔မွ ေနာက္ဆံုးေမွ်ာ္လင္႔ ခ်က္အေနနဲ႔ အိမ္သာကို သြားႀကည္႔ပါတယ္။ Information Counter ကလူေတြရဲ ႔ စိတ္ထဲမွာေတာ႔ အိတ္ထဲက ကဒ္ေတြကို ၿပန္လုပ္ရဖုိ႔ ကုန္ရမယ္႔ အခ်ိန္ေတြကို တြက္ၿပီး စိတ္ေတြ ရွုပ္လုိ႔ေပါ႔။

သန္႔ရွင္းေရးလုပ္တဲ႔ အမ်ိဳးသမီးကို ေတြ႔ေတာ႔ မရဲတရဲနဲ႔ (Shopping Mall ႀကီးႀကီးေတြက သန္႔ရွင္းေရး အမ်ိဳးသမီး မ်ားက မထင္ရင္ ေဟာက္တတ္ပါတယ္) ေမးႀကည္႔ေတာ႔ သူက "နာမည္ဘယ္သူလဲ" လုိ႔ေမးပါတယ္။ သူ႔အမူအယာကို ၿမင္လုိက္ေတာ႔ သူအိတ္ကို ေတြ႔ထားၿပီ ထင္တယ္လု႔ိ ရုတ္တရက္ အေတြး၀င္မိပါတယ္။ ေနာက္ေတာ႔ သူက သူတို႔ပစၥည္း သိုေလွာင္ရာ အခန္းေလးထဲ မွာသိမ္းထား တဲ႔ ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ကုိ ထုတ္ေပးပါတယ္။ "နင္ဟိုနားမွာ ထားခဲ႔တာ" လို႔ ေၿပာၿပီး သူ႔အလုပ္ သူဆက္လုပ္ေနပါတယ္။ ဒီတစ္ခါ ပိုက္ဆံအိတ္ ကုိ ၿမင္လုိက္ ရတဲ႔ အခ်ိန္မွာေတာ႔ ကုိယ႔္ အိတ္အေႀကာင္း သိပ္မေတြးမိဘဲ သူ႔ကို တစ္ခုခု၀ယ္ေပးၿပီး သူ႔ေက်းဇူးကို အသိအမွတ္ ၿပဳခ်င္တဲ႔ စိတ္က သိသိသာသာ လႊမ္းမိုးပါတယ္။ အခ်ိန္က ညကုိးနာရီ ခြဲခါနီးဆိုေတာ႔ သူ႔ကုိ ဘယ္အခ်ိန္ အလုပ္ၿပီးသလဲလုိ႔ အရင္ေမးရတာေပါ႔။ အနီးအနားက စားစရာေလး နည္းနည္း ေၿပး၀ယ္ၿပီး သြားၿပန္ေပးေတာ႔ သူက ေက်းဇူးတင္စကားေတြ ေၿပာၿပီး အိတ္ထဲမွာ ဘာဖုန္းနံပါတ္ မွမပါလုိ႔ သူမဆက္ၿဖစ္တဲ႔ အေႀကာင္းရွင္းၿပေနပါေသးတယ္။

အၿပန္လမ္းမွာ ေတာ႔ ေတြးမဆံုးေပါင္ေပါ႔။ သန္႔ရွင္းေရး လုပ္တဲ႔သူေတြ ဘာေႀကာင္႔ ပိတ္ဆံအိတ္ကို ၿပန္ေပးႀကတာလဲ။ ဘာပဲၿဖစ္ၿဖစ္ စိတ္ရင္းမွန္ကန္ တယ္ဆိုတာေတာ႔ ေသခ်ာပါတယ္။ ေနာက္တစ္ခုက "အူမေတာင္႔ မွ သီလေစာင္႔နုိင္တယ္" ဆိုတဲ႔ စကားပါ။ အူမေတာင္႔တယ္ မေတာင္႔ဘူး ဆိုတာကုိ က ပညတ္ခ်က္ တစ္ခုလား။ လူတစ္ဦး ခ်င္းေပၚတည္ၿပီး ဘယ္၀င္ေငြရရင္ အူမေတာင္႔ နုိင္မွာလည္း ဆိုတာကလည္း ကြာမယ္ထင္ပါရဲ႔။ ေကာက္ရတဲ႔ ပစၥည္းကို ၿပန္ေပး မေပး ဆံုးၿဖတ္တဲ႔ ေနရာမွာ အတန္းပညာ ဟာ အဓိက မက်ဘူးဆ ိုတာ ေတြလည္း ေတြးမိပါရဲ႔။ ယူခ်င္တဲ႔ စိတ္ရွိရင္ တကၠသိုလ္ ေက်ာင္းသားလည္း ယူပါတယ္။ ကိုယ္႔ကုိကိုယ္ ေမးမိတဲ႔ ေမးခြန္း ေတြက ေတာ႔ ဘာဆိုရင္ မယူဘူးလဲ။ ဘာဆိုရင္ ယူမွာလဲ။ သူမ်ားပစၥည္း ၿပန္ေပးဖို႔ အတြက္ ဘယ္ေလာက္ အင္အား စိုက္ထုတ္မွာလဲ။ အားလံုးကုိ ၿခံဳေရးလုိက္ ရင္ေတာ႔ "ငါ႔ အူမ ဘယ္ေလာက္ ေတာင္႔သလဲ" အေၿဖေတြကို ေတာ႔ လက္ေတြ႔ႀကံဳရမွဘဲ သိမယ္ထင္ပါရဲ႔ေနာ္။