In 2008, when I first arrived in Miri, Sarawak, I was assigned to work in the interior of Sarawak, somewhere near Long Lama. My wife and our first child, who was still very young and had not yet started school, accompanied me to the plantation.
My wife had sacrificed a great deal to follow me wherever my career took me. She never really considered finding a job of her own. Instead, she devoted herself entirely to managing our home and raising our children. From the time she was pregnant with our first child, she had to learn everything about preparing for motherhood. Over the years, she continued learning the best ways to raise and educate our children, and she has done so until today, when they are already growing into adults. She has also never hesitated to advise or correct me whenever she felt that I was not treating the children properly.
With our first child, who was only three years old at the time, we would travel to Miri almost every weekend. Sometimes, we also had to go into town for company matters, such as salary administration or meetings. Whenever that happened, I would book a hotel in Miri.
Over the years, we probably stayed in quite a number of hotels around Miri. With a small child, spending a night in a hotel felt just like going on a holiday, even if it was only for one night. Taking our child for a swim in the hotel pool was almost a compulsory activity. In the morning, breakfast was already prepared and waiting for us. Needless to say, my wife was probably the happiest person because she did not have to worry about preparing meals.
The company I worked for at that time organised numerous activities throughout the year. Among the best were the programmes that involved employees' families, particularly the team-building activities. Family members were encouraged to participate and get to know one another. They shared the same experiences of living in remote palm oil plantations, including the challenges and sacrifices that came with such a lifestyle.
There were also many families who had to endure long-distance relationships because their husbands were working far away in the interior.
Whenever the company organised programmes anywhere in the country, I would make it a point to bring my wife along. Having only one child who was still very young made travelling together relatively easy. However, as the children grew older and more of them started going to school, things became more complicated. It was no longer practical to bring everyone along to every company programme.
Back then, staying in a hotel was like having a short family holiday.
In 2009, my wife gave birth to our second child. Our first child had also reached the age to start preschool. Eventually, we decided to look for a rented house in Miri. I would still travel out of the plantation every weekend, but our weekly hotel routine had finally come to an end.
To be honest, travelling in and out of hotels every weekend was quite exhausting, especially when time was limited.
When we finally moved into our first rented house in Miri, life began to feel a little more settled. After living what seemed like a nomadic lifestyle, moving from the plantation to hotels almost every weekend, we finally had a proper home. My wife could cook in her own kitchen, and we had the opportunity to get to know our new neighbours.
Years went by. Our family grew, and the children became older. Whenever we travelled long distances together, hotels were no longer our first choice. We started looking for homestays, which offered more space and greater comfort for our growing family.
Our family trips also began to change as the children entered their teenage years.
Nowadays, planning a family trip involves quite a number of considerations. School holidays are usually the best time to travel together. Even during weekends, our teenage children are no longer as willing to follow us everywhere. Sometimes, they prefer to stay home, especially after spending several weeks away at their boarding schools.
As a result, our family trips these days usually involve just the two younger children who are still in primary school.
It seems that the pleasure of travelling together as a young family and spending nights in hotels was something we could only enjoy for a certain period of our lives. As time passed, it gradually became more difficult to recreate those simple family moments.
After renting a house in Sumatra, Indonesia, for about a year, I finally decided a few weeks ago to move into a hotel.
Watching small families bringing their children to the swimming pool and enjoying breakfast together at the hotel brought back so many memories of our own experiences in Miri.
I found myself remembering those days when our first child was still small, when a simple overnight stay in a hotel was already enough to make the whole family happy.
It was quite a familiar scene, one that I had experienced many years ago.
That is my story for today.
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