Alhamdulillah, I have been blessed with the rezeki and some
time to go explore a new place (or revisit places I’d been to before). When I
choose to visit a place, there are a few factors that I take into account: the
length of time I can be away (and the arrangement I have to make of late with
regards to dad), the destination, the sights/activities that the destination
offers, ground transportation, weather, etc. I also search if there are any
UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the vicinity that I can visit and how I can
get from one place to another. Of course I also consider the language barrier
but it’s usually at the bottom of my list of concerns, and even below safety in
the destination. It's not that I don’t consider or think language barrier
important enough but I believe we can always try to communicate - by sign
language, by drawing, by imitating, acting out etc, instead of just verbally.
I don’t make my travel plans to make things easy for me. Sure,
as far as possible, I would love everyone to be able to speak English so that
it’ll be easy for me to communicate but of course that’s not how things work in
real life. It would be great and ideal to have things fall into place, to have
people bending over backwards trying to help me, to receive a kind word,
gesture, smile and welcome, but that’s not how things happen. Shit happens,
even in our daily life and what more in a foreign land. If I want to have it
easy, I should just travel to English-speaking countries or countries that
speak English well like Scandinavian countries. Why should I knowingly place
myself into difficulty and struggle to even communicate? But I don’t think like
that and don’t want to. If I am not prepared to put up with the hassle, then I’d best just stay at home. If I want to have an easy comfortable life then I should
just stay home and be in a warm cocoon like a frog under a coconut shell
instead of exploring the world and discovering what it has to offer and what Allah has
created for us to enjoy, admire, learn from and be amazed with His grace and
creations. Sure I have been known and have indeed lost my precious temper a few
times while travelling when I get frustrated with the locals, when I have been
treated unfairly due to my religion (I have been asked a few times to take off
my scarf before going through the security process at airports and prevented
from allowing a temple in Sri Lanka), when I was asked to move places just
because I was a foreigner to make place for some locals but I try to
communicate and engage with the locals despite the language barrier. Otherwise,
why bother travelling at all if I prefer to remain in my comfort zone? Why put
myself into trouble and make that extra effort of research? No one put a gun at
my hand, no one forced me to go to certain countries and I made the decision to
travel on my own. I make my bed and I should be prepared to lie in it. Just
like everything else, I must hope for the best, be prepared for the worst and have faith that Allah will help me.
If at all, I’m more worried and concerned
about being subjected to religious discrimination/intolerance/prejudice and
being attacked/mugged/robbed while abroad. But hey it can happen even in
Malaysia and I have been a victim too. For this, I shall leave my affairs to
Allah.
