OXLAEYVacation? but you’re already on vacation!
I needed a break from making films… so I took a bike ride across the Malaysian / Thailand border.
My brother Jeremy says to me “Vacation? but you’re already on vacation!” … ok then… I took off a couple of days and went for a bike ride….
6 July 2015
I decided to take a short break from shooting my short films, in George Town, Malaysia… So I loaded up the bicycle and am riding north-east. The boarder to Thailand is only about 100 km away from George Town in the middle of what was jungle. Now-a-days much of the jungle has been replaced with palm oil. What is palm oil? If you cook with vegetable oil, chances are that it is made from oil derived from this plant. It looks like a coconut tree when tall but it produces a fruit that is filled with oil. It is king of southeast Asia and vast regions have seen the traditional rain forest cut down so plantations can set up palm oil in the ground. What’s bad about it is that it leads to the erosion of the soil and destroys the habitat of the other plants and animals living in the (former) rain forest. The Malaysian peninsula is also full of palm oil plantations and I passed several on the way.
I’m more curious today about small towns like Baling, the town I’m stay at tonight. I’m about 10 km from the Thai boarder but there isn’t anything here, worth seeing – at least not in the traditional touristic sense. There probably isn’t any big economic driver here either, like coal or lumber or gold. So why exactly are people located here, instead of having moved to larger towns on the coast. There isn’t a movie theater or much of a sports life. The countryside around here isn’t teaming with green heaven. So why do people grow up in a place and stay? Do they consider it to even be an option to move away? Are they afraid of uprooting and having to start something new? Do they feel obligated to remain close to their parents? Do they have a favorite restaurant in town and can’t dream of parting with it? What about in the “West”? Why do people choose to live and settle down in a town like Woerden, in the Netherlands. It isn’t particularly memorable. There are more job opportunities in Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Or College Station, Texas? Why stay there instead of going to San Diego or Boston? Do people consciously choose their home towns? Or do people choose not to choose?
