Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tanjung Balai Karimun

Tanjung Balai Karimun (Tg. Balai K.) adalah tempat aku dilahirkan dan dibesarkan.

Aku tinggal di Pulau ini selama, hmm, kira-kira 15 tahun-an. Pada umur 15 tahun, aku diminta orang tua untuk melanjutkan SMA di Jakarta. Kemudian, sekarang saya kuliah di Bandung...

Selama "perantauan" saya untuk menuntut ilmu ini (hahaha, bahasanya agak berlebihan), saya menjadi jarang pulang ke pulauku tercinta ini. Alasannya adalah transportasi yang mahal dan melelahkan. Saya hanya dapat pulang setengah tahun sekali atau bahkan satu tahun sekali. Rekor terlama adalah satu setengah tahun. Hmm, saat ini, kira-kira aku sudah satu tahun ga pulang ke Balai.., kangen sama mama, papa, rumahku tercinta, sama teman-teman lamaku, tentunya kangen juga sama Tg. Balai dan tak ketinggalan makanan-makanan di sana yang enaaaaaakkkkkk banget...
Huaaa, jadi pengen makan makanan-makanan Balai, ga bisa aku temuin di Bandung atau Jakarta yang rasanya sama, hiks...(T.T)

Tanjung Balai Karimun umumnya hanya dipanggil Tg. Balai, atau balai, atau Karimun, atau TBK oleh orang-orang yang tahu. Pemerintahannya sudah kabupaten, jadi kadang disebut kabupaten karimun juga. Pada umumnya, tidak banyak orang yang tahu keberadaan Tg. Balai. Tg. Balai ini adalah salah satu pulau kecil di Provinsi Kepulauan Riau, sepertinya tidak keliatan kalo di peta Indonesia...
Oh iya, nama pulauku ini lumayan pasaran untuk ukuran indonesia. Jadi, di Provinsi Sumatera Utara juga ada daerah yang namanya Tg. balai. Sebenarnya nama asli daerah di Sumatera Utara itu adalah Tg. Balai Asahan, tapi lebih sering dikenal dengan nama Tg. Balai saja, sama dengan pulauku.
Kemudian di Pulau Jawa, ada daerah juga yang namanya Karimun..
Jadi karena pulauku tidak dikenal, maka orang-orang sering mengira aku berasal dari Sumatera Utara atau Jawa..


hmm, tapi aku nemuin peta ini di Internet, hahaha, lumayan senang...

Seperti yang terlihat di peta, Tg. Balai itu adalah sebuah pulau, pulau kecil. Tentu saja transportasi utama untuk menghubungkan pulau karimun dengan dunia luar hanya menggunakan kapal laut, umumnya disebut kapal fery... Pelabuhan utamanya terletak di sebelah selatan, dapat terlihat pada peta kedua, yang ditunjukkan oleh garis hitam putus-putus.
hmm, hanya pelabuhan kecil, kecil sekali. Bahkan kapal PELNI, seperti KM Kelud yang besar tidak dapat berlabuh di sana, apalagi kapal cruise, hehehe...

Hmm, waktu kecil, aku lumayan lemah kalo naik kapal fery ini. Kapal fery dapat dibilang kapal kecil. Aku sering merasa mual, kemudian muntah-muntah kalo ombaknya sedang besar. Kalo ombaknya besar, kapalnya terombang-ambing ke kanan dan ke kiri, membuat aku pusing.
Pokoknya, setiap kali aku dan keluargaku mau jalan-jalan ke Batam atau Singapore, mama dan papa adalah orang yang langsung panik, setelah aku.. Biasanya aku dibawain kantong kresek sebanyak-banyaknya (tau 'kan buat apa??, hahaha). 
Kemudian, mamaku bilang: "Anak Pulau kok ga bisa naik kapal (maksudnya ga tahan naik kapal), lemah banget, 'kan kita kemana-mana harus naik kapal"
Hmm, benar juga kata-kata mamaku..
Sekarang, hmm, masih bisa mabok kapal kadang-kadang, tapi sekarang bisa lumayan aku tahan, dah ga separah dulu lagi.., hehhee

Sebenarnya ada airport, atau lapangan terbang di pulauku, cuma ukurannya kecil sekali, kayanya cuma untuk helikopter saja.., tapi, bahkan di pulauku jarang ada helikopter yang datang, hehehe

hahaha, sekian dulu untuk Tg. Balai ku tercinta. Masih banyak yang ingin aku tuliskan, cuma lain kali aja, terlalu banyak untuk sekarang.
Tulisan ini dibuat untuk meringankan rasa kangenku yang semakin menjadi-jadi hari demi hari

Sunday, January 18, 2009

A LOVING HEART..

Once upon a time, in a far away, remote part of the beautiful earth, where humans can't reach it, there exist a peaceful fairyland. That fairyland was unbelievably beautiful. It was the place where fairies lived their life peacefully, far away from human kind. Those fairies loved their beautiful land so much, that they committed to take a good care of it. No fairy ever done anything that may harm their own living land.


The fairies in the fairyland was ruled by a fairy-king. Fairy-king was very respected in that fairyland because he ruled fair and square. The king treated all the fairies equally, without differentiate the rich or poor;the beautiful or ugly. The king was also wise in solving every problem that need his solution. The king had a beautiful wife, which was crowned as the fairy-queen. The fairy-queen had the most loving heart in the land. She cared for all the fairies in the land, and always helped those fairies in need. The fairy-king and fairy-queen was blessed with a girl fairy-child, who was crowned immediately as the fairy-princess. These royal fairies lived in the only palace in the fairy-land.

15 years had passed since the fairy-princess was born. The fairy princess inherited her mother's loving heart. Undoubtedly, The fairy-princess had the most loving heart in the land, even more loving than the fairy-queen, but she was neither very smart nor very beautiful. The fairy-princess's lacking had never been a problem to all the fairies. Those fairies doted on her so much. Like all the fairies in the land, the fairy-princess was also blessed with a special and unique gift of her own. She had the thickest and most beautiful wings in the fairyland, but, what's more fascinating is that every feather from her wings had the ability to fulfill the fairy-princess's wishes.

Fairy-king knew that someday, the fairy-princess would had to rule the fairy kingdom. The fairy-princess would need something more than a loving heart and her unique ability. Thus, the fairy-king, heavy-heartedly, sent off his precious daughter to live in the human's land. The fairy-king hoped that his daughter would learn something precious from her living with human temporarily.

The fairy-princess then went to a big city, far-far away from the fairyland. She tried to lived there as a human. She has hided her wings with the invisible-dust and looked like just an ordinary teenage. It was not easy of course for the fairy-princess. It was hard, very hard on her to overcome the loneliness, but she knew she must not disappointed her parents. The fairy-princess kept all her loneliness to herself.


A few days later, on her way back to her home, she met a beggar, a very old woman, sitting hopelessly in the pavement of the busy street. Her clothes was torn here and there. The fairy-princess felt sorry for her and decided to help her. She pluck one feather from her own wings and wishes for a sufficient money and food for the poor old woman. The poor beggar can't stop crying and when she received the food and money, she thanked the fairy-princess continuously. The poor, old woman of course can't see the feather and concluded that her benefactor knows magic. The fairy-princess felt very happy that she could help out someone in need. When she reached home that day, she felt pain on her wing, to be exact, in the place where her feather has been plucked. She realized that plucking her feather would cause herself in pain. But she hadn't regret helping the old woman at all.

One week has passed since she helped the old beggar when the fairy-princess discovered that her neighbor were in trouble. It was A family, consisted of Mrs. A and his 5 year old son. Mr. A had passed away for a long time. Mrs A was bitten by a poisonous scorpion and was dying. Her son was crying desperately, hoping that his mother would woke up and played with him. The fairy-princess couldn't bear to watch it any longer. She pitied the 5 year old child and decided to help Mrs. A. But, it was too late to bring Mrs. A to the hospital. She would had died by then. So the fairy-princess decided to help Mrs. A with her special ability. When Mrs. A felt better, She and her son thanked the fairy princess continuously and promised to repay the fairy-princess kindness. The fairy-princess was of course happy after helping Mrs. A, but she felt the pain on her wings again, a greater pain than the pain she bear last week. The fairy-princess bear the pain alone, for it was her own decision to cause herself in pain. 

The next day, when fairy-princess was reading book in a quiet park, she accidentally saw that 4 man, fierce looking gangster, was trying to kidnapped a teenager. The fairy-princess quickly asked the people around her to help her fought the gangsters, but the people dare not go against the gangster. They feared the gangster much. The fairy-princess tried to convince the people that they will win against the gangsters if they are united as one, but to no result. Those people left the park to prevent any trouble. The fairy-princess then tried to fight the gangsters alone, but she was helplessly outnumbered. She injured herself quite seriously when 2 of the gangsters pushed her away and hit her. Left with no choice, she then plucked one of her feather again and wished that the gangsters would left her and the teenager alone. The wish came true. The teenager cried and expressed her gratitude towards the fairy-princess. The fairy princess, once again, suffer the pain on her wing, greater than the first and second pain. But, it was once again, her own choice to help the teenager, she couldn't blamed anybody. If only she had left the park quietly just like other people, she wouldn't need to suffer the pain on her wing and the injuries caused by the gangster. But, she really couldn't leave anybody in trouble. And, once again, she didin't regretted about her decision to help the teenage, despite the serious injuries all over her body.

News about the helpful fairy-princess travelled from mouth to mouth. More and more people came to her to ask for help, bringing big or small problems. She would always helped on the big problems brought to her and on no condition. She was just too good-hearted. She would sometimes declined the small problems and asked its owners to solve it by themselves. But, these people know that the fairy-princess was just too good-hearted and cared for them. So, they just need a little acting to win over the fairy-princess's sympathy and they're right. The fairy-princess couldn't harden her heart to not help them on the small problems.

The fairy-princess knew deep down in her heart that she was making a mistake, a really big mistake. She had to learn to harden her great loving heart, but how could she??, she wonder...
It has been about 5 years that she had lived with human...
she had lost most of the feather on her wings. She grew pale and more pale each day, because she bear an excruciatingly pain on her wings each day.
and people never had asked about her condition, they had never cared for the fairy-princess..
All they had cared about is the helps they received from the fairy-princess..

For how much longer, could the fairy-princess continue to help these people??
For how much longer, could the fairy-princess survive in the human's land??
Could the fairy-princess harden her heart eventually??
no one actually know the answers.
Let time reveals it..


-to be continued- in an infinite boundary of time, hehehe

n.b. Please don't take this story too serious..
it' just a way of expressing my problems.
some part of this story may be true, or it may even be false, hehehe

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