Palm Oil Estate Adventure
During one of the weekends in a not so distant time ago, I was on my way driving south to visit my cousin, Jonathan. He's working there in an palm estate following his father's footstep. Being a caring cousin, I happend to get some time off to visit him.
On the north-south highway driving south. There weren't many traffic on the way downwards to Singapore. Mostly are express buses driving at 130kph shooting to the southern tip. Really Bo Kia Si!
The skies is clear... so is the road. Yeah. I'm doing one of the stunt again: driving and snapping photos at the same time. Along the way there were mostly rubber estates and palm oil estate. Nothing much to see.
However the sky is filled with white clouds. There were bunny cloud, mickey mouse cloud, donald duck cloud, Woody Woodpecker cloud.. Ops wait! I'm in cloud 9! Better come back to reality... ^.^''
When I finally reached the estate after 3 hours of driving, the sky had turned sour. Although the rain wasn't heavy, it had made quite a mess in the estate road. Lucky the estate was in high ground and it doesn't soak up the place into a marshland. But netherless, the road was orange muddy.
After leaving my bags at his house, me and my cousin went patrolling the area. Everywhere were green. Dark green, light green, yellow green and red green. Do you actually have a red green? ^.^"
While this is not my first time going into a palm oil estate, it certainly refreshing since it's been long since the last time I step into one. Stepping into an estate makes you feel like you're going into a jungle. You can see spiders webbed around everywhere, squirrels doing their acrobatic stunts among the trees. And if you're lucky, you can see snakes sunbathing across the road or herd of monkeys sitting along the road watching you!
I'm a pure Malaccan Boy. Dad's from northern part of Melaka and mum's from the southern part. Both worked in the central town of Melaka and I was born. Whenever I go back my mum's or dad's hometown, they people there would call us City Boys. But whenever I go to KL, people there called us Kampung Boys. So I really wonder how do we actually wanna categorize ourselves as... Halflings? Lolx..
But it really doesn't matter since our lives are much better than kuli above. Look at these estate workers. Poor them, they can only use newspaper to shade them from the rain. Comparing their life with mine, most people would say I'm lucky. But! But then again, if I'm comparing my life with those who are driving Ferraris, I would say the table had turned against me.
But it doesn't really matters if you're sitting a bullock cart to work, or driving a Myvi, or riding on a F1 Red Horse. What really matters is being happy on what you're placing your butt on. Some people don't mind placing their arse on poo because they feel warm. As for me, I am happy sitting on a cushion. No doubt, if I have some leather seat on top gears, that would be even much euphoric!!! ^.^
Barren area. Palm oil generally have a live span of 25 years and above. But according to my cousin, they would usually replant the tree after 25 years because it won't be that productive anymore.
So if you have a land and planned to plant palm oil, basically you would only need to plant them twice. The first time is when you're 25 years old after school graduate. And when you're 50 years old to replant them again. When you're 75 years old, you won't want to replant them again because you have already retired! A job that you only need to work TWICE a life time! I think I interpret this correctly right? :P
The rain wasn't going to stop any sooner, so most of my journey are in the car looking out the window. The estate consist of the plantation area as well as the mill factory. Basically they were around 100 people living in the community.
Yup! I was in IOI Pamol Mill Camp. The place is actually self contained with their own auxiliary police, church, mosque, temples (both indian and chinese), community hall, etcs. It's just like a mini city in here without any shopping malls but palm oils!
Life is kind of "easy" here. You work, play, eat, shit and live at the same place. This is where you call your Life! Not home mind you.
The company provide lodging for you. Your mum stays with you, your dad stays with you, your granny stays with you, your kids stays with you. Everybody is living under the 10 x 15 roof. Electricity and water is provided for you free. If you want to online or a telephone line, you will need to call the TM Nuts (Net) or Maxis. If you think this is too bored for you, you can subscribe to Astro!
However, having working here for long and working your way up from general worker to certified techinician (or equivalent). The company would provide you a much bigger house with compound. Then you could have your lovely garden, plant your favourite flowers or build your special tree house.
As you work harder, and get promoted higher, so does your house get bigger. Am I right couz? If you're reading this. ^.^ Having a land here is so nice! You don't have to own it, but you can do BBQ here every night. If you feeling lucky, you might wanna sleep under the stars (and feed the mosquitoes)!
I got up the next day to snap some morning photos! It was 7.30am at that time. I don't feel like wonder out far into the "woods" so I decided to just shoot around the compound. The air was refreshing! The morning glory just started to peek in between the trees.
This is the bangalow that was provided for my cousin. Yes, It is a BUNGALOW. I spelt right. How many jobs would provide you such a big bangalow with such a big compound? Definately not Audit! ^.^"
But considering the fact that you're staying out of town, away in the middle of "jungle", ALONE. I think I would pass the idea.
This is the light that wakes the whole world up! This view gives you the feeling of living in an enchanted wood. Did you spot any elves around here? ^.^"
On way back. Take a few more picture of the scenery. The skies are bright again. This is the place where old trees are being cutoff and make way for the young ones.
While this adventure doesn't seems like any of your adventure in all those luxury trip like going to Cameron Highland or Genting. But it does feel like one since you're owning the place "all by yourself". ^.^
When I saw this stop sign. I just couldn't resist to take it. It gives you the feel when you're in somewhere barren and there weren't any transportation passing by. Then you're just standing on the road side. Thumbs up! Hitch hike!
So do you have any experience staying in a jungle or anywhere near that?
