July 16, 2011

Special Delivery - a Bag of Sunkists - Express - Baram Style..

As we reflect on life along the Baram Valley...we wonder how the populace live and face the challenges of development and the obstacles in transportation before roads criss cross the land. This has been a lower river course which depends on different modes of river transport only.

So how would a camp manager get his supply of Sunkist oranges?

After reading the post today you would have to re-examine your idea of "Express Post" - Baram Style.

By Express Boat's special delivery! Here you can witness how the special delivery goes.


I saw this "home made" speed boat coming out of a small distributary as our express boat slowed down a little.
Two men in a boat...with one man guiding the "motor" or outboard engine and one man to collect the goods. Two moving vehicles in the middle of the river may pose a great danger. River Navigation is not that simple.


This guy yelled out..."packet...packet..packet".


The ticket collector suddenly remembered the plastic bag of Sunkists. There was no name and no address on the plastic bag.




The speed boat left with the oranges...


The lovely waves made by the speed boat...the happy driver seemed to be making a triumphant retreat. Mission accomplished.

Life is just so simple - someone sends a bag of sunkists and it will get picked up..This has been going on for more than 30 years. And I believe there is no charge. Pos Laju may have to rethink its services. The Camp Manager thus received his Sunkists within 2 hours from Miri. How express can this express post be!! And due to the honesty of the passengers not one fruit was taken out of the bag.

I really like that.

++ Sunkists - In Sarawak the term Sunkists is synonymous with the imported navel oranges from the Mediterranean countries and the US (and now China). Originally the word Sunkist was printed on each fruit. The locals having no word for this glorious orange fruit just called it Sunkist and the name got stuck. We would never call the green local orange (or limau) sunkist...

6 comments:

wenn said...

wow..real express delivery!

Ensurai said...

Yes ..I thought you might be the one who could see the double or triple meanings of the word express. As I was sitting at the door way taking photos I thought this was a very very special moment for me. thanks.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

I used to wonder what it meant when these river guys said," GOESDUN" until recently my bro who has a boat in Australia tells me it is Go Stern.

BTW, who paid for these two guys and the boat? How come it is free delivery?

Ensurai said...

Ann
Gostan is actually local Malay - go astern...(go backwards)...so whenever you reverse your car...you gostan...

The two guys and the boat belong to the camp...the delivery of the oranges - I think no charge. The jerugan (boat man) is a nice Foochow guy. Clan style of service.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

http://powerboat.about.com/od/smallboatseamanship/tp/Boating-Definitions.htm

1. Bow and Stern
The front end of a boat is the bow. When you move toward the bow, it is called going forward. The rear of a boat is the stern. When you move toward the stern, you are going aft.

When a boat is moving, either by power or sail, it is called being underway. A boat moving forward is moving ahead. When the boat moves backwards, it is going astern.

As with all languages, people borrow from another. I wonder who borrowed from who. We used to enjoy hearing the boat man say GOSTUN,

Ensurai said...

I am sure gostan/gostun come from Go Astern...

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