Dialogue in The Dark

 Do you know what it feels like to be stuck in a dark place for a very long time? Well, let me tell you.

It was the first of September, a Sunday, at about 4 in the evening, and my family, my Aunt, my grandmother and I were on our way to ‘The Weld’ shopping mall. We were actually in Pavilion before that to see the Marvel Studios exhibition, which was actually quite fascinating (though my father had a completely different opinion) and some shopping.

The Weld was miniscule compared to the other malls like KLCC, and quite inactive on a Sunday. More than three-quarters of the shops were closed for the day and it was eerily quiet and desolate. However, our destination venue wasn’t quite like that.

We entered the shop lot. It was brightly lighted with a bold orange wall in the front which caught my eye. In white font it said, “Dialogue in the Dark.” My Aunt went to the front cashier to buy the five tickets for us, as my grandmother was sitting out of it. Unfortunately, there were already a few groups occupying the session, and we had to wait about forty-five minutes before we could enter. Even though there would be a delay in our plan, it was ok. We had come all the way for it, and we knew that we weren’t going to give up that easily.

To kill time, we decided to go to the toilet, in case we weren’t allowed to in the tour. We sat at the benches for a while more, and before long, my Aunt got a call from the reception that we could come down to the shop lot for our slot. We rushed down as fast as we could and reached there just as the previous group was exiting the tour. We showed the front desk lady our tickets and she checked them.  Prior to this, she told us to take a seat, and explained to us a bit about the history of ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ and what they aim to do. It had started 31 years ago in Germany, but was only in Malaysia for only 7 years. The whole tour is supposed to give you a feel of how it is to be blind. Before we left the tables, she told us to bring some money, like about five or ten Ringgit to buy some things. She then led us to a locker to keep our stuff, especially anything that emits light. In a little while, she led us to the entrance, which had much dimmer lights, and a few tactile tiles on the flooring. Tactile tiles are tiles that the blind use to know which direction to go and where to turn.

She explained to us that the tiles with straight lines showed the direction we should move, and the ones with multiple circle dots signaled that there would be a change of direction. After we understood this, she gave us each a walking stick to feel the things around us. Soon, we went into the dark to meet our tour guide… in pitch blackness. I was just scared, scared, scared.

As we entered the narrow doorway, we were enveloped in darkness, and in a matter of seconds I couldn’t see anything. It was all just dark, black nothing. My mom was at the front of the line, my brother was second and I was third.

The lady asked us to follow her voice, and so we did. In a few seconds, we reached a wall, where we met our guide, Looi. (Though we couldn’t see him) He said hello to us all, but I was still trembling. All that I could think about was all the horror movies that I had watched before. Veronica, The Nun, Insidious… everything. My biggest fear was encountering a ghost in there!!! Luckily, I soon got used to it, and wasn’t scared at all. Looi said that he was going to take us back to when he was small, and to just follow his voice.

First, we were following some tactile tiles, until we reached a soily, sandy place. I was getting really confused. What was this? He told us to feel around for something hard. We all started groping around, trying to figure out what he was talking about. It felt woody, with paint… a bench! But my brother beat me to it. He asked us to try sit on it. I almost sat on the ground! He asked us to guess where we were. There was a speaker playing sounds of birds chirping, and a light trickle of water… a rainforest? No, it was a park. All of a sudden, I just felt so calm, and at ease, and I could imagine everything being beautiful. But we couldn’t stay there for too long… we had a journey to take.

This part was what I felt was the hardest part of the whole tour- crossing the bridge. There were many steps up and down and I had to feel all of it using my stick, and following the person in front of me. The bridge was just like a real one, super wobbly, and I tried my best to keep myself stable.

After we crossed, we came across a random ATM machine in the middle of nowhere. Once again, I was super-duper confused. I finally realized that the reason it was there was because he wanted us to feel how it was if you were blind and had to withdraw money. You would have to memorize the screen beforehand. What a hard life. Next, we reached the market, where we played a guessing game. Since we couldn’t see, we had to guess what were in the boxes; like frozen fish, lobsters, pumpkins, winter melons, etc.

Our last destination was to get to the Kopitiam shop. To get there, we had to cross a road. We had to press a button on a traffic light, to help us cross. I learnt that you to it by hearing a ringing noise, you can cross while the beeping is fast and if it stops, you shouldn’t cross yet.

We finally reached the Kopitiam. He led us all to the counter where we ordered our food. All the adults had coffee and biscuits, while the children, (me and my brother) got a special drink, A or B, and biscuits. Everyone’s food costed RM5. Luckily our mom brought enough money for all of us. Me and my brother chose A; which was lychee and butter biscuits. He took us to the table to have our food. It tasted really good! All of us talked at the table while we ate and drank, and I learnt that Looi, our guide, became blind only when he became 14. I also realized that food tastes much better in the dark. Then, Looi gave us some postcards to write or draw what we liked about the dialogue in the dark tour. I didn’t find it difficult to write or draw in the dark, and what I thought was best was the bridge and the Kopitiam because it felt really different in the dark.

Sadly, that was the end of the tour and Looi took us out to a dimly lighted room to prepare our eyes to the light. We then went out and took some photos with Looi, and bought some merchandise.

It was a real eye-opener (or eye-closer) and I really enjoyed it. I only wished it was slightly longer and that they would let us go back in the brightness and take a look at what we actually went through. If given a chance I would definitely go back again.