Life-Long Friendship

Sometimes, it is hard to understand what is the necessary ingredients for two persons to click and become life-long friends especially they share very little in common.

In the case of James, I came from East Malaysia and he from West Malaysia. He studied Arts and I studied Engineering. The only similar things I can think of – we shared the same faith and both are familiar with the Chinese language.

He is the one and only person I had gone hitchhiking with. That was in 1974 during a university mid-term break. We decided to visit Kuantan by hitchhiking. We started thumbing for a ride by the road side in Gumbak KL. None stopped for us and when we were about to give up after half an hour, a fairly old Toyota land cruiser bearing the hospital logo finally stopped for us. It was a Malay driver who was kind enough to stop for us. In those days, the back seats of the old Toyota land cruiser were arranged at the side facing each other.  We shared the back seats with two or may be three other people. In those days, the east-west toll highway had not been built and every vehicle had to use the hilly and winding road from KL to Kuantan. One can imagine the discomfort of being trapped in the back side seats for more than one hour covering a distance of over 70 Km. Finally, the driver dropped us off at Bentong because that was his destination. Though the ride was not comfortable, we were happy for the experience. From Bentong, we then took a bus to our final destination, Kuantan.

That was also my first trip to Kuala Trengganu.

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I also remember doing a duet with him in one church service in the First Baptist Church, Jalan Gasing, PJ during the university days. I do not claim to be a good singer but he is. He comes from a family of singers. He has a brother who at one time sold a few records featuring his singing. His sister used to be a regular of the Astro Classic Melody Singing Competition. I was fortunate to have a better singer to do the duet on stage that day!

He always claims that he had a hand in my marriage with my wife. During our university days, all West Malaysian students would have the chance to go home during the short-term holiday breaks. For us East Malaysians, we could not afford the luxury of flying home and had to stay at the hostel with hardly anybody around. It was lonely at times. So, James was kind enough to ask this Batu Pahat girl who also stayed in the same college whether this lonely east Malaysian young man could spend a few days at her home. Quite to our surprise, she gave the consent. Believe me, going to stay in a girl’s house for holidays was not my idea but entirely his! Just to put the record straight, the relationship with my "future wife" did not start from there but at least three years later! His kind gesture nevertheless would be remembered and is very much appreciated.

After 41 years, both our hair is thinner, greyer and shorter!

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In the recent get-together, James also managed to arrange Kam Yoong to join us for a simple lunch at Lepak Kopitiam, Bateman. She is special because she also has a role in my marriage. For the signing of the marriage certificate in October 1978, we decided that each side would nominate one person to be the witness. I nominated my dad while my spouse nominated the only West Malaysian friend she knew in Sabah back then; that was Kam Yoong who taught in All Saints School. Now, she likes James also resides in Perth.

Kam Yoong, seated on the left of my wife. James’ wife, Bee Har is on her right.