An Ex-Blockmate Finally Found After 45 Years

Our recent trip back to KL to accompany my MIL coincided with a mini-reunion dinner for some of the ex-members of the 5th Residential College Christian Fellowship of the University Malaya and their spouses on 29 June 2019.

This reunion had added meaning because I managed to meet a "block-mate" whom I have not seen for over 45 years. This chap Quah Sim Aik was "discovered" by another ex-fifian by accident or by divine appointment as some may like to call it.

As the story goes: Just over two weeks or so before the reunion, another ex-fifian, Sun Nan Ping, his wife and grandson attended a Sunday Worship Service in a Church in Alor Setar. After the service, Sun and Quah started chatting with each other without realizing that they were once friends and stayed in the same Fifth Residential College of University Malaya. Only after ten minutes of conversation and exchange of names that the names rang a bell to them.

A photo shared by Nan Ping after meeting Quah Sim Aik at a church service in Alor Setar.

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In 1973-74, I stayed at a corner unit of the 1st Floor of Block D and Quah stayed at the other end corner unit of the same floor. We saw each other very frequently. I remember in the weekdays, the college was normally quiet after dinner because all residents were deep into "study and assignment". Then at around 9.30pm, the quietness was suddenly broken and punctuated by bouts of yelling and shouting around the male blocks and occasionally from the female blocks.  That was a way of release and getting ready for a simple supper.

Quah was one of those who loved to yell and occasionally being shouted down by some ladies across at Block B.

Quah has been a teacher since his graduation from MU until his retirement. In the end, it is his dedication and service in his Church that proved to be most inspirational to us. Currently, he still serves as the Chairman of his Church and an active leader of the young working adults. His son too is active in Christian ministry. His son is a contributor to "The Asian Beacon", a free Christian publication in Malaysia.

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Block D of the 5th Residential College of Malaya University where we once stayed.  Left photo is the current view with courtesy from Google Map and the right is an old photo taken in 1973.

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A group photo of 5th College Christian Fellowship, 1973.

Quah was seated left of me during the Christmas
Celebration in 1973 in 5th College.

An outing to Fraser Hill, Pahang in 1973.
Quah is standing second from left.
i was squatting at left.

Revisit Sabah Tea Garden

An overnight stay at Sabah Tea Garden was another outing planned for my MIL's visit to Sabah. 

As we moved towards the newly renovated restaurant after arrival to the car park, we could see that the place has undergone a major "face lift" since our last visit over ten years ago (Read here).

A popular backdrop for photography by visitors.

Taking advantage of the world renowned Mt. Kinabalu, the owner has installed a photo frame for visitors to capture the scene of the mountain as a backdrop. The frame instantly reminded me of the photo frame we saw in Stanley, Tasmania (Read here). In the case of the photo frame in Stanley, the frame is perfectly aligned such that the "Nut" fits perfectly within the frame. The frame in Sabah Tea Garden unfortunately is slightly misaligned resulting Mt Kinabalu not centered exactly within the frame!

The restaurant is popular among visitors. Its key attraction is to enjoy the awesome view of Mount Kinabalu while having a meal or snack.

Now, Sabah Tea Garden is also one of the love lock
destinations where couples can go to "lock up their love"!

The Plantation offers both dormitory-typed as well as chalet-typed accommodation. These facilities are built atop a small hill commanding a terrific view of the undulating landscape of the plantation. 

We stayed in one of the semi-detached chalet units which is named after Alfred Dent. This man, a British colonial merchant and entrepreneur was also the founder of the British North Borneo Company established in 1882.

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At the plantation, I met an ex-colleague, Mr. Tam Yaw Kong whom I have not met since 1989. He used to work as a storekeeper when I was working in Antah-Biwater way back in 1988-1989. Being an avid Mt Kinabalu climber, he has since ventured into tourism business, TYK Adventure Tour. He has climbed the mountain more than 500 times, a feat few can rival with.

At the time of our encounter at the Plantation, he and his son (an equally enthusiastic mountain climber and cyclist) were taking a few cyclists to do a cycling tour to Lahad Datu.

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On the way back to KK, we made a detour to Poring Hot Spring of Sabah National Park. We had hoped that my MIL would get a chance to see the real Rafflesia in the Park. Unfortunately, there was none that time. Then, an advertisement put up by a local inhabitant not far from the park entrance gave us a chance to see one. We called the contact number and was soon directed into a fruit farm. After half a kilometer walk, we saw what we looked for and we were not disappointed.

Reaffirming a Heritage

Symbol sometimes does define a heritage. 

SM Lok Yuk, Likas Kota Kinabalu, my alma mater (formerly known as Lok Yuk Secondary School) was established by the Basel Church KK as a mission school. In the past, SM Lok Yuk's relationship with Basel Church was well understood just as much as All Saints School to the Anglican Church and La Salle School to the RC Church. Over time, this understanding gradually subdued and was lost among the new generations. This loss was further hastened by hostile school head and possibly compounded by an acquiescent school management board. 

On 1 June 2019, a cross was installed on a wall of a school block of SM Lok Yuk. This prominent display of the cross combined with Bibles verses reaffirms SM Lok Yuk's heritage as a Christian mission school. This effort was made possible to a certain extent by a receptive school head and a more assertive school management board.

Installation was conducted by the Bishop of BCCM and Pastor-in-Charge of BCCK KK (E).

A file photo of the wall at one time.

The Great Story Tellers

Not long ago, bedtime for Nathan and Gracie was always marked by story time. Each night, they would carefully choose a story book and we would read it aloud to them (Read here). We were the storytellers and they were the eager listeners.

But on our recent trip in April, something remarkable had shifted. Nathan and Gracie had moved from being the listeners to becoming the storytellers.

Almost every night before bed, we had to pick up "tickets" to secure seats for their storytelling sessions. Each session began with the storyteller offering two titles for the audience to choose from - an early sign of their growing flair for performance.

The storytelling itself was entirely spontaneous, with an almost seamless flow and only the occasional pause to gather thoughts or to shape the next part of the plot. Sometimes there would be a brief "After that......" before story picked up again, but their quick thinking and imagination were truly delightful to witness.

For the audience, staying alert was a must. The stories moved quickly, and the storytellers were in constant motion - standing, crawling on the floor or snuggling under the blankets. It was all part of the magic.

Nathan became known for recurring tale, "Pu Pu Paupiqua" while his sister Gracie dazzled us with her inventive story "Rolling Doughnut". Both were equally creative, and their performances made each bedtime unforgettable!

Ticking Off a Bucket List - Super Pit

My interest to visit the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, WA traced back to 2011 when I was involved in a study of Mamut Copper Mine in Ranau, Sabah to address some of the problems arising from the closure of the mining operation in 1999.

Before the Mamut Copper Mine ceased operations, it was opened to the public. I remember taking my family there in the mid-1990s to view the site while it was still actively being mined for copper. The scale of the open-pit mine was striking, and visitors could observe the excavation work from designated viewing areas.

Mamut Mine Pit which is almost circular in plan view was 1.0 Km wide by 500 m deep at its peak operation. In comparison, Kalgoorlie Super Pit, is oblong in plan view is 3.8 Km long and 1.5 Km wide. Its depth is approx. 600 m.

Ever since Paddy Hannan, Dan Shea and Tom Flanagan found gold nuggets in Kalgoorlie region in 1893, thousands and thousands of man-hours have been spent digging for gold. Now, after 125 years, there is still no sign of stopping of the digging. With mega and powerful tools and machines to aid the digging, transporting and crashing, the pit is only expected to become bigger and deeper.

The tour guide did tell all visitors that there will come a time when mining will have to stop when it is assessed to be uneconomical to mine the gold field either because of diminishing deposits or too excessive depth. Ideas have also floated as to what to do with this huge hole. One idea is to construct a Formula car racing course inside the pit. Sound crazy but possible!

Mamut Copper Mine Pit.

Superpit abstracted from Google Map.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mine Super Pit.

I have been fascinated by the mega machines used for the extraction and transportation of the ore and rock waste. In this guided tour, we were driven to see some of the idle face shovels. At the pit edge, we also saw a few operating dump trucks. 

The face shovel each weighs 710 tonnes,
4020hp, 13,500 litres fuel tank and 68.5 tonnes
capacity per each full bucket.

Dump truck each weighs 166 tonnes empty, 2300hp,
 3,790 litres capacity fuel tank and a payload of 240 tonnes.
Each tyre weighs 5 tonnes.

The economic viability of harnessing every bits and pieces of gold from the rock fragments is dependent on extraction technique and technology. At this point of time, the mine operator has yet to find an economic method to extract gold from a particular shale-liked rock. These rock fragments are currently piled and stored pending a viable technique of extraction yet to be found.

At the end of the tour, visitors were warned against picking and pocketing any rock fragment found within the mine compound. My guess is that they believe the rocks which are scattered around the site may still contain very minute traces of gold of which the extraction technique has yet to be found!

Kalgoorlie, WA

I would probably have not considered visiting Kalgoorlie if it's not because of the Super Pit. This is a long road trip going eastward along the Great Eastern Highway covering a distance of close to 620 Km. It's miles and miles of land with meagre vegetation and occasionally punctuated by pockets of small towns and settlements.

For this road trip, we were mere passengers and did not provide any advance planning input. And so, we did not know where to stop and what to see along the way. Nevertheless, this uncertainty provided another kind of surprises.

Along the way, the exposed Golden Water Pipeline which runs parallel to the Highway did whip up a bit of my imagination about the teams of engineers and workmen who ventured out to this "no man land" to lay this life giving water conveyance system. It is said that there are a few pumping stations along the route which were built more than 100 years ago.

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Our first stop was at a town called Cunderdin, an old town which was established in 1903. A key and distinctive landmark that greeted us was the Ettamogah Pub, a building inspired by Ken Maynard's comic.

An inscription of "1909" on one of the buildings confirms the age of this town

Download of Ken Maynard's photo with courtesy from website of cunderdin.wa.gov.au.

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We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in Merredin, a town 103 Km further eastward from Cunderdin along the Great Eastern Highway. During lunch, my grandkids walked calmly over to a group of police officers and asked for a group photo. The police officers readily obliged and posed for these super friendly kids!

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Posed in front of the Museum of
the Goldfields.

Kalgoorlie viewed from the top of tower at the Museum of the Goldfields

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The Paddy Hannan Statute was erected to honour Paddy, an Irish prospector who was the first person to discover gold in Kalgoorlie in 1893. The original memorial fountain was unveiled by Governor Sir William Campion in 5 September 1929, 90 years ago. It was told that immediately after the unveiling and the Governor was about to take a sip from the fountain pipe, a little boy stamped his foot on the pedal sending a gush of water right into his face. Sir Campion was magnanimous and managed a chuckle even being drenched. 

What we see now is a bronze replica of the original statute. The original has been shifted to the Australian Prospectors and Miners Hall of Fame.

Paddy Hannan Statute and Memorial Fountain.

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The Golden Water Pipeline which commences from the Mundaring Weir in Perth traverses eastwards for close to 580 Km before finally ending at this small hill called the Mount Charlotte Reservoir & Lookout in Kalgoorlie. I had visited the Mundaring weir quite a long time ago which boasts of an acclaimed pizza there (Read here).

Another key landmark, the York Hotel built in 1900-1901.