A Visit to St. Anne's Church

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On 29 July 2012 a call in the early hours before dawn woke me up. It was from Antony Chan, my ex-college mate from KDU. He was driving up from Ipoh with his family to make their pilgrimage to St Anne's Church on occasion of the St. Anne's Feast Celebration held annually. The journey covers a distance of approximately 138 km and takes about 1 hr 45 min so I had time to reconnect & have breakfast with his charming wife & two beautiful kids.

This festival is a major draw among the Catholics & peoples of other faiths from across the country as well as from all over the world and has been marked on Penang's tourism calendar as a 'not to be missed' event. The celebration normally begins a week before the last Saturday of the month of July and ends with a novena procession in the church's grounds located on Jalan Kulim, Bukit Mertajam, PENANG. This year's theme is 'Go Green Go Clean' in support of the Penang state government's efforts to make it a green state. A body of volunteers worked relentlessly throughout the week & especially hard during the last night of the event to pick up trash round the clock. The success of their tireless efforts can be seen in the almost rubbish-free compound that greeted the visitors on the day after the celebration.

A Visit to St. Anne's Church video

Sow Hoong's & Linda's Visit to Malaysia

Sow Hoong aka Joey Tan & wife, Linda were recently back in Malaysia for a holiday & spent a few days in BM & on Penang Island. While here, they were taken on an eco tour at Nandaka Vihara Meditation Centre located in the vicinity of the Cherok To’Kun Forest Reserve. True to our Malaysian roots, any tour would not be deemed complete without a sampling of our still relatively cheap, delicious & famous hawker food & some exotic local restaurant fare before they continued their vacation in KL, where another group of ex HSBM guys took over the itinerary. 

Just to help some of you recapitulate, Sow Hoong left HSBM in form five year ’76 & continued his education at a technical college in Penang before furthering his studies in Canada. A few years later, he got married to his beautiful & charming Hongkong wife there. He has worked in a bank & is now a Correctional Officer in one of the most notorious prisons in Canada. 

He has been back to Malaysia off & on. His last trip was in 2001 but he never had the opportunity to reconnect with his old school chums whom he had lost touch with until recently thanks to Facebook & Youtube. We, the BM guys managed to capture on video some of the highlights of Sow Hoong’s & Linda’s short stay with us & of course some few mouth-watering shots of the scrumptious food that they got to feast on.  

Well, seeing is believing. Have a look at the photos, courtesy of Irene & Ah Hong, & short video clip below. We promise that they will make you guys who have left Malaysia want to come back for the same & perhaps more?

Video clip

A Celebration of Life

On 11 March 2001, Wong Stanley departed this world prematurely owing to neither ill health nor physical impairment but a most unfortunate highway accident. He was aged 42, still in his prime & living life to the fullest. His death was a shock to his family, colleagues, students and friends who were too stunned to react to this piece of tragic news. In April 2012, a group of his childhood friends & schoolmates came together to contribute their amateur talents in making this movie to remember him and celebrate his years of existence on this earth.

The idea of making a movie to commemorate Stanley’s life & the happy times that he shared with his friends was first mooted by Khor Ah Lek who came back from Sweden for a vacation in July 2011 but the actual filming process did not quite take off due to a number of reasons. The emotional nature of the subject made it difficult to broach it to those who were close to him at one time or another, and coupled with the Chinese New Year celebrations that were to follow, forced the producers to put the project on the ‘back burner’.

Interest in the project was reignited & given a nudge by some celestial forces which set into motion a series of events that seemingly happened by pure coincidence, including the return of Joey Tan aka Tan Sow Hoong from Canada & Khor Ah Lek making his third trip back to Malaysia within a span of eight months for his mother’s funeral. This presented the opportunity to interview some of those who knew Stanley well while every effort was made to track down as many of his friends as possible, quite a monumental task in reality, as quite a number of them have moved away from his hometown or emigrated. Nevertheless, the comments made by the handful that remained proved to be just as poignant & meaningful & in a way represented what the majority would have felt even though they were not present for the filming. Special thanks must be given to Shirley Wong, who loaned us the priceless photos of her late brother, without which, this movie would not have been successfully made.

The producers are proud to present to you the completed video clips made with lots of love, a few drops of tears & a dash of humour for your enjoyment. Part 1 consists of the interviews of the participants while Part 2 is a slideshow made from the photos mentioned above.

A Celebration of Life (Pt 1)


A Celebration of Life (Pt 2)

A Visit to Teluk Kumbar & Gertak Sanggul

Teluk Kumbar is a small Malay fishing village located just between Bayan Lepas and Balik Pulau on the southern part of Penang Island, Malaysia. The main attractions around the village are the various kinds of fresh fish for seafood & a good view of the setting sun basking off Gertak Sanggul.

Another popular fare from Teluk Kumbar is 'mee udang', a spicy noodle dish cooked with big-sized prawns sold mostly at the Malay stalls and patronised by the many office workers from the Bayan Lepas Industrial Zone during lunch.

The idyllic life of the villagers has been interrupted by the rapid urbanisation of Penang & the impending completion of the second link at nearby Batu Maung. Teluk Kumbar has also seen some recent property development & among these are the housing estates in Sungai Batu & Sunway’s Aspera at the 'New Gurney Drive' for the high-end buyers.

In contrast, Gertak Sanggul is a predominantly Chinese village, located on the southwest promontory of the island. The Chinese name of this village is ‘MeiHu’ (美湖) which means beautiful lake. It boasts a picturesque setting of a Malaysian fishing village with a white sandy beach frequented by picnickers & surrounding hill slopes that 'come alive' with hikers & bikers who go there for exercise on weekends.

One of the residents, Mr Lai who is also a retired fisherman, was kind enough to invite us into his orchard & share with us his knowledge about pit-vipers & rose apples or ‘jambu mawar’ which are known to have curative properties.

A Visit to Teluk Kumbar & Gertak Sanggul (Pt 1)


A Visit to Teluk Kumbar & Gertak Sanggul (Pt 2)

Penang CNY Cultural & Heritage Celebration 2012

The Penang Chinese New Year Cultural & Heritage celebration, organised by the Penang State Government, the Penang Chinese Clan Council & the Penang Clan Associations Youth Committee to usher in the Year of the Dragon was held on 29th January 2012 which coincided with the 7th day of the Chinese New Year 2012.

The highlight of the programs include:
1) 6 ‘Chinese Traditional Livelihood Zone’, ‘Clan Area’, ‘Chinese Native Area’ featuring Chinese virtue, traditional Chinese cuisine, Dragon calligraphy, photo exhibition, 12 Lunar seasonal festivals exhibition, other traditional Chinese cultural exhibition, performances and demonstrations.

2) Down Memory Lane with traditional games, handicraft trails, traditional Chinese cultural dance, opera shows, lion dance, Wushu performance at Khoo Kongsi, Cheah Kongsi, Lim Kongsi, Yap Kongsi and Penang Youth Centre.

3) Local Penang delights and hotel food stalls decoration.

Some of the streets such as Armenian St, Ah Quee St, Acheh St, Canon St, Chulia St, Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, Soo Hong Lane and Kampong Kolam located within the UNESCO World Heritage enclave were closed to traffic to accommodate this grand cultural event which started as early as 3.00 pm and ended at 12 midnight.

Penang has been promoting its living heritage in the recent years by organising cultural events during major celebrations & this colourful & fun filled event was held in conjunction with the Chinese New Year which fell on 23rd & 24th of January this year. This annual event is always greeted with a sizeable turnout estimated to be around 100,000 people both locals & foreigners merrily jostling, squeezing & winding their way through the crowd to get to the various exhibition booths & food stalls. The lucky ones also got to shake hands with the Chief Minister as he made his way around the site, heavily escorted by his entourage & squad of volunteers.

It was most heartwarming & reassuring to note that the majority of the participants were both young & extremely energetic as evidenced by their enthusiastic demeanour & well-rehearsed dance routines. No danger of their own culture going the way of the dinosaurs there. Particular mention must be made of one lion dance troupe which saw the performers doing multiple leaps on raised stilts that took the audience’s breath away while another dragon dance performance started off with three dragons performing at the beginning & then morphed into a single & very long dragon towards the end of the show without the audience even realising how it was done!

For those witnessing all the activities for the first time, it was indeed an audio & visual feast for the senses. And for those who gave it a miss, what a waste. So, put this event on your itinerary when you visit Penang again next year.

Penang CNY Cultural & Heritage Celebration 2012


Lion Dance


Cultural Dance


Dragon Dance

CBM & HSBM Year '76 CNY Gathering 2012

The boys & girls of CBM & HSBM Year '76 held their inaugural joint CNY Gathering at D'Residence, Bayan Mutiara, Penang, MALAYSIA on 25th January 2012. It was hosted by Jinai Goh who graciously offered the use of her magnificent house & spacious grounds as the venue. A good turnout was recorded with some making the journey back from as far as Sweden, Hong Kong, France & Australia just to attend this event. To prove that they are not too old nor jaded to let their hair down, the attendees sportingly took part in the games planned specially for them. The evening's festivities was further augmented with a lion dance performance by the host's young nephew, Jared Goh, who displayed remarkable skill & agility in executing the physically demanding dance moves. Everyone agreed that the evening was a resounding success & congratulated the organising committee for a job well done.

Preparations began as early as October which saw the loosely formed committee comprising Eric Ooi, Tan Ah Hong, Irene Ewe & Wong Siew Hui scouting around for a suitable venue to host the event. Staying faithful to the theme of an intimate & yet casual gathering, the committee decided against renting the club house across the road as the conditions attached were too restrictive and the time was limited to merely a few hours which was insufficient for the committee to work around with nor permit the few guests the option of staying back later & do some catching up. And there was the question of food which had always been a challenge for any host when organising a gathering during the first few days of the Chinese New Year as most of the Chinese restaurants would be closed for at least a week.

The solution finally presented itself when on a visit to Jinai’s house, the committee brought up the topic. She, the ever hospitable host, immediately offered her spacious garden for an ‘al fresco’ café setting where the guests would be bathed in the glow of twinkling lights & carressed by the cool sea breeze drifting over the Penang Channel while sipping her special concoction of citrusy & refreshing drink. This time, the committee had the food catered by Lily’s Vegetarian Restaurant which stayed open for the Chinese New Year celebration.

So, with that out of the way, emails were sent out to inform the boys & girls. This time, the attendees were encouraged to car pool so as not to cause any congestion at the host’s gated neighbourhood, which is fast becoming a necessary security measure even in some of the ordinary housing estates. Of course, they would also be doing their part in helping to conserve earth’s dwindling oil reserves, preserve the environment and allow our future generations to inherit a planet that is still habitable.

The committee unanimously agreed that those attending should share the cost of the gathering but not misconstrue the host to be ‘kiam siap’ because this would enable them to help pay for the food and drinks and any other incidental expenses and yet feel that they have made a contribution in lieu of their effort & also own a part of the action even if all they did was only to show up. A small gesture really, but it would mean a lot to anyone who would want to take turn to host any future gatherings of this nature.

From an initial 20 attendees who responded early to our emails, the guest list ballooned to 35 towards the last week before the event. Although the committee were elated with the last-minute confirmations, it sort of caused the department in charge of the table assignments, food & games a fair amount of anxiety.

Finally, all the hard work put in by the committee culminated into the most successful gathering ever organised. Seeing everyone who had made the effort & sacrifice to attend this gathering have a marvelous & memorable time was rewarding enough.

Video Clip


Slideshow