I had lived almost 10 years in JB (Johor Bahru) until I graduated from high school at the end of 1965 and went oversea to college in Taiwan in September of 1966. JB emphasized education much more than an inland town like Labis. When visiting Utah in the past few weeks, an impression of the grandkids that we were gangsters (used by my brother, see previous write-ups) occurred in Labis. We didn’t quite develop the habit of studying.
Even in junior years of secondary school, I had been scolded by an old teacher (we called him Botak, means Bold Head) when I was late for a test in the class. Surprisingly, I had the highest test score in the class (about 40 students) and he later apologized in front of all students. He originally came from old schools in China to teach Chinese literature (he sang instead of recited the poems) to local oversea students (mainly Teochew, my mother tongue was Cantonese).
My brother was more sociable and capable of making friends. I am more in studying and my after-school activity was scouting (below pictures show my brother in greaser hairstyle and me in scout uniform). I became a troop leader and a King Scout (though it was a Queen in England).
It turned out my math was pretty good. In junior years, a few times the teacher gave a test in class, she basically stood near me to prevent me to pass answers to neighboring classmates. Maybe all these made me love studying in senior years when students were divided into Science and Literature classes.
I was in Science with a math teacher (we called him Old Wizard) as head teacher. Sometimes I helped him to solve homework problems in front of the class because he was so sleepy after a long night mahjong (rumored). I was so trusted that I compiled the final examination scores for the whole class in his dormitory and I graduated top of my class.
I collected insects on a mountain and made samples in the biological lab and also helped to organize the lab (see below picture with 2 animals). At the time of writing, I couldn’t find my other high school pictures except my graduating class picture with me sitting at right side in the front row. Our Science class produced many student to study oversea and the Physics text book used in our 3 senior years was the same as that in my 2nd college year in Taiwan.
After I graduated from high school, my parents put me to work at JB custom with my brother to learn about exporting timbers to Singapore. Always, it was a long wait for a timber Lori coming from far away jungles. Our cousin (our step-mother’s nephew) was a driver and he broke his finger at one time unloading and loading the logs from the Lori at roadside. The Lori custom was about 1/2 km away at the left of JB railway station (now retired and became a museum, below 1st picture) and the Johor-Singapore Causeway is about 1/2 km to the right.
In 2019, before the kids flew in to join us to begin our family trip, we came to JB and stayed in the Capri by Fraser Hotel. The hotel is at the center of town and has the front view of the causeway between Johor and Singapore (below 2nd picture). I just found out (Feb.2023), the old railway station is on the right side of the road leading to the causeway in front of the hotel. The Lori custom (not there anymore) was just on the right side maybe a little behind of the hotel which is on a hill called Bukit Chagar. Nowadays many tall buildings were built in JB like those shown in below 2nd picture on the waterfront called Tanjung Puteri (Princess Cove, original name of JB). This place was used to be Merdeka Park that we visited quite often in 1960s.
The 1st picture below is the view of the east-side of JB where I used to live and go to schools. Most of my writings in previous chapters focused on this part of JB. However, the west-side of JB comprised most the government and business buildings and was developed earlier. Below 2nd picture shows the landmark Government building (not used anymore) on a hill called Bukit Timbalan. These 1960s pictures were scanned from postcards given by my early friend now living in Taiwan.
My brother graduated one-year earlier and had already gone to help my father at his office at Kemayan, Pahang located about 180 miles in the north (see map). Apparently my father had moved away from Labis and found better business in the state of Pahang.
My brother is quite regret that my step-mom didn’t support him going to college instead of wanting him to help family business. I was very determined to go to college that I applied for the admission of Taiwan Normal University (called Shida) instead of the better Taiwan University because Shida would pay me to go to school. Maybe my worry was my step-mom not sending me money when I was in Taiwan.
My school principal asked me if I wanted to switch to Taiwan University, apparently he had connection, and I told him I didn’t apply. Later, his son became the famous president of University of Hong Kong. However, my step-mom seemed happier and was more accepting of my going to college. Now I understand that my father’s business was really growing and he obtained a timber project from the crown prince of Pahang (see below map). It helped the wealth of our family.
Later the crown prince became the Sultan of Pahang and the King of Malaysia (5-year term). His son also became the Sultan and then the present King of Malaysia in 2019 and married the princess of Johor (see previous chapter).
It was the cousin of the prince who managed the project and came to JB to meet my brother sometimes and he was given a Mercedes-Benz as a gift. The project required to build a 40 mile road through the jungles from Kemayan to Keratong where only aboriginal people lived there at that time. They built a lodge next to the River of Keratong for workers to live (above 2nd picture).
Every day they drove the jungle trucks which were called San Tai Wong (means Mountain big King, see picture) in Chinese or Lori Hantu (means Ghost Truck because they don’t have license plates and seldom appear in public road) in Malay to surrounding jungles to bring out the timber logs. I checked the 40 mile road they pushed through the jungle to Keratong is now part of Pahang public road system. In Malay, Kera means Monkey and Ah Tong is a Chinese name which was also the name of my father’s Kepala (means Head Man).
Though my parents would like me to work in the family’s business, I pretty much just wanted to go to college. Chinese school diplomas were not recognized by the government of Malaysia. To increase my chances going to college at the time Taiwan admission was not confirmed, I went to a Christian secondary school in Singapore recommended by a classmate (I can't remember whom).
I don’t know how I got in and what kind of student I was in there but I remember I attended classes and sang in a chapel. I studied the bible classes which were very new to me and an Indian teacher commented that Islam probably would dominate the world (left pictures).
Maybe it was too far from JB, about 15 miles, I finally gave it up. I hardly remembered this school until sometime ago I read an article posted by a Yorkshire English man. He was admitted to this St. Andrew’s School in 1961 by his parents who were stationed at Woodlands, a town on the opposite side of JB in Singapore, and it was a long commute too.
He took some pictures on the Boy Scouts activity in the school and I recognized the school buildings and my classroom was on second floor (see left pictures). Later I also took German Language classes offered by German embassy in Singapore because there was an opinion that one needed to learn German in order to study Science.
Many classmates were accepted by Taiwan universities. To save money, we arranged to ride on a cargo ship to go to Taiwan. The ship was called Taipoolai, however, on my passport it was labeled Taipoosek by Hong Kong port authority. I couldn’t find any information online about Taipoolai but Taipoosek (left picture).
Maybe they were sister ships and looked alike. I read online it costed about 100 to 150 Malaysian dollars depending where you slept. We all stayed below the deck where the cargo were located, probably the cheapest place. It took seven days to get to Keelung port of Taiwan from Singapore and stopped one night at Hong Kong where we could go ashore. Some people got seasick and were quite miserable. They could not bear it anymore and took flights from Hong Kong to Taiwan.
In old time entry at customs was not very strict. This was a amazing journey and many classmates did not know much about Taiwan. They were advised to bring soaps, toilet papers, warm water bottles etc. because Taiwan was a very backward place. Of course later we found out it was not quite true. Not until 1970, I returned to JB.
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