Thursday, November 22, 2007

Reminiscing the Past, 55 Years Later

My paternal grandfather was the resettlement officer of Cameron Highlands during the Templer years (see Tun Sir Gerald Templer) in 1950-1952, before he applied transfer to Ipoh (that's how he met my late grandmother). He was second in command behind the district officer, E.M Sheppard, so it was his duty to assign lands to natives there.

During his time there, he noticed a lot of Aborigines, or the actual Sons of the Earth here wandering on the main towns of Cameron Highlands. He used to tell us stories of how Templer's convoy got ambushed by Communists, how he practiced weaponry at Kea Farm and spending his free time at Tanah Rata.

For him, coming back there after 55 years evokes a lot of memories which awed us, including my parents, my relatives and my cousins. Not all joined in like my brother as he was having examinations and the others unable to commit due to their schedules.

The District office, located at Tanah Rata was refurbished extensively unlike a small house 50 years ago and I could not remember what has changed since my last visit there 12 years ago.


This shop, now called You Hoo in Tanah Rata was once a sundry shop. Above is where my grandfather used to stay during his three year tenure here. He remembered some few guys here notably, the village head in Tanah Rata is a man called Dick Cheong.

On the second day, we took him around the spots he would remember most. After that, I noticed that he remembered three spots: Kea Farm, The Lakehouse and The Smokehouse.


This was taken at Kea Farm. Before the new shop lots were up selling vegetables and flowers are up, there was a roundabout at that place where he used to go in there. Down there, near the Chinese primary school, it was where he practiced shooting with Stern guns, Enfield rifles and grenades used in WW2.

The Lake house in Ringlet was a famous location as it was built opposite a lake that houses a hydroelectric generator that powers Ringlet and Tanah Rata. While we were tinkering of the location for our second day dinner, we decided to have there since it's raining heavily there.


I actually experimented one shot in black and white and my dad, who was with me, came in and was surprised over the photo style of how the picture was taken. From that commendation, I felt that I've captured one of the best photos that I've taken so far. Perhaps, that shot above should be printed out and saved as a photo album.

Further Readings:

1. English Ladies In The Making
2. Am I Driving As In The Shining?

1 comment:

  1. The shop "You Hoo" you mentioned is not in Tanah Rata, it is in Brinchang. It sell a very good curry fish head.

    ReplyDelete

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