Most of us are still fortunate at fifty to have easy access to the sea. To me, the waves that sweep up the white surf and wash the white sands day in, day out, will forever be an inseparable part of my childhood, as this following conversation proves:
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At 4:57 PM 28/1/99, Henry Wong wrote:
Pete, Steuart & Jimmy,
In 1968, my house is right on the beach front of Likas bay, each time I visit KK, I make it a ritual to visit my teenage home, my, those bluish turquoise water, when in season, pink clouds of shrimps just appear, deep blue giant tropical crab that can out swim any sick fish and I skip class just to chase those flounders with a made in china "Red Baron look" mask, (no snorkel).
Its a different bay at night, larger fish swam in to catch smaller ones, at times you could feel the desperation of smaller fish slamming against your body as they flee for their lives. Scary part is when you step on a crab or a flat fish, its your call to figure out if you'll risk your fingers to catch it. But if its a prawn, deshell it, sizzle it on the hat of your pressurized kerosene lamp, that's the sweetest prawn one can ever get.
But now a major highway runs thro it, god knows what heavy metals Lurk between the highway & the old beach. Yes, Sir James, Sipadan still provides such escape, my first dive there was Winter 1990, I can see numerous variety of colorful sea cucumber and giant clam just in front of the Borneo Diver's jetty drop off wall. Now I don't see them anymore, however that school of Cuda, Jacks & buffalo fish sure have grown in size. I'm glad they are limiting the number of divers but I'm sure the dive operators disagree.
Jimmy, if you are still around, here is a picture of us catching bags of Sembulan crab at 4:00 am. Pete, mind cooking our catch tonight?
Mui Sin.
Date: Thursday, January 28, 1999 3:49 AM Subject: Nostalgic Borneo
Yo Steuart,
I think things started to slide from the day British North Borneo was called Sabah, and Jesselton became Kota Kinabalu. Illegal refugees were a non entity. The biggest rape case was Bernard Lim and Ms X (did she give freely and cry fowl (I mean foul), I can't remember). No breakins, gory murders, no bombs, no West Malaysians and con men. Children grew up OK. Even shit was edible, as you said. Best of all, we had the sea every day. And the islands which were filled with seaweed, coral, starfish and other LIFE FORMS in those days. The nearby islands have nothing left today.
Pete Lo
At 6:25 PM 28/1/99, schin wrote:
Datuk Lo
Once upon a time, we used to spear crabs in Sembulan beach, carrying a torch or kerosene lamp. Believe it or not, there were more crabs right underneath the shit holes of the stilt houses!. During those good old days, the shit was quite harmless, not polluted with heavy water.
I used to pick sea-rambutans, finger seashell using a mixture of limestone paste and chilli, applying it with the satay stick into their holes in the sea bed during low tide.
well, no beach in Sembulan anymore. The Singaporean built hundred of apartments on it!
Those were the simple days.
Kim Nyen
Subject: Re: Messed Up Menu
Author: Peter Lo at HYATTINTL Date: 27/1/99 12:44
Sir James,
When I was knee high to a grasshopper and the Likas Highway wasn't dream't of yet by Syed Kichik, I used to follow my father and uncles in their Land Cruiser to Likas beach with their pukat (net) at the back of the vehicle. We'd set the net at low tide at sundown about 200 meters from shore. On a good night, the prawns seemed like 20 tons. We filled 10 kerosine tins (those square ones) easily, we had to give stuf away to neighbours and friends all the time. My mother and aunties had to clean those bins till the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes we had to bring in the nt and undo it at home due to the weight of the catch. We used to fill Ikan Basung by the bins. I remember this stupid swordfish which gave my dad a nasty bite even after its beak had been cut down to its teeth.
More interestingly, we used to build a campfire on the beach so my uncles could cook stuff to eat, just behind Mr. Mathai's house, on the beach. You only had to BBQ a prawn for 5 seconds and they were edible. I had them raw, just like that. Prawns those days didn't have nuclear contaminated backs like today. You could eat that shit harmlessly. Now we have to slit the back and get rid of the aweful smelling stuff along its back.
Those were the days, where we only wore a Pagoda singlet and Carbide lamps on our helmets. And a pair of pliers, with a ratan basket on our backs.
That dream is all gone today to that muck of destitution we find along Likas Bay.
Pete Lo
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