Marstrand Island

Mastrand in Gothenburgh and the granite statue in front of my residence

August should have been hot in Gotherburgh, but not this particular summer week . It had been raining and windy. So that Saturday , when the sun was up and sunny, and Andre suggested that we should take the one hour drive to Marstrand, I just accepted his invitation.

When we arrived at the pier to Maastrand, there were already many people at the jetty. The ferry that took us through the narrow straits soon was full, and off we went to the island. There were sailing boats of all shapes and sizes in the channel and at anchor.They flew flags that indicated they were from distant shores-Norway, Denmark, Finland, Hollang, England , Germany.It was a bright sunny day and people were just relaxing and sunbathing on the boats and on the jetty.

The shops that lined up the Marstrand street were filled with people drinking and eating seafood . I walked past the shops toward the old fortress that dominated the island.

The castle was an important monument to the history of southern Sweden. It was an outpost protecting the southern border of Sweden from the marauding invaders particulrly the Danes. It sits on a hill and was built of solid rocks that looks impenetrable. The fortress itself saw some actions. When its roles as a fortress lost its significance, the fortress became a prison for convicts. Many history and local tales were made at the prison.

Climbing up to the highest point in the tower explained why this wind swept rock was chosen as the site for the castle. Beyond the island, for many miles the fortress commanded the view of incoming ships from distant land. It was a desolate lookout post for southern Sweden perched on a formidable hill surrounded by a channel of water that was tracherous to invading enemy ships.Even for prisoners, the fortress was an insurmountable stone wall on a barren island that would make any attempt at escape impossible. The prisoners must had had tough life crammed into small cell accomodating 20 prisoners each.Visitors like me were able to feel the life of the prisoners because the prison artifects and props were restored as close to real life of 300 years ago.

I spent close to 3 hours in the fortress listening to the recorded history of the fortress as I climbed the steps and walked the yards. Sweden indeed had an interesting history, taking stake in its neighbours' territory and fighting battles with its ambitious neighbours particularly the Danes and the fortress played an important role.

Back to modern times along he wharf,I chit chatted with a few boat owners. One man told me due to the cost it was impossible to own and maintain a boat by himself nowaday. So he co owned a boat with a few friends , organising themselves in the timesharing scheme. I met Bengt, a man from the same Company I was working , whom I had communicated a number of times through the phone, but never met in person. Bengt said his timesharing boat could accomodate 3 or 4 couples on a sailing trip that normally took him 1-2 weeks.Bengt loved the sea and had been sailing since young.The longest trip he ever made was to the West Indies, but that was many years ago, and now Bengt sailed the water around Gothengurgh.The Swedes , being the Viking ancestors, loves their boats and are proud to talk about their boat.

Semporna , Mabul and Sipadan

After almost 40 years I was visiting Semporna again.From Tawau, the road to Semporna was totally different. The jungle that lined the road had all been replaced by palm oil plantation. It was no more the gravel road and it was possible to zoom at 120km per hour reaching Semporna in a matter of two hours.

The Semporna town itself had changed. There were no longer wooden shop houses. The shophouses are now concrete bricks and the houses that lined the road are brick houses. Kampung Bogaya where I stayed for a month doing a social project, was now seen a suburb in the munacipility of the town.There were so many changes in the waterfront, with more motorboats and vessals plying between the market and the islands aroung Semporna.

I checked into Semporna Water Village, a hotel built on stilt in the water that dominated the sea front. Here visitors came to stay and to enjoy fresh sea food that was scooped from the sea underneath. That night I had a good dinner at the sea resort.

The next morning I took a boat to Pulau Mabul on a one hour speedboat journey from the Semporna waterfront. The island now has about 70 houses, some on water and some onshore. I was greeted by an Italian couple who had made the island their home and running a lodging house on water meant for foreign backpeckers who normally stayed for two weeks on the island. The couple also arranged diving excursion and diving equipments to visitors who comes from all over the world particularly Europe.

As this is a frontier island, the island community was made up of Suluk, Badjau, Illanun and other ethnics of southern Phillipines and Indonesia. They understood Malay, indeed I saw an UMNO sign board , affirming that they must be members of that party and well represented. I met an islander originally from Perak who had made the island his home and married a women from the island. The island community was a close community, at ease with outsiders that just after a few hours you felt at home in their midst.

The next day I took a boat to Sipadan, which was another hour from Mabul by speed boat.In the horizon I could see Ligatan, another island that brought Malaysia and Indonesia into dispute. Sipadan was a very beautiful coral island attracting many visitors, mostly for diving, snorkelling or lazying about on its sandy white shore. It is a security zone and visitors must leave the island by 300 PM. With such a short time at my disposal I used the time to explore the beautiful underwater garden of the island.

I had been to Perhentian, Redang, Gaya and Sapi before, but the beauty of Sipadan surpass them all by many times. The reef was healthy and the underwater life plenty. The fish were much bigger and they swim along in huge schoal ,very close and around me and never seemed to be away. The turtles that swam along side me were of a bigger species. The corals were vibrant with multiple colour . I felt I was in a beatiful garden. The coral clung close to the shore and after a few meters plunged deep into the dark sea. I must had been swimming, diving and snorkelling close to 4 hours without realising that time was up for me to leave the curfew island.

I rushed back to Semporna, took a car to Tawau and home to KL on the last flight.Although it was a short tiring trip of only two nights it was a memorable one which I would like to repeat, this time spending more days doing nothing at Mabul.

My grandfather's muniscript

I was surprised when Pak Cik Braim handed to me my grandfather's manuscript that he had compiled and completed in 1967 at the age of 67. It was 124 pages long, written by cursive jawi script which I recognised the handwriting to be that of my grandfather. It was family history depicting his childhood experience. his adulthood, his marriages, his family and the final sense of satisfaction he got from life after all those years of hardwork and misfortune. The muniscript ends up with a pantun asking his future generation to be down to earth and humble.

Reading the manuscript brought me back to my grandfather with whom I had stayed for many years when I was in my primary school kampumg school.My grandfather was a determined man and serious with what he was doing. At the time when I was close to my grandfather he was already a reknown petition writer in Sitiawan. As a petition writer he assisted kampung folks with their problems in government matters particularsly with the land office, the road transport department and the registration department. His shop in Sitiawan would be a meeting place not only for people to get their problems resolved, but also for the Sitiawan Malays to get together to have a chat or catch up with the latest news.

I was always at my grandfather's shop whenever I had nothing much to do. We hardly strike at a long conversation, because my grandfather was normally not the type who easily strike conversation with anyone. But the fact that he was there was very reassuring. I read the jawi Utusan Melayu, the newspaper he subscibed and that was how I was conversant with jawi. Sometime he would give me money, that that motivared me to drop in at his shop more often.

After reading his manuscript, I understood more why my grandfather was more resourceful than most people his age that I knew in my childhood days. My grandfather must have indeed learnt from my great grandfather to be involved in all sort of ventures in order to survive as an immigrant from Sumatra. My grandfather had tried many things in his life before he settled down as a petition writer in the 60s.In the 70s this job must have brough him some moderate sucess to enable him to buy some landed propoerties that he was able to pass on to his sons to build houses of their own. Indeed my grandfather was proud that his children were sucessfully starting families of their own.

Of course my grandfather seemed to have some weak spot that he could avoid that made his journey in life going through rough patches. He was a person who acted on his feelings and emotions. His several marriages and divorces did not seem to come from rational thinking, but rather on emotional feelings that was decided by the sentiment of family members. I couldnt blame him for that for the Malays of the early 20s and 30s was a closed society trapped in old tradition.He changed jobs a number of times and when he had a job he did not plan to build a career out of it. He also moved from place to place quite often without ever figuring what was ahead.His moves to Kuala Ketil with my grandmother in the middle of the night, unannounced and with no clue of the trouble ahead was one example of his daring exploit. And quite surpringly, he was flamboyant man who look for fun in boria and music.

These are fact of his life I knew very little about the man whom I had known as a pious and godfearing man. I knew my grandfather when he must have been 55-60 years of age. I used to stay with him when I was a boy attending a Malay school in Sitiawan. If he didnt go to the mosque for his subuh prayer, he would pray in the house and I could remember the melodious surah he used to recite at dawn. It was such a sweet music to my ear. but I pretended to be sleep and despite his piousness ,my grandfather had never woken me up to say prayer.


A man inherits some genes from the aerlier generations. I guess too I must be having some of the genes that my grandfather had passed down to me.I love the sea and harbour a dream that one day I would sailing like my great grandfather.I like having fun too and sometimes would go for a fling and enjoy good things in life. I am focused in my career and family life and would do anything to make my life and that of my family sucessful.Intelectual curiosity was something that grandfather possessed that put him apart from his friends and peers, indeed he was a reference source for many information and would make conversation in politics and society more lively.These are some of the traits that I inherit from my past generations.