Snail River
SUNGAI SIPUT, PERAK Sungai Siput lies midway between the state capital Ipoh and the royal town of Kuala Kangsar. Straddling Federal Route 1 the former tin mining town has the usual shophouses, coffee shops, padang and train station on the west coast line. Disused dredging ponds dot the landscape. Sprawling oil palm plantations extend east to the mountains. The Malaysian company SD Guthrie Berhad...
The Colonel’s Chit
17 Assistants, a Ferret scout car and Jabor Valley, 1955–1959 Many thanks to Jerry Stone an old mate from Hong Kong for the following story about his Dad's experience as a soldier and rubber planter in Hong Kong and Malaya: JEREMY STONE Jeremy Stone was born in Penang in August 1961, the son of Peter James Stone and Sarah Fiona Bridget Hobkirk. His sister, Julia, was born there in 1965. He spent...
In the Company of Planters
REMEMBERING PETER JAMES STONE 1931–2026 A stained-glass window in Kuala Lumpur’s St Mary’s Cathedral commemorates 99 British planters killed during the Malayan Emergency - a guerilla war fought between 1948 and 1960 by the Malayan Communist Party and Commonwealth military forces. The term ‘Emergency’ was used instead of ‘war’ because it allowed plantation owners to claim insurance for damages...
The Altar of Heaven
Some may, perchance, with strange surprise, have blundered into paradise. - Francis Thompson El Nido at the northern tip of Palawan is famous for its steep limestone cliffs, white sand beaches and offshore islands. Before the highway it was a gruelling combination of jeepneys and outrigger boats to get there. Six hours bouncing around an...
El Dorado of the East
SUNGAI LEMBING, PAHANG Sungai Lembing is 42 kilometres northwest of Kuantan the capital of Pahang state on Malaysia’s east coast. En route Rapid Kuantan bus C50 passes kampongs, palm oil plantations and a limestone karst housing the Gua Charas cave temple. Before World War 2 it took four hours by river steamer then fifteen miles by light railway to get there. The road, a gravel and...
My Kind of Town
THE PRINCESS OF PORTS Isla de La Paragua - A beautiful Princess – Massacre at the Plaza Cuartel – Face to face with a man-eating crocodile – Iwahig Penal Colony – Searching for the Pearl of Puerto – Chao Long in Chinatown – The Palawan Special Battalion – A motorcycle legend – The seaplane base - Sundowners...
A Very One-Sided Thing
"You can't be both east and west at the same time. You have to choose between the two." ¹ I only went to Hong Kong’s Queen’s Theatre once before it closed. The film I’ve forgotten, the experience I remember. Marking ‘X’ on a seating plan I was handed a ticket written in green pencil. The cinema was wood paneled, crown emblem on the seat backs, red ceiling to floor curtains covered the...
I’ve had a few
ONE SMILE SINATRA FLIES IN On a little street in Singapore. Browsing photos of Singapore in the 1960s there was one of singer Frank Sinatra. Sinatra never performed there and the picture was uncaptioned. Showing him mobbed by fans at Paya Lebar Airport the photo was published in the Straits Times on December 5 1961 under the heading ‘One smile Sinatra flies in’. Sinatra and his entourage landed...
About The Blog
In March 2020, after 28 years in Hong Kong, I moved to Penang as a base to travel in the region. The Covid 19 pandemic ended that plan and I spent much of the time re-reading books I had collected over the years. The only new book I bought was ...