This use to be my Playground (Part 1)

On my last day in Tawau, i manage to go back to my old place, It was formerly known as Burut Estate, as a kid i always wonder why was it called Burut ( you know what Burut means right) Burut in malay means the enlarge testicles of a man. hehehe. Now it is known as Kg Melati.. hey wait that was the name before too, but it was not widely used.

Things changed alot, my old house is no longer there, the road are smaller ( its either that or im getting bigger). The old mosque is no longer there and gosh the place looks hagard. I guess after the transition between BAL ( Borneo Abaca Limited) owned by CDC (Commonwealth Development Corporation) to the new management Golden Hope, the landscape change termendously.

Thats whats differs from the colonial time and the Malaysian. I once worked in BAL for 3 years and what differs when i was working in Taiko Plantation was the management puts the worker first. Every month we have these meetings with the Head of the village to discuss the current issues and the wellbeing of the villagers, and that the workers voice are heard, unlike when i was in Taiko, we just do not care what the workers dilemma what matters is by the end of the day how much profit the company makes.
The Perez residence, Uncle Perez was a formerly a Senior field Conductor in BAL and he use to be very mean not only to the workers but also to us ( including his children may his soul rest in peace Amin) Now this house is new before i am not sure what happen but it looks as if its been struck by lightning and now its just look old and haggard. I use to hang around this house alot with Raymond, Lylian and Lilibeth my best friend when i was a kid, and my mum would shout from my house to call me in the afternoon with a guava stick in her hands ready to give me a spank. hehehe.

This use to be the Oil Palm Mill manager residential, its up in a hil and previously it was surrounded with orchard. It was a beautiful house made of wood and the interior design is superb. One thing that i liked was you can play roller scate kat bawah, we use to call it bawah kolong.

This used to be my house, but was torn down and planted with oil palm. My mother use to plant alot of Banana trees and we use to sell it to the near shop.



This is the Mango tree (Wani type) its an old indian mango but the fruit was so scented and alot of insect infestation. Uncle Perez use to put his snake down the tree before slaughtering it.

This was our football field. It use to be so beautiful and green. We have another football field near our school but this is the largest , well so it used to be heheh. now it seems smaller. Our school use to have sports day there with all the small flags around the field.

This is the labourers quaters, we never manage to stay in one of these houses because it was only for the estates labourers and my mom was a teacher, so we stayed in the old staf quaters, and after a few year we found out that it was formerly the japanese house and there was a hole big hold in our kitchen, maybe it was a battle ground among the brit and japs before.

We called this the panggung before , but during the day its a classroom for primary 1 and 2. In the afternoon it wil be change to a panggung and the villagers can see tv there. Those days we couldn't afford to buy any TV, and during the weekend we can see movies but most of it is Indonesian and Chinese movies, as most of the workers are indonesian. Next to the pangung is the food stall selling all these local indonesian food such as gado-gado, soto, satay and many more.

This is my old school. Its from primary 1-6 and we usually have 2 sessions and the primary 3 and 5 will be in the afternoon.

These is one of the tuck shop. Its the Middle shop we used to call it Kedai Tukang. Its a tailor shop and my mother use to check the raffles ticket there after work. Tapi funny coz my mom never wins as far as i remember, but she keeps on buying.

This is another shop, my mums best friend we use to call it KEDAI BAWAH, my mother used to have lots of credits in this shops and we use to pick up the best onion at the back with my sister and brother but we cannot make noise eitherwise the tauke datok will get angry hehe. My mother use budget and list down the items we want to buy for the month and the shop will send it with a pick up and we would be so happy riding at the back of the pick up. ahhhhhhh

The Kedai atas, the most hated store in the village. We have very unforgetable experiences in this shop as they wouldn't accept credits for my mum and the goods are a little bit expensive as compared to the Kedai bawah. The youngest son use to be my classmate Ah Chong ( oh those typical Chinese name)

This is located at the back of my house, this use to be Mr Ongs house the Mill engineer. The back yard is covered with orchared , rambutan, mango , pineapple ,guava and me , my sister and brother use to sneak up and steal them. Once Mrs Ong came to our house complaining to my mum and soon after that they become good friends until now.