One Weekend in Muar

Took a long weekend holiday back home.

Going home is always a bittersweet experience for me – i love the town, its where i lived and grew up for the first 18 years of my life. But home wasn’t always a happy place. So i don’t really go home that often since.

This time round, spent some time going round my old haunts, taking photos. Maybe to remind me of the past.

This was my primary school, Ismail One. Finest in town.

This entrance wasn’t there back then. There was an old fence with a narrow gate. Outside there was always an Indian man selling ‘kacang puteh’ for 20 sen.

The hall looks exactly the same as it did then. Save the new coat of paint.

The old classrooms. “Take a pic of the standard 2 classrooms!” i said. “WHICH is the standard 2 classroom?!” my wife replied.

This was my sister’s school, Convent Muar. If it looks small, it actually is. Most of the girls i knew went to this school (except the ones in my school).

This is the view from the padang side. The building there was the old Convent kindergarten, not sure if it still exists.

I didn’t take any pics of MY secondary school, coz it was a pain to stop on the busy main road and snap pics. Plus the gate was locked.

I did however take pics of High School Muar (Sekolah Tinggi Muar), my brother’s school. A lot of my friends went to this place, too.

This is the beautiful government office across the school field where my dad worked for a few years.

I went round the back to take pics of Sri Muar School (Sekolah Menengah Sri Muar), where my brother spent his lower secondary. I was shocked to find it gone! High School had taken over its premise! I wonder if Sri Muar had moved or merged with High School?

Next to the government office is this beautiful house beside the river, still in immaculate condition after more than 40 years. Someone one told me it belonged to the Johor royal family.

The other thing we did during the weekend (other than eat a lot) was go to a farm owned by my mom’s friend. They plant a lot (and I do mean a lot) of different fruits there, but this time only the duku and duku langsat were in fruit.

That’s mom and friend starting the harvest.

For the uninitiated, THIS is DUKU…

…and THIS is the hybrid DUKU LANGSAT. The former is bigger, orange in colour and has thicker skin. The latter is yellow and much smaller.

There was too much fruit to harvest, most of it was left on the trees coz this year they were too small to sell.

Hawaiian papaya, the tree is less than 7′ tall. Easy to pluck.

Guava, a.k.a. jambu batu.

No trip to Muar is complete without a visit to Tanjung Emas and Tanjung Ketapang, known collectively as ‘tanjung’. This is the road leading to Tg. Ketapang, with the public golf course on both sides. Due to global warming, you can see the drain water has risen dramatically in the last 20 years…

…caused by the rising river water level. In a few decades, my town will be submerged underwater.

And of course the infamous monkey park next to the mangrove. Trust me, there are hundreds more around.

A visit to Lim Brothers, to see fish and birds for sale.

Muar has changed a lot in the intervening years i have been away, for better and for worse. But its still my hometown. 🙂