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RETURN TO SINGAPORE (1939)

On completion of Father’s contract with SOL in 1939 we move back to Singapore. I remember the vessel we travel on was the Raja Brooke operated by Straits Steamship I also remember we had dinner on deck mingled with other folks the cook will have a wooden bucket of rice free for all but we have to pay for other items mainly salted eggs and fish.

   

 Miri has a very small population mostly immigrants with a mix of tribes, Punans/Ibans, Kayans and Kelabits and more. Only one Chinese store, one market. Two schools English/Chinese run by Missionaries. Charlie and I attended the English school. Our friends are mostly Iban kids they don’t attend school. Our playground is the jungle. I remember we use to chase small mouse deer, play with flesh eating plants we feed them with rats etc. The larger ones in the interior would devour large animals like wild boars.  Jungle is full of surprises and dangerous. Rivers are dominated by crocodiles, every corner you turn there are snakes

Two brothers Ah Guan and Kuyong were adopted by my parents. Ah Guan was our house keeper and cook, Kuyong looks after the market store that Mother started. When we left for Singaporeshe gave that store to the brothers. Mother was very enterprising, she was engaged by the Shaw Brothers movie company to manage the first open air silent movie in Miri, everyone has to bring their own stool or sit on the ground, pay half price to watch from the back screen. The Cinema operates twice per week, if films failed to arrive in time from Kuching there will be no show.

MY CHILDHOOD: (as I was told)

I was born the 7^th day of August 1929 in the remote village of Miri, Sarawak.

Mother does nothing but indulged in home gambling and drinking with other housewife.

I had vision problem at birth this was the result of Mom’s heavy drinking, a bottle of brandy daily. I was sent to Labuan for medical attention. I had to stay at the Labuan Convent. It was the Catholic Priest who had me registered at the Registry-of-Birth when my parents were not around, my name Louis was given by him. My BC shows that I was the 564 child registered at that time. The last White Raja, Sir James Brooke was responsible in setting up the very first Registrar in Sarawak his signature appears on my BC.

I have no recollection of my stay at the Convent until age three my parents took me back to Miri. They nicknamed me Dayak (all natives are Dayaks).Father was away most of the time. Our wooden/atap house on stilt was one of many built by Shell Oil for company staffs located in Kuala Beliat/Miri. Kuala Beliat is part of Brunei. To pass the time housewife does nothing but indulge in home gambling, drinking, and smoking.

 With no paved roads, dirt tracks and rivers are the only way to move around on bicycles, pony/horse or river boats. Punans/Ibans the major tribal population will mingle with outsiders, they bring in their catch/produce to trade etc. Men has tattoos from fingers and neck down to their feet wearing only lion cloth, women had their ears weighted down to waist level. These symbolize power and beauty women are mostly topless. The Punans/Ibans live in ‘longhouses’ as many as 15/25 families would live together, they are land/sea Dayak nomads, move to different locations each year. The next accessible tribe is the Kayans, this fierce and unfriendly river tribes live in small boats on the river barely come to shore only wore black and are elusive.

THE ISLAND OF BORNEO

Known to foreigners as country of ‘Head Hunters’, divided in 2 parts, the north under British rule called British North Borneo now part of Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) with the south by Dutch rule called Kalimantan, handed over to Indonesia when Sukarno took over.

Another small state, Brunei sits between Sarawak with Sabah on the north. These three countries covers the northern part of Borneo, with the larger undeveloped part by Indonesia in the south.

SARAWAK

The third and last Rajah, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, succeeded his farther in 1917.

Charles Vyner Brooke transferred his rights from Brunei to the British Crown; Sarawak became a Crown Colony on July 1^st 1946.

Miri was a remote kampong nestled between Sarawak and Brunei, one must picture into a very different past, only atap houses and shops existed when the Shell people arrived.

Fresh meat was wild boar, buffalo, venison, monkeys, wild fowls and lots of flying foxes with fish from the rivers we even get crocodile meat and certainly snakes.

Miri has been wrested from the jungle and was only held on sufferance from it. Wild pigs and Mouse Dears used to run wild, always roaming near our house.

Family History

Grandma (Mom’s side) is Javanese and has no children of her own, my Mother and Uncle was adopted.  Grandpa Cheong took wife #2, a co-factory worker. Grandpa was factory Foreman at Frazer & Neave at the Tanjong Pagar location. Five girls and son Eng Kee was born. Uncle Soon Tuan joined F & N, remained there all his life.

                                           WHERE IT ALL STARTED

My Dad joined Shell Oil and moved to Kuala Beliat/Miri, I was not born yet.

We were among families from China, India, Ceylon, Malaya, Indonesia and Singapore recruited by Shell Oil Ltd to work in the oil fields in theBorneo jungle.

Dad was Clerk of Works in the exploration unit working in the jungle.

Dad has to make friends with tribal chiefs they taught him the rules of the jungle, as I understand he even took part in rituals.

My Siblings