Back to Kluang

My great mate Sunny dropped by had a detour through Kluang, Johor to visit and met up with our mutual friend Fiza (I’ve known Fiza since primary school). It seems that Fiza gave him a grand tour of the quaint district, starting with my old house in Kampung Melayu!

This was the house where my family stayed in circa 1990 until we moved away to Leicester, England in 1997. It was quite big, although it was only single-storey. You might not see it, but the front lawn was gorgeous. The back plot contains a few rambutan trees, and mom planted all sort of plants around the house.

There are a few quirkiness about the house too. The front door opens outward, and the window grilles are inside, rendering them quite useless (broken windows abound). An interesting note is the house compound is connected to the next-door house, which was occupied by the previous landlord.

Up until now, every time I dream of “home”, I dream of this one even though now we reside in Putrajaya.

It seems since then the house has been given a new paint of coat, and the grassy lawn seems no more.

Next, Sunny went to my old primary school! Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampong Melayu (notice the different spelling of Kampung, don’t know what’s the deal with it):

It looks so different! The 3-storey building you see in the picture was only single before this, and the block was beside a haunted toilet block where I once got sort of mildly cursed/haunted/whatever you want to call it—Malays would know what I mean.

What great memories I had here! I miss all my friends from back then, and the only recent ones I got to meet were Fiza who went to Macquarie University, and Fadhil who went to Perth.

Thanks Sunny and Fiza for sharing these photos and bringing me along a nostalgic trip down the memory lane! Haha, what cliched choice of words.

bonus photo, the brothers in Leicester, thanks to my brother Akram for scanning and uploading this: