The Travel Bug Grows

No sooner we settled in Kuala Lumpur, we had to travel back to Penang because my grandmother lived there. She missed us and dad promised we would go back to see her whenever we can.

Dad owned a black Morris Minor which had this license plate - P645. The 'P' stands for the state the car was registered, and that was Penang. The number 645 indicated the number of vehicle Penang registered. Now, in those days, not many people owned cars or motorbikes. When we look at our old photo albums, we see all four of us daughters posing infront of the Morris, holding our skirts wide and looking pretty. I don't think any girls today would dare to pose this way!

Going on the 200 mile journey needed much preparation. With no highway cafes, frequent stops had to be made at little towns along the way. With little bladders, that could mean at least five to six stops. My mother would prepare sandwiches for us. I remember, she would boil like a dozen eggs for us and she would bring a little bottle of soy sauce because we wouldn't eat the eggs if we didn't have a few drops of soy sauce on them!

Imagine four girls at the back of the car, fighting over who gets the bottle of soy sauce first while keeping the peeled egg shells on tissue paper that were set on our laps? Often, mom would raise her voice to control these brats at the back of the car and there would be a momentary silence. No sooner, we were back again at each other.

Dad, on the other hand, while driving, would keep us alert to the geography of our trip. He would quiz us as to which is the next town coming up, give us mental arithmatic (which he loved to do 'to sharpen your minds' he would say) and got us to sing songs. And so, you can see, we seldom got bored. Whatever we wanted to know, we would ask dad. he seemed to know everything! How proud we were of dad.

When we got tired during the trip, we would just nod off where we were seated. We were not allowed to fret as mom would not tolerate any nonsense. If any of us felt like throwing out, we were to give an immediate signal for dad to stop the car. In those days, it was quite alright to just throw out under a bush. Mom will get us a cup of water to rinse our mouths, and then, we will be on our way. As I said, there should be no fuss. Everyone was happy.

So, our frequent travels to the north and back actually trained us to be good travellers. As we travelled, the travel bug grew and soon, dad would take us southwards. More of this next time.