Setting

Like usual, this one popped out in my head out of nothing.
I just realised that I was groomed in beautiful places.
It's not like everyone get that.

Most of my days before starting formal education was spent in Batu Feringghi, which, back in those days is starting to get spotlight from outsiders. So you can say the beauty is not yet demolished.

Then all the 89 born kids had to register for elementary.
My alma matter is a bicycle ride away. Smacked right next to the forest.
Boys would sometimes go south into the forestry to dip in the pools.
Our cross country includes running through the chinese cemetery perched on the hill and a view of Teluk Bahang Dam. Not forgetting the rolling hills right left back as the backdrop.
Our teachers are exceptional ones, so we were among the top school in 3K competition.
I had the opportunity to pick veges from the science garden, sneaking onto the small island in the middle of wade pool, hunting grasshopper on the school field and reading al fresco.
We had several neatly kept rock gardens, corridors bursting with colourful boards loaded with informations and countless trees as shades when it get too hot ~don't forget the place is named Telok Bahang and it does live up to its name.

3 Hijau 1998

My high school is a notch up from elementary. After all, it's a boarding school.
Although our girls quarter corridor faced withering houses, beyond the dorm door and on the top bunk, you can always catch the view of Bukit Mertajam.
If one big field is not enough, we had another small ones made like a theathre.
I like how Pondok Ilmu is cosy.
I love the pinang trees lining the road from our main entrance.
And although I super rarely was there, I think the rows of benches next to the security is the best place of all.
Being few decades old, the ground is dotted with big trees and potted plants.
The flora is not properly maintained but then it's not an eyesore.
The boards are taken up by societies, mostly boasting unfunctional hierrachy.
On the Geography board, we would write nonsense thing like typhoon on Monday and flooding on the day before.
We had rambutan, mangoes and tamarind trees on the school ground.

Cleaning the area of welcome board. 2006.

To be continued ~~ Kem PLKN Bukit Besar, MAIS