Telok Anson

My wife and I were in Lumut recently. Actually, we went to more than this seaside town. We stopped overnight in Lumut while on the way back from Trolak where we had attended a Malay wedding. It was that of the son of her former colleague from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers.

We drove all the way down from Bukit Mertajam in the morning, arriving just in time for lunch at the mosque, and then after my wife and her friend had a long chat to catch up on old times, it was time for us to go off again.

As I mentioned earlier, we had planned not to go home directly but to stay overnight in Lumut. So it was another long drive on the secondary roads to Sitiawan, briefly passing through Telok Anson where we stopped by their most famous landmark, the leaning tower.

We were very surprised to see the condition of the tower. Although still a very sturdy structure, there's hardly any attempt at conservation. Anyone could go up almost without any restriction and touch whatever could be touched.

The history behind this tower was that it was built in 1885 by a local contracter, Leong Choon Chong. The tower housed a water tank that supplied water to the town area and was a reserve during periods of drought and fire. It was also used to report time and served as a beacon to guide ships into the Telok Anson port. This tower drew comparison with Pisa's leaning tower although at 25 metres and with 110 steps, it is not as tall as the Leaning Tower.

The circular tower stands three-storeys tall although from the outside, it looks like an eight-storey building with a base measuring 13 metres and tapering to 8.2 metres at the highest level. It was constructed from wood and brick. Today, the Telok Anson Tower serves as a tourist attraction. There is a clock, which hopefully still in working condition, bought from from JW Benson-Ludgathy of London and installed in 1894. 

But right next to the tower was a fair in full flow: noise disguised as music filled the air and rubbish strewn on the open grounds. Very disheartening to see the lack of civic-mindedness among the people. Anyway, that was the Telok Anson Tower.