Bukit Gambir

A quick reminiscence. I woke up this morning and looked out the window and suddenly, my mind was transported back to the 1960s when I was still growing up in Seang Tek Road. 

We lived in this house just off Dato Kramat Road and my parents' bedroom was on the first floor, looking out onto the street. So many times I would stare out of the window. 

The view looked into a back lane opposite the house and afar, I remember seeing a hill in the background which I assumed to be Penang Hill. I imagined seeing the funicular railway in the distance. During days when incoming storms were brewing, I could really see dark clouds cover up the gloomy hill top. 

But of course, there is no longer such a view for me. Now staying in Bukit Mertajam, Penang Hill is so far away and the Cherok Tokun Hill is my most immediate nature play ground. 

I opened up Google Maps today and tried to trace my line of sight from the Seang Tek Road house. To my surprise, it was not Penang Hill after all but the smaller hill next to it: the Bukit Gambir Hill, which nowadays has acquired the infamous nickname of Botak Hill after illegal hill clearings took place several years back.