Gunong Jerai in 1982

While going through my old photographs, I discovered a small album of semi-faded pictures taken at Gunong Jerai. It was May 1982 and a bunch of us, former colleagues of Ban Hin Lee Bank, together with a friend and a few with partners, had made an overnight trip up that mountain in Kedah. Yup, those were the days when everybody were still so young....

Incidentally, this was the first time that many of us had gone up Gunong Jerai, myself included. In the past, it was known as Kedah Peak and the mountain could be seen clearly from Penang island. Atop it was a transmitting tower. 

Several years later, another of my group of ex-colleagues from the bank's branch in Bukit Mertajam wanted to make a similar overnight trip there. A few weeks before the trip, we had made the bookings successfully but a few days before we could go, we received a call from the booking office saying that they had to cancel our trip because some self-important people from the Kedah government had precedence over us and wanted to use the bungalows. We completely lost interest in visiting the place after that.

Making our way down to a waterfall at Gunong Jerai

The waterfall at Gunong Jerai

The guys here were Lok Kah Meng, Chuah Teong Lye, Adam and Neoh Ken Gee

Who's this?

Lok Kah Meng

One of the buildings at Gunong Jerai, not the bungalow we stayed in

Misty morning

Neoh Ken Gee, myself, Chin Yoon Hee, Chuah Teong Lye, Lok Kah Meng, Loh soo Chin and his friend

Tan Shing Lieu, Lok Kah Meng, Loh Soo Chin and friend, Chuah Teong Lye and myself

Breakfast time

Those are rice fields down there. A pity that the clouds have blocked off the coast line

Wow, those shorts 😄

Myself, Khoo Lay Meng, Adam and Tan Shing Lieu

Loh Soo Chin

Chin Yoon Hee and his friend

Adam was working for one of the bank's customers. He was the one coming into the bank everyday to deposit the cheques and cash. Some of us got to know him well. What I remember about Adam was that when we arrived for the bungalow stay, the first thing he did was to bring out some joss sticks to ask the spirits on the mountain not to disturb us while we were there. I wonder where Adam is now.