SS Quah's Anything Goes: The BM hill

Wednesday, 27 November 2019

The BM hill

17 Sep 2019

This clump of earth had stood outside the town of Bukit Mertajam since time immemorial. Although the 541-metre high hill is at Cherok Tokun and is the focus of trekkers from dawn till dusk, people everywhere refers to it simply as the BM Hill. It's an iconic landmark of Bukit Mertajam. When travelling along the highways and expressway, seeing the hill appear in the distance means that home is nearby and fast approaching.

I remember really first noticing the BM Hill in 1973 when I joined the volleyballers from Penang Free School and supporters on a bus journey from Butterworth to a school in Bukit Mertajam for a state-wide school competition. At that time, the school had a very formidable volleyball team and they were sweeping prizes all around in the state. On that bus trip, I got to see the hill loomed ahead of us for the first time. Yes, you guessed right, that was the first time that I was visitng Bukit Mertajam on mainland Province Wellesley in all my 20 years! Fancy that.

22 Sep 2019

Of course, nowadays I stay in Bukit Mertajam and I get to see the BM Hill all the time. Every time I leave the house, there it was to my right, the foothills being about two kilometres away. I can't remember the countless times that I had focussed this hill in the sights of my camera or mobile phone.

Last September when the haze was at its height, I rued the fact that the hill was shrouded by the haze. From the direction of the railway station in Bukit Mertajam, there was nothing I could see whereas in better days, the hill could be seen in its magnificence: a clump of overturned earth with the sun peeking out during sunrise.

Then came the first rains finally, on 25 Sept, that began the process of sweeping away the dust from Sumatra. Mind you, this was a few days before the start of the annual Nine Emperor Gods festival which is celebrated in the country but never more so than in Penang.

25 Sep 2019

The accepted story is that the nine-day festival brings a lot of rain every year and there is not one Nine Emperor Gods festival where Penang and the northern part of the peninsula is deluged with heavy rainfall. This year wasn't any different and it was a welcome climate change for the residents here with cool days and even cooler nights. The power of the Nine Emperor Gods, I told one e-hailing driver in Kuala Lumpur recently with tongue-in-cheek.

As I mentioned earlier, I can't remember the countless times that I had taken a picture of this hill with my camera or mobile phone. More so with the clearing of the haze, the sky is seen in its splendour. There are days when I simply stop the car by the roadside just to gaze up at the hill. Here are some of the better recently-taken pictures.