The Penang Hill climbing competition

Post 95 An interesting school life!
The Penang Hill funicular railway was opened in 1923. The blue, air-conditioned Swiss-made coaches, capable of ferrying up to 100 passengers at one go only started operation in 2011. The 87-year-old funicular railway system is now history.

In 1959 I was studying in Form One at the Chung Ling High School Penang. The school was and still is the first choice of many aspiring graduating primary school boys. At that time the school, which even attracted students from Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, and other states of the then Malaya, had two co-curricular activities which were the envy of many students from other secondary schools: the annual swimming competition across the Strait of Penang to Butterworth, and the Penang Hill climbing competition. I was interested in the latter.

On one morning, all potential competitors for the hill climbing event gathered together at the school field. We were then told to run round the 400m school field. I did not know exactly why we needed to do so but nevertheless join in the race. After running the 400m, a doctor used his stethoscope to check on my heart beat. Only then did I realize that he was our school doctor and that all competitors had to go through such test.

“Have you participated in this event before?” the school doctor who took time off from his clinic asked me. When I replied in the negative, he told me, “Well, you can try!” I was given the green light to participate in the hill climbing competition!

I did not finish the climb with any prize; neither did I become the fallen climbers who needed help from the Red Cross members at the finishing line.

At the next Hill climbing competition I found myself as a member of the school brass band performing at the top of Penang hill.

17 May 2011