This was where I came from

Boundary Road, officially the government set up the road name....I only realised it's called Boundary Road, since yesterday. I don't really want to know why, but I believe, the people here, like how it was, we still call it Rifle Range.

Part of an area of Ayer Itam, a very old market as central, surrounding of it, are numbers of cheap apartments, shop houses, a school, a cemetery, and a base of Red Head Army (I don't know the official title of it, but that's what we call them, in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien).

I can tell why was that area known as Rifle Range. It's a very simple story. It was an area used by Japanese armies to execute people during the 2nd World War.

I lived there for 7 years, count started from the day I was born. The memory in the unit, in the area, are still vividly clear in my mind. Hence, I decided to ride my bike there, take some photos, and want to share with the people around me.

The car parks without boundary

If you get your car a slot, you might think you are the lucky one. The following day, you will see layers of cars blocking behind you. You gonna have good time pushing and pulling the cars. I remember, the uncles in the coffee shop, always come out and help.

Sometimes when we come back late, we have to park at the area of other flat unit, and walk some distance to our unit. We had no problem to find our car, because it was an Orange Toyota Corolla. There was one morning, another Orange Toyota Corolla was parked beside our car, and the owner of another Corolla just standing beside. My dad didn't realised there was another one, and unlocked the wrong one. The owner was shocked. Then my dad was shocked as well. The funny thing, my dad's key able to unlock another car.

The one and only basketball field in that area. I was lucky, it was just next to our flat unit. Not that lucky, I didn't use it even once. It became car parks during the night. The condition of the field, same as the asphalt road of the area - Full of rubbish, dog shits, and crows' carcasses.

The staircase corner, where and uncle selling newspapers and magazines from evening till late night. Our car parked there or not, it was part of the daily route to go there and buy newspaper.

As usual, the area still full of abnormal people. I pity them. Those appeared in newspaper, the old men and women having trouble to pay rental, electric bill, or even for food, due to they are old already, and the kids are abnormal, can't work; you can find a lot of them in this area.

This is the Unit I live in. Block B. Don't tell me or ask me how scary or complicated Mentari court is. I lived in Rifle Range before. Mentari is just nothing.

The distance between the two of 16 levels cheap flats. All the bikes are parked at this gap. Grocery stores, hair saloon, coffee shops can be found inhabit at this level. Surprises were guaranteed. After yesterday's visit, still are guaranteed.

You need to have this kind of roof to protect your very own unit. People just simply throw rubbish out of their window. The condition of this roof, tells. There are always water dipping from a unit, then roof to roof, and finally reach the ground. You won't want to know what is the water source, and you won't want to know the explicit passed through stages by the water, such as moss, hairs, papers, spits, and etc.

You see a broom up there. No joke, I saw people throw down a television set. Yesterday, I almost get myself hit by a falling cement brick. Thanks God only the scattered pieces hit me.

The area, where I knew the 1st Indian friend, and we used to fool around in between this area and the basketball field.

Illegal extension were going on as well. I assume that's the reason a lot of Indians like to buy ground floor unit? I wondered, the Indians friends I used to know, where are they now.

See how the 1st floor people making good use of the extra spaces. Well, they paid the price. Everyday, they gonna clean the rubbish thrown by the people above.

Take a close look at the difference of every single unit...

Closer

Antennas..Now looks better. Last time they were messily arranged.

Blocks of the flats...I wonder if you know, these flat, were one of the very 1st flats in Penang. The contractor and technology were from France. That explains why you can't find any crack from the flat, although they were already there since late 1960s.

The rubbish always like this. The metal door never properly closed. Or I should say, no point of closing it. Everyday, you will see some old people, messing up the area, finding the rubbish like corrugated boards, or aluminium tins. You know what they gonna do with it, aren't you?

There were once, the whole galvanise unit of this boxes fall down, and a kid sacrificed. Then, they cemented it to the floor.

B-10-19

I always wanted to unlock the box myself, but it located on the highest row, which my dad had to pass me the key, and carried me on his hands, wait for me to unlock it.

I was sad, this is the new lift. It works quite well, and smell like old bed and dried pee....The old one was having a manual outer door, and the malfunction inner door with a hole you can see outside. The old lifts were the trademark of the unit. It always stop in between of 2 levels. A lot of times, the inner door open automatically, but the lift cubicle is not there.

"Why the mouth of that guy like this?", pointing at the guy.

"What is that thing came out from the shirt", pointing at the Indian lady, which her left boob totally came out of her sari.

"Why his head tilted to the left instead of the right?". pointing at the same dude I met in lift for times.

And etc.

I caused a lot of embarrassments to my parents in this 2m x 2m cubicle, due to I knew to talk at 10 months old, and I was curious about my surrounding.

The courtyard that expected to bring in more natural lighting...Kinda not working though. The flat is too tall, and the opening is too narrow. Well, look at this picture, it's a clear view to the sky! Last time, you will see wires crossing here and there. What I saw was, the wires and antennas, that trapped a lot of rubbish in the middle of no where. Pieces of rubbish fell when there was wind, "juices" dipping from rubbish bags hanging in the air...

Risking myself, standing in the middle of the courtyard. The air flew through was way cleaner than last time, although still the smell of rubbish. The noises made by people, echoed repeatedly in this shaft... Arguments, vulgars, kids crying, vulgars, vulgars, and vulgars.

Living at 10th floor, wasn't that bad...I still get some light.

I liked to wander here and join the neighbors, because they gave me candies, talk to me, and said I was adorable.

Really unbelievable to wonder how they cleared the messed up wires of this shaft...There were so many things to see when walking this corridor. You see mice falling from up there to the ground, not dead due to the layers of antenna and wires. You see people throw a bucket of Carlsberg bottles from top, to the ground, few antennas were pull down together and destroyed, and etc.

This was the exact unit I lived in....I so wanted to knocked the door and ask them to allow me to take some photos of the interior, as well as the view this small unit get. But there was no one. Mainly, I didn't have the guts. The view from this unit was awesome. Directly facing the base of Red Head Army. You able to see them marching, and all sorts of strange formation thing.

My most favorite neighbor's house. I wonder who's living there now. I don't know why I like the 70 year old auntie so much that time. But among all, she was the friendliest. I heard that she died, from my grandma, 8 years ago. I hope you didn't see anything strange from this picture.

The angle I 1st saw a corpse lying down there. 2 bikes were destroyed, antennas were pulled down together. It was someone committed suicide.

The place where we throw our rubbish. Some people choose to just put their rubbish there. Some people, not even visiting this place, straightly settle them by throwing them out of the windows.

No more messy wires and antennas, but grow some numbers of mushrooms.

3 lifts, only 1 lift will stop at 10th floor. Most of the time, we gonna walk down to 10th floor from 11th floor.

One of the element I think that it never change. The staircase. The stains, the dirts, like layers of them, are still there. Other spaces like lift lobby, and corridor, most of them already coated with a layer of cheap water paint.

There was a Sunday, the lifts were out of service. We were forced to go down by using the nearest staircase. Due to fast speed of parents, I rolled down from the staircase and hit my upper lips. My lip were bleeding. My mouth were cleansed by my mum, I was motivated by dad; one hand holding my dad's hand, another holding my lip, finally we reached ground floor. Dad bought a corn favored potong. I was amazed and laughing to see how the yellow potong soaked with a small patch of red blood.

Yesterday was the 1st time I went up to 16th floor. The environment really nice there. Least noise, least polluted air.

16th floor is like a totally different place compare to the levels down there. That explains the people living at 16th floors why look more like normal being.

I guess that's it for this post. Too much great memory in this area. This was where I came from.