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Driving up Penang Hill, 1914
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SIXTY YEARS AGO four young adventurers blazed a trial which has since not been followed - driving a car 2,500ft. up Penang Hill.
"We did this long before the proiect to build a hill road was contemplated," Mr. Tye Poh Sun, the only surviving member of the quartet, recalled today.
In 1914. when they accomplished the hazardous journey in two days, there were vary few bungalows on the hill - and no hill railway.
"Our destination was the Crag Hotel (now the Uplands School)," Mr. Tye, 74, said. "But we had to stop just before the post office which was next to the Penang Hill police station."
Mr. Tye said the trip was made in his father's car, a Willys-Overland. "I was then in the Junior Cambridge ( now Form Four) and at 14, was the youngest in the group," he said.
The other members were his elder brother, Keat Kwong, who had then just left school, Mr. Chan Hoe Pan, a businessman, and Mr. Lim Cheng Hoe, a brother of Mr. Lim Cheng Ean.
The four adventurers went up the hill through a path next to the entrance of the Penang Botanic Gardens, with Keat Kwong at the wheel.
"It was a pleasant drive, and we felt ourselves in tune with nature when we heard the calls of the insects and birds in the thick foliage of the surrounding jungles," Mr. Tye said. "The going was a challenge to the sturdy car which responded well to Keat Kwong's handling. The gradient at certain sections was 1:2."
There were small "ridges" built diagonally across the jungle path to control the flow of rainwater down the hill; and the adventurers had to cut breaches on a number of them to facilitate the drive. "The Government discovered this, and filed a claim for damages, which we paid," Mr. Tye said. "It then put up concrete posts at the foot of the path to discourage others from driving up again."
Mr. Tye said they set out early in the morning from his father's house in Gladstone Road. "The engine behaved beautifully and didn't even stall once," he said. "There was no mishap. I remember Keat Kwong had difficulty trying to negotiate a hairpin bend along a steep incline with a big boulder at the side.
"The car was at more than 30 degrees facing upslope. Keat Kwong manoeuvred the vehicle front and back several times, but finally had to give up trying to reach the Crag Hotel that way.
"It was then getting late. So we left the car there overnight and walked back to town. "We came back early the next morning and resumed the journey via another road to the post office and police station."
(top) Keat Kwong trying to reverse the ear at a sharp corner, in the back seat is Lim Cheng Hoe. Poh Sun is standing on a boulder.
There were very few people living up the hill in 1914. Apart from the Crag Hotel, the buildings up there were the Christian Brothers' Bungalow, Halfway House, and Mr. Loke Chow Thye's Mon Sejour (My Rest).
The other bungalows were built after the Penang Hill Railway started operating in 1923.
After a night's rest on the hill, the four adventurers started their re-scent the following morning, joined by Mr. Khoo Theam Hock of the Crag Hotel. Keat Kwong handled the car expertly on the journey downhill. Often, he had to switch to the lowest gear to help check the momentum of its forward roll.
Mr. Tye said an account of their adventure, together with photographs, was sent to England and published in a motoring magazine.
"Unfortunately, I have lost my copy after all these years," he .said.
Story in the Sunday Times of September 15th, 1974 by OH KEE T1ANG
(below) Going down.
NOTES:
Keat Kwong died in Boston. His widow built a bungalow at Leith Street which is now used as the Red Restaurant. She was active in the Ladies Chin Woo Association.
Cheng Hoe was the elder brother Lim Cheng Ean, the lawyer and Legislative Councillor of the S.S.
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