Photo shows the Heritage Station Hotel.
NEXT week, a member of my family has some assignment to carry out in Kuala Lumpur that requires spending a couple of nights away from home. A room at a favourite hotel was duly booked a few weeks earlier at an agreed rate – RM239 per night.
A few days ago, came a call from the hotel counter and I answered the call. The clerk on duty was telling me that the room rate for the first night remained the same while that for the second it would be increased to RM440! When I enquired why the increase, he answered, “It is Umno Season,” adding, “But don’t worry, there will be two breakfast coupons.”
My immediate reaction was, “She doesn’t need two breakfasts, meh?”
“It’s our policy and good gesture,” came the reply.
Apparently, most rooms at the 3- to 4-star hotels in the capital city are fully booked during the Umno Season.
As the trip is important and there’s nowhere else to stay but a room in an inn, there is no choice but to accept the changing situation without grumbling. It is the wrong time to be in KL.
That reminds me of the good old days there years ago – accommodation, transportation and food were all very much cheaper than they are now. The period between 1965 and 1969 happened to be the early years after the formation of Malaysia.
I was a young government servant working for Federal Minister for Sarawak Affairs Temenggong Jugah Barieng (hereinafter called Apai, meaning father in Iban).
Among my duties was to book rooms for the minister, his political secretary and two bodyguards and, don’t forget, myself whenever we were in KL.
I came to the city for the first time in November of 1965. Alfred Unteng Mason, a Kuching boy who had studied in Singapore before the Second World War was Apai’s political secretary. He had known KL like the palm of his hand and it was he who suggested names of good hotels for me to stay. Alfred told me that Apai would not move to a new hotel because it would ngamara ka duit prentah (wasting government’s money). He was perfectly happy with the Station Hotel where he started from the beginning. However, he insisted that we all stayed together under one roof. The minister’s ruling stood.
There were few good hotels in KL in the 1960s – the Merlin, the Malaya, the Federal, the Miramar, the Town House – these were the abodes of the Parliamentarians and the Senators from Sarawak and Sabah. Town House was the favourite for Sabahans. Meet Peter Majuntin there, meet Gani Gilong there; meet the MPs from Sarawak there – Pengarah Banyang, Edwin Tangkun, and Dagok Randan there. Meet Senators Andrew Jika and Oyong Lawai Jau at the Malaya when Senate was in session. To see Donald Stephens go to Merlin and Jugah at the Station.
Meet Ling Beng Siew at the Merlin and whenever he was in town an invitation to a sumptuous dinner was the norm. The favourite restaurant was Kum Leng. Food was cheap. Fifty dollars for 10 persons plus the usual alcoholic beverages would be about the ‘damage’. Not more than RM100. Believe me.
Station Hotel was noisy with the train coming and going regularly. At 6am it was too early for the sleeper upstairs to wake up but after a time one got used to it. Each room had a white mosquito net above which whirled the ceiling fan. The minister’s room was later equipped with an air-conditioner that sounded like a concrete mixer. But the room service was excellent and so was the food served. The minister paid for his own breakfast and not charged to the room (RM35 dollars in 1965); RM25 for each of the other rooms for the Ministry’s entourage. What a privileged it was life!
For transport there was a government car for us – in spick-and-span condition. Osman, the driver, was always cheerful and ever obliging to take us around the city and its outskirts and even as far as Cameron Highlands for us to savour the mountain air. On Sunday, there would be a trip to Morib for the juicy crabs or to Kajang for the famous satay. During recess of the budget session, we made a trip to Ipoh for food and to Penang for more food and leather goods.
A visit to Taiping was a must – to visit the Sarawak Rangers. Apai was proud of the role of the Rangers in Malaya; his nephew, Walter Ted Wong, was a Major in the Ranger Battalion. At the Officers’ Mess we met Major Edmund Abbit, Major Wilfred Busu and Warrant Officer Tom – these three were my mates at St Thomas’ School, Kuching, in the 1950s.
On the way home from Taiping we would stop by the Malay villages where we bought durians and ate them there on the spot. Durians in West Malaysia were always in season, it seemed. In Sarawak, we they are not allowed to be taken inside a hotel; not even a minister could set aside that ruling.
The morning rains woke us up early. But it suited us well. There were newspapers Straits Times, Straits Eco and Utusan Melayu to buy and read for the minister to update himself with the issues of the day – what was going on in the other parts of the world as well. He was always asking for news on or about Sarawak.
Occasionally, Ling Beng Siew, president of the Sarawak Chinese Association dropped in to see us.
For lunch we went to the Colosseum, a restaurant where you would occasionally meet some old British expatriates and planters. A giant beef steak would cost RM5 plus charcoal baked bread. And tea or coffee another dollar.
Duties in KL for us revolved around Parliament House and the PM’s office and by the Minster’s side all the time. Inside the Parliament building there was a bar where the MPs could get their supply of coffee or tea and strong alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. We tagged along and got some fringe benefits to be sure. I can’t imagine such facilities are available now. Times have changed. The new MPs from Sarawak and Sabah, you don’t know what you missed!
Whenever there’s news about what’s happened in KL – collapsed buildings, floods, bank robbery, I always think of how well life was treating us 50 years ago.
That was our previous life.
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