He got onto his boat and attached the sampan to it. He then connected the petrol canister to the engine and got it started.
By now the tide has risen high enough for us to sail to sea and to those places too shallow to visit at low tide without worrying about getting stuck in the mud.
With a cigarette in his mouth, the cool sailor reversed through the crowded water to reach open sea.
This was all that remained of the old jetty. It was a very sorry sight for it was full of memories for me. I can still feel the crowd and hear the voices as they embarked and disembarked from the ships haunting me like old ghosts.
When we were a teenager, practically the whole town will be here every Chap Goh Meh (the 15th days of Chinese New Year). All the young men and women of Port Klang will be down here to honor the tradition of throwing oranges and apples in the hope of getting a good mate. In the old days, not many people throw anything though we talked a lot about it. Apples and oranges are expensive! It was more to see the crowd (opposite sex) and to take in the cool evening breeze. We did nothing yet it seemed to be so much fun then. Now, this skeleton is all that is left of our memories. Before long, even this will be gone...
With the death of the old, a new jetty is born. You can see the crowd getting into the ferry in the new terminal in the extreme right of the picture.
These two concrete slopes also brought back memories. They were all that were left of the warehouses that temporary stored the catches from the sea before dealers came to collect them. They were sorted, boxed and iced here. The buildings are now gone. We are now in open water. We will be riding towards Bagan Hailam and the Yatch club in the direction of the bridge connecting North Port to the mainland.
To be continued...
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