Reunion Cameron Highlands 13/14^th September 2003

Long distance organising has its difficulties but I needn’t have worried as it all came together. All 22 of us arrived in the Cameron’s for the Friday. We started with a surprise birthday dinner for Arnold Harris; the hotel made a beautiful cake. All of us had met before at previous reunions except for John Cox who e-mailed at the last moment wishing to join us.

Saturday – D – Day It’s Raining! Lots of us walked the Jungle Path to see the Rock Pool; this as a lot of people already know has been smartened up with a bridge across, there is also a car park close by. Anne and I walked into Tanah Rata, which has grown, with buildings on both sides of the road. By 3 PM the rain has stopped we all may our way up to Slim Camp to be met by the Army all smiling and happy to see us showing us all the memorabilia they have on the school. It was very emotional time for us, being able to look around, us girls looking at our old dormitories, which didn’t look big enough for all the beds end to end. The bathrooms and washrooms now sadly unused and neglected. (although the army have tried to keep everything up and running but there isn’t enough funds) The dining room also looking small, the hall still with the bars at the back and the stage. The grounds are beautifully cared for with flowers and the walls painted white!

8 PM we all dress up to go for our evening of entertainment. I have prepared a speech, as requested, this being very short, to be given a list of names to read out of all the dignitaries present. I nearly died when I saw it. I was first on and read the list out I’m sure that my pronunciation wasn’t all that good and was so worried I forgot my prepared speech and don’t remember what I said, but was assured by the group that is was Okay! After the speeches we had an International Barbecue cooked by our hotel The Strawberry Park, we were entertained by the most wonderful troupe, the pride of Malaysia Culture and Tourism. The dancing and singing the best there is, the song sang at the end "Malaysia Truly Asia” can be sang in 27 languages

The Minister Of Tourism and Culture Data Masnah is the daughter of the Storeman and she told us about her family being one of 16 children, At the end of the evening we all were presented with a gift, then we were all interviewed by reporters, loads of photos taken.

This truly was a great event.

A Big Thank you to Pahang Tourism for giving us such a wonderful evening and Army for allowing to enter their Camp all making our visit something really special.

Sunday we attended a service in All Souls Church being made welcome by Rev Dr ViJi Daniels then we taken to a few other places one being Tanglin School which is now a small hotel by the Mr Ming of the Strawberry Park Hotel.