Ever since I finished High School I have wanted to go back to Malaysia where I had spent some of my childhood while my father was deployed at Butterworth with the RAAF. //mandasmusings.com/2008/03/28/more-school-days-nostalgia/

In September I  had that opportunity….after  37 years!!

Groups of ex RAAF School Penang students have been organising reunions in various cities across Australia since 2003. There have also been a couple of Penang visits. This year, another reunion was organised to be held in Penang in September. I was determined that I would go. I made sure I booked and paid my deposit in January. No turning back now!

On September 26 2010 my bag was packed and I headed out the door en route to Penang. Firstly, I had to catch a bus to Sydney airport, a 3 hour ride from Canberra. I figured, by the time I check baggage in and board, fly to Sydney change terminals etc, it would have taken 3 hours anyway and going by bus would save me a couple of hundred dollars which I could add to my spending money 🙂

When I got to Sydney and checked in my luggage the checkin staff asked “Are you going to that school reunion in Penang?” I said, “OH? Have you had a few others?”, “Quite a few!” was their response.

The flight  to Kuala Lumpur was smooth and whilst waiting to change plane to Penang I caught up with other travellers I knew. There were about 30 others going to the reunion on our flight. We arrived in Penang sometime after midnight, it had been raining and was hot and steamy…lovely!!! just as I remebered.  It was then a half hour bus ride to our hotel at Batu Ferringhi.  Along the way, in the dark it was hard to recognise anything, yet it was all familiar and there was something about the atmosphere that felt like returning home. We were given our room keys, itinerary and instructions for the next day and found our way to bed.

I have to say, the bed was the hardest bed I have ever slept on! I ended up turning the airconditioner off as it was too cold for me….and I hate coming out of cold airconditioning and hitting the outside like a wall of humidity…not the way to get acclimatised! Other than that my room was huge and I could spread out though I wasn’t planning on spending much time there.

All in all there were some 280+ RAAF School students,teachers and family members all together. As I was attending on my own,  I teamed up with a couple of other solo attendees…. Fred McArdle who I had met previously through the last Canberra reunion and Glynis Enright, who knew Fred from her stay in Penang in the ’60’s. My old friend and neighbour, Jeff Flemming was there with his wife and youngest, Kerry Crag from my ’70’s holidays, Dave Neilen from the 60’s Dolfins swimming club days and a few others who I knew of  but didn’t actually have freindships with.  However, the special part of being part of this RAAF School family is the shared experience that we have…….. it doesn’t matter that we were there at different times/years, that we never actually met, we all experienced as children, that special thing that was living and going to school in Penang.

The next couple of days, apart from Happy hours, breakfasts and dinners, was made up of some organised sight seeing tours to refresh our memories of those places we had seen so many years ago.

Glynis, Fred and I then added some other excursions we felt we had to do….. visit Penang Hill and shop along Penang Rd and we also had some eating must do’s!……. Chili crab, Satay and Hokkien mee soup !!!!… and now for some pictures 🙂 Click on a picture to see a larger ‘Gallery’ veiw