My best friend Paul Voo (Min Choi)

My cousin, Paul and I were very close childhood buddies and we have spent many happy times together. During our early teen age years the two of us were inseparable. During the school holidays we often went to Seria by bus to stay in the SRC bachelor flats with Peter, Paul’s eldest brother who was a surveyor. Next to the flats[1] was the SRC swimming pool where we spent all our days swimming until our finger tips looked like prunes. Peter worked in the topographical department in Brunei Shell. He gave us a lot of cash to spend on toys and other boys stuff like Roy Rogers’s comics and cow boy jeans. Paul and I were among the first to wear genuine Saddle King[2] Jeans in Miri. Levi jeans did not make an appearance until years later; maybe even after Amco. However, as we grew up, Paul and I went our separate ways. I went on to further my studies in Australia. He went into the Baram jungles to seek his fortune. He married his girl friend, Helen Lai. They had two sons and lived in the house next to our land in Pujut for a few years. Later on, under pressure from Helen, he sold this house in Pujut for 23K and bought a terrace house in Krokop. Paul was a very ambitious businessman.

He opened the first bar/night-club in Miri near Brighton beach. He made some money there. A few years later, he invested all this money in the logging and timber business and began spending a lot of time in the Baram jungle. However, if he made any money, he must have squandered it all away on the high life, gambling and fast women like everyone else in the timber industry. One of his fellow business friends was Hue Teck Seng of Pujut 4 who founded the Samling Companies in Sarawak and became very wealthy. Paul later worked for Samling in the Bintulu branch office for many years. He is now retired and sells ngao-chap min in Bintulu.

Paul’s brother, Martin Voo later married his classmate in Talipok. She was a Hakka girl, (an adopted daughter of Datuk Mustapha of Sabah!) Martin started his own insurance company with money from his father-in-law. He came to visit Peter Voo quite often and they played Mahjong in Peter's house at the Piasau camp talking about making millions! When the chief minister was toppled and replaced by Datuk Harris Salleh, Martin’s fortunes changed overnight. He fled to Hong Kong alone, leaving his wife and children in Sabah. The last we heard from him was a letter sent, care of a Pujut neighbour asking Rose for 60K USD for purchase of a new passport to flee Hong Kong!

Fr. John Dekker was a Dutch missionary from Holland. He was a very strict disciplinarian and he smoked a pipe. As little boys we were extremely afraid of him! Whenever we smell the Erinmore tobacco smoke from his pipe we became as silent as a mouse. Some of the boys were so afraid that their faces turned pale and their knees trembled! He must have wondered why the class had suddenly gone silent as he approached and how come we knew that he was around! Fr. John Dekker can speak both Iban and Foochow fluently. He learned Iban from Mrs. George Chapman.

There was also another priest in St. Joseph’s School Miri, Fr. Edmund Slowey. He was a lousy teacher but he was less fierce. He was probably a good missionary because he later on retired as a priest and went to live in Turangi, on the shores of Lake Taupo in New Zealand. I have not managed to locate him yet. There was also another priest, Fr. Holsbotch who can speak Hakka Chinese. We liked him better because he was kind to us and often rewarded us with candies, chocolates and lollies. However, he once disciplined Bridget by giving her 5 strokes of the rotan on the buttocks for going out on dates with boys and forgetting to do her home work in form 2. I have another cousin, Alice Luke. Both she and Bridget relied heavily on Rose to do their home work and school assignments for them! Neither of them finished form 5.

Alice’s father, uncle Luke Tai Chuan and Ah Yin tai-yi (my mother’s second sister) took care of my youngest sister, Cecilia for many years until she went to live in KK. Initially they lived in a rented property on Kwangtung road, Miri. Suddenly they packed their bags and went to Seria to work for Lee Tak, the wealthy Miri contractor and kapitan china. Cecilia went with them. She finished form 5 at St Angela’s and started work in BSP as a trainee typist in 1964. She continued to work in Seria and married Jeffrey Chow, a neighbour living along Jalan Perakong. Alice has a brother, Michael. He liked to spend all his time playing mahjong and sisek.[3] He went with his parents to KK; but Alice stayed in Seria where she continued to work in BSP until her early retirement when she left Seria and joined her parents in Sabah. She eventually married a carpenter, Ah Min ko in Penampang.

Michael worked for Sabah Gas, Labuan as a welder and has now retired and lives in Labuan with his family. His wife was a neighbour from Jalan Perakong in Seria. I met Michael at Albert Chow’s wedding in Bandar Seri Begawan in 1995. We have not seen each other for more than thirty years and become almost like strangers. When you are not rich, your relatives are not very keen to know you!Life has always been easy for Michael and he has aged very graciously. One of his daughters was working in a department store in Labuan. I have not seen Alice Luk for more than 45 years!

Update
Here is a recent photo taken with Alice in Penampang (March 2010)

Alice Luke

Her son and family