Of Forts and Fish

And I call myself a Penangite. After 15 years of my life on this tiny island, I never knew there was such thing as a War Museum and Aquarium in Penang til' today.

Finally, a post-PMR school activity that doesn't involve sitting on the hall floor until one's legs go into full rigor mortis, and eyes don't glaze over at staring at some slide from the computer.

'Lawatan Sambil Belajar's are always fun. There's something nice about sitting in a bus with your classmates off to visit someplace. Today was no exception. 39 students and 2 teachers were packed off to the War Museum in Batu Maung.

Now, this is the best way to learn History. Rather than cramming pages upon pages of text into our heads, we get great exercise and a fun experience. And yeah, we learn a little something-something as well.

The War Museum was once a fort built by the British from 1930 to 1939. No wonder it took nine years to build... this place is a fair size. We walked for a couple of hours, providing breakfast for the tropical rain forest mosquitos. We got to see tunnels that were 100 feet underground, places where cannons once were, ammunation the size of a medium-sized dog, torture chambers, soldier barracks and offices.

Equipped with torchlights, we got to go through two tiny tunnels that had walls 4 feet thick, which were used for hiding during attacks.

Definitely not for the claustrophobic.

And I learnt a valuable lesson to keep my torch light aimed in front, so that I don't ram into a wall before I actually see it. Also, I learnt not to be possessed by fear so deep that I want to race out of the tunnel ASAP, leaving my poor torchlight-less classmates screaming in the pitch dark.

Heh. Ok... I'm exaggerating. But I'm not kidding when I say the dialogue while in the tunnel went like this:

A (with torchlight): Woah...
B, C, D (holding on to each other's waists for guidance, like a human train): Woah!
B: AHHHHH!!!! Don't WALK SO FAST!!!!
C & D: WAIT!!!!!!!!!
A: OK! OK! (slows down) Turn coming! Watch out!
C (Head hits the low ceiling for the 5th time): Ow...
(seconds past)
B, C, D: AHHHHHH!!!!!!!! DON'T WALK SO FAST!!!!!
A: OK! OK! Solly!

Yeah... something like that.

On the whole, a really great trip. A few things were a little disturbing, like the sex crimes, torture chambers, Yamashita Tomoyuki's boots at the spot he was hung... things that make you think how darn lucky you are to be born a good forty years later.

Now that we've had enough of guns, we head towards the Aquarium, to feast our eyes on fish and corals. God's beautiful creations. Blue, yellow, blue with yellow stripes, etc. Also, we see the impact of Pixar on everyone. Every surgeon fish and clown fish we see is affectionately referred to as Nemo and Dory.

And along with Ms Koay, we mixed and matched the fishes in the aquariums with the ones displayed on the directory. (Some were mysteriously missing though...)

A: Ok, see if you can find the black ribbon eel!
B, C, D stares for a while: THERE! THERE! THERE! (points frantically)

Aren't we an enthusiastic bunch?

What a day. Tomorrow will be another field trip. This time, to the USM museum and gallery. Wheeee!