It has been around 6 years since SP Rover had conducted Cemetery Hike (if I’m not wrong the last cemetery hike was by YiHui in year 2000.).
This time round its happening again on the 24/4/06. I didn’t managed to go for the actual event myself that night but in fact I am very glad that I did join in the final prep in the morning. It has been along time since I’ve been back to the big tomb. A few alumni have been trying to locate the big tomb, which was lost in the dense undergrowth for quite some time now. Upon hearing the news that Rover has located the big tomb, I’ve decided to join them to uncover the big tomb from the think undergrowth.
It was a sunny morning and it was just like back in the old days where we just plan an unofficial event on a weekend and execute it.
We met in den at 9.30am in the morning and as usual, the chairperson Mr. Darren was late again. We then proceeded to take bus 74 to Coffee Hill Cemetery. It was a sunny day and many pairs of curious eyes of the publics and the caretakers greeted us as we proceeded into the cemetery. I’m actually quite curious in what they were thinking actually.
“What the hell are they doing in a cemetery with parangs?” Or “They coming for Qing Ming? It’s already over. What these kids think they are doing?”
We planted a few Check Points along the way, as there will be a treasure hunt for the cemetery hike. It has been along time since I’ve been back there. Coffee Hill is still as peaceful as it was back then in my rovering years. I took a few pictures of the cemetery as I don remember we have any archival photos of Coffee Hill Cemetery in Den.
We reached the base of the big tomb at approx 1115hrs. We all chatted with the caretaker who is having his lunch under an ever-familiar man-made blue tarp shelter. He is the caretaker who actually showed rover the way up to the big tomb during their 1st recee, but of cause not without a price of S$20.
The path up to the big tomb is still the same as before. The rover leads the way this time while I’m documenting the event from the back of the pack. We had a shorter route this time as compare to the previous one I took years ago.
“This is it!” I heard. Then in no time at all, I found myself standing back on a familiar ground once again after 6 years. The 1st thing I looked for is the statue of the guard, which gave me a fright 7 years ago [I was doing recee with rover back then. As I was bashing thru tombs, I saw a very low wall of a tomb about 1-2 foot high. I decided to go over it and at the moment I step up on the tomb, right in front of me was the Indian guard holding an olden days waxed paper umbrella. The sight really scares the hell out of me.] and the beautiful tiles on the floor in front of the tombstone.
Yes, this is it, the big tomb that belongs to Mr. Ong Sum Leong, the boss of the New World Hotel (info given by the caretaker), the big tomb that I’ve not seen for 6 years. I looked at my watch, 1131hrs it shown. We put our barang barang at one corner and then we started to plan the clearing process. Moments later, Darren and I were bashing thru the thick bushes using the parangs while the rest were clearing the plants at the side of the tomb. About 1hour later, we’ve cleared about 75% of the area. Then we started our prayer ceremony.
Soon after that we carried on with the clearing and I’m really impressed by Benjamin, he actually cleared quite a bit of the plants using only branches.
About 15minutes later, we decided to leave the tomb and carried on planting the Check Points. I then snap a few pictures of the big tomb for archival purposes.
After all that was done at the cemetery, we decided to head for lunch at sunset way. On our way to sunset way, our beloved Tian Han was actually on his way toward the big tomb alone. Darren informed him thru the phone that we’ve left the cemetery and he’ll have to meet up with us at sunset way. Eventually we did met up and we headed back to den together after buying some necessary equipment.
Raven
