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Fort Kemar - The Building Of A Malayan Jungle Fort - Part 9
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Subject :Fort Kemar - The Building Of A Malayan Jungle Fort - Part 9
Published By : None
Location : Perak
Estimated Year : 1953
Media Type : Photograph
Source : Dennis Wombell, UK
Remark : The 10th then, was a busy day. My replacement, John Abercrombie (later to be killed on an operation in South Thailand) arrived early and I was able to show him round and then leave him to conduct the arrival of his men and settle them in. Sir Donald arrived in the afternoon with his entourage and after inspecting the guard, was shown around the fort and introduced to our Asli population who had arranged an entertainment for the evening. This consisted of our sitting around a bonfire in the centre of a large circle of our entire Asli population and watching a group of the men dance on a low split-bamboo platform. They were accompanied by the girls who sat in line on one side of the platform, singing and beating out the rhythm with short tube-like sections of bamboo, each of a different length, which they pounded on a long length of thick bamboo which lined one side of the platform. The dancers wore only their loin cloths and crowns of mengkuang, whilst the girls, who had beautifully painted faces, wore sarongs and covered their breasts with strings of interlaced mengkuang necklaces. As it went on, the dancing became increasingly frenetic, the tempo increased and the dancers worked themselves into a trance, believing themselves to be possessed of spirits of the dead. As the exhausted dancers fell out one by one, the evening gradually drew to a close and we all retired to bed. It was a Grande Finale and I felt, as I retired wearily to my quarter, that our job was done and our Fort Kemar was now well and truly established!
The following day, after bidding farewell to Sir Donald, I handed the Fort over to Abercrombie and on the morning of the 12th we loaded up the bamboo rafts which lay waiting for us on the river beneath the Fort and set of for home - our camp on the bank of the Sungei Perak. The Temengor is quite a small river and so the rafts for the first stage of the journey could be no more than about 4 feet wide and could take only 2 men who sat on a raised bamboo platform bound to the centre of the deck with their kit tied on beside them. Each man had his personal weapon tied to his waist with a long piece of rope, enabling him to use his weapon if required but ensuring that it could not be lost in the event of the raft capsizing. Each raft was navigated by two Orang Asli who stood, one at the bow and the other at the stern and steered with long bamboo pole. We pushed off in convoy and embarked on a never-to-be-forgotten journey. The Temengor descends steeply downhill from its headwaters in the hills through a myriad of narrow gorges of cascading, foaming, white water, and I shall never know how we managed to stay on our rafts - as the did Asli `drivers` - but stay on we did, and not a single man nor a piece of kit went overboard. The Asli `drivers` were remarkable. As they navigated the rafts down the rapids, they screamed at each other and to the spirits of the river in a state of great excitement stabbing their poles against the rocks to either side and, as we plunged into the water at the foot of each gorge, we were submerged up to the waist until the raft shot up again to the surface like a cork. By late afternoon we emerged onto the calm waters of the Sungei Perak and disembarked onto a large sandbank, where we found waiting for us another group of Asli with the five larger rafts we had ordered. These rafts were able to take 6 men and, again, had a crew of two, but this time the man at the stern had a bamboo rudder with which to steer the raft. After camping for the night and drying off, we embarked again on the following morning for the final stretch home - something of an anti climax after the wildness of the Sungei Temengor as we floated gently along on the Perak River.By late afternoon we were home and our adventure was at an end.
FOOTNOTE
I have to pay tribute to my undervalued young Malay conscript boys, most of them unworldly young men taken from their kampongs to engage in an experience they would never have dreamt of and which they handled, as they did in all operations we undertook, with tenacity, courage and loyalty. I pay tribute also to my NCOs of the Regular FMP - especially my Sergeant Mohamed Yusoff - who guided and led these young boys with sympathy and understanding and behaved like older brothers to them. I trusted them all totally and am proud to have led them.
Menthorpe
Selby
North Yorkshire
United Kingdom
November 2011
The left hand photograph shows Sir Donald with his ADC, the helicopter crew, DO Grik, Dara Singh (Dept of Asli Field Assistant) and Dennis seated on the ground on the left with the Asli ladies.
On the right, the ADC and helicopter crews decide to take over the music!
To go to Part 1 of this article, click here.
To read more about Dara Singh, click here.
The following day, after bidding farewell to Sir Donald, I handed the Fort over to Abercrombie and on the morning of the 12th we loaded up the bamboo rafts which lay waiting for us on the river beneath the Fort and set of for home - our camp on the bank of the Sungei Perak. The Temengor is quite a small river and so the rafts for the first stage of the journey could be no more than about 4 feet wide and could take only 2 men who sat on a raised bamboo platform bound to the centre of the deck with their kit tied on beside them. Each man had his personal weapon tied to his waist with a long piece of rope, enabling him to use his weapon if required but ensuring that it could not be lost in the event of the raft capsizing. Each raft was navigated by two Orang Asli who stood, one at the bow and the other at the stern and steered with long bamboo pole. We pushed off in convoy and embarked on a never-to-be-forgotten journey. The Temengor descends steeply downhill from its headwaters in the hills through a myriad of narrow gorges of cascading, foaming, white water, and I shall never know how we managed to stay on our rafts - as the did Asli `drivers` - but stay on we did, and not a single man nor a piece of kit went overboard. The Asli `drivers` were remarkable. As they navigated the rafts down the rapids, they screamed at each other and to the spirits of the river in a state of great excitement stabbing their poles against the rocks to either side and, as we plunged into the water at the foot of each gorge, we were submerged up to the waist until the raft shot up again to the surface like a cork. By late afternoon we emerged onto the calm waters of the Sungei Perak and disembarked onto a large sandbank, where we found waiting for us another group of Asli with the five larger rafts we had ordered. These rafts were able to take 6 men and, again, had a crew of two, but this time the man at the stern had a bamboo rudder with which to steer the raft. After camping for the night and drying off, we embarked again on the following morning for the final stretch home - something of an anti climax after the wildness of the Sungei Temengor as we floated gently along on the Perak River.By late afternoon we were home and our adventure was at an end.
FOOTNOTE
I have to pay tribute to my undervalued young Malay conscript boys, most of them unworldly young men taken from their kampongs to engage in an experience they would never have dreamt of and which they handled, as they did in all operations we undertook, with tenacity, courage and loyalty. I pay tribute also to my NCOs of the Regular FMP - especially my Sergeant Mohamed Yusoff - who guided and led these young boys with sympathy and understanding and behaved like older brothers to them. I trusted them all totally and am proud to have led them.
Menthorpe
Selby
North Yorkshire
United Kingdom
November 2011
The left hand photograph shows Sir Donald with his ADC, the helicopter crew, DO Grik, Dara Singh (Dept of Asli Field Assistant) and Dennis seated on the ground on the left with the Asli ladies.
On the right, the ADC and helicopter crews decide to take over the music!
To go to Part 1 of this article, click here.
To read more about Dara Singh, click here.
Filename : 20111204-020