2nd hand bookshops
 

Hello, not air force or military, a somewhat higher (or lower) calling.
I go to Penang every year for a week or two or more, but never thought
of 2nd hand book shops. Leaving NZ for Asia in 5 weeks time. Where are they ?
Kind regards to all, John
ps my father was Air Force, India, Burma.........

Books?
 

Chulia Street. Where all the cheap places to stay are. Compared to Bangkok with it's lack of bookshops, it is refreshing. Lots of good grub to be found down there.

Have fun!

E-A, from your post, not sure what books you are looking for. There are quite a few places in Chulia St, for example, that have lots of second-hand paperbacks. Most of those places operate a straight swap system if that's what you are looking for.

However, at the back of the Chowrasta Market, on the first floor, is a place that has a very large selection of old books and magazines. Huge piles in the alleyways and on the shelves covering pretty much all subjects from reference to fiction.

If you need more info, please PM me.

Penang book shops.
 

By co-incidence we will be staying in the Chulia Heritage hotel.
Probably looking for historic Aviation/Military or Aerospace
related, or pot boilers to read on our travels. I do know Chowrastra quite well,
if we stay long enough to have an apartment we go meat shopping there. Never thought
of looking for books.
John

....ah memories of the SADC [Sunday afternoon drinking club] on the back verandah of the O/Mess at 10c [Au] per handle...:ok:

Penang........
 

Last time I was in Chulia Street, I ended up drinking with a bunch of Eire lads. 4am, I realised my aeroplane thing was supposed to blast off....at 6.
Somehow got onboard and from the moment of sitting down to the doors opening at Swampy, had a jolly good sleep.

Must have been an autoland........never felt a thing.:p

Penang & Butterworth & Alor Star
 

What a lovely thread! We lived in Alor Star '58 & '59, my Dad was in SMIS there. Had lots of excitement with Auster pilots dropping the latest NAAFI supplies (mainly Craven A, I seem to remember) over our house in Tanah Mera (sp?). I once had a tour of an Aussie C130 at Butterworth and, as a young lad, was just amazed at the size of the thing.

Ah, and the Runnymead..... Sheer bliss as we tore up and down the corridors while the parents were downstairs for dinner. And what was the name of the swimming club up the road? Tanglin?

Very happy days.

Badger, unfortunately, the Runnymede is now in a very sorry state. It had been in use by the Malaysian army but was vacated some years ago and the buildings are now slowly decaying. There was a plan to renovate it as a hotel again but that does not seem to have happened.

See this link:

Penang Heritage Trust

There were/are two swimming clubs along the north coast; first, the Chinese Swimming Club at Tanjung Tokong. The second is the Penang Swimming Club at Tanjung Bungah. Both are still active.

The Chinese Swimming Club was exactly as I remembered all of those years ago and I am pretty sure we called The Penang Swimming Club, The Australian Swimming Pool......very different now to how I remember it.

RAAF Butterworth:

I was involved in a fly past for the Malaysian Sultan's Jubilee in summer of 1990. The folks at Butterworth were great to us. We shore based off of our cruiser to practice with the Brits, Japanese, Indons, Kiwis, Malaysians, and a host of others in a sixteen plane aerial "pass in review" in mixed formation.

I recall Malaysian Wasps leading the way with vertical cables, weighted, adorned with flags, followed by a collectoin made up of .. a jaunty Alouette (French), Huey (Italian), Lynx (Brit), Sea King (Japanese), BO105 (Indonesian), Kiwi Wasp, our Seahawk, and a few others.

The Russians were in town, and had a Helix on the back of a Udaloy destroyer, but their political masters forbade them from participating in the fly past. (I was very bummed, wanted to meet and compare notes with Flying Ivan now that the wall was down. ) We weren't allowed to talk to them, as our Pres and theirs were bickering over Lithuaina that week ... that's another story for another time).

Penang: that was good liberty, and as above, the folks at RAAF Butterworth were most excellent hosts. :ok: Goodonya, Aussies.

Badger,

We had married quarter 1003, third from the end, at Tanah Merah from 1965 to 68. It was an old style bungalow, no air conditioning. Some purpose built new style OMQs were put up in the patch, and they had air conditioning. I preferred our style with its very large rooms and amahs' quarters out back.

The family returned on holiday in the late 1990s. Our old quarter was then used as a kindergarten.

I went back in 2010. There are no married quarters at Tanah Merah now, only a massive army barracks. The present OMQs are directly opposite the RMAF College gates. Junior officers have apartments and seniors have houses of increasing size from major upwards. The old areas within the base were recognisable, but it has expanded very much, providing flying training on elementary aeroplanes and on helicopters.

Went to have a drink at the Kedah Club, which used to be wooden-built. It is now a massive marble-like structure. I remember down-town Alor Star as a pretty run-down but friendly place. It's now a much more of a city, all dual carriageways and modern buildings.

Good to see it has prospered.

Wwyvern,

[apologies for boring everyone else] We lived in the second to last house, a T-shaped bungalow that still shows on Google Earth. Yes, the amahs' quarters were out the back, together with their own kitchen that just had a charcoal-fired cooker whereas 'we' had electric. The little Education Corps school was at the opposite end of the camp, with just 8 pupils. The teach was a Mrs. Alcock.

Was the Kedah Club what we used to know as 'the Rest House' near Alor Star airfield? They had fab curry lunches every Thursday.

Badger,

Check PMs

Ww

Firestreak
RequestPigeons, I've been accused ofmany things over the years but.........
SOFTR was a postfilled by a local officer, a TUDM Major I'm definitely not!


No offence meant. :\ You must have been after Russ then? SOFTR was always a UK WgCdr, IIRC. I departed there in 1991.

Penang
 

Anyone attending the RAAF school (now the university) from 68' onwards come across teachers such as Mr BUckley, Mr Mathews, Mr Slockwitch, Mr Granland many more names??? Very nostalgic.