THE red and white banner flutters gently in the wind as if waving to anyone who happens to look in its direction. The vibrant colours make it stick out like a sore thumb from the gaudy shop facade. My interest is piqued when I notice the words “Old Books” from among the jumble of Chinese characters on the 46cm-long advertisement.
The sign reels me in, the prospect of potentially unearthing an interesting book or two is too tempting for me to ignore. My excitement is, however, cruelly dashed as I discover that the imaginary hoard is just a miniscule stack of haphazardly arranged reading materials.
There’s no one manning the table. Only a single piece of cardboard is there beside the foldable Formica table, a small arrow drawn on it pointing to the coffee shop next door. Shrugging off my initial disappointment, I start rifling through the items and note that most are English novels except for two cookbooks. As I leaf through one of the cookbooks, something drops out.
It’s an advertisement card from the Lone Pine Hotel in Batu Ferringhi. There’s no date printed on it but judging from the room and food prices, it must be more than half a century old. The rate for a room then was only $8 while morning tea would set one back 75 cents!
Returning the card carefully into the page, I notice that it has a recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice. Excitedly, I leaf through the other pages hoping to unearth similar hidden surprises. Unfortunately, there’s nothing. Picking up the cookbook, I check it again to ensure that the card is still inside before making my way to Pong Seng cafe. That card is a nice piece of local history and I’m willing to buy the book just to get my hands on it.
It seems that the cafe owner is helping out a cash-strapped friend. The items on the table belong to the friend’s father who once worked as a chef in Batu Ferringhi in the 1950s. As I stand at the counter to pay for my purchase, a small crowd begins to gather around me. The villagers are curious why I’m so willing to part with my hard-earned money to buy what they consider “useless books”.
I pay the RM1 for the book and leave hastily when an elderly lady asks to inspect my purchase. More questions may arise when they see the card and the seller could be instigated by the crowd to increase the selling price. Quickening my steps, I decide to seek refuge at my favourite laksa stall down the road where I’d be able to give the card a second look as I tuck into a large bowl of asam laksa and down a glass of icy cold nutmeg drink.
My hands quivering, I study the card carefully. If my memory serves me right, the history of Lone Pine Hotel can be traced back to the early 1930s when the McKern family first moved into their new home in Batu Ferringhi. Local legend has it that the family was having their lunch in the backyard when one of the children noticed a foot-high sapling growing near the beach. Thinking that the sapling was a pine tree, the family decided to name their new home “Lone Pine”. It was only several months later that they discovered from a friend that the plant was actually a casuarina tree. Despite that, the father, Dr Albert McKern, decided to stick to the original name for the house.
LONE PINE REVISITED
The unexpected discovery prompts me to rethink my plans for the rest of the day. My initial plan was to spend the entire afternoon exploring the town of Balik Pulau, which literally means “Back of the Island”. Now I have to allocate some time to make a stopover at Lone Pine Hotel on my way back. It’d be interesting to see how much has changed.
My remaining time in Balik Pulau is productive. I manage to cover the entire town centre in 90 minutes and even found time to peek into a shop selling nyonya kebaya cloth from Melaka. For a price ranging between RM50 to RM200, the two skilled tailors will sew them into complete dresses following customer specifications. The prices are based on the quality and design intricacy.
An hour later I pull up at Lone Pine Hotel. I notice that despite having gone through a series of major renovations, the hotel still retains its rich colonial heritage. Lone Pine is the only premier luxury boutique hotel in this popular tourist belt of Batu Ferringhi where guests can indulge in the old-world charms and still enjoy the luxury of modern amenities in their newly-renovated rooms. The hotel offers cosy rooms to spacious suites which open out onto a choice of seafront terraces, balconies and private courtyards.
A lovely thing to do here is to walk among the decades-old casuarina trees and watch their branches sway in the gentle sea breeze. It’s during this walkabout that I meet the hotel’s PR executive, Karen Sim, who becomes duly excited when I show her the Lone Pine card.
THE BUNGALOW
We head for the Bungalow and the tale of the McKerns continues over coffee. According to Karen, life took a turn for the worse for the McKerns during the days leading up to the Japanese invasion.
Leaving his family in the safety of friends in Penang, Dr McKern boarded the SS Mata Hari and headed towards Singapore. He was unfortunate as the vessel was intercepted by the Japanese Navy. The doctor was taken captive and died two weeks shy of the Japanese surrender. Just before his death, he managed to draw up his last will and testament which included instructions to renovate and let out the Batu Ferringhi bungalow and the land surrounding it.
Lone Pine, shares Karen, was the first hotel to open for business in Batu Ferringhi. “Just three years after the British returned to Penang, the hotel opened its doors to the public. The Hainanese family who took over the property rented out daily rated rooms, which was considered a novel concept at that time as there were no other hotels here in 1948.”
Among all the buildings within the hotel compound, the Bungalow seems the most likely place for the original location of the McKern family home. Today, this large double story building caters to al fresco dining by the beach.
Lone Pine guests start their day here by tucking into a wonderful buffet spread. Later in the day visitors can choose from its extensive menu which offers a wide variety of local favourites.
The Bungalow’s signature Hainanese specialties serve as a reminder of the people who first rented the property from Dr McKern’s family. Deciding on my choice from this section isn’t difficult as I want to sample the chicken rice and compare it with the dish I’m planning to cook using the notes in the page bookmarked by the card. I have a strong suspicion that they’re both one and the same. Wouldn’t it be amazing if I can prove that the chef used the cookbook as his source of inspiration?
There’s a great view of the infinity pool when dining at the Bungalow. And just after the pool are the casuarina trees. Wait! Is it my eyes or does one of them look taller than the others? I wonder whether it might be the same “pine” tree that the McKerns saw on that fateful afternoon, some 80 years ago?
NOSTALGIC RETURN
MESMERISED by the sight of swaying casuarina trees in the distance as I wait to be attended to by the receptionist, my mind drifts lazily to some idyllic days many moons ago when I was just an annual visitor to Batu Ferringhi, my favourite stopover every time I returned “home” during my summer break in England.
My cousins and I actually stayed at Lone Pine hotel several times during those carefree sojourns to Balik Pulau. It mustn’t have been too remarkable back then as there’s not much I can dredge out from the recesses of my memory bank about how the hotel looked. But if there’s one memory that has remained, it’s of our leisurely walks among the casuarina trees and being awed by the vista of the Straits of Melaka.
Fast forward to this day; I marvel at the total transformation of this five-star hotel. I can’t believe that it’s the same place I had spent those days of languid idyll. The spacious lobby has a colour palette that’s fresh and a decidedly retro design. I’m not surprised that the hotel bagged the PAM Gold Award 2012 in the commercial category from the Malaysian Institute of Architects.
During a massive refurbishment exercise in 2010, an entirely new building was erected, one that’s contemporary in look and feel. And this is where I am. Also housed in this “new” building are the deluxe rooms, food and beverage outlets, meeting rooms, gym and more.
Making my way out to the grounds, the preliminaries completed, I catch sight of a pristine white annexe building fronted by rows of casuarina trees.
“Why does that look familiar,” I mumble, as I make a beeline for it. A sense of deja-vu washes over me as I get nearer. The trees, swaying languidly, seem to be whispering conspiratorially to each other about the return of a long lost friend.
“Would this have been where I stayed all those years ago!” the question races in my mind as I quicken my pace, my heels hitting the well trodden tiles noisily. Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by nostalgia, of the sense of time passing. And memories of those magical days with my cousins come flooding back.
Another relic of the past is the Bungalow where the original owners, the McKern family, is believed to have resided. It’s wonderful how old world charm is juxtaposed so beautifully with the modern here, I think to myself, before making a mental note to explore that part of the grounds after my al fresco breakfast at the Bungalow the next day.
As I make my way slowly back to the main building where my room is located, there’s a skip in my steps: Much as I love the charm of yesteryear, I can’t wait to explore my modern abode either, which comes with a private balcony complete with a plunge bath. Isn’t that just the height of modern luxury!
Lone Pine Hotel
97, Batu Ferringhi, Penang
Details at www.lonepinehotel.com