Methodist School Sixth Form Bako Field Trip 1968

A stack in the Bako coast which is not an erosional coast and time has proven it.



This could be the BEFORE photo of Bako Cliff and Steve's photo is the AFTER....40 years is a long time. Rocks can be worn down especially by the force of waves and other weathering factors.


The first page of my field book.

An email from a former student now studying overseas asked me about Bako and how I did my field trip as a student there. In reply I wrote about my 1968 field trip to Bako led by Mr. David Watts and now I am posting it here for my classmates to read. It has been exactly 40 years !!

My classmates are all over the world and one had just left our world after a long illness. Perhaps these photos and some short notes would bring back a certain amount of happiness and nostalgia as we prepare ourselves for Christmas and the beginning of a new year.

I am glad I kept good field notes which I can refer to every now and then and remember those great days. The field trip only reinforced my desire to read geography at tertiary level. Indeed I took my degree in geography and later trained as an English teacher.


Waiting for our boat to Bako - at the old Pengkalan (now known as the Kuching Waterfront)

Our subject owned a small hut then in 1968. Today his land is most probably multi million ringgit in price - economic development in the last decade or so has made Bako settlers rich!!

We were so young and carefree then. Feeling top of the world after climbing the Bako cliffs.

Our teacher Mr. Watts explaining to us coastal features and other significant geographical facts. In 2006 the tsunami struck the Acheh Coast. Our class members have always been aware of wave driven forces.


I had written below this photo : One final photo before we left Bako.

There were twelve of us in the Upper Sixth Arts Class : Talip-Sheila-Siti-Hua Chuang-Charles-Winnie-Paul-Kui Chiang-Teck Chung-Gaong-Margaret and myself. It was a great bunch of kids who loved learning and held world views very objectively.

Thank you Mr. Watts for guiding us so well! And I do wish that geography would always be taught well by Malaysian teachers like the way Mr. Watts did.

With global warming looming up geography is a subject that must be taught well.