The Bathing Place - Our Playing Ground.

The Bathing Place -Our Playing Ground.

My 2 - year - old daughter watched by my brother Upi. This picture was taken during a drought season in the late 70s. During the peak of the monsoon season, the water level could be as high as the wooden bridge behind my brother. On the far bank of the stream, there was once a big tree that we used to climb and jumped from. It is gone now. The big stump in the middle of the stream has been there for as long as I can remember. It is the stump of a bilian tree (iron wood) which is reputed to be stronger than steel. When submerged in water, it can be even stronger and could last a very long time. That stump was said to have been in the river for more than 200 years.

As always and as in the old days, children love the river. I remembered in the late 50s, the river was wide and deep enough for long boats to ply to Bandung and Mawang (Chinese settlements and shops), a few hours down river. Today, most parts of the stream are overgrown with weeds and trees. It is not navigable anymore , even by smaller boats.

The bathing place has been a part of my life. As kids in those days, we would spend hours there, swimming, diving and chasing each other, until we turned blue with cold. An early morning bath there would be unbearable as the water was almost as cold as iced water (our long house is near to the Klingkang Range and close to the International Border with Indonesia).

Today, a mountain stream is channeled to every homes by pvc pipes the long house dwellers had fixed themselves. This has made the bathing place less used and less popular. Nevertheless, every time I went back home alone or with my family, I would never miss going for a swim there. I felt I had left a part of me there.