I’m the kind of person who loves historical stuff. I love museums (as long as they are put together well), monuments and memorials. So, I decided that since I didn’t have a lot of free time on Wednesday that I would just go make a quick run to a memorial and be there maybe 30-45 minutes. Turns out, I picked the wrong memorial. I was there maybe 10-15 minutes.
Getting to the Chan Sow Lin Memorial is really easy. Just type it into your GPS and it will take you to this rundown little parking lot. The parking lot is right across from the Alice Smith School and has a medium-sized sign in the corner of the parking lot.
Now, I made the mistake of thinking the sign was telling me to go further down the road, so I started walking down the road that was kitty-corner from the sign. Don’t do this. I walked around the curve in the road and a couple dogs started barking and running towards me, so I turned around and got out of there.
Back at the parking lot, I looked around for another path and, lo and behold, there was one! It just wasn’t what I was expecting. Straight down the parking lot from the arrow is a little path.
I wasn’t certain this is where I was supposed to be going, but decided that the worst that would happen is that a dog would eat me or one of the residents here would lock me in a basement. Thinking the risk was worth it, off I went.
If you look off to the side, into the brush, you can see some old Chinese gravestone hidden in the tall grass. It looks kinda cool and just makes you realize how old this place is. Part of me wonders if these graves have all been forgotten.
Once you get past the building, just keep following the path. It only takes maybe 1-2 minutes to walk down it.
After you round the corner, there are a few small markers and gravestones.
And then, ta-da! There is the memorial:
It wasn’t quite as ‘memorial-ish’ as I’d been thinking it would be, but it was pretty. Apparently, this guy, Chan Sow Lin, started a tin mining business in Kuala Lumpur and became very wealthy. According to this website, Chan Sow Lin is the father of Chinese iron works in Malaysia. The website also says he was a great philanthropist.
I actually didn’t realize this was the memorial at first because I was expecting something……………….bigger. And more marked. So, I looked around for a bit and in the brush beyond I found a really cool Chinese grave. I absolutely LOVE Chinese graves. They just look so amazing.
I’d actually thought the big one was the memorial I was looking for until I saw the plaque on it. Then I started thinking that it was somewhere else around there, but decided it was time to leave when I saw a large black and yellow spider. Ick. It wasn’t until I got home and googled pictures (I’d just googled the name previously) that I realized it was the one without any sign in English that was the memorial.
It’s kinda sad that this thing wasn’t marked very well and that it is down a badly marked path. With all the good things this guy did and the legacy he has, you’d think they would have made it a bit more prominent. Oh well. It was still interesting to see and I’m glad I went. It was a fun little trek into the unknown.
