And it was another case of making the headlines for the wrong reason. We even had friends in KL calling to ask whether we were OK (I wish to express here my sincere thanks to these very caring friends; you know who you are, ;-)), after the first bout of landslides along Jalan Tun Sardon made headlines nationwide.
But I'm sure the following scene did not make headlines. After all, it happened in a very remote corner of the Penang Island, namely, just outside the small fishing village of Pantai Acheh (near Teluk Bahang) where my wife and I now reside.
Yep. A HUGE boulder decided to dislodge itself from its previous resting place high up there on a slope beside the road - the only road accessible by car - in and out of our little fishing village.
To quote Wedge Antilles: "Look at the SIZE of that thing!"
For several weeks, traffic from both directions have to share the only unobstructed lane, and it posed a particular hazard because it was at a corner. They couldn't move it. A few days ago - finally - someone brought a huge excavator with hammer (the alternative was to use dynamite, but I think everyone would prefer that to be the last resort) to try to break it down into smaller chunks. Even then, it took a good two days of hammering in earnest to break down this bad boy.
(According to another account, the excavator FAILED to break the bad boy even after two days of hammering; so, a dynamiter was finally called to blow the thing apart. An eyewitness claims to have seen someone standing atop the boulder drilling a hole, very possibly to stuff in the explosive.)
***
It was a scary sight, to see such humongous boulder sitting smack across the road that one travels through almost on a daily basis. But we are nevertheless very grateful to the LORD that most of the landslide incidents had happened well after midnight, when traffic was at the minimum. The possibility of how many lives might have been lost if those landslides had occured during the day when traffic was busy is simply unthinkable.
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