I don't write about my family but the failure of Google maps to show a
usable image of my father's island is enough to get me to write about
it.
My father claimed to have been conceived on a train because he always wanted to travel and he did all his life. When he was in his late sixties he set off from England in a British Ford camper van. He and his wife, Lu, spent several years traveling as far East as one can go driving. For those of you who know geography, that, in 1968, was to the tip of Malaysia. Along the way he taught cultural anthropology. He was also a rabbi.
When he could drive no further he bought an island on the coast of
Malaysia off the town of Mersing. I visited him there as did most of
my family and many world travelers. He knew that an island on the
South China Sea, at the equator, would bring many visitors. Some years there were 90
visitors who arrived by plane in Singapore sixty miles away. He had to
go to Singapore every two weeks, anyway, to get his Malaysian visa
extended.
My father and Lu lived on the island for seven years. The local fishermen sold them fresh fish everyday from their boats. They had a garden and coconut trees. He used to joke that he was the only farmer in the world with a two week visa.
I wanted to see what had happened to the island since they left 25 years ago. Google images barely shows the island, but not anything closer to the ground. (Photo on the left looks like the right island and the right beach.)