Bungalow – this is stretching the word a bit too high!

I first learned about the meaning of the word 'bungalow' when I was browsing through a surveyor friend's book in the '70s. I noticed the cost of construction for a bungalow was less than a terrace house. In his reply, he said something to the effect that it was because a bungalow is single-storeyed while the terrace house was double-storeyed. It really made sense to me then because Malcolm happened to be doing up his huge Victorian-styled double-storeyed terrace house in Poole-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire. It looked definitely more costly to build than a single-storey bungalow in the correct sense.

I have just checked again my old Oxford dictionary and it was simply stated: bungalow n. one-storeyed house. That was it!

In Malaysia, the term had been 'mangled' beyond description: double-storey bungalow; 3-storey bungalow; semi-detached bungalow; and the list goes on, limited only by the advertisers' imagination.

I was reading today's The Star on Property Up North, and I saw the words 'Sky bungalows' as the title to the write-up on Lone Pine Group's project in Tanjung Bungah, Penang. Yes, you are right, they are going to have several bungalows on top of their high-rise building! I think that is stretching the word... a bit too far up!

Incidentally, we will be meeting up with a couple from Maastricht (friends of Cheng), in Penang tomorrow. Just wondering if we would be driving through Tanjung Bungah as part of our guided tour.
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