After a few weeks away, I returned to Kuala Kangsar. This time I experienced the small town since I didn't have the opportunity to do so during the Lenggong speleological journey. Me and Ajib went to Taiping first thing in the morning, indeed the First Town in Malaysia with many titles with 'first' in everything, like first museum, first zoo and first lake garden. The latter was our first stop:
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| The Taiping Lake Garden. Algae bloom at its best. |
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| Judging by age and size, this must be the First tree in Malaya |
The town is an old yet bustling one. The trace of British Malaya remnants are present everywhere. The spirits of the colonialists survived, in form of decrepit buildings and old trees. If the tree above could talk, it would say something like this -"Come later at midnight and see how spooky I am".
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| Taiping Zoo -where animals are held captive, at mercy and whims of humans. |
The Taiping Zoo is adjacent to the garden. Next, Taiping Museum. As an artifact aficionado, I went to lots of museum. I expected this one to have items came from Pangkor Treaty, Birch assassination, Larut War or other things uniquely Perak-ish. Instead, we were bored to death with cultural stuffs seen many times in TV. Seemed like 1Malaysia on tour. They forget to add the title 'The first boring museum in the world'. Yet, the nature lover would find their time worthwhile here:
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| Taiping Museum - not in the mood for bone soup |
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| Few things unique -Assassination plaque |
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| F-86 Sabre: Let's kill the commie cunts! |
Now, the real adventure begin. We stopped by at the Taiping War Cemetery, where the brave WW2 dead soldiers were buried. It was intersected by a road shown below, dividing into 2 section -Caucasians and Asians. Talking about afterlife discrimination. Yet the place was neat with cut grass and trimmed lawn, adding relaxing element to the serene environment. I bet the gardener comes here everyday just to keep the dead happy in the hereafter...
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| Taiping War Cemetery - orderly burial, but down under is another story... |
Yep, because in wartime they had to bury the soldiers randomly and quick. So the remains are effectively EVERYWHERE on site. That explained some exhumation taking place when we were there in order to identify the remains, even after more than 60 years past..
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| Asian section. Living guerrilla and fallen ones. |
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| I wonder how the dead would react to this. Yes, you will be remembered forever in the cyberworld. |
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| My own personal respect to the fallen soldiers. |
My journey wouldn't be complete without some food feast. Here we are, indulging on prawn noodles at Mee Udang Mak Jah at Kuala Sepetang. They are many stalls available, but I suggest you go for this one. It cost RM7 for usual noodle, but we ordered the special one for RM11. Simply delicious! Long queue, yet it worth the wait.
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| Lucky number for the groovy grub. |
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| "Your Taiping adventure is futile without a stop at Mak Jah" -Ajib, a Perak native. |
The light was drawing its curtain, and we went back to Kuala Kangsar. We stopped at the famous Ubudiah Mosque. Truthfully the most beautiful mosque in Malaysia. I have a special esteem on Sultan Idris, one who ordered the construction of the imposing edifice. To build the mosque, he ordered expensive marbles from Italy, and some were broken by on-site raging elephants. The construction was halted many months and sadly not finished during his lifetime. He was buried in the tomb next to the mosque.
Mind you that the cost was a staggering RM200,000 -money obtained via loan from the British. Now you know how the colonialist kept their power here in Malaya. It's not by force, but by temptation of money and superficial power. I felt divided to see the mosque whether as a proud present to our generation, or a symbol of the past spoilt lifestyle.
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| Nevertheless, Sultan Idris will be very proud! - Ubudiah Mosque |
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| Where he was interred, along with the successors, and later, our beloved current Sultan Azlan Shah. |
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| Sunset heralding the end of the journey, with Idrisiah school in the foreground. |
Moral story is, imagine what will happen to our name 100 years later. Will it still be remembered? As honorable as the quiet soldiers of the War Cemetery? Or as pompous as Sultan Idris? Fortunately, Internet is the key.
RESPECTO.
