Exploring Kuala Kangsar

The Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Bridge connecting the Kuala Kangsar town to the village of Sayong. Opened in 2002, it was located right across from our resort.After we finished settling the house, we decided to take the boys out for a bit of culture. Well, to the Istana at Bukit Chandan and while at it, across the bridge to Sayong to see some labu being made.

Kuala Kangsar used to be located on the main trunk road from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. Since PLUS highway was opened back in 1985, the town has suffered. There used to be thriving home enterprises making and selling pottery, and the most famous of them all was the 'labu sayong'. These are earthenwares that were quite tedious to make, needing to be baked in ovens after being shaped into a gourd. They have a distinctive shape and used to store drinking water at a cool temperature despite blazing heat. For this, we traveled across the modern Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Bridge to the village of Sayong.

The look of a labu sayong. The traditional once were either painted black or coated to earthen shade.The vessel that Irfan picked up.Prior to PLUS highway being opened, plenty of traffic passed through these villages, and business was good. Nowadays, there were only a few shops left and many of the small works make the labu to be shipped to bigger towns for tourists to buy. We had the chance of visiting one such workshop that day and brought home a few jars. Irfan got himself a small little vessel for his plants. After lunch, we headed into Kuala Kangsar town.

We drove up the Bukit Chandan past the Ubudiyah Mosque towards Istana Iskandariah. The Istana was not opened for visitors. This is the official home of the Sultan of Perak. Around the main Istana, there were a couple smaller ones, the Istana Kenangan, now converted to the Royal Museum and Istana Ulu, now turned into Galeri Sultan Azlan Shah. The Royal Meseum was closed for renovation, so we went straight to the Gallery instead.

The main courtyard at the Gallery.Entering the main exhibition hall. Shoes off folks!

This gallery housed mainly the personal effects of Sultan Azlan Shah and his family. Entry cost RM4 for adults but free for my boys. The compound were divided into two main areas, the main building and the guardhouse which was converted into the Sultan's car exhibition room. In between was the main courtyard with series of fountains and water spreads. I was not allowed to take photographs inside the galleries. The main attraction for Puan Anita was Raja Nazrin's young family with the arrival of the heir, Raja Azlan Muzaffar. I was quite interested in the Sultan's career in the Judiciary before he was made King. I also noticed that there was a typo on one of the official picture. The current First Lady's name was misspelt …… Was it worth the RM4? If the gallery did not take any of government money for upkeep and was self-sustained, then it was. If it needed other source for maintenance, then they should consider lowering the prices. It may be too steep for local visitors, but for foreigners, RM4 is practically pocket change.

It does what it says on the wall. It exhibits cars!The boys were bored and started to burn sugar running in circles. Time to go!The car gallery came next before the boys got bored and started running in the courtyard. Unfortunately it started drizzling soon after, and we headed back to our hotel room for some well-earned rest.

Our Little Home in Kuala Kangsar

The rear facade. The stairs lead to the kitchen.Kuala Kangsar holds an almost legendary status amongst those who were from the place. They swear that everybody from there were descendent of kings and queens. This once-proud town still hold the title of Royal City for the Kingdom of Perak. The Sultan still have his Istana there. All the royal ceremony were still hosted at the town. I passed through the town on many occasions, but never actually spent a night there, until last weekend.

Close-up of the staircaseThe heir is in the house - quite literallyPuan Anita's mother, my mother-in-law was from Kuala Kangsar. She was born and raised there before marrying my father-in-law, who is from Kelantan. She only returned there occasionally since. She now stays here in Kuala Lumpur. She is the last of her siblings, the last one passing away last year. But even then, most of her relatives have moved away from the town. There were still some of her nephews and nieces who were still there. Some of them lived in Kuala Kangsar all their lives. Some returning to their hometown upon retirement, to build their home at their inherited lands.

Puan Anita speaking to one of the buildersWhile Idlan and Irfan looked on.For the last ten years or so, the house where my mother-in-law was brought up in was left to rot. The last of her nephew moved away after one of my wife's aunt died. The area was left in a mess. A version of the haunted house I supposed. Five years back, the land was bough over by our family and now in Puan Anita's name. We were contemplating what to do with the piece of land, and the house. Then came the idea of actually clearing the place and turn it into a fruit orchard. But my mother-in-law was not very keen. It happened that one of our cousin actually managed to salvage some of the woodwork from the original building and gave it back to us. Why not we just rebuild the house according to the original plan, but with better material and with mod cons while we were at it. Six months and a few thousand ringgits later, that was where we were last weekend.

The house was almost ready. Since we only paid the local people to build the place, it took longer than what was originally planned. Some of the workmanship was rather shoddy, but we employed the local builders for a reason. Puan Anita went over last month to pay for the wiring and tiles with my mother-in-law whose was understandably proud of what was done. We also had the acid test last weekend, to see what my two boys felt of the place. They were ecstatic and wanted to spend the night there. Unfortunately, as the water and electricity was yet to be installed, we had to give it a miss. Oh boy! They were running along the wooden flooring like there was no tomorrow. As for where we stayed, it's a lodge called Resort Sungai Perak, and I will write about it in a different entry.

Clearly a work in progressMy mother-in-law inspecting the windowsills. This is the front end of the house where the lounge will be.Paneling preserved from the original house.We were planning to return there next weekend as we will be holding a 'doa selamat' ceremony as a way of introducing ourselves to the local kampung folks. We will also be inviting our cousins and relatives back to Kuala Kangsar, and should they want to return in the future, they will have a place for them to stay for a night or two. We were not planning to rent the place out, but rather to keep it as an escapade. The problem is, it takes around two-and-a-half hours to drive there, plus we also have an apartment in Port Dickson. I am sure we will think of something.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing my patients and friends Merry Christmas for those celebrate it, and Happy Holidays for those who don't. I noticed this rather festive banner in front of the Palliative Ward and it hit me that tomorrow will be a holiday. 

When I was working in the UK, Xmas was the time when I was definitely on call since I'll be covering my colleagues who were celebrating. The actual Xmas Day was usually quite but the days leading up to it and the days following were usually among the busiest in the year. Relatives would send their parents and oldies to be admitted while they enjoy the festives period and at times it felt really sad that the system has been manipulated somewhat.

The days after Xmas were usually busy for the right reasons as patients tended to stay at home during the Xmas and came to hospital right after. They tended to be more ill by this time. I used to hate this period. Luckily I will be having the weekend off. Will be traveling tomorrow to Kuala Kangsar for a couple of days, having a look at Puan Anita's house there which was just been built. Will blog from there then. Again, Happy Holidays. 

Housekeeping update

In the last couple of weeks , I have been adding shortcuts into a separate tab in my blog. They can accessed from the top menu. The specific new tabs were three in total. They were called 'Food!', 'Slideshows' and 'Shortcuts'. I realised that lately I have been enjoying food more than I should. Some of the joints I visited was really good while other maybe awful. All the restaurant visits blog entries were aggregated in the "Food!" section.

'Slideshows' are basically pictures I have taken on certain theme compiled into either a narrative or just random slideshow. They were all encoded in flash, hence cannot be accessed through iPhone. Loading time may also be an issue if the connections are choppy. The last but not least 'Shortcuts' as the name suggest basically list reviews or blog entries about travels, and reviews. They should be self-explanatory. So, I hope that you can find the blog entry you want straight from those menus and please do come visit later as more links will be added.

Haris

Fraser's Hill - Day 3 - Time to go Home

A couple of nights may be too short if you are into hanging in the hotel and enjoying good living. It might be kind of boring if you were an adventurous type. Certainly if my family were not around, I would have gone out to explore the trails around there.

All packed and ready to goLast look at the garden From what I saw, the trails were very well laid out and mapped. They cater for various skill levels and I am sure that you will find one to suit your skill and time.

I woke up early as usual, quickly put aside my stuffs ready for Anita to pack away. But when I was about to go out for a walk, Anita woke up. After settling the boys, we went out for breakfast.

We had a quick stroll around after that before returning to the room to pack and check out. After saying our goodbyes, we left at around 11.30. My mother-in-law wanted to stop at Puncak Inn to order some 'pau' before starting our journey down.

We took the 12 o'clock slot to drive down to The Gap. The journey down was much faster but my maids actually felt the sickness more than the journey up. We finally arrived in KL at around 2.30pm, straight for lunch at Jusco AU2.