This is my Mak's lot, this is where it used to be a row of nipah trees lining the river bank. On the left was where rumah Siti Aishah (our childhood friend) stood.Their house were just few meters from the river and their staircase used to be flooded but only few inches. It was quite dark around this area, and there were two..ehemm...jamban sungai at both corner..you have to walk carefully on timber plank which stood on small timber post, the toilet wall was made of gunny sack or sometimes clad with timber plank.
From my Mak's(my grandma) story, during huru hara zaman perang..ada askar Jepun yang lari terjun sungai...
Buah something, I did not remember the name, but my father use it as umpan mengail..there are many species of fish in this river..my parents caught 100 ekor ikan puyu from this river alone..and they never eat it yet..nope...
Dear husband looking at his bait..or at his own reflection..he was so excited to go fishing since he has be banned due to my pregnancy pantang larang and what not.
Back then, the river was deeper that it is now and the water is clearer and there were many pokok kiambang bertaut with its purple flower..we will sit on timber deck and try to pick the flower but we were too careful coz of the story of hantu air and buaya sungai. The said that when there are shrimps in that river there will surely be a crocs..
But I like to remember this river as it used to be when I was small...when a bost from JPS or MPKS passed by, the deck will move and swayed due to the waves..it was an exciting experience..and we'll see many creature that I don't dare to catch, it was some kind of siput with black shell, looks like siput gondang..
I like this branch..it make a good subject for painting
The promenade, view towards kampung seberang....many years ago there was a house where part of it were above the water, the house belong to Cikgu Shima (who my mother tak sebulu..for whatever reason)..and later they lent the house to Cikgu Mara, who teach at IKM nearby. Their neighbour was Pak Ei (Ismail- you know the way Kedahan address people..using only the last part of their name..Yusof became Chop..etc)
Promenade..view towards pekan..I still wants to call it pekan instead of bandaraya Alor Star, coz 'pekan' is still more sentimental, melancholy and romantic and classic.
We have a family photo that was snapped here where we line up with view of the river as our background..that was many many years ago, where there were just bare red soil with no interlocking paver and handrail yet...
25 years ago, it was much nicer from my own perspective, the time when the nipah tree was all over this area and where Chin's house stood. Chin was an old folk who lived alone all by himself. His house were small and made of timber and attap roofing just like other old folk who have the same fate as him like Tok Chik Siah and the other name that I forgot. People used to bring Chin food and one day Abang Udin, our neighbour sent him some food and to his surprised Chin has left us..all alone by himself..what a sad ending..few years later the house were torn down due to some misteri nusantara...just imagine a small empty house by the river, dark and spooky...
Father and daughter waiting for their kail...this is where Pak Ei house were, he was a respectable person who was important at our madrasah and he have many daughters and they are all have good manners and personality and earn a decent live.
More to the right was where a government quarters use to be, it was made of timber and attap roofing. It was a one or two bedroom house with small kitchen and staircase that faced the river and the road. We also have a ghostly story related to this house, that will be later....this is the house where some folks from only God know where hide some guni of beras underneath it and we only noticed it when a blue police jeep came and took it and done their investigation.
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(All photos were taken on Chinese New Year January 2009)
