In Kuala Lipis to settle an old 'debt'?

I will be brief here before going to the punchline. Frankly, I can't remember how I travelled down south from Kuala Krai on 24th December 2006. I've been travelling to many other places since then and it is impossible to keep track of every detail of travel.

What I do remember, at some point I did take the train. Whatever, from Kuala Krai, I passed through Gua Musang before reaching Kuala Lipis, the first proper town of Pahang on that route...

A picture of Sungai Jelai with the bridge over it... Early morning, 25th December.

Part of the town seen from the riverbanks...

Entrance to the stairs leading to the riverbank.

Hmm.. Still misty. The time was about 7 am or so if I recall correctly.

There... The words say "Kuala Lipis, o (km away)"... Obvious isn't it?

OK... Here is the old mosque of Kuala Lipis built in 1888. The place has its own legend and this has been mentioned in a previous article, Kuala Lipis, a cute town! What is special about this mosque on 25th December 2006 is that it was the place I slept the previous night!

Now, what is so special about that? After all I've spent many nights at many mosques, some with much more prominent history that this... Well to tell you the truth, I was 'supposed' to have slept here sometime in mid 2004 but didn't... I only slept there on the night of 24 December 2005 which is one and a half years later... Let me tell you the story.

For information, this mosque was my last embarkation point before going on a trip to Kelantan which would see me for the first time visiting the tomb and mosque of the famous Malay saint Tok Kenali. What happened was that I was from Raub going to Temerloh. Then out of whim took the bus to Jerantut, again out of whim took the train to Kuala Lipis.

At that town, I stopped and did the afternoon prayers at the old mosque. I was thinking of spending the night there when I went to the train station just to have a look at the schedule. Immediately just like at Jerantut, the train arrived. Again out of whim I just took a ride up to its last stop for the day, that is Gua Musang, the first proper town in Kelantan on the route.

To cut a long story short, it was in Gua Musang that I've learned the whereabouts of Tok Kenali's tomb and mosque and made my first visit there the next day. So it's funny to think, one and half years later, I came from Masjid Tok Kenali, stopped by at Masjid Kampung Laut and found myself sleeping at the old mosque of Kuala Lipis in the very same day... As if I had to stop at Kuala Lipis to pay a 'debt' of having to spend at least a night at the old mosque there!

Above is the picture of my late grandma's house in Raub. So after snapping some misty picture of Kuala Lipis, I found myself back to the place which sparked all my travels for the last five years... The place where nenek (that's what I call grandma) opened up a secret about our ancestry which in turn makes me want to visit old tombs of saints and royalty all over Malaysia.

Anyway, I'm glad to be able to complete this article, the seventh and last in a series I've arranged to be completed while presently being in Alor Setar. Coincidently (yes, coincidently... I just chose which pictures felt right without counting) there's seven picture here. Is there a hidden meaning behind it? (Wink! Wink!) :]