From Kedah to Perak... The show must go on!

Greeting dear readers. Tonight, the 11th night of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan I feel like continuing the story on my last long travel made over 2 months ago covering the states of Pahang, Kelantan, Kedah, Perak and Selangor.

In my last posting here on the subject (titled A typical day in Alor Setar? ) I talked about having a quite day at the Kedah capital. The story-telling was continued with Jalan-jalan (walkabout in) Sungai Petani... in the blogspot SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) before ending the session in Malay with a piece called Kuala Ketil, Mastura dan Char Koew Teow... in the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . So let us continue from where we left off... In the town of Kulim, Kedah.

After spending the night in Kulim, it's time to move on. Earlier, I've spent 4 nights in Pahang and 5 nights in Kelantan. It's only in Sungai Petani the previous night that I noticed the number of nights spent at the respective states.... When circumstances like missing the last bus for the day (plus the fact that I was so damn tired) forced me to stay a night there after spending 2 in Alor Setar and a night each in Sikh and Baling. Otherwise I couldn't care less as I wasn't counting time. I was just travelling and stopping wherever and whenever I felt like it, that's all.

Now, having noticed the numbers, I felt obliged to follow a certain order. After all, I do have a fetish for numbers. So naturally, to follow the progression I should spend 6 nights in Kedah and the night in Kulim was the 6th. So it's time to head for the next state Perak.

Above is a picture taken the previous day at the bus station in Kulim. The friend who hosted me for the night sent me there the following morning. I intend to take the bus to Parit Buntar, the closest town in Perak but there's few direct service to the town from Kulim... Instead I took a bus which ends at another place... A bus which arrived earlier than the one to Parit Buntar.

So there I was at the small town of Serdang which lies on an alternative route to Parit Buntar. On the way I passed through the district of Selama and learned you can go to Lenggong, Perak from there. All this while I only knew the Kuala Kangsar route to Lenggong which lies on the way from Perak to Kelantan.

Here in Serdang I missed the bus to Parit Buntar twice, once because I was in the toilet, the second time because I decided to have lunch at a foodstall nearby. Luckily there's regular service heading to the Perak town every half an hour. So on to the next picture...

At last I arrived in Parit Buntar. And at last I am in Perak, the state where my father was born in.

There, a look at the bus I was on. That's when I realised why circumstances made me took the route through Serdang... It was the first time ever I moved from Kedah to Perak or vice versa without going through Seberang Perai which is a district in the state of Pulau Pinang. Otherwise I might have to burst the bubble on my plan to follow a progression of nights spent at each succesive states.... Having spent 4 nights in Pahang, 5 in Kelantan and 6 in Kedah, I must spend 7 nights in the next state and it's just too much time to be spent on such a small state like Pulau Pinang... No offence to the locals ya...

Besides, if I do spend 7 nights there, then I must spend 8 nights in Perak, that is if I were to stick to the progression of numbers. As it is, my girlfriends in Kuala Lumpur where already complaining that I spent too much time on travel when they needed me to be around. And before embarking on this session of travelling, I told them I was planning to be on the road for just only a week...

Now, I intend to head for the royal town of Kuala Kangsar. Naturally, for someone who refuses to use express buses (at least for certain trips and sessions of travelling) the next step is to take the bus to Taiping first... And there's a destination in between which I felt obliged to visit.

There... The destination I must stop at between Taiping and Parit Buntar. The name is Gunung Semanggol and it carries certain reverberations and significance for those who know why...