Life @ 26/09/09

Finally I am back from Teluk Intan after spending 3 days back there.

Unfortunately I was not able to meet up with friends. Attentions were much needed at home and at the company. I wasn't even able to talk to my friend who had just came back from Taiwan. In fact, I didn't even let him know I was back.

TI's traffic was almost a mess. It is very apparent that so many people from Hilir Perak are now calling somewhere home, coming back only during long holidays to visit parents and hometowns/home villages. In fact, the story applies to many Perakians who are now living in Selangor, KL, Penang and Johor as well. This is the brutal reality of the current Perak's economy situation: no jobs, so everyone has to look elsewhere. One lecturer had made an interesting remark when he enquired on my hometown. "There are a lot of Teluk Intan people in KL huh? I have seen many." I was a little shocked then; the idea of 'many Teluk Intan people' did not occur to me since it's so small a place.

I have also taken a newly constructed Bidor bypass which leads to the federal highway 1, somewhere between Bidor and Sungkai (It seems that a certain tempat pelupusan sampah Majlis Daerah Tapah is also nearby, if not beside that road). Part of the road is still naked without bitumen, but the sights were quite pleasant, with occasional lakes (I assume they were tin-mining lakes) and only little oil palm trees. That road is probably built on a ex-tin mine wasteland. Most importantly, it bypasses Bidor! I won't totally disagree if you say I dislike Bidor. It so happened that I disliked Pun Chun Restaurant and the pain to bear the sight of it everytime I pass through Bidor. Otherwise, Bidor has a really nice main street, with historical Chinese shops lining both sides of it. It would have looked great as an example of the history of Chinese settlements in Malaya. Of course, without Pun Chun.