Kuala Gula

It's a conspiracy!! I know it is. I bet Abang Trafik Police is watching my NCC car and the moment I made a mistake, they will issue traffic summon to tell me to stay home. I am not a fast driver who disregards speed limit but sometimes I miss the change of speed limit along the highway. Hence, I got another police traffic summon. I don't have the faintest idea where it was but the summon said I drove 97 km at a 90 km limit in May. Hai Abang Trafik Police, tolonglah saman kereta yang laju macam hantu tu, especially the big busses along the highway. Dia orang tu tak kena saman ke? I wonder many times whether the big stage busses carrying so many passengers ever being summoned for violating speed limit? The drivers drove like devils overtaking at 120km or more. Singapore cars blatantly disregarded the speed limit, do they ever get tickets for over-speeding? Oh well, I have to pay RM200.00 the other day for that summon. Seems like I am going to go broke paying speeding tickets. Frust betul dibuatnya!

Last Monday (10th Aug) I drove to Taiping with care. Usually people took 3 hours to reach there but I took almost 5 hours, taking my sweet time, stopping at 3 rest areas. I like to stop at Tapah rest area but I wish the cleaners do their work - cleaning the toilet! My daughters said most Malaysians are not toilet trained. They dirty and wet the floor, put tissues in the sink, don't flush and at one time I saw a Chinese lady taught her 9 months old son pee in the sink. I was so disgusted and scolded her. She glared at me. Some Malays and Indians and some Chinese too wash themseleves as if they are bathing, wetting the floor and dirtying it. Lack of supervision by the cleaning contractor results in cleaners taking their own time just watching people using the toilets -no effort to go in and to clean it. Most of them are foreign workers - Indonesians, Indians and Bangladeshis. I stood watching them, grouped together chatting. Coupled with irresponsible toilet users, no wonder the state of some public toilets in Malaysia is deplorable. I can see effort is being made to keep these places clean and beautiful but it would be fruitless if the public remains selfish.

I love driving up north of Malaysia. The scenery is refreshing with green trees, blue hills and darker blue mountains as the background. But greedy hands spoiled the scenery especially around Ipoh area. I dislike to see hills being hacked for commercial gains. If it is not controlled, in a few years time, greed will destroy our natural heritage.



I spend 2 days at Shahabudin's beautiful home in Taiping. I felt like going home to my family and enjoyed Shahabudin's and Azizah's hospitality. They made me feel welcomed. Thank you Budin and Zah and I hope I could return your hospitality one day.





Azizah and her cute grandson, Iman.













I liked talking to Atan, their son though disabled, he is so matured and conversation with him is just like talking to any normal people. We shared a common passion - cats. They have 12 street cats whom they nurtured and they flourished under their care.






Girl, a street cat simply claimed their house as hers and refused to leave since 3 months ago and now she controls the household, perching on an arm chair like a Queen. It was fun seeing them everywhere in the house.









I used to have 12 mixed persian cats before - beautiful, lazy and spoilt. 5 have been adopted and we lost 5 - stolen and died. Now we have 2, Montel Mok and Regal Raisa. We adore them. This photo is taken just before leaving for Taiping - my loving cuddle to say bye, bye Mok!











My intention going Taiping was to go to Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary. With Shahabudin, Azizah and a friend, Hj. Khamis, we drove to Kuala Gula which is about 50 km from Taiping. It seems it is nearer from Bukit Merah. I have read articles about the migratory birds which flew thousands of miles across the oceans to Australia and New Zealand and back. Kuala Gula was chosen to be a stop for resting. I know this time is not a good time to see the birds but I just wanted to know where Kuala Gula is and planned to go there again in December when the migration is on the way. The migration starts in September through March and the end of the year is a perfect time for bird-watching.



The jetty and resort are expected to be ready by the end of the year. It would be very pleasant sitting on the bank of the river. We hired a boat with Tan, a knowledgeable guide, to take us to the wetland.















The scenery is breathtaking and unspoiled. Unfortunately human intervention in term of the roaring engines of fishing boats frightened the birds away. There weren't many birds around at this time of the year except the egrets, red herons, kingfishers and a specie of Siberian birds who has adopted Kuala Gula as their home. You need a powerful binoculars to see them and should go either early morning or in the evening. Tan lent us his binoculars and we had quite a good education on migratory birds from him.




We learned about prawn catching and cockles harvesting as well.



An old lady harvesting a boatfull of cockles.





I returned to PJ the next day to keep an appointment with my eye specialist. I promised to visit Kuala Gula again to satisfy my curiosity to see the exciting birds but I need to buy a powerful binoculars. The one Sharipah and I bought in Moscow is not powerful enough to give me a clear vision of the birds.

I am not an ardent bird-watcher but love watching them fly free, for freedom is the key to life. Safeguard your freedom. Compromising it means the death of your self-respect.