A small town

You might be curious where have I been and what have I been doing since I have not appear for some time. I was having my final examination for the trimester. I was really tense and worried about my examination a day before but I'm done with it already! Not ready for the result day which is around two and a half week away.

Anyway, I would like to introduce you a small town located in Perak, Malaysia. Perak region is above the central region and it takes around two hours to reach Ipoh (the city of Perak) from Kuala Lumpur (Capital of Malaysia). Ipoh is a food paradise and I hope I get to introduce you some good food there. For now, I would like to introduce you Kampar. Kampar is a small town and around 10 years back, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) was built at this small town, however, a few years before the establishment of UTAR, Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman [(KTAR) also known as TAR University College now] was already there at the town. Before having UTAR main campus at Kampar, Kampar was known as the died town because of not having anything (hotel, hypermarket, numbers of shops, badminton court, snooker, mamak and others. Malaysia Mamak is Indian Muslim of Malaysia nationality and in Tamil, the word means maternal unlce "ma-maa" but everyone has been pronouncing it as Mamak maybe due to slip of the ear.

Kampar town is divided into New Town and Old Town. The differences is both university and college are placed at the new town and new town is somehow the students' town; the old town has many old houses, shops, building and it is a convenient place for bank, to pay bills, bus station and convenient shops. The language most spoken is Mandarin but it would be best if you can speak Cantonese. In Perak region, almost everyone speak Cantonese  but if you don't (like me), Mandarin and English is fine, they are good to you even so. Even though it is just a small town but you can spot some foreigners around this town too because they are exchange students that came from places like Germany, France, Nigeria, Korea, Japan, China and many others. Not to mention, don't feel strange to see a numbers of people who cycle at this town despite new town or old town. A lot of elderly can cycle better than you do. They can cycle with one hand holding the handlebar and the other holding the umbrella. Not only that, students cycle to class everyday and isn't it healthy as you can exercise even though you does not have time for a good exercise. The distance cycling from hostel to University can be as near as 5 minutes but it can also be as far as 20minutes depends on the location of your class and the speed you cycle.

This place is not as crowded as Kuala Lumpur, if you don't like the big city, you can always consider this place. The price of food might be increasing due to the economic today but it is cheaper than KL. It is not worth to eat a plate of chicken rice for RM5 but RM3.50. You can always travel to the New town at night to have a cup of drink and for some chit chat at the Mamak stalls. Grocery shopping nearby hostel bring great convenient to students too.

This is a brief introduction of this place for now. Stay tune for my next post about Kampar with further details.

Have a great weekend.
Gie

North - Perak

There is only a 0830 train from bukit mertajam to kampar but i had a function to go so i went to the bus station to get a ticket. After asking at a few counter, i was told that there isn't any bus straight to my destination so i had to sit till ipoh to take another bus. i bought my ticket at a counter by the name of e-tika at the price of RM29. Is time to leave and the first thing i did was to get the bus number plate from the counter i bough the ticket from. She says, go and board on the bus over there, 'itu biru punnya economy express, nombor 6788' so i went up at 1230 and waited till 1245 for the bus to go to butterworth. while waiting for the bus driver, a man came up, check and change our ticket to another one. i was surprise to see RM25.90 on my new ticket by economy express. it is cheaper by a few ringgit and so e-tika cheated my money. Why would they do so? i was speechless. anyway, the bus stops at butterworth for an hour and it is wasting my time! The air-conditioning in the bus was bad that i woke up from my sleep because i start to sweat and I was pretty unhappy with it. However, i got no choice but to stay awake and looking out the window to find out where exactly am I. A while later, i recognize the place and know that i will reach soon and yes, it is the toll. 5minutes to the bus station, Amanjaya. In the bus from 1230-1622 to Amanjaya, Ipoh. I went down the bus and a lady saw me and told that there is a bus to Medan Kit, the main bus station to ipoh. so i board on an i reach there around 10mins with the price of RM2.30. I waited for another bus to Kampar for 20mins. Thank God i was the first few to get up to the bus because if i didn't, i would be standing with all the "mangala"! when i saw one by one entering the bus, I remembered Rehman Rashid's story. The foreign labours is getting an identity in Malaysia and the government is not taking full action. Anyway, so many boarded the bus and it was really squeeze. After an hour journey, 1825, finally reach kampar bus station! i could car a taxi to my destination but i choose not to waste so much since i could just get a bus to a station near my place which just cost me RM1.30 rather than RM7 or RM8. Including the waiting time and traveling time, i reached the station at 1850. FINALLY! I've reach this place! a short 5mins walk and I'm there! right there! How happy it is to see the familiar buildings and shops. It was tiring but atleast it was a great experience.
Got to know from the newspaper that the ETS train to penang will operate soon and I am really looking forward to it. That would be a better choice than bus. Don't know who useful will this post be to anyone that is reading this but hope you guys enjoy reading to know more about the transportation system in Malaysia.

-signout-