The River Mouth of the Sungai Kurau
On June 6, 2009 I went to Kuala Kurau with my wife. I went there only once before on an ‘official duty’ as I did not have any relative or friend living at the fishing village and it is out of the way from the main trunk road from Butterworth to Ipoh; it could be more than ten kilometers away from Bagan Serai of Perak.
I remembered distinctively my last and only visit to the place was more than 40 years ago when I followed my eldest brother to Kuala Kurau on a ‘working holiday’ to help my brother to fix and repair drain pipes for the roof drainage system in the Yu Chai Chinese Primary School [育才小学]. I was more like an apprentice helping my brother to carry the working tools and drain pipes by boarding two buses successively from Nibong Tebal to Kuala Kurau with Parit Buntar as the transit station.At the work site I was very impressed and marveled with the school building of the Yu Chai Chinese Primary School. It was a double-story concrete building which was very rare in those days. Whereas for my school, the Paik Teik Chinese Primary School of Nibong Tebal was housed at the old buildings of the abandoned estate hospital built for the estate workers in the rubber plantations of Nibong Tebal during the British colonial times. The school buildings of both places spoke volumes that the Chinese residents of Kuala Kurau were very supportive of their mother-tongued education and they were much better off than their counterparts in Nibong Tebal in terms of their financial incomes.
Other than this, I have a very vague impression of Kuala Kurau.
Other than this, I have a very vague impression of Kuala Kurau.
I only heard from the elders that the residents of Kuala Kurau and Tanjong Piandang were historically not on a friendly term. They had numerous clashes and disputes over the fishing interest at the sea in those days. I was told that the fishermen at Kuala Kurau were mostly Hokkiens whereas those fishermen staying at Tanjong Piandang were of the Teochew origin. They would engage in heated arguments and scold one another in Teochew or Hokkien dialects as ‘Kak Tao Gu or Kuo Lau Tu’[角头牛，古楼猪 literally means,Tanjong Piandang Bulls, Kuala Kurau Pigs].
I still remember in those days of forty years ago when the Pai Teik School Union was hosting the Annual Basketball League, Tanjong Piandang and Kuala Kurau would send their basketball teams to participate in the game. Those notorious town folk of Nibong Tebal would not miss any opportunity to instigate and induce both the team-members for a fight every time when they were the opposing teams in a match. Some of them would be yelling with words like ‘Kak Tao Gu’[角头牛], while the others would be responding with ‘Kuo Lau Tu’[古楼猪]. Sometimes, it would end up with the supporters of both teams fighting one another instead of the players. In the end the Police had to be called to disperse the crowd.
I still remember in those days of forty years ago when the Pai Teik School Union was hosting the Annual Basketball League, Tanjong Piandang and Kuala Kurau would send their basketball teams to participate in the game. Those notorious town folk of Nibong Tebal would not miss any opportunity to instigate and induce both the team-members for a fight every time when they were the opposing teams in a match. Some of them would be yelling with words like ‘Kak Tao Gu’[角头牛], while the others would be responding with ‘Kuo Lau Tu’[古楼猪]. Sometimes, it would end up with the supporters of both teams fighting one another instead of the players. In the end the Police had to be called to disperse the crowd.
Nowadays, I am not sure whether one could still instigate them for a fight like what was happening forty years ago.
Kuala Kurau is a small town located by the river mouth of the River Kurau. River Kurau was named thus as it was once found to have an abundance of ‘ikan kurau’[threat fin fish]. .jpg)
A Chinese temple was newly built on the river bank of the River Kurau. A new bridge for motorbikes and bicycles runs across the river not far away from the temple.Old folk gathered around the temple ground under a tree to chat and to while away their 'precious' time.
A Chinese temple was newly built on the river bank of the River Kurau. A new bridge for motorbikes and bicycles runs across the river not far away from the temple.Old folk gathered around the temple ground under a tree to chat and to while away their 'precious' time. 
The Pantai Kuala Kurau Road is the main road in the town with all the government agencies including the Police Station, the Post Office, the Fishery Department located on either side of the road.
As we were unfamiliar with the town itself, we had to take cups of coffee at a coffee shop to check with the owner where we could buy salted fish and dried salted prawns.
Travelling along the road we could see fishermen drying their salted fish under the hot sun. 
At the other end of the Pantai Kuala Kurau Road, just before leaving the town for Tanjong Piandang, we managed to buy some fish, crabs and salted fish from a fisherman. This time around we could not get dried salted prawns due to the bad weather for the past few days. 
6 comments:
hi mr liew,
this is my 1st comment but i have been reading ur blog posts for a while. just wanted 2 say hi 2 u and ur wife n keep up the good work blogging!
jenny ooi
Ya i remember the classroom we occupied during Std.6 was actually part of the estate clinic. If fact we were lucky that they converted the old estate clinic to be a school, if not all of us need to enroll our primary education either in BM or Sg Bakap.
I wonder why you guys never tell us the history of Pai Teik school when you joined us at Methodist Secondary. I remember going by boat as a little girl with my mother and relatives to one of the fishing villages you desribed.
Cannot remember how the place looked like though in those days.Thanks for the wonderful pictures fo the villages.
Hi,
Thanks to all of you who have read my blog and commented on my posts.
I am extremely indebted to Jenny's father, Mr.Ooi, for his encouragement to steer me to keep on writing though at times I had to struggle for days with my English to come out with a post.
Kind words from CT,Jenny and many others including my former classmates,Phaik Hooi and Pek Sim as well, who knew my English standard is still at 'estate' level,serve as another booster for me to keep on writing.
Thank you everybody!
Take care and have a great day!
Great story. Keep up the good work.
Forest
This reminds me the life experience in this fishing village somewhere in the 60's and 80's.
At one time, my cousin brother took me out for fishing during d early 60's while spending few nights with his family. We had to leave in the evening and back home the following morning. My adventure in the open sea was though exciting but a bit scary.
2nd experience was a challenge thrown by my GM when i was newly attached to a cooking oil company in d mid 80's. He dared me to take up this offer ( doing sales ) in this fishing village when the salesman in-charge was on honeymoon for 2 weeks. To prove i too had the sales skill, i accepted d offer without any hesitation. But it was a hard time during the first few days. Fortunately the people here were very passionate n helpful, and after 2 weeks of venturing in this fishing village, i managed to hit the sales target being allocated to me.
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