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Trip to Sungai Besar - the History

It started with just a simple statement from Hubby - "tak pernah tengok sekolah rendah lama awak yek". I said, "Sekolah Kg Tunku tu kan selalu tengok". He actually meant the school I went to at Sungai Besar for just about over a year. Suddenly all these memories came flooding into my mind and I said - "Let's go visit, just for my old times sake". Terus make plans and yesterday we actually went in a crammed car - three of us with my father, my Kak Long and Nizam. We spent the whole day traveling and visiting Sungai Besar, Tanjung Karang, Sekinchan and Kuala Selangor. Sungguh penat tapi sangatlah syok.

A short history - I was born, raised and schooled in PJ. In 1982, my father was transferred to Sabak Bernam as the education district officer (he was the first batch). After my Penilaian Darjah 5 exams, we moved - only the 4 of us - my parents, Azlan my youngest brother and I. But I only spent my Standard 6 there. I then moved back to PJ for secondary school (had to stay at Yayasan Selangor hostel for that). In 1987, my father was transferred back to KL.

But the time spent there was amazing and so much fun. Imagine from a town we moved to Sungai Besar, a truly rural place. There were sawah padi, pokok mangga, tali air/parit, where kids play barefoot in the mud and cycle their worn out bicycles everywhere. The market was amazing - ikan kembung twice the size we normally eat in PJ fresh from the sea, priced at only RM1 sekati.

I remember my first musim mangga there, my friends brought mangga muda with cili api kicap to afternoon sekolah agama. My first experience. So delicious. I got stomachache the next day. During musim mangga, our store room was filled to the brim with boxes and baskets of mangga of all kinds and sizes. My father used to teach in Parit 9 in the 1950s when he was 16, where his students were mostly older than him. So, when he moved back to Sungai Besar, his ex-students would come and bring fruits and other stuff - as a token of appreciation.

Now, the trip...

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