Perhaps only in Krai?

I have so much to say lately, and my topic of discussion wouldn't complete if i didn't touch on the people, the events and the landmarks that exist during my formative years in Kuala Krai. The 60's and 70's in Krai brought a lot of  lasting memories and for most, they are still very fresh in my mind. Those were the years when my only dream was to own a house like the K. Krai DO's house, to travel to Kl to visit Tugu Negara & Zoo Negara, to taste the fast food at A&W and to wonder inside  BB Plaza and Ampang Park. I listened with excitement on  a friend's story about the trip to the "Pearl of Orient" *, the ferry ride and the duty free hockey stick, yes, hockey stick size 36" and the story behind it . Those days, any story outside Kelantan would excite me and i was only waiting for the chance to travel and to experience what others were talking about.

The entrance to K. Krai District Officer's residence

Opportunity came when i got accepted to Alam Shah School in Kuala Lumpur in 1977 and since then, my life's perspective had changed, but it didn't change my love towards Kuala Krai. For me, Kuala Krai is a diamond that needs re-polishing and the place that you can claim a bit of her history and achievements.

side view of K.Krai DO's house

Spending my childhood  years in Kuala Krai,  i had witnessed, seeing and experienced many things that influenced my thinking and shaped my direction in life. Kuala Krai, with her colorful past and existence has many good things to offer and  it is a "miss" not to experience Krai during her grandeur and glorious days of the 60's and 70's and the memoirs below were just part of the reminiscent of the exciting years in Kuala Krai,




1) School, Teachers & students

Mr Lien presiding over  inter-house debate competition ( 1976).

My old school, Sultan Yahya Primary School is the oldest school in the whole district of Ulu Kelantan which include Kuala Krai before the new re-zoning in the last two decades. The school was established in 1951 under the name of Government English school  to cater mainly for the English Planters' kids who managed  huge plots of rubber estates in the district of Kuala Krai/ Ulu Kelantan. It was indeed a privilege to enroll in the english primary school which has produced many outstanding pupils and teachers over the years. And out of the school, i still remember clearly characters like Mr Lien ( Mr Lion) with his famous line,"Siapa Tuhan?, Saya lah Tuhan!, "Who's GOD. I am the GOD!". He was our Primary school's Mathematics teacher. Then, we didn't make noise and complain to anybody about his antics and we respected him as our teacher, a good mathematics teacher and a hockey coach.

Mr Lee, far right is now working and staying after his retirement.

Another special mentioning is Che Gu Mat Misai,  with his swearing  F@#$%#@# in Hokkien whenever he was pissed off with us.  He didn't hesitate to headbutt us with the rubber seeds that he took from us  after he caught us playing with them during his lesson. He passed away few years back. Allah Bless his soul!  And there was Mr Surrender Singh who conducted tuition class at his home ready with long wooden ruler ready to whack us when necessary. The teachers then were very tough on their students but we accepted those punishment as part of the learning and did not complain about it. Indeed, there were many more dedicated teachers from my Primary school  whom i owe my knowledge from and i wish i could thank all of them personally in this life.

the rubber seeds that were pitted against our foreheads  

The SYP primary also received many transfer students from  La Salle Sentul and Brickfields,KL whose fathers worked with the Kuala Krai railways, the biggest and busiest in the state. K Krai Railway had a healthy population of "outsiders" beside the local Kelantanese. These new transfers brought with them fresh views and culture that i found very useful in my later life. They spoke English at homes and we had the advantage of learning and improving our Kelantanese English whenever we mingled with them. In return, they learned Kelantanese Malay and most of them were quite proficient in Kelantanese dialect after spending 2 -3 years here.


Another uniqueness of Kuala Krai is her Orang Asli factor. Whilst we were still in our pre-puberty age, some of them already had wives in their jungle homes and yet studying in the same standard with us. Names like Zakaria Agus ( SYP), Abad Abud ( SKK) were legendary in Ulu Kelantan district for their athletic achievement. With their age advantage, they excelled in sports and still holding to most of the school's  track & field records.

with our class teacher Mrs Norma and few of the "railway local expatriates"  like Lucille Veronica Lopez, S. Manogaran, Karthigesu, and etc 

2) Sports , Socials, & Events


Those days, Kuala Krai folks were very adaptive and receptive to each others cultures. I still remember the time when we made our own Tanglung ( lantern) to participate in the Tanglung festival and there were competition among schools in the district for the best Tanglung procession. Our school's annual sports day was well attended by the local folks and  4X400 invitational race among the schools in the vicinity was always the highlight of the sport day.


The Padang Mahkota, the field used by our primary school also hosted many other events like the district football matches, the landing hub for army helicopters during the communist era, people's concert or fun fairs and few special events  like the  tug of war between an elephant and people and the wild wild west show from USA. The whole town was buzzing around talking about the cow girls and cowboys who came to perform in our town.


But the biggest influence in the social calendar for the Kuala Krai folks were the Jets footbal team. This team was very successful in the Kuala Krai league championship in the 70's playing against other teams like the Kerla estate, Pasir Gajah Estate, Pahi team, Railway Club, Mengkebang Estate, Belia 4 B and others.  Their success in local leagues could only be eclipsed by Man. United FC, the club they idolized. The long serving team captain was To' Yi, the "George Best" of the team, Nasir "Peter Schmeichel" as the goal keeper and  few others as the first generation players. Over the decade, the club produced second generation players with  different calibers like "Paul Gascoine" of Guchil" Mr Lan Gerpok and "Ryan Giggs", Adnan Mok Yoh.




3) Places of interests


Kuala Krai is blessed with beautiful natural surroundings and many places of interest. The more famous one was Tangga Bradley, now called Tangga Krai. They used to measure and monitor the flood water in Kelantan river at this Bradley step. The reading from Tangga Bradley would be part of the nationwide announcement on the status of flood level in the state of Kelantan. Tangga Bradley was then an important gateway to bring goods from the interior of Ulu kelantan to Kuala Krai via river transport. But now, the river transport is much reduced with the opening of  Gua Musang Highway that is connecting Kuala Krai with all the interior towns in Ulu Kelantan.

Tangga Bradley 

the old hanging bridge

Taman Tasik Krai

I may have separate writings to highlight all the point of interests in Kuala Krai. But for the uninitiated, Kuala Krai has all the modern amenities and facilities that any major town should have and even better than most of the other towns in Kelantan 20-30 years ago.




4) Incidents and events 


It was Saturday morning in 1976 and the day Mohamad Ali was fighting Ken Norton ( can't remember where) and the whole town streets were deserted with everybody's eyes glued to TVs watching the fight. My friends and me had just completed our hockey training at school and headed straight to the railway station for some drinks. When we reached there, we saw something that forever change my life. A boy who peddled snacks at the Kuala Krai train station was run over by a train at the station. His sarong (those days were quite common to see village boys walking around in sarong instead of pants)  got caught by the train's railing while disembarking from the rain when the train started to move again. He was flung underneath the train and his thigh was run over by the wheels. It was a gruesome sight with the trail of  blood and fats along the railway tracks before i saw him lying on the ground consoled by some people including his wailing mother who was also peddling foods there. He was still alive then but later died in the ambulance for loss of blood when the ambulance broke down on the way to Kota Bharu Hospital, some 68 km away. Since the incident, i try to avoid looking directly at any accident on the roads afraid of seeing human blood and flesh. Every time i see blood, my knees tremble and my heart starts pumping faster. Once, I fainted in a hospital after a standard blood test procedures.


Kuala Krai also had a fair share of sense of humor when i witnessed a head on collision between Becha (trishaw)  with another bicycle. The bicycle rider was knocked out unconscious on the road. The cause of the accident was the trishaw man who was no other than "Mat Yaman Gila". This guy is a bit crack in his head but he managed to earn a living as trishaw man This what you can call the original "crazy driving", not those mat rempits with kapcais or kancils..  he,he.




5)  The Dwellings and the elitists


Then and now, Kuala Krai District (Ulu Kelantan), as the biggest contributor to the Kelantan economies having the District Officer ( Ketua Jajahan) only second in rank to the Kota Bharu District office. Since beginning, the post for the District Officer in Kuala Krai  was only reserved for the royal family members until to the late 70's. Thus, it explains the grandeur of the DO's residence nestled on a small hill which its garden view facing the Kelantan river, a jetty, servant quarters and a tennis court. Until now, i don't mind taking over the residence as an exchange with any other property if the state government consents to the idea. 


To serve the district, there's a hill ( Bukit Lada) that houses the senior government officers of the district like the Police chief, Jabatan Orang Asli chief, SYP Secondary school's Head Master , the hospital chief and few others. We used to call the place as the Kenny hill of Kuala Krai. But with the current State's management, the houses on the hill have been abandoned and left unoccupied. There were many other government's quarters like the one close to the Government's Rest house and next to the Krai lake.




6) The People


The single most important factor of my memorable childhood in kuala krai was the people. Kuala Krai is ethnically diversified with the Indians mostly in the railway and estate sectors, the Chinese in the town centers, orang asli in the interiors and the Malays scattered around occupying the suburbs and the villages. In the subject of railway, Kuala Krai used to be the hub of all the goods that came out from the Ulu Kelantan area and transported by trains to Kuala Lumpur. The railway community in Kuala Krai  was a strong community of more than 75 families and with their own living quarters, club house and and all the the modern amenities. They were mainly "local expatriates" coming from different part of the country especially from Negeri Sembilan and KL. They brought with them a new breath of life to the local kelantanese whom majority never set foot outside Kelantan soil. The language they spoke, the food they ate becoming part of the kuala Krai's identity over time. That was why in Krai, we managed to celebrate and hop around our friends' houses during all the major celebrations like Raya, CNY, Deepavali and Christmas at ease.  Sad to say, the glorious days of Kuala Krai railway has come to an end with the opening of the Gua Musang Highway and the "care less" attitude of KTM Berhad to enhance and up grade the facilities at the Kuala Krai station.  


To think of Kelantan  or Krai specifically as a Islamic extremist state is an ignorant statement. In Guchil new village (suburb of Krai), the farming chinese community bred pigs in the middle of Malay community. We used to pass by the pig sty as part of our "gross" experience trips with some friends and we could see those Vietnamese Bred pigs with low belly and dozen of off springs , unlike the straight back american bred. Nobody made noise and tried to disturb what has been the culture and the living style of the chinese community there.


The indians in the surrounding estates were also making a colorful entrance to the quaint life of Kuala Krai. I used to hang around friends in Krai town on Saturday, watching the street medicine performers  and also the people who came to the town in drove. Some of them came through the river and some of them by the buses and the train. The estate Indian would converge to the town with their colorful dresses, men and women. Those days, bright red and bright green shirts were normally worn by the the indians only and the smell of cerut ( local cigar  with strong smell) were the order of the day in any bus coming to Krai town.


Looking back at the past,  Kuala Krai was the center of many things, a melting pot of people and cultures  and yet we managed to live harmoniously among each others. K Krai has produced  many educated professionals and business people including global celebrity ( Zang Thoi) but she remains a humble town in the south of Kelantan when long before, the urbanites Kota Bharu people used to label us, orang ulu. That again was not an accurate statement considering that most of the kuala Krai people migrated from other towns in Kelantan and settled there for reasons of working for the government, railways or opening land in the surrounding areas.  What ever the labels and perception about Kuala Krai then, for me, Kuala Krai has given her best to me. Perhaps i should repay her kindness by becoming the next  Mayor of Kuala Krai.  Ameen!