Bota Kanan During the Fruit Season etc.

It being the fruit season, I was persuaded by my better half to make a day trip to her family home in Bota Kanan, Parit Perak.

 

Driving the north-south highway is not as pleasant as it used to be. Traffic is constantly heavy because of the school holidays and the R&Rs too are crowded even though it was a weekday. One has to be extra careful due to the rainy season. Our highways collect puddles of water here and there because of its uneven surface. I would attribute this to poor maintenance or bad engineering. However, heavy vehicles, buses and lorries speed along as fast as ever without any heed to their speed limit. Also these manic drivers know that when it rains the involved authorities would not be around and usually because of their size, they have no regard for smaller vehicles and act like bullies.

 

We reached our destination a little in the afternoon. I can say Bota Kanan is in the heartland of Perak. It largely a Malay community and agrarian. One distinctive feature is that almost every household has its own fruit orchard, some bigger than others and during the fruit season durians, mangosteens and rambutans are so plentiful that they are not even collected but just left on the tress to waste. This is quite sad. Even monkeys, squirrels and bats leave them. Except for the strong rubber stench caused by the MARDEC factory, nothing much has changed in Bota Kanan.

 

I noticed not many abandoned houses.The houses that we passed by along the road all had clean compounds and were well maintained. There is so much greenery everywhere that you can feel the difference in the air. It is a pleasure to drive with open windows and let the cool fresh air in so that you can inhale deeply an almost feel the oxygen in your lungs.

 

Going back in the late afternoon, my wife again persuaded me to take the longer route just so she could see some old buildings and places that were dear to her during her school days. So from Bota Kanan, we took the round about way to Parit. The travel time is about 45minutes. What struck me was the well paved road throughout the distance. The road is not wide, just enough for two vehicles to pass each other by safely but there were no potholes at all and I didn’t feel any bumps too. There were no rubbish or litter anywhere by the roadside and it was indeed a pleasant drive.

 

Maybe the road is so because no heavy or overladen vehicles ply on it as is so obvious on the north-south highway. I wish the drive was longer.

 

Something else which was very obvious was the many blue and white flags of the BN as we approach Parit. The few green flags with the white spots were not raised high and most of them were rather old and overused. Maybe there is a change of heart among the voters in these parts and also maybe the youth have become disenchanted with PAS for they are the ones that used to climb trees from which to hang the green flag with the white spot. When we reached Parit we found the town has not changed much from what it was in the 70s. It is alive though I can’t say it is thriving.

 

More and more people are becoming aware of the government's sincere efforts to reach out to the rakyat in the urban areas, in the towns, in the hinterland, and in the heartland. I sincerely do hope voters will make the correct choice when they cast their votes in the next election.

 

On our journey back to KL, again the drive was really unpleasant because of the speeding and overladen heavy vehicles which seemed immune to the heavy rain. We stopped to take refuge from the rain at the Tapah R&R, but again found it was so crowded that we had to wait before we could find a place to sit. My wife complained that the food is getting expensive because she had to pay almost RM10 for a plate of rice, one fried ikan kembong and some veggie. After freshening up, we left for our busy metropolis, KL and reached home at about eight in the evening.

 

All said we have a beautiful country. God bless Malaysia.