Saturday 1 September 2012

Pasir Mas bridge

I only call it the Pasir Mas bridge. The river is Sungai Kelantan. This bridge links Salor on the south side to Pasir Mas on the north side, and onward to Rantau Panjang. There are many food stalls on both sides of the bridge (more on Salor side). There are many activities both on the river banks and on the river. The river banks are used for agricultural purposes and farmers grow corn (jagung), groundnuts (kacang tanah), pumpkins (labu) and tubers (ubi kayu, ubi keledek, etc), etc. The sand merchants suck river sand  (pasir sungai) for the construction industry (buat rumah). Like all bridges, this bridge is also congested during school holidays and festive seasons.

Views from Pasir Mas bridge.



Kecek Klate

This is a young Egyptian who speaks the Kelantan dialect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqhX_SlAzNs&feature=related

Sultan Yahya Petra Bridge, Kelantan

I like bridges and I wrote about bridges for a class essay. Now I will write about the Sultan Yahya Petra Bridge in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. This is a unique bridge and I first saw the bridge in May 1969 when I first came to live in Kelantan. I was 11 years old.

Aerial view of Sungai Kelantan over the sandbank (banggol). View from MAS flight KB-KLIA at 11 am. Here the aircraft is flying north-east towards the coast, after which it will turn south.
Same flight as for above pic. Aerial view of the coast of Kelantan where the aircraft turned south. This area would be in the vicinity of the airport, i.e., Sabak-Melawi-Bachok stretch. Here the coastline is straight and very easy for coastal landing. The coastline is straight for many kilometres.

HISTORY PHOTOBLOGS
http://lizizstandaco.com/contentpage2.php?id=5
http://pukogamba.aminus3.com/image/2010-01-24.html


DESCRIPTION
http://www.asiaexplorers.com/malaysia/wakaf-bharu_kelantan.htm


SULTAN YAHYA PETRA BRIDGE
Built: 1967-1969 (Wikipedia). The actual dates are unknown. When I arrived in May 1969, the bridge was there and functioning.
Builder: Kien Huat Private Limited, a family firm of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong (builder & owner of Genting Highlands casino).
Toll: There was a small toll house on the bridge when UMNO ruled Kelantan. The toll was $2 per car.
Location: Kota Bharu, Kelantan
River: Sungai Kelantan
Links: Kota Bharu on the south side and Pasir Pekan on the north side
Cost of bridge: -
Map of bridge:
http://www.panoramio.com/map
Views of bridge:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8310207


Official opening of the bridge. Photo from Arkib Negara Malaysia.
Here http://lizizstandaco.com/contentpage2.php?id=5 it says 1962.
In Wikipedia it says built 1967-1969.
The bridge during the flood. Internet photo. 1967?
The building could be the sentry or toll house.
4-Junction at the bridge end in KB; the traffic lights help control congestion.
Approaching the old bridge at KB end amidst construction of the flyover for the second bridge.
Construction of the flyover for the second bridge in progress near TESCO at KB end.
Driving on the old bridge from Pasir Pekan towards KB. TESCO is on the right.


SULTAN YAHYA PETRA BRIDGE 2
River: Sungai Kelantan
Cost of bridge: RM157million
Date of construction: June 2007
Expected date of completion: December 2009
Postponements: 4
Actual date of completion: August 2012
Length of bridge: 800m 
Links: Kota Bharu to Pasir Pekan and onward to Wakaf Bharu and Tumpat.
Source:


Comments about the bridges, connected roads and traffic:

Nyanyok?

When I first heard the word "nyanyok" or "nyanyuk", I had thought someone didn't know how to say "nyamuk" (mosquito) properly. Nowadays, I frequently hear the word nyanyuk and I thought maybe it is nyanyuk after all and not nyamuk.

Nyanyuk is forgetting and all its associated forms and behaviour. Becoming nyanyuk is becoming forgetful and therefore we describe it as setting in of senility. Becoming senile is equated to becoming forgetful and sometimes becoming silly in our society. As such nyanyuk is often a hushed word rather than a clearly spoken word. Nobody wants to be called a nyanyuk.

Why is nyanyuk here to stay? Nyanyuk is on the rise in developing nations and not a disease of the western nations only. That means even Malays are subject to being nyanyuk. It is part and parcel of ageing and breakdown of the communication fibres in the brain. It is a good and clear sign that life is slipping away slowly and will definitely reach an end point. Do we need to cure nyanyuk? It is curable? I don't know. I guess not. But I would prefer to eat lots of fruits and vegetables and stay high on antioxidants and age slowly. That way I can hopefully, insyaAllah, keep nyanyuk at bay. The other means to keep nyanyuk away is to read Qur'an daily and continuously.

Forgetting where the glasses are, forgetting where the car keys are, forgetting where the socks are, forgetting to pick up the kids, forgetting to purchase an item on the grocery list, forgetting there's a dinner date, etc all fall under nyanyuk. These forgetting episodes appear about age 40 onward. They can appear earlier or later. At age 50 it is worse. At age 55, it should be worse. I don't know about older ages as I am not there yet. But I suppose, senility worsens with age, till a point nobody could care less or gives up. This is a point of danger. I have heard ugly stories of the elderly being left uncared for and they play with their excreta as if it was mud. So things can be bad with senility in old age.

What can we do about nyanyuk? I guess for the wandering type and if we are scared about them wandering far and losing them, we can try and do handband tagging as for Jemaah Haji, or do digital tagging as in GPS. I have read proposals of tagging children so child kidnapping can be halted altogether but I have not seen anything about tagging old people. I think it will be great to try and to the best interest of the elderly population and for their own safety. People may say it is an invasion of privacy. I would rebut and say it is better that the elderly are GPS-tagged rather than let them loose where they can't find their way home. So research into GPS-tagging of the elderly may become commonplace and also possibly a law later. Saves a lot of worries too.

A father is missing

This is a desperate hunt for a Malay male with Alheimer's Disease (AD), named Shukor. The call for help appears in Facebook. The man went missing from Kg Padang Tenggala, Perak since Ramadan. He has been missing for 19 days. Relatives are trying to locate him. If you find him, please call the police or the families at the numbers below.

This is the Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/Helpmetofind

This is the message in Facebook:

Salam semua, nak mintak jasa baik tlg sebar kan pic fb ni ., semoga jasa baik kalian hanya Allah sahaja yang mampu membalas , pakcik Shukor adalah ayah kepada sepupu saya hilang dalam bulan ramadhan yg lalu , sy harap korang boleh tlg share page/gambar ni , mane la tahu ada org yg terjumpe ayah sepupu sya tmpat akhir hilang di perak, KAMPUNG PADANG TENGGALA. pakcik ini menghidapi penyakit Alzheimer (nyanyuk) jika terjumpa sila hantar kepada balai polis berdekatan atau hubungi no ini

0123237805
0134143396
0125951094

atau hantar ke balai polis yang berhampiran, semoga Allah sahaja yang dapat membalas jasa baik dan budi kalian semua, semoga dengan shared gambar ini berkemungkinan ada yang prihatin dan menghantar beliau ke balai polis yang berhampiran ....

These are the pictures from Facebook:
Pak Cik Shukor .... missing man from Kg Padang Tenggala, Perak
Pak Cik Shukor
This is the link to this post:
http://theearlymalaydoctors.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-father-is-missing.html