Han Chin Pet Soo is open! Book now at www.ipohworld.org/reservation
Han Chin Pet Soo is open! Book now at www.ipohworld.org/reservation

November 2014

The Woes of Flooding…

By |2014-11-07T15:43:15+08:00November 7th, 2014|Categories: Events, history, Identify Photographs, Memories|Tags: |

In the early 1900s, floods in Ipoh were rather common – possibly due to the silting of rivers because of mining. Later, plans were made to straighten the sharp bends of the Kinta River and divert the River Choh. This would allow the waters to flow into the Pinji River instead of directly flowing into the Kinta River.

But Ipoh wasn’t the only town with flooding problems. At one time, Kuala Kangsar suffered from it too. Below is an aerial view of part of Kuala Kangsar town, way back in 1967.

KK1967floodpicture from: Larry Sawyer

July 2014

The Kuala Kangsar Post Office

By |2014-07-08T11:14:01+08:00July 7th, 2014|Categories: Identify Photographs, Memories, Natural Heritage|Tags: , |

KKpostoffice

We hope those familiar with Kuala Kangsar can help us out with this – is this a past or present depiction of the Kuala Kangsar Post Office?

This was taken off a souvenir postcard, issued by the local post office. We also have a 1967 picture of this building (on our database) to compare with, but we’re still wondering. Could anyone help us out please?

July 2011

March 2010

“…row, row, row your boat….”

By |2010-03-22T02:58:45+08:00March 22nd, 2010|Categories: Identify Photographs, Memories|Tags: , , |

Flooding in Kuala Kangsar had been a problem since 1926, when the royal palace (Istana Sri Sayong) was almost swept away! The picture we have here is from 1967; as you can see, almost half of the Cathay cinema is underwater.

By the looks of things, the men on the boat were probably hoping to catch ‘The Sound of Music’ that day…..

January 2010

A Most Unusual Mosque and a Great Restoration

By |2010-01-20T15:51:23+08:00January 20th, 2010|Categories: Memories, Museums|Tags: , , |

Perak has plenty of heritage buildings, many of which seem to be ignored by their owners or the government. But here is a wonderful heritage building for although not more than 100 years old it has just been restored by the National Heritage Department. Many will not believe that this building is a mosque for it is square, double-storey and without minarets. It may be the only one of its kind in Malaysia.

Kuala Dal mosque was built in 1936 by the village craftsman to an age old tradition and the upper storey was used for prayers while downstairs was a general purpose meeting room where apart from meetings, religous lessons were given to both adults and children and in the fasting month, the village would break fast there. The construction was funded by the 30th Sultan of Perak, Sultan Iskandar Shah who had seen the villagers praying in a dilapidated madrasah. It is very similar to the old palace, Istana Kenangan at Kuala Kangsar, woven bamboo in a diamond pattern as the photograph below shows. Sultan Iskandar Shah also built the new palace, Istana Iskandariah, in Kuala Kangsar.

It is painted in the colours of Perak, black, yellow and white. Local suggestions include the idea that it is going to be turned into a museum or gallery to add to the attractions of the area, but that may just be hearsay for today there is a notice advertising an Umrah meeting which indicates it may still be used for religous purposes, in addition to the second village mosque built in 1976. Today it is locked tightly shut. However it is a fact that back in the 1950’s and 60’s many Westerners travelling on the old road to/from Penang would stop here for a photo session. Let us hope that after such a splendid restoration, good use will be made of the building and encourage tourists to once again stop for that memorable picture to take home.

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