Temerloh and Coconut Candy

"Temerloh?"
"Err..where is that ah?"

Yeap, I lived in a SMALL town. In the bigger picture, it's situated between Kuala Lumpur and Kuantan. If you're familiar with the Karak Highway, then it's between Mentakab and Kuantan. Anyway, it's in the large state of Pahang, about 2 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur (though in the 'olden' days, it could take up to 3-4 hours).

The nearest town to Temerloh is Mentakab; that's where I went to kindergarten and to church every Sunday. Both towns were pretty self sustaining, with their own market and HSBC, but if I'm not mistaken the hospital was in Mentakab.

As mentioned, I lived in Taman Bahagia, which was the first housing estate as you enter Temerloh from the west. It was pretty convenient, with schools and a little row of shop houses. I can't really remember any of the shops except for the little grocery shop. Conveniently located across the primary school gate, I often visited the shop on the way to my best friend Fiona's house, buying little tid-bits to munch on. It was also the grocery shop Fiona and I would walk to when, in the middle of the afternoon and we were either hungry or bored, to buy ingredients to make coconut candy.

Yeap, we made candy from scratch in those days; some freshly grated coconut, a can of condensed milk, some pandan leaves and butter and we were set. In her mom's big wok, we would mix all the ingredients together and take turns to stir and stir it until our arms got tired. When the mixture was thick enough we would pour it into some baking trays and patiently wait for it to set. Then we would carefully cut it and pop it into our mouths. Sometimes we couldn't wait for it to cool down completely and would burn our tongues.

Anyway, I digress ...

Temerloh wasn't very big and until the day I left, there wasn't a single traffic light in sight either! I wonder how people drove in those days ...

When I was in Standard Two, my family moved to Taman Kaparga which was situated at the other end of town. How sad I was to be away from my beloved Taman Bahagia, where my world revolved. Taman Kaparga had nothing; it was just houses. The good thing was that our house was a semi-detach so we had a bigger garden and I could finally get a dog. That's when Pepe entered our lives.

Pepe was given to me by my Uncle Eric from Ipoh. He was a cross between a spitz and bassert hound (so we were told anyway) but it meant he was rather short and longer than the average spitz but with thick white fur. How he loved to run in the garden chasing the monkeys away.

When I was young I could not imagine living anywhere else than Temerloh. It had the best bread shop in the world, which was right next to the bookshop - my two favourite shops in the whole wide world. Very rarely, I would go with my mom to the market which was quite wet and stinky. In the middle of town, there was a big ravine (it has since been covered and more shophouses built on it!) and during the monsoon, it was out little lake. Some enterprising townfolk would bring some small boats and give rides in it. The Town Hall was situated on one end of this big hole and I have many fond memories of playing badminton and performing school concerts in it.

We had a really nice post office, housed in a beautiful old building. It was surrounded by government offices; in one block was the town library and in the other block, my doctor, Dr Lam, had a clinic there. I spent much time in the Library; Grace's mom would drive us there after school when she went to work and we would sit there and read the latest Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys novel while we waited for her to finish work. When the time came to leave, we would often leave with a pile of books which we would have finished reading within 2-3 days before our next visit.

Not far from the Post Office is Jalan Datuk Abu Bakar (I think) and this was the Main Road / Jalan Besar equivalent for the town. We would make trips to see Ms Wee, my mom's tailor who worked just above her father's photography shop. We didn't buy many ready-made clothes in those days as I was taller than average so finding clothes was harder and we would have to go to Kuala Lumpur to buy them. Instead, Mom would design the dresses, inspired by american magazines and Laura Ashley, and Ms Wee would tailor them up within a week or two.

Further down from the tailor was the best chicken rice shop in town. The guy who owned the stall was blind in one eye and I was always nervous when I watched him chop up the "pak cham kai" (steamed chicken) or "siew kai" (roasted chicken) but never once was his chopping any less than perfect. Mom would often stop the car outside the shop and I would run down and order our takeaway chicken rice.

At the end of Jalan Dato Abu Bakar was a junction and if you turned to the right, there was the Temerloh Bus Station. If you kept going down the road you would drive along the mighty Pahang River which is very wide and deep. This was also the road where my parents regularly stopped to buy pots for the garden. On the weekends, further down this road is also the venue for the Weekend Market.

Near the Pahang River, there was a big sports field. Another huge hole in the ground, it was another the other 'lake' during the monsoon season. During the dry season, Sports Days were held here and I remember that the group The Alleycats even performed here! Today, it has been filled and become a much larger sports complex for the town.

I haven't been to Temerloh in while but I hope to go visit her one day soon ....